• February 8, 2002

Northeastern Illinois University
• March 8, 2002

University of Illinois at Chicago
• April 29, 2002

DePaul University, Lincoln Park Campus
Directions to DePaul Univeristy, Lincoln Park Campus

Minority participation
Inquiry learning
Innovative curricula
Teaching teachers
Classroom environments

Friday, February 8, 2002, 1:00PM to 8:00PM

Northeastern Illinois University

• William Yslas Vélez,

Professor of Mathematics, University of Arizona

William Yslas Vélez was born in Tucson, Arizona and grew up in the "nurturing embrace" of the Spanish-speaking part of the town in a home in which "education was heavily emphasized" by his Mexican born parents.

 

Vélez earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The University of Arizona, completing his doctoral degree in mathematics in 1975.  He has been a faculty member of the Department of Mathematics at The University of Arizona since 1977.  His mathematical research interests have been in number theory and algebra.  He has held positions at various military labs, applying mathematics to solve problems that have arisen in military communication systems.  As a Program Officer at the National Science Foundation, Vélez directed the Algebra and Number Theory Program.  Vélez was awarded the National Science Foundation Director's Equal Opportunity Achievement Award in 1993, and a White House President’s Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 1997. 

 

Vélez is a Founding Member of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science and served as President of this organization from 1994-96.  His most recent efforts have been directed to increasing the opportunities for Hispanic students in mathematics based careers.  From 1994 -99 he served as the Director of the NSF funded Southwest Regional Institute in Mathematical Sciences, an institute dedicated to the integration of research and education.

 

• Susan Wyckoff,

Professor of Physics, Arizona State University

Susan Wyckoff received her B.A. from Mt. Holyoke College and her Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in physics and astronomy.  She joined the physics faculty at Arizona State University in 1979 and served as department chair from 1990-93.  She has held visiting appointments at the University of Michigan, Tel-Aviv University, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Ohio State University, the University of Heidelberg and Mt Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories.  From 1982-1990 she directed the International Halley Watch, a NASA project to study Halley's Comet.  From 1994-2000 she directed the Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT), an effort by eleven institutions to improve the undergraduate teaching of science and mathematics.  She now directs the Electronic Collaborative for Excellence in the Preparation of Teachers (ECEPT), and co-directs the Arizona Teachers Coalition (AzTEC).  Her current research interests include star formation, origins of planetary systems and physics education. 

 

Her publications include two books, several book chapters and more than 200 refereed journal articles, popular articles and conference proceedings.  She has supervised over 20 postdoctorals and graduate students in physics education or astrophysics, and conducts workshops on physics teaching.

 

Friday, March 8, 2002, 1:00PM to 8:00PM
University of Illinois at Chicago

Special Announcements

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• We are sorry to announce that Cathy Kessel has had to cancel her trip to Chicago due to personal reasons, and will not be speaking in the March 8th symposium.

•  It gives us great pleasure to congratulate Michael Zeilik, who is speaking in the March 8th symposium, on his receiving the 2002 American Astronomical Society Education Prize.  The award citation reads: 

"For the past thirty years, Mike Zeilik has been an innovator in the field of astronomy education and science education more generally.  His tireless championing of teaching strategies which go beyond the usual lecture and the research which he has done on the success of or challenges faced by these strategies have provided a major contribution to our understanding of student learning.  He has led our profession in developing collaborations, both with other astronomy education faculty and with researchers in the area of science education."

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• Louis M. Gomez,

Aon Professor of Learning Sciences and Professor of Computer Science, Northwestern University

Louis M. Gomez received a BA. in Psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley.  Gomez is one of the co-directors of the NSF-sponsored Center for Learning Technologies in Urban Schools, a partnership made up of Chicago Public Schools, Detroit Public Schools, University of Michigan, and Northwestern University.  The Center is dedicated to collaborative research and development with urban schools that will bring the current state-of-the-art in computing and networking technologies into pervasive use in schools to integrally support science and other curriculum.  Gomez's primary interest is in working with school communities to create curriculum that supports school reform while connecting schools to broad communities of practice beyond school. 

 

Prior to joining the Faculty at Northwestern Gomez was director of Human-Computer Systems Research at Bellcore in Morristown New Jersey.  Over the last several years he has also pursued an active research program investigating techniques that improve human use of information retrieval systems and techniques which aid in the acquisition of complex computer-based skills.

 

• Cathy Kessel,

Mathematics Education Consultant

Cathy Kessel works as a mathematics education consultant.  She received her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and has taught mathematics at various colleges and universities.  She has worked as a researcher in mathematics education at the University of California and the University of Melbourne.  Kessel edited Liping Ma’s Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics, was an additional writer on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, and was the lead editor for the CBMS report The Mathematical Education of Teachers.  Her publications include articles in the MER Newsletter, the AWM Newsletter, Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education, and the Encyclopedia of Gender.  She and Ma are working on an elementary mathematics textbook. 

• Michael Zeilik,

Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico

Michael Zeilik earned his A. B. in Physics with honors at Princeton University and his M. A. and Ph. D. in Astronomy at Harvard University.  He has been a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a National Science Foundation Fellow, and a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Predoctoral Fellow.  As a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico, he has been named a Presidential Lecturer, the highest award for all-around performance by a faculty member.  In his teaching, he specializes in introductory courses for the novice, non-science major student.  He is a pioneer in astronomy education research at the university level, and has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Exxon Educational Foundation, and the Slipher Fund of the National Academy of Sciences for innovations in astronomy education, astronomy for the general public, and astronomy workshops for in-service teachers. 

 

Zeilik's research activities have recently focused on astronomy in the historic and prehistoric Pueblo world and a cognitive approach to teaching science.  He has served as the Director of UNM's Graduate Centers in Los Alamos and Santa Fe.  In 1998-99, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow with the National Institute for Science Education.  Zeilik has authored four books used internationally: Astronomy: The Evolving Universe (8th edition, Wiley, 1997), Astronomy: The Cosmic Perspective with J. Gaustad (2nd edition, Wiley, 1990), Conceptual Astronomy (1st edition, Wiley, 1993), and Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics with S. Gregory (4th edition, Saunders, 1998). The 8th edition of Evolving Universe won a 1997 Texty Award from the Text and Academic Authors Association

 

Monday, April 29, 2002, 1:00PM to 8:00PM
DePaul University, Lincoln Park Campus

• Bruce Crauder,

Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean of Instruction, Oklahoma State University

Bruce Crauder was educated at Haverford College and Columbia University, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1981, specializing in algebraic geometry.  Since then he has taught at the University of Utah, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of North Carolina, and Colorado State University.  He has been at Oklahoma State University since 1986 where he serves as Associate Dean for Instruction as well as Professor of Mathematics.  Crauder has had an abiding interest in math education, particularly for beginning college students.  With two colleagues, he has spent several years developing Mathematical Functions and Their Uses, a course and textbook in mathematics modeling at the College Algebra level. 

• Priscilla Laws,

Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Dickinson College

Priscilla Laws received her bachelor's degree from Reed College in 1961 and a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in theoretical nuclear physics in 1966.  She has taught in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Pennsylvania's Dickinson College since 1965.  Laws has published numerous books on the health effects of medical and dental x-rays, the impact of energy use on the environment, and the uses of experiential approaches and computers to enhance learning in physics.  As part of the Workshop Physics Project, that she initiated in 1986, she has developed curricular materials, apparatus and computer-based software and hardware for students at the high school and college levels.

 

Laws has received awards for software design and curriculum innovation in the sciences from EDUCOM/NCRIPTAL, Computers in Physics, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, and the Merck Foundation.  In 1993, she received the Dana Foundation Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education with Ronald K. Thornton and in 1996, the American Association of Physics Teachers bestowed the 1996 Robert A. Millikan Medal to Laws for notable and creative contributions to the teaching of physics.  She has been a principal investigator on a number of curriculum development projects funded by FIPSE and NSF. She has served on the Board of Directors of FIPSE and currently is a member of the Executive Board of the American Association of Physics Teachers.  Laws and five of her colleagues are currently involved in a NSF Teacher Enhancement project to conduct summer institutes, both at Dickinson College and the University of Oregon, for high school teachers who want to conform to new national and local science education standards.

Participants may register for the complete three-symposium series or for an individual symposium. Click here to learn more about registration including print out and mail in form.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR BREAK-OUT SESSIONS

Proposals are welcome for organizing and leading a break-out session at one of the symposia. Click here for details of submitting a proposal.

Sponsored by the Chicago Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation.

Partially supported by the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Provost, Northeastern Illinois University, the College of Liberal Arts and Science, DePaul University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago- Community College Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation.
 

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Excellence in Teaching Undergraduate Science and Mathematics

Symposium 2002

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