This seminar will focus on developing public service outreach projects in collaboration with the community. Projects involving aspects of community based science education will be explored and team based projects will be developed by student teams with the community and faculty. The course is based on the Community Linked Interdisciplinary Research Program in CAS, emphasizing course introductions into complex research areas for future undergraduate or graduate research and training options.
The project areas that will be explored in this course will involve science education partnerships with the Native American Magnet School (school 19) in Buffalo. Groups will pursue the development of new hands-on science experiments that can be used in class or after school programs. These science experiments will be aligned with New York State middle school science standards. Secondly, students will work within class and after school collaborations directly with the middle school students. A third area will involve survey and interview techniques to evaluate the impact of the science education programs in improving student performance and student appreciation of science. Students interested in pursuing interdisciplinary work and in potential teaching careers will benefit from developing projects from the course.
Joe Gardella is a professor of chemistry at UB where he has been since arriving in 1982. He grew up and attended college near Detroit, Michigan, obtaining dual BS (Chem)/BA (Philosophy) degrees from Oakland University in Rochester, MI. He then attended the University of Pittsburgh where he received a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry and did postdoctoral research at the University of Utah. He also has spent one year as a program manager at the National Science Foundation in 1989/90. His research involves the study of the surface chemistry of polymers and other molecular solids; in particular with applications in biomedical materials development (synthetics for prosthetics, drug delivery, etc.) and environmental chemistry at polymer surfaces. In addition, he is past chair of the UB Environmental Task Force and a founding member of the Steering Committee of the UB Environment and Society Institute (ESI). He has two children, Claire Seung Hee and Joseph Jee Yoon, adopted from Korea and resides with his wife Carol Kizis, in North Buffalo, where he pursues other interests outside of academic politics!