Cory Forbes, a UNL associate professor of science education and science literacy coordinator, will present a lecture about the educational research on elementary science students at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 3 in the Hardin Hall room 107. The seminar is free and open to the public.

Forbes’ presentation will explore a discipline-based educational research program grounded in three externally funded research and development projects focused on cultivating conceptually rich K-6 science learning environments. Findings are presented from empirical studies investigating 3rd-grade students’ model-based reasoning about water systems and how elementary teachers’ knowledge of disciplinary content influences instructional practices for science. Implications for K-12 science teaching and learning will be discussed, as well as how such work informs perspectives on discipline-based educational research.

The lecture is titled “Discipline-based Education Research on Teaching and Learning in Elementary Science Learning Environments.”

Forbes holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Kansas, in addition to master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. He joined UNL in September 2013 as part of an Institute of Agriculture and National Resources hiring initiative, which aims to fill 36 new positions primarily in the areas of science literacy, stress biology, computational sciences, healthy humans and healthy systems for agricultural production and natural resources. Forbes was recently awarded the 2014 Early Career Research Award by the National Association for Research in Science Teaching.