Brett Merritt
Prototyping alternative futures for science education
Research
SCIENCE EDUCATION
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Description
My dissertation was not a study of a classroom, a teacher, or a student. It was a study of a concept, specifically, the concept of “understanding” in science education. Inspired by anthropologists who study and describe the practices of real-life scientists in action, I chronicled the practices of teams of real-life scientists engaged in two different professional contexts. First, I described a team of field scientists as they sought to understand an unfamiliar phenomenon unfolding in the forests of Brazil. Second, I described a team of university science professors in a lecture hall as they helped undergraduate students understand an unfamiliar phenomenon. Comparing these two sites, I found that scientific understanding was enacted through radically different practices. In Brazil, understanding was built through practices defined by traits such as visibility and materiality. In the university setting, understanding was built through practices defined by psychological traits such as invisibility and internality. I then used this key insight to contribute a critical re-visioning of what it might mean to ‘teach for’ and ‘learn with’ understanding in university science courses.
Title
A Study of Understanding: Alchemy, Abstraction and Circulating Reference in Tertiary Science Education
Institution
Michigan State University | East Lansing, MI. USA
Director
Lynn Fendler (Department of Teacher Education)
Committee Members
Gail Richmond (Department of Teacher Education)
Angie Calabrese-Barton (Department of Teacher Education)
Steve Weiland (Department of Educational Administration)
Duncan Sibley (Department of Geological Sciences)Access
My Ph.D. thesis was accepted by ProQuest in November 2013 and can be accessed via their Dissertations & Theses Global website or downloaded directly from Google Drive via this link (PDF).
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Project goals
– To develop assessments that can inform undergraduate science instruction by focusing on undergraduates’ ability to explain and predict geological and biological phenomena.
– To assess how undergraduates trace matter, energy, and/or information through biological and geological processes at multiple scales.
Project leader
Joyce Parker (PI), Michigan State University
Responsibilities
My project responsibilities included (but were not limited to) meeting transcription, clinical interviews of students, data collection, database management, assessment item development and analysis, curriculum design and analysis, collection and review of relevant literatures, presentations at professional meetings and conferences, and manuscript preparation.
Project Funding
National Science Foundation
Project Link
Years of Involvement
2004-2009
Resulting Publications
Parker, J.M., Anderson, C.W., Heidemann, M., Merrill, J.E., Merritt, B.W., Richmond, G., & Urban-Lurain, M. “Exploring Undergraduates’ Understanding of Photosynthesis Using Diagnostic Question Clusters.” CBE Life Sci Educ 11, no. 1 (2012): 47-57.
Wilson, C.D., Anderson, C.W., Heidemann, M., Merrill, J.E., Merritt, B.W., Richmond, G., Sibley, D., Urban-Lurain, M., & Parker, J.M. “Tracing Matter and Energy through Biological and Geological systems: Fundamental Problems of Students’ Understanding.” In Proceedings of the National STEM Assessment Conference: Washington, D.C., October 19-21, 2006, edited by Donald Deeds and Bruce Callen, 219-226. Washington, D.C.: Drury University, 2007.
Wilson C.D., Anderson C.W., Heidemann M., Merrill J.E., Merritt B.W., Richmond G., Sibley D.F., & Parker J.M. “Assessing students’ ability to trace matter in dynamic systems in cell biology.” CBE Life Sci Educ 5, no. 4 (2006): 323-331.
Resulting Presentations
Wilson, C.D., Merritt, B.W., Anderson, C.W., Merrill, J.E., & Parker, J.M. “Principled Reasoning and Procedural Display in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Model for Assessment.” Paper presented at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Annual International Conference, Baltimore. 30 Mar 2008.
Parker, J.M., Anderson, C.W., Merrill, J.E., Heidemann, M., Long, T., Merritt, B.W., Richmond, G., Sibley, D., Urban-Lurain, M., & Wilson, C.D. “Where has all the carbon gone? A thought paper on frameworks for assessing biology understanding.” Paper presented at the Conceptual Assessment in Biology (CAB) Conference, Boulder, CO. 3-4 Mar 2007.
Merritt, B.W. “Developing a Framework for Diagnostic Assessment of Students’ Reasoning about Photosynthesis.” Poster presented at the NSF-Drury University STEM Assessment Conference: Assessment of Student Achievement (ASA), Washington, D.C. 19-21 Oct 2006.
Wilson, C.D., Anderson, C.W., Heidemann, M., Merrill, J.E., Merritt, B.W., Richmond, G., Sibley, D., Urban-Lurain, M., Parker, J. “Tracing Matter and Energy through Biological and Geological systems: Fundamental Problems of Students’ Understanding.” Paper presented at the NSF-Drury University STEM Assessment Conference: Assessment of Student Achievement (ASA), Washington, D.C. 19-21 Oct 2006.
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Project Goals
– To evaluate the effectiveness of instructional interventions in undergraduate biology courses.
– To address student misconceptions using research-based frameworks articulated by the Diagnostic Question Clusters (DQC) Group.
Project Leaders
Gail Richmond, John Merrill, & Ron Patterson, Michigan State University
Responsibilities
My project responsibilities included (but were not limited to) meeting transcription, clinical interviews of students, data collection, database management, assessment item development and analysis, curriculum design and analysis, collection and review of relevant literatures, presentations at professional meetings and conferences, and manuscript preparation.
Years of Involvement
2004-2009
Resulting Publication
Richmond G., Merritt B.W., Urban-Lurain, M., & Parker J.M. “The Development of a Conceptual Framework and Tools to Assess Undergraduates’ Principled Use of Models in Cellular Biology.” CBE Life Sci Educ 9, no. 4 (2010): 441-452.
Resulting Presentations
Richmond, G., Parker, J.M., Urban-Lurain, M., Merritt, B.W., Merrill, J.E., & Patterson, R. “Assessment-Informed Instructional Design to Support Principled Reasoning in College-Level Biology.” Paper presented at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Annual International Conference, Baltimore. 30 Mar 2008.
Moscarella, R.A., Urban-Lurain, M. Merrill, J.E., Richmond, G., Patterson, R., Parker, J.M., Merritt, B.W., Wilson, C.D., & Long, T.M. “Understanding Undergraduate Students’ Conceptions In Science: Using Lexical Analysis Software to Analyze Students’ Constructed Responses in Biology.” Paper presented at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Annual International Conference, Baltimore. 30 Mar 2008.
Merrill, J.E., Patterson, R., Long, T., & Merritt, B.W. “Personal Response Devices in Large Enrollment Biology Courses.” Presentation at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference, Dallas, TX. 9-12 Oct 2006.
Merritt, B.W., Richmond, G., & Urban-Lurain, M. “Using Educational Technology & Pedagogical Innovation to Promote Undergraduates’ Understanding of Science.” Paper presented at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Annual International Conference, San Francisco. 5 Apr 2006.
Merrill, J.E., Urban-Lurain, M., Rollins, S., & Merritt, B.W. “Analyzing Student Understanding of Biology Concepts with Text Analysis of Essay Problem Responses.” Paper presented at the LON-CAPA Users’ Conference, Columbia, SC. 7 Jan 2005.
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Project Goals
– To explicate the subject matter knowledge prospective that teachers must have to teach science effectively.
– To design and implement an induction program in which Michigan State University will work with teacher education graduates in the all-important first years of their teaching careers.
Project Leaders
Joan Ferrini-Mundy & Robert Floden (PIs), Michigan State University
Responsibilities
My project responsibilities included (but were not limited to) meeting transcription, clinical interviews of students, data collection, database management, assessment item development and analysis, curriculum design and analysis, classroom instruction, reviews of relevant literatures, presentations at professional meetings and conferences, and manuscript preparation.
Project Funding
Carnegie Corporation, National Science Foundation
Project Link
Years of Involvement
2004-2007
Resulting Presentations
Merritt, B.W. “Exploring Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences as Students in Large, Undergraduate Science Courses.” Invited presentation at the Teachers for a New Era (TNE) Institute: Sustaining and Disseminating Change, Washington, DC. 24 Apr 2007.
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Project Goals
– To develop professional learning communities among Lansing, MI. elementary and middle-school teachers to improve their teaching of science.
Project Leaders
Gail Richmond & Deborah Smith (PIs), Michigan State University
Responsibilities
My project responsibilities included (but were not limited to) attending and documenting the summer workshops for the 7th and 8th grade professional learning communities and assisting the MSU faculty leaders as needed.
Project Funding
Carnegie Corporation, National Science Foundation
Project Link
https://www.msu.edu/~gailr/nsf-trr/index.html
Year(s) of Involvement
2004
SCIENCE
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Description
This project involved a lawsuit in the US Federal District Court over chicken farms polluting the Illinois River System in Arkansas, which flows through Oklahoma. I was part of a team from Michigan State University in 2008-09 that was retained on behalf of the Defendants in Oklahoma v. Tyson et al. to conduct additional sampling of benthic macroinvertebrate populations in streams within the Illinois River Watershed (IRW) in northeastern Oklahoma. Specifically, we were asked to address previous scientific studies which claimed detrimental impacts on benthic macroinvertebrates in the basin–e.g., increased nutrient levels and subsequent algal growth–due to chicken farm litter and pollutants. Over a two year period, we conducted sampling of streams and rivers in Arkansas and analyzed biomonitoring statistics. Our results demonstrated that these streams were very productive and diverse with respect to the fish and macroinvertebrate fauna, meaning that we did not find any degradation that we could attribute to poultry litter or other nutrient stress in the streams we sampled. This legal case remains undecided and (still) entangled within the court system nearly seven years after the completion of our study.
Employer
Work contracted by Tyson Foods, Inc. | Springdale, AZ
Responsibilities
logistical preparation, habitat surveying, population sampling, and data processing
Publication(s)
As of June 2020, the paper resulting from this study is unable to be submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal on account of its use as evidence in an ongoing trial in a U.S. District Court: State of Oklahoma, et al. vs. Tyson Foods, Inc., et al. , Arkansas (Case No. 05-CV-0329 GKF-SAJ U.S. District Court, Northern District of Oklahoma).
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Description
The St. John’s River in Florida has been identified as a potential source of potable water to supplement groundwater withdrawals, which have traditionally been the main water source for communities in the region. Increased groundwater pumping over the past 60 years is now reaching the limits of sustainability for the Floridan Aquifer, the principal groundwater source, and thus alternative sources, such as surface water withdrawals from the river, are being considered. To evaluate the potential impacts of surface water withdrawals, our team did a short-term survey of benthic invertebrates of shoreline and floodplain marshes in order to: 1) develop a baseline data set to compare with future benthic community sampling that might be conducted after any commencement of surface water withdrawals from the river, and 2) evaluate measures of benthic invertebrate community characteristics that potentially could be sensitive to water level change and hence useful metrics in evaluating impacts of hydrologic change due to water withdrawal or other causes.
Employer
Work contracted by Bureau of Environmental Sciences, St. Johns River Water Management District | Palatka, FL
Coordinator
Robert A. Mattson, PhD, Environmental Scientist V
Responsibilities
logistical preparation, habitat surveying, population sampling, data processing, and manuscript preparation
Publication(s)
R.A. Mattson, K.W. Cummins, R.W. Merritt, M. McIntosh, E. Campbell, M.B. Berg, B.W. Merritt, O. Hernandez, & R. Kimbirauskas. (2014). “Hydroecological Monitoring of Benthic Invertebrate Communities of Marsh Habitat in the Upper and Middle St. Johns River.” Florida Scientist, 77(3), pp. 144-161.
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Description
Wasps that parasitize aquatic insects are rarely encountered in collections of stream insects. In 1988, however, it was reported by Resh & Jamieson that an aquatic moth (P. confusalis) was parasitzed by an aquatic wasp (T. pilosa) in Owl Creek, Missoula County, Montana. In the summer of 1993, I worked with Resh & Jamieson as they aimed to 1) describe the biology of the parasitoid T. pilosa, and 2) document the distribution of T. pilosa beyond Owl Creek through surveys conducted in the Clearwater River drainage system of western Montana.
Supervisor
Vincent Resh, PhD, University of California – Berkeley | Berkeley, CA
Responsibilities
habitat surveying and population sampling
Publication(s)
Jamieson, W. & Resh, V.H. (1998). “Biology Of Tanychela pilosa (Hymemoptera: Ichneumonidae), A Parasitoid Of The Aquatic Moth Petrophila confusalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae).” Entomological News, 109, pp. 329-338.
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Description
In 1998, the City of Brookfield, WI, proposed controlling nuisance mosquitoes with the first biological larvicide, a bacterium (B. sphaericus), to be registered for use in North America. In order to approve the annual use of B. sphaericus in Brookfield, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) required a study lasting 3 years to answer the question as to whether B. sphaericus could reduce the local mosquito population without affecting the nontarget invertebrate community. I was part of a team that planned and conducted this 3-year ecological impact study.
Employer
Work contracted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | Milwaukee, WI
Responsibilities
logistical preparation, habitat surveying, population sampling, data processing, application of experimental biological control methods, and manuscript preparation
Publication(s)
R.W. Merritt, J.L. Lessard, K.J. Wessell, O. Hernandez, M.B. Berg, J.R. Wallace, J.A. Novak, J. Ryan, & B.W. Merritt. (2005). “Lack of effects of Bacillus sphaericus (Vectolex®) on nontarget organisms in a mosquito control program in southeastern Wisconsin: A 3-year study.” J. Amer. Mosq. Contr. Assoc., 21(2), pp. 201-212.
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Description
BASF Corporation owns a small island off the coast of Michigan in the Detroit River which contains some salt deposits and chemical storage areas. It is uninhabited by humans but contains many marshes and wetlands. During the 1980’s, these marshes became a large breeding ground for several salt water mosquito species that are fierce biters of humans during the day and night. Once the adult mosquitoes emerged, the females pestered residents of the city of Grosse Ille, which is adjacent to the island and on the Detroit River. This created a significant mosquito problem for the city whereby the residents contacted BASF Corporation to do something about it. BASF contacted my father, Dr. Richard Merritt of Michigan State University, and asked him to develop an integrated mosquito control program for the island to help alleviate the mosquito problem. For approximately 10-12 years, I was part of a team that harnessed the superpowers of a soil bacteria–Bacillus thuringiensis serotype israelensis (aka. Bti)–to help control the growth of the island’s mosquito population.
Employer
Work contracted by BASF International Corporation | Wyandotte, MI
Responsibilities
logistical preparation, habitat surveying, population sampling, data processing, and application of experimental biological control methods
Publication(s)
This long-term project was never undertaken for the purpose of publication.