Congratulations to Ananya Matewos on the publication of her new article on makerspaces, which are an increasingly popular way to promote design-based learning. The full article is available for download because it was published in the open-access International Journal of STEM Education. To access the article, click here.
Congratulations to Jess McLaughlin on her poster on the use of citizen science as a way to support inclusive education in college level geoscience classes at the 130th annual Geological Society of America meeting this November. While the poster was not related to work with SLRG, we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the disciplinary diversity of our group!
Congratulations to Dr. Janelle Bailey, who with former student Dr. Raquel Chung-Parsons, has just published an article on science teaching in Teaching and Teacher Education, a premier educational research journal. Check out the abstract by clicking https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X18301197
In her article “Are We Making Students Argue Too Much?”, Kate Ehrenfeld Gardoqui describes the moment she realized that simply teaching students to find evidence to support a claim was not effectively preparing them to be objective evaluators of information. To avoid confirmation bias (described in this article as “finding evidence to support a pre-formed opinion”), she suggests looking deeply at issues by gathering data, reading journal articles, conducting interviews, and making observations. We agree with Gardoqui that only finding evidence to confirm one’s existing beliefs is insufficient and problematic. We would add to her suggestions the practice of critical evaluation. By looking at the pros and cons of one’s position as well as the pros and cons of an alternative position, students are forced to remove themselves from the shackles of their confirmation bias, facilitating more objective and productive evaluation and argument. It’s not how much we argue; it’s how we form our arguments.
– Reed Kendall
AAPT has announced that Janelle M. Bailey, Assistant Professor, College of Education, Temple University, will receive the association’s 2019 Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). She has provided leadership and service to the association for many years, culminating in being President in 2016. This award is presented to members in recognition of their exceptional contributions to the association at the national, sectional, or local level.
In learning that she was selected for the Homer L. Dodge Citation for Distinguished Service to AAPT, Bailey had the following to say:
“It has been a great pleasure to work with AAPT and its members for nearly two decades. AAPT has become my professional ‘home’, with acquaintances quickly evolving to trusted colleagues and dear friends. Our members have a deep passion for physics education that is unparalleled in other professional societies. Being recognized with this award is a true honor, and I am grateful to my nominators, the Awards Committee, and AAPT membership for my selection.”
Congratulations to Jess McLaughlin, lead author on an article that will be published in The Science Teacher, November 2018 edition.
The article features a problem-based learning activity to promote students’ spatial reasoning about Earth’s subsurface. You can access the article by going to our publications page or by clicking here. The Science Teacher is a practitioner journal for high school teachers published by the National Science Teacher’s Association.
We are pleased to announce SLRG senior PhD student Shondricka Burrell has been selected to participate in NYU’s Steinhardt’s Faculty First-Look program. This is a prestigious program involving talented, underrepresented scholars in the Academy and providing them guidance into what it takes to prepare for future faculty careers. Scholars will have unique mentoring and networking opportunities directly with NYU deans, faculty, and post docs. The newly selected Faculty-First Look cohort will:
• Learn best practices to prepare for the faculty recruitment, application, interview, and selection process;
• Learn best practices for how to use digital/social media platforms to increase scholarly visibility in the job market and beyond;
• Receive access to continuous faculty development opportunities.
Prior to being selected as a Faculty-First Look Scholar, Shondricka has previously been recognized for her research, receiving the Richard C. Anderson Graduate Student Research Award from the National Consortium for Instruction and Cognition, and a graduate student research grant from the Geological Society of America. Shondricka has also been named a Jhumki Basu Scholar by the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) and is a Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education (CADRE) fellow.
Please check out Shondricka’s full profile as a 2018-19 Faculty-First-Look Scholar: https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_affairs/facultyfirstlook2018scholars
SLRG members Doug Lombardi, Janelle Bailey, Elliot Bickel, and Shondricka Burrell have just published an article in Contemporary Educational Psychology related to Year 3 of the MEL project. It is available free through August 18 here.
Doug Lombardi and Shondricka Burrell were able to represent SLRG at the 2018 Food-Energy-Water Nexus. The conference entitled, Innovating Teaching and Learning in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: Toward a National Collaborative for Food, Energy, & Water Systems Education (NC-FEW), was designed to foster collaboration amongst scientists, science education researchers, educators, and social scientists towards instructional design and educational research around FEW-related issues.
Doug presented a poster featuring the wetlands MEL and the freshwater resources baMEL. Poster title: Facilitating Students’ Critique, Evaluation, and Argument about Freshwater Resources
Lombardi 2018 FEW-NEXUS Poster
Shondricka presented a poster focused on water quality. Poster title: Use of a Water-Quality Themed, Place-based, Transformative Learning Experience to Support Student Interest Development, Self-efficacy, and Knowledge Construction
SLRG members Doug and Shondricka will present research at the upcoming Food-Energy-Water Nexus scheduled for May 22-23rd in DC.
Doug’s poster will feature the freshwater MEL and baMEL and is entitled: Facilitating Students’ Critique, Evaluation, and Argument about Freshwater Resources
Shondricka’s poster will feature water quality and is entitled: Use of a Water-Quality Themed, Place-based, Transformative Learning Experience to Support Student Interest Development, Self-efficacy, and Knowledge Construction
