University of Pittsburgh School of Education

School of Education

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Jennifer Cartier

 
Picture of Jennifer Cartier
Jennifer Cartier
School of Education
University of Pittsburgh
5523 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
PHONE: 412-648-7248
EMAIL: jcartier@pitt.edu

Full Time Faculty - Assistant Professor

Dr. Cartier grew up in southern Maine and attended college in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Throughout high school and college, Dr. Cartier participated in a number of intensive research projects in the fields of molecular genetics and biochemistry, including summer internships at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her college thesis involved active-site mapping of the HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase protein. Following college, Dr. Cartier earned a Masters degree related to her work in virology at the University of Wisconsin: identifying functional domains of the anti-apoptotic baculovirus P35 protein. 
 
As the child, wife, and sister of teachers it was almost inevitable that her love of science would eventually be channeled into a career in education, and in 1994, she entered graduate studies in Science Education. Since then, she has been working primarily in the areas of curriculum development and teacher professional development in science education. 
 
Dr. Cartier enjoys exploring children's literature with her own elementary-aged children, and relaxing at home in the South Hills with her family and their 2 large dogs and 2 cats. In her next career, Dr. Cartier hopes to own a bed and breakfast on the New England coast!

School Affiliations

  • Department: Instruction and Learning
  • Program: Elementary Education
  • Program: Science Education

Education

  • Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 5/1/1999
  • M.S., Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 8/1/1994
  • B.A., Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Williams College, 6/1/1992

Recent Publications

Journal Articles

  • Making classroom skills scientific. Stephen L. Pellathy, John R. Paul, Jennifer L. Cartier, and Jo Wittfeldt. Science and Children.

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Recent Course Instruction

Spring 2009 (2094)

Fall 2008 (2091)

Summer 2008 (2087)

Spring 2008 (2084)

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Recent Presentations

  • Science education in the United States.
    Jennifer L. Cartier. Colloquium presentation presented at La Ensenanza de las Ciencias en Mexico en el Marco de la Articulacion de la Educacion Basica at the invitation of the Mexican Ministry of Education. Huatulco, Mexico. (April 2008)
  • Pre-service elementary teachers’ appropriation of an instructional planning framework.
    Jennifer L. Cartier, Wendy Sink, Priya Kannan, and Jeanetta Kochhar. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. Baltimore, MD. (April, 2008)
  • Examining elementary curriculum materials through the lens of instructional frameworks: Supporting pre-service teacher learning.
    Jennifer L. Cartier, Kristin L. Gunckel, Christina Schwarz, Edward Smith, Wendy Sink, Pria Kannan, and Ellice Forman. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, NY. (March, 2008)
  • Supporting elementary teacher learning through use of an instructional planning framework.
    Jennifer L. Cartier, Wendy Sink, and Jeanetta Kochhar. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Association for Science Teacher Educators. St. Louis, MO. (January, 2008)

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Current Professional Participation

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Recent Consulting

  • ASSET, Inc.
    • Help to design "content deepening" professional development opportunities for elementary teachers (K-8). ASSET, Inc. works with teachers statewide and these workshops are a critical part of their mission. I also oversee the collaboration between ASSET and the GK-12 Fellows from the University of Pittsburgh.
  • Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
    • Committee Member: Carnegie Science Center Excellence Awards in Teaching
  • Corwin Press
    • Manuscript reviewer.
  • Pittsburgh Public Schools
    • Member of the Science & Technology High School Curriculum Committee.(Spring 2008) Designed and facilitated a workshop for elementary science specialists related to "learning progressions" for the concept of "matter." (January 2008) Member of the University Preparatory School partnership committee (Spring 2008, ongoing).
  • Science Education
    • Manuscript reviewer.

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Recent Grants

  • Linking Teacher Preparation to Student Learning in Mathematics and Science (NSF Teacher Professional Continuum program). Marcy Singer-Gabella, PI; Jennifer Cartier, Ellice Forman, Kay McClain, coPIs [$2,491,474.00]

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