About me…
My professional career started in 1986, once I finished my MS in
Geology from Emory University. As it
happened, that year was the peak year for people getting MS degrees in Geology
– something like 7800 in that year alone (currently, the number is around half
of that!). So
jobs were not widely available for new geologists, especially as the petroleum
industry was still laying people off. A
former professor of mine, Don Steila, was the
director of UNCC’s Math-Science Education Center, and he informed me that North
Carolina had just passed a lateral-entry certification law, designed to fill
high-need areas such as science. A
principal at a school where I was substitute teaching helped me to get the
paperwork together, and off things went.
I was soon
hired to teach by Monroe High School in Monroe, North Carolina, teaching
Physical Science, Chemistry, Earth Science, Physics, and Algebra. MHS was a study in contrasts with my prior
experiences. The total size of this
school (9-12) was the same size as my high school graduating class – about
800. While it was in a small city in a
then rural county, it shared many issues with inner city schools, including a
very diverse population and high percentages of students receiving free or reduced price breakfast and lunch. Comparing my daily experiences teaching with
what I was learning at night and during the summer through my teacher education
coursework was a constant exercise in formative evaluation. It was quickly clear what applications
worked, what didn’t, and what needed further development.
While teaching at MHS, I was also given the opportunity to
provide professional development coursework for science teachers in the region
through the Math-Science Education Center at UNC-Charlotte. Courses that I offered included physical
science and field-based Earth science. As a member of the regional science fair
committee, I escorted regional finalists and their teachers to the ISEF.
But after teaching at MHS for six years, I began to develop
questions on how one could improve their teaching skills, organize schools to
improve the efficiency of learning, and how to motivate adolescent
students. These questions were not going
to be answered at MHS, as the direction that school policies were going seemed
counter to even testing solutions to these questions. So I returned to
graduate school, selecting (and being selected by) the science education
program at the University of Georgia.
While there, I found that not only was I able to answer the
questions that I had formed at MHS, I also learned how to develop meaningful
questions to address new needs as they arose, and
investigate appropriate means to address those needs. And with the guidance of my advisor (Tom Koballa) and the rest of my committee, my dissertation was
able to provide one means of addressing the problem of adolescent motivation in
science learning situations. One of my
committee members insisted that I sum up the solution in 25 words or less,
which was to create an instructional environment that convinced students that
they were “in charge” of the learning situation, or personally “owned it” (22
words!). This subsequently became my
go-to position when starting out to design a professional development activity,
a methods course syllabus, or an enrichment activity for adolescent students.
My first
faculty position was at West Virginia University, in Morgantown, WV. I served as one of three science educators in
the department, but quickly became immersed in the design and delivery of
science teaching methods courses for the 5-year MAT as well as the
MA-and-initial certification programs.
Primarily through teaching middle and secondary science teaching methods
courses and subsequently supervising the same students in their student
teaching practica, I was able to follow the arc of
their development, from students first seeking only to get an “A” in the course
to early-stage professionals hungry to gain skills to enhance their teaching
experience.
While at WVU, I was able to provide service for science learning,
first through the West Virginia Science Teachers Association, serving on the
Board of Directors and later becoming President. This work also allowed me to work very
closely with the WV Department of Education in the generation of professional
development programs for science teachers statewide. One of these programs was a GK-12 Teaching
Fellows project called TIGERS, which placed teams of STEM graduate students in
the classrooms of teams of middle school mathematics and science teachers. I was also asked to resurrect the WV
Governor’s School for Mathematics & Science, at the request of the then
Governor, Bob Wise. Over the course of
three summers, 360 middle school students came to WVU for a residential
experience, learning advanced STEM content in teams and applying these skills
to the development of solutions for theme-based programs. In this same time period, I served on
multiple NSF panels, as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and reviewed multiple NCATE
accreditation portfolios.
In late 2003, I found the opportunity to combine my teacher
education experiences with my preparation as a geologist, interviewing and
later accepting the offer to teach in the Department of Geology &
Environmental Science at James Madison University. I was given the unofficial mandate to “make
JMU the place to come to become an Earth science teacher.” To that end, my colleagues and I revised the
BA-Geology degree to become a BA-Earth science degree, specifically designed to
prepare those professionals that would communicate science to a non-scientific
audience. This degree was thus designed
for, but not limited to, teachers of Earth science. At the current time, our two
degree tracks support about 130 students per year, of which 40 or so are
in the BA track.
My work at JMU has included providing course work for students in
the BA track in courses such as History
and Philosophy of the Geosciences, Genesis of Solid Earth Materials, and Contemporary Issues in the Geosciences. I have also been able to support our
BS-Geology students as one of the instructors of our Field Geologic Mapping course, which is held annually in western
Ireland. From this experience, I
subsequently designed a field-based course for teachers of science, Earth & Environmental Science in Ireland. This course 
takes
preservice and inservice teachers of science on a two-week
field-based excursion to western and Northern Ireland, providing them with the
means to organize content instruction around outdoor experiences in a safe and
meaningful manner.
Professional service has been a strong portion of my work at JMU,
which has included serving the Virginia Association of Science Teachers as
Earth Science Committee Chairperson, President, and then Regional
Director. This work dovetails well with
my service to the Virginia Math-Science Coalition and to the Virginia Department
of Education. For the VDOE, I have
reviewed Earth science state test items and addressed the statewide need for
qualified Earth science teachers through grant-supported professional
development programs. Currently at JMU,
I serve as one of the Co-Directors for the Center for STEM Education and
Outreach, which directly supports the professional development of inservice
STEM teachers and the engagement of precollege students in STEM across the 8
school divisions in our region. I have
also recently become the Coordinator for Science Teacher Preparation in the
College of Science & Mathematics at JMU, where my colleagues and I seek to
make JMU “the place in Virginia to become a science teacher.”
Leveraging my teaching and service, my recent scholarship has
continued to support science teacher preparation, but
has also focused on the design and evaluation of high-quality instruction and
assessment. I was deeply involved in the
development of the Next Generation
Science Standards, first as member of the Earth & Space Science Design
Team for the Framework for K12 Science
Education and later as a primary reviewer for Achieve on drafts of the
Earth & Space Science standards of the NGSS. I was also part of a committee for the
National Research Council, which generated a report on Federal government
programs that support the next generation of Earth scientists. I have also written about the inquiry designs
in precollege Earth science teaching, assessment and evaluation of field
learning experiences, the evaluation of paleoclimate curriculum development,
and the use of the evolution of complex Earth systems as a central component of
Earth science instruction. The evolution
of Earth systems is the central theme in my current NSF-funded project, MAESTRO
(Mathematics and Earth Science Teachers Resource Organization). In this pilot project, teams of mathematics
and science teachers in Grades 6 and 9 design integrated instruction and
provide mutual support through classroom lesson study. The initial findings suggest that, as a model
of instruction as well as professional development, the project is proving
successful.
--- December 2013
Since December 2013, my professional life has been both busy and
lively. Our MAESTRO project concluded
well, but our planned expansion into a fully-fledged Math-Science Partnership
was put on hold by a number of factors, not the least of which was a
fundamental change in the MSP program by NSF.
The second major factor was my election to the NSTA Board of Directors,
in the Preservice Teacher Preparation division slot. It came as quite the surprise, as my
opponent, a colleague and a friend, was someone that I held in the highest
esteem (he was later elected NSTA President!).
This position immediately became interesting and engaging, starting with
my being asked to co-chair an ad hoc committee reviewing the relationship
between NSTA and CAEP (Council for the Accreditation of Educator Programs, even
before I was officially on the NSTA Board.
This was a challenging task, but it established the path of my tenure on
the Board, laying the groundwork for NSTA to expand its national recognition of
preparation programs, a work still in progress with my successor. This board position also included working
with many preservice teachers at NSTA meetings, as well as supporting the work
of the NSTA student chapters.
Fundamental
to the recognition program are the SPA (Specialist Professional Association)
standards that NSTA maintains. These
were last revised in 2012, prior to the introduction of A Framework for K-12 Science Education. At the same time, the Board for the
Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE), on which I sat as the NSTA
representative, asked for a greater involvement in the revision and expansion
of the standards for science teacher preparation. Over a two-year period, a joint ASTE/NSTA
task force was formed and carried out the revisions. The final version of the standards, which are
now K-12 instead of secondary grades teacher preparation only, were approved by
the NSTA and ASTE Boards of Directors in the summer of 2018.
As my term on the Board was winding down, the Board voted to
fast-track the development of a Position Statement on Teaching Climate
Science. I did not give this much
thought at the time, as I expected that a strong group would be formed to carry
out this task. Little did I suspect
that, with three weeks left in my term, that I would be asked to chair this
committee. Over the next year, I
experienced one of the more challenging and yet rewarding task, working with a
team of highly capable and equally passionate scientists and science
educators. We developed not only a
comprehensive position statement for teaching climate science, but also
produced an in-depth supplemental document that serves as further reading for
interested educators. The position
statement was approved by the NSTA Board of Directors in July 2018 and released
to the public in September 2018. I
consider this collaborative work as a true highlight of my career.
In 2014, my colleagues in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics and I
were successful in obtaining funding from the National Science Foundation for a
Robert C. Noyce Capacity-building project.
I was honored to serve as the Principal Investigator on this
project. In this project, we
successfully created additional pathways and entry points for science students
to enter the teacher preparation program.
Summer and academic year programs, a revived NSTA student chapter, and
an increase in the numbers of students seeking to become science teachers was
the outcome. Through this work, we were
able to lay the groundwork for a successful Noyce Scholarship grant, providing
$1.2 million over 5 years. We plan to
offer our first scholarships this spring, for the Fall 2019 semester, and have
expanded our efforts to include mathematics as well as science candidates.
One of my
great joys has been to share my avocational interests with others in
instructional settings. In 2009, I
escorted a group of senior Scouts from my son’s Troop to a themed “Mountain Man
Outpost” summer camp. Set in the
1800-1820’s, Scouts cooked all of their meals on an open fire, participating in
period-appropriate activities during the day.
Never one to sit around as a Scoutmaster, I offered the camp staff my
skills to help with the program. When
asked what I could do, I embarked into the world of historical interpreting and
reenacting, researching and demonstrating period surveying techniques. This was a natural extension of my work
teaching field mapping in our Geology Field Camp in Ireland, but quickly became
so much more. I continued to research
and demonstrate colonial surveying techniques, soon finding a Revolutionary War
reenacting group, the Department of the Geographer of the Continental
Army. Attending their annual School of
Instruction, I was soon able to provide presentations at these events, on
topics of geologic interest set in a historical context. I’ve become something of an expert on
lodestones, for instance, as a part of this.
In building my impression modeled after Thomas Lewis, one of the
surveyors of the Fairfax Line and first surveyor of Rockingham Co., Virginia,
I’ve built a collection of attire and instruments to complete the
impression. I’ve spoken to school and
Scout groups across the Commonwealth, and was asked to
be a keynote speaker for the Virginia Junior Academy of Sciences, and at the
2013 Surveyor’s Historical Society meeting in Philadelphia. That event was special, as we celebrated the
250th Anniversary of the start of the Mason & Dixon Survey. I’ve also participated with the unit at Mount
Vernon, George Washington’s Estate, giving public demonstrations of the tools
and techniques.
Another hole into which I have placed disposable income has been
in hobby rocketry. I started launching
rockets in 4th grade, and became a BAR
(born-again rocketeer) after graduate school.
Making bigger and more powerful rockets, I soon attained by High Power
Level 1 and Level 2 ratings from the National Association of Rocketry. But more recently, other demands on my time,
both professional as well as personal, have caused me to curtail my deep
involvement in the hobby. I have,
however, served as a mentor to the Harrisonburg High School TARC (Team America
Rocketry Challenge) teams, which have to design and construct an egg-carrying
rocket to a particular altitude, scored on the flight as well as the recovery
time. The teams have not yet reached the
finals held each year in Northern Virginia, but they are very, very close. Fingers are crossed for this year!
Some of my
work can be found at these links:
1.
Geoscience
Education workshop contributions:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/workshop07/participants/16247.html
Motivation
and the Affective Domain in the Geosciences
http://serc.carleton.edu/departments/program_assessment/participants.html
Program
assessment
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/complexsystems/workshop2010/index.html
Complex
systems in geoscience teaching
http://serc.carleton.edu/person/2095.html
Profile
for SERC
https://nagt.org/nagt/geoedresearch/GER_framework/theme1/index.html
Community
Framework for Geoscience Education Research, Theme 1: Research on Students' Conceptual Understanding
of Geology/Solid Earth Science Content
2.
Grant
programs for science teacher professional development and preparation
http://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-jmu-professors-receive-grant-earth-science-teacher-education
Blue Ridge
Earth Science Collaborative (BRESC)
http://www.jamesmadisonuniversity.org/news/2012/06/26-pylegetsgrant.shtml
Mathematics
and Earth Science Teachers Resource Organization (MAESTRO)
http://www.jmu.edu/news/2011/09/29-ireland-trip.shtml
Earth
& Environmental Science in Ireland
https://www.jmu.edu/news/2018/06/21-NSF-Grant.shtml
JMU Robert
C. Noyce Scholarship Program
3.
Selected
Publications
http://ejse.southwestern.edu/article/view/7770/5537
Inquiry model for Earth science teaching
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18369
Preparing
the Next Generation of Geoscientists
http://specialpapers.gsapubs.org/content/461/341.full.pdf+html
Field
Geology Education
http://nagt.org/files/nagt/jge/abstracts/strategies_rubrics_teaching_ch.pdf
Strategies
for Teaching and Assessing the Evolution of Complex Earth Systems
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191814117302985?via%3Dihub
Modern approaches to field data collection and mapping: Digital
methods, crowdsourcing, and the future of statistical analyses
4.
Items related to the NSTA Position Statement
on Teaching Climate Science
https://www.nsta.org/about/positions/climatescience.aspx
NSTA
Position Statement on Teaching Climate Science
An
Exploration of Ideas Related to the Understanding and Teaching of Climate
Science and Climate Change
https://laboutloud.com/?s=climate
https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2018/12/teach-climate-science-teachers-association-urges/
Podcasts
related to the Teaching Climate Science Position Statement