Matt's Involvement in Science Education

• President, Authentic Learning & Teaching, LLC (ALT)
  
• ALT provides a variety of science education products and services
• Pedagogical effectiveness combined with the most correct, up-to-date science
• Science presented at a level that your audience can understand and appreciate
  
  
• Committed to improving scientific literacy of non-scientists including:
  • primary and secondary school students and teachers
  • college-level non-science majors
  • general public
  • addressing concerns of under-represented groups (women, minorities) in all categories
  
  
• K-12 Activities
  • developed and presented a multitude of teacher workshops
  • developed K-12 science curriculum materials
    
  • gave numerous classroom presentations
  • judged science fairs
  
  
• Twenty years of teaching/lecturing at the following locations:
  • UMUC (over 200 semester-hours)
  • JHU, School of Continuing Education
  • The Adler Planetarium
  • The Newark Museum Planetarium
  • various elementary, middle, and high school classes
  • STScI Open Night
  • observatory open houses
  • other public groups
  
  
• Actively seeks ways to improve teaching:
  • keeps abreast of educational literature
  • re-examines standard assumptions about experience and (mis)information that students start with (e.g., Bobrowsky 1994)
  • optimized his own teaching by various methods:
    • had his own teaching videotaped for critical examination
    • had other instructors observe his teaching and offer suggestions
    • participated in Faculty Development workshops at the Univ. of Maryland
    • seriously considers comments/evaluations from students
  
  
• Results of teaching improvements:
  • University of Maryland Board of Regents Teaching Excellence Award  (See http://www.umuc.edu/press/news91.html)
  • UMUC's Stanley J. Drazek Teaching Excellence Award
  • Received Teaching Recognition Awards from UMUC (given to instructors in top 1%, based on a variety of factors)
  • Received multiple nominations for teaching awards
  • Excellent evaluations by students at UMUC:
    • in top 5% of all instructors
    • highest among instructors in comparable courses in the physical sciences
  • Excellent evaluations by other teachers; they use phrases such as:
    • "stimulating and well organized"
    • "an outstanding lecturer"
  
  
• Service to other teachers:
  • Regularly visits other teachers' classes to offer advice
  • Served on committee to confer teaching awards to other teachers (but did not serve on this committee in years when I received my own awards)
  • Provides astronomy-related educational materials to teachers
  
  

What do scientists do?

Educational Publications:

• "The Process of Science and its Interaction with Non-Scientific Ideas: A Guide for Teachers, Students, and the Public," M. Bobrowsky, published by the American Astronomical Society, 2007. Available online at: http://www.aas.org/education/The_Process_of_Science.pdf
• "Dealing with Disbelieving Students on Issues of Evolutionary Processes and Long Time Scales," M. Bobrowsky, Astr. Ed. Rev., 4, 7, 2005. Available online here.
• "Journey through the Universe -- Taking Underserved Communities to the Frontier," J. Goldstein, M. Bobrowsky, T. Livengood, S. Smith, & B. Riddle, NASA Office of Space Science Education and Public Outreach Conference, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 319, p. 200, 2004
• "Teaching Astronomy Online," M. Radnofsky & M. Bobrowsky, Astr. Ed. Rev., 3, 148, 2004.
• "Mission Prep: A Teacher’s Activity Guide,” J. Smith, C. Rosenberg, M. Bobrowsky, K. Offringa, et al., Challenger Center for Space Science Education, 2001.
• "Moon: A Teacher’s Activity Guide,” J. Smith, F. Basalyga, K. Ray, S. Beres, M. Bobrowsky, et al., Challenger Center for Space Science Education, 2000.
• "Mars: A Teacher’s Activity Guide,” J. Smith, C. Rosenberg, M. Bobrowsky, S. Beres, et al., Challenger Center for Space Science Education, 2000.
• "Does the Doppler Ball Demonstration Increase Understanding?”, M. Bobrowsky, in Cosmos In The Classroom 2000, publ. by The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, ed. A. Fraknoi, 2000.
• "Teaching Evolutionary Processes to Skeptical Students”, M. Bobrowsky, The Physics Teacher, V. 38, p. 565-569, 2000.
• "News Clippings for Introductory Astronomy", M. Bobrowsky, The Physics Teacher, V. 37, No. 6, 1999.
• "Integrating Astronomy with Elementary Non-Science Curricula", M. Bobrowsky, Maryland Space Grant Consortium, 2nd Statewide Conference, Annapolis, MD, June 9, 1995. Also presented at a symposium organized by the ASP, "Astronomy Education: Recent Developments, Future Directions", June 1995, College Park, MD. Published in conference proceedings edited by John R. Percy, ASP Conference Series V. 89, p. 176, 1996.
• "Educating the Public and Students Who Have Never Seen a Clear, Dark Sky", M. Bobrowsky, abstract in "Astronomy Posters", 22nd General Assembly of the IAU, ed. H. van Woerden, Twin Press, Sliedrecht, The Netherlands, 1994.

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