About the Contributors

Edward E. Anderson is Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the Ray Butler Distinguished Educator at Texas Tech University. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and Ph.D. degree from Purdue University. His research interests are in applying technology to teaching.

Omar Arizpe obtained his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Notre Dame University and his MS in Mathematics from Texas Tech University. His area of focus was problem solving in the middle school classroom. He is currently a high school mathematics teacher in San Antonio, Texas.

Cynthia Atman is a professor of industrial engineering, founding director of the Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching, director of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education and the inaugural holder of the Mitchell T. & Lella Blanche Bowie Endowed Chair. She earned her doctorate in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University and joined the UW in 1998 after seven years on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on engineering design learning and students as emerging engineering professionals. She is a fellow of AAAS and ASEE and was the 2002 recipient of the ASEE Chester F. Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education.

Mary Baker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas Tech University. She is co-director of the Neuroimaging, Cognition and Engineering (NICE) Lab on the Texas Tech campus. Her research interests include the education and retention of engineering students.

Richard Bannerot is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston. His research interests are in the thermal sciences and in engineering design education. For the past sixteen years he has taught the required "Introduction to Design" course at the sophomore level and has been involved in the teaching of the capstone design course. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Texas.

Meryl Bertenthal is a Visiting Director of Research in the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  She was formerly a Senior Program Officer with the National Research Council’s Center for Education, Board on Testing and Assessment.  In that capacity she worked with the Committee on Programs for Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in American High Schools, and co-edited their report: Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools, which called for important changes to the AP and IB programs. Ms. Bertenthal worked as a teacher, counselor, and curriculum and instructional supervisor in public schools and districts in Massachusetts, Colorado and Virginia.

Mary Besterfield-Sacre is an Associate Professor and Fulton C. Noss Faculty Fellow in Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.  She received her B.S. in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri - Rolla, her M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.   Her principal research interests are in empirical and cost modeling applications for quality improvement in manufacturing and service organizations, and in engineering education evaluation methodologies. She is an associate editor for the Journal of Engineering Education.

Maura Borrego is an assistant professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Dr. Borrego holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University. Her current research interests center around interdisciplinary collaboration in engineering and engineering education, including studies of the collaborative relationships between engineers and education researchers, but she also works on research teams studying undergraduate research and engineering diversity programs. She was awarded a CAREER grant from NSF to study interdisciplinarity in engineering graduate programs nationwide.

Boz Bowles is a Technical Communication Instructor in the Engineering Communication Studio at Louisiana State University. He earned a baccalaureate degree in English and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Virginia Commonwealth University.

M. Anne Britt is an associate professor in the Psychology Department at NIU. She is a cognitive psychologist with an expertise in advanced literacy skills, such as argument comprehension, sourcing and content integration. She has developed an interactive internet-based tutorial for teaching these skills and is also interested in issues of education and web development. M. Anne Britt is an associate professor in the Psychology Department at NIU. She is a cognitive psychologist with an expertise in advanced literacy skills, such as argument comprehension, sourcing and content integration. She has developed an interactive internet-based tutorial for teaching these skills and is also interested in issues of education and web development.

Ashlee G. Brown is a graduate student in the Psychology program at Texas Tech University.

Edgar Conley is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Specializing in experimental mechanics, Dr. Conley received the PhD from Michigan State University. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and of the American Society of Engineering Education. He has served as faculty advisor for the student section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for the past fifteen years, and was awarded faculty advisor of the year in 2004 for his service to the Society. A recent research interest is in explosively actuated spacecraft hardware.

Curtis Craig is a graduate student in the Psychology program at Texas Tech University

Christine M. Cunningham, Vice President of Research, has been developing science and engineering curriculum, designing and offering teacher professional development programs, and conducting research and assessment related to the learning and teaching of science and engineering for over a decade. Her projects focus on making science and engineering more accessible to marginalized populations, especially women, underrepresented minorities, and people with disabilities. She is particularly interested in the ways that the teaching and learning of engineering and science can change to include and benefit from a more diverse population. Christine received a joint Bachelors and Masters degree in Biology from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Science Education from Cornell University.

Odesma Dalrymple is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Research interests include the role of extracurricular activities in the professional preparation of engineering students, factors influencing first-year engineering students’ choice of engineering discipline, the trajectory of minorities and women in the engineering pipeline, and the pedagogical value of disassemble / analyze / assemble activities.

Rebecca L. Damron is Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include Writing Across the Curriculum, spoken discourse and cognition, and corpus-based research of written language.

Alli DeFinis is a graduate student in the Psychology program at Texas Tech University.

Katherine Deibel is a graduate research assistant in the Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching and a doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. She received a BSc in computer science and mathematics from Butler University in 2001 and an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Washington. Her areas of interest include digital literacy, accessible technology, computers in education, information visualization, and experimental design.

Raj Desai is the coordinator and founding faculty member of the Industrial Technology Program in the School of Business at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. His research interests are in the areas of industrial technology, innovation, and new technologies. He has made several presentations, written in proceedings, and published journal papers in national and international journals. Raj Desai is also a Certified Senior Industrial Technologist.

Denise Drane is an Associate Director of the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence and an ad hoc professor in the School of Communication, Sciences and Disorders. She leads the Center's research initiatives on learning and teaching and oversees the numerous multi-faculty evaluation projects. Her research focus has primarily been on the evaluation of teaching and learning in the sciences, medicine and engineering. She holds doctorate in Speech and Language Pathology from Northwestern University and a Master's degree in Public Health from the University of Sydney.

John Eggebrecht is Director of Science Redesign for Advanced Placement at the College Board. He received his doctorate from Cornell University in Engineering and his masters and bachelors degrees in Chemistry and Biology.  Before joining the College Board, Dr. Eggebrecht served on the faculties of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and Iowa State University. His research has focused on the structure and dynamics of disordered materials and science education.

Demetra Evangelou is Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She recieved her B.A. in Psychology from Northeastern Illinois University, and her MEd. and PhD in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her interests are in early education antecedents of engineering education, developmental factors in engineering pedagogy, technological literacy, human-artefact interaction, and engineering thinking.

Jennifer Kelso Farrell is a Technical Communication Instructor in the Engineering Communication Studio at Louisiana State University. She earned a baccalaureate in English from the University of Montana, a master’s degree of English from Montana State University, and a PhD in English from Louisiana State University.

Jacob Fleming is a graduate student in the Psychology program at Texas Tech University.

Richard Gale is an Academic Dean and Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas Tech University. He received his MS and PhD from Lehigh University in 1981 and 1984, respectively. His research interests include MEMS, applications of optical matched filter correlators, biological microfluidics, biological applications of nanowires, course development – laboratory optical instrumentation.

Art Graesser is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis. His general areas of research are in cognitive science and discourse processing, with specific interests in tutoring systems, computerized learning environments, question asking and answering, inferences during comprehension, reading, emotions during complex learning, knowledge representation, and computational linguistics. Beginning in January, 2008, he will be the editor of Journal of Educational Psychology and is on the editorial board of nine journals. In addition to publishing over 350 articles in journals, books, and conference proceedings, he has written two books and has edited eight books.

Diane Halpern is Professor in Psychology and Director of the Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children at Claremont McKenna College. Dr. Halpern has published over 350 articles and many books including, Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (4th Ed.); Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities (3rd ed.), a special two-volume edited issue of the American Behavioral Scientis t entitled Changes at the Intersection of Work and Family (edited with Heidi R. Riggio, 2006) and From Work-Family Balance to Work-Family Interaction: Changing the Metaphor (edited with Susan Murphy, 2005). Dr. Halpern was 2004 President of the American Psychological Association. In addition, Dr. Halpern has served as president of the Western Psychological Association, the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, and the Division of General Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

Karen A. High earned her B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1985 and her M.S. in 1988 and Ph.D. in 1991 from the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. High is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at Oklahoma State University where she has been since 1991. Her main research interests are Sustainable Process Design, Industrial Catalysis, and Multicriteria Decision Making. Other scholarly activities include enhancing creativity in engineering education, critical thinking, and teaching science to education students and professionals. Dr. High is a trainer for Project Lead the Way pre-Engineering curriculum. Dr. High is involved with the development of an undergraduate entrepreneurship minor at Oklahoma State University.

Kristen Huff is Senior Director of Advanced Placement Research and Assessment Design at the College Board. She received both her Masters of Education (University of North Carolina Greensboro) and doctorate (University of Massachusetts Amherst) in educational measurement. Before joining the College Board, Dr. Huff worked at Educational Testing Service on the development of TOEFL® iBT using evidence-centered design. Her research areas of interest are assessment design, diagnostic score reporting methodology, and item difficulty modeling.  

Warren Hull is the Engineering Communications Coordinator at Louisiana State University. He earned a baccalaureate in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University and master’s degree in Environmental Health from Harvard University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer with nearly 40 years engineering experience. Prior to joining LSU he was an engineering consultant. He is also a retired U.S. Air Force officer.

Mica Hutchison is a Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. Dr. Hutchison’s research interests include the development of adaptive expertise in engineering students, the formation of students’ engineering-efficacy beliefs, and understanding the ways in which educational environments influence students’ retention and success. Dr. Hutchison received her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Idaho. She also holds a M.S. degree in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Engineering Education, both from Purdue University.

David Jonassen is Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Missouri where he teaches in the areas of Learning Technologies and Educational Psychology. Since earning his doctorate in educational media and experimental educational psychology from Temple University, Dr. Jonassen has taught at the Pennsylvania State University, University of Colorado, the University of Twente in the Netherlands, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Syracuse University. He has published 30 books and numerous articles, papers, and reports on text design, task analysis, instructional design, computer-based learning, hypermedia, constructivist learning, cognitive tools, and problem solving. His current research focuses on the cognitive processes engaged by problem solving and models and methods for supporting those processes during learning.

Tanja Karp is Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Texas Tech University. She received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering (M.S.E.E.) and the Dr.-Ing. degree (Ph.D.) from Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany, in 1993 and 1997, respectively. Her research interests are in multirate signal processing and multicarrier communications and in pre-university engineering education projects that form teams between K-12 teachers and students and university undergraduate engineering students.

Deborah Kilgore is a research scientist in the Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching at University of Washington. She earned her doctorate in Educational Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University and joined the UW after five years on the faculty of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University. Her areas of specific interest and expertise include adult learning theory, student development, and women in education.

Cathy Lachapelle currently leads the assessment efforts for the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum, designing assessment instruments, pilot and field testing them, and conducting research on how children use the EiE materials. She has worked on a number of research and evaluation projects related to K-16 engineering, mathematics, and science education. She is particularly interested in how people learn through collaborative interaction. Cathy received her S.B. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT, and her Ph.D. in Psychological Studies in Education from Stanford University.

Gregory Light is the director of the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence and an associate professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Prior to arriving at Northwestern University in 2000, he was deputy head of the Lifelong Learning Group at the Institute of Education, University of London (UK). He teaches courses focusing on the theory and practice of learning, the construction of learning environments and teaching in higher and professional education in the U.S. and U.K. He is currently PI on two National Science Foundation and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation educational research and development grants. These projects are all long term collaborations with science and engineering faculty and focus on the understanding and improvement of student learning in the sciences at the undergraduate level. Additional research projects focus on faculty conceptions of teaching in a research intensive context and the relationship of research and teaching in faculty conceptions of learning. He is author of the book Teaching & Learning in Higher Education: The Reflective Professional (Sage Publications, 2001).

Thomas Litzinger is Director of the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Penn State, where he has been on the faculty since 1985. His work in engineering education involves problem solving, curricular reform, teaching and learning innovations, faculty development, and assessment. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of combustion and thermal sciences.

Laura Lowe is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Texas Tech University and a licensed Clinical Social Worker in Texas. She received her MSW in 1996 and PhD in 2004 from the University of Georgia. Her clinical practice focused in the area of juvenile delinquency, with a specialization in sexual aggression. Her research interests include practice/program evaluation, sexual aggression, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Ann McKenna is the Director of Education Improvement in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. Dr. McKenna is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and also holds a courtesy appointment as Assistant Professor in the School of Education and Social Policy. She also serves as Co-Director of the Northwestern Center for Engineering Education Research (NCEER). Dr. McKenna’s research focuses on the role of adaptive expertise in engineering education, design teaching and learning, and teaching approaches of engineering faculty. Dr. McKenna received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University and Ph.D. in Engineering, Science and Mathematics Education from the University of California at Berkeley.

Vickie Medina is a senior level undergraduate student, research assistant and McNair Scholar at Texas Tech University. She expects to receive her Bachelor of Arts in Social Work in May 2008.

Ronald L. Miller is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director for the Center for Engineering Education at Colorado School of Mines.  He earned degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Wyoming and Colorado School of Mines.  Dr. Miller has received three university-wide teaching awards and has held a Jenni teaching fellowship at CSM. He has received grant awards for educational research from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education FIPSE program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education and has published widely in the areas of engineering education assessment, pedagogy, and curricular design.

Keith Millis is a professor in the Department of Psychology at NIU. His research areas include discourse comprehension, reading assessment, knowledge representation, intelligent tutoring, and aesthetics. He has received federally-funded grants to develop intelligent tutor for teaching science and measuring effective reading strategies. He is the Project Director for Project ARIES.

Barbara M. Moskal received her Ed.D. in Mathematics Education with a minor in Quantitative Research Methodology and her M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh. She is an Associate Professor in the Mathematical and Computer Sciences and the Director of the Center of Assessment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at the Colorado School of Mines. She is currently the lead faculty member in charge of program level assessment in her home department and has acted as an external evaluator on numerous mathematics, science and engineering education research projects. Her research interests include student assessment, K-12 outreach and equity issues. In 2000, she received a New Faculty Fellowship at the Frontiers in Education Conference, and in 2006, she received the Burton W. Jones Award for Distinguished Teaching and the William Elgin Wickenden Award with her colleagues, Barbara Olds and Ronald Miller.

Rachna Mutreja is an international student in her second year in the graduate program in Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University. She received her undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in family and child studies from the University of Guelph, Canada. Her research interests are in brain circuitry and cognitive functioning of young students who are learning disabled.

Ida Ngambeki is a doctoral student in the Department of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She recieved her BEng. from Smith College. Her research interests include engineering thinking, ethical practice, decision-making in engineering, and life-long learning.

Michael O'Boyle is a Professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Texas Tech University. He is the co-director of the Neuroimaging, Cognition and Engineering (NICE) laboratory on the Texas Tech campus and is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on the brain bases of intelligence, particularly mathematical giftedness.

Chris Papadopoulos is a research associate and grant writer in the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he was previously Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics. He earned B.S. degrees in Civil Engineering and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993, and a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University in 1999, supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. His research and professional interests are in nonlinear structural mechanics, biomechanics, engineering education, and engineering ethics, and he is Principal Investigator for the NSF Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Scholarship (CSEMS) Program at UW-Milwaukee. He is a member of the American Society for Engneering Education (ASEE), the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He is a recipient of the 2006 Ferdinand P. Beer and E. Russell Johnston Outstanding New Mechanics Educator Award, sponsored by the ASEE Mechanics Division, and the Best Paper award at the 2004 North-Midwest Regional Conference of ASEE. In Milwaukee, he organizes events for engineering and prospective engineering students, is a member of Our Lady of Divine Providence Parish, advocates for nuclear disarmament, and serves as an officer the Riverwest Investment Cooperative, a community member-owned business that renovates properties.

James W. Pellegrino is currently a Distinguished Professor in Psychology and Education and Co-Director of the Learning Sciences Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his B.A. from Colgate University with a major in psychology, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in experimental and cognitive psychology from the University of Colorado. From 1973-1979 he was Professor of Psychology and a Research Associate of the University of Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center. From 1979-1989 he was Professor of Education and Psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara where he also served as Chair of the Department of Education from 1987-1989. From 1989-2001, he was Frank W. Mayborn Professor of Cognitive Studies at Vanderbilt University, where he also served as Dean of Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education and Human Development (1992-1998) and as co-director of the Learning Technology Center (1989-1992). His research and development interests focus on children's and adult's thinking and learning and the implications of cognitive research and theory for assessment and instructional practice. Much of his current work is focused on analyses of complex learning and instructional environments, including those incorporating powerful information technology tools, with the goal of better understanding the nature of student learning and the conditions that enhance deep understanding. A special concern of his research is the incorporation of effective formative assessment practices, assisted by technology, to maximize student learning and understanding. He has written over 235 books, chapters and journal articles in the areas of cognition, instruction and assessment. Increasingly his research and writing has focused on the role of cognitive theory and technology in educational reform and translating research results into implications for practitioners and policy makers. He has served as head of several National Academy of Science/National Research Council study committees, including the Study Committee for the Evaluation of the National and State Assessments of Educational Progress, co-chair of the Study Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, and co-chair of the Study Committee on the Foundations of Assessment. He chaired the NRC/NAS Panel on Research on Learning and Instruction for the Strategic Education Research Partnership and served as a member of the Study Committee on Test Design for K-12 Science Achievement. He is a lifetime National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences and a member of the Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council. He was recently elected a member of the National Academy of Education.

Jeanne E. Pemberton is a Regents’ Professor and the John and Helen Schaefer Professor of Chemistry at the University of Arizona. She received her undergraduate education at the University of Delaware, obtaining a B.S. degree in Chemistry with Distinction and a B.A. degree in Biology in 1977, and she completed her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. Dr. Pemberton’s research interests lie in the area broadly defined as interfacial chemistry where she works on the development and use of a variety of molecular spectroscopic probes for interfaces important in electrochemical, separations, self-assembling, and environmental systems. In addition to her scientific interests, Dr. Pemberton has been involved at the national level in a variety of professional activities related to science education and women in chemistry.

Olga Pierrakos is a National Academy of Engineering CASEE Postdoctoral Engineering Education Researcher (PEER) at Virginia Tech in the Department of Engineering Education until December 2007. Starting January 2008, Dr. Pierrakos will be an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at James Madison University. Dr. Pierrakos holds a B.S. in Engineering Science and Mechanics, an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Her research interests are cardiovascular fluid mechanics and engineering education research, which includes outcomes-based assessment methods in engineering, how engineering students learn and develop knowledge, design education methodologies, epistemologies of interdisciplinary education, and K-12 engineering education.

Mark D. Reckase is a professor in the Measurement and Quantitative Methods Program within the College of Education at Michigan State University.  He came to MSU after working at ACT Inc., the college admissions testing company, for 17 years. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from Syracuse University.  Dr. Reckase has just completed a term as the Vice President of Division D of the American Educational Research Association (the research methodology division) and he is the president elect of the National Council of Measurement in Education.  He has served as the editor of the Journal of Educational Measurement and Applied Psychological Measurement. Dr. Reckase specializes in the area or psychometric theory with current work emphasizing the development of probabilistic models for the interaction of persons with test items.  Currently, he is working on a book on multidimensional item response theory and he also conducts research into computerized applications to educational and psychological testing including computerized adaptive testing, and into methods for setting performance standards on educational tests.

Larry Shuman is Senior Associate Dean and Professor in Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.  He received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University in Operations Research.  His three primary areas of interest are improving the engineering educational experience with an emphasis on assessment, the off-shoring of engineering work, and the study of the ethical behavior of engineers and engineering managers.  He is the founding editor of Advances in Engineering Education.

James D. Slotta is an associate professor of Education in the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. he holds a Canada Research Chair in Education and Technology, with research projects in science education, cognitive psychology, and learning technology frameworks. He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, and spent ten years as a professional research and faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley. Slotta’s previous efforts in the Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) investigated teachers' adoption of new inquiry and technology practices. As co-director of the NSF-funded Technology Enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) center, he led the design of a Scalable Architecture for Interactive Learning (SAIL) that will support the development of new interactive learning environments. His current research investigates the interconnection of knowledge building and scripted activities, the design of interoperable learning technologies, and the role of open source and open content development in the learning sciences. Professor Slotta actively collaborates with colleagues in many countries in the development of technology systems and new theoretical models for learning and instruction.

Mary F. (Frankie) Stewart , B.A.Sc. (Queen’s U.), M.Eng. (U. of Toronto), is a Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Ryerson University. Professor Stewart is a recipient of the FEAS Teaching Excellence Award at Ryerson University (2006), of Honourable Mention in the 2005 province-wide competition for the COU Award for Teaching with Technology, and of the Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology from the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, Jacksonville, FL (2005). Her research interests are in a cross-section of cognition and technology. Together with Dr. Zywno she is a holder of a nationally funded grant to support their research in engineering education. She is a member of ASEE, SME, and a registered Professional Engineer.

Ruth A. Streveler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Before coming to Purdue in 2006 she was the founding Director of the Center for Engineering Education at the Colorado School of Mines.

Su Swarat is a doctoral candidate in the Learning Sciences, and a Research Associate at the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University. Her research interests are primarily concerned with science education, and her current work includes understanding student interest, development in school science, and exploring students' conceptions and learning barriers of key science, particularly nanoscience, concepts. Prior to graduate school, she coordinated a peer-led, problem-based program aimed at improving minority students' performance and retention in STEM disciplines.

Roman Taraban is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Psychology at Texas Tech University, Assessment Coordinator for the Texas Tech University Howard Hughes Medical Institute (TTU/HHMI) Biological Sciences Education Program, Member of the Texas Tech Teaching Academy Executive Council, past President of the Society for Computers in Psychology (SCiP), and Associate Editor for the Journal of Educational Psychology. He received his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. His interests are in how undergraduate students learn, and especially, how they draw meaningful connections in traditional college content materials.

Karen L. Tonso , Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Educational Foundations at Wayne State University, in Detroit, Michigan. Her research in engineering education melds her 15 years of experience working as a reservoir engineer in the petroleum industry with her training as an anthropologist of education. She grounds her research in situated learning theory and pays particular attention to relations of power, whether stemming from gender, race/ethnicity, social class, or other forms of life in diverse societies. She is an AERA Spencer Foundation Fellow and won the Mary Catherine Ellwein Outstanding Dissertation Award for Qualitative Research Methodology in 1999 and the Selma Greenberg Distinguished Dissertation Award for Research on Women and Education in 1998. Her 2007 book On the Outskirts of Engineering: Learning Identity, Gender, and Power via Engineering Practice (Sense Publishers) reports the large-scale cultural study of an engineering campus. Her current research projects focus on an undergraduate course in real-time, embedded-systems networking, and on the academic careers of women in engineering and sciences.

Peggy Van Meter is an Associate Professor of Education in the Educational Psychology Program at Penn State where she has been on the faculty since 1996. Her research includes studies of the strategic and meta-cognitive processes that learners use to integrate multiple representations and acquire knowledge that will transfer and be useful in problem solving.

Betsy Yanik is professor in the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics at Emporia State University. Among her honors, she was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring during ceremonies in Washington DC, and met with President Bush in the Oval Office. She was selected by the Mathematical Association of America to serve on the Ad Hoc Committee to draft the regulations for a national award, the Euler Book Prize.

Şenay Yaşar-Purzer is a Ph.D. candidate in Science Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Arizona State University (ASU). She earned her MA degree in Science Education at Arizona State University. She has a BS degree in Physics Education and is currently pursuing another B.S.E degree with a concentration in mechanical systems at ASU‘s Polytechnic Campus. Her main research focus is on engineering self-efficacy and collaborative learning. She teaches an elementary science methods course for undergraduate students.

Malgorzata S. (Gosha) Zywno , M.Eng. (U. of Toronto), Ph.D. (Glasgow Caledonian U.), is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ryerson University. Dr. Zywno is a recipient of several university, national and international teaching excellence and achievement awards, including the 2005 ASEE Sharon Keillor Award, 2002 3M Teaching Fellowship and 2005 Canadian Engineers’ Medal for Distinction in Engineering Education. Her research interests are in active, collaborative learning with technology. She has authored numerous papers and presentations on engineering education, and is a winner of eight best paper awards, including the 2002 Annual ASEE Conference Best Paper Award. Professor Zywno is a member of ASEE, STLHE, Senior Member of IEEE, and a registered Professional Engineer.