Shodor/CSERD founder Panoff presents lecture at College of Science, Benedictine University

Dr. Robert M. Panoff, founder and Executive Director of the Shodor Educational Foundation, Inc. and the Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD) Pathway of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) presented the Fourth Annual Valach Lecture on October 2, 2009, at the College of Science at Benedictine University. Benedictine's annual lecture provides opportunities for college faculty to gain new insights in trends in university-level science education. Panoff's lecture on Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum: The Power and the Peril, focused on how quantitative reasoning, computational thinking, and multiscale modeling form the intellectual base for science and mathematics education, and are essential workforce skills in the 21st century.

Six College of Science faculty development workshops were presented over two days, on computational biology, mathematics, computer science, chemistry, and physics—all highlighting resources and collections from the NSDL. Additionally, Panoff presented a highly interactive half-day workshop for 20 students pursuing teaching careers in the University's Alternative Teacher Education Program in Science and Mathematics, providing them both inspiration and practical value via new techniques, teaching materials, and applications for using computational models in middle and high school classrooms.

Dr. Ralph Meeker, Dean of the College of Science, noted “We’re really grateful to Dr. Panoff for the excellent presentations he made during his three-day visit to our campus. His keen insight and enthusiasm for enabling faculty to incorporate computational thinking into their teaching and research provided an inspirational boost to our continuing explorations of how to use modern computer-based tools to enhance the teaching of computer science, mathematics, and the physical and life sciences.”