Events

Teacher’s Workshop: Translating Evolutionary Science into the Public Classroom

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Workshop Leaders’ Biographies:

: Debi Molina-Walters, known as Mo, is a Science Education Professor in the School of Educational Innovation and Teacher Preparation on the Polytechnic campus. Mo currently teaches elementary and secondary science method courses, is the head advisor for the post-baccalaureate TEACHME credential program and the developer of the Annual Education Fair. In addition to teaching, Mo supervises elementary and secondary students, runs Family Science Night events in East Valley schools, and advises an Environmental Club at a Higley school. Her main research interest is in the area of Environmental Education. Currently Mo is the chair of the Higher Education Committee for the North America Association for Environmental Education. Previously she has served in positions, such as Secretary for the Arizona Association for Environmental Education, and a Council member of AZventure Advisory Council for Arizona Foundation for Resources in Science Education.

: Gary Marchant is the Lincoln Professor Emerging Technologies, Law and Ethics at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is also a Professor of Life Sciences at ASU and Executive Director of the ASU Center for the Study of Law, Science and Technology. Professor Marchant has a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of British Columbia, a Masters of Public Policy degree from the Kennedy School of Government , and a law degree from Harvard. Prior to joining the ASU faculty in 1999, he was a partner in a Washington, D.C. law firm where his practice focused on environmental and administrative law. Professor Marchant teaches and researches in the subject areas of environmental law, risk assessment and risk management, genetics and the law, biotechnology law, food and drug law, legal aspects of nanotechnology, and law, science and technology.

: Sarah Brem is an Associate Professor in the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University. A cognitive scientist, her research focuses on public use and understanding of scientific and technical information. She is the author of a number of journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports, and the recipient of a National Science Foundation Early Career Award. Her work focuses on affective reactions to evolutionary theory, and how they might be connected to cognitive obstacles to understanding the theory. She is trained in cognitive science and in the history and philosophy of science. She is also part of the Evolution Challenges, an NSF funded project to examine the educational challenges (cognitive, developmental, and emotional) to learning about evolution. The project involves 50 scholars whose backgrounds range from paleontologists to developmental psychologists.

: John M. Lynch is an Honors Faculty Fellow at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University, where he is also affiliated with the School of Life Sciences. Trained as an evolutionary biologist, since 1998 he has been focusing on the history of evolutionary thought and, in particular, contemporary opposition to evolution. He has worked at the state and national levels to maintain strong pro-science teaching standards at the K-12 level and has presented to teachers, lawyers, policy makers, academics and the general public on issues relating to contemporary anti-evolutionism. In 2007 he was named the Arizona Professor of the Year by the CASE/Carnegie Foundation for Teaching Excellence; Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award for Service, ASU, 2007; and received the Outstanding Academic Service Award, ASU Barrett Honors College, 2006.

: Charles Kazilek is the Director of Technology Integration and Outreach in the ASU School of Life Sciences (SOLS) and has been a member of the SOLS faculty for over 20 years. He is the creator and developer of Ask a Biologist as well as another outreach program, The Paper Project (paperproject.org). He has been developing K-12 web content for more than 11 years and has been running teacher workshops (Dr. Biology’s Imaginative Classroom) for more than five years in collaboration with Arizona Science Center as well as in local school districts. The Ask a Biologist web site has been in existence since 1997 and provides students, teachers, and parents access to working scientists. Since the web site began it has answered over 20,000 questions. Ask-a-Biologist received the highest peer review evaluation from the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching Association (MERLOT). Recently the companion audio podcast program was awarded the Silver Quill Award of Excellence by the International Association of Business Communicators. The number of unique daily visitors to the web site exceeds 700,000 per year. In addition to his workshops and web development Mr. Kazilek is the host and creator of the Ask a Biologist audio show distributed through iTunes, LearnOutLoud.com, Plugged, IDEAL (Arizona’s K-12 Education Portal), edZone (California’s Hi Speed K-12 Web Portal), and one of the selected science shows to debut on both the new National Science Foundation online science education website (http://science360.gov) and the kids channel (http://science360.gov/kids).

: Margaret Coulombe is the research grant and media relations coordinator for the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University and managing editor of the School of Life Science Magazine, winner of two Silver Quill Awards from the International Association of Business Communications. She is also the creator and host of ASU’s Science Studio podcast, recently selected for the National Science Foundation’s online science audio program resource, Science 360 (debuting Fall 2009). With wide-ranging work experience, from 20 years as a bench-top research scientist to professional dog walker to free lance writer, she works to adeptly translate cutting-edge science into scientific education for the public in audio, web and print media formats. In her free time, Coulombe writes novels and is head coach of Na Leo O Ke Kai, an outrigger canoe club housed on Tempe Town Lake. She has competed internationally since 1995, including as a member of the U. S. Women’s team in dragon boating.

: Arianne Cease is a Doctoral Student and Teaching Assistant in the School of Life Sciences, serving as an intern in science communications. Her interests are at the interface of physiology and ecology and she is intrigued by how organisms adapt to their environment. Currently, she is investigating dispersal in grasshoppers. In response to environmental variations, many species of insects develop an increase in the frequency of migratory forms adapted for dispersal. Of these, the most dramatic and best studied are the migratory grasshoppers (locusts), which have historically caused major global devastations. Part of her dissertation research is based in China, on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. She is co-advised by Jim Elser and Jon Harrison, professors in the School of Life Sciences.

: Caitlin Schrein is a Doctoral Student, School of Human Evolution and Social Change and a Teaching Assistant in the School of Life Sciences. She received her B.A. in Environmental Biology with a concentration in Anthropology from Columbia University in New York and her M.A. in Anthropology from ASU in 2004. Caitlin’s doctoral dissertation research is titled: “Where did you come from, where will you go? The impact of human biological evolution education on the personal and academic achievements and goals of America’s public university students.” Caitlin has worked extensively in teaching and outreach with youth, since 1996. As a graduate student at ASU, Caitlin was part of the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 program developing inquiry-based science curricula for the teachers’ classrooms. She was also co-chair for the AAAS Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division 81st annual meeting symposium “Partnerships Between STEM Research and K-12 Classrooms” and presented the talk: “Exploring the unifying concepts and processes standard in the secondary classroom: Bridging the gap between life science and science & technology content with form and function.” Caitlin has been a teaching and laboratory assistant for ASM 104 Bones Stones and Human Evolution, ASM 344 Fossil Hominids, BIO 188 General Biology and BIO 201 Anatomy and Physiology. She is also adjunct faculty at Mesa Community College where she has taught ASM 104. In addition her teaching activities, Caitlin’s doctoral research has included paleoanthropological fieldwork in France, Greece, and Kenya.