About the Workshop
The Digital Storytelling workshop is a hands-on, interactive trans media experience where participants worked together to develop a dynamic STEM unit specifically tailored for 5th or 6th graders.
This collaborative effort, led by Touro University Graduate School of Education and the New York School of Career and Applied Studies, aimed to equip future teachers with the skills to make science learning fun and engaging for their students.
Presenters
Timothy Bellavia, MFA is an Associate Professor in the Department of Alternative Programs and University Partnerships program at the Graduate School of Education. He earned his MFA from Pratt Institute and was a fellow of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and he is the author of several children's picture books, including the award-winning “We Are All the Same Inside.” Over the past few decades, Bellavia has collaborated with several non-profit organizations including Sesame Workshop, Mattie J.T. Stepanek Foundation, and the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. He was a recipient of Education Update’s Outstanding Educator of the Year Award, and is now serving as an integral part of a five year research project to highlight the importance of integrating STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) topics into elementary school's curriculum. The research is funded through an Education Innovation Research (EIR) grant from the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE).
Suzanne Poole Patzelt, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Alternative Programs and University Partnerships at Touro University. She completed her doctoral studies at Montclair State University in Teacher Education and Teacher Development. Her research centers around Research Experiences for Teachers (RETs), science teachers' conceptions of the nature of science, science teacher identities, and sustainable and equitable approaches for recruiting and retaining science teachers. She worked on the NSF-funded IMPREST grant aimed at identifying successful practices in supporting and retaining science teachers. Prior to completing her work in higher education, she was a science teacher in the city of Newark, NJ, teaching a variety of science courses for diverse learning needs, from self-contained chemistry to AP environmental science. She holds a Bachelor of science in biology and a minor in chemistry and participated in research in various fields of science, such as environmental engineering. She is equally passionate about science and education as well as working to make both fields more equitable and justice centered.
Brian Chiswell, PhD received a B.S. in biology from Francis Marion University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of South Carolina. Following graduate school, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale University School of Medicine in the department of pharmacology, then spent three years performing discovery stage research in the biotechnology industry. Dr. Chiswell has published six papers in his field and worked on several 3D structures of protein molecules. He is now an assistant professor at Touro College in Manhattan and Brooklyn and has an undergraduate research lab where students study the molecular detail of cell signaling and transcription regulation in stem cells.
Digital Stories
Click the below links to view digital story
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