Yael Wyner

Dr. Yael Wyner is currently investigating an innovative approach for bringing up to date scientific research and environmental issues into the ecology classroom through an NSF (grant # #0918629) funded collaboration between City College of New York and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The project, Ecology Disrupted, uses media produced by the AMNH and published scientific data on every day environmental issues to link the daily lives of students to the ecology of their surroundings. She is field-testing this year to determine the effectiveness of this type of approach for learning environmental issues, ecological principles, and the nature of scientific activity.

Before coming to CCNY in 2008, Yael Wyner taught ecology, biology, and conservation biology courses to middle and high school students for seven years at Hunter College High School, a public school for gifted learners in New York City. Prior entering the field of formal education, Dr. Wyner served as Content Coordinator on The Genomic Revolution (2001), an American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) exhibit about the scientific and societal implications of new advances in genomic technology. Yael completed her Ph.D. in biology at New York University and the American Museum of Natural History in 2000. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on brown lemur and black and white ruffed lemur conservation genetics. In 1994, Yael received a B.S. from Yale University with Distinction in Biology.

Bio 0100e: Modern Concepts in Biology I Bio 0200e: Modern Concepts in Biology II Sci 4100e: The Nature of Scientific Knowledge EDSE 0200i Masters in Secondary Science Education SUS 7200: Sustainable Terrestrial, Aquatic, and Atmospheric Systems

Yael Wyner's research focuses on the ways in which ecological function connect to everyday life in secondary science classrooms. Currently, she is developing and testing a curriculum that seeks to contextualize ecological function in environmental issues and daily life. She is also analyzing secondary and college level environmental science textbooks for how they integrate environmental issues with ecology.

Wyner, Y. (2011) Using authentic data to teach secondary ecology: A theory for teaching the nature of science in Handbook of Educational Theories. Irby, B.J., Brown, G., and Lara-Alecio, R. eds. Information Age Publishing, Charlotte. Wyner, Y., and DeSalle, R. (2010). Taking the Conservation Biology Perspective to Secondary School Classrooms. Conservation Biology DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01478. Wyner, Y. (2010) Disrupted food webs: Exploring the relationship between overfishing and dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay. Science Scope 33(7):78-85.