Students
Current students doing research in free-choice learning
Robyn Anderson
Robyn is a Master's student in the Department of Math and Science Education. n Environmental Sciences Program doctoral student researching teachers and field trips. Bryan's Master's Degree thesis uses personal meaning mapping to explore changes in schoolchildren's conceptions of nature as a result of attending an outdoor school.
Celeste Barthel
Celeste is a cross-disciplinary student simultaneously doing a Master’s degree in geography and a doctorate in science & math education, focusing on free-choice learning. Her diverse background of curriculum development and science teaching to museum audiences as well as K-16 students in Baltimore, MD sparked an interest in employing marine technologies (e.g. GIS, ROV, Remote Sensing) in the free-choice learning environment. She is currently working on Sea Grant’s Marine Biotechnology Curriculum, a collaborative project that focuses on using marine technologies to research and synthesize natural products from the ocean.
Ron Crouse
Ron is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Department of Science and Math Education. He is interested in research on Oregon's Envirothon, Environmental Education Competition.
Laura Dover
Laura is a Marine Resource Management student working with the SMILE program. Her research involves creating tools for evaluating informal science curriculum.
Joy Irby
Joy is a Marine Resource Management student and coordinator of the Oregon Salmon Bowl. She is currently doing research on working with coastal communities to understand and articulate risks posed by climate change.
Michael Chi-Chang Liu
Michael Chi-Chang Liu is the research aquarist working with Dr. Tim Miller- Morgan on the Oregon Sea Grant Ornamental Fish Health Program. Michael started working for Oregon Sea Grant in the 2003 as an aquarist in the Visitors Center at Hatfield Marine Center, and then he became the senior aquarist in 2005. He is now working on a research project which addresses the stress and mortality related to international transport of wild-caught marine ornamental fish. Michael is also a Ph.D. student in the Department of Science and Mathematics Education. His dissertation will focus on free-choice learning in museums and aquariums. Before coming to the U.S., Michael got his Bachelor's degree in Plant Pathology and Master's degree in Zoology in National Taiwan University in Taiwan. He also worked in a non-government organization, the Society of Stream, ROC, in Taiwan as a secretary and secretary-in-general after his two-year service in the military.
Sarah Mikulak
Sarah is a Marine Resource Management Master's student working on making complex, real-time data available to visitors and students at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.
Michelle Mileham
Michelle is an an Environmental Sciences Program Master's student interested in teaching volunteers and staff to communicate with the public about potentially controversial issues in science.
Bryan Rebar
Bryan is an Environmental Sciences Program doctoral student researching teachers and field trips. Bryan's Master's degree thesis uses personal meaning mapping to explore changes in schoolchildren's conceptions of nature as a result of attending an outdoor school.
Carlos Rios de Uribe
Carlos is a doctoral student in the Environmental Sciences Program. His current work looks at the role of free-choice learning in raising awareness around natural hazard preparedness.
Alumni
Alicia Christensen (2007 M.S. Marine Resource Management)
After obtaining her Master's Degree Alicia went to work creating and evaluating marine outreach programs as the new Public Programming Coordinator at Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon. She has since moved on to become the Programs Coordinator for OSU's SMILE Program. Alicia came to Oregon State University from Colorado. She has a B.S. from Colorado State University in zoology, and has worked in environmental conservation and marine education for the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, Ocean Journey Aquarium (CO), Newfound Harbor Marine Institute (FL), and Acadia National Park (ME).
Coral Gehrke (2007 M.S. Marine Resource Management)
Coral completed a Master's Degree project involving evaluation of physical use of public spaces at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The project grew out of her summer 2006 internship there. After working in research and evaluation for Oregon Sea Grant, she is now working with the Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) Pacific Partnerships project at the Oregon Institute for Marine Biology in Charleston, Oregon.
Eleanor Hodak (2008 M.S. Marine Resource Management)
Eleanor's internship at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon, resulted in a Master's Degree project involving public interpretation and conservation messages at the Sea Otter and Sea Lion exhibits there. She is now working as a marine educator at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, IL.
Abby Nickels (2008 M.S. Marine Resource Management)
Abby completed her Master's Degree after finishing an internship at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon, during which she examined visitors' motivations for visiting and conservation attitudes pre- and post- visit. She has recently become an Oak Ridge Institute of Scientific Education (ORISE) Fellow with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), dealing with large aquatic ecosystems.
Molly Phipps (2008 Ph.D. Science Education, Free-choice Learning)
Molly E. Phipps graduated with her Ph.D. from the Department of Science and Math Education at OSU, focusing on free-choice learning. She is now a Senior Evaluation and Research Associate at The Science Museum of Minnesota. Before studying how people learn science in informal learning environments, Molly worked as a geologist and an oceanographer studying records of past climate. She is interested in developing ways to make complex, cutting-edge science accessible to non-scientific audiences; documenting the changing roles of scientists as broader impact and outreach becomes a larger part of their work; and understanding how people incorporate technological tools into their lives and how to best use them as learning tools in informal educational settings. Molly has studied the influence of color on people’s understanding of visualizations of oceanographic satellite data, and how handheld computers with supplementary content influences visitor groups’ interactions with an exhibit on scientific chaos.
Bronwen Rice (2007 M.S. Marine Resource Management)
Bronwen's work with the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) program led to her Master's Degree project looking at afterschool program teachers' perspetives on ocean literacy and the tools of oceanography. Bronwen was awarded a National Sea Grant Knauss Fellowship and is currently working at the NOAA Office of Education in Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Rollins (2007 M.S. Marine Resource Management)
To complete her Master's Degree, Elizabeth combined her graduate project with her work at Marine Discovery Tours, Newport, Oregon, to carry out an analysis of learning from a boat-based marine education program using surveys and concept mapping.
Joleen Schilling (2007 M.S. Environmental Science)
As a Professional Science Masters student in Environmental Sciences, Joleen combined her interest in botany, communication, and non-profit management to complete her Master's Degree. For her graduate project, she completed an internship with the Institute for Applied Ecology, focusing on teacher resources for their Restoration and Reintroduction Education (RARE) Partnership.
Heidi Schmoock (2007 M.S. Environmental Sciences)
Heidi's work on the learning experiences of bilingual families at HMSC was the basis of her Master's Degree thesis in Environmental Sciences. She is now working to develop and update the K-12 marine education curriculum at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. She is currently working to redevelop the volunteer trainings for the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
Christine Smith (2007 M.S. Science and Math Education)
Christine's Master's Degree project involved collaborating with local communities in the re-development of an oyster exhibit at the Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center, Newport, Oregon and completing a wide range of teaching experiences in both formal and informal settings. In addition to her project work, Christine carried out an evaluation of the Oregon Coast Aquarium's K-5 outreach program in Newport, Oregon. After working at the Yaquina Head Oustanding Natural Area with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), she is working at the Tillamook Forest Center.