July 27, 2008
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Marjorie G. Bardeen
Marjorie G. Bardeen is manager of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) Education Office in Batavia, IL. Fermilab is a high-energy physics laboratory, home of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron. Scientists from across the country and around the world use Fermilab’s resources in experiments to explore the most basic particles and forces of nature. The Education Office was established in 1989 to enhance science education; in 1992, the Leon M. Lederman Science Education Center was opened. It houses the Teacher Resource Center, which hosts workshops and materials previews for science instructors and publishes an evaluation catalog of instructional materials. In addition to managing the Education Office, Ms. Bardeen serves as president of Fermilab Friends for Science Education, a not-for-profit corporation that exists to create and support innovative pre-college science education programs at Fermilab by seeking public and private-sector financial support. Under Ms. Bardeen’s leadership, a wealth of science education resources have been made available to elementary and secondary teachers and students. She holds a B.A. degree in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota and an Educational Certificate (Mathematics), from Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, IL.
Technos visited with Marge in her office atop the main building that houses Fermilab scientists, staff, and activities—overlooking Fermilab’s vast acreage of restored prairie habitat, a soft reminder that there is hard science at the foundation of environmental studies.
Technos: Please describe your job as manager of Fermilab’s Education Office.
M.G.B.: My job is to figure out ways to make Fermilab’s vast resources available to educators. To that end, we ask teachers, "What do you need? How can we help?" Then we match their instructional needs with available Fermilab resources so we can develop good resources for K12 classrooms.
Does it ever work the other way around?
Yes. We are in constant contact with the scientists here and we see them and talk to them all the time. For instance, my husband is a physicist, so he and I are always talking about what he’s thinking about and working on. When our staff learns about an interesting project or experiment, we’ll take it to our network of teachers and bounce the idea around.
Once we agree on a program, we raise the money to develop the programs teachers need and want. We help them develop the program, acquiring materials and piloting and revising the program. But let me emphasize that ours is a service to educators—we don’t tell them what we think they should have. Our main focus is to develop programs that are relevant, interesting, and challenging; and we want to provide a diverse program that is free, for the most part, to teachers.
Is any scientific topic open for development?
No. We are limited by Fermilab’s mission, which is high-energy physics, associated expertise in computing, and environmental stewardship of a reconstructed prairie. We have Web development and computing expertise here—but our scientists are not experts in education. The Education Office serves to bring the scientists together with educators to develop appropriate programs for instructional purposes. Schools and school districts are the locus for change, and we are the catalyst.
You mentioned raising money. How does that work?
Fermilab research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, and we also receive grants from governmental agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Illinois State Board of Education, and private foundations and individuals. The Fermilab Friends for Science Education is a nonprofit entity that is heavily involved.
How does the Teacher Resource Center (TRC) fit into the picture?
Our Teacher Resource Center provides a preview collection of K12 instructional materials. Our staff offers workshops and consults with educators to personalize use of the materials. The Center also provides a comprehensive educational software review that helps in buying decisions for schools. [See this month’s Featured Article.]
What are some of the projects currently being worked on in the Education Office?
This year is the World Year of Physics 2005, so we’re heavily involved in that. The theme is Einstein in the 21st Century. We’re also working on the Cosmic Ray Collaboration program with computer scientists at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory. It provides grid tools and techniques to classes via the Web so they can gather their own data, post it online, ask research questions, compare others’ data, and post their comments. Basically, they’re learning scientific dialogue. To be honest, the Grid is so new, it’s beyond the bleeding edge, which is pretty exciting for students and teachers … and for us as developers. To begin with, the project works with teachers from QuarkNet, a staff development program for high school physics teachers funded by DOE and NSF. Currently 513 teachers are members of QuarkNet, which brings students and teachers into the high-energy research community to study some of the mysteries about the structure of matter and the fundamental forces of nature. Fifty-three centers associated with research groups at universities and labs across the United States are now operational.
We’ve been developing Web sites and gathering data from Fermilab’s Prairie Ecology program for a decade, so there is a wealth of information about both native and restored prairies available. Teachers can bring their students here to observe firsthand what it means to do field studies, gather data, enter it in online databases, and draw conclusions about the effects of our prairie restoration program. It’s very hands-on science and very popular. At the moment, we have nearly 8,000 students involved in that program annually.
What contribution to the use of technology in education do Fermilab and the Education Office make?
Problem-based learning using the Web started here because that’s the way the scientists do it. It’s an informal process of thinking that works to solve problems. Particle physics experiments are huge and take a long time to complete, and there are hundreds of people involved. The scientific community develops a proposal, which is then distributed across the country and responded to. At Fermilab alone, 1,500 scientists use the physical plant and 200 Ph.D.s are employed. We have interns and researchers here all the time. Scientific collaboration is the way experiments are conducted and problems get solved. It’s a huge operation.
We are pioneers in using the Web to support problem-based student investigations on real-world issues. The Web was developed for high-energy physics, and when the first browser, Mosaic, came out in 1993, a member of our computing staff demonstrated its capabilities to us. We saw the potential, jumped on the idea, held a needs assessment with teachers, and per their interest, developed a program, LInC, to create a cadre of education leaders who could effectively integrate this technology into their classrooms.
These educators learn to use the Web just like scientists do. Classroom projects are collaborative, student-driven and technology dependent. Students read beyond classroom walls to collaborate with experts and other students and publish work to a world-wide audience. Now we have moved forward to underlie projects with grid tools and techniques. We are developing educational users of the Grid at the same time that scientists are moving to the Grid. Usually, education lags behind, but we are helping shape the interface between the user and the IT tools. This is really pioneering—that beyond-the-bleeding-edge part!
A final question: Why was Fermilab built in Batavia, IL?
As I understand it, because Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen wanted it here! It was mostly a political decision—but it didn’t hurt that the geology was appropriate for building the accelerator underground; that there are major universities in the Chicago area; and that Chicago O’Hare Airport is very close by, so scientists can travel here easily.
Links to Fermilab Web pages and other relevant Web sites are listed in this month’s Recommended Links section.