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Rose E. Honey

Biography

Dissertation Proposal Title: The moose and the moon: Culturally integrated science education with American Indian students

Dissertation Description: This study is an exploration into educational programs that teach culturally integrated science to American Indian students, offering youth the opportunity to learn local cultural values, Native language, and Native ways of knowing as they relate to environmental science.  This dissertation study is an exploration into how these programs may promote interest and motivation for students to learn cultural knowledge as it relates to the environment around them and how it may or may not change ability to integrate Native traditional ways of thinking into mainstream science education.

Profile: Harvard Yard is thousands of miles and worlds apart from Darby, population 710, the small town in western Montana where Rose Honey grew up.  Rose went on to an extraordinary undergraduate career at the University of Oregon and eventually in grad school at Harvard.  Currently working in her home state, the dynamic young woman returned to her Ivy League alma mater in the spring of 2011 to present her dissertation research at the university’s annual Native American Program colloquium.  A work still in progress, Rose’s dissertation involves something near and dear to her heart . . . how best to teach science to young American Indian students. Rose possesses a love for knowledge and for teaching.  Shortly after earning her B.Sc in Physics at Oregon, she joined the Peace Corps and taught math and science to high school students in Zimbabwe.  From there it was on to the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she received her Ed.M. in Mind, Brain and Education, and where Rose is now a doctoral candidate.  And along the way there was a stop in New York City where she served as an educational consultant to various PBS shows, including Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer.

Inspiration: While an undergraduate in Oregon, Rose was fortunate to have met a professor named Russell J. Donnelly, who hired her as a research assistant in his Cryogenic Helium Turbulence Laboratory.  “Working as his student for three years, he taught me a lot about enjoying the work that you do, perseverance in research, and working towards goals that you set for yourself,” said Rose.  “He believed strongly in my abilities as a student in physics and though he had high hopes for me to become his first female Ph.D. student, he has continued to support me in the different directions that I have decided to take in my academic and professional career.”

Academic/Career Pursuits: Both academic scholarly work and practical work in her chosen field: educational endeavors/outreach with various American Indian communities.

Making a Difference: Rose spent several years as an educational consultant to children’s television shows aired on the PBS network and performed a great service in identifying and correcting scientific misconceptions included in various television scripts.   

Accolades: Rose was awarded the “1665 Caleb Cheeshahteamuck Fellowship”, which honors the first Native American to graduate from Harvard.  She also was the recipient of the 2009-2010 Harvard University Native American Program research grant as well as being awarded the Dean’s Summer Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. The Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education named her a Fellow in 2010 and prior to that she was the recipient of a Fellowship from the Council of Alumni for Social Enterprise.

 

 

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