Meet our Math, Science, Math Education, and Science Education Faculty

These experts are working together as members of the MSEI planning team to build effective teaching practices and safe spaces for math and science learning.

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Ellen Faszewski
Karen Worth
Jeff Winokur
Debra Borkovitz
Galina Dobrynina

Ellen Faszewski

Ellen Faszewski is an associate professor of biology in Wheelock's Math/Science Department. And recent Director of the Environmental Science Program for the Colleges of the Fenway. A cell and developmental biologist who received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), her primary research interests are amphibian development and sponge immunology. She also has an interest in science education, including work with pre- and in-service teachers as well as in curriculum development.

Dr. Faszewski collaborates with the Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibilities (SENCER) community and has recently been named a Leadership Fellow. In addition to her involvement with research projects at Mount Holyoke College, Dr. Faszewski held a Senior Research Associate position at the Marine Biology Lab in Woods Hole. In other work as a Co-Pi on a NASA Opportunities for Visionary Academics (NOVA), she aided the development of Wheelock's Clear Sky Program, a Science for Teachers Pathway that prepares students who wish to make science a core component of their elementary classrooms.

Karen Worth

Karen Worth is a project director and instructor in science education for both pre-service and in-service teachers at the graduate and under graduate levels. Ms. Worth has done extensive development work in science education. A current focus is developing teacher skills in the use of language in science as a critical tool for scientific reasoning. She also works part time on science education programs in the Center for Science Education at Education Development Center, Inc. She consults nationally and internationally on the implementations of inquiry based science programs for children at pre-school and elementary levels and has served as an advisor to several informal science organizations, public television stations, and national science reform projects. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award from the Exploratorium and the Prix PurKwa, an international prize for contributions to the scientific literacy of children. She has been the principal investigator on a number of National Science Foundation projects in which she developed and published science curriculum materials for early childhood and elementary classrooms and led large scale efforts to support the implementation of inquiry based science programs in schools. She was part of the development team for the National Science Education Standards, chairing the Working Group on Science Teaching Standards.

Jeff Winokur

Jeff Winokur, a former kindergarten and elementary science teacher, is an early childhood and elementary science specialist at Wheelock. He works with schools and districts to develop their capacity to improve the teaching of science to children. This has included serving as consultant to many schools in the Boston Public Schools as well as to Boston's science department. As an instructor in education at Wheelock, he has taught both undergraduate and graduate-level courses in teaching science to children. Jeff also works at the Center for Science Education at Education Development Center, where he consults with school districts around the country. He is currently a member of the team working the Connecting Science and Literacy Program, which is developing professional development materials to help elementary teachers make authentic connections between science and literacy. Winokur's work in science education includes having been co-host of the video professional development series for educators, Looking at Learning… Again (1997) produced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Winokur was a collaborating author on The Young Scientist Series, a series of early childhood science teacher guides and training materials, published by Redleaf Press. He is co-author of articles that have appeared in the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) journal Science and Children ("The Science and Mathematics of Building Structures", January, 2004, and "Capitalizing on Literacy Strategies", February, 2004), as well as chapters in two books published by NSTA Press: Learning Science and the Science of Learning (2002) and Linking Science & Literacy in the K-8 Classroom (2006).

Debra Borkovitz

Debra Borkovitz is Associate Professor of Mathematics, chair of the Mathematics/Science Department, and the Mathematics Coordinator for the college. She received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Combinatorics. Her primary area of current interest is mathematics education, especially for pre-service teachers, with specific interests in developing curriculum materials, educating future leaders in math education, using technology, and developing community amongst mathematics instructors. She enjoys writing curricular materials that help make math accessible. She recently published "The Name Game: Exploring Random Permutations" in The Mathematics Teacher and Excel for Math Classes: A series of fifteen videos on using spreadsheet software for mathematics classes, which is available at http://www.youtube.com/dborkovitz. Her recent talks include "What Makes a Mathematical Argument Convincing?" and "Thoughts on Preparing Elementary Mathematics Leaders." She is the faculty sponsor of Math Mania, the Wheelock Math Club.

Galina Dobrynina

Galina Dobrynina is Associate Professor of Mathematics at Wheelock College. She teaches a variety of mathematics courses and her main interest is in developing innovative programs of teaching mathematics to future teachers. Dr. Dobrynina conducted her dissertation research with fourth, fifth and sixth graders and investigated algebraic reasoning processes of students who solved two- and three-variable problems.

The results of her scholarly work was published in Psychology of Mathematics education (PME) Conference Proceedings (2001, 2002, 2005). She is a co-author of a chapter "Mathematics: Developing Curious Students" in a book Inquiry Across Curriculum published by Corwin Press in 2005. Dr. Dobrynina has presented at numerous national and international conferences, including the 11th International Congrss on Mathematical Education (ICME) in Monterrey, Mexico. She also has conducted professional workshops and mathematics content summer institutes for in-service and pre-service teachers. In 2008-2009, Dr. Dobrynina will be on a sabbatical leave. During this time, Dr. Dobrynina will continue work on the comparison of US, Bulgarian and Russian mathematics curricula; and possible that of Singapure and/or Israel.