Tag Archives: RAES

Graduation 2016 Jaime Sabel and Molly Brandt

Congrats again to Jaime Sabel and Molly Brandt for successfully completing their doctoral and masters studies.  Jaime graduates with her Ph.D. from the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education in the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences.  She begins her position as an Assistant Professor of Biology Education at the University of Memphis in August.  Molly graduates with a Master of Applied Science degree from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.   What a wonderful accomplishment.  Good luck to both of you!img_2737

Forbes Group presentations @ NARST, 2016

The Forbes team attended the 2016 annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), held April 14-17 in Baltimore, MD.  We had the opportunity to present a variety of empirical work from the RAES, MoHSES, NCAL, and WELL projects.  We look forward to the 2017 meeting in San Antonio!NARST 2016 Group 2

Brandt, M., Forbes, C., & Keshwani, J. (2016). Operationalizing science in applied contexts: Developing measures for elementary students’ understanding of STEM dimensions of food systems. Paper presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD

Sabel, J., Vo, T., Alred, A., Dauer, J., & Forbes, C. (2016). Undergraduate students’ scientifically-informed decision-making about water-based socioscientific issues. Poster presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD.

Sabel, J., Forbes, C., & Zangori, L. (2016). Use of structured formative assessment assignments to engage preservice teachers with life science concepts. Paper presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD.

Vo, T., Forbes, C. T. (2016). Learning to support students’ model-based learning about the water cycle: A three-year longitudinal case study of two 3rd-grade teachers. Paper presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD.

Zangori, L. & Forbes, C. T. (2016). Development of an empirically-based learning performances framework for 3rd-grade students’ model-based explanations about plant processes. Poster presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD.

Zangori, L., Vo, T., Forbes, C.T., Schwarz, C.V. (2016).  Exploring links between 3rd-grade students’ model-based explanations and teachers’ model-based science instruction about groundwater. Paper presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD.

Jaime Sabel, Ph.D.

Jaime's defense 1Congratulations to Dr. Jaime Sabel for successfully defending her dissertation study, entitled, “USE OF SCAFFOLDS TO SUPPORT UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING BIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS”. Jaime has worked on the RAES project for the past 4 years, first at the University of Iowa and later at UNL. It has been a pleasure to work with Jaime as both project PI and her advisor. In August, Jaime will begin a new position as an Assistant Professor of Biology Education in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Memphis.

Fall 2014 School of Natural Resources Seminar Series

On Wednesday, September 3rd, I presented some of our work as part of the Fall 2014 SNR Seminar Series.  In the talk, entitled, “Discipline-based Education Research on Teaching and Learning in Elementary Science Learning Environments”, I discussed the MoHSES, RAES, and UnICORN projects, all focused on elementary (K-6) science, from a disciplinary perspective.  The seminar was a fantastic opportunity to share more about our work with SNR colleagues and I appreciate the interest of all who attended.

Dave Pierson successfully defends masters thesis

IMG_1075Congratulations to Dave Pierson for successfully defending his masters thesis entitled Elementary teachers’ assessment actions and elementary science education: Formative assessment enactment in elementary science.  Dave used RAES-Iowa project data to conduct a comparative case study investigating elementary teachers’ reasoning about students’ ideas and classroom formative assessment practices.  His committee members were myself, Soonhye Park, Associate Professor of Science Education in the University of Iowa College of Education, and Gabrielle Ludwig, Professor in the UI Department of Occupational and Environmental Health.  Dave, great work on this substantial accomplishment!

Visit to the Lawrence Hall of Science

IMG_0559This month, I was invited to the Lawrence Hall of Science where I gave an invited talk to the FOSS team.  While attending AERA in San Francisco, graduate students Mandy Biggers, Laura Zangori, and I made the trip to Berkeley to share research and programming from RAES-Iowa project and learn more about the work being conducted by the FOSS group.  Thanks to Kathy Long for inviting us and making it such an enjoyable visit.

RAES-Iowa Year 1 Summer Institute

In the summer of 2012, 36 3rd-6th grade teachers from 4 area districts and 14 buildings joined RAES project team members Cory Forbes, Christopher Soldat, Jeanne Bancroft, Kathy Long, Charlie Stanier, Mandy Biggers, Jaime Sabel, and Laura Zangori for 7 days of collaborative work to begin learning to use Reflective Assessment, a formative assessment strategy developed by the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) for use with FOSS science modules. The summer institute focused on the Earth science content strand, within which teachers engaged with relevant content as learners, experimented with engaging in ‘high-leverage’ formative assessment practices, and planned to begin implementing Reflective Assessment in their enactment of their Earth science modules in the 2012-2013 academic year. We want to again thank all project partners, including the University of Iowa (UI) Colleges of Education and Engineering, Grant Wood Area Education Agency (GWAEA) and Van Allen Science Teaching Center (VAST Center), LHS at the University of California-Berkeley, the UI Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research (CGRER), Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD), Washington Community Schools (WCSD), Clear Creek Amana Community School District (CCACSD), Highland Community School District (HCSD), and St. James School. A special thanks go out to Mark Brockmeyer and the Iowa City Schools for allowing us to hold the Summer Institute at the ICCSD Educational Services Building and to Kim Lange for joining us in July (while visiting from Germany) and providing helpful feedback.

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RAES-Iowa project funded

RAESlogoThe Reflective Assessment for Elementary Science in Iowa (RAES-Iowa) project has been funded. More information about the project can be found here. I am thrilled to be working with an amazing group of project partners from the University of Iowa and CGRER, GWAEA and the VAST Center, FOSS at the Lawrence Hall of Science, and elementary teachers from the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD), Washington Community Schools (WCSD), Clear Creek Amana Community School District (CCACSD), Highland Community School District (HCSD), and St. James School on this project. The first workshops for teachers begin June 13 in Iowa City!