About the Author

Katherine J. Denniston currently serves as Associate Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics, Director of the Center for Science and Mathematics Education, and Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. She is the Project Director of the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation II, an NSF-funded statewide collaborative for the preparation of science and mathematics specialists to teach in middle school. In addition, she is the Director of the Maryland Educators’ Summer Research Program, which places pairs of preservice and inservice teachers in university and government research laboratories and facilitates their transformation of the research experience into curriculum materials for K-12 classrooms. She is also co-Director of the Maryland Governor’s Academy for Mathematics and Science, a summer residence program for Maryland teachers that provides training in reform- and standards-based science and mathematics teaching.

Denniston is co-Principal Investigator, along with Larry Wimmers, on an NSF grant to introduce inquiry-based laboratories into the first semester biology course required of all biology majors. She is interested in reform efforts to introduce similar inquiry-based labs into all introductory science courses. As Director of the Center, Dr. Denniston is working with Dr. Laurence Boucher Principal Investigator of the Maryland MacArthur Project, and AAAS Project 2061 to introduce reform- and standards-based science and mathematics into teaching methods courses and local schools. She participates in outreach programs with the Baltimore Ecosystems Studies project, oversees the Science and Mathematics track of the elementary education major, and facilitates communication and collaboration between the Colleges of Education and Science and Mathematics, and among universities, community colleges, and schools. She is actively involved in the Maryland State K-16 Initiative, The Chesapeake Bay Education Initiative, and the Teach Chesapeake! Program.

Before coming to Towson University in 1985, Denniston earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University in 1975. She was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a Senior Staff Fellow at the National Cancer Institute, and a Research Assistant Professor at the Division of Molecular Virology and Immunology, Georgetown University. At Towson, Denniston has taught a wide variety of courses from the introductory to the graduate level. She is Coordinator of the Biology Majors Introductory Biology Course.

Denniston has published extensively on various aspects of molecular biology and virology. She has also published articles and presented workshops on science education and was co-editor of Recombinant DNA, published by Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross, Inc. Denniston and has co-authored three chemistry texts, as well as ancillary Student Study Guides and Instructors’ Manuals. Published by McGraw-Hill Publishers, these are currently being revised for publication of the third edition.

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