Alumni in the News:
Dr. Eric Howe, a MISE graduate, has just published "Addressing Nature of Science Core Tenets with the History of Science: An Example with Sickle-Cell Anemia and Malaria" in the October, 2007 edition of The American Biology Teacher, 69(8). Congratulations!

Student Opportunities:
Positions are available for a research assistantship (Ph.D. student to study college faculty) and for a doctoral fellowship.

Faculty publication:
Dr. Renee' Schwartz has a new publication in the October 2007 issue of the journal Science Scope. The title is, "What’s in a Word? How Word Choice Can Develop (Mis)conceptions About the Nature of Science."

Faculty invited as keynote panelist:
Dr. Renee' Schwartz participated in two panel presentations at a conference on "The Impact of Elementary Science Specialists" held in Boston, MA, September 24-26. She was an invited keynote speaker, addressing the question: Why Advocate for a Research Agenda? The second panel addressed research issues and needs in studying elementary science specialist programs. The conference was organized by the EDC for Science Education, and sponsored by the National Science Foundation

Faculty in the News:
Dave Rudge and Charles Henderson were recently invited to give presentations as part of the Cookbook to Inquiry Workshop held at the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center on Sept. 28, 2007. Dr. Rudge spoke on the "History of Science in the Classroom" and Dr. Henderson spoke on "Problem Solving in Science: Instructional Considerations for Improving Student Learning".

Congratulations to:

Bill Merrow on 30 years of distinguished service to WMU and the Mallinson Institute.

Best wishes from all of us who could not do our jobs without you!

Students in the News:
Congratulations to Jeff Barney who has received a $250 Student Travel Award from the Geological Society of America Geoscience Education Division to present his work "Assessing the Efficacy of Student Response Technology in an Ocean Science Course" at the GSA Annual Meeting.

Faculty in the News:
Congratulations to Dr. Heather Petcovic on her latest article, "Research in science education: The expert-novice continuum" published in the Journal of Geoscience Education. The article was co-authored by J. C. Libarkin.

Faculty in the News
Herb Fynewever and Bill Cobern of MISE along with Steven Ziebarth of Math Education and Arlen Gullickson of the WMU Evaluation Center have just been awarded a new grant by the NSF Discovery Research K12 (DR-K12) program ($1.3 millions/5 years). The funding is primarily for support of 5 graduate students (tuition and stipend) for 5 years. Two of these students will be enrolled at the Mallinson Institute with the other 3 enrolled at the Evaluation Center and Math Education. The interdisciplinary cohort will conduct research focused on "Assessment for Learning" to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating communication between student/peers/faculty into the structure of classroom work.

Faculty in the News
Join us in congratulating Dr. Charles Henderson on his new grant ($198,379 ) from the National Science Foundation. This project, entitled "STEM Educational Change Efforts in Higher Education: A Meta-Synthesis of Activities, Strategies, Concepts, and Theories across Disciplines," is under the direction of Andrea L. Beach, Charles R. Henderson, and Noah D. Finkelstein. This award is effective September 15, 2007 and expires August 31, 2009.

Students in the News
Congratulations to Uric C. Geer who completed his MA this past Summer II. The title of his thesis is "A Chemistry Instructor's Views of Teaching and Learning: Response to Pedagogic Reform in College Science Teaching".

Ms Betty Udongo is in Uganda doing her doctoral field research. While in Uganda she presented a paper titled, "Education Policy for conflict and post-conflict societies" at the 6th Consortium for International Management Policy Development International Conference at Kampala held June 19-22, 2007. The photo shows Ms Udongo with Ugandan President H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Faculty in the News
The latest MISE faculty publication comes from Dr. David W. Rudge, whose article "H.B.D. Kettlewell’s Research 1937-1953: The Influence of E.B. Ford, E.A. Cockayne and P.M. Sheppard" will be published in the next issue of History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences.

Faculty Article Published
Dr. Renee' Schwartz has a paper soon to be published in the International Journal of Science Education. The title of the paper is "What scientists say: Scientists’ views of nature of science and relation to science context," with Dr. Norman Lederman as co-author.

Kalamazoo Gazette News
Teachers gather at WMU to test ways to improve their craft

Congratulations to the following faculty and (former) graduate students who presented at the Ninth International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group 2007 Conference held June 24-28:

David Rudge, Uric Geer & Eric Howe, "But is it Effective? Assessing the Impact of a Historically-based Unit"

Eric Howe "Henry David Thoreau, Forest Succession, and the Nature of Science: A Method for Curriculum Development"

Both papers will be published in an on-line conference volume. The conference was held at the University of Calgary. The Tenth conference will be held at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, June 24-28, 2009.

Student News
Please join me in congratulating our latest graduate, Ozcan Gulacar. Ozcan successfully defended his dissertation research titled, "An Investigation of Successful and Unsuccessful Students' Problem Solving in Stoichiometrey." His advisor was Dr. Herb Fynewever. This fall Ozcan begins a tenure track chemistry position at Southern Connecticut State Univerfsity. Well done, "Dr." Gulacar!

Faculty Paper Published
Dr. Bill Cobern's latest paper appears in the July 2007 (p. 257-62) issue of the Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education. The paper title is: "ID Hysteria Says More about Some People's Freudian ID Than about Science."

A Visit Comes to an End
The past several months we have enjoyed the company of Mr. Minxing Huang, Assistant Professor, School of Physics, at the South China University of Technology. Minxing has now returned to China and we wish him well. If you would like to keep in touch with Minxing, he can be reached at:
The South China University of Technology
Wushan Road 381, Tianhe District.
Guangzhou. Guangdong. 510640.  P.R.C
mxhuang@scut.edu.cn
(H) +086 20 87110299
(Cell) 13925034886

The 2007 Summer Science Workshops
Summer workshops offer a convenient and fun way to advance your education by combining practical knowledge with exciting hands-on course work in a variety of interesting subjectmatters. Workshops were offered in: Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Holland, Kalamazoo and Southwest.

Faculty Paper Published
"An Explicit and Reflective Approach to the Use of History to Promote Understanding of the Nature of Science" by Drs. David Rudge and Eric Howe was recently published in Science and Education.

Faculty in the News
Congratulations go to Dr. Heather Petcovic whose study titled, "Field-Based Cognition among Expert Geoscientists: A Pilot Study," has just been funded ($5,000) by the WMU Faculty Research and Creative Activities Fund (FRACASF). Well done!

Dr. Renee’ Schwartz participated in an invited panel discussion titled “Socioscientific Inquiry, Argumentation, and Nature of Science,” at the annual conference of the American Educational Researchers Association, April 9-13, 2007, in Chicago, IL. Other invited panelists were Dr. Richard Duschl (Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), Dr. Dana Zeidler (University of South Florida), and Dr. Joseph Krajcik (Univeristy of Michigan).

Congratulations to the following faculty and graduate students who presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching:

George Akom, Renee Schwartz, Brandy Skjold, Hang Hwa Hong, Fang Huang, Robert Kagumba "A change in perspective: Science education graduate students' perspectives on learning about NOS."

Uric Geer & David Rudge, "Pedagogic Revision and a College Science Instructor: Impacting Views of Teaching and Learning."

Renee Schwartz, "Beyond evolution: A thematic approach to teaching NOS within other biology contexts."

The meeting this year was held in New Orleans. The meeting next year will be in Baltimore.

Faculty and Students in the News
Congratulations to Dr. Herb Fynewever and Ozcan Gulacar who recently presented their research titled "Characteristics of successful and unsuccessful students in solving stoichiometric problems" at the American Chemical Society National Meeting, Chicago IL March 25-29, 2007.

MISE Faculty Member Honored
Professor Emeritus Dr. Bob Poel received the MSTA 2007 "George Mallinson for Lifetime Achievement in Science Education" Award. Congratulations Bob!

Presentations
The following WMU affiliated individuals made presentations at this year's Michigan Science Teacher's Association Meeting, held March 15-17, 2007.

• Drew Isola, Implementing Student Constructed Investigations in an Inquiry-Based Classroom
• Mary Brown, Using Concept Mapping to "Blend" Science
• Herb Fynewever, Charles Henderson ( Mary Z. Lindow - Scott Hanson,
  Battle Creek Area M/S Center, Sandra Erwin - Stephen Barry, Harper
  Creek High School, Michael Huber - Kathy Mirakovits, Portage Northern
  High School) Unobservable Educational Choices Rubric (UECR) Project
• Mark Jenness, 25 Cold Weather School Yard Science Inquiry-Based Activities
• Robert Poel, Mary Roobol - Portage North Middle School, InterActions
  in Physical Science: A New Middle-School Inquiry-Based Physical
  Science Curriculum
  

Congratulations to all!

Scholar visiting from China

Minxing Huang is visiting The Mallinson Institute for Science Education from South China University of Technology in Guang Zhou, China where he teaches Physics. For the next three months,  Minxing will conduct research on science education and hopes to improve his skills of bilingual physics teaching.      

Minxing enjoys Chinese board games, track and field and photography.  He plans to take several photos of the area while he is here to share with his friends and family upon his return to China.

Faculty News: Stoltman Awarded Aussie Medal
The James Park Thomson Medal by the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland, Australia, has been awarded to Joseph P. Stoltman, Geography and the Mallinson Institute for Science Education. The award recognizes Stoltman for his research and leadership in the professional fields of geography and education.  It is named for an Australian geographer and public servant who founded the geographical society in 1885. The medal was presented by Thomson’s great granddaughter during a July ceremony in Brisbane, Queensland, after which Stoltman presented the J. P. Thomson Lecture, speaking on “Public Views and Uses of Geography: Our Subject Through Different Lenses.”

Student News
The Institute is pleased to note that Betty Udongo, doctoral student from Uganda, participated in a paneldiscussion on "The Education of Girls in the Developing World" on September 26, 2006, at Wayne StateUniversity. This event was sponsored by the United States Mission to the United Nations and moderated by Gershem Bolton, the wife to the US Ambassador to the UN.

On September 3,  Betty presented a paper on "Post Conflict Education for Girls in Northern Uganda" at the "Uganda North America Association Convention", New York.

On June 30, 2006, Betty presented a paper on "International Trade Initiatives Between Africa and South Suburbs" at Governor State University, Illinois.

Congratulations, Betty!