2022 GER Elections

It is time to vote for officers of the Geoscience Education Research Division of NAGT. The ballot includes Past President, President, Vice President, and Treasurer. Voting begins on June 1 and ends on July 1, 2022.

Officer Candidate Biographies

Past President

Leilani Arthurs is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder (CUB). Her research involves understanding the challenges that adult-learners who are novices to geoscience confront during instruction, particularly with respect to the cognitive and affective domains; developing and evaluating formative and summative assessments based on this understanding to facilitate learning geoscience and promote science literacy; and studying the conditions that inhibit and promote the implementation of active learning strategies during post-secondary STEM instruction. She believes that the growing community of scholars pursuing Geoscience Education Research has tremendous potential to transform geoscience education in particular and STEM education more broadly through collaborations within and outside our home disciplines.

President

Emily Scribner is a Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences at Clemson University. Her research interests are spread between two realms: geoscience education and mineralogy. Her current geoscience education research involves assessing the effectiveness of virtual field camp exercises as an alternative for students who are unable to participate in in-person field exercises. Other geoscience education research she has conducted involved the development of a concept inventory, a validated assessment, that can be used to measure conceptual understanding of introductory mineralogy concepts. Her mineralogy research focuses on the rare-element pegmatites, specifically those that are thought to have been contaminated by their host rocks, resulting in the modification of their chemical signature and mineralogy through the introduction of chemical elements from the host rock. She is currently the State Representative for South Carolina within the Southeastern Section of NAGT.

Vice-President

Dr. Chris Mead is an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences with a focus in Discipline Based Geoscience Education Research. In his current position, he conducts education research and performs evaluation for educational development projects. His areas of expertise include studying digital active learning techniques, such as virtual field trips and intelligent tutoring, and examining diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education through institutional analysis.

Treasurer

Dr. Samuel Cornelius Nyarko is a Postdoctoral research fellow and leader of the GeoEd research lab in the STEM Education Innovation and Research Institute (SEIRI) at Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis. He carries out research in geoethics education, preservice teacher education, social and community learning practices (teamwork and team learning), and diversity, equity and inclusion. He is a social constructivist and share in the philosophy that diversity in knowledge creation is the closest to achieving accurate knowledge. He holds a BS. in Geological Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology; M.Phil. in Geology, University of Ghana; and Ph.D. in Science Education - Geosciences, Western Michigan University.