MISE
News
| 2008 |
Faculty in the news Dr. Dave Rudge's "Kettlewell, H.B.D. (1907-1979)" has just been published as one of many short entries on evolutionary topics that appear in Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis (2009) Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA. Dr. Renee' Schwartz has a new publication in the journal "The Science Educator."
Dr. Schwartz is working in collaboration with Dr. Julie Gess-Newsome of Northern Arizona University to study instructional models and effectiveness of elementary science specialists. Their work continues with a call for participation in a large-scale study.
Drs. Renee' Schwartz and Bill Cobern recently returned from a research trip to Sakarya University in Turkey. In addition to
research activities, Dr. Schwartz gave a demonstration lesson on the
nature of science for about 100 middle schoolers and their teachers.
Dr. Cobern gave a lecture to faculty and university students on the "Scientific Pipeline." At a special dinner hosted by the University Rector (President), Dr. Schwartz demonstrated her expertise (QuickTime movie) at cultural boundary crossing. Click here to see this amazing event documented in film. One of the significant outcomes of this trip is
the opportunity for developing a WMU-MISE cooperative graduate
program with Sakarya University for the purpose of preparing Turkish
science educators and researchers. We will be reporting our progress
in the near future. On Oct. 13 and 14, Dr. Charles Henderson was an invited participant in the The National Academy of Sciences' Workshop on Linking Evidence and Promising Practices in STEM Undergraduate Education. He presented a talk at the workshop and co-authored a commissioned paper.
The following papers were presented at
the 2008 Joint Geological Society of America national meeting in
Houston, Texas on Oct. 6-9 by Matthew Ludwig, MISE doctoral fellow, and Dr. Heather Petcovic, Geosciences/MISE, with contributions from Dr.
Robert Ruhf, MISE alumnus,
and Dr. Herb Fynewever. Chemistry/MISE. Matthew received two travel
grants to fund attendance at the meeting.
The theme of the conference was philosophy of experiment, and the title of his talkwas "How Did Kettlewell's Experiment End?"
Drs. Charles Henderson and David Rudge have been selected to serve as members of the editorial board for the new book series "Science & Engineering Education Sources." This series is devoted to the publication of monographs and collections of papers of general significance to theory development and research in science and engineering education and is published by Information Age Publishing Inc. under the direction of Dr. Calvin S. Kalman (Concordia University), Editor-in-Chief. MISE is pleased to announce that Dr. Heather Petcovic of the Institute has just been awarded a National Science Foundation research grant titled, "Collaborative Research: Learning across the Expert-Novice Continuum: Cognition in the Geosciences." the grant is for $500,000 over 3 years. Her co-researcher on the grant is Dr. Kathleen M. Baker of the WMU Department of Geography and external collaborators are Dr. Julie Libarkin and Dr. Zach Hambrick of Michigan State University. Well done, Heather!
Well done Bob! Dave Rudge and Bill Merrow recently created two ecology simulations using NetLogo, a cross-platform multi-agent programmable modeling environment:
Dr. Herb Fynewever published, "A comparison of the
effectiveness of web-based and paper-based homework for General
Chemistry," The Chemical Educator, 13, 1-6 (2008). Nationally Ranked Program in Science Education Dr. Dave Rudge has been chosen as President-elect of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group. He will serve on the Executive Council for a total of 6 years: two as president-elect, followed by two as president, and two as past president. Dr. Bill Cobern recently traveled to Malawi, Africa, to visit Chancellor's College, University of Malawi and the University of Mzuzu in December to present a paper"A New Perspective for Doctoral Studies in the Sciences" to faculty and students at both universities. Charles Henderson has recently published three papers regarding his research:
Congratulations to Drs. Herb Fynewever (PI), Charles Henderson, Heather Petcovic, and Marcia Fetters on their latest R&D grant titled, "Alignment of Secondary Science Teacher Practice and Materials in the Battle Creek Region", funded by the Michigan Department of Education Title II program for Improving Teacher Quality ($215,287 / 21 months). This program will focus on science teacher professional development for Battle Creek regional schools (4 public schools + 2 private schools). An interdisciplinary team of WMU faculty will research the use of lesson-study to promote best practices for test writing, homework construction, formative assessments, and supporting students in developing metacognitive skills. The project will also work to re-align Battle Creek regional curriculum with Michigan's new High School Content Expectations. Congratulations to the Dr. Herb Fynewever along with current MISE student Ms. Hang Hwa Hong and MISE alumnus Dr. Pat Meyer who have just published: "Inquiry-Based Chemistry Curriculum for Pre-Service Education Students," The Chemical Educator 13 (2008), 120-125.
Dr. Renee Schwartz recently presented the following papers:
Dr. Heather Petcovic received a grant of $610 from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium Teacher Training Program to support research conducted by MISE doctoral student Matthew Ludwig. The title is: Course-Embedded Formative Assessment as a Tool to Enhance the Preparation of Pre-service Elementary Teachers in Earth System Science. The following presentations were made:
at the Physics Teacher Education Coalition 2008 Annual Conference on Feb. 29- March 2 in Austin Texas:
Herb Fynewever presented "Stochiometry--Where Students Stumble" and emeritus professor Robert Poel presented "Professional Development Using Student Materials" at this year's Michigan Science Teachers Association meeting held March 7-8. Dave Rudge presented "Images as Rhetoric: H.B.D. Kettlewell's Use of Photographs and Films to Silence Skeptics" at this year's annual meeting of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts & Letters at WMU on March 7. Dave Rudge and Eric Howe's 2004 essay "Incorporating History into the Science Classroom" Dave Rudge's invited chapter "Peppered Moths" appears on pages 221-250 of Brian Regal's (ed.) (2008) Icons of Evolution Vol 1. Westport CT: Greenwood Bill Cobern, MISE Director, recently delivered the closing plenary address at the 2008 Conference of Asian Science Education in Taiwan. His address was titled, Science Education Buffeted by the Gales of Fundamentalism and Relativism. Other plenary speakers included: Nancy Brickhouse (USA), Glen Aikenhead (Canada), John Loughran (Australia), and Masakata Ogawa (Japan). See the video for an insider's look at the international conference. Chemistry faculty Herb Fynewever, Ekk Sinn, and Don Schreiber received a Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education grant. MISE was featured in the Kalamazoo Gazette on Jan. 27. Congratulations to all!! Article by Charles Henderson MISE is proud to welcome two international visitors to the institute. Dr. Wuhe Chen arrived on Dec. 17, 2007 from South China University of Technology, People’s Republic of China while Dr. Osman Titrek joined us in September from Sakarya University, Turkey. Both Dr. Chen and Dr. Titrek were introduced to the institute and WMU by colleagues who were previous visitors of MISE.
Visiting from another country can be overwhelming, yet both have found their experience at WMU very satisfying so far. Dr. Titrek states, “I want[ed] to come here to learn a different academic life, attitude, culture, and moreover to develop my English skills, also!” We welcome you both and look forward to your visit. The Mallinson Institute for Science Education has been ranked the third best doctoral program in the country for Science Education according to the Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index featured in The Chronicle for Higher Education 2007-08 Almanac. The Index reviewed 375 universities and ranked 172 different disciplines based on faculty activities, such as faculty book and journal publications, citations, and federal grant funding, among others. Congratulations to our faculty members for all their hard work that has led to this outstanding accomplishment. Dr. Dave Rudge has been chosen as President-elect of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group. He will serve on the Executive Council for a total of 6 years: two as president-elect, followed by two as president, and two as past president. Dr. Bill Cobern recently traveled to Malawi, Africa, to visit Chancellor's College, University of Malawi and the University of Mzuzu in December to present a paper"A New Perspective for Doctoral Studies in the Sciences" to faculty and students at both universities. Charles Henderson has recently published three papers regarding his research:
Well done, Charles! Congratulations to Drs. Herb Fynewever (PI), Charles Henderson, Heather Petcovic, and Marcia Fetters on their latest R&D grant titled, "Alignment of Secondary Science Teacher Practice and Materials in the Battle Creek Region", funded by the Michigan Department of Education Title II program for Improving Teacher Quality ($215,287 / 21 months). This program will focus on science teacher professional development for Battle Creek regional schools (4 public schools + 2 private schools). An interdisciplinary team of WMU faculty will research the use of lesson-study to promote best practices for test writing, homework construction, formative assessments, and supporting students in developing metacognitive skills. The project will also work to re-align Battle Creek regional curriculum with Michigan's new High School Content Expectations. |
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Dr. Bill Cobern, professor of biological sciences and director of MISE, was honored as a 
We are pleased to recognize the latest papers from our faculty,
students and alumni. 
Dr. David Rudge gave one of three keynote addresses at the 24th Regional Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science, University of Colorado, Bolder CO, on Oct. 10. 
has been translated into Greek and republished in Koulaidis, V., Apostolou, A. & Kampourakis, K. (2008). The Nature of Sciences: Didactical Approaches. Child Services Editions, Athen.
Dr. Chen is an associate professor of physics at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China. He has four papers published by the Optical Society of America and focuses research on spatial optical solitons. Dr. Chen hopes to learn the pedagogy of American physics courses and would like to eventually be able to teach a physics course in English. 
Dr. Titrek is a professor in the Department of Educational Sciences at Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey. Through collaboration with MISE, Dr. Titrek is working on a project that compares the differences, if any, of Turkish versus American students’ learning of science. He is also researching and preparing articles under Dr. Cobern’s direction.