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America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science (2006)

Chapter: APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
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APPENDIX B
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

Susan Singer (Chair) is professor of biology at Carleton College, where she has been since 1986. From 2000 to 2003 she directed the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, then took a research leave supported by a Mellon new directions fellowship. She chaired the Biology Department from 1995 to 1998 and was a National Science Foundation program officer for developmental mechanisms from 1999 to 2001. In her research, she investigates the evolution, genetics, and development of flowering in legumes; many of her undergraduate students participate in this research. She is actively engaged in efforts to improve undergraduate science education and received the Excellence in Teaching award from the American Society of Plant Biology in 2004. She helped to develop and teaches in Carleton’s Triad Program, a first-term experience that brings students together to explore a thematic question across disciplinary boundaries. She is a member of the Project Kaleidoscope Leadership Initiative national steering committee and has organized PKAL summer institutes and workshops. At the National Research Council, she was a member of the Committee on Undergraduate Science Education and the Steering Committee on Criteria and Benchmarks for Increased Learning from Undergraduate STEM Instruction; currently she serves on the Board on Science Education. She has B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, all from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.


Hubert M. Dyasi is professor of science education at the City University of New York. He teaches undergraduates and graduates and works collaboratively with the New York State Education Department and school districts to develop their science education programs and implement in-

Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×

quiry-based science in classrooms. He has served as a specialist on science inquiry in the Harvard Smithsonian–Annenberg video program (“Looking at Learning … Again”) and in the Annenberg-CPB’s Professional Development Workshop Series. He is a contributing author to Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics (2003); Foundations: A Monograph for Professionals in Science’ Mathematics, and Technology Education (1999); and Crossing Borders in Literacy and Science Instruction: Perspectives on Theory and Practice (2004). At the National Research Council, he has been a member of the National Science Resource Center Advisory Board, the Committee on the Development of an Addendum to the National Science Education Standards, the Committee on Science Education K-12, and the Working Group on Science Teaching Standards. He is a fellow of the National Institute for Science Education. He has a Ph.D. in science education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


Arthur Eisenkraft is distinguished professor of science education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he also directs the Center of Science and Math in Context. He recently left the Bedford, New York public school system, where he taught physics and was a science coordinator for 28 years. He is a past president of the National Science Teachers Association and has been involved with a number of its projects, creating and chairing many of the competitions sponsored by the association. He has been a columnist and advisory board member of the science and math student magazine Quantum. He is director of Active Physics, which is introducing physics instruction for the first time to all high school students. He is also directing another curriculum project, Active Chemistry. He holds a U.S. patent for an improved vision testing system using Fourier optics. At the National Research Council, he was a member of the curriculum working group that helped develop the National Science Education Standards, the Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, the Committee on Attracting Science and Mathematics Ph.D.s to K-12 Education, and the Committee on Assessing Technological Literacy. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching (1986) and the Disney Science Teacher of the Year (1991). He has B.S. and M.A. degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Ph.D. from New York University.


Margaret Hilton (Study Director) is a senior program officer at the Center for Education. She has written several National Research Council workshop reports and contributed to consensus studies on educational research, international labor standards, and the information technology workforce. In 2003, she was guest editor of a special issue of Comparative Labor Law and Policy. Prior to joining the National Academies in 1999, she was employed by the

Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×

National Skill Standards Board. Earlier, she was a project director at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. She has a B.A. in geography (with high honors) from the University of Michigan and a master of regional planning degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Pamela J. Hines is a senior editor at the international weekly journal Science and is responsible for selection and review of research manuscripts, as well as developing special issues, review articles, and perspectives on various topics. Her area of particular research interest is stem cell research, and she has expanded Science’s leadership role in highlighting developmental neurobiology, developmental biology, and plant sciences. She has conducted research on chromatin, gene control, and the mechanisms of DNA replication in eukaryotes during early development. She has served as editor-in-chief of the AWIS Magazine (Association for Women in Science), as a member of the communications committee for Oberlin College, and as co-principal investigator of a research project entitled Science Controversies: On line Partnerships for Education, which promotes science education through innovative uses of technology. Her current professional activities include serving on the editorial committee for the International Society for Stem Cell Research and the committee to develop representation of education issues at Science. She has an A.B. from Oberlin College, an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.


Michael Lach is director of science for the Chicago Public Schools, overseeing science teaching and learning in the more than 600 schools that make up the nation’s third largest school district. He began teaching high school biology and general science at Alceé Fortier Senior High School in New Orleans in 1990 as a charter member of Teach For America, the national teacher corps. He then joined the national office of Teach For America as director of program design, developing a portfolio-based alternative certification system that was adopted by several states. Returning to the science classroom in 1994 in the New York City Public Schools and then to Chicago’s Lake View High School, he was named one of Radio Shack’s Top 100 Technology Teachers, earned national board certification, and was named Illinois physics teacher of the year. He has served as an Albert Einstein distinguished educator fellow, advising Michigan Congressman Vernon Ehlers on science, technology, and education issues. He was lead curriculum developer for the Looking at the Environment materials developed at the Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools at Northwestern University. He has written extensively about science teaching and learning for such publications as The Science Teacher, The American Biology Teacher, and Scientific American. He has a B.S. in physics from Carleton College and M.S. degrees from Columbia University and Northeastern Illinois University.

Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×

David Licata teaches chemistry and advanced placement chemistry at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, California. He chairs the science department and teaches general chemistry and chemistry for teacher education at Coastline Community College. From 1986 to 1990 he was the American Chemical Society’s manager of precollege programs; in 2004 he chaired High School Chemistry Teachers’ Day for the society’s spring national meeting. He has been a member of the web-assisted tools for chemistry developers online group, sponsored by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. In the course of 22 years in the classroom, he has taught grades 6 through college and published numerous laboratory experiments and activities. He was the education workshop director for the Chevron Petroleum Research Corporation during the 1990s; there he planned a three-day conference for 35 teachers of grades 6 through 12 each year. Working with researchers, he has developed notes, experiments, and illustrations to high-light the interdisciplinary nature of scientific research and to give teachers the tools to relate this to their students. He has a B.S. in chemistry (1976) and an M.A. in administration (1981) from the University of California, Irvine.


Jean Moon (Senior Program Officer) is director of the Board on Science Education at the National Research Council. Previously she was a program officer and education adviser at the ExxonMobil Foundation, where she oversaw the conceptual development of the foundation’s precollege and higher education portfolio. She has been a scholar-in-residence at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, where she worked with the natural science faculty on the development of competencies and assessment strategies to build communication skills in undergraduate science courses. She has consulted with numerous school districts on classroom assessment, institutional and role change in the context of education, and the development of case studies for use in teacher education contexts. Her current work focuses on the intersection of science, science education, and policy. She has a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.


Nancy Pelaez is associate professor of biological sciences specializing in physiology at California State University, Fullerton, where she advises science teachers in the master of arts in teaching science program. She is a former biology and chemistry teacher, with 10 years of experience in Bogota, Colombia, and 3 years in the Indianapolis Public Schools. She developed and directed the scope and sequence of K-12 science education at Colegio Los Nogales. She was the recipient of a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship for a doctorate in vascular physiology, and she currently extends her biomedical research dissertation work to investigate discrepancies between student explanations of human blood circulation and those of the scientific community. She supports the peer review of exemplary instruc-

Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×

tional materials as associate editor of the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching and as an advisory board member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s BiosciEdNet digital portal. She has a B.S. in biology from Newcomb College of Tulane University (1976), K-12 California single-subject teaching credentials in both life science and physical science from Mills College (1989), and a Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from the Indiana University School of Medicine (1999).


William A. Sandoval is associate professor in the Psychological Studies in Education division of the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research concerns students’ epistemological beliefs about science, scientific argumentation, inquiry teaching practices, and the design of science learning environments. He began his work as a member of the BGuILE project at Northwestern University and is now principal investigator of the CENSEI project, exploring how to leverage live scientific data for middle school science. He has written and spoken internationally on the design of science learning environments, student and teacher learning in science, and design-based research methods. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the Learning Sciences and Science Education and reviews for a number of education research journals. He was cochair of the 2004 International Conference of the Learning Sciences and past chair of the special interest group in education in science and technology of the American Educational Research Association. He is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the National Association of Research in Science Teaching, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, and the International Society of the Learning Sciences. He has a B.S. in computer science from the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in learning sciences from Northwestern University (1998).


Heidi Schweingruber (Program Officer) is on the staff of the Board on Science Education and is co-study director for its study of science learning in kindergarten through eighth grade. Prior to joining the National Research Council, she was a senior research associate at the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. In her role there she served as a program officer for the preschool curriculum evaluation program and for a grant program in mathematics education. She was also a liaison to the Department of Education’s Mathematics and Science Initiative and an adviser to the Early Reading First program. Before moving into policy work, she was the director of research for the Rice University School Mathematics Project, an outreach program in K-12 mathematics education, and taught in the psychology and education departments. She is a developmental psychologist with substantial training in anthropology. She has a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan (1997).

Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×

James Spillane is professor of human development and social policy, professor of learning sciences, and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, where he teaches in both the learning sciences and human development and social policy graduate programs. He is director of the Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences. He is principal investigator of the Distributed Leadership Studies, which is undertaking an empirical investigation of the practice of school leadership in urban elementary schools that are working to improve mathematics, science, and literacy instruction. He is associate editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and serves on the editorial board of numerous journals. He is author of Standards Deviations: How Local Schools Misunderstand Policy (2004) and Distributed Leadership (2005). Recent articles have been published in the American Educational Research Journal, Cognition and Instruction, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Education Researcher, among others. A graduate of the National University of Ireland, he has a Ph.D. from Michigan State University (1993).


Carl Wieman is distinguished professor of physics at the University of Colorado and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics for studies of the Bose-Einstein condensate. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1995. His research has involved the use of lasers and atoms to explore fundamental problems in physics. His group has carried out a variety of precise laser spectroscopy measurements, including accurate measurements of parity nonconservation in atoms and the discovery of the anapole moment. He has received numerous honors and awards in addition to the Nobel, including the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics, the Schawlow Prize for Laser Science, and the R.W. Wood Prize. In addition to his research activities, he has been involved in innovations in undergraduate physics education and has given many presentations to high school classes and general audiences. He directs the physics education technology project, which creates online interactive simulations for learning physics, and he has developed a popular physics course for nonscientists. Since 2000 he has worked on the National Task Force for Undergraduate Physics, which emphasizes improving undergraduate physics programs as a whole. At the National Research Council, he is chair of the Board on Science Education, and was a member of the Committee on Undergraduate Science Education. His contributions to both research and education have been recognized by the Richtmyer Memorial Lecture Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers and the first Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award of the director of the National Science Foundation. He has a Ph.D. from Stanford University (1977).

Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×
Page 215
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×
Page 216
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×
Page 217
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×
Page 218
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×
Page 219
Suggested Citation:"APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2006. America's Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11311.
×
Page 220
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Laboratory experiences as a part of most U.S. high school science curricula have been taken for granted for decades, but they have rarely been carefully examined. What do they contribute to science learning? What can they contribute to science learning? What is the current status of labs in our nation�s high schools as a context for learning science? This book looks at a range of questions about how laboratory experiences fit into U.S. high schools:

  • What is effective laboratory teaching?
  • What does research tell us about learning in high school science labs?
  • How should student learning in laboratory experiences be assessed?
  • Do all student have access to laboratory experiences?
  • What changes need to be made to improve laboratory experiences for high school students?
  • How can school organization contribute to effective laboratory teaching?

With increased attention to the U.S. education system and student outcomes, no part of the high school curriculum should escape scrutiny. This timely book investigates factors that influence a high school laboratory experience, looking closely at what currently takes place and what the goals of those experiences are and should be. Science educators, school administrators, policy makers, and parents will all benefit from a better understanding of the need for laboratory experiences to be an integral part of the science curriculum—and how that can be accomplished.

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