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.

Alison K. Billman, Early Elementary Curriculum Director

Dr. Alison Billman led the research and development of the Amplify Science curriculum for kindergarten and first grade. She served as principal investigator for an Institute of Educational Sciences grant focused on the development of integrated science and literacy curricula for first grade, and for a Spencer Foundation grant examining the design of science informational texts for beginning readers. Dr. Billman’s background includes 14 years of teaching first grade. She holds a doctorate in educational psychology from Michigan State University and a master’s in elementary education from the University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro.

Meredith W. Moran, TK Project Lead

Dr. Meredith Moran is a Curriculum and Professional Learning Specialist with the Learning Design Group at the Lawrence Hall of Science and served as the Project Lead for development of the Amplify Science Transitional Kindergarten units. She also helped develop the programmatic approach and instructional units for the kindergarten and grade 1 curriculum and is involved in several research initiatives related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment of integrated science and literacy understanding in the early elementary grades. Dr. Moran received her doctorate in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education, with an emphasis in Literacy Studies, from the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and holds a master’s from the same program. Her dissertation research explored the impact of small-group, text-based discussion on kindergarten students’ development of oral vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. Prior to her graduate work, Moran spent nine years as a kindergarten teacher working with linguistically, culturally, and socioeconomically diverse student populations.

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.

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.