Department of Teaching and Learning
Judith Morrison
Exposing Teachers to “Real World” Science
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Dr. Morrison’s research explores the impact of providing professional development opportunities for teachers that revolve around the nature of science. These opportunities immerse teachers into the world of science by allowing them to work with practicing research scientists. Through these experiences, the teachers refine and develop their own ideas of what science is and of how scientific evidence is collected, analyzed, and communicated to the public.
Dr. Morrison collaborates with scientists at the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research facility of Caltech’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), providing professional development for teachers and researching factors that affect science teachers’ progress toward understanding the nature of science and how they communicate that understanding to students. During the summers of 2004 and 2005, Dr. Morrison worked with two groups of science teachers who participated in a summer course designed by Dr. Morrison entitled “The Nature of Scientific Inquiry” held at LIGO Hanford in Southeast Washington. These teachers learned firsthand about the nature of science through explicit instruction, job shadowing and interviewing scientists, and developing classroom resources to help their own students learn more about science and scientific research.
Dr. Morrison’s research on the impact of immersing teachers into the world of the LIGO research facility has shown that teachers are able to attain a more accurate picture of scientists and the nature of science. Based on this research, she is interested in providing more in-depth opportunities for science teachers through additional collaboration with scientists at the LIGO Hanford Observatory. This research will explore how teachers communicate about science and scientific research to their students, and how students’ ideas may be impacted as determined through pre- and post-testing on their views of the nature of science, as well as how they perform on science achievement tests.
Contact
Information
Judith A. Morrison, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Teaching and Learning
Washington State University Tri-Cities
2710 University Drive
Richland, WA 99354-1671
Telephone: 509-372-7176
E-mail: jmorriso@tricity.wsu.edu
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