About the Author and Contributing Authors

Primary Author

NANCY KOBER is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant specializing in education, with extensive experience in translating research findings into plain language. She is the author of Reaching Students: What Research Says about Effective Instruction in Undergraduate Science and Engineering (2015) for the National Academies, and of numerous publications about topics ranging from standardized testing to student motivation. Formerly, she was an editor, writer, and analyst for the Center on Education Policy at the George Washington University and for GW’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Earlier in her career, she served as a legislative specialist for an education subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Kober holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Cornell University and a master’s degree in writing from the University of Virginia.

Contributing Authors

HEIDI CARLONE is the Katherine Johnson Chair of Science Education in the Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. She was previously the Hooks Distinguished Professor of STEM Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a teacher educator and educational researcher who works to make science and engineering pathways more accessible and equitable for historically underserved and underrepresented populations. Carlone’s work leverages insights from research and practice. For example, insights from studying the culture of K–12 science and engineering learning settings allow her to co-develop design principles for equitable instruction, which then lead to a re-design and further study of the revised learning goals and activities. Her current work focuses on three primary questions: (1) How can innovative K–8 science and engineering instruction cultivate more meaningful and expansive learning out-

comes (e.g., STEM identities) for diverse youth? (2) How can we enrich K–8 diverse youths’ science and engineering learning ecologies in sustainable ways? (3) How can we design professional learning networks to support, nurture, and celebrate rigorous and equitable science and engineering teaching and retain excellent teachers in high needs schools? She has received a number of awards in her academic career, including the UNCG Alumni Teaching Excellence Award; the Early Career Research Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching; and the Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation. She served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committee that released the report Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators (2022). Carlone received her Ph.D. in instruction and curriculum from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

ELIZABETH A. (BETSY) DAVIS is a professor at the University of Michigan, School of Education. Her research focuses on beginning elementary teachers learning to engage in rigorous, consequential, equitable, and just science teaching, as well as the roles of curriculum materials and practice-based teacher education in promoting teacher learning. She was the chair for the Elementary Teacher Education Program at the University of Michigan for four years and helped lead the reshaping and redesign of this practice-based program. Davis received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House in 2002. She has served on National Research Council committees focused on teacher learning and instructional materials, and chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee that released the report Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators. Davis earned her Ph.D. in education in mathematics, science, and technology from the University of California, Berkeley.

XIMENA DOMÍNGUEZ is the executive director of learning sciences and early learning research at Digital Promise. Her research focuses on young children’s STEM learning across home and school and involves partnerships with public preschool educators, curriculum developers, media designers and families from historically and systematically excluded communities to co-design equitable learning experiences for young children. In addition to studying how science, mathematics and engineering can be meaningfully promoted early in childhood, her current work investigates how STEM domains can be feasibly and meaningfully integrated in preschool classrooms. Across these efforts, she explores the affordances of technology and media

for supporting early teaching and learning—documenting how digital tools can be designed to strengthen (not replace) the hands-on, socially rich, and collaborative learning that is key early in childhood. She currently leads Digital Promise’s strategic effort on multilingual learners and recently served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee that released the report Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, and philanthropic foundations. Domínguez earned an M.S.Ed. in education from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in applied developmental psychology from the University of Miami.

EVE MANZ is associate professor of science education at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Her research focuses on understanding how to design and orchestrate learning environments that engage young students in science practices such as modeling, argumentation, and explanation. Manz works closely with elementary teachers and instructional leaders to develop approaches to science teaching and learning that center student and teacher sensemaking. This includes understanding elementary teaching and learning as part of a multi-content area system to better support classroom instruction within and across the content areas of science, ELA, and mathematics. She draws from her experience as an elementary school teacher and educational director of a science and engineering museum. Her work has been funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation. She is the recipient of the 2019 Early Career Research Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. She served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committee that released the report Science and Engineering in Preschool Through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and the Strengths of Educators. Manz received her Ph.D. in mathematics and science education from Vanderbilt University.

CARLA ZEMBAL-SAUL holds the Kahn Professorship in STEM Education at Penn State University where she has served in a number of leadership positions, including Department Head for Curriculum & Instruction and Co-coordinator of the Elementary and Early Childhood Education Program. She is a science teacher educator, educational researcher, biologist, and former middle school science teacher. Zembal-Saul’s research and practice are situated in school–university–community partnerships; her work supports and investigates preservice and practicing K-5 teachers as they

learn to engage students in equitable science sensemaking through investigation and design. Her most recent work is with public school teachers and afterschool educators who work with emergent multilingual children and their families in two semi-urban communities undergoing rapid demographic shifts. Zembal-Saul has been recognized for her scholarship, such as the National Science Teaching Association Fellow, Penn State Provost’s Award for Collaboration, the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award (CAREER), and the Kahn Professorship. She served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committees that authored the reports Science Teachers’ Learning: Enhancing Opportunities, Creating Supportive Contexts (2015) and Science and Engineering in Preschool through Elementary Grades: The Brilliance of Children and Strengths of Teachers. Zembal-Saul earned her Ph.D. and B.S. in Science Education from The University of Michigan.