Sharon J. Sherman
PROJECT AFFILIATION:
- New Jersey MSP
- Roles: Project Guest
- Facilitating Mathematics/Science Partnerships
- Roles: Planning Committee Member
PROFESSIONAL ROLES
BIO
Dr. Sharon J. Sherman is the TCNJ co-principal investigator on the NJ Teachers as Leaders and Learners Project. A chemist, she is professor and former chair of the department of elementary and early childhood education at The College of New Jersey for the past six years. Her responsibilities included taking charge of all aspects of leadership for the department, which houses nearly 1,000 students and 60 professors. She teaches mathematics and science methods and environmental science courses for pre-service teachers and has taught most courses, graduate and undergraduate, offered by the department. Her areas of specialization are teaching science and mathematics with technology, methods of teaching and urban school change.She is principal investigator of the Teachers as Leaders and Learners Grant (New Jersey Department of Education), Center for Inquiry and Design-Based Learning in Mathematics, Science & Technology Education grant (U.S. Department of Education) and was co-director of the Mid-Atlantic Laboratory for Student Success Professional Development School grant (U.S. Department of Education) at The College of New Jersey. She has directed several Goals 2000 grants at TCNJ. Before coming to TCNJ in 1995, she was Senior Program Leader for Science Education at Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory. She directs the New Jersey Academy of Science Junior Division. In this role she leads the statewide effort to engage high school students in scientific research in partnership with mentors from the science community.
Dr. Sherman is author of Science and Science Teaching: Science Is Something You Can Do! (Houghton Mifflin, 2000) and Science and Science Teaching: Methods for Integrating Technology in Elementary and Middle Schools (Houghton Mifflin, 2004). Her other publications include Essential Concepts of Chemistry (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), Conceptos Basicos de Quemica (CECSA, 1999), Basic Concepts of Chemistry 6th Edition (Houghton Mifflin, 1996), Chemistry and Our Changing World 3rd Edition (Prentice Hall, 1992), and The Elements of Life (Prentice Hall, 1989). She has written numerous journal articles and presents regularly at conferences. She has taught middle school science as well as chemistry, biology, and environmental science at the secondary and college levels. She is active among the science and business community, professional organizations, schools, and higher education. In 2003 she was appointed to co-chair a statewide task force on teacher recruitment and retention at the request of the NJ Department of Education and is a member of Trenton's No Child Left Behind Consortium and Mathematics and Science Alliance. She has served on the Commissioner's Task Force on Mentoring and the Governor's Task Force on Mathematics. Under Dr. Sherman's leadership high quality professional development in science has become an integral part of several schools in Trenton.
EXPERTISE
Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
School Change
Leadership in Urban Schools
Methods of Teaching
