Two educators with a passion for inquiry!
Fiona Hughes-McDonnell has served as associate professor of science education at Emmanuel College, Boston, where she directed for the Center for Science Education and facilitated outreach programming for urban youth, and Rivier University, where she designed and taught science methods courses for preservice teachers. As a high school science teacher, she contributed to inquiry-based science education curricula (Project STAR, Project SPICA, now) published by Kendall Hunt, as well as a significant revision of the NH Science, Engineering and Technology Frameworks. She has partnered with her colleague David Burgess since 2005 on developing in-service opportunities for teachers. She completed her doctoral degree at Harvard University in the field of Teaching, Curriculum, and Learning Environments where she studied under Eleanor Duckworth, a former colleague, student, and translator of Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget, and from whom she learned the teaching-learning methodology of critical exploration.
Email: Fiona@StudentWorldTeacher.net
David Burgess is a retired professor from Rivier University in Nashua, New Hampshire. He received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in Physical Chemistry and has taught chemistry, physics and physical science for 40 years. Dr. Burgess is a founding member of Pacific Crest, a leader in Process Education. In addition he has collaborated with several faculty in the education department at Rivier University, doing online and face-to-face professional development, writing and editing a series of Discovery Books, and most recently investigating teaching and learning in elementary and middle school classrooms that resulted in developing an inquiry-based science course for education majors.