Nancy Butler Songer
The 2012 Science Standards will place an emphasis on data collection and explanations. This session will provide a free iPhone app that supports students in grades 4–12 in data collection and explanation-building about biodiversity in schoolyards in the Great Lakes region. The session will provide inquiry activities and Web resources that guide students to construct explanations to questions such as, What habitats are in my schoolyard? and Which zone in the schoolyard is the most diverse?
About the Presenter:
Nancy Butler Songer is a member of the faculty of the School of Education at the University of Michigan. In addition, Songer is director of the Center for Essential Science at the University of Michigan, and principal investigator of the Deep Think and Climate Change Biology research groups. Her work challenges American students’ underperformance in science that emerges between the fourth and eighth grades through the development and evaluation of technology, curriculum units, assessment instruments, and learning progressions focused on students’ complex understandings of current science topics. Songer was awarded a Presidential Faculty Fellowship from President William J. Clinton in 1996 and elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Songer has a PhD in science education from the University of California, Berkeley; an MS in Molecular/Developmental Biology from Tufts University; and a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Davis.
