Christine Massey

Institute for Research in Cognitive Science
University of Pennsylvania
Research Associate &
Director of Education Outreach
Co-Director, PENNlincs

As the pre-college education outreach arm at the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, PENNlincs' mission is to create stronger, more productive ties between the cognitive science research community and educational institutions outside of the University. Our collaborations with educators and learners in public schools, museums, and zoos have generated a variety of innovative programs, educational products, and research studies. Major projects have included the following:

• Creation of the Science for Developing Minds Curriculum Series, a comprehensive, fully evaluated science curriculum specifically designed for children in the earliest elementary years (Grades K-2).
• Professional development workshops for early elementary teachers who want to introduce high-quality, hands-on, standards-aligned science in their classrooms.
• The PENNlincs/Baldi Robotics and Computer Science Mentoring Program, a Saturday program in which members of a middle school robotics club come to Penn weekly to work with undergraduate and graduate students and GRASP Lab faculty and associates on special projects in robotics and computer programming.
• The PENNlincs Math Mentoring Program, an in-school enrichment program in which Penn undergraduates and graduate students make weekly visits to local schools to work with small groups of students on fun and thought-provoking math activities.
• Explore-A-Zoo Kits, carry-along learning kits designed for families with young children to use during a zoo visit and at home. Created by the Philadelphia Zoo, in collaboration with PENNlincs.

For more details on any of these programs, please visit the PENNlincs web site.

Education

Ph.D., 1988. University of Pennsylvania, Psychology Department.
Dissertation: The Development of the Animate-Inanimate Distinction in Preschoolers.
Advisor: Rochel Gelman
Major areas of concentration: Cognitive development, including causal reasoning, classification, the development of ontological categories, theory change, and theories of development. Post-doctoral specialization in applications of cognitive science to education in formal and informal learning settings.

B.A., 1981. Wellesley College. Durant Scholar (summa cum laude equivalent).
Honors in psychology, with a second major in English.

Current and Recent Positions

Research Associate and Director of Education Outreach, Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, University of Pennsylvania. The Institute is a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. 1991-

Co-Director, PENNlincs, Institute for Research in Cognitive Science. PENNlincs serves as an outreach arm of IRCS, linking recent theory and research in cognitive science to education efforts in public schools and cultural institutions. 1989-

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College. 1990-96

Co-Principal Investigator, Constructing Science: Materials and Activities for Kindergarten and First Grade, NSF grant #ESI-92-52885, 1992-97.

Co-Principal Investigator, Zoo Science, NSF grant #ESI-92-54678, 1993-96.

Advisory Board Member, Family Learning Project, Philadelphia Informal Science Education Collaborative.

Advisory Board Member, Resdiscovering Dinosaurs, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.

Awards and Fellowships

National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow, 1993-95
National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, 1984-1987
Sigma Xi, Wellesley College, 1981
Phi Beta Kappa, Wellesley College, 1980