Appendix A
Speaker Biographies
William B. DeLauder, a scientist, educator and administrator, became the eighth president of Delaware State University on July 1, 1987. He manages a campus of more than 3,300 students and 175 faculty. Prior to assuming this post, he served with distinction as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University for 6 years. During 16 years at the university, DeLauder also served as associate professor of chemistry, acting chair of chemistry, and professor and chair of chemistry. He received a B.S. degree from Morgan State College and a Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from Wayne State University. He subsequently conducted research in physical biochemistry at the Centre de Biophysique Moleculaire du C.N.R.S. in France as a postdoctoral fellow from 1969 to 1971. His research on the physical properties of macromolecular systems and on the florescence properties of proteins has been published in leading scientific journals. In 1990 he was appointed to the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.
Patricia Hoben is Assistant Director of The Bakken, a museum and library in Minneapolis, Minnesota that focuses on applications of electricity and magnetism in life. Dr. Hoben is also Principal Investigator and Co-Director of a National Science Foundation grant to stimulate reforms in the Minneapolis public-school science program and promote local partnerships among K-12 teachers and scientists in higher education, industry, and science museums. Dr. Hoben received her Ph.D. degree in molecular physics and biochemistry from Yale University. She was a science policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Health and at the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, and directed the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute's precollege and public science education grants program.
Michael P. Klentschy, currently the superintendent of schools of the El Centro School District in El Centro, California, has served as the associate superintendent of instruction for the Pasadena Unified School District, in addition to serving as teacher, principal, federal programs administrator, and administrator for elementary instruction for the Los Angeles School District. Dr. Klentschy received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in educational policy studies and served as an instructor in the Graduate School of Education there for 13 years. Working with staff from the California Institute of Technology, he also served as co-principal investigator on several elementary science education projects for the National Science Foundation Initiatives program.
Harold Pratt has had extensive curriculum development experience at the local and national levels. He served for 23 years as the science coordinator for the largest school district in Colorado and continued to oversee the operation of the Science Department and serve as executive director of science and technology for the next 5 years and later as the executive director of curriculum. In 1986, Pratt received a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the Middle School Life Science Project. Working with a co-director and a team of teachers, Mr. Pratt developed a year-long course containing laboratory activities integrated into the text. The program, which incorporates cooperative learning, was piloted, field tested, and later published. Mr. Pratt served on the National Research Council National Science Education Standards Project and in January 1995 became the project director for the revision of Science for Life and Living for Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. Since May 1996 he has served as Director on K-12 Policy and Practice in the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education at the National Research Council.
Kathy D. Scoggin has been a teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota since 1975 and has been actively involved in the Minneapolis early-education science and environmental and conservation programs. She served as a facilitator/leader for Project WILD, an international, interdisciplinary conservation and environmental education program. For Project WILD, Ms. Scoggin managed workshops for teachers, instructing the teachers in innovative techniques for teaching basic skills in environmental and conservation sciences and in conducting hands-on activities that enhance student learning in all subject and skill areas. Ms. Scoggin is also a member of advisory committees for Science Centrum, University of Minnesota; the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; Minnesota Landscape Arboretum; the Bell Museum of Natural History; and the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Jan Tuomi is currently the director of the National Research Council Regional Initiatives in Science Education (RISE) project. Previously, she was the director of Outreach for the National Science Resources Center, a K-12 science education improvement program founded by the National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution. Ms. Tuomi's involvement in education includes 24 years as an elementary teacher and leader of professional-development activities for teachers. She received a B.S. degree in education from the University of the Pacific, taught in California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Mexico. Ms. Tuomi views optimizing the involvement of scientists in improving science education as her focus of interest.
Judith Williams, a biological sciences teacher, teaches high-school biology, applied biology, and advanced biology in Central City, Nebraska. Ms. Williams received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She has been actively involved in the development of the Mathematics/Science Frameworks for Nebraska schools and was selected by the Nebraska Department of Education to be part of a writing team to develop standards for secondary science teachers and to be a professional-development team leader. She has also conducted the Nebraska Mathematics/Science Frameworks Workshops for K-12 teachers. Earlier this year, Ms. Williams presented a paper at the 1995 Invitational Conference on Systematic Reform in Science Education sponsored jointly by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education.
Paul H. Williams, a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the developer of the rapid-cycling ''fast plants," used extensively as models for research in a wide range of biological applications and as organisms for hands-on exploratory learning. The Wisconsin Fast PlantsTM and Bottle BiologyTM programs are derivatives of his research and have been used at all levels of education—from preschool through college. Supported by the National Science Foundation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation AgriScience Institute, these programs have been demonstrated to more than 40,000 teachers in training workshops throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other countries. More than 2 million students use Wisconsin Fast Plants annually. Dr. Williams received his Ph.D. degree in plant pathology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.