Dr. April Gardner joined BSCS as a Science Educator in February 2001. April is currently project lead for Project PRIME. This project is studying the impact of educative curriculum materials combined with intensive professional development on teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and their students’ achievement. In addition to leading professional development for teachers in this project, April has made significant contributions to research instruments for assessing pedagogical content knowledge and fidelity of implementation. She is also working on a comparison of secondary biology curriculum materials from the United States and China.
Recently, April directed the project that resulted in the monograph Cornerstone to Capstone Approach: Creating Coherence in High School Science, a review and recommendations regarding the “physics first” approach for high school science programs. She has also provided professional development workshops on BSCS Biology: A Human Approach for high school biology teachers in Chicago and Baltimore.
While at BSCS for an extended sabbatical leave from the University of Northern Colorado from June 1997 to December 1999, April led the development of the instructor’s resource manual for Biological Perspectives, BSCS’ college textbook, and helped develop three National Institutes of Health (NIH) supplements for high school biology: Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases, Human Genetic Variation, and Cell Biology and Cancer. Later, she directed revisions for the second edition of Biological Perspectives and helped develop curriculum materials for two additional NIH supplements, The Science of Energy Balance: Calorie Intact and Physical Activity and The Science of Mental Illness.
April has presented many workshops for elementary through college teachers, with particular emphasis on active learning and equitable teaching strategies. She taught undergraduate and graduate courses in introductory biology, genetics, cell biology, science education, and equity issues in science for 12 years. Her current interests include determining the impact of educative curriculum materials and transformative professional development on teachers’ practice and on student learning, and using those emerging understandings to refine and enhance curriculum and professional development.
She has a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Centre College and a M.S. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Biology Education from Purdue University.
BSCS programs incorporate a conceptual framework that is clear, progressive and integrated with many pedagogical strategies. The concepts build in a way that students understand. The activities, investigations, and readings engage students in a way that allows them to "have fun" while learning, opening them up to the natural world around them.
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