EAHE's Dr. Terri Wilson Selected for Postdoctoral Fellowship Lewin ...

ARTICLES: 

EAHE’s Dr. Terri Wilson 

Selected for Postdoctoral | 1 

Lewin featured in Southern 

Illinoisan Business Journal | 1 

FEATURED DEPARTMENT 

Curriculum 

and Instruction (CI) | 2 

Heartland's Best Teacher | 2 

Introducing Students to 

the Geosciences’ Social 

Relevance | 2 

The Off-Campus Experience: 

Meeting the Needs of 

Nontraditional Students | 3 

Child Development 

Laboratory and Southern 

Region Preschool | 4 

Learning Systems Design 

and Technology | 4 

educ8kdz | 5 

CI Faculty and Egyptian School 

District Collaborate to Raise 

Student Achievement | 5 

Online TOESL Course 

Delivered by COEHS Grad 

Students | 6 

In the Field | 6 

Education Graduate 

Students’ Society (EGSS) | 6 

RSOs in Curriculum and 

Instruction | 7 

STEM Grants Provide Win-Win 

Opportunities | 8 

Mentoring for Valuable Research 

Experience | 9 

Professional Leadership 

and Good News | 10 

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May 2012 / Issue 39 

EAHE’s Dr. Terri Wilson Selected 

for Postdoctoral Fellowship 

by Dr. Andrea Evans 

Dr. Terri Wilson, Assistant Professor in the Department of 

Educational Administration and Higher Education, has been 

selected to be a 2012 National Academy of Education/Spencer 

Postdoctoral Fellow. The National Academy of Education/Spencer 

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program supports early career scholars 

working in critical areas of education research. This nonresidential postdoctoral 

fellowship funds proposals that make significant scholarly contributions to the field of 

education. The program also develops the careers of its recipients through professional 

development activities involving National Academy of Education members. The 

fellowship award is a $55,000 grant intended to provide release time from teaching and 

administrative duties over one or two years. Dr. Wilson is one of about thirty scholars 

selected from hundreds of applicants from across the country for this prestigious honor. 

You can find more information on this award at http://www.naeducation.org/NAEd_ 

Spencer_Postdoctoral_Fellowship.html 

Lewin featured in Southern 

Illinoisan Business Journal 

You might never guess that EAHE’s Dr. Elizabeth Lewin loves 

tinkering with machinery and equipment, including her lawn 

mower, but it’s true. This is just one of Dr. Lewin’s many fascinating 

qualities that she expounds upon in a recent article in the Southern 

Business Journal entitled, “Leaders Among Us: Southern Illinoisans 

who have a positive impact on their communities”. In this article, 

Dr. Lewin, a triple SIU Carbondale Alumna, discusses the lessons she 

learned from family, hard work, and from her extensive education. 

In addition to several teaching positions in the St. Louis area, Dr. 

Lewin was the first African-American administrator at Edwardsville 

Leaders like Dr. 

Lewin that help 

make us all proud to 

be Salukis 

High School. In 1995, Dr. Lewin went on to become the superintendent of Carbondale 

Elementary School District No. 95 and served in that position for 10 years. Dr. Lewin now 

serves as the assistant clinical professor in the College of Education and Human Services 

here at SIU Carbondale, an appointee of the Illinois State Board of Education, and the 

president of the board for Southern Illinois Regional Social Services. Its leaders like Dr. 

Lewin that help make us all proud to be Salukis. Please check out this captivating article 

at http://thesouthern.com/business/ 

Congratulations 

College of Education & Human Services graduates! 

“The tassel's worth the 

hassle!” ~Author Unknown

Featured Department 

Curriculum and 

Instruction (CI) 

In honor of National Teacher 

Appreciation Week (May 7th 

through May 11th), we are 

very pleased to feature The 

Department of Curriculum and 

Instruction (CI) for our final 2012 

issue of the “Update” newsletter. 

Lead by Department Chair, 

Dr. Lynn C. Smith, Curriculum 

and Instruction offers three 

undergraduate degrees: 

Elementary Education, Early 

Childhood (with specializations 

in Preschool/Primary and 

Child & Family Services), and 

Social Science Education. At 

the graduate level, they offer 

the Master of Arts in Teaching 

(MAT), the Master of Science in 

Education (MSEd), and the Doctor 

of Philosophy in Education with 

a concentration in Curriculum 

and Instruction. The department 

also offers coursework toward 

the state of Illinois reading 

endorsements and certification 

as well as state-approved middle 

level endorsement coursework. 

The department currently serves 

498 undergraduates, 162 master’s 

students, and 87 doctoral students 

from 19 countries that focus their 

study in eleven different specialty 

areas and concentrations. At the 

Honors Day ceremony, the CI 

department awarded $41,300 in 

scholarship money to 47 students 

for the 2012-2013 school year. 

To find out more about this 

exciting and innovative 

department in the College of 

Education and Human Services, 

please visit their website at 

http://ci.siuc.edu/. 

2 

Curriculum and Instruction 

Heartland's Best Teacher 

Congratulations to Curriculum and 

Instruction's Dr. Nancy Blechle, a 

summer 2007 PhD graduate with 

a specialty area in Mathematics 

Education. Dr. Blechle was recently 

named “One of the Heartland's 

Best Teachers!” Dr. Blechle teaches 

at Pinckneyville Community High 

School. 

Teachers who win this award are 

nominated by their students. The 

students write letters specifying the 

reasons their teacher should receive 

the award, including how their 

In July of 1995, over 700 people 

died in Chicago during a heat wave. 

Though the city’s residents had 

experienced extreme temperatures 

in the past, 1995 was different. But 

why? Who or what was responsible? 

What lessons should politicians, 

citizens, and scientists learn from this 

event? 

For the past three years, over 1,000 

students enrolled in CI212: Reading 

College Texts have synthesized 

multiple sources to answer these 

and other important questions. 

The cases they examine are part of 

a project funded by the National 

Science Foundation and led by C&I 

Assistant Professor Grant Miller. 

The grant is part of a national effort 

to address the lack of students 

of color pursuing degrees in the 

geosciences. Dr. Miller and his 

colleagues, Dr. Justin Schoof and Dr. 

Matthew Therrell, explore curricula 

that allow students to explore the 

geosciences’ social relevance. To 

accomplish this goal, they have 

teacher helps 

students learn. 

A panel reads 

all the nominating 

letters 

and makes the 

Way to go, Nancy! 

final decision, 

along with KFVS-TV management. 

The video of the surprise announcement 

to her by her students and 

other scenes in her classroom was 

aired on Thursday, May 3 at 5:00 p.m. 

on KFVS-12. 

Introducing Students to the 

Geosciences’ Social Relevance 

designed case studies in an online 

learning environment that require 

the learner to analyze sources 

ranging from political cartoons 

to newspaper articles to scientific 

journal articles. 

Constructing these case studies in a 

digital environment has allowed Dr. 

Miller to research how on-demand 

reading comprehension supports 

and options for viewing sources impacts 

student learning. This research 

is part of a national dialogue about 

ways to develop curriculum that is 

socially relevant and accessible for 

students 

with variouslearning 

needs. 

Screenshot 

of Online 

Chicago 

Heat Wave 

Case Study

The Off-Campus Experience: 

Meeting the Needs of Nontraditional Students 

The Department of Curriculum and 

Instruction strives to meets the 

educational needs of all of their 

students. Many students have 

family responsibilities, jobs, and 

other commitments that make 

it difficult or impossible to come 

to the Carbondale campus to 

attend classes. Therefore, CI offers 

elementary education completion 

programs at three sites throughout 

the state of Illinois. Kristin White 

is the academic advisor for the 

elementary education off-campus 

programs located at Rend Lake 

College Marketplace (RLCM) in 

Mount Vernon, Southwestern Illinois 

College (SWIC) at Red Bud, and the 

University Center of Lake County 

(UCLC) in Grayslake. She notes that 

the students in these programs are 

focused and goal oriented. Since 

these students have responsibilities 

outside of school, they are very 

driven in pursuit of their education. 

Most of these students would 

normally not have access to a 

university education. The fact that CI 

has classes offered at different sites 

and times allows students to attend 

who would otherwise have too far 

to drive, have a schedule conflict 

with work, or face insurmountable 

childcare and family issues. One 

student commented, “I joined this 

program because it was a short 

drive from Sparta. It was wonderful. 

I was able to keep my job as a lunch 

supervisor and classroom aid.” 

Students progress through the 

program as a cohort, which allows 

them to get to know each other 

very well in an environment that 

fosters group work, peer feedback, 

and mutual support. One student 

shared, “I liked our cohort. We’re 

like family.” With this close group 

dynamic, students are eager to 

contribute to the learning process. 

One SWIC-RB cohort realized that 

they were not able to eat dinner 

prior to class because their time 

was limited. They had to drive home 

from work, facilitate the family meal 

and childcare, and drive to class. The 

students then solved this problem by 

taking turns bringing healthy food 

to share with the class, thus adding 

to the supportive feelings and the 

energy levels of the students. In 

exit interviews, students reported 

that the cohort structure was key to 

their success in the program. At the 

RLCM site, coordinator Dr. Dan Jones 

reported that of the 78 students who 

began the program since 2007, 77 

will have graduated by May 2012. 

The UCLC campus allows SIU 

Carbondale the opportunity to 

bring the program to northern 

Illinois. This year marks the 20th 

cohort to attend at the UCLC site, 

where Dr. Griff Powell coordinates 

the program. The student teaching 

experience acts like a job interview, 

and program graduates are now 

employed as teachers throughout 

the northern Illinois counties of 

McHenry, Cook, and Lake. The 

Saluki reputation is enhanced as the 

program helps people working full 

time and raising families to meet 

their dreams of becoming teachers. 

A recent graduate stated, “I wouldn’t 

have gotten my degree without this 

program.” 

Rend Lake College 

Marketplace Cohort 

5. These students 

graduated in May 

2011. 

3


Child Development Laboratory 

and Southern Region Preschool 

The department of Curriculum and 

Instruction serves the SIU Carbondale 

and Southern Illinois communities 

through the Child Development 

Laboratory (CDL) and the Southern 

Region Early Childhood programs. 

The primary goal of the CDL at SIU 

Carbondale is to provide quality 

education and training experiences 

for students majoring in Early 

Childhood, while enhancing the 

field of child development through 

research. In that context, the CDL 

offers high quality child care for 

children from six weeks to six years of 

age. Quality care is delivered through 

a curriculum designed to provide 

sound emotional, social, physical and 

intellectual development. Teachers 

assess each child's growth and 

development, and plan a curriculum 

to facilitate these processes as a child 

progresses toward maturity. Both 

the indoor and outdoor learning 

environments feature a wide variety 

of developmentally appropriate 

activities. By working in conjunction 

with parents, the CDL staff is able 

to supplement home experiences 

and provide continuity of care. The 

CDL has received a 3-Star QRS rating 

from the Illinois Network of Child 

4 

Care Resource and Referral Agencies 

(INCCRA). You can find out more 

information about the CDL at ci.siuc. 

edu/cdl. 

Southern Region Early Childhood 

Programs has been serving children 

and their families for the past 25 

years. They provide pre-kindergarten 

(3-5 year olds) classes and Family 

Centers throughout Jackson, Perry, 

Randolph, and Franklin counties in 

Southern Illinois. Curriculum and 

Instruction professor, Maggie Mathias 

with Bev Gully and Deb Moberly 

wrote the first Illinois State Board 

of Education grant in 1988. The 

first year they were funded for six 

classrooms in four school districts; 

today they serve sixteen school 

districts with 23 classrooms and 

seven Family Centers. It is projected 

that for the current school year 

850 children birth to age five will 

be served. Children aged birth to 

three years and their families are 

served through home visiting and 

small play groups. Children then 

transition into a Pre-kindergarten 

classroom where they attend halfday 

programs. Southern Region is 

committed to providing high quality 

Southern Region Early Childhood 

Programs are bringing the 2011-2012 

school year to a close. 

The children in the DeSoto classroom 

are currently interested in the ocean. 

Michele Baird, the classroom teacher, is 

assessing cutting skills as the children 

explore how to construct a whale. 

Learning Systems Design and Technology 

Submitted by Dr. Peter Fadde, Coordinator of Learning Systems Design & Technology concentration/specialty area 

As of the spring 2012 semester, the 

Instructional Design and Instructional 

Technology specialty areas in 

Curriculum and Instruction have been 

combined into Learning Systems 

Design and Technology (LSDT) for 

both masters and doctoral programs. 

The new name represents the 

evolution of the discipline and its 

name, from Audio-Visual Instruction 

in the 1940s, to Educational Media 

and Educational Technology in the 

1970s, to Instructional Design and 

Technology in the 1990s, and now 

to Learning Systems Design and 

Technology. As the names suggest, 

the field has come a long way from 

using filmstrips, overhead projectors, 

and drill-and-practice in schools 

to using e-Learning and mobile 

devices, as well as games and virtual 

environments, to facilitate learning 

early childhood experiences to the 

children who are the most at-risk of 

future academic challenges. 

in higher education, the military, 

corporations, government and schools 

at every level. 

The new name maintains the 

foundations of the field but adds 

new emphasis on learning principles 

derived from cognitive psychology 

and realized by the Internet. The 

purpose is to incorporate 21st century 

skills into life-long learning through 

technology.

educ8kdz is a registered 

student organization 

focusing on the needs of 

young children in Southern 

Illinois and other areas 

with need, including New 

Orleans. The mission of educ8kdz is to 

advocate for the whole child within 

the global community. This student 

organization is committed to the 

education of future early childhood 

educators through professional 

development and leadership. With 

respect to the diverse background 

and abilities of children, they 

promote developmentally 

appropriate practices within the 

classroom, home, and community. 

The number 8 in educ8kdz’s name 

represents values they consider 

important as early childhood 

educators. 

• Advocacy 

• Diversity 

• The Whole Child 

• The Family 

• The Global Community 

• Leadership 

• Guidance 

• Professional Development 

In the past years, educ8kdz members 

traveled to New Orleans during 

spring break to connect with early 

childhood professionals and 

provide service through 

painting, raking, assembling 

classrooms, and modeling 

instructional strategies. To 

pay for these trips, a variety 

of fundraising events were 

conducted (e.g., bake sales, 

babysitting) as well as outreach to 

local civic and religious organizations. 

A book drive netted over 3000 

picture books, textbooks, and other 

literacy materials to distribute to 

children in both Southern Illinois and 

New Orleans. 

Meetings are open to members, 

associate members, and anyone 

interested in the organization. Dr. 

Christie McIntyre serves as faculty 

advisor. 

CI Faculty and Egyptian School District 

Collaborate to Raise Student Achievement 

Submitted by Joyce Killian 

Beginning in spring 2011, fourteen 

teachers from Egyptian School 

District enrolled as a group in a 

master’s degree program in the 

Department of Curriculum and 

Instruction, with a specialty in 

Teacher Leadership. The cohort is 

unusual in a couple of ways. Their 

tuition, fees and texts are all paid for 

by their school district with funding 

from school improvement grant 

funds. Additionally, their coursework 

has been collaboratively designed 

by SIU Carbondale faculty and 

district administrators to help the 

district in its efforts to raise student 

achievement. 

Egyptian Community Unit 

School District #5, located in the 

southernmost tip of Illinois, serves 

542 PK-12 students drawn from a 

rural county that ranks among the 

poorest in the state. For years, the 

school struggled to raise student 

performance, engage parents and 

recruit teachers to Tamms, a town 

best know by the prison that bears its 

name. This has changed greatly with 

an infusion of school improvement 

grant funds which doubled the 

district’s per-student funding. The 

grant also enabled the involvement 

of a transformation team led by a 

former regional superintendent 

with a commitment to community 

engagement. 

The transformation team’s approach 

targets some of the distinct 

challenges that small, rural schools 

often face. Three key components 

are student teams, community 

engagement, and teacher support. 

The purpose of the student teams 

is to recruit a support team for each 

of the school's students. A team 

might include teachers, coaches, 

Egyptian teachers in an after school class 

relatives, mental health experts or 

potential employers. To promote 

community engagement, the district 

invited three parents to join the 

transformation team as community 

liaisons. The district also hosts forums 

in apartment complexes and town 

halls. They conduct parent surveys 

and encourage families to discuss 

their child's performance with 

teachers. By the end of 2010-11, 

the first year of the transformation 

effort, a relative of every 11th-grader 

(25 students in all) had attended a 

student conference in school. 

more on | 9 

5


Online TOESL Course Delivered by 

COEHS Grad Students Submitted by Dr. Peter Fadde 

Two COEHS graduate students from 

Vietnam are running an ambitious 

and innovative online English as 

a Second Language course for 

TOESL in Vietnam. Phu Vu (Teacher 

Leadership) and Vien Cao (Leaning 

Systems Design and Technology- 

LSDT) made this project happen 

from scratch. They saw the need, 

which is that many teachers of 

English in Vietnam desire and need 

greater English language facility, but 

some never get to speak English to 

anybody in their communities. Phu 

and Vien then decided to develop 

an online English course. Phu and 

In the Field 

Working and learning in classrooms 

at the Preschool through University 

levels is an important component 

of the Curriculum and Instruction 

student’s experience. Whether it be 

an undergraduate early childhood 

major student teaching in a second 

grade classroom, a master’s student 

doing action research in a high 

school reading class, or a doctoral 

student intern working on testing 

issues with the principal of a local 

elementary school, field work is a 

valuable learning experience and 

often provides a service to the 

community. Students learn from 

mentor teachers and gain real-life 

instruction and feedback. 

6 

Laura 

Kinkade 

(Student 

Teacher) 

Round 

Lake Early 

Childhood 

Center 

Vien faced several challenges in their 

endeavors. One challenge is that 

many of the target learners (teachers 

of English in Vietnam) had never used 

computers or Internet before. In 

addition, they needed to get some 

type of funding, as they wanted to 

be able to offer the English language 

course at no cost to the learners. 

Thankfully, Phu and Vien were able 

to organize volunteer instructors 

worldwide, get funding, and design 

a curriculum for the course. As 

ambitious as the project is, they made 

it much more ambitious by including 

Education Graduate 

Students’ Society (EGSS) 

EGSS was created when a group of 

Curriculum and Instruction graduate 

students felt the need for a closer 

community among their peers. The 

organization’s goals are to promote 

interest in new developments and 

trends in the field of Education 

and Human Services, provide 

fellowship opportunities among 

COEHS graduate students and 

faculty, represent student needs 

and wants in regard to professional 

development and academic success, 

and to provide a forum for the 

presentation of innovative ideas to 

synchronous eLearning in addition to 

the asynchronous eLearning, using a 

Learning Management System (such 

as Blackboard or Desire2Learn), that 

everybody is familiar with. 

After experiencing Live Virtual 

Classroom (LVC) sessions in LSDT 

courses at SIU Carbondale, Phu 

and Vien were determined to use 

synchronous (live) online sessions 

as part of the yearlong course that 

they created. They felt that it was 

necessary for students to be able 

to interact with instructors live and 

more on | 7 

benefit the university community and 

the fields of Education and Human 

Services. Membership is open to any 

COEHS graduate student at SIUC. 

Potential members are invited to 

join the group every Friday for lunch. 

Interested students should check 

out the Facebook page titled SIUC 

Education Graduate Students' Society 

(EGSS) for details on time and place. 

EGSS activities offer support, fun, and 

a place to ask questions. The picture 

below shows some EGSS members 

and faculty after playing a studentfaculty 

softball game.

RSOs in Curriculum and Instruction 

Elementary Education 

Student Organization 

(Eeso) 

The Elementary Education Student 

Organization was conceived and 

initiated in the early 1990s by 

faculty members Dr. Donald Paige 

and Dr. Lynn Smith to provide 

Elementary Education majors 

with experiences important to 

their pre-professional lives that 

were not available through their 

formal coursework. The mission 

of the organization is to provide 

resources and support services 

to students, along with the 

opportunity to develop additional 

skills that will enable them to 

become effective teachers in an 

elementary setting. 

EESO provides students 

with opportunities to attend 

conferences, to earn scholarships, 

and to acquaint themselves with 

other students in the program. 

The organization’s events have 

included taking pre-service 

teachers to the Illinois Reading 

Conference annually in Springfield, 

sponsoring guest speakers such 

as the Illinois Agriculture in the 

Classroom Organization. EESO 

invites current student teachers to 

return to campus every semester 

to share experiences related to the 

student teaching semester. Funds 

are raised through sales of tee 

shirts, calendars, spring bulbs, and 

food. 

EESO’s bulletin board is located 

next to Wham 206, and shares 

information related to coming 

events. The current EESO faculty 

sponsor/advisor is Ms. Louise 

Stearns (Wham 322). 

Kappa Delta Pi 

The International Honor Society 

in Education, Kappa Delta Pi was 

founded by Dr. William Bagley in 

1911 at the University of Illinois. 

Kappa Delta Pi was established 

to foster excellence in education 

and promote fellowship among 

those dedicated to teaching. The 

founders chose the name from 

the Greek words to represent 

knowledge, duty, and power. 

Pioneering from its beginning 

by including women as well as 

men, Kappa Delta Pi grew from a 

local chapter to the international 

organization it is today, comprising 

582 chapters and more than 

45,000 members. See the Kappa 

Delta Pi website (www.kdp.org) for 

additional information. 

Southern Illinois University 

Carbondale’s Delta Chi chapter was 

founded in May 1939. The Spring 

2012 induction and dinner were 

held at Giant City Lodge on April 

15, with Judge Carolyn Smoot, 

Williamson County’s first female 

judge, as keynote speaker. Fiftytwo 

new Kadelpians were inducted 

that evening. 

Delta Chi Chapter supports 

projects assisting The Women’s 

Center in Carbondale and The Boys 

and Girls Club of Carbondale. This 

year’s induction book collection 

was sent to the 

Anna Bixby Women’s 

Center in Harrisburg. 

Co-Counselors 

for the Delta Chi 

Chapter are Dr. 

Francie Shafer and 

Dr. Lynn Smith. 

Online TOESL 

Course continues 

through audio. This meant needing 

to orient the learners in Vietnam not 

only to the LMS application being 

used but also the LVC application. 

This meant organizing 150 learners 

into four sections for live meetings. 

It also meant dealing with time 

zone differences between learners, 

instructors, and Phu or Vien running 

the live session. 

LVC is essentially the same as "web 

conferencing" that more and more 

students and professionals have 

experience with for electronic 

meetings. LVC typically includes the 

ability to show PowerPoint slides, to 

see and hear the presenter, and for 

participants to interact in text (chat 

box), audio, or video. LVC sessions can 

be recorded for viewing by students 

who missed the original session or 

want to review the session. 

LVC can add substantial learning 

quality to eLearning, but is also 

a substantial change in the 

asynchronous model of eLearning 

that is incredibly popular because of 

the convenience to instructors and 

students. It is beyond admirable 

for Phu and Vien to take on this 

challenge, technology, and then 

demonstrate that it is feasible. You 

can find out more by visiting their 

course URL at http://etesol.edu.vn/. 

7


STEM Grants Provide Win-Win Opportunities 

The projects described have 

provided numerous opportunities 

for study and research in Science, 

Technology, Engineering and 

Mathematics (STEM) education that 

CI graduate students have already 

started pursuing for their doctoral 

and master’s degrees. Through 

these projects, more than one 

hundred fifty K-12 teachers in the 

region are being served. Grants pay 

tuition and fees for teachers and 

provide graduate assistantships to 

graduate students. They contribute 

to enrollment in the graduate school 

throughout the academic year. The 

projects also encourage graduate 

student participation in professional 

conferences by paying for graduate 

students' travel to present research 

results. Southern Illinois teachers win; 

SIU Carbondale wins, and progress 

is made toward the ultimate goal 

of enhanced student learning in 

Southern Illinois schools. 

SMART Project 

(from 2007-2012). 

Project Website: 

http://www.smart.siu.edu/ 

Project Directors: Frackson Mumba 

(C&I), Harvey Henson (COS), Mary 

Wright (Math) and Lingguo Bu (C&I) 

Funding Agency: IBHE, $1.5 million 

The Science, Mathematics, and 

Action Research for Teachers 

(SMART) program is in its fourth year 

serving K-8 teachers of southern 

Illinois. The SMART program is a 

two-year Masters of Science in Math 

and Science Education that has 

successfully graduated 27 teachers 

in Fall 2010 and is on track to 

successfully graduate 26 additional 

8 

teachers in Fall 2012. These teachers 

take courses in science and math 

content, pedagogy, technology, 

leadership, and action research. The 

SMART program is funded through 

the Illinois State Board of Education. 

SIUC NSF GK-12 

Heartland Project 

Project Directors: Karen Renzaglia, 

Frackson Mumba, Harvey Henson, 

David Gibson, Sedonia Sipes. 

Funding Agency: NSF $1.8 million 

The goal of this project is to 

increase scientific literacy among 

high school students. Graduate 

students from the College of Science 

provide content knowledge and 

pedagogical knowledge support the 

teachers. They also plan and teach 

inquiry science lessons. The project 

pays tuition and fees for teachers 

and graduate Teaching Fellows. 

SIPAMS Project 

Project Website: 

http://www.sipams.siuc.edu/ 

Project Director: Frackson 

Mumba. Co-PIs are Harvey Henson 

(COS), Lingguo Bu (C&I), and Mary 

Wright (math). 

Funding Agency: IBHE, $1,000,000 

The Southern Illinois Partnership 

for Achievement in Math 

and Science (SIPAMS) program is 

currently preparing for its third 

summer serving elementary and 

middle school math and science 

teachers. Since the summer of 2010, 

62 teachers have participated in this 

program, which includes a summer 

workshop course in either math 

or science and an action research 

project throughout the regular 

school year. SIPAMS is a four-five year 

program that will address teacher 

needs through this manner through 

2013. The SIPAMS project is funded 

through the Illinois Board of Higher 

Education through No Child Left 

Behind. The project offers courses 

and pays tuition and fees for teachers 

in summer, fall, and spring semesters. 

PIASCS Project 

Project website: 

http://www.piascs.siuc.edu/ 

Project Director: Frackson Mumba; 

Co-PIs, Mengxia Zhu (computer 

Science) & Shaikh Ahmed (Electrical 

Engineering) 

Funding Agency: ISBE $530,000 

T he Partnership for Improved 

Achievement in Science through 

Computational Science (PIASCS) 

has worked with K-12 teachers 

in the southern Illinois area since 

the summer of 2010. Over the 

course of the last two years, PIASCS 

has trained teacher leaders in 

integrating computer simulations 

and animations in science teaching 

in schools. To date, this project has 

trained more than 50 teachers, 

teaching them how to use the latest 

technology in their classrooms. Each 

teacher has been provided with iPad 

to use in his/her science classroom. 

Evaluations show that the project has 

impacted on teachers' pedagogical 

knowledge, instructional practice 

and technology integration skills. The 

project offers courses and pays 

tuition for teachers in summer, fall 

and spring semesters. 

more on | 9

STEM Grants 

Provide Win-Win 

Opportunities continues 

SIUC NSF Robert Noyce 

Project Title: A Community of 

Problem Solvers: Teachers Leading 

Problem-Based Learning in Southern 

Illinois. Master Science Teacher 

Fellows Program. 

Funding agency: NSF, $3.2 million 

Project Directors: Karen Renzaglia, 

Harvey Henson, Frackson Mumba, 

Mary Wright, Lingguo Bu, Jan 

Waggoner, and Wesley Calvert. 

This is a partnership between 

College of Science (COS) and 

Education and Human Services 

(COEHS), regional school districts, 

and Shawnee Community College 

(SCC) aimed at transforming the way 

we engage middle school students 

in science and mathematics. The 

project will provide science and math 

content, pedagogical knowledge, 

problem-solving and research skills 

to 20 exceptional Master Teaching 

Fellows (two cohorts of 10) in 

high-need 4th-8th grades of rural 

Southern Illinois. Each Master Teacher 

Fellow will be supported for five years 

and will gain mastery of scientific 

processes by conducting research at 

the Cache River Wetland and other 

unique experiential laboratories for 

sciences and mathematics. Each 

Master Teacher Fellow will receive 

a salary supplement of $15,000 

per year, a special certificate from 

SIUC, and possibly coursework that 

may count towards National Board 

Certification in Science, Math and/or 

Teacher Leadership. 

Submitted by Dr. Frackson Mumba 

Ann Garrett 

teaching Writing 

Across the 

Curriculum in the 

Egyptian media 

center. 

Mentoring for Valuable 

Research Experience 

In addition to teaching classes, most CI faculty are busy doing research 

projects and presenting their studies at professional conferences and 

publishing articles in online and paper journals. Many faculty members 

are also mentoring their graduate students in the research process and 

making extra efforts to include those students as they present and publish. 

Here are just a few examples from this past year: 

• Dr. Frackson Mumba mentored graduate students Miranda Tucker 

and Erin Miles (both now graduated) and presented at the Regional 

Mathematics and Science Partnership Conference in New Orleans. 

• 

• 

• 

• 

CI Faculty and Egyptian School 

District Collaborate to Raise Student 

Achievement continues 

For the teacher 

support 

component, the 

transformation 

team has 

partnered with 

SIU Carbondale 

to design and 

deliver coursework and practicum 

experiences that prepare teachers 

for a variety of leadership roles 

in the schools. The teachers who 

volunteered for the cohort are 

now more than half way through 

their master’s degree program. 

In addition to the core CI courses 

in curriculum, instruction and 

research methods, teachers have 

taken special electives that prepare 

them for leadership roles that include 

leading curriculum initiatives, serving 

on school improvement committees, 

collaborating on the new teacher 

evaluation plan, and as serving as 

mentors and peer coaches. The 

fourteen teachers span all grade 

levels and almost all content areas, so 

the impact of the their leadership is 

district wide. For more information 

on the Department of Curriculum 

and Instruction and the Teacher 

Leadership specialty, visit http:// 

ci.siuc.edu/ and http://ci.siuc.edu/ 

teachlead/. 

Dr. Grant Miller mentored graduate student Shannon Lindsay Toth 

and published in The Social Studies. 

Dr. Crystal Shelby-Caffey mentored graduate students Bethany 

Jenkins and Edwin Ubeda and presented at the Critical Issues in 

Education conference in Kansas City, MO. 

Dr. Deborah Selzter-Kelly mentored graduate students Derrick Crow 

and Serina Cinnamon and presented at the American Educational 

Studies Association Annual Meeting in St. Louis. 

Dr. Lingguo Bu, Dr. Frackson Mumba, and Dr. Mary Wright 

(Mathematics Department) mentored graduate student Harvey 

Henson and presented at the Society of Information Technology & 

Teacher Education in Nashville, TN. 

9

Professional Leadership 

and Good News 

Along with their goals for outstanding teaching and scholarship, 

The Department of Curriculum and Instruction prides itself 

on professional leadership and diversity. This diversity and 

professional leadership is reflected in the positions held at the state, 

regional, and national levels. 

Peter Fadde is currently the Chair of the Technology, Instruction, 

Cognition, and Learning (TICL) special interest group for the American 

Educational Research Association (AERA). 

Sebastian Loh has served for the past 2 years as an Associate Editor 

for the International Journal for Game Based Learning (IJGBL) and for 

the past 4 years for the International Journal for Gaming and Computer- 

Mediated Simulation (IJGCMS). 

Marla Mallette is Co-Editor of The Reading Teacher published by the 

International Reading Association. 

Christina McIntyre currently is a member of the Research Committee 

for the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE), Agency in Teacher 

Education Commission member, ATE, and has served as program 

Subcommittee Chair for ATE, 2012. At the state level she has been a 

member on the Research Committee for the Illinois’ Association of 

Teacher Education. 

John McIntyre is Past President, Distinguished Member and 

Distinguished Teacher Educator of Association of Teacher Educators 

(ATE). He also fills the role of Association Development Specialist for 

Programs for ATE. 

Grant Miller currently serves as a Co-founder/Chair for the 

Commission on Agency in Teacher Education for the Association 

of Teacher Educators (ATE). His role includes serving as a co-editor 

for a forthcoming edited volume on promoting agency in teacher 

education, to be published by Rowman and Littlefield, 2013. 

Cathy Mogharreban is currently an Associate Editor for the 

International Journal of Early Childhood, Springer Publishing. In 

January she concluded a 3-year term as Vice President for the World 

Organization for Early Childhood, the U.S. National Committee (OMEP 

USNC) and currently serves as its Membership Chair. 

Donna M. Post is Chairperson of the Association Development and 

Membership Committee of the National Association of Teacher 

Educators (ATE), a presidential appointment for three consecutive 

years. 

Good News 

Bruns, D. A., & Thompson, S. D. (2012). Feeding challenges in young 

children: Strategies and specialized interventions for success. Baltimore, 

MD: Brookes Publishing Co. 

10 

Please look for more issues of 

the COEHS “Update” newsletter 

when classes resume for the 

Fall semester. Have a fabulous 

summer Salukis! 

A SPECIAL THANKS & GOOD BYE 

to Courtney McCalla. 

This is Courtney's last edition as editor 

of the College's UPDATE newsletter 

and we thank her for all her hard work, 

her dedication to producing a quality 

product, and for her positive cheery 

attitude. We wish you good luck! 

EDITOR: Courtney McCalla 

DESIGNER: Jeanette Johnson

EAHE's Dr. Terri Wilson Selected for Postdoctoral Fellowship Lewin ...

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