This is a news item, not a thought piece.
My team — the UMass Physics Education Research Group (UMPERG) — is moving! The University of North Carolina at Greensboro wants to build a robust, interdisciplinary, inter-departmental effort in science and math education research, outreach, and teacher preparation, and they’re serious enough to put some resources behind it.
To kick things off, they’ve hired my mentor and my group’s senior member, Bill Gerace, to fill the newly-created post of Helena Gabriel Houston Distinguished Professor of Science Education (a chair generously endowed by the C. D. Spangler Foundation — thanks, folks). He retired from UMass and began at UNCG this past summer. I’m moving in January, and my other colleague, Bill Leonard, starts at UNCG next summer. Whee!
(For those of you not fully up-to-date on UMPERG’s status, Jose Mestre moved to UIUC a few years ago, and Bob Dufresne has been primarily occupied with his Reading Recovery publishing business for a while.)
We’ve got the ambition and the mandate to do some big things at UNCG, such as building an inter-departmental “center” for science and mathematics education research and outreach, and creating a graduate degree program in Physics Education Research and/or Science Education Research. So, if you’re a potential graduate student, sabbatical visitor, collaborator, or faculty hire — or if you’re just curious — stay tuned.
The inevitable disruption is a partial explanation for my relative silence on this blog of late. 2008 has been a very, very tumultuous year, in both good and bad ways, for many reasons. My list of ideas for blog topics is getting longer, though…
