[Earnest-dist] earnest 4/20/09

[Ronald Grant]

earnest
(events and research news in engineering and science today)
 
News and notes
 
Dooley Joins ORAU Board of Directors 
Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) announced the addition of Dr.
R. Larry Dooley to its Board of Directors during its 64th annual meeting
of the ORAU Council of Sponsoring Institutions. The board provides
policy and fudiciary oversight of ORAU operations for its membership. 

Dooley currently serves as the associate dean for research and graduate
studies, as well as professor of bioengineering here at Clemson
University. He also represents the school on the ORAU Council of
Sponsoring Institutions.  
 
"I am extremely pleased to be able to serve ORAU and Clemson University
in this leadership position," said Dooley. "ORAU is a national model for
university-national lab collaborative partnerships which, at this
critical time, are vitally important for strengthening U.S. science and
engineering education programs. I welcome the opportunity to work with
my colleagues on the Board."  
 
Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) is a university consortium
leveraging the scientific strength of 100 major research institutions to
advance science and education by partnering with national laboratories,
government agencies, and private industry. ORAU manages the Oak Ridge
Institute for Science and Education for the U.S. Department of Energy.
 
CoES students receive university awards
Several College of Engineering and Science graduate students have been
recognized by Clemson. Ethan Smith, mathematical sciences, and Reza
Saeidpourazar, mechanical engineering, received Outstanding Graduate
Researcher Awards of $1,500.  Janine Janoski, mathematical sciences, was
honored with an Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award.  Medallions will be
presented to all of them at the August graduation.  
 
 
Seminars and Presentations
 
 
Engineering and Science Education
E&SE is sponsoring a seminar this week featuring Dr. Noah Finkelstein,
who is an associate professor of physics at the University of Colorado.
He will be discussing Reconsidering Tools in STEM Education: The Use of
Analogy and Representation. The seminar will take place Friday, April
24, 2009, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. in 422 Rhodes. An abstract and bio follow.
 
Finkelstein Abstract: We find that both the representational format of
problems (math, verbal, pictorial, etc.) and the use of analogy play
critical roles in student approaches to and abilities in solving physics
problems. In two lines of related research, we examine student use of
analogy and representation. We demonstrate that student reasoning and
performance can be dependent, often strongly so, on the representational
format of the questions asked. Simultaneously, representations appear to
serve particularly important roles in students' abilities to
productively use analogies to solve physics problems. We present a model
of how students use analogies in their reasoning processes in solving
physics problems, Analogical Scaffolding, and demonstrate its
descriptive and predictive utility. Our understanding of how novices and
experts use representations and analogies is then explored to
demonstrate some classic results, as well as some unexpected results
(such as the equal frequency with which experts and novices use
representations). What these representations mean, how abstract they
are, and how salient they are to students, can partially be explained by
the Analogical Scaffolding model.
 
Bio: Noah Finkelstein is an Associate Professor of Physics at the
University of Colorado, where he works in physics education, and
particularly studies the role of context in student learning. He
received his Bachelor's degree in mathematics from Yale University
(1990), and received a PhD for his work in Applied Physics from
Princeton University (1998). Before joining the faculty at the
University of Colorado (CU), Noah received an NSF sponsored postdoctoral
fellowship in mathematics, science engineering and technology education
(NSF- PFSMETE) where he studied student learning in physics. At CU, he
is one of the founders and directors of the Physics Education Research
group at Colorado. He serves as PI or Co-PI a wide variety of nationally
funded grants to create and study conditions that support students'
interest and ability in physics, and is widely published in journals
including Science, Physical Review, and American Journal of Physics.
These research projects range from the specific (how do students use
representations or analogies in learning physics?), to the course-scale
(the role of computer simulations in learning, or implementation of
Tutorials), to the departmental / institutional scale (what models of
educational reform are sustainable and scalable?). This research is part
of an agenda to promote change in education, simultaneously by engaging
more people in science education and by infusing more education in the
sciences. Finkelstein serves on five national boards in physics
education, including: the Physics Education Research Leadership
Organizing Council, and the Committee on Education of the American
Physical Society. In 2007 he won the campus-wide teaching award, the
Boulder Faculty Assembly's Excellence in Teaching Award. More on Noah
and his work is available at http://spot.colorado.edu/~finkelsn; and on
the Physics Education Research group at Colorado:
http://per.colorado.edu/. 
 
This seminar is part of a series sponsored by the Clemson University
Department of Engineering and Science, the Virginia Tech Department of
Engineering Education, and the SouthEast Alliance for Graduate Education
and the Professoriate (SEAGEP).
 
 
 
Published by the Office of College Relations  - College of Engineering
and Science
Editor: Ron Grant       Phone: 656-5711 Fax 656-0384
100-C Riggs Hall, Box 340901        email: earnest at ces.clemson.edu
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