Open to the OSU Community.

 "Using issues as contexts for STEM education: Research-based insights for improving teaching and learning"

 An important goal for education is helping learners develop knowledge and competencies that can help them be better prepared for dealing with the complex challenges of life. However, many approaches to teaching do not provide learners with adequate opportunities to consider the ways in which the disciplinary knowledge and skills might actually help them to deal with these complex problems. In this talk, Sadler will share an educational model that addresses these challenges by centering learning opportunities on socio-scientific issues, and highlights the ways in which STEM practices such as scientific modeling can be integrated and ultimately support deeper understandings on the part of learners.

 Troy Sadler, Ph.D., serves as a Professor and the Associate Dean of Research at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) School of Education. Sadler’s research focuses on how students negotiate complex socio-scientific issues and how these issues may be used as contexts for science learning. He is interested in how issues-based learning experiences can support student learning of science and development of practices essential for full participation in modern democratic societies. He has also explored ways in which innovative technologies including virtual environments and gaming can support student learning.