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Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits (2009)

Chapter: Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12190.
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Page 315
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12190.
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Page 316
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12190.
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Page 317
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12190.
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Page 318
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12190.
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Page 319
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12190.
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Page 320
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff." National Research Council. 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12190.
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Page 321

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315 Appendix A Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff Philip Bell (Cochair) is associate professor of learning sciences in educa- tion at the University of Washington, Seattle. He directs the ethnographic and design-based research of the Everyday Science and Technology Group (http://everydaycognition.org). As a learning scientist, he has studied every- day cognition and expertise in science, children’s argumentation, the use of digital technologies in youth culture, the design and use of novel learning technologies, and new approaches to inquiry instruction in science. Bell is a coleader of informal learning research for the Learning in Informal and Formal Environments Center (http://life-slc.org/) and a coprincipal investi- gator of COSEE-Ocean Learning Communities (http://cosee-olc.org/). He is a board member of the International Society of the Learning Sciences and the Board on Science Education of the National Research Council. He has a background in human cognition and development, science education, elec- trical engineering, and computer science. He has a B.S. from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Bruce Lewenstein (Cochair) is professor of science communication at Cor- nell University, with appointments in the Departments of Communication and Science and Technology Studies at Cornell. At heart, he is a historian (his current favorite personal project is a history of science books in the years since World War II), but overall his work focuses on both historical and contemporary issues involving the public understanding of science. He is a former editor of the journal Public Understanding of Science (1998-2003) and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is a past member of the AAAS Committee on Public

316 Learning Science in Informal Environments Understanding of Science and Technology and is on the advisory board to the Sciencenter, an interactive science museum in Ithaca. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Chemical Heritage Foundation. He has a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, in the history and sociology of science and in science and technology policy. Sue Allen is director of visitor research and evaluation at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where she oversees all aspects of visitor studies, education research, and evaluation on all projects involving the museum’s public space. She was the in-house evaluation coordinator for the California Framework Project, which explored the roles that a science museum can play in assist- ing science education reform in the schools. She and her colleagues study visitors’ learning in the museum’s public space and work collaboratively with practitioners in the design of their research and evaluation agendas. Her current research interests include methods for assessing learning, exhibit design, personal meaning-making, and scientific inquiry. She has lectured in the Department of Museum Studies at the John F. Kennedy University. She teaches a graduate-level, action-oriented course on thinking and learning in science in the School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. She has contributed numerous articles and book chapters to the informal science field. She is a member of many professional associations, including the Visitor Studies Association, the Museum Education Roundtable, and Cul- tural Connections. She has a Ph.D. in science education from the University of California, Berkeley. B. Bradford Brown is professor of human development and former chair of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. His research has focused on adolescent peer relations, especially teenage peer groups and peer pressure and their influence on school achieve- ment, social interaction patterns, and social adjustment. He is the former editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and a past member of the Executive Council of the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA). Cur- rently, he serves as chair of the SRA Study Group on Parental Involvement in Adolescent Peer Relations. He is the coeditor or coauthor of five books, including The Development of Romantic Relationships in Adolescence, The World’s Youth: Adolescence in 8 Regions of the Globe, and Linking Parents and Family to Adolescent Peer Relations: Ethnic and Cultural Considerations. He has served as a consultant for numerous groups, including the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, and the Blue Ribbon Schools Program of the U.S. Department

Appendix A 317 of Education. He has an A.B. in sociology from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in human development from the University of Chicago. Maureen Callanan is professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on cognitive and language development in young children, exploring how they come to understand the world through everyday conversations with their parents. One particular focus is on how children’s intuitive theories about the world (e.g., how heat makes things melt, what makes people sad) develop in parent- child conversations. Children’s “why” questions and parents’ explanations are studied through parents’ diary reports of children’s questions and through videotapes of parent-child activities, such as reading books, baking muffins, and visiting children’s museums. The research explores how children and parents construct shared understandings of concepts and of causal theories about particular domains, with special attention to scientific domains. Calla- nan has also focused on how children learn word meanings and understand multiple names for the same objects. Her studies on examining how parents and children name objects in everyday conversations have demonstrated important links between parents’ language and children’s interpretations of new words. She has an A.B. from Mount Holyoke College and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Angela C. Cristini is executive director of special programs at the Ramapo College of New Jersey. She also directs the Meadowlands Environment Center, in which over 20,000 children, educators, families, adults, and senior citizens per year participate in informal science programming. She designed and directs the Master of Science in Educational Technology Program, which is directed at the needs and concerns of the professional education community. Previously she was president of the American Littoral Society, a national, not-for-profit, membership organization, dedicated to the environmental well- being of coastal habitats. She was assistant director of environmental research in the Division of Science and Research of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, where she was responsible for setting the research agenda for state environmental issues. She was a recipient of competitive grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the New Jersey State Department of Education for informal science, teacher enhancement, and curriculum development projects in science and technology. Her research interests include comparative physiology and the ecology of invertebrates, the effects of pollutants on marine organisms, and the endocrinology and mechanisms of ionic regulation of crustaceans. She has a B.A. from North- eastern University and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. Kirsten Ellenbogen is the director of evaluation and research in learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Her research focuses on fostering science

318 Learning Science in Informal Environments discourse in out-of-school learning environments and positioning museums in systemic education reform. Previously, as project director of the Center for Informal Learning and Schools at King’s College London, she collaborated on the development and management of a training and research program designed to address the need for research degrees in informal science edu- cation. Most recently, she was a senior associate at the Institute for Learning Innovation, where she developed an initiative to coalesce the last decade of research on learning in museums into frameworks for practitioners. She began her work in museums as a demonstrator, and her award-winning ex- hibition development work has focused on inquiry experiences, multimedia interactives, and dual-purpose spaces appropriate for both school and family groups. She has a Ph.D. in science education from Vanderbilt University. Michael A. Feder (Senior Program Officer) is on the staff of the Board on Science Education. At the National Research Council, he serves as a program officer for the Committee on Learning Science in Informal Environments and the Committee on Understanding and Improving K-12 Engineering Educa- tion. Previously, he worked as an education program evaluator, contributing to such projects as a review of interventions for English-language learners and the evaluation of the Math and Science Partnership Programs in New Jersey and Ohio. His research includes the effects of subsidized non-Head Start day care on the academic achievement of Hispanic children and the psychological and academic adjustment of refugee children exposed to wartime trauma. He has a Ph.D. in applied developmental psychology from George Mason University. Cecilia Garibay is principal of Garibay Group, where she leads audience research and evaluation. Her research focuses on exhibits and programs in informal learning environments, particularly those aimed at reaching under- represented audiences. Some of her recent efforts have involved research with Latino and immigrant communities—particularly regarding leisure values and informal learning, conceptions of museums, and perceptions of science. She regularly consults with institutions on audience development and com- munity inclusion and to develop frameworks and strategic plans for making exhibitions and programming accessible to multiple and diverse audiences. She brings a bicultural/bilingual perspective to her work and specializes in culturally responsive and contextually relevant research and evaluation ap- proaches. She has consulted with a wide range of free-choice learning orga- nizations, including the Association of Science-Technology Centers, Children’s Museum of Houston, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Exploratorium, Smith- sonian (National Museum of American History), Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Her 20 years of research and evaluation experience also include working with nonprofit organizations,

Appendix A 319 foundations, and corporations. She is currently conducting research on issues of audience diversity and organizational change in museums. Laura Martin is the director of science interpretation at the Arizona Science Center and a visiting professor in the College of Education at Arizona State University. Previously she held positions at the Phoenix Zoo; the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Center for Informal Learning and Schools, both at the Exploratorium in San Francisco; and the Children’s Television Workshop. She has authored numerous publications and book chapters on learning science and mathematics in a variety of settings, as well as research reports for the Arizona Science Center. She has also written curricula and developed demonstration projects in science. She is a member of many as- sociations and is the organizer as well as a participant of the Informal Learn- ing Opportunities Network. She has a B.A. in history from the University of Chicago, an M.S. in education from the Bank Street College of Education, and an M.A. and a Ph.D., the latter in psychology, cognition, and development, from the University of California, San Diego. Dale McCreedy is director of the Gender and Family Learning Programs De- partment at The Franklin Institute. She is also the program director of multiple National Science Foundation–funded collaborations, two with Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., one with the School District of Philadelphia, one with the Free Library of Philadelphia, and one with the Institute for Learning Innovation. She has led the development of program structures and resources, as well as collaborations with local and national partner organizations. Dr. McCreedy is an advocate for lifelong learning, with a focus on girls and women’s science learning, and the cultivation of family and after-school support in science. She participates on numerous advisory boards and girl-based organizations, and makes frequent presentations about girls, women, and families in sci- ence. She was awarded a lifetime membership in Girl Scouting in 1996, and was the 2002 recipient of the Maria Mitchell Women in Science Award. She received a Ph.D. in education from University of Pennsylvania. Douglas L. Medin is the Louis W. Menk Chair in psychology at Northwestern University. He previously taught at the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan. Best known for his research on concepts and categorization, his recent research interests have extended to decision making; cross-cultural studies of reasoning and categorization; models of similarity, culture, and cognition; and cognitive dimensions of moral reasoning. He is an editor for Cognition and for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory. He also serves as a consulting editor for Cognitive Psychology and was past editor of Psychology of Learning Motivation. He has conducted research on cognition and learning among both indigenous and majority culture populations in Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. He

320 Learning Science in Informal Environments is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a recent recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. He has a B.A. from Moorhead State College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of South Dakota. Vera Michalchik is a researcher social scientist at SRI International. Trained in both anthropology and cognitive science, she focuses on the social and cultural aspects of learning. Her recent research includes case studies of tech- nology use and learning in informal settings, analyses of science discourse and communication, and studies of representational technology in learning science and mathematics. She is especially interested in how various types of social interactions and modes of communication support or detract from students’ participation in learning activities and how this affects issues of equity. Her work on such projects as ChemSense, the Community Technol- ogy Centers evaluation, and NetCalc reflect this interest. She has extensive experience in conducting case studies, video analyses of learning environ- ments, and ethnographic fieldwork. She has a B.A. in film studies from the University of California, Berkeley (1985), an M.Ed. in human development from Harvard University (1986), and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University (2000). Gil G. Noam is founder and director of the Program in Education, Afterschool and Resilience (PEAR), and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. Trained as a clinical and developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst in both Europe and the United States, he has a strong interest in supporting resilience in youth, especially in educational settings. He served as the director of the Risk and Prevention Program and is the founder of the RALLY Prevention Program, a Boston-based intervention that bridges social and academic support in school, after-school, and community settings. He has also followed a large group of high-risk children into adult- hood in a longitudinal study that explores clinical, educational, and occupa- tional outcomes. PEAR is actively engaged in research on after-school topics and is also working with Boston after-school programs, in partnership with Achieve Boston, to develop an after-school training and technical assistance infrastructure. Noam is also involved in a private-public partnership, which includes the Institute for Educational Science, the Piper Trust, and the Haan Foundation, in conducting a randomized control study of a reading and re- silience intervention for young struggling readers in after-school settings. He has published numerous papers, articles, and books in the areas of child and adolescent development as well as risk and resiliency in clinical, school, and after-school settings. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal New Directions in Youth Development: Theory, Practice and Research, which has a strong focus on out-of-school time.

Appendix A 321 Andrew W. Shouse (Senior Program Officer) is a staff member of the Board on Science Education. He codirected the study that produced the 2007 report Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8. He also serves as study director for the Learning Science K-8 Practitioner Volume, a “translation” of Taking Science to School. He is an education re- searcher and policy analyst whose interests include teacher development, science education in formal and informal settings, and communication of education research to policy and practice audiences. Prior to joining the Na- tional Research Council, he worked as an education research and evaluation consultant, science center administrator, and elementary and middle grade teacher. He has a Ph.D. in curriculum, teaching, and educational policy from Michigan State University. Brian K. Smith is associate professor of information sciences and technol- ogy and education at the Pennsylvania State University. He studies the use of computation to support and augment human performance and learning. Examples of his work include video annotation systems for biology educa- tion, cameras equipped with global positioning systems and image databases for history education, and interventions around photography and computer visualizations to promote awareness of personal health practices. Current projects are under way to explore information design for informal, everyday decision making. Previously he was on the faculty of the Media Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he led a research con- sortium of 20 collaborating corporations to define new methods for infor- mation description, design, and dissemination. He is currently the principal investigator of the medical informatics research initiative in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State and the research director of its involvement in Apple Computer’s Digital Campus Initiative. He received a Faculty Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation in 2000 to begin a research agenda around visual learning. He received the Jan Hawkins Award for early career contributions to humanistic research and scholarship in learning technologies from the American Education Research Association in 2004. Apple Computer also named him an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2004. He has a B.S. in computer science and engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in learning sciences from Northwestern University.

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Informal science is a burgeoning field that operates across a broad range of venues and envisages learning outcomes for individuals, schools, families, and society. The evidence base that describes informal science, its promise, and effects is informed by a range of disciplines and perspectives, including field-based research, visitor studies, and psychological and anthropological studies of learning.

Learning Science in Informal Environments draws together disparate literatures, synthesizes the state of knowledge, and articulates a common framework for the next generation of research on learning science in informal environments across a life span. Contributors include recognized experts in a range of disciplines—research and evaluation, exhibit designers, program developers, and educators. They also have experience in a range of settings—museums, after-school programs, science and technology centers, media enterprises, aquariums, zoos, state parks, and botanical gardens.

Learning Science in Informal Environments is an invaluable guide for program and exhibit designers, evaluators, staff of science-rich informal learning institutions and community-based organizations, scientists interested in educational outreach, federal science agency education staff, and K-12 science educators.

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