Joni Falk

Professional Bio:

Joni Falk co-directs the Center for School Reform at TERC, a nonprofit research and development institution aimed at improving mathematics and science teaching and learning. Much of her recent work has focused on creating and researching electronic learning communities. She is currently the Principal Investigator of MSPnet.org, the electronic learning community that supports NSF’s Math and Science Partnership Program, of IGERT.org the collaborative community created for NSF’s flagship IGERT program (Interdisciplinary Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program), and of I^3, Creating a Web Presence for the I3 Track.

She is co-editor of, and a contributor to, a recently published book entitled “Creating and Sustaining Online Professional Learning Communities.”

In addition to developing and researching e-communities for leaders engaged in educational reform, Falk is also Co-PI of two research projects that are studying the effects of technology infusion on science teaching and learning. These are Researching Science in the Wireless High School and Infusing Web-based Digital Resources into the Middle School Science Classroom: Strategies and Challenges. Joni has a particular interest in science inquiry at the middle school level. She was Principal Investigator of Eyes to the Future, an NSF-funded telementoring project that connects middle school girls with high school role models and women scientists, and also of a research project The Inquiry-based Classroom in Context, a research project studying the gap between teachers’ practice and policy mandates.