Strategic Plan Goal #3
Distinguished Research, Scholarship,
and Artistic Creation

Yager Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

The National Association of Research in Science Teaching honored Professor Robert Yager as recipient of their most prestigious award, the Distinguished Contribution to Science Education through Research Award. Yager is one of only 18 educators who have been so honored in the association’s 80-year existence.

“Dr. Yager is the ‘Art Fry’ of science teaching,” says University of Northern Iowa Associate Professor Jeff Weld (BS ’83/MS ’94/PhD ‘98), who nominated Yager for the award. Fry, an Iowa native, is credited with inventing the Post-it® Note, which has become ubiquitous at home and school.

Like those who can’t imagine how they ever got along without the handy sticky notes, science educators from around the globe can’t imagine their field without his influence. Yager’s contributions to science teaching manifest in just about every science classroom across the United States and many throughout the world.

“Dr. Yager’s four decades of research into what makes for effective science learning has shaped science teacher training, licensure and professional development, and even the textbooks that are put into the hands of millions of school kids each year,” Weld said. “Many of the hundreds of graduate students he has mentored have ascended to advance science education policy in nearly every one of the fifty states as well as in Asia, Europe, South America, Africa, Australia, and Indonesia. He has permanently altered the landscape of science education.”

Throughout Yager’s 48-year career, he has helped lead the College’s Science Education program into one of the largest and most productive in the world in terms of graduate students, model programs, funded projects, and national and international activities.

When asked what is his key to success, Yager sparks a reply with his characteristic enthusiasm. “The best kind of teacher knows there’s no limitation to what the human mind can do,” he said. “It’s not enough for the teacher to excitedly share the subject like a transmitter. It’s more appropriate to think about the learners and what they need. If we can teach students to continue to want to know and allow them to see the need to know, then you just can’t stop learning from happening.”

Weld says Yager’s career is not only remarkable, but also extremely well known. “Let me put it another way,” he continued, “at conferences and gatherings of like-minded science educators Dr. Yager is bigger than Elvis. And fortunately for all of us, this Elvis hasn’t left the building!”

Science Education Program is Nation’s Largest

The University of Iowa is known as one of the best places on earth to go for a Ph.D. in science education.

A study conducted last year by Michigan State University listed The University of Iowa as the nation’s largest science education Ph.D. program.

Professor Robert Yager, who helped form the Iowa Science Education Center in 1957, said the school has enjoyed large numbers of doctoral students in part because of a broad mission.

“One of the distinctive features of the Iowa program is that we offer an advanced degree for people in the sciences whose career goal is to teach college science courses,” Yager said.

Over half of the school’s current Ph.D. students are international.

College’s External Funding Soars

The College received over $7 million in externally funded grant awards last year, up over a third from the previous year.

College Honors Top Students

The College honored its top students with $130,000 in scholarships in 2003-04, which were based on academic achievement and potential for success in a particular education field, among other criteria.

College Supports Graduate Students

The College also awarded $3.2 million in assistantships to its students this past year.