About the Institute: names, faces, and bios of institute staff Institute for Inquiry  
Lynn Rankin
Director of the Institute for Inquiry
lynnr@exploratorium.edu
Lynn began her teaching career as an elementary teacher in the San Francisco Public Schools. She was captivated by "hands-on science" when she brought her sixth grade class to a course at the Exploratorium and observed the kind of enthusiasm for learning and curiosity she had been trying to cultivate in her classroom. She joined the Exploratorium staff in 1975. Since then she has developed science and professional development curriculum, led workshops for students, teachers, and professional developers, and been involved in program design. She helped found and served on the faculty of the Association of Science and Technology Centers' Professional Development Institutes for museum educators. She serves on the faculty of the Center for Informal Learning and Schools, a collaboration between the Exploratorium, King's College, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. She served on the Committee on the Development of an Addendum to the National Science Education Standards on Scientific Inquiry and on the National Institute for Science Education's Committee on Professional Development.
Bronwyn Bevan
Associate Director, Exploratorium Center for Learning and Teaching.
bronwynb@exploratorium.edu
Bronwyn Bevan is the Associate Director of the Exploratorium Center for Learning and Teaching. Her projects include Director of the NSF-funded CLT, Center for Informal Learning and Schools; co-principal investigator on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory educational outreach project; co-principal investigator on the Coalition for Science After School project; and leader of the Center for Informal Learning and Schools' Informal Learning Certificate professional development program for museum educators. Her main area of interest is supporting teacher practice, student learning, and curricular design through the development of relationships between formal and informal institutions. Bronwyn worked for the Education Development Center, Inc., for four years where she conducted classroom-based research on teacher-artist partnerships, as well as institutional development between schools and cultural institutions.
Barry Kluger-Bell
Assistant Director for Science at the Institute for Inquiry
barryk@exploratorium.edu
Barry holds a Ph.D. in physics. Barry became involved with inquiry-based education in 1971 when he worked as a research educator with David Hawkins at the Mountain View Center in Boulder, Colorado. He is the author of The Exploratorium Guide to Scale and Structure: Activities for the Elementary Classroom, published in 1995 by Heinemann Press. More recently, Barry provided technical assistance to WGBH’s Investigating Classrooms video project and is on the advisory board for WNET’s Learning Science Through Inquiry workshops. He also served on an advisory panel for CPB/Annenberg’s video project for teaching science content to teachers.
Karen Wilkinson
Science Educator
2us@exploratorium.edu
Karen is a science educator for the Institute for Inquiry and project director for the Learning Studio at the Exploratorium. Of particular interest is the functional design of learning environments (on the internet and in the real world) to foster creative thinking and inquiry learning. She is currently developing curriculum intended to blur the lines between science and art education.
Mike Petrich
Science Educator
2us@exploratorium.edu
Mike is a science educator for the Institute for Inquiry and co-director of the Learning Studio at the Exploratorium.  He is currently developing curriculum that allow learners to build ideas for themselves through the use of new digital technologies. Of particular interest are activities that combine the use of new digital technologies with current and familiar technologies like hand tools, art materials, electronic components and everyday objects.
Fred Stein
Science Educator
fstein@exploratorium.edu
Fred holds a Ph.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He was the Education Director at the Science Discovery Museum in Acton, Massachusetts, before joining the Institute for Inquiry staff. In addition to teaching biology and math, he has developed curricula, taught distance learning courses, and led professional development inquiry workshops.
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