Key Personnel
Eugenia Etkina (PI)
Eugenia is an associate professor of science education in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. Etkina developed and tested the ISLE prototype when teaching physics in middle school and high school for thirteen years in Moscow, Russia. This work was further enhanced by the cooperation of A. Van Heuvelen to create ISLE in its present format and in the collaborative writing of the ALG. She uses ISLE in courses for pre-service and in-service teachers. She has extensive teaching and research experience, curriculum development, and is an active member of the PER community. She has served as PI for numerous projects as well as conducted multiple professional development programs.
Alan Van Heuvelen (Co-PI)
Alan is a Professor of Physics in the Physics/Astronomy Department at Rutgers University. He has developed several widely used products for physics education including: the Active Learning Problem Sheets (the ALPS Kits), which emphasize multiple representations of processes, active student participation, and the use of hierarchical methods to store and access knowledge; ActivPhysics (co-author Paul D’Alessandris), which is a comprehensive multimedia product published by Addison Wesley for free classroom use on the web; and the ISLE learning system, which combines Etkina’s methods of scientific inquiry and the cognitive strategies he has used to enhance learning. He has used ISLE in algebra based and calculus based large enrollment courses. In 2000 he was awarded the American Association of Physics Teachers Millikan Medal for his national contributions to physics education.Eva Thanheiser (Co-PI)
Eva is an assistant professor of mathematics education at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. She has teaching, research, and curriculum development experience. She has taught mathematics to elementary, and college students, and mathematics teaching methods courses to pre-service teachers. Her research focuses on pre-service teachers’ understanding of mathematics. She worked with the NSF funded Integrating Mathematics and Pedagogy (IMAP) project at San Diego State University.
Suzanne White Brahmia (Co-PI)
Suzanne is the Director of the Physics Gateway Program and an Associate Director of the Math and Science Learning Center at Rutgers University. She was co-PI on the first ISLE NSF grant. She has extensive experience working with under prepared university freshman engineering students and has been using ISLE in the past 6 years with them. As the director of the MSLC she developed physical science activities for the Science Explorer- a mobile learning laboratory that visits middle schools in underserved districts throughout New Jersey to provide hands-on, student-active science experiences. She developed physics demonstrations and associated curricular materials to conduct visits to the center by K-12 classes. She regularly runs summer seminars for middle and high school science teachers.Hector Lopez (Project Director)
Hector is a Senior Science Specialist for The Center for Mathematics, Science & Computer Education at Rutgers University. He has extensive science and mathematics teaching experience at the secondary and college level. He has designed and facilitated teacher and administrator professional development activities for over 15 years. He has wide-range curriculum development expertise that has focused on collaborative and cooperative, standard-based, and project-based learning. He has worked closely with K-12 teachers to adapt science curricula to special education, ESL, and underserved students. Hector has successfully managed and provided technical assistance to federal, state, and private foundation education programs.
Tara Bartiromo (Graduate Student)
Tara is a graduate student at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. She spent two years teaching high school physics and is looking for a new way to engage students in physics through PUM. She has worked on editing the modules. Tara will be conducting most of the observations as PUM is implemented.
Jim Flakker (Graduate Student)
Jim is a graduate student at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. He has taught in the algebra based physics courses at Rutgers as well as in the Rutgers Astrophysics Institute, a summer program for high school students. Jim also brings his experience as a computer consultant and programmer to the project.
Jeff Goett (Graduate Student)
Jeff is a pre-service physics teacher who has bachelors and masters degree in physics. He had an exposure to the ISLE material when he and Jim Flakker co-wrote a teachers solution manual to the Active Learning Guide. Jeff believes that the ISLE approach can make physics and the related scientific abilities accessible to students without a strong background in science or math. He is glad to be be working with the material again as he develops a module to teach mechanical work and energy to high school students.
James Finley
Joe Santonacita
Graduate Students:
- Danielle Bugge
- Elizabeth Eibling
- Matthew Blackman