Nicole Weber
Professional Title: Assistant Professor
Areas of Academic Focus and Expertise:
Environmental biology, sustainable engineering, place-based education; creating inventories of environmental knowledge and awareness; developing interdisciplinary STEM initiatives with an environmental context; establishing program evaluation tools that use implicit and explicit measures
Area of Work and Concentration at Lesley: Science in education, biology, engineering, environmental sciences
Education: PhD., University of Massachusetts, Boston; Postdoctoral Research, Engineering Education, Purdue University
Representative List of Recent Publications / Exhibitions:
- Strobel, J., Wang, J., Weber, N., Dyehouse, M. The Role of Authenticity in Design-Based Learning Environments: The Case of Engineering Education. In Computers and Education, 64 (2013), 143-152.
- Weber, N., Dyehouse, M., Fang, J., Miller, C., Hua, I., & Strobel, J. (presented at AERA 2011, in preparation for publication). Impact of Household Location on First-year Engineering Students’ Environmental Knowledge and Awareness. Journal of Engineering Education
- Weber, N., Bawa, K., White, B. (presented at AERA 2011, in preparation for publication). Cultural Differences in Environmental Knowledge and Sense of Place. Conservation Biology
- Weber, N., Duncan, D., Dyehouse, M., and Diefes-Dux, H., & Strobel, J. (2011). The development of a systematic coding system for elementary students’ drawings of engineers. Journal of Pre-Engineering Education Research (J-PEER). Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 6, pp 49-62
- Tomory, A., Strobel, J., Hua, I., *Harris, C., Fang, J., Naik, G., Dyehouse, M., and *N. Weber. (* presenters) 2011. Incorporation of Ecological Engineering into Secondary Science Classrooms. National Science Teachers Association Conference; San Francisco, CA
Through an intersection of conservation biology (research) and science education (application), Dr. Weber bridges students’ scientific understanding to local issues in their community and natural environment (on a personal, local, and global scale). As the world becomes more culturally and biologically interconnected, people are becoming less connected to their natural surroundings. Dr. Weber looks for ways of connecting conservation to students’ local community, through authentic experiences focused on social and environmental issues, to support students in developing a better understanding of common scientific misconceptions and the interplay of social and environment issues.
nweber@lesley.edu