KU News Release

KU professor named to task force to help guide science, technology education

LAWRENCE — Joseph Heppert, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kansas, has been named to a task force charged with helping transform education in the United States.

Heppert, who also directs the Center for Science Education at KU, was named to the American Chemical Society’s Board-Presidential Task Force. The organization is the world’s largest scientific society. The task force reviews recommendations contained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — or STEM— reports released in the last five years. The task force then identifies actions the organization can take to implement those recommendations and determines how the society might have a unique impact on STEM education.

“The creation of the task force comes at an opportune time in light of the new administration’s goal to make math and science education a national priority,” said Mary Kirchhoff, director of the American Chemical Society’s Education Division.

Heppert, who specializes in organometallic chemistry and science education, said he looks forward to serving on the task force.

“I find it particularly encouraging in these challenging economic times that the American Chemical Society is examining how it can expand its current investment in deepening the scientific knowledge of the American public,” Heppert said. “The task force will be making recommendations about how the uniquely capable 154,000-strong membership of the American Chemical Society can enhance the quality of STEM education. Identifying strategies that will build our capacity to assist K-12 science students and teachers is likely to be a central focus of these task force deliberations.”

The task force’s charge extends across all educational levels, as well as continuing professional development and more informal science education forums, such as museums and programs sponsored by civic and special interest groups. As a member, Heppert will lend his experience in creating innovative programs to enhance secondary and post-secondary science education to deliberations about future directions for American Chemical Society STEM programs. Along with faculty and staff in KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Heppert has been in charge of numerous externally funded projects to enhance K-12 and university-level science education in the past 15 years.

Heppert also is co-director of UKanTeach, a four-year program that leads to a degree in math or science and a teaching license.

“UKanTeach is helping mathematics, science and engineering majors explore teaching careers and become certified as secondary mathematics and science teachers,” he said. “This is one of the most exciting and rewarding projects I have been associated with during my years at KU.”

The task force is slated to report its findings at the American Chemical Society’s national meeting in late August in Washington, D.C.

The task force includes members from higher education, secondary education and the private sector.

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