Newsletter 2006

Welcome and thanks for reading our department newsletter!

The 2006-2007 school year is underway. This is a year of growth for the department and the university. CSULB's President King Alexander is at the helm, his first fall semester on campus. A new provost has been named, Karen Gould, who will begin in March 2007. Closer to home, we have a new faculty member, Dave Nickles. We are pleased to have Dave join us from CSU East Bay where he was an Assistant Professor. Bond 1-D passed in early November so a new science building will emerge on the spot where Peterson Hall 3 now resides. When that building is completed Science Education will have a new home.

The department continues to thrive. As you'll read in our 2005-2006 Productivity Report, we've been a busy group - publishing and presenting all over the place! Our programs continue to keep us busy. The Master's program is blossoming. Three students graduated in 2006 and we have a new option specifically for informal science educators (three of whom started with us this fall). We continue to do the summer science camp, workshops for pre-kindergarten teachers (Head Start on Science), and professional development workshops for a wide audience. We continue to seek support to maintain and enhance these programs. At the focal point of all we do, however is the student. We celebrate our students' successes and are proud to call them our alumni and colleagues. You can read about our students in the Master's Students Update article (coming soon) and the Science Education Awards article.

We hope you enjoy reading about our activities and learning about our students and alumni. The department wants to be a resource to our alumni and our community; we hope that you would want to be a resource to us. Keep in touch with us via email (dalexand@csulb.edu) and our alumni database and let us know what we can do to help you. Please consider making a gift to the Science Education Department to support our students and our programs. Your contributions of time, talents and money help enrich our programs and provide our students with a superior experience.

Laura Henriques, Chair