Math – Science

Concrete to Concept: Base-Ten Strategies for K–2 teachers 3/13/26
11:00am – 2:00pm

In this K–2 interactive workshop on Place-Value Understanding, teachers dive into hands-on activities that make base-ten concepts visible, strengthen students’ ten-structured thinking, and
provide practical strategies you can use right away to boost early place-value understanding

Instructor – Dr. Judith Fraivillig is a leader in mathematics education with decades of experience inspiring teachers and children alike. Known for her dynamic, hands-on workshops, she helps educators
discover how to make math meaningful and accessible for every learner. Her sessions blend research-based strategies with practical classroom insights, leaving teachers energized and eager
to bring new ideas to their students. Dr. Fraivillig holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Northwestern University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Science Education and Biology
from the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches courses in mathematics education to future elementary teachers at TCNJ.
Fee:$225.00

“Seeing the Math in Play: Nurturing Early Number Sense” for Early Childhood Educators 3/20/26
11:00am – 2:00pm

Turning play into a classroom full of math discoveries. Discover how young children build strong math foundations through play as we explore counting, sorting, ordering, patterns, measurement, and
number relationships. Learn to “mathematize” your teaching—seeing the math in everyday play—and gain practical strategies to support learning through intentional language, questions, and toys. Spark curiosity, confidence, and joyful math exploration in every child!
Fee: $225.00

Instructor – Dr. Judith Fraivillig is a leader in mathematics education with decades of experience inspiring teachers and children alike. Known for her dynamic, hands-on workshops, she helps educators
discover how to make math meaningful and accessible for every learner. Her sessions blend research-based strategies with practical classroom insights, leaving teachers energized and eager
to bring new ideas to their students. Dr. Fraivillig holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Northwestern University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Science Education and Biology
from the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches courses in mathematics education to future elementary teachers at TCNJ.

Sequencing for Success: Developing Teachers’ Skills in Linking and Organizing Mathematical Ideas – 12/10/2025

This professional development session focuses on enhancing teachers’ ability to recognize and make connections between mathematical ideas and concepts across grade levels. It emphasizes the importance of understanding how mathematical concepts are interrelated and how these relationships evolve throughout the educational journey. Teachers will explore strategies to strengthen their awareness of these connections, enabling them to link concepts and procedures effectively. The session will also address how to anticipate the hierarchical structure of mathematics, recognizing the increasing complexity of ideas as students progress. Through discussions and practical exercises, participants will develop the skills to make informed decisions about sequencing mathematical content in ways that promote student understanding and facilitate meaningful learning. The aim is to equip educators with the tools necessary to support students’ long-term mathematical development by fostering a cohesive and integrated approach to teaching mathematics.

Seminar Leader: Judit Kardos is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at TCNJ. She earned her B.A. in Mathematics and M.S. in Philosophy from Eötvös University in Budapest, followed by a Ph.D. in Mathematics with a focus on Real Analysis. As a mathematician, her research interests include the study of space-filling curves. As a teacher, she enjoys exploring innovative ways to connect mathematical ideas across various problems, areas of the curriculum—such as geometry, combinatorics, and algebra—and throughout the entire mathematical journey.

Teaching students to think as a Mathematician using the Pósa Method – 3/3/2025

Born in 1947, Pósa was a child prodigy, silver and gold medalist in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 1965 and 1966. He was only 15 years old when he wrote his first research paper with Paul Erdős, one of the most celebrated mathematicians of the 20th century. Pósa was Erdős’ favorite and most talented “epsilon” (Erdős called all kids “epsilons”). After finishing his Ph.D. in Mathematics, Pósa stopped writing research papers in mathematics and, instead, he became a full-time teacher in high school. Using his boundless mathematical creativity, Pósa developed unique sequences of math problems that taught students how to think like a mathematician. His problem sets pose and abandon, repeat or vary different mathematical ideas. Different threads of problems run parallel for a while but then at the next level they also intersect, intertwine. Fundamental mathematical ideas return in various forms and at various levels over multiple years in Pósa’s method, enabling students at the end to think freely and creatively. In this workshop, we will immerse participants in the Pósa method as a student, using problem sets of Pósa. Then we will look at the problem sets from a teacher’s perspective and learn how to apply Pósa’ s discovery method in one’s own teaching.

Impacts of Infectious Disease – the Positives and Negatives – 3/11/2026

Throughout history, humans have been burdened with countless infectious diseases. Some of these, due to their lethality or their insidious spread, have become legendary. We will examine the societal impact of, and science’s response to, history’s most significant diseases, including COVID-19, plague, influenza, tuberculosis, smallpox, polio, cholera, malaria, syphilis, HIV/AIDS and Ebola. We will explore the effects of each disease on two levels: the biological (microbiology, pharmacology, and immunology) and the societal (epidemiology and sociology). The ethics of infectious disease monitoring and control, including quarantines, mandatory health department notification, and the use of experimental drugs, will be explored. Learn the biology of each disease while also learning its historical framework.

Seminar Leader: Rita King Ph.D. in Microbiology from St. John’s University. Teaching biology courses at TCNJ for over 30 years – including general biology, environmental science, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, microbiology and the history of disease.

Teaching Science through Issues to Increase Engagement, Meet the NGSS, and Prepare Citizens. TBD

Traditionally, the goal of science courses has been to teach students the important concepts in the discipline, often leaving students wondering about the relevance of the material to their lives (i.e., why do I need to know this?). By engaging students in relevant

and current societal issues (e.g., climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic) or personal decisions (How much water should I drink in a day? Do I need to take all my antibiotics?), we give students a reason and a desire to learn scientific concepts. In addition to increasing student interest, the issues approach allows teachers to meet all three dimensions of the NGSS. Thoughtful choice of the issues explored in a course is all that is required to ensure coverage of the essential concepts in a discipline. The issues approach also prepares our students to use science in their everyday lives. Nationally, only 6% of high-school graduates go on to earn a bachelor’s or higher in STEM and are employed as STEM professionals, yet all students need to incorporate high-quality scientific information into the decisions they make in their personal, professional, and civic lives. As the pandemic has demonstrated, all persons, not just practicing scientists, need a high-quality science education if they are to engage effectively with our most pressing societal issues, and the issues approach trains students to do just that. At the conclusion of Teaching Science through Issues, you will have a thorough understanding of the issues approach and its benefits. You will identify an issue and the disciplinary content relevant to that issue for one of your classes, develop activities that connect the issue to NGSS standards and disciplinary content, and identify real-world scenarios to which students will apply the content knowledge related to the issue. You will leave the seminar with all the skills necessary to implement the issues-based approach in your classes.

Seminar Leader: Christopher Murphy, Ph.D.

Christopher Murphy is the Associate Provost for Curriculum and Liberal Learning and a Professor of Biology at The College of New Jersey. He taught his first class of general education biology 30 years ago as a post-doctoral associate, and since then, over 95% of his teaching has been with this population. For much of this time, he has used an issues-based approach to help students become interested in science and develop into empowered citizens capable of using reliable scientific information to make reasoned decisions. He conducts research in both biology and college education.