Behavioral Sciences and Education News

Source: Penn State Live; April 12, 2012

Samuel Monismith, associate professor of health education at Penn State Harrisburg, has received the University's 2012 Faculty Outreach Award.

The award honors faculty who have positively and substantially affected individuals, organizations or communities through problem solving or development as a result of extending their scholarship.

Marcellus Taylor, a senior sociology student at Penn State Harrisburg, has received the University’s 2012 Ralph Dorn Hetzel Memorial Award. Named for Penn State’s tenth president, the award recognizes outstanding scholastic achievement, good citizenship, and leadership in student activities and is presented to just two students University-wide each year. Taylor is the eighth Penn State Harrisburg student to receive the honor.

Penn State Harrisburg student and faculty authors discussed their works at the college’s annual Publishing Celebration on March 15. The event honors those who have published a book during the past year, highlighting texts ranging from local history, to children’s education, to political interests. View a Flickr slideshow of the event.

This year’s events also incorporated time for authors to autograph their publications, which were available for purchase.

Three Penn State Harrisburg education professors have combined their unique perspectives on teaching and areas of expertise to create a book that helps to teach math in a new way. In “Cowboys Count, Monkeys Measure, and Princesses Problem Solve: Building Early Math Skills through Storybooks,”Associate Professor of Mathematics Education Jane Wilburne, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Jane Keat, and Associate Professor of Reading Mary Napoli suggest teaching mathematics using literature.