Bruce W. Grant's Work Page: Biographical Details, Publications, and Presentations

Current Position

Departments of Biology and Environmental Science
Associate Professor, fall 1998 – present
Assistant Professor, 1993 – 1998

Previous Positions, Post-Doctoral

1992-1993: Ecology Lectureship. Department of Biology, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, NC.

1990-1992: Post Doctoral Research Associate. Dr. J. Whitfield Gibbons, Univ. of GA, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory.

1988-1990: Post Doctoral Research Associate. Dr. Warren P. Porter, Univ. of WI.

Education
Univ. of Pennsylvania, Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 1988
Marlboro College, B.S., Physics/ Ecology, 1981, Highest Honors

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Awards and Scholarly Recognition

Sabbatical Leave, spring semester, 2010. “Creating an Environment, Energy, and Sustainability Science (ES)2 Institute for 21st Century Teacher Leaders.” MSP START full proposal development and submission for March 2010

Widener University President’s Lecture, Feb 2008: “Practitioner Research Improved My Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection in an Introductory Biology Course.”

Recipient of Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching, Widener University (2001)

College of Arts and Science – Teaching Award (1998-1999)

Faculty for the 21st Century (F21), Project Kaleidoscope, since May 1997.

Selected Recent Publications

Grant, BW. 2008. Practitioner Research as a Way of Knowing: A Case Study of Teacher Learning in Improving Undergraduates’ Concept Acquisition of Evolution by Natural Selection. Commissioned Paper from the National Research Council Board On Science Education Workshop “Linking Evidence and Promising Practices in STEM Undergraduate Education,” 30 June 2008, at the National Academies, Washington, DC. (http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/PP_Commissioned_Papers.html)

D’Avanzo, C, and BW Grant, (with DA Morris, K Winnet-Murray, and C Beck for V4–V6). Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE) (http://tiee.ecoed.net), a journal of ecology education research and practice published by the Ecological Society of America: Volumes 1 (2004), 2 (2005), 3 (2005), 4 (2006), 5 (2007), and 6 (2008).

Morris, DA, C D'Avanzo, and BW Grant. 2007. The TIEE Research Practitioners Project: Faculty Investigating Active Teaching and Student Learning. TIEE V5.

Middendorf, G, and BW Grant. 2003. The Challenge of Environmental Justice and the Role of Ecologists. Frontiers in Ecol. & Envt. 1: 154–155.

Grant, BW. 2003. "Campus Ecology" as a Means to Urban Environmental Literacy. Pages 355-369 in AR Berkowitz, CH Nilon, and KS Holweg (eds.), Understanding Urban Ecosystems: A New Frontier for Science and Education. Springer-Verlag NY.

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Recent Grants from the National Science Foundation

"Engaging Undergraduate Students in Ecological Investigations Using Large, Public Datasets" Distributed Graduate Seminar: National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). University of California, Santa Barbara. Co-PI with Teresa Mourad (ESA) and Wendy Gram (NEON). NSF-NCEAS ($150,000 approx.) Jan 2009 to Dec 2010.

"Environment, Energy, and Sustainability Science: An Institute for 21st Century Teacher Leaders" NSF DUE MSP-START 08-32049 ($298,498) October 2008 to September 2010. Co-PI with Steve Madigosky, Victor Donnay (Bryn Mawr College), Thomas Schrand (Philadelphia University), and William Keilbaugh (Haverford SD).

"Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE): Enhancing Use of TIEE Through a Formative Evaluation-Practitioner Research Component." NSF DUE 04-43714 ($49,903) March 2005 to Feb 2006. "Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE): Disseminating web- and CD-ROM- Based Educational Materials Through the Ecological Society of America." NSF DUE 01-27388 ($499,290) March 2002 to Feb 2005. “Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE): Developing web and CD-ROM based educational material through the Ecological Society of America.” NSF DUE CCLI: Educational Materials Development – Proof of Concept NSF DUE 99-52347 ($85,191) Jan to Dec 2000. Co-PI with Charlene D’Avanzo (Hampshire College).

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Selected Recent Grants from Widener and Other Sources

“Forging International Collaboration in Ecological Education about Global Climate Change with the British Ecological Society” July 2008 – June 2009, Faculty Development Grant, ($1,100)

“Promoting International Ecological Education with the Education Committee of the British Ecological Society” July 2007 – June 2008, Provost Grant, ($1,000)

“Creating a New Summer Field Studies Course in Animal Behavior.” July 2007 – June 2008, Faculty Development Grant, ($1,400)

Academic Service-Learning Faculty Fellowship – Fall 2006 to Spring 2007. “Academic Service Learning as Curriculum in Biology: Freshman Biology Major Engagement in Life Science Enrichment Education in a Local Middle School.”

“Environmental Education in Our Urban Environment.” July 2006 – June 2007, Faculty Development Grant, Co-PI with Nadine McHenry ($1,500).

“Integrating Urban Ecosystems Ecology and Science Education Using a Model Organism, Red-Backed Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus).” July 2005 – June 2006, Widener University Provost Grant ($2038).

“Web-based Authentic Assessment of the Curriculum in Biology.” Faculty Development Grant, July 2004-June 2005 ($1,660).

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Selected Scholarly Presentations in 2009

"A Brief History of Campus Sustainability Initiatives: Have we made progress?" Invited oral presentation at the syposium Ecological Knowledge and Campus Sustainability Initiatives, organized by Kenneth M. Klemow, Carmen R. Cid, & Bruce W. Grant for the annual meeting of the Ecologicla Society of America, Albuquerque, NM, 2-8 August 2009.

"Using Continental Scale Data to Teach Undergraduate Ecology." Oral presentation at a workshop for the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Albuquerque, NM, 2-8 August 2009.

"Using Large Scale Ecological Data to Teach Ecology -- Visions, Mechanisms, and Challenges." Oral presentation at the Distributed Graduate Seminar funded and hosted by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 13-17 July, 2009.

"The Decade of Betrayal, 2000-2009: Why Today's Students Are the Civic Generation." Oral presentation at the MSP-START workshop on sustianability science education, Widener University, 8 May 2009.

"Termites and the Scientific Method." Oral presentation at a regional workshop on teaching animal behavior at Swarthmore College, 4 May 2009.

Click NOW on ⇒ presentations 2009 to view and get abstracts of all presentations.

Selected Scholarly Presentations in 2008

Using Continental Scale Data to Teach Ecology and Ecological Thinking. Invited oral presentation. National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and Ecological Society of America (ESA) workshop, Washington DC, 2-4 October 2008.

Practitioner Research as a "Way of Knowing" to Improve Student Reflective Learning in Ecological Education. Invited oral presentation at the symposium “Blue Sky Thinking in Ecological Education: Starting from Scratch” organized by David Slingsby for the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society, Imperial College, London, UK, 3 – 5 September 2008.

Practitioner Research as a "Way of Knowing" to Improve Students’ Scientific Epistemology in an Undergraduate Introductory Biology Course. Oral presentation #13585 at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Milwaukee, WI, 1-8 August 2008.

Practitioner Research Improved My Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection in an Introductory Biology Course. Invited oral presentation at the National Research Council Board on Science Education workshop “Linking Evidence and Promising Practices in STEM Undergraduate Education,” 30 June 2008, at the National Academies, Washington, DC.

Practitioner Research Improved Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection and Scientific Epistemology in an Undergraduate Introductory Biology Course. Bruce W. Grant and Stephen Madigosky. Invited oral presentation at the 8th annual conference on Pedagogy, Technology & Course Redesign VIII, 4 – 6 June 2008, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT.

The Effects of Student Attitudes Toward Environmental Issues as a Function of Teaching Strategies: A Hands-On and Minds-On Approach. Stephen Madigosky, Bruce W. Grant, Donna Ziegenfuss. Invited oral presentation at the 8th annual conference on Pedagogy, Technology & Course Redesign VIII, 4 – 6 June 2008, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT.

Recent Population Crash by a Population of Eastern Fence Lizards (Sceloporus undulatus: Phrynosomatidae) In The New Jersey Pine Barrens: Effects Of Three El Niño’s In 2002-2007? Poster presentation by Jonathon Diulio, Heather Drebitko, Lisa Duelfer, Theodore Haenn, and Bruce W. Grant, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), Salisbury, MD. 10 – 12 April 2008.

“Practitioner Research Improved My Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection in an Introductory Biology Course.” Widener University President’s Lecture, Monday, 11 February 2008.

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Selected Scholarly Presentations in 2007

Case Studies in Practitioner Research to Teach Biology and Environmental Science at Widener University. Invited oral presentation co-authored with Steve Madigosky to be presented at the 2nd Annual Research Conference on Math and Science at the annual meeting of the Math Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (MSP-GP), Bryn Mawr College, 27 October 2007.

Practitioner Research as a Means to Improve Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection in an Undergraduate Intro Biology Course. Invited oral presentation at the University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Biology, Ecology Group, 8 October 2007.

Practitioner Research as a Means to Improve Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection in an Undergraduate Intro Biology Course. Oral presentation at the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK, 9-12 September 2007.

Practitioner Research as a Means to Improve Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection in an Undergraduate Introductory Biology Course. Oral Presentation #5730 at annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, San Jose, CA, 4-10 August 2007.

Faculty investigating active teaching and student learning in a new TIEE practitioner research project. Charlene D’Avanzo, Deborah A. Morris, Bruce. W. Grant, and Jason Taylor. Poster presentation # 58-46 at ESA San Jose.

Introduction to TIEE (Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology): A peer-reviewed electronic publication. Charlene D'Avanzo and Bruce W. Grant. Workshop #WK-20 at at ESA San Jose.

Using Research Inquiries As Curriculum in an Introductory Ecology Lab Course: Formative Evaluation and Course Revision. Invited presentation and workshop for the session on Project Based Learning at the Math Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (MSP-GP) conference Engaging Millennial Learners in Math and Science Courses. Widener University STC, 1 June 2007.

Service Learning in Biology – Teaching Concepts of Freshman Biology to Middle School Students. Invited presentation and Faculty development workshop at Gwynedd Mercy College,10 May 2007.

Service Learning in Biology – Teaching Concepts of Freshman Biology to Middle School Students. Oral presentation at the annual meeting of the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND), Gwynedd Mercy College, 23 February 2007.

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Selected Scholarly Presentations in 2006

How Can Practitioner Research (Scientific Teaching) Improve Teacher Professional Development and Student Learning Along the K-16 Continuum? Invited presentation and workshop at the Project Kaleidoscope Faculty for the 21st Century National Assembly, Chicago, Illinois, 6-8 October 2006.

Evidence-Based Scientific Teaching - A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Ecology Education. Invited presentation at the symposium Research and Research Priorities in Teaching organized and chaired by Dr. David Slingsby. Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society, Oxford University, 5-7 September 2006.

Practitioner Research Using TIEE. Bruce W. Grant, Charlene D'Avanzo, D. Morris, S. Musante, and J. Taylor. Workshop #WK-11 at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Memphis, Tennessee, 6-11 August 2006

TIEE (Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology): evaluation results and research practitioner model. Charlene D’Avanzo, Bruce W. Grant, Deborah Morris, Susan Musante, Jason Taylor, Josh Riney, and Daniel Udovic. Poster #147.

Nine TIEE Team Posters (Research Practitioner Teams funded by our 2005-2006 NSF grant and trained at ESA 2005 Workshop: during fall 2005 - spring 2006, these research teams were supervised by Deborah Morris, Charlene D’Avanzo, and Bruce W. Grant)

Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE): An Electronic Publication for Ecology Faculty. Poster presentation, Bruce W. Grant, Charlene D'Avanzo, Susan Musante, Josh Riney, Jason Taylor, and Deborah Morris. Annual meeting of the American Institute of Biological Sciences AIBS. Washington DC. 24-25 May 2006.

Service Learning in Biology – Teaching Concepts of Freshman Biology to Middle School Students. Oral presentation at the First Annual Math Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia (MSP-GP) Math & Science Education Research Conference, Bryn Mawr College. 25 March 2006.

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