Feb. 1, 2011
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Shifting the Paradigm in Our Teaching: Proving Dobzhansky Correct
How Science Works: Investigating the Real Process of ScienceDAVIS--Judy Scotchmoor, a national award-winning science educator who helps classroom teachers and others understand the nature and processes of science and its value to society, will present two lectures on Friday, Feb. 11 in 122 Briggs Hall, UC Davis.
Her first talk, from 12:15 to 1 p.m., is on “Shifting the Paradigm in Our Teaching: Proving Dobzhansky Correct.” She will cover results from an award-winning National Science Foundation (NSF)-initiative on teaching evolution. T. G., Dobzhansky (1900-1975), was a prominent geneticist and evolutionary biologist.
Her second talk, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., is titled “How Science Works: Investigating the Real Process of Science.” She will offer reasons and methods for an innovative way of communicating the scientific process. Her topic is applicable to all sciences.
The UC Davis Department of Entomology/Bohart Museum of Enotmology will videotape both lectures and post online.
Scotchmoor taught math and science for 25 years to middle-school students before joining the UC Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, as assistant director in charge of education and public outreach. Her primary role at the museum is using paleontology and technology as vehicles for improving science education in the classroom.
Scotchmoor manages the NSF-funded “Understanding Evolution and Understanding Science" websites, which recently won the prestigious Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE).
Her UC Davis lectures are funded by the Undergraduate Instructional Improvement Program and co-sponsored by the Bohart Museum of Entomology and the Department of Entomology; Department of Evolution and Ecology; Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology and the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology; Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning; and REACH IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship.)
Scotchmoor received her bachelor of science degree in biological sciences from UC Berkeley in 1966 and her secondary teaching credential from Hayward State University the following year.
She serves as the project coordinator of four NSF-funded programs — Understanding Evolution, Understanding Science, the Coalition on the Public Understanding Science, and The Paleontology Portal — and as the educational advisor to the GK12 project of the Berkeley Natural History Museums.
Scotchmoor is editor and co-author of three resource books for teachers, Learning from the Fossil Record, Evolution: Investigating the Evidence, and Dinosaurs: the Science behind the Stories.” She received the 2006 Education Award presented by the American Institute of Biological Sciences and the 2004 Joseph T. Gregory Award for outstanding service to the welfare of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
More information on the lecture is available from Tabatha Yang at tabyang@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-9464. Yang serves as education and outreach coordinator, Bohart Museum of Entomology, Department of Entomology; and the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology.
--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894