Authors
The University of California, Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science has nearly 50 years of experience improving K–12 science education. With 20 percent of K–12 classrooms using a Hall-developed instructional resource, and with legacy programs that include FOSS®, Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading®, GEMS®, SEPUP™, and Ocean Sciences Sequence™, the Hall’s team has a deep understanding of what makes programs effective. The Lawrence Hall of Science team consists of dedicated researchers, curriculum and assessment specialists, disciplinary experts, former classroom teachers, and educational innovators who are creating powerful instructional sequences for the next generation of science learners. The team’s aim is to enable all students to inhabit the role of a scientist or engineer and successfully use science to solve real-world problems. By supporting students’ scientific habits of mind, the curriculum develops young citizens who are curious, skeptical, evidence-based thinkers capable of making decisions that improve their own lives and the lives of those in their communities.
Jacqueline Barber, Director
Jacqueline Barber serves as Director of The Learning Design Group at the Lawrence Hall of Science, the team that created, and continues to improve, Amplify Science. She has led many projects funded by the National Science Foundation and private foundations, including projects that informed the research and development of the Amplify Science approach, such as those focused on science and literacy integration, increasing access to science learning for English learners, the impact of educative curriculum materials on teacher and student learning, integration of engineering, and curriculum design practices. Barber was the Founding Director of Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading®, a literacy-rich science program for Grades 2–5, on which the Amplify Science approach is based. Barber also serves as Associate Director of Lawrence Hall of Science. In that role she leads the Hall’s Design and Development Group, home to the Hall’s many curriculum programs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hampshire College and began a research career in neuroendocrinology at the University of Strasbourg before turning to science education.
Suzanna Loper, Curriculum Director
Dr. Suzanna Loper led the team of curriculum developers that helped create Amplify Science. In this role, she led a National Science Foundation grant focused on supporting teachers in engaging students in scientific argumentation, which resulted in the creation of The Argumentation Toolkit and contributed to the Amplify Science approach. Before coming to the Lawrence Hall of Science in 2006, she was a middle and high school science teacher in public schools. She holds a bachelor’s in physics from Yale University and a doctorate in science education from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jennifer L. Tilson, Upper Elementary Curriculum Director
Jennifer Tilson led the development of the Amplify Science curriculum for Grades 2-5. She was a Grade 1-2 teacher at a bilingual immersion school for five years before getting her masters in language, literacy, and culture in education at the University of California, Berkeley.
Megan Goss, Literacy Lead
Dr. Megan Goss served as Literacy Lead in the development of Amplify Science, particularly as it focused on scientific explanation and argumentation. She served as principal investigator on two National Science Foundation grants, both focused on promoting the use of scientific argumentation in middle school classrooms, and she brought this expertise to bear as she shaped the program’s approach to argumentation. Dr. Goss holds her doctorate in language, literacy, and culture, and is a former middle school teacher.
Lauren Brodsky, Learning Progressions Lead
Lauren Brodsky led the development of learning progressions both within each Amplify Science unit and across grade levels. Brodsky has a bachelor’s degree in Geophysics and Mathematics from Brown University, and her Masters of Science from Oxford University.
Eric Greenwald, Director of Assessment & Analytics
Dr. Eric Greenwald led the team that developed Amplify Science assessment and analytics. His work as Principal Investigator of several National Science Foundation research projects related to assessment of science practices, including written and oral explanation, argumentation and design thinking, informed the Amplify Science assessment system. He also currently serves as a Senior Researcher with the Science Learning Activation Lab, a collaboration which develops measurement tools to investigate how to activate children in ways that ignite persistent engagement in science learning and innovation. Previously, Dr. Greenwald was a research analyst at SRI, where he helped lead a number of studies in STEM teaching and learning, assessment, and measurement development. He holds a doctorate in curriculum and teacher education from Stanford University, a master’s in science education and a teaching certificate from Teachers College Columbia University, and a bachelor’s in chemistry from Indiana University; he also taught math and science in public high schools for six years.
Ari Krakowski, Director of Student Digital Apps
Dr. Ari Krakowski led the team at the Lawrence Hall of Science that worked with Amplify to develop over 70 science education apps for grades 2–8. As a cell and molecular biologist, she taught college-level science at a variety of higher education institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. Krakowski also worked to design courses for the Laney College biomanufacturing program, and designed and implemented seven career pathways in their STEM Career Advancement Academy. She holds a doctorate in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley; a master’s in molecular and cell biology from San Francisco State University; and a bachelor’s in natural resources from California State University, Humboldt.
P. David Pearson
Dr. P. David Pearson was the co-principal investigator for Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading®, the literacy-rich program on which the Amplify Science approach was based, and he played a key role in developing its model of science and literacy integration. Since then, Pearson has worked to extend that model of integration to kindergarten and first grade in Amplify Science Elementary, and worked to develop the approach to assessing scientific argumentation in Amplify Science Middle School. As former dean of the Graduate School of Education at University of California, Berkeley, and faculty emeritus in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program, Dr. Pearson continues his research focusing on reading instruction and assessment. Before his time at the University of California, Berkeley, he served as the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Education in the College of Education at Michigan State and as Co-Director of the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. Even earlier, he was Dean of the College of Education, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Reading, and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois. He has written and co-edited numerous books and articles, including the Handbook of Reading Research and has received numerous awards for his groundbreaking work.