BIO - Dr. Jane Dmochowski is a senior lecturer and teaching faculty in EES with research interests in Marine Geophysics, Remote Sensing and Science Education. Jane began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 and became the Assistant Director of the Earth and Environmental Science undergraduate programs in 2008. She helped to start the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) in 2012, has served as a freshmen advisor since 2008, is a co-chair of the Environmental Sustainability Advisory Committee’s (ESAC) Academic Subcommittee, helped to develop and run the Integrated Sustainability Across the Curriculum (ISAC) program, and currently is Teaching Faculty in the Earth and Environmental Science Department. In EES, Jane teaches a broad range of classes, such as Oceanography, Intro to Remote Sensing, Environmental Case studies and has served for many years as an EES senior thesis advisor.
ABSTRACT - Pennsylvania's Science Standards were last updated in 2002, but this summer I had the opportunity to work with a 60-member committee to make recommendations for new Standards. Through much deliberation, our recommendations were broken into three areas: Grades K-5, Environment, Ecology, Technology and Engineering; Grades 6-12, Science, Environment and Ecology; and Grades 6-12 Technology and Engineering. The Recommended Standards are publicly available here: https://www.berksiu.org/pasciencestandardsrecommendations/. In early September 2020, the State Board of Education unanimously voted (13-0) to adopt these proposed updates. The Board’s vote is not an adoption of the proposed standards as written, however, but opens the process for further revision. The recommendations now go to the Governor’s Office, the General Assembly, and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) for review, and there will be a public comment period this fall. After these reviews, The Board will revisit the revised recommendations and take a final vote to adopt them, and thereafter, the long overdue, 3-year implementation period could begin. In working with the K-12 educators on these recommendations I learned many lessons I will bring to my work in higher education, including a renewed passion for considering equity and lessons of sustainability in my teaching, service and research. In this talk I will share some of my lessons learned, discuss what we can learn from this process and what the outcome means for higher education, and provide an overview of how these recommendations differ from the previous Standards.
If interested in attending this seminar session, please contact Nicholas Crivaro at ncrivaro@sas.upenn.edu for Zoom login details.
