Description of Research Expertise

Areas of Expertise

Elementary and middle school science education
Teacher education

Professional Biography

Before coming back to Penn full time, Ms. Bergey taught for 29 years in public and private elementary and middle schools, primarily as a science specialist and coordinator. Highlights of this work included teaching Lego robotics, developing the curriculum for a K-8 program across three schools, designing elementary and middle school science labs/classrooms, and coordinating yearly school-wide science units.

During these years, Ms. Bergey also participated in exhibit design, wrote wall copy, designed activity books, and taught both children and adults for the Franklin Institute and the Academy of Natural Sciences. Ms. Bergey served as an adjunct professor at Penn (1982, 1983, 1997, 2001-2005), Chestnut Hill College, and Arcadia University. She helped in the development of the NSF-funded Penn-Merck Collaborative for the Enhancement of Science Education and served as the head of its Summer Institute II (Biological and Earth Sciences) from 1996 to1999. Ms. Bergey also worked on the development of courses for the Middle School Integrated Science Education Program (MISEP) at Penn and co-taught the biology course in its first year.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Ms. Bergey’s research interests include elementary and middle school student learning of science; helping pre- and in-service teachers to become interested in science and comfortable teaching it; uses of educational technologies in teaching science and evaluating learning; problem-based learning; and complex teaching models involving undergraduate students and/or older elementary students, as well as student teachers, to facilitate learning. She is currently studying some of these processes as a group of (mostly premed) undergraduates (PSAA) and EDUC421 students work to enhance science learning and interest in STEM at a local public elementary school.

In addition to teaching, Ms. Bergey coordinates the M.S. Ed. in elementary education program and the undergraduate minors in education. Along with advising students, this work involves cultivating relationships with schools and teachers, community members, and undergraduate programs. Ms. Bergey is the faculty adviser to the University of Pennsylvania Student Chapter of the National Association of Science Teachers (NSTA), the undergraduate Penn Education Society (PES), and Penn Science Across Ages (PSAA).