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January 10, 2007
Dr. Kimberly Tanner, Assistant Professor of Biology, and Director, Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory, San Francisco State University, 1-11-07
Kimberly Tanner, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University (SFSU). Trained as a neuroscientist, Dr. Tanner received her doctoral degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1998 for her work investigating changes in sensory neuron physiology and temporal coding following nerve injury. During her doctoral years, Dr. Tanner was also actively involved in science teaching and learning as a participant in partnerships with local K-12 educators through the UCSF Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP).
In collaboration with the UCSF SEP, the Stanford School of Education, and the San Francisco public schools, Dr. Tanner studied the impact of scientist-teacher partnerships as a mechanism of K-20+ science education reform, studies which continue in her laboratory today. Subsequent to this postdoctoral research, she returned to the staff of the UCSF SEP in a senior position in which she designed, implemented, and evaluated grant-funded science education partnership programs. In January 2004, Dr. Tanner accepted a tenure-track position as a faculty member at SFSU in the Department of Biology with a concentration in Biology Education. This was, and continues to be, the only such discipline-based education research position in the science departments at SFSU.
Since joining the SFSU faculty, Dr. Tanner has established as her laboratory SEPAL: The Science Education Partnership and Assessment Laboratory to increase collaborative efforts between SFSU and SFUSD and to improve and articulate K-20+ science education. SEPAL engages undergraduates, graduate students, and K-12 teachers in research studies on two main lines of inquiry. First, SEPAL researchers are interested in systematically understanding the role of partnerships between scientists and teachers in influencing K-12 science education and promoting articulation between the K-12 and the college/university branches of the US educational system. Second, SEPAL researchers are interested in understanding how novices — including young children, non-science majors, and elementary school teachers — think about biological concepts and living things. Through her professional training and experience, Dr. Tanner has over a decade of experience in crafting District-wide partnerships between university students and K-12 teachers and students. Dr. Tanner is a founding member of the Editorial Board for Cell Biology Education: A Journal of Life Sciences Education, sits on the Advisory Board of the Math-Science Network for Gender Equity, and regularly serves on committees for the National Science Foundation, the National Research Council, and the Society for Neuroscience.
Posted by David Lemberg at January 10, 2007 04:07 PM Return to SCIENCE AND SOCIETY home page