SUSTAINABILITY IN PRE-COLLEGE SCIENCE EDUCATION WHAT SHOULD STUDENTS KNOW AND BE ABLE TO DO?
We invite you to join us for this lecture by Dr. Lynn Bryan, Professor Emerita of Science Education and inaugural director of Purdue’s Center for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of STEM (CATALYST). She will
discuss how sustainability is embodied in the Next Generation Science Standards [NGSS] and current K-12 Indiana Academic Standards, as well as how students can and should engage in sustainability education at the pre-college and undergraduate leves.
As one of the signature research areas of the Center for Advancing the Teaching and Learning of STEM (CATALYST), Dr. Bryan’s research over the last decade has focused on the teaching and learning of science through the integration of engineering design in K-12 classrooms. STEM integration as an approach to science learning allows for student to engage in instruction that is contextualized around relevant, formidable, and pressing issues such as global warming and climate change, nuclear nonproliferation and security, sustainable energy, alleviation of poverty, food security, stem cell research, etc. She recently received a $3 million National Science Foundation grant in collaboration with Morgan State University to investigate examine middle-grade students’ learning of foundational cross-disciplinary science concepts and practices in Earth and physical sciences and their understanding of engineering design and design thinking as they engage in a discourse-rich, environmental justice-oriented curriculum units that integrate science inquiry and engineering design through culturally- nurturing, community-based service projects.
Bio
Dr. Bryan began her career in science education when she transition from being a chemist to a high school physics teacher, and since then has devoted her career to working with K-16 science teachers to bring innovative practices into pre-college classrooms. Her research focuses on science teacher education, particularly teachers’ development and enhancement of knowledge and skills for teaching through integrated STEM approaches and teaching science through modeling-based inquiry approaches. During her career, she has secured nearly $20 million in external funding for science education research. Dr. Bryan has been recognized for her scholarship, including being named the Outstanding Science Teacher Educator of the Year (Association for Science Teacher Education and Carolina Biological Supply), a Purdue University Faculty Scholar, and a Distinguished Purdue Alumni Scholar. She is a past-president of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching and a past editor-in-chief for the Journal of Science Teacher Education. In 2023, Dr. Bryan was named a Fellow of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.