Lehigh's Office of Sustainability is initiating a monthly Professor Spotlight Campaign for the 2014-15 academic year! The purpose of these spotlights is to highlight professor accomlishments in environmentally related fields as well as connecting students and professors, who may not have otherwise been in direct contact. Our office has looked at professors accross a number of disciplines, including Earth and Environmental Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Environmental Initiative. These questions only provide a quick glimpse into the research of Lehigh's professors, so for more info, check out their personal web pages!
The Professor Spotlight for the month of October is..
Alec Bodzin, Ph. D, in the Environmental Initative program!
1) How long have you been doing research at Lehigh?
15 years
2) What topic(s) do you do research on?
My research includes the design and implementation of inquiry-based science and environmental curriculum, learning with spatial thinking tools including GIS and Google Earth with a focus on geospatial thinking and reasoning.
3) Why were you drawn to doing research in your particular field?
To make a difference in the education by designing better environmental science curriculum that engage learners in understanding important science and environmental concepts of critical importance to us such as climate change and energy.
4) Who was/is your biggest research mentor?
John Park
5) If you were given $1 million in research funding, what is the first thing you would do?
Develop a plan to develop a better interface and tool set for mobile devices to gather and analyze data for classroom environmental investigations.
6) What was your favorite and/or most proud research moment?
I’m quite proud of my group’s Environmental Literacy and Inquiry (ELI) middle school curriculum project. Our implementation studies have shown that students have improved both their energy and climate change understandings using the geospatial curriculum approach we have developed.
7) Who and/or what will your research benefit? What are its implications?
My research benefits classroom learners, teachers, and curriculum developers. We have developed new approaches to science and environmental learning using GIS and other spatial learning technologies. These learning approaches are designed to promote better geospatial thinking and reasoning skills for both students and teachers.
8) How do you see your research projects/interests evolving in the future?
I see my future research projects incorporating more mobile learning technologies. Kids today are part of a new mobile generation. Georeferenced map-based visualizations are now an integral part of mobile devices. The next generation of science and environmental curriculum needs to take advantage of these devices and we need to figure out how to design better interfaces for learning for students of all ages.
For more information on professor Bodzin, visit his web page athttp://www.lehigh.edu/~amb4/ or you can email him directly at amb4@lehigh.edu!