Co-author/faculty member Susan Gunderson

LAUNCHING THE FUTURE IN EDUCATION VOL. 5 , FALL 2014

BECOMING A SPACEWALKER: Astronaut’s Story Provides Rich Learning OpportunityAs astronaut Jerry Ross neared retirement from NASA, he approached Purdue’s College of Education to ask if he could get involved to help engage and inspire elementary students in the area of math and science education.

A Purdue alumnus and Indiana native, Jerry Ross was part of the NASA space shuttle program from beginning to end. He travelled into space seven times, walked in space nine times and helped with the construction of the International Space Station.

Of course our answer was an enthusiastic “Yes!” The question that remained was “How?”

It was literacy education faculty member Susan Gunderson (MSED’96, EDS’02) who suggested adapting Ross’ newly-published autobio-graphy Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA’s Record-Setting Frequent Flyer into a non-fiction picture book. Jerry agreed to the project and Purdue University Press agreed to publish a children’s book.

In September, Purdue University Press published Becoming a Spacewalker: My Journey to the Stars. The publisher describes the book as “a chronicle of Jerry Ross’ lifelong journey from 1950’s rural northern Indiana to outer space as a record setting space-walking shuttle astronaut…(which) provides a meaningful and engaging context for the intro-duction and exploration of science/math concepts in the classroom.”

Accompanying the book are educational extensions in language arts and science that provide differenti-ated, robust, standards-based learning experiences which include strategies for building vocabulary, writing to explore meaning, linking problems with solutions, and hands-on scientific inquiry. The resources are available at no charge from the Jerry Ross website: http://www.jerrylross.com/k-12/.

Co-author Susan Gunderson said, “From the beginning, Jerry has said that it didn’t make sense to write a book or prepare lesson plans that teachers wouldn’t use. He understands the pressures that teachers face in today’s classrooms. In talking with teachers, I learned that they want quality, well-focused materials that allow them to engage students across subjects. They want to be able to have access

to informational books that present a true story and provide facts. This enables them to teach science within a meaningful context.”

The educational resources, written by Gunderson and College of Education alumna Andi Zoller (BA’78), provide options for teachers to participate at a level that is suitable for their students and resources. Teachers can select from a menu of activities ranging from those that require very few resources and do not assume prior knowledge, to those which require technology and can challenge science-savvy teachers and students.

The resources are organized as a ten-day drop-in unit planned for 30-45 minutes each day. All of the activities are linked to Indiana state standards, Common Core Standards and Next Generation Science Standards.

College of Education Dean, Maryann Santos de Barona, sees the project as an example of how faculty members are working toward a goal to make STEM education available to ALL students. “We believe that a rich STEM education must be built into the everyday fabric of a classroom at every grade level. Science and mathematics must be situated within the real-world contexts of literacy, social studies, critical thinking and problem solving in an active learning environment. Becoming a Spacewalker provides a way to create just that type of learning experi-ence. We cannot thank Jerry Ross enough for choosing to partner with us in this endeavor.”

The book publication is part of the College of Education’s 25th anniversary celebration and received significant financial support from the college’s Dean’s Advisory Council and alumni. Jerry Ross will be a featured guest of the college during Homecoming festivities on September 27 and he will visit Amelia Earhart Elementary School on October 2 to talk with students about the book and his experiences. He will be a keynote speaker at the annual convention of the National Rural Education Association in San Antonio in mid-October.

EDUCATION.PURDUE.EDU

“We believe that a rich STEM education must be built into the

everyday fabric of a classroom at every grade level.”

—Dean Maryann Santos de Barona

Becoming a Spacewalker: My Journey to the Stars, by Astronaut Jerry L. Ross with Susan G. Gunderson.

Told in friendly first-person narration, designed for ages 7–12, it tells the story of how Ross followed his dream from rural 1950s northern Indiana to Purdue University, and then to outer space.

The thirty-two-page book is illustrated with personal photos and memorabilia. It is formatted into twenty-three narratives illustrating events and experiences in Ross’s life. Pages attractively interweave photos and text while prompts encourage young readers to engage in the story.

Content area concepts are integrated throughout the story. They include science, technology, engineering, math, visual literacy, financial literacy, geography, flight, and the space race.

Online guides for teachers using the book in a classroom setting (third to fourth grade recommended) are linked throughout.

Source: Purdue University Press

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The past 25 years have been a remarkable time for education. We have been in the midst of ac-celerating change—a true renaissance of inno-vation and discovery. What’s more, the national focus on education has never been stronger.

This year we celebrate our 25th anniversary. Although Purdue has been training teachers since 1908, until 1989 education functioned as a department within another college. In that year, the Board of Trustees recognized the strong contributions of the education faculty and alumni by declaring a new academic unit on campus: The School of Education. In 2005, we became the College of Education.

During this time we have seen the start of the 21st Century and the transition from a manu-facturing economy to an information economy. The old dichotomy of physical labor and intel-lectual labor is no longer relevant. The most agile organizations eschew top-down decision making in favor of finding good ideas from every level of the workforce.

Today, a well-educated citizenry is universally understood to be the basis of our national strength and our future.

As researchers and teacher educators the Purdue College of Education has been at the forefront of change. Our experts have helped improve the rigor of teacher education and have met higher standards for accreditation

with flying colors. We have documented many breakthroughs: • Developing new methods to help children

learn to read,• Creating and testing new curricula for

integrated STEM classrooms, • Experimenting with new technologies for

the delivery of education.• Discovering how students’ cognitive, social,

and psychological needs affect learning,• Finding new ways to teach science and

mathematics to improve learning and help students understand how these subjects address problems in society,

• Integrating literacy and math into other subjects to show the interconnection between disciplines,

• Helping to improve teaching and learning for ELL students,

• Discovering new ways to help autistic children learn and communicate,

• Finding and publishing the latest in problem-based learning, and

• Advancing the scientific understanding of motivation in education.

This issue of Launch highlights some of the important work we are doing today to advance the practice and understanding of education. We are developing inspirational STEM resources (p. 1), and helping schools earn STEM-designations in Indiana (p. 3). We are helping in-service teachers and

administrators by exam-ining the effectiveness of teacher evaluation measures (p. 4), and innovating with online course design to help curb the shortage of special education teachers (p. 5). We are planting seeds for future educa-tional research (p. 5). We are using engineer-ing design in SLED lessons to help elementary students make their own discoveries (p. 6). We are perpetually testing and showcasing new educational approaches in our GERI camp (p. 7). We are developing lesson plans to help teachers explain climate change (p. 8).

This year, we will be reaching out to struggling public school systems to better understand their challenges (p. 9). And, we are helping to ensure young people will continue to be attracted to our profession (p. 12).

We are discovering what works in education because we want what is best for all children, to advance the cause of universal education, and to strengthen our country’s global competitiveness.

Hail Purdue!

Maryann Santos de BaronaDean of the College of Education

Fr o m t h e D e a n

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Purdue College of Education and 106 years of teacher education

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Indiana STEM Summit Launches NEW STEM School Certification, COE to Help Schools Implement STEMThe Indiana STEM School Summit held this past spring at the Purdue Discovery Learning Research Center attracted a full house of more than 100 teachers and administrators from 20 school corporations all interested in learning how to transform their schools into STEM schools. The focus of the event was two-fold, to announce the new Indiana STEM School Certification Framework, a seven-step process that will be led by the state’s Department of Education, and to give participants a background in the challenges and successes experienced by best-in-class examples of STEM schools and programs.

“We are very excited to help launch this important initiative in the State of Indiana,” said Dean Maryann Santos de Barona. “STEM education is about helping students learn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics by using it in real projects. Our research (and that of many others) has found that students get excited and learn more about these subjects when they can actually use them to solve real-world problems in active projects.”

Sponsored by the Purdue University College of Education (COE), the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE), and Purdue’s Center for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of

STEM (CATALYST), State Superintendent of Schools Glenda Ritz began the conference by discussing the need for STEM education in Indiana. Along with Ritz, Purdue College of Education Dean Maryann Santos de Barona and Associate Dean Carla C. Johnson explained more about integrated STEM and how it can help Indiana students become more proficient in science, math, and literacy.

Indiana Department of Education STEM coordinator Jeremy Eltz and mathematics coordinator Bill Reed explained the IDOE’s two-fold goals for STEM Certification—to provide resources and support to schools in order to enhance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum with a greater emphasis on discovery and relevant workforce skills; and to outline methodologies necessary to ensure its successful implementation. They also briefly explained the state’s STEM Rubric for Implementation of STEM programs, including the four levels that a school might choose to take in STEM implementation—Supplemental Implementation, Minimal Implementation, Partial Implementation, and Full Implementation.

Administrators and teachers from Lafayette’s Sunnyside Intermediate School and other

national STEM schools made presentations about successful school transformations they have implemented on their own and with the help of Purdue College of Education faculty. The keynote address was given by David Burns, the Director of Battelle’s STEM Innovation Networks that includes the Ohio STEM Learning Network, the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network and STEMx, a collabora-tion of 11 state networks. He emphasized that STEM schools provide children with interactive experiences that make learning engaging, real-world based, and relevant.

How to Become a STEM School The Purdue College of Education has three STEM School Planning Retreats slated for fall 2014 and twelve school corporations have registered to be a part of this work. These one-day retreats will provide strategic planning support for teams of administrators and teacher leaders to determine what the necessary next steps will be on their path to implementing a STEM focus. The Indiana Department of Education will implement a pilot of the STEM School Certification process this fall.

The Steven C. Beering Hall of Liberal Arts and Education

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Measuring the Measures of Effective TeachingNo one is likely to disagree with the idea that children should only be taught by effective teachers. This sentiment is behind a recent change in who is to be held accountable for student achievement. The educational reform of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) relied on enticements of rewards and threats of sanctions to entire schools, depending on students’ standardized test scores. More recently, as part of granting NCLB waivers, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has zeroed in on teachers, holding them personally accountable for their students. The idea is to identify those who are highly effective, giving them promotions and pay raises to help retain them, and at the other end of the scale to provide extra training or even dismissal for those who are deemed ineffective. In principle that sounds like a reasonable plan (the details, of course, are open for debate), but how accurate are the measures used to determine whether or not a teacher is effective?

That’s a question that Purdue College of Education researchers Helen Patrick, PhD and Youli Mantzicopoulos, PhD with Washington State University researcher and Purdue alumnus Brian French (PhD ’03 and MS ’99), are beginning to investigate. They were recently awarded a $1.6 M grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), US Department of Education, to conduct a 4-year study to evaluate the accuracy of five different observational measures in current use for determining teachers’ effectiveness.

“We are evaluating the accuracy and fairness of these measures, when they are used in kindergarten classrooms,” Patrick said. “Many of the measures were developed for research purposes, where the scores were aggregated over many teachers to identify links between instructional practices and student outcomes. But now the measures are being used to assess the effectiveness of individual teachers, with high-stakes consequences, and there has been very little empirical study of how well the measures work in that role,” she explained.

The researchers will be working with teachers who agree to record their language arts and math lessons throughout the year. The plan is to videotape lessons in 145 Indiana kindergarten classrooms of

various demographics over three years. The research team will use each measure to review the recorded lessons. The goal is not to assess the teachers, but rather to evaluate how well the measures themselves perform. The use of video allows lessons to be reviewed multiple times and by different researchers.

Evaluating instruction based only on students’ test scores, as hap-pened under NCLB, is now acknowledged as being unfair for many reasons. Teachers today are typically rated based on a combination of student test scores, “value-added” scores (improvement in test scores over 1 year), and in-class observations. The use of value-added scores to rate teachers has already come under widespread criticism. With students undergoing state tests only at certain grade levels and in certain subjects, the data needed to compute equitable value-added scores are not available for many classes. Moreover, even value-added scores may be influenced by numerous factors outside the teacher’s control, such as class size, community support,

and socioeconomic factors. Scores also provide little or no insights to guide a teacher’s profes-sional development or remediation.

Compounding the issue is the lack of an agreed upon formula for calculating value-added scores. In fact, there are different ways to

calculate, each of which may result in different teachers being classified as ineffective, and therefore liable for dismissal. Finally, the emphasis on high-stakes tests can result in classes devoted to mind-numbing drills as a means of boosting scores in the short run, but at the expense of enthusiasm and motivation for learning, and leading to poorer achievement in the long run.

Less controversial are observational measures, which the US Department of Education endorses in combination with measures of student growth. “In general people seem comfortable with evaluating teachers by observing their instruction,” Mantzicopoulos said. “After all, there is a long tradition of principals observing teachers. Yet there are many critical questions about the use of observational measures to assess individual teachers’ performance that must be answered.”

For example, some measures are designed for specific subjects, such as math or reading and writing, while others are content neutral, intended to assess the teaching of any subject. Some were designed for early elementary classrooms, while others are said to be appropriate for any grade level. The research will evaluate how well each measure performs when used in kindergarten classrooms, which instrument is best for measuring instruction in math, and which is best for instruction in reading and writing. The researchers will also explore whether the subject-specific instruments perform significantly better than the content-neutral ones; whether the accuracy and fairness of the measures vary depending on the demographics of the students in the class; and, how many lessons must be sampled before administrators can be confident about how well a score represents a teacher’s instructional practices. These and many other key questions will be subjected to detailed statistical analyses of the data to tease out answers. “We want to be certain that we have strong evidence on the performance of measures that are used to evaluate and guide instructional practices,” Mantzicopoulos said.

Purdue researchers Youli Mantzicopoulos and Helen Patrick embark on a 4-year study to identify and interpret the accuracy of teacher review measures.

“(Test) scores ... provide little or no insights to guide a teacher’s

professional development or remediation.”

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Measuring the Measures of Effective Teaching

The College of Education launched its second online master’s degree program this fall. “Our online master’s program in Special Education provides students an opportunity to earn a Purdue degree without leaving home. This new online master’s will offer students a high quality program, guided by Purdue’s rigorous standards. Our first class has 37 students from eight states. These students include current classroom teachers who desire to improve their skills, teachers on emergency permits who want full licensure, and career changers who aspire to earn an initial teaching license in special education. “Based on applications received and projections, we anticipate this program to grow by 20 to 25 students per semester,” explained Teresa Taber Doughty, PhD, professor of special education and associate dean for learning.

Special education teachers are in high-demand with many schools unable to fill openings. Online graduate students have the same aca-demic profile, test scores, and life experiences as the residential graduate students. Now the college can meet the needs of school districts, teachers, and students and develop special educators remotely. Students no longer need to leave their current jobs or uproot their families. Many also qualify for the federal TEACH grants.

A unique aspect of this new program is that it is the first to collaborate directly with a Purdue regional campus, Purdue Northwest at Calumet. This partnership will use remote video technology to provide multiple supervised field components throughout the students’ program. Students are able to complete fieldwork in schools within their own communities as a Purdue University instructor mentors them via technology. “You cannot learn to be a great teacher, without working directly with children,” said Taber Doughty.

Kharon Grimmet, the program’s coordinator, describes the courses as “more interactive and engaging than one may think. Currently, we have 37 students enrolled in our first course—26 online students and 11 traditional on-campus students. Our assign-ments use videos and discussion boards that engage students and access their experiences and prior knowledge. An online education is not like the typical classroom experience. Rather than lecturing, students engage in constant conversation about the material. If anything, it can be more personal than a classroom.”

When scholars cannot find answers in professional literature, the next step is to design a research project to discover it themselves. However, the distance between a good question and a full-scale research project can sometimes be too high a hurdle for busy teaching faculty.

“I started the Launch the Future Seed Grants,” says Dean Maryann Santos de Barona, “to help germinate research ideas into externally fundable projects.” These grants provide just enough resources, a small budget and release time from classes, to help faculty pursue a promising research or engagement concept.

The first three seed grants have been awarded to teams: • Helen Patrick, PhD and Youli

Mantzicopoulos, PhD for Measuring Teachers’ Subject-Specific Motivational Practices in Early Elementary Science Instructional Contexts;

• Eric Deemer, PhD (PI) and Brenda Capobianco PhD (Co-PI) for Preparing the Next Generation of STEM Innovators: Identifying and Contextualizing the Relationship between Stereotype Threat and Identity Development Among Pre-Adolescents; and,

• Carol Hopkins, PhD and Trish Morita-Mullaney, PhD for Leveraging the Lectura: Social Justice for English Language Learners in Rural Schools.

Patrick’s and Mantzicopoulos’ proposal addresses teacher evaluation—an area of national prominence. (See also p. 4) Specifically, they received the seed grant to look at teachers’ effectiveness at creating learning environments that motivate children.

Deemer and Capobianco are conducting a pre- and post-test study of 3rd through 6th grade students who are involved in Capobianco’s SLED program (see page 6). The purpose of this research is to identify, describe, and analyze elementary school children’s conceptions of engineers; to identify and describe their awareness of gender-related engineering stereotypes; to measure how this awareness correlates with gender identity development; and to explore how these measures change as a result of participating in engineering design-based science activities. Answers to survey questions such as, “Are girls or boys better at engineering?” will help the researchers identify gender stereotypes, and whether these stereotypes change after completing SLED projects. The

team is interested in discovering whether the gender gap in science and engineering careers is due to stereotype threat and whether early engagement in science and engineering activities can help mitigate the effect. According to both researchers, “Our hypothesis is that occupational perceptions and related stereotypes, career aspirations, and identity development are interrelated. Hence, they play a crucial role in girls’ (and boys’) STEM interests and choices at critical points in their educational and career choices.”

The Leveraging the Lectura/Leveraging Literacy project of Hopkins and Morita-Mullaney intends to work with rural schools within the Wabash Valley Education Center (WVEC) to address the presence of English Language Learners (ELL) in their schools and to fulfill the demand for teacher training related to effec-tively instructing these students. Indiana is one of three states in the US having no require-ment for ELL preparation in teacher education or school leadership prior to licensure. Language instruction for ELL students is often left to general education and reading teachers. This ELL instructional model contends that “just good teaching” or literacy instruction is sufficient in meeting their language needs. In an interdisciplinary partnership with the WVEC, Purdue’s Center for Literacy Education and Research (CLEAR) and the ELL licensure program, this project has three long-term goals:1. Create a sustained partnership that fosters

expert exchange, informing the literacy practices of ELL students with Wabash Valley educators;

2. Research literacy practices among Wabash Valley educators to identify their impact on ELL student learning;

3. Provide ELL professional development informed by Wabash Valley educators’ practices in collaboration with WVEC and CLEAR.

The team hopes to maximize limited state resources and apply for the US Department of Education’s National Professional Development grants to provide resources to scale up professional development opportunities for rural educators to improve their expertise in meeting the needs of ELL students.

Seed Grants Help Turn Research Questions into Funded Projects

Purdue researchers Youli Mantzicopoulos and Helen Patrick embark on a 4-year study to identify and interpret the accuracy of teacher review measures.

New Online Master’s Program in Special Education

Proves Popular

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For the past four summers Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) partner school districts have been sending their teachers to the SLED Summer Institute to learn how to implement the lessons into their curriculum and to help contribute new ideas to the SLED library of lesson plans (found at https://sledhub.org). This summer approximately 40 teachers from 5 school districts participated.

SLED is a five-year, $6.7 million initiative funded by the National Science Foundation to develop, test, and implement science lessons anchored by engineering design problems. SLED lessons are mapped to the Indiana science academic standards and include challenging projects such as building a model roller coaster, creating a humane wolf trap, and developing Rube Goldberg machines, among others.

“Engineering design problems give children a way to think about science principles and concepts, not as information to memorize, but as tools to help solve real world problems and understand how things work. Through SLED-based design tasks, students learn to work together in groups, create and test their own solutions, and become active

participants in their own learning,” said Brenda Capobianco the co-principal investi-gator on the grant, originator, and director of the project.

“Now that we have had four years to test SLED, we are rolling it out to schools across the state of Indiana for its fifth year. Scaling up will present new challenges as well as exciting opportunities,” said Capobianco.

SLED participants and observers have had nothing but praise for the program. The

principal of Klondike Elementary in West Lafayette, Scott Peters, who spent an after-noon observing the SLED Summer Institute said, “What I really like about SLED is that students become actively engaged in the learning process. It is also cross-curricular … as students learn math and science they also learn to write about their project in their notebooks.”

In the Summer Institute, partnering teachers learn the engineering design process while engaging in authentic design-based prob-lems as both lesson testers and students. They are given the same materials their stu-dents will use (paper, tape, notebooks, string,

soup cans and toy trucks) and work in small teams to solve the problems. They discover that there is no single correct answer, but as many different ways to solve the problem as groups in the room. There are also learning opportunities in discussing why some solu-tions are more successful than others.

The STEM faculty design team leaders model the teacher’s role by providing background information and by helping participants make observations about fundamental laws of motion, material science, and measurements.

One Summer Institute participat-ing teacher, Kara Fletcher, began her involvement with the SLED project as an elementary education major

at Purdue and is now in her second year as a classroom teacher at Wea Ridge Elementary in Lafayette. Fletcher said, “I am amazed at how quickly stu-dents understand the assignment and get started in these lessons, how much they learn, and how much they enjoy it. My third grade students don’t like to sit still, but they love being engaged in the SLED projects. They ask good ques-tions, find interesting resources, and develop solutions that are surprisingly creative and thoughtful. I think this is the best way to learn science.”Jill Parker, also of Wea Ridge Elementary said, “In teaching SLED

lessons, I could see that it had a strong influence on student literacy as well as their science knowledge. They wanted to make their plans and solutions clear to the audience of their peers and speaking in front of a group improved their oral communications skills.”

Over the past four years, Capobianco and her collaborators have closely documented the results of SLED curricula in classrooms. They have found evidence of outcomes that contribute to a deeper understanding of how elementary science teachers teach using design, and how students learn science through design-based activities.

Results have been published and a list of publications and resources are available on the SLED website: https://sledhub.org. This site represents a collection of resources focused on transforming education to improve learning and retention in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and STEM–related disciplines. It also provides a venue to join these different projects to foster and build a community of practice for the discovery and delivery of teaching and learning approaches, materials and research. Visitors to the site will find various resources including online presenta-tions, courses, learning modules, animations, teaching materials, and more. These resources come from SLED contributors and are used by educators from all over the world.

SLED Summer Institute to Expand Statewide in 2015

“My third grade students don’t like to sit still, but they love being

engaged in the SLED projects.” — Kara Fletcher

Inservice teachers work together to solve aSLED engineering design problem.

Kara Fletcher works with her students at Wea Ridge Elementary.

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The Gifted Education Resource Institute (GERI) Summer Residential Program was the first of its kind and continues to be one of the most innovative. This summer’s camp attracted a record 460 campers in fifth through 12th grade from 25 states, five countries, and five Native American communities. The camp is designed to help students explore their talents and interests, develop new ones, and benefit from the positive influences of meeting other gifted young people from around the world.

GERI Director, Marcia Gentry, PhD, explained, “GERI is a hallmark program at Purdue, and we strive to make it the best summer program for gifted, creative, and talented youth. We call our interest-based, hands-on curriculum offered by professors, graduate students, and exemplary secondary teachers, the “GERI way,” as they engage students in cutting-edge content and inquiry-based

pedagogy in disciplines rarely found in their home school schedules. What makes GERI work so well is that we focus on student strengths, interests, and talents; attend to their social and affective needs; emphasize enjoyment and connections; and we do so with a caring and talented teaching and counseling staff each summer.”

Ethan Youngdahl 16, who describes himself as being from “the middle of Nebraska,” said “One of the coolest things last year was discovering how to use CAD programs and 3-D printers. After I got home, I studied on my own and talked my parents into buying me a 3-D printer. Last semester, I taught a class in my high school on CAD and 3-D printing.” Ethan was back for his second camp. He was proud to display his latest creations including a model of a human hand he printed, amazingly, with movable joints.

Students are exposed to new technologies, new ideas, and experiences that they would

never have in their own communities. For many, it can be life changing.

The campers explore the culture, science facilities, challenges, and fun of Purdue University. They take two classes, one in the morning session and one in the afternoon. Each class is designed to be two to three grade levels advanced so that even the best students are challenged, while the innovative curriculum keeps students engaged and feeling confident. Most courses include field trips, hands-on learning activities, labs, independent design work, and experiments that spark curiosity and nurture a love of learning.

Ethan was having lunch with his friends Alex Diebold from Evansville, Wisconsin and Bayley Murray, an American teen living with his parents in France. Alex said that his favorite part of the camp was getting to know the other students. “After dinner we get together to talk about personal things. Our group is divided up between Americans, Native Americans and kids from other coun-tries. We have Greeks, Colombians, Chinese, and Saudi Arabians. It is really interesting to hear their stories. A guy from Saudi Arabia was talking about customs in his family and what young people do to honor older adults. It was so different from my family … I just thought it was really cool to learn,” he said.

When asked about his classes he explained, “Everything is challenging, but the teachers make it fun! In Organic Chemistry today we poured two liquid chemicals together and it instantly made nylon strings in the beaker!”

Bayley came to GERI this summer to study diplomacy. Someday he wants to be in the CIA or diplomatic corps because he loves

history. In a course named “Understanding Diplomacy through Game Theory,” Bayley said, “we spent the last few classes trying to understand and predict what Vladimir Putin would do in the Ukraine. Game theory is

kind of like playing chess: by looking at past moves and analyzing tendencies, you try to predict what somebody will do next.”

According to Camp Coordinator Jason McIntosh, “The social experience at GERI is just as important as the academics. We have one of the only camps that specifically tries to deal with both the social and emotional needs of gifted campers. Every evening after dinner we have social time. We try to take advantage of the global diversity by encouraging students from different backgrounds to interact. We develop conversation starters that help students discuss what they are feeling, and how they deal with issues such as peer pressure, bullying and feeling different. We also focus on fundraising for scholarships so that a camp experience is not limited by a student’s ability to pay. Gifted students come from all communities.” One of the most active scholarship programs is from the Jack Kent Cook Foundation which makes it possible for many Native American students to attend.

Jendaya Yellowfat, age 13, and Kiara Schmeichel,14, from McLaughlin High School on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota were at GERI for their second and third years respectively. Both girls agreed

that the social experience was the best part. Jendaya said, “Coming here really opens up your eyes to the larger world.”

“I think the best thing about this camp is that it challenges you to become comfortable outside of your comfort zone,” said Avery Davis a counselor who has come to GERI for12 years, starting as a young camper, and now working for the camp. Avery who grew up in Gary, Indiana and came to camp on scholar-

ships explained that GERI gave him amazing opportunities. Currently studying music at Valparaiso University, Avery is also pursuing a minor in Chinese and has visited China several times. “I stay in touch with friends from all over the world that I met at GERI.”

GERI Broadens Horizons for Gifted Students

Kiara Schmeichel and Jendaya Yellowfat enjoy how GERI “opens your eyes to the larger world.”

Part of the “GERI way” is working in teams to find creative solutions in all the academic subjects, including math and science.

Kara Fletcher works with her students at Wea Ridge Elementary.

Bayley Murray, Alex Diebold and Ethan Youngdahl enjoy lunch together before returning to afternoon sessions.

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“Climate change is as much a public education problem as it is a technology problem. Only when people understand that their choices have consequences for the environment, will they address the issue,” said Dan Shepardson, PhD, researcher in the College of Education. He has made climate education a personal and profes-sional mission for over a decade.

Shepardson is currently investigating students’ understanding of the greenhouse effect, global warming, climate change, and the Earth’s climate system. This research has informed the development of instructional materials that include Activities for Conceptual-izing Climate and Climate Change (ACCC) and the Dynamics of Climate teacher professional development toolkit.

ACCC provides lessons that engage students in analyzing and interpreting climatic datasets and visualization. The Dynamics of Climate teacher professional development toolkit includes the ACCC materials as well as an assembly of best-available public materials from government agencies such as NASA and NOAA, and nonprofits such as National Geographic and the National Wildlife Foundation.

The toolkit’s books, handouts, multimedia presentations, lesson plans, video links and classroom materials enhance teachers’ understanding of the climate system and how it is changing. It also provides enough resources, lessons, and materials to inform

a unit on climate change, or an entire high school

course on the Earth’s climate system.

Shepardson and his co-PI Dev Niyogi, Indiana State Climatologist and Professor, Departments of Agronomy and Earth and Atmo-spheric Sciences, developed these climate education tools in collaboration with science teachers and informal educators to help teachers build an understanding of the problems and introduce the science of climate change into their classrooms.

Working with the Purdue Climate Change Research Center in Discovery Park, Shepardson also helped develop The Dynamics of Climate conference this past summer.

“Our work has been in two stages. Last year we held a conference for regional thought leaders such as naturalists, professors, museum

educators, and other public education specialists. This year our conference focused on secondary science teachers who work with grades 10 through 12,” Shepardson explained.

The Dynamics of Climate conference brought 41 high school teachers to Purdue from Indiana and the surrounding states of Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. The professional development toolkit was used as the main resource for the conference attendees.

“The conference led the teachers through the toolkit and the Teacher Lesson Plans packet. Although there is a lot of data, there are also a lot of visuals and activities. The materials are designed to inspire inquiry, active learning, and collaboration in both teachers and their students,” Shepardson explained.

It was clear the attendees were inspired by the conference. One posted: “Couldn’t have asked for a better combination of science content, education strategies, and networking. Thank you!”

Teaching Climate Change to Teachers

Dan Shepardson addresses an audience of high school teachers at the Dynamics of Climate Conference.

“The materials are designed to inspire inquiry, active learning,

and collaboration in both teachers and their students.”

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION • EDUCATION.PURDUE.EDU

9

Engagement fellows, Rodriguez and Burdick

College Announces Strategic Partnership and New Engagement FellowsLast August, Dean Maryann Santos de Barona challenged the faculty and staff of the College of Education to match the univer-sity’s Purdue Moves initiative, with Moves of our own. One key initiative was to develop strategic partnerships with an Indiana K-12 school corporation. A committee led by Carla Johnson, EdD, associate dean of engagement and global affairs, was formed to engage in planning the potential strategic partnership. The team developed a set of six core pillars that comprise the vision for COE strategic partnerships:1. To be community based,2. To be responsive and research based, 3. To be reciprocal (in that both the college

and partner school would benefit from the relationship),

4. To serve rural schools, 5. To provide a problem-based approach to

curriculum.6. To be transformative.

Recently, the Community Schools of Frankfort agreed to join with the college as the first strategic partnership. This partner-ship is expected to provide opportunities including focused research in the two signature areas: STEM education and social justice. There will also be opportunities to provide field-based, classroom experiences for teacher-education students.

“We look forward to building a stronger rela-tionship with Frankfort schools and hope it provides as much value for them as it will for us. We are very hopeful that this exchange will develop the college’s understanding and expertise in the challenges school corporations are facing today,” explained Dean Maryann Santos de Barona.

Both the college and Schools of

Frankfort hope to learn a

great deal from each

other. The

engagement fellows will provide professional development opportunities for teachers and support for engaging the community within the school in more mean-ingful ways. In exchange, Purdue researchers and students get unprecedented access to a school corporation that is highly motivated to change and innovate.

The city of Frankfort, about 25 miles east of West Lafayette, has a population of 16,400 residents, and its school corporation provides a microcosm of the challenges that face many schools in Indiana and the nation. The community has lower than average socio-economic indicators and below average test scores in English/Language Arts and Math. It also has a rapidly growing population of Hispanic ELL students.

As part of the first year of the partnership, the college has named two faculty members as engagement fellows, Alberto Rodriguez, PhD, the Mary Endres Professor in Elementary Education, for the fall semester and Jake Burdick, PhD, for the spring semester. This fellowship will provide time to further develop the relationship with Frankfort, as well as research and teaching opportunities.

According to Rodriguez, “I plan to work closely with teachers to discover needs and to provide professional development on cross-cultural science education. It is important to note that the bilingual and Latino/a population of these two schools have grown quickly in recent years. This population is now 46% in Green Meadows School and 45% in Suncrest. Seventy-nine percent of all students are on the free and reduced lunch program in Green Meadows, and 82% in Suncrest. I hope to develop a collaborative exchange of resources with teachers, parents and students that I hope will benefit the Frankfort community. I would argue that we are compelled to do so given our land grant mission and desire to establish long-lasting relationships with surrounding school districts.”

Rodriguez’s research focuses on the intersec-tion between culture and learning, especially in science. “Children are not blank slates. Teachers need to be more attentive to what a child brings to the classroom. When you relate learning to what is happening in the home, extended family, community, and culture of a student, they become more attentive. Learning becomes more relevant.”

Spring semester engagement fellow, S. Jake Burdick, PhD will be looking into what learning happens beyond school time. Frankfort has some very dedicated teachers who volunteer after school. “My research is in the field of public pedagogy—the learning that goes on beyond the classroom walls. I will be looking at Frankfort Schools and how their challenges and opportunities are reflections of the broader community. Frankfort schools have real challenges ahead of them, however testing shows that they are bucking state trends in science. Something is enhancing these test scores. Latino students and rural students who are failing in other subject areas don’t tend to do this well in science. I want to learn about what is happening in this area and see if we can help expand this suc-cess across other subjects.”

Like Rodriguez, Burdick is also interested in culturally responsive education that meets students where they are. “For example, it helps science teachers to discover how students use science in their daily lives. How can you take something like preparing a meal or looking at a family’s energy bill and use it to discuss science every step of the way? This kind of teaching scaffolds science information on top of what students already know,” Burdick continued.

Dorothy Reed, PhD, assistant dean for engagement, will serve as the lead on the ground in Frankfort. There will be ongoing opportunities for additional faculty and staff to be involved in the strategic partnership.

Dorothy Reed, assistant dean of engagement, will be working to coordinate strategic partnerships.

LAUNCH • PURDUE UNIVERSITY

College Adds New Faculty

10

The College of Education welcomes one of the largest classes of new faculty in our history. In order of appearance in photo:

Siddika Selcen Guzey, PhD, assistant professor of biology educationMinjung Ryu, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry educationJudith Lewandowski, PhD, visiting profes-sor of learning design and technologyWayne Wright (see below)Anne Traynor, PhD, assistant professor of educational psychology

Stephanie Zywicki, PhD, assistant professor of curriculum and instructionMing Ming Chiu (see below)Kharon Grimmet, visiting clinical professorAmy Gaeser, PhD assistant professor of educational studiesMathew Della Sala, PhD, assistant professor of school counselingMatt Brodhead, PhD, assistant professor of special educationJim Lehman (associate dean)Toni Kempler Rogat, PhD, assistant professor of educational psychology

Not present: Paul Asunda, PhD, assistant professor of engineering technology teacher educationJanet Walton, PhD, visiting assistant professor of science education Rachel Roegman, PhD, assistant professor of educationl leadershipDean Ballotti continuing lecturer in science education

Wayne Wright and Ming Ming Chiu Join Faculty as Endowed Chairs At the May meeting of the Purdue University Board of Trustees, Wayne E. Wright, PhD was approved as the Barbara I. Cook Chair of Literacy and Language within the College of Education. Before coming to Purdue, Wright was an associate professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual

Studies in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). In 2009, he was a Fulbright Scholar and visiting lecturer at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Wright earned his doctorate from Arizona State University.

Wright’s research focuses on language and educational policies, programs and practices for language minority students. He has many years of experience teaching in bilingual and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) classrooms from kindergarteners to adults.Wright is editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and

Advancement and is book review editor for the International Multilingual Research Journal. He is author of “Foundations for Teaching English Language Learners: Theory, Research, Policy and Practice.”

Barbara Cook served as dean of students at Purdue from 1980-1987. Dale R. and Suzi Gallagher established the Barbara I. Cook Chair of Literacy and Language Endowment in 2007. Both Dale and Suzi are Purdue alumni.Source: Purdue Today

Ming Ming Chiu, PhD, is the Charles R. Hicks Professor of Educational Psychology. Chiu has an outstanding record of scholarship with 127 research publications, including 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He has published in the highest impact journals in education including the Journal of the Learning Sciences and American Educational Research Journal. His signature contribu-tions are in the area of statistical discourse analysis which is considered to be one of the most influential recent developments in the learning sciences. He has also made significant methodological contributions to the development of statistical models for understanding the effects of complex sets of

educational, social, and economic variables on student achievement outcomes. He has served as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants funded by international, national, and state agencies, and private foundations. His expertise will contribute significantly to the expansion of College of Education research capacity and scholarly impact. He will also contribute to the development of our graduate and under-graduate programs by introducing students to the latest methodological developments in the learning sciences. Chiu earned his PhD from the University of California Berkeley.

Charles R. Hicks, PhD, is a Purdue professor emeritus in education and statistics. The endowed chair was donated in his name by a former student, Davis Edward Nichols, who studied statistics with Hicks while earning a PhD from the College of Engineering in 1958.

Jim Lehman, associate dean of discovery and faculty development (2nd from right) welcomes the new faculty.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION • EDUCATION.PURDUE.EDU

College Adds New Faculty

11

Faculty Recognition

Shepardson

Ertmer

Eichinger

Marcia Gentry, PhD, professor of gifted, creative and talented studies, Department of Educational Studies, has been selected as the 2014 National As-sociation for Gifted Children (NAGC) Distinguished Scholar Award recipient, presented to an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of knowledge regarding the education of gifted and talented individuals. (See also GERI p. 7)

Carla Johnson, EdD, associate dean of engagement and global affairs, contributed Interdisciplinary Science Teaching, an article in the Handbook of Research on Science Education, Volume II, Routledge -2014. The National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) endorses the Handbook as an important and valuable synthesis of the current knowledge in the field of science education by leading individuals. Johnson is also the PI of a new Math Science Partnership grant from the Indiana Department of Education. Lynn Bryan, PhD, professor of physics education and director of CATALYST, and Tamara Moore, faculty in engineering education, are Co-PIs. The project, entitled P-STEM: Partnership for Advancing Integrated STEM Educa-tion, will create a partnership focused on the trans-formation of entire schools within the Maconaquah and Kokomo School Corporations.

Ayşe Çiftçi, PhD, associate professor in counsel-ing psychology in the Department of Educational Studies, was awarded an American Psychological Association (APA) Presidential Citation at the 2014 Counseling Psychology Conference in Atlanta in March, 2014. She was recognized for her service to APA, including chairing APA’s Committee on Early Career Psychologists, as well as her research that spans a broad range of multicultural topics. (See also below)

Carly Roberts, PhD, assistant professor in special education, Department of Educational Studies, and Oliver Wendt, PhD, assistant professor in special education jointly appointed to the Department of Educational Studies and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, have received funding from the Kinley Trust for 2014-15.

David Eichinger, PhD, associate professor of biology education has won the 2014 Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in Memory of Charles B. Murphy.

Peg Ertmer, PhD, professor of learning design and technology, was featured in a recent video from George Lucas’ Edutopia. As the founding editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of PBL (Problem-Based Learning), she is a leading expert in this emerging field.

Brenda Capobianco, PhD, associate professor of science education Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has won the inaugural Foster Award for one faculty member who has made transformation-al contributions to improving STEM teaching and learning in Indiana’s K-12 schools. Capobianco also has been appointed interim director of Purdue’s Discovery Learning and Research Center in Discov-ery Park. (See also SLED p. 6)

Jerry Peters, PhD, professor of youth development and agricultural education, was named the 2013-14 Frederick L. Hovde Outstanding Faculty Fellow. Peters is the 30th winner of the annual award. Peters has served the College of Education as Curriculum and Instruction department head and interim dean.

Laura Bofferding, PhD, assistant professor of mathematics education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been awarded a National Science Foundation faculty early career development grant. NSF CAREER grants are the agency’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

Dan Shepardson, PhD, professor of geo-environ-mental and science education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction is Co-PI of a new NSF-funded project focused on informal science learning through sound entitled Global Sound-scapes! The Big Data, Big Screens, Open Ears Project. (See also p. 8)

Johnson

Capobianco

BofferdingRoberts

Wendt

Gentry

PetersÇiftçi

These days public healthcare delivery has been a topic of major political debate. Recently a group from the College of Education was tapped by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to develop a research report for Congress on the integration of mental health, substance abuse and primary care. “This will be a phenomenal opportunity for our students to develop a report that could potentially influence public policy,” said Ayşe Çiftçi, PhD, professor of counseling psychology.

Çiftçi will be supervising a team of six to eight undergraduate and graduate students to develop the CRS Capstone Project. This fall they

will be finalizing their research questions and developing a final plan which will focus on the role of cultural competencies in reducing health disparities in integrated primary care. They will engage faculty from Purdue and outside leaders including the American Psycho-logical Association, to gain additional expert thought in the planning phase.

Writing will begin in the spring to complete an in-depth literature report that will have conclusions and policy recommendations. When finished, the team will travel to Washington, DC for a presenta-tion of their findings to Congress.

The team will be working through Purdue Global Policy Research Institute (GPRI) which conducts interdisciplinary research, data-driven policy analysis, education, and outreach to bridge the gaps in understanding between the public and the academic and policymaking communities, and serves as a resource for Indiana, the nation, and the world.

The CRS is a “think tank” component of the Library of Congress charged with conducting and soliciting research and analysis for reports to Congress on subjects that are vital to the public interest.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Chooses COE Team for Capstone Project

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Arisa Moreland-Woods, 17, of Avon, Indiana, came to the 2014 EXCITE Summer Camp with the hope of learning more about teaching. Admitting that she would probably enter college as undecided, Arisa said, “I could see myself teaching Spanish, English, or history. But maybe I’ll find something else. I am not sure yet.”

For the past four years, the College of Education has been helping with the career decision process by offering a summer camp named EXCITE which stands for Excel, Create, Inspire the Teaching Experience.

Some people know from the first time they step into a classroom, that teaching is the profession for them. As children, they play “teacher” by lining up their stuffed animals or younger siblings for make-believe lessons. Others get the teaching bug by working with younger children in school, sports, 4H, church or Scouts. They discover their talent for explaining things and that teaching is a way to use this talent to help others.

However, it is even more common for young people to be unsure about their future profession. In fact, according to various surveys a majority of college students change majors at least once, and many change majors two to three times. Since changing majors often delays time until graduation, this can be a financial hardship for students and their families.

A 2013 study by ACT found that 62% of students indicated that they needed help with their educational/occupational plans. The same study ranked students by comparing their choice of college major to their “best-fitting major” based on answers to a personal interests survey. This research showed that while only 7 percent of respondents indicated they planned to major in education, more than twice as many—16 percent—

would find education to be a “best-fitting major” based on their profile. Teens need to talk to career counselors, get outside of their communities to explore their interests, and to discover professions that “fit” them before entering college.

“I’ve always liked school,” says 15-year-old, Keaton Graham of Borden, Indiana. “But I don’t know if I want to teach Elementary Education or English. I am hoping to learn more about teaching here.”

According to Dorothy Reed, PhD, assistant dean of engagement, “The camp provides a fun way for high school students to explore teaching, explore college, and discover the Purdue campus while they also gain valuable insights into their own interests and abilities. The camp is limited to only 20 students and is subsidized by the college to bring in primarily diverse students from low-income areas. Students who qualify for free and reduced lunch may receive a full scholarship.”

For many EXCITE students, this is their first experience at a summer camp and at a college. They live in the residence halls and take classes in art, science, technology, writing and literacy, social justice, and STEM education. Throughout the one week camp, the teens take part in social activities and field trips. In the first activity, The Boiler Challenge (pictured), campers get to know each other better in a team building session that helps campers develop trust, confidence, and friendships. Each class has a team presentation component where students work together to develop a short lesson to teach their peers in interesting and creative ways. The final camp activity is a poster session where teams take one topic and explain it to reviewers.

Excited about teaching?EXCITE Summer Camp gives high school students an opportunity to try their teaching skillswith peers.

Inside this issue of Launch:

Page 1: Becoming a Spacewalker Page 2: 25 Years in Perspective Page 3: Indiana STEM SummitPage 4: Measuring How Teachers Are MeasuredPage 5: “Launch the Future” Seed GrantsPage 6: SLED Summer InstitutePage 7: The GERI Camp DifferencePage 8: Climate Change for TeachersPage 9: Strategic PartnershipPage 10: New FacultyPage 11: Faculty Recognition

EXCITE Camp Gives Teens a Chance to Try Teaching