College of Education alum and White House Champion of Change award winner Sandra Henderson

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon State University alumna Sandra Henderson was recently honored in a White House ceremony for being a champion of citizen science.

sandrahenderson-225x300Henderson is the director for Citizen Science at the National Ecological Observatory Network in Boulder, Colo. She received a doctorate in science education, with a minor in geography, from OSU in 2001.

She was recognized this week by the White House Champions of Change program, which aims to identify and recognize Americans doing extraordinary things.  This year, the program is honoring people who have demonstrated exemplary leadership in engaging the broader, non-expert community in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, or STEM research.

In 2007, Henderson co-founded Project BudBurst, a national online citizen science campaign where individuals from all walks of life report on the timing of leafing, flowering, and fruiting of plants in their communities. The data are freely available to researchers and educators who can use it to learn more about the responsiveness of individual plant species to local, regional, and national changes in climate.

“Being able to combine my interest in science education with my passion for nature through NEON’s Project BudBurst has been a career highlight,” Henderson said. “It is so inspiring to work with thousands of people across the country to make a difference in our understanding of how plants respond to environmental change. Plants have stories to tell us about changing climates if we only take the time to observe and learn.”

To learn more about Sandra Henderson’s work with NEON’s Project BudBurst, please read this blog post on the Champions of Change website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/06/25/stories-plants-can-tell-neon-s-project-budburst.

For more information on the White House Champions of Change program, please visit: www.whitehouse.gov/champions.

College of Education faculty member Lynn Dierking

10 great family-friendly museums (USA Today)

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Lynn Dierking, Professor, Science and Math Education

It’s easy to add a bit of education to your family vacation. Museums have upped the wow factor in recent years, creating galleries and programs that engage the mind and imagination. “These are cool places where you get to see things that aren’t in your everyday life,” says Lynn Dierking, a science and math education professor at Oregon State University and co-author of Museum Experience Revisited.

Logo for Chalkboard Project: Better Schools, Better Oregon

betterschoolsbetteroregonThe Chalkboard Project’s vision is to see Oregon’s schools among the top ten in the nation as measured by student achievement. The report, “Better Schools, Better Oregon: The Conditions of K-12 Education,” is Chalkboard’s regular report on the state of education and progress toward becoming a top-ten state. The report draws upon national and state-level data as well as local district data.

This is the first time the report also highlights what’s working in Oregon and draws from promising outcomes in Chalkboard’s CLASS districts.

“While the news in the report is disappointing, Oregonians should remain hopeful,” said Sue Hildick, Chalkboard Project President. “The state is beginning to turn the lessons from CLASS into statewide policy through mentoring for new teachers, meaningful performance evaluations, teacher leadership opportunities, and professional development for educators to meet the needs of all Oregon students. We do believe that these investments in great teaching will turn the tide for Oregon.”

See highlights from the report.

College of Education faculty member John Falk
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John H. Falk, Professor and Interim Director of the Center for Research in Lifelong STEM Learning

The Lifelong STEM Learning Campus-wide Seminar Series and Discussion Forum 2012-2013 continues on Tuesday, June 11th with a seminar led by Dr. John H. Falk entitled “Investigating Lifelong Science Learning.”

The seminar takes place from 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. and can viewed in Kidder 202, via Polycom to Cascades Campus Cascade Hall 112, and streaming online at live.oregonstate.edu. 

Seminar Synopsis:
When do people learn science?  Why do people learn science?  Where do people learn science?  In this talk derived from an NSF Distinguished Lecture, Dr. John H. Falk will present a brief overview of the growing understanding of how the public learns science across their lifetime.  Dr. Falk will summarize two recent large-scale research studies. The first study sought to determine the relative contributions to public science understanding made by key sources of science education – schooling, free-choice learning and the workplace.  The second study attempted to better understand the functioning of the infrastructure that supports public science education in the United Kingdom by using community ecology frameworks.  The seminar will conclude with some thoughts and discussion about the implications of these findings for conducting science education research in the future.

College of Education alum and new Mt. Hood Community College president Debra Derr

Debra Derr, Mt. Hood Community College’s next president, plans for a long tenure at the Gresham campus (Oregonian)

Derr started her academic career as a student specialist and counselor at Clackamas Community College in 1980. Mt. Hood hired her in 1987 to coordinate disability services and eventually promoted her to vice president for student development and services. While at Mt. Hood, she earned a doctorate of education from Oregon State University. (see also Portland Tribune)