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Visiting Professor / Researcher

Dr. Karen High is currently on sabbatical leave at the Center for STEM Education, College of Education during the 2011-2012 academic year.

Karen High, Ph.D.

Oklahoma State University

Stillwater, OK 74078-5021

Phone: (405) 744-5280

E-mail: karen.high@okstate.edu

 

 

Process Design and Optimization

B.S. 1985, Chemical Engineering, The University of Michigan

M.S. 1988, Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University

Ph.D. 1991, Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University

 

 

Chun-Yen Chang, Ph.D. Director of the Science Education Center at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), Research Chair Professor of NTNU, Adjunct Professor of Graduate Institute of Science Education and the Department of Earth Sciences, presented an invited paper, "Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice: Taking a New Look at the Classroom Learning Environment", at the Center on February 16, 2010. He earned his bachelor's degree in Earth Sciences from NTNU, a master's degree and following Ph.D. degree in science education from The University of Texas in Austin.

Dr. Chang's major research interests include science education, computer-assisted learning and instruction, problem-solving models, science curriculum development, inquiry teaching, and pedagogical understandings and conceptual change instruction in the area of earth science education. He has directed numerous nationally funded projects, such as the Earth Science Curriculum Development, the Earth Science Learning Environment, and the Improvement of University Science Education, sponsored by the Taiwanese National Science Council (NSC) and the Ministry of Education. He currently serves as the Principal Investigator for the Building the e-Learning Research Teams for Excellence, which is one of the two major e-Learning projects selected by the NSC from 2005-2008. Presently, he is leading another major project sponsored by the National Science Council (2008-2011) to establish "The Center for excellence in e-Learning Sciences (CeeLS): i4 future learning environment".

As the former vice president of the National Association for Science Education in Taiwan (NASET), Dr. Chang currently continues his service to the group as a member of the board. He also serves as Chair of the Project Review Board in the Division of Science Education at the National Science Council (NSC). Dr. Chang has authored and co-authored more than 60 articles, including 27 papers indexed in the Science/Social Science Citation Index (SCI/SSCI) database and has presented more than 100 papers, workshops, and seminars throughout Taiwan and in many countries and has been invited as keynote/feature speaker in countries such as United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, and Puerto Rico.

In 2003, Dr. Chang received Taiwan's "Outstanding Research Award," one of the highest honors given by the National Science Council of Taiwan. His series of research on science learning environment, published in Science Education in 2005 and 2006, was also selected/reported in the section of "Taiwanese New Discovery" of the Science Development Journal in 2007. Dr. Chang's research work, on automatic scoring of science open-ended questions, was listed in NSC's 50 Great Achievements of 2008. Coinciding with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of NSC. Dr. Chang's biography was included in 2007-2009 Marquis Who's Who in the World (24th, 25th, and 26th Editions), Who's Who in Science and Engineering (10th Edition), and Who's Who in America (2009).

 

On November 11, 2009, Dr. Ann Rivet, Assistant Professor of Science Education at Teachers College, Columbia University presented the lecture "Project-Based Science: Supporting Student Learning and Fostering Urban School Reform."

The focus of her work is on examining factors that influence change in the teaching and learning of science within urban school systems, and more specifically, in what ways do the respective roles of curriculum materials and professional development provide support to teachers and school organizations in adapting and enacting change in their science programs, particularly in the context of large scale reforms. Dr. Rivet has extensive experience with the development and evaluation of project-based science learning environments. She has participated in several design projects with colleagues from Northwestern University and the University of Michigan, addressing issues of both instructional design and assessment of student learning within inquiry-oriented curriculum contexts. Her prior research looked specifically at the role of contextualizing features of project-based science programs at the middles school level, and how the design of those aspects of the curriculum support the activation of students' prior knowledge for learning and lead to more robust understandings of the science content. Dr. Rivet also serves as the Earth Science content-area specialist in the Science Education Program at Teachers College with expertise in student understanding and learning within the multi-disciplinary context of the Earth Sciences, specifically in the areas of students' prior conceptions of earth science phenomena, interpretation and use of representations, and students' development of understanding of the Earth from a dynamic systems perspective. Her work has been published in several leading journals including the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and the American Educational Research Journal, and she has presented her work at multiple national conferences, including the American Educational Research Association and the International Conference of the Learning Sciences.

 

On April 27, 2009 the CSME sponsored a lecture, "DEVS-Centered Modeling and Simulation: Core Concepts for Engineering Education," presented by Bernard P. Zeigler, Ph.D., Arizona Center for Integrative M&S, University of Arizona. Modeling and Simulation (M&S) refers to a collection of activities that are ubiquitous in engineering disciplines among many others. However M&S, as a standalone discipline, has not found a recognized place in the pantheon of concepts and tools within engineering education. Perhaps because of its abstraction, conceptual, mathematics, and programming bases, the barrier to entry is too high for most students and teachers. As a response, rapid advances in information technology have pushed a discipline-centric approach to reducing the barriers. Unfortunately, this easy entry approach rapidly leads to a plateau in capability where students cannot think beyond the confines of the specifics of the tools they have been trained to use.

In this talk, Dr. Zeigler avocated another approach, grounded in systems thinking, a meta-discipline that seeks unity in diversity. This approach attempts to reduce the barriers to M&S adoption by supporting modeling abstractions that are relatively easy to grasp, yet are generic and extensible to attain the full power of M&S. The approach is based on Discrete Event Systems Specification (DEVS), an M&S conceptual framework that is gaining increased attention. After briefly reviewing the kinds of thought processes that DEVS fosters, Dr. Zeigler discussed how its abstractions can be simplified to a core foundation and then elaborated in a graduated manner. Also mentioned were examples of the potential benefits to future engineers of such a systems-based modeling framework across the spectrum of disciplines as diverse as environmentally friendly building construction and power-aware computer architecture. Finally, Dr. Zeigler closed with challenges to the realization of DEVS-centered M&S education that educational technology developers might address.

 

Mr. Nattakit Sawadthaisong from Bangkok, Thailand is a visiting research scholar and has been a professional educator in science and mathematics at the high school level. Currently, he is a doctoral student in Science and Mathematics Education at Mahidol University, Bangkok. He is developing a learning model based on student naive understandings about the physical world. During his work at the Center, he will continue to conduct research, write a number of manuscripts for publication, attend various graduate level courses in science and mathematics education and interact with faculty and graduate students at the Center.

 

On November 5, 2008 the Center sponsored a lecture, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (or the Beauty) in Conducting Interdisciplinary Research: A personal journey", presented by Chun-Yen Chang, Ph.D., Research Chair Professor at the National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) Taipei, Taiwan. Dr. Chang described advantages and disadvantages while conducting interdisciplinary research particularly in the area of STEM education and e-Learning. The presentation included a summary of research conducted at NTNU during the past several years. Dr. Chang also presented challenges while collaborating with researchers from other disciplines. Dr. Chang received his doctoral degree in science education from The University of Texas at Austin in 1986.

During his visit to the Center, Dr. Chang collaborated with faculty and graduate students and with staff members of the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. He also attended the Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching in Forth Worth, Texas.

Drs. Chang and Barufaldi have collaborated on a number of research projects and their recent manuscript, "The Positive and Negative Effects of Science Concept Tests on Student Conceptual Understanding", has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Science Education.

 

On October 15, 2008 the CSME sponsored a lecture, "Improving Teacher-Student Classroom Interactions through the Use of Authentic Inquiry", presented by Nikki Hanegan, Ph.D. She also visited with faculty and graduate students in the Department and with staff members of the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. Dr. Hanegan is a science education research professor at Brigham Young University where she is the director of the Masters in Biological Science Education for the Life Sciences College. She has conducted professional development programs for seven years in eight states with more than 300 secondary science teachers. She has numerous scholarly publications and recently received the 2008 Vern A. Fridley Environmental Educator of the Year Award for her work with teachers. Dr. Hanegan received her Ph.D. from The University of Texas Austin in 2001.

 

Virginia Resta, Ph.D., Assistant Dean, College of Education, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas presented an invited seminar, "The Relationship of Mentor Support to Novice Teacher Retention and Student Achievement" on February 21, 2008, to faculty and staff of the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching. She discussed issues related to mentoring of novice teachers and discussed findings from a large scale study of teacher mentoring. Her work is sponsored by the Center for Research, Evaluation, and Advancement of Teacher Education (CREATE).

 

 

Dr. Barufaldi hosted Dr. Bhinyo Panijpan and Dr. Pintip Ruenwongsa from Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand when they visited the Center, June 19-21, 2007. The professors met with Drs. Resta, Petronsino, Marshall, and Martin. In addition, they met with Dr. Keith Mitchell of the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching and representatives from the UTeach program. An informal luncheon was attended by 30 faculty and graduate students at which time the visiting professors discussed issues and concerns facing science education.

 

Dr. Chan-Jong Kim, Professor, Department of Earth Science Education, Seoul National University, presented an invited seminar, "Understanding Science Teachers' Classroom Practice and Teachers' Learning", at the Center, February 5, 2008. Dr. Kim directs the Science Education Center at Seoul National University. He received his doctorate in Science Education from UT-Austin in 1989. He is active in numerous international and national organizations such as the Korean Earth Science Research Association, the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, and the Korean Earth Science Society. He was also the Deputy National Project Coordinator for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study at the Korean Research Center. He is published in many journals such as the Journal of the Korean Earth Science Society, Korean Journal of Biological Education, and the Korean Journal of Educational Psychology.

Dr. Abd-El-Khalick, Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, presented an invited paper, "Setting an Empirically Supported and Synergistic Agenda for Research on Nature of Science", at the Center, April 24. He also visited with faculty and graduate students in the Department and with staff members of the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching.

 

 

Victor A. Zinger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Mathematics, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bristol Bay Campus, Dillingham, Alaska, was invited to interact with graduate students in Dr. Barufaldi's course, Curriculum History and Development in Science and Mathematics Education. Dr. Zinger discussed the implementation of online courses and challenges and issues facing mathematics education in rural Alaska. Dr. Zinger also met with staff of the Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching that is headquartered at the Center.