About the Authors/p>

Joseph S. Krajcik, a professor of science education and associate dean for research in the School of Education at the University of Michigan, works with teachers in science classrooms to bring about sustained change by creating classroom environments in which students find solutions to important intellectual questions that subsume essential curriculum standards and use learning technologies as productivity tools. He seeks to discover what students learn in such environments, as well as to explore and find solutions to challenges that teachers face in enacting such complex instruction. In collaboration with colleagues from Northwestern University, American Association of Science, and Michigan State, Joe, through funding from the NSF, is a principal investigator in a materials development project that aims to design, develop, and test the next generation of middle school curriculum materials to engage students in obtaining deep understandings of science content and practices. He has authored and coauthored over 100 manuscripts and makes frequent presentations at international, national, and regional conferences that focus on his research, as well as presentations that translate research fi ndings into classroom practice. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and served as president of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. Joe codirects the Center for Highly Interactive Classrooms, Curriculum, and Computing in Education (hi-ce) at the University of Michigan and is a coprinciple investigator in the Center for Curriculum Materials in Science and The National Center for Learning and Teaching Nanoscale Science and Engineering. In 2002, he was honored to receive a Guest Professorship from Beijing Normal University in Beijing, China. In winter of 2005, Joe was the Weston Visiting Professor of Science Education at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Before obtaining his PhD in science education, Joe taught high school chemistry for 7 years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received a PhD in science education from the University of Iowa in 1986.

Charlene M. Czerniak is a professor of science education at The University of Toledo. She received her PhD in science education from The Ohio State University. A former elementary teacher for 10 years in Bowling Green, Ohio, she now teaches classes at The University of Toledo in grant writing and science education. She has authored and coauthored over 50 articles. Her publications appear in the Journal of Science Teacher Education, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, School Science and Mathematics, Science Scope, and Science and Children. Charlene has contributed chapters to books and has illustrated 12 children’s science education books. Most recently, she authored a chapter entitled “Interdisciplinary Science Teaching” in the Handbook of Research on Science Education, published by Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates. She has been an author and director of numerous grant-funded projects in excess of $13 million that targeted professional development of science teachers. She is currently the director of a $6 million dollar grant from the United States Department of Education entitled UToledo, UTeach, UTouch the Future (UT3), which focuses on recruiting, better preparing, and retaining science and mathematics teachers for urban schools. She makes frequent presentations at national and regional conferences that focus on her research interests on teachers’ beliefs about teaching science, professional development for elementary and middle grades teachers, science education reform, and school improvement. She is an active member in the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE), the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), the School Science and Mathematics Association (SSMA), and the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and reviews manuscripts for the journals associated with these organizations. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Science Teacher Education, the professional journal of ASTE. She has served on numerous committees for ASTE, NARST, SSMA, and NSTA. Charlene Czerniak was the president of the School Science and Mathematics Association for 2 years, and she is now president-elect of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.