Projects

1. Science Educator Project

In this project, you will contact a (science) educator at an institution other than Georgia State University. Your goal is to find out about and report on your science educators' career. The activity is designed to give you some insight into the kinds of things that science educators do, especially in the area of communication, research, and publications. But at the same time, it is hoped that this will humanize this aspect of your doctoral work.

I have made contact with several science educators, some of whom are from other countries. Your task is, in a limited number of Email communications, to "interview" or establish an online relationship with your science educator.

Procedure:

1. You will find out who your science educator is in class. When you do, you should write an E-mail letter introducing yourself and telling something about who you are, what you do, and what your aspirations are. Be sure to keep your E-mails brief.

2. Develop a very short list of questions and use them as the core for E-mail messages. You should maintain a focus in your communication knowing that you are interested in your science educators' career.

3. Prepare a report on your science educator, and be prepared to share your findings in class on the assigned Science Educator day. Reports should be interesting, and should include either low or high tech visuals.

4. Turn in a written written hard copy report (one for each member of the class), and post your report on your website.

5. You should complete the project by writing a "thank you letter" to your educator. This is the gift that makes the project very worthwhile! You might try postal mail for this!

2. My Theorist Project

In this project you are going to research the work of a person who is considered by our peers as a theorist who has "influenced" (science) education. The goal here is for you to become quite familiar with "your theorist," by describing the theorist's proposals, propositions, and ideas, and to draw implications and links to your own work as an educator. Prepare a paper that will be shared with others in class. Post it on your website as well.

Constructivist--Socio-Cultural Theorists	Deweyan Theorists	Feminist Theorists	Humanistic Psychology Theorists	Science, Cognitive Science & Scied Theoristss
Jean Piaget (2)	John Dewey	Ruth Hubbard	Carl Rogers	Thomas Kuhn, (2)
Ernst Von Glassersfeld; Link to a course on constructivism	Dewey and Vygotsky	Sue Rosser	Abraham Maslow	Marcia Linn
Lev Vygotsky	Eleanor Duckworth			Eleanor Duckworth
Marcia Linn				Paul DeHart Hurd
Rosalind Driver				Anton Lawson
Carl Rogers				Robert Karplus
Elizabeth Cohen				Mary Bud Rowe
				Benjamin Silliman
				Marjorie Gardner
				Jacob Bronowski (Study Guide, Knowledge or Certainty)

3. Peer Day Seminar Project

As a doctoral student I would like you to be responsible for co-creating a seminar on a topic in science education drawn from the content of the seminar. Your team will be allotted 1.5 hours to enact the seminar. A paper must be distributed to each member of the class on the day of the seminar. Also, prior to the seminar, class members should be directed to a web page that will give us some background and relevant links on the topic.

Here are some potential topics:

• Implications from the history of science education: Lessons learned from the SciEd history and how education can progress from this knowledge.
• World view theory, and urban education: How can Cobern's theory of "world view" be helpful to improving urban education (suburban and rural for that matter!)
• Constructivist theory: What do constructivist theorists claim about knowledge and science education, and what do the critics say?s
• Across Cultures: What can we learn by looking into other cultures and opening ourselves to their ideas and views of learning and teaching?
• Feminist Perspectives on Science Learning: What is the feminist perspective? How does the feminist perspective impact the way one looks at curriculum and learning issues?
• Sociolcultural Perspectives: How might a sociocultural approach to science teaching make itself felt in classroom practice? What work has been done that might support your suppositions?
• The Deweyan Perspective: What were Dewey's central and driving concepts (such as "experience") and how might the science education community gear itself to embrace these concepts?