Profile

Michael Novak Instructor, LRNSCI 435 "New Approaches in Science Teaching", Master of Science in Education Researcher, Center For Connected Learning Annenberg Hall Room 234 2120 Campus Drive Evanston, IL 60208-0001 Park View School 6200 Lake St. Morton Grove, IL 60030 Phone: (847) 965-6200, x 166

Biography

I attended the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC) where I received a bachelor's of science and master's of science in mechanical engineering. I stayed in the UIUC community for 15 years, which gave me wonderful opportunities to continue my education and gather a variety of unique experiences as an educator, scientist, and engineer. I joined the Center for Connected Learning (CCL) as a consultant in the spring of 2004. In this role I develop instructional materials for Connected Chemistry through the Modeling Across the Curriculum project, which was a five-year research project to study the impact of computer modeling tools on science learning. Connected Chemistry addresses high school chemistry topics related to the behavior of gasses and chemical reactions while also developing students understanding of systems, models, equilibrium and change, and the nature of science. Currently I also am developing instructional materials for BEAGLE (Biological Experiments in Adaptation, Genetics, Learning and Evolution) which is a suite of NetLogo models and supporting materials designed to facilitate inquiry, teaching and learning of concepts and phenomena related to evolution, adaptation, and natural and artificial selection..

During the school year I work part-time for CCL, since I am also work full time as an 8th grade mathematics and science teacher at Park View School.

Engineering to Education
Before entering education, I was an engineer. As an engineer I was struck by how well the discipline combined my interests in science, mathematics and more specifically the art of design. From 1990-1991, I worked at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory as a structural designer as a co-operative exchange student where I developed structural designs for electrostatics tests of cavities and the assembly of the initial assembly stages of the D0 particle detector array. In the early 1990s I worked as a private consultant, where I had the incredible good fortune to work with research projects to develop technology for driverless vehicles, to design a virtual reality lab for Caterpillar Inc., and to create scientific visualizations for different companies. I researched autonomous vehicle control methods for Wheel Loaders and helped develop hardware, software and graphics for the Caterpillar Virtual Prototyping System (1992-1995) (movie link). This system received national recognition in Discover, Newsweek, Fortune 500, CNN and variety of technical journals and trade publications. I developed scientific visualization research focused on fluid dynamics visualization in next generation hydro-electric fuel injectors (these HEUI fuel injectors are now included as standard equipment on Caterpillar engines). I did industrial design work on ergonomics for the interior of a cab for a line of next generation backhoes (which is now included in the 420D/430D line of CAT backhoes).

As challenging and exciting as the research projects were, I was also finding that other work that I was doing on the side related to teaching, education, and outreach, was giving me richer meaning and personal connection in my life. Various teaching assignments at the  university in undergraduate mechanical engineering courses and in plant biology course were inspiring me to learn more about teaching.  Through a series of fortunate experiences with Dr. Charles M. Weller and Don DeCoste and Dr. Ed Dole, I was inspired by the philosophy of constructivism and the art of well designed instruction to transition from engineering to education.  After teaching after-school art programs in the local grade school, co-operative teaching in the local middle school, and teaching outreach classes for middle school students at UIUC and the local community college, I was hooked on science and mathematics education as my life-long career.

I became a middle school teacher in 1995. I worked in the Urbana and Champaign middle schools for five years; first as a regular classroom teacher in Urbana and later as the gifted teacher for all middle school science and mathematics in Champaign. While teaching, I evaluated various science education outreach efforts, served as a regional and state judge for the Science Olympiad, and trained teacher educators in computer based teaching and learning tools.

Education to Education Reform
With the love of teaching, a love of the art of design from engineering, and a realization of the critical impact that well designed curriculum can have on student learning, I looked for ways to join these interests together through various education reform efforts.  

In 2000, I joined the Shodor Education Foundation and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at UIUC as a Mathematics and Science Education Specialist. I worked on various projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation to prepare tomorrow’s teachers to use technology. And I developed various initiatives related to instructional materials design for science literacy with Project 2061 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This work fueled my growing passion for mathematics and science education reform and got me particularly obsessed with the design and adoption of the highest quality standards aligned materials and practices in my own classroom as well as other schools around the nation. I became more heavily involved in training educators and researchers in the use of computer based teaching and learning tools. Some of the tools included TI graphing calculators, digital probes, NetLogo (and StarLogo), The Web-based Science Inquiry Environment, World Watcher, Project Interactivate, Stella, RiverWeb, Mathematica, Chemviz and Biology Student Workbench. I co-conducted seminars and workshops for in-service teachers and faculty in computational science, modeling and visualization with EdGrid, the National Computational Science Leadership Program, the SuperComputing 2002 (SC2002) Education Program, the SuperComputing 2003 (SC2003) Education Program, Revitalize, the National Computational Science Institute, and CSynergy. I was also the lead instructor for the UIUC College of Engineering weeklong G.A.M.E.S. computer science camp in the summer of 2003 for 8th-9th grade girls, which used NetLogo as a platform for the students to create their own computer games.

My passion for mathematics and science education continued to grow and my appreciation for the challenge of how hard it is to design really high quality standards aligned materials deepened.  I felt a strong desire to have the best of both worlds by looking for ways to both participate in the design of these high quality instructional materials and also be a teacher who gets to implement such materials in the classroom. 

The school I currently teach in (Park View School District 70 in Morton Grove, IL) has adopted very progressive educational materails in the middle grades for mathematics and science.  As of the 2005-2006 school year, our school has adopted the Connected Mathematics Project in grades 6-8 mathematics. And we are implementing/piloting units for the entire IQWST curriculum and strongly believe it to be the most sophisticated, ambitious, coherent, and accessible science curriculum for middle school kids of any we evaluated.  We also work with AAAS, project 2061 evaluating and testing science assessment items.  Our middle school mathematics and science staff at Park View school includes Lisa Brody, Rob Pape, Keetra Tiption, Melissa Yermack.  They have dedicated their support to a variety of research studies in their classroom with researchers and educators at  Northwestern, UIUC, University of Michigan, and Michigan State over the past four years.

While the majority of my work with Northwestern is designing instructional materials is with Uri Wilensky through the Center for Connected Learning, I also co-teach a project-based science education course (LS 435) with Brian Reiser on the science education research and practice related to inquiry-based learning, conceputal change, and curriculum and activity design, and help provide workshops for teachers and help review materials for different parts of the IQWST curriculum.

Research/Scholarship
Research Interests

Current interests: Instructional materials design, Professional Development of Teachers,  Scientific Modeling, Evolutionary Mechanisms, Visualization, Computational Thinking and Agent Based Modeling.

Lab Affiliations

Center for Connected Learning

Teaching/Advising
Courses

LRN_SCI 435

Science Teaching This seminar will review current trends and research in science education, focusing on innovative approaches to teaching, including technology-based learning environments. Course readings will combine studies of student reasoning, studies of science teaching practice, new paradigms for technology-based learning environments in science, and empirical studies of the problems and prospects of various approaches.

Professional
Employment History

2004		Center for Connected Learning Instructional Materials Developer
2003		Park View School 8th grade mathematics and science teacher
2000 - 2003		National Center for Supercomputing Applications Project lead on Educational Access Design Systems (EADS) and Curriculum Workbench Project.
2000 - 2003		Shodor Education Foundation Workshop provider for National Computational Science Leadership Institute.
1998 - 2000		Champaign School District Gifted Mathematics and Science Specialist for grades 6-8.
1998 - 1998		EDS private consultant: developed ergonomics in cab for 426F backhoe, contracted for Caterpillar Inc.
1996 - 1998		Urbana School District 6th grade mathematics and science teacher,
1996 - 1996		University of Illinois at Urbaran-Champaign Teaching assistnant in mechanical engineering courses and plant biology courses. Instructional materials developer in biology courses.
1992 - 1996		Caterpillar Inc. Private consultant: scientific visualizations, neural network and vehicle controls research. Co-developed virtual prototyping system.
1990 - 1991		Fermi National Accelerator Lab Co-operative exchange student in mechanical engineering. Designed electrostatic bead test device and structural support for assembly of DO particle detector.