Science in Education

Suzanne Flynn teaches in the M.Ed. in Science in Education program. She has been a K-6 teacher for 34 years, hand a graduate school adjunct professor since 2002. As a member of the National Science Teachers Association, she was Lead Book Reviewer and Field Editor for NSTA Recommends, a database with 9000+ resources for teachers, parents, and students. Suzanne also served as the NSTA Liaison with the Children’s Book Council and works with the NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Book selections.

Working with The Concord Consortium, she has co-written and facilitates Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry (ITSI) courses for science teachers in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, and Virginia through an NSF grant. This program engages students in STEM activities with modeling, computational thinking, and real-time data acquisition. After training at Lawrence Hall of Science, she is also a GEMS Associate for Great Explorations in Math and Science. Besides designing and teaching graduate science courses for JASON Academy, Suzanne trained teachers in the JASON Project. Presenting science workshops at MAST and NSELA, she has also presented for the New England Gifted and Talented Conference. Suzanne was chosen to be in the Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers 2004.

Mike Thibodeau teaches in the M.Ed. in Science in Education online program. He has been a science educator at the middle school, high school, and college levels for many years. In 1991, he was selected to participate in the Teacher Research Associates Program and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, working on the Hayward Fault Trench Project, and later mentored other teachers in the program.

He has also been coordinator of the Academies Creating Teacher Scientists Program, a research program for in-service teachers supported by the US Department of Energy's Office of Science. He was honored by that department in 2004 with an "Outstanding Service as Master Teacher with the Pre-Service Teacher Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory" award, and has also received the Tandy Technology Scholars Award for Excellence in Science Teaching.

Mike is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Massachusetts Association of Science Teachers, the National Science Teachers Association, and the National Earth Science Teachers Association.

Dr. Susan Rauchwerk

I currently serve as a Professor of Education and Associate Chair for STEAM in the Graduate School of Education. I direct the Lesley University WonderLab, a research and practice incubator for urban greenspace education. My primary goal in life is to help others establish and nurture connections to the natural world, and help mobilize actions that lead to local and global sustainability. I play and practice sustainable living in my urban-ish farmstead through gardening, chickens and pollinator meadowscaping for biodiversity.  

My scholarly and practice-based research focuses on science and engagement through Critical Exploration. As the daughter of a concentration camp survivor and the mother of an African American teen, I am committed to understanding the impact and responsibility of my white privilege, and contributing to a just and equitable education and future for ALL.

I am a senior advisor to doctoral students in Educational Studies programs, and teach Schools as Systems in the Education Leadership specialization. I teach STEAM content pedagogy courses to candidates seeking an early childhood or elementary license, as well as those seeking a middle school or high school science license. I also serve as core science education and professional development faculty with the Biogen STAR Initiative. 

I served as an Educator in Residence at Mount Auburn Cemetery through the Ecosystem Project funded by the Ruggiero Trust grant (video). Through an innovation grant, I support Make Way for Citizen Science children’s book project, where Lesley students work with science researchers and citizen science volunteers to write and illustrate children’s books focused on Mount Auburn Citizen Science. 

My other work includes ongoing support of equitable education initiatives in Ethiopia. Teacher candidates in my STEAM methods classes research write and illustrate culturally relevant science stories and lessons helping students understand how poverty and access to education impact learning. Thanks to a generous grant from Lesley University, I traveled to Ethiopia in 2016 to train Ethiopian educators and librarians as part of the Ethiopia Reads Book Centered Learning Committee. Through a partnership with WEEMA, the science stories written and illustrated by Lesley students are translated into three languages and distributed through WEEMA and Ethiopia Reads libraries. Read more about this project. 

I have been the program director for Science in Education, co-director of Elementary Education, and the director of the Urban Teacher Center.  An avid gardener and environmental sustainability activist, I helped Lesley students establish an organic garden, and teach the Science and Ethics of Food and Farming. I have organized a number of public science events including Restoring Urban Environments, the Climate Café, and STEAM Exploration Party as part of the Cambridge Science Festival.   

I also consult with schools to integrate nature-based education into the curriculum and schoolgrounds, providing professional development, curriculum design and strategic planning. 

Bill teaches physics and mathematics in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Department.

He believes that learning is an ecological process, occurring between the ears, eyes, fingers and toes and among people, mediated by cultural and semiotic resources. A child reading a science book by herself is not learning alone. Over many years, scientists created the words and grammar that make up her book. The book itself is the product of print innovations. Chances are that many others have helped the child to the point where she can read the book. Should this child become a scientist, she too will contribute to advancing the field. Should she become an innovative teacher, she will improve how we teach science. In these ways, effective learning reshapes the cultural contexts that give rise to it.

Education: PhD, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; MS, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; BS, University of Massachusetts, Amherst