Letter
to
Prospective
Students
Outreach,
Resource Center,
and Summer
Institutes
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Faculty Research in Science Education All three members of the core science faculty who initiated and oversee the General Science Program at Keene State (Jean, Harkay, Wolf) have been engaged in science education research for some time and continue activities in that direction. Dr.
Jean was Principal
Investigator
of the NSF grant, “Project
Inspire” which
really got the
program off
the ground after
many years of
futile attempts
to organize
the large portion
of the college
to support such
a major. Harkay
and Wolf were
coauthors. One
reason for the
success of this
proposal was
the perceived
and real need
for improvement
in the area
of science education
in our schools.
Indeed, this
has been identified
as a national
crisis and received
much attention
in the media.
Dr. Jean has
a strong background
in science teaching
in Connecticut,
where she took
part in a program
for that purpose
called CAPT
and brought
a wealth of
experience in
this area wit
her when she
joined Keene
State. Dr. Harkay
(see biographical
page) has also
had a continuing
interest in
science education
since graduate
school days
when he became
interested in
the work of
Arnold Aarons
(through his
advisor) and
saw a need for
teaching physics
at the conceptual
level. With
the aid of the
grant, we were
able to build
a curriculum
which, with
the support
of many departments
and Education
faculty, would
lead to K-8
certification
in GS and also
construct two
courses: The
Web of Science
and Phenomenal
Science, which
would become
inquiry-based,
hands-on cornerstones
of the curriculum. |