Our Team

Dr. Regina ToolinDr. Regina Toolin, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Science Education at the University of Vermont. Her research focuses on constructivist models of teaching and learning that promote science classrooms that are grounded in principles of inquiry-based and project-based teaching and learning in urban and rural schools. Her teaching interests include science curriculum, instruction and assessment and diversity issues in science education. She is Principal Investigator of the NSF: Robert Noyce Scholarship Program and the Vermont Secondary Science Partnership and Co-PI for the NSF: Satellites, Weather and Climate Program Grant currently underway at UVM. Dr. Toolin serves as a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Science Education and Technology and has published her research pertaining to science teaching and learning in Science Education, the International Journal of Science Education, The Science Teacher, and the Journal of Science Education and Technology.

Email Dr. Toolin at Rtoolin@uvm.edu.

Dr. Rory Waterman, Ph.D.Dr. Rory Waterman, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Vermont. His Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago and he did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. His area of expertise is within synthetic inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and catalysis. Waterman received a Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science Research Fellowship (2004-2007). He was awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2008), a Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar Award (2009), and a Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship (2009). As co-Primary Investigator  Dr. Waterman is a  and coordinates the Summer Scholar Program of the NSF: Robert Noyce Scholarship Program at the University of Vermont.

Dr. Dupigny-GirouxDr. Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the department of Geography at the University of Vermont.  Her Ph.D. is from McGill University and her area of expertise is within climate variability and change, historical climatology, climate literacy, severe weather hazards, drought, remote sensing, Geographic Information Science, New England, Brazil, Caribbean. As an applied climatologist by training, Dr. Dupigny-Giroux's research interests intersect a number of interdisciplinary fields including hydroclimatic natural hazards and climate literacy as well as the use of remote sensing and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) in the fields of spatial climate and land-surface processes.  Dr. Dupigny-Giroux is a co-Princpial Investigator with the NSF: Robert Noyce Scholarship Program at the University of Vermont.

Beth WhiteAfter a decade teaching in science classrooms in the northeast, Beth White is pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and is the Graduate Teaching Fellow for the NSF: Robert Noyce Scholarship Program at the University of Vermont. She is currently studying classrooms where members participate in a true democracy and curricula is exploration-based, interdisciplinary, and co-led by students, experts, and educators alike and is working to design  research studies that will impact policy, teacher education, and students in positive ways.  She is particularly dedicated to solving the crisis in STEM education, promoting women in STEM, supporting educational practices that value student voice, is strengthened by diversity, deliberately addresses equity, and is grounded in community.