Brandwein Fellows in the News
Dick Arnold, 2000 BSLI, retired from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in August 2000. In 2001, he participated in an International Conference on Soil Classification in Hungary and also spent a month working in Nanjing, China. Dick was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar for the 2001 fall semester at Moscow State University. At the World Soil Congress in Bangkok, Thailand he was elected as an Honorary Member of the International Union of Soil Scientists. In 2003, he presented at a Purdue University-Godollo University meeting on soil carbon sequestration held in Godollo, Hungary, and in 2004, presented at the Soil Conservation and Protection for Europe meeting held in Cinque Terre, Italy. In 2005, Dick spoke at the Chilean Congress of Soil Science in Santiago, and presented three sessions at the 2006 World Congress of Soil Science in Philadelphia. In 2007, Dick and his wife moved to West Lafayette, Indiana where he continues to write and to help edit articles for journals. He also lectures to retirees about the desire for humanity to be in harmony with nature and how soil scientists perceive sustainability issues in today's milieu of misinformation.
Vern Beeson, 2000 Brandwein Summer Leadership Institute (BSLI), retired from biology teaching in 2004 after 30 years in the same classroom at Banks High School in western Oregon. His time is now spent traveling with his wife, volunteering for Habitat For Humanity, doing a little substitute teaching, catching up on all the home projects that did not get done during his teaching career, and serving on the volunteer board for Malheur Field Station, (www.malheurfieldstation.org). MFS is in the Great Basin of eastern Oregon and was the site of many of Vern’s school biology field trips. (Birders: check it out!)
Dan Bisaccio, 1997 Paul F-Brandwein Symposium (PFBS), is now Director of Secondary Science Education at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Dan continues his on-going research with the Smithsonian Institution's Biodiversity & Monitoring Program involving secondary and college students with authentic field research opportunities at several tropical sites in Central and South America as well as the South Pacific. His work has been recognized by the United Nations Environmental Program (Convention on Biological Diversity) where he is an active contributor to their international biological diversity education outreach committee and has presented, with his students, pedagogical and biological research at United Nations Conferences on Biological Diversity. In 2009, Dan will present at a UNEP Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal. He is currently organizing a 2nd International Youth Symposium on Biodiversity for July 2009. See biodiversitymatters. com. Dan will receive a 2009 Brandwein Medal at the Brandwein Lecture, in New Orleans, La, on March 21.
Allen Bone, 2000 BSLI, is teaching in a self-contained seventh-grade class at a tribal school, Two Eagle River High School, on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Pablo, Montana. He is running a water-monitoring project with the school and doing a lot of cultural outdoor activities with tribal members. Allen is working on a second Masters Degree in Teaching Science.
David Brock, 2000 BSLI, and his school won the 2006 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens/Fuji Film Environmental Excellence Award. David has co-authored a lab manual on soil ecology with a group of former students. It is listed in the Flinn Scientific Catalog.
David Brown, 2000 BSLI, recipient of the 2007 Brandwein Medal, was also named Illinois Science Teachers Association/ExxonMobil Corporation Outstanding Teacher of Science in 2007. He also began a three-year term as a manuscript reviewer for NSTA's Science Scope Journal. This year, he received grants for conducting forensic science with fifth graders and creating an outdoor lab at his school, bringing his incredible grant record to 139 received out of 144 written! Recently, David and his students participated in a satellite link with scientists aboard a research vessel in the Arctic Ocean. David was named 2007 Environmental Educator of the Year for Illinois and was appointed to the Adams County Illinois Green Coalition and the Quincy, IL Trees for Tomorrow Organization. He also received a Lowe's Toolbox for Education Award for a schoolwide biodiversity/environmental education lab.
Rob Brown, 1997 PFBS, and the Wheeler School were the recipients of a $10,000 2007 Amgen Award for Science Teaching Excellence for an urban GPS collar coyote study. Rob, who continues to teach environmental science at Wheeler, received a Siemens Rhode Island AP Teacher of the Year Award in 2005 with the help of his ninth-grade students. Last spring he took a sabbatical and did field science, helping the Conservation Agency and Dr. Numi Mitchell with the Narragansett Bay Coyote Study. Rob has been reading AP environmental science exams for the College Board and is coaching an Envirothon team which has won the Rhode Island state title eight times!
Cheryl Charles, 1998 and 2009 Brandwein Lecturer, is President and CEO of the Children & Nature Network (C&NN), a not-for-profit, non-partisan, educational and advocacy organization founded in 2006. It was formed as a result of the tremendous response to the book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. (Louv was the 2007 Brandwein Lecturer and is C&NN Board Chairman). C&NN has a web site at www.cnaturenet.org. Anyone interested can sign up to be a member of the Network and the Campaign to Leave No Child Inside. There is no cost. The web site is updated regularly with resources and stories of good works of many people and organizations. Members receive periodic newsletters and other resources.
Mary Jane Davis, 2001 BSLI, is still Science Department Chair at Red Bank Catholic High School in New Jersey. She has participated on two Earthwatch teams. In 2004, she traveled to Belize and assisted in research on manatees, and in 2006, she went to Scotland and did research on whales and dolphins of the Moray Firth.
Deborah Fort, 1997 PFBS, is compiling and editing a book about Paul F-Brandwein to be published by Springer in 2008. The book will include historical data on Brandwein and his extraordinary contributions to science education, anecdotes and accolades from former students, and the background and rationale for the Paul F-Brandwien Institute. Watch the Brandwein website for the announcement. Tracy Tracy Hollis, 2001 BSLI, is in her 26th year as an educator in Grand Prairie, Texas. From 2002-07, she served as President of the Texas Association for Environmental Education and recently received the NAAEE Affifliate of the Year Award. She is running the Natural Science Education Center which reaches over 13,000 K-5 students a year. She is also working as a program coordinator for the Real School Gardents and EarthForcGREEN programs within her district.
Jenelle Hopkins, 2000 BSLI, recently achieved National Board Certification in Adolescence/Young Adult Earth Science. She is still a high school science teacher in Las Vegas, Nevada, teaching earth and environmental science, and geology. She spent one year as an Einstein Distinguished Educator at the National Science Foundation Directorate for Geoscience. She was selected as a committee member for the Earthscope Education and Outreach Committee and is a member of the College Board's AP Environmental Re-Design Commission, designing the new test for 2012. She is also writing questions for the new GED test.
Hector Ibarra, 2002 BSLI, received his PhD from Iowa in 2004. He is a member of the National Assessment of Educational Placement (NAEP) Science Committee and was selected as the 2005 Phi Delta Kappa Wal-Mart National teacher of the year. Last year his students received the Environmental Excellence Award sponsored by Sea World/Busch Gardens/Fuji Film, were first-place winners in the Christopher Columbus Community Service National Awards, and second-place winners in the eCybermission National Award sponsored by U.S. Army. Forty-one of Hector’s students have received over $240,000 in saving bonds as a result of their environmental and energy projects.
Susan Jeffries, 2000 BSLI, is now teaching sixth-grade middle school. Last summer she received a Fullbright Fellowship which enabled her to travel to the northern artic region of Russia to study flora and fauna. The trip was sponsored by the University of Central Arkansas.
Richard Louv, 2007 Brandwein Lecturer, is the recipient of the 2007 Audubon Medal, a prize that is bestowed on some of the most influential environmentalists in the United States, including Rachel Carson, Jimmy Carter, Aldo Leopold, and E.O. Wilson. Go to http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20071128-9999-1n28louv.html to read more about Richard’s work and the Audubon Medal.
J-Petrina McCarty-Puhl, 2002 BSLI, received the Nevada teaching award for Significant Contributions to Environmental Education. She was selected as part of the Educator Astronaut Teacher Network in 2006, received the NEA Foundation Award to Teaching Excellence in 2007 as well as the AOL Technology Leadership Award. She earned two Masters Degrees: Curriculum Instruction and Crime Scene Investigation. She is currently Presiden of the Washoes County Science Teachers Association and the Nevada State Science Teachers Association. In 2008, she is a finalist for the Shell Science Science Teaching Award.
Patty McGinnis, 2001BSLI, has been serving as a Toyota Tapestry judge on the environmental science panel. She is also on the manuscript review board for Science Scope and on the Board of Directors for NMLSTA. Patty has received two Tapestry grants and two Toshiba Foundation grants and has twice been named as an Educator 500 by the 3E Institute at West Chester University. She earned National Board Certification in 2007.
Jack Padalino, PFBI President Emeritus, volunteers regularly at the Brandwein Institute and can be reached there. Since retirement, he’s been birding quite a bit including monitoring the hawk migration along the Shawangunk, Kittatinny Flyway at Sunrise Mountain in New Jersey. This fall, Jack has been traveling along the southeastern coast from Pennsylvania to southern Florida, birding and photographing birds in their natural settings.
Julia Polak, 2002 BSLI, was selected as a 2006 Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching for Nebraska. She is still teaching in the Milligan elementary building of the Exeter-Milligan Public Schools in Nebraska, but no longer takes her students to Turkey Creek. She now focuses her fourth-grade ecology units around OWL (Observe, Wonder, Learn), and has had the Raptor Recovery Center bring two live owls into the classroom for study. In 2005, she was elected President of the Nebraska Academies of Science.
Joseph Renzulli,1999 Brandwein Lecturer, has developed a program, now being used by more than half a million students and growing by approximately 100,000 kids each month. According to Joe, the program reflects the kind of learning that Paul Brandwein advocated.The Renzulli Learning System is an internet-based enrichment program that is built on a high-end learning theory focusing on the development of creative productivity through the application of knowledge rather than the mere acquisition and storage of knowledge. To learn more, check out the website at www.renzullilearning.com or email info@renzullilearning.com.
F. James Rutherford, 2005 Brandwein Lecturer, received the first Hall of Science Award for his accomplishments in science education in 2004. In recent years, he has consulted with Georgia and Maine in developing their current science education standards, and had two of the Project Physics 16mm films digitized and transferred to a single DVD. The masters reside at the American Institute of Physics Center for the History of Physics, and DVDs donated to the American Association of Physics Teachers are being used to encourage young physics teachers to join AAPT. As PI of a project funded by NSF titled "Resources for Environmental Literacy," Jim worked with the Environmental Literacy Council and NSTA to create professional development modules for middle and high school science teachers. Published by NSTA, the five modules are available individually or combined. Jim's Brandwein Lecture, "Is Our Past Our Future? Thoughts on the Next 50 years of Science Education Reform in the Light of Judgements on the Past 50 Years" was published in the Decmeber 2005 issue of the Journal of Science Education and Technoly.
Cindy Stevens, 1997 PFBS, served as technology learning leader for the SEED Project which began as part of the Maine Center for Education. While working with SEED, she wrote three successful Developer Grants that integrated technology with science curriculum. After the SEED project ended, Cindy was accepted to Maine’s First Governor’s Academy in Science Education. Through the Academy, she spent two years studying Maine’s Learning Results, undergoing trainings with national presenters in assessment practices and learning to develop professional opportunities for teachers. She currently holds the position as the K-3 technology integrator for her school district. She mentors teachers and teaches professional development classes and institutes around the state.
Ian Turoff, 2002 BSLI, received a 2007 Toyota Tapestry Award and a Toshiba grant for a shoreline diversity study that is sponsored by Kyoto University in Japan. His students send data to Japan to be analyzed and stored in their databases. They are also conducting a beach erosion study in conjunction with the biodiversity study. Ian is still studying the effects hurricanes have on tree growth and is working to become National Board certified.
Anne Tweed, BSLI 2000, served as president of NSTA in 2004-05. She retired from 30 years of teaching at Eaglecrest High School and is now serving as a Principal Consultant at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), in Aurora, Colorado.
If you would like to contact any of the above Fellows about their programs, email Marily DeWall at mdewall@cox.net.
