The Earth Exploration Toolbook Team

The Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET) is a collaborative effort by individuals at the Center for Science Teaching and Learning at TERC, the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College, the Complex Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University.

Tamara Shapiro Ledley, Ph. D., Senior Scientist & Principal Investigator,
Center for Science Teaching and Learning, TERC

Tamara Shapiro Ledley, a senior scientist at TERC in Cambridge Massachusetts, received her PhD from MIT in meteorology 1983. She conducted a research program in Earth system science with an emphasis on the polar regions at Rice University for 15 years, and has authored over 30 scientific papers. The focus of her research has been to understand the role of sea ice and continental ice sheets in shaping global climate. Using energy balance climate and dynamic ice flow models she examined the impact of sea ice on the exchange of energy between the ocean and the atmosphere, the implications of changes in the sea ice cover for local and global climate, and the mechanisms that produced the growth and decay of ice sheets that define the 100,000 year ice age cycle.

Dr. Ledley has been involved in Earth system science education activities that include developing museum exhibits that bring near real time images of the Earth to the public, directing teacher training programs in the Earth sciences, developing Earth system science learning activities for the GLOBE program, and developing scientific research programs for the participation of students. Most recently she has been involved in a number of projects that focus on the national digital library efforts and the facilitation of the use of Earth science data in educational contexts. Dr. Ledley received NSF National Science Digital Library (NSDL, www.nsdl.org) grants to develop the Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET, serc.carleton.edu/eet) which is a resource that provides step-by-step instructions for the use of an Earth science dataset and data analysis tool by teachers in the classroom; and to run innovative professional development workshops focused on specific datasets and analysis tools in the EET. She has also received NSF grants to lead the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) Data Services and AccessData (serc.carleton.edu/usingdata/accessdata) projects that focus on bridging the communication gap scientific and educational communities to make more Earth science datasets accessible and available to teachers and students; and the Tools for Data Analysis in the Middle School Classroom (DataTools, serc.carleton.edu/eet/msdatatools) project that facilitates middle school teachers learning and adapting IT tools and Earth science data for use in the classroom.

Dr. Ledley is currently chair of the Standing Committee for Education, and has served as Vice-President for the Federation of Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP Federation, www.esipfed.org), and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation of Earth Science for the ESIP Federation. She has also served as the chair of the Committee on Global and Environmental Change of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and chair of the panel to draft the original AGU position statement on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gases.

Cathryn A. Manduca, Ph. D., Co-Principal Investigator,
Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College

Cathy Manduca is the Director of the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College where she is involved in a variety of projects that support improvements in geoscience and science education. Her work includes serving as a community leader, organizing workshops and other activites for faculty and educators of all types, and developing web-resources that link teaching resources, pedagogy and discussion. Much of her work contributes to program of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT), the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) and the National SMETE Digital Library (NSDL).

Currently, she serves as the Vice-President for the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, on the DLESE Management Team, and on the Project Kaleidoscope Network Advisory Board.

She also remains very interested in the petrologic and structural evolution of western Idaho and its implications for the growth of continental crust, as well as the interactions between policy and geology required to maintain a clean water supply for Olmsted County, MN.

LuAnn Dahlman, Project Director/Curriculum Developer,
Center for Science Teaching and Learning, TERC

LuAnn Dahlman is Project Director for the Earth Exploration Toolbook, the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE) Data Services and the National Model Earth Science Lab Course at TERC. Along with Jeff Lockwood and Carla McAuliffe, she is a co-PI of Eyes in the Sky, an Information Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) project that prepares secondary teachers to faciliate their students use of GPS units, GIS software and data, and image data and analysis software to do community-based research projects.

Previously, LuAnn wrote curriculum materials for University of Arizona's Image Processing for Teaching program and taught professional development workshops for the Center for Image Processing in Education. She began her career in science education by spending seven years teaching Earth science and chemistry at the high school level.

Carla McAuliffe, Ph. D., Staff Development Specialist/Curriculum Developer,
Center for Science Teaching and Learning, TERC

Carla McAuliffe works as a curriculum developer, staff development specialist, project director, and internal evaluator at TERC. She is PI of the EET Workshops project and Co-PI of the TIDES and Eyes in the Sky projects. Carla has extensive teaching experience. She taught junior high life and physical science, high school Earth science and biology, and various instructional technology courses for college. She continues to provide preservice and inservice teacher training with visualization technologies, including GIS and image analysis.

Carla's research focuses on the role of 3-D visualization in student learning. She currently facilitates online science education courses for teachers through Lesley University and Northern Arizona University. She has authored a variety of curriculum materials including interactive web lessons for Earth science, Discovering GIS, and Discovering Image Processing.

Nick Haddad, Curriculum Developer,
Center for Science Teaching and Learning, TERC

Nick Haddad is a senior curriculum developer and a project director with TERC's Center for Science Teaching and Learning. Before joining TERC in 2001, Nick developed curriculum materials for 6 years and taught in K-6 classrooms for 24 years. He has a B.S. in Structural Engineering from Tufts University and a M.S. in Education from Wheelock College.

Since coming to TERC in 2001, Nick's work has focused on Earth science education. He has supported local teachers participating in the GLOBE program, authored The Guide to Earth Science in Urban Environments (McDougal-Littell), has developed chapters for the Earth Exploration Toolbook, and has led educator workshops for Earth Exploration Toolbook chapters. Additional work at TERC has included participation in the COSEE-New England ocean science education program, authoring two NASA-related engineering design challenges for middle and high school students and developing classroom activities designed to foster and strengthen data literacy concepts at the middle school level.

Robert R. Downs, Ph.D., Curriculum Developer,
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University

Robert R. Downs serves as a Senior Staff Associate Officer of Research and as the Senior Digital Archivist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), a center within the Earth Institute of Columbia University. He earned the PhD in Information Management at the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Dr. Downs has extensive experience in designing, developing, managing, and conducting research on information systems and has written, presented, and taught on various topics in management and information systems. His research interests include the design, development, use, and management of digital libraries and online environments. He is a member of the American Society for Information Science and Technology and the Association for Computing Machinery.

Rita Freuder, Curriculum Developer,
Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire

Rita Freuder has formal education background from University of Rochester, NY (BA) and Boston University (MA) in mathematics. She has teaching certification in NY State, in high school math and has been certified and taught in New Hampshire high schools as a substitute teacher in math and the sciences. She taught FORTRAN at Boston University for 3 years, during the 1970's and has taught Numerical Methods for the Computer at the University of New Hampshire.

Rita was then employed at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) on a NASA project for the Great Observatories on the Gamma Ray Observatory mission for 17 years as a Computer Specialist. She transferred to research in the natural resources group, under the umbrella of the Complex Systems Research Center at UNH with emphasis on computer modeling data and analysis of remote sensing data about 7 years ago. During this period, opportunity to work in education again presented itself in the Education Committee of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP). From this affiliation, Rita became an Earth Exploration Toolbook chapter author and workshop presenter (both distance and live). Rita is currently the Chair of the Education Committee of ESIP. She continues to promote ideas for new chapters in the Earth Exploration Toolbook.

Denise Blaha, Curriculum Developer,
Complex Systems Research Center, University of New Hampshire

Denise Blaha is a Research Associate with the Complex Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Denise is part of the EOS-WEBSTER project (a digital library of Earth science data) and is involved in a number of education initiatives at UNH. Prior to joining EOS-WEBSTER in 1999, she was a researcher for 10 years with the Global Atmospheric Chemistry group at UNH studying anthropogenic sources of atmospheric methane.

Sean Fox, Technical Director,
Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College

Sean Fox is the Technical Director at the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College. He designs, builds, and runs the technical infrastructure that powers the web sites which are central to most of SERC's activities.

Sean has been a web site author and web server administrator since 1993. Before joining the SERC office in January of 2002 he was the Academic Computing Coordinator for the Natural Sciences at Carleton College. Sean worked closely with science faculty implementing a wide variety of computing technologies in support of curricular innovation and was part of a team nationally recognized for excellent faculty support.