Deb Smith

Deborah Smith

dcs27@psu.edu
Assistant Professor of Education, Science Education
(B.S., MAT, and Ph.D)

Deborah Smith is a former preschool, elementary and middle school teacher, with a BS in biology, an MAT from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. As part of her research on professional development, she has also co-taught with elementary teachers in Delaware, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. She was the author and co-PI on a five-year National Science Foundation grant to Lansing (MI) School District and Michigan State University, in which grade level groups of K-8 teachers studied scientific content, standards-based and reform-minded curriculum design, research-based teaching practices, and their students' learning. She also served on the National Research Council's Teacher Advisory Committee,and was a consultant for their publication, Ready, Set, Science!. She served on the National Research Council's Committee on K-12 Science Education, which produced the Framework for K-12 Science Education, and is a reviewer for the K-5 Next Generation Science Standards. Her most recent research, funded by the college and university, focuses on how teachers and young children build communities of scientific discourses and practices in the early years of schooling. Dr. Smith teaches graduate courses in curriculum, the history and philosophy of science, and science teacher knowledge. She recently received a year-long fellowship from the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium, to work with Dr. Susan Brantley on earth science concepts and their development in young children's investigations.

Full CV available here