CRCSTL Postdocs for 2009-2010

	Emily G. Ward, Ph. D. - Research Associate Broadly speaking, my research focuses on college students' conceptual understanding of Geology.  The Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI) -- developed by Drs. Julie Libarkin and Steve Anderson-- is an appealing way of assessing student learning, both qualitatively and quantitatively.  My interest lies in analyzing the GCI data from a diversity perspective, with particular focus on the Native American student population.  Because the GCI tool collects data from a variety of schools (from community colleges to large universities) and a variety of student populations, these data can be used in identifying meaningful differences amongst these populations (whether it be Native American, African American, and/or Hispanic students to name a few).  Used in conjunction with qualitative research, this analysis can be used to modify the GCI tool such that it would better “accommodate the range of student abilities” as mentioned by Dr. Libarkin as part of her ongoing GCI work.  Working in collaboration with my Native American colleagues, modification of the GCI could be a way to culturally validate this assessment tool.  My other areas of interest include: ethnogeology, place-based education, and interdisciplinary curriculum.
	Scott K. Clark, Ph.D - Research Associate  I am a Research Associate in the Geocognition Research Lab in the Department of Geological Sciences. Currently, I am focusing my efforts on assessing the range of comprehension from experts to novices of the theory of plate tectonics, and on developing a novel approach to teaching students about dynamic Earth systems. Working with J. Libarkin and researchers at other institutions, I am studying the breadth and depth of people’s concepts of plate tectonics with an overarching goal of documenting commonly held alternative conceptions about plate tectonics across the expert-novice continuum. This work will integrate the understanding gained through this research into improving curriculum development. In this study, novices and experts, alike, are being asked via questionnaires and in-depth interviews to describe their interpretation of a widely used cross section that depicts significant plate tectonic features. Lecture Tutorials will be developed based on our research findings, providing a nearly synchronous integration of insights gained through our research into improving undergraduate curriculum. In collaboration with D. Sibley, J. Libarkin, and M. Heidemann, I am designing a novel approach to enhancing students’ understanding as matter moves through complex and dynamic Earth systems, commonly thought of as the water cycle, carbon cycle, and rock cycle. This method integrates a structured framework for a set of five questions with a box-and-arrow diagram (Sibley et al., 2007). This method encourages thoroughness, reasoning, transferability of skills, and raises awareness of the driving forces that keep systems dynamic.
	Jennifer H. Doherty, Ph. D. - Research Associate My major research focus is my involvement in the development of learning progressions leading toward environmental science literacy for students from elementary school through college.  Environmental literacy is the capacity to understand and participate in evidence-based discussions of socio-ecological systems and to make informed decisions about appropriate actions and policies. These learning progressions will include 1) a learning progression framework that defines learning goals and levels of achievement leading to those goals, 2) assessment tools, including tests, clinical interviews, and classroom formative or embedded assessments that give insight into students’ knowledge and practice and help evaluate students’ progress through the levels of achievement defined by the framework and 3) teaching tools for both professional development and K-16 classrooms that help teachers and students to achieve environmental science literacy. I am also more generally interested in what tools teachers need to teach science for true understanding, what it takes to induce teachers to use these tools once they have them, and how all teachers can acquire these tools?  That is, once we develop learning progressions and teaching tools, how can we sustainably train pre- and in-service teachers to change their classroom culture without large, short-term NSF grants?
	Jonathon W. Schramm, Ph.D – Research Associate “Student Understanding of Carbon in Ecosystems” I have a background in invasive species biology and plant ecology more generally, and am particularly interested in how those aspects of ecology interact with and are affected by human-induced global change. One of our most significant anthropogenic effects is climate change, a process in which carbon compounds play a prominent role. And yet public discussion of these issues often reveals incomplete or misconstrued knowledge of biogeochemistry, hampering efforts to change socioeconomic structures. In my own teaching I have seen students struggle with these same large-scale concepts. Thus, I am interested in exactly which processes within carbon cycling pose conceptual problems for students, as well as the effectiveness of typical models (graphical, textual, mathematical) of carbon cycling in communicating concepts to students. A related interest is in how inquiry-based teaching methods can be used to address global change topics in a way that enhances conceptual linkages for students. This field in particular has a wealth of electronic resources and data constantly being added to, and as such is well-suited for allowing students to generate hypotheses and test them using known data. I am interested in how these sorts of activities can bridge the divide between students’ experiences at the local scale and climate change’s global scale.
	Claudia E. Vergara, Ph.D - Research Associate “Computing and Undergraduate Engineering: A Collaborative Process to Align Computing Education with Engineering Workforce Needs (CPACE)” Michigan State University, Lansing Community College and the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce have partnered to design and implement a process to create a collaboratively-defined undergraduate computing education within the engineering and technology fields in alignment with the computational problem-solving abilities needed to transform mid-Michigan’s economy and workforce. The process comprises five phases: 1) Interview and survey stakeholders to identify specific workforce computational skills. 2) Abstract Computational Problem-solving Principles from those skills. 3) Align those Principles with Computer Science Concepts to map the problem-solving requirements onto underlying computer science concepts that are the foundation of computer science curricula. This alignment is checked among stakeholders to confirm that they capture the important skills. 4) Identify Opportunities for Curricular Integration that fit between the computer science concepts and engineering curricula in other departments. The abstract concepts begin to align with disciplinary problem-solving that addresses the eventual workforce needs. 5) Implement Computational Problem-solving Revisions in both computer science and other engineering curricula. At this stage of the process, we are bringing together representatives from the various stakeholders who come together to identify specific workforce computational skills

 

FORMER CRCSTL POSTDOCS

Elena Bray Speth, Ph.D - Research Associate I am interested in student reasoning across biology knowledge domains (or subdisciplines) and complexity scales. My research, currently, focuses on undergraduate students’ understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection, in the context of a large introductory biology course for science majors. The Theory of Evolution is one of the unifying themes of biology; high-order understanding of Evolution requires knowledge and comprehension of key concepts in several different domains of biology (from molecular biology and genetics to ecology), but also the ability to integrate these concepts into a coherent framework. I am investigating how students reason about Evolution by Natural Selection by using multiple kinds of assessment, aimed at probing different dimensions of knowledge (from comprehension to application and synthesis of key biological concepts). Aspects of student reasoning that I am primarily focusing on are: a) transfer of key concepts across knowledge domains and across distinct cases of evolution by natural selection; b) application of concepts to formulate scientific explanations about novel problems, and, c) ability to construct a scientific argument. I conduct my research under the mentoring of Dr. Diane Ebert-May, in collaboration with Drs. Tammy Long and Jenni Momsen, Sara Wyse, and the MSU Biological Science Program. This research is part of a broader initiative to reform undergraduate biology education by implementing an active learning pedagogy in a student-centered classroom environment, shifting the focus of teaching and learning away from rote memorization of facts, toward high-order conceptual understanding.    Kevin C. Haudek, Ph.D - Research Associate My current project focuses on the transfer of knowledge between the introductory biology courses and the pre-requisite general chemistry course. Even after taking the general chemistry course, students still display lack of understanding of several fundamental chemistry concepts in biology. To determine the degree to which these misunderstandings impairs student learning of biology and whether these are contextual in nature is the scope of the project. So far, we have developed question sets that focus on student understanding of free energy and solution chemistry. Open response questions are given to students in chemistry and biology contexts and student responses can be analyzed using text analysis software. This software has been configured to categorize meaningful scientific terms and from this, we can characterize student responses and find important or prevalent misconceptions.