Dr. Jose Maldonado-Rivera

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico where he went to school in the island's top public k-12 institution - the University High School. Did his undergraduate studies at SUNY Stony Brook where he majored in Biology and minored in Federated Learning Communities, a nationally recognized interdisciplinary residential scholars program. His course work focused on marine ecology, evolution, the history and philosophy of science, and Latin-American studies. He was research assistant in the marine ecology lab (with Jefrey Levinton) and the insect ecology lab (with Doug Futuyma) and a resident assistant in the student dorms for three years. In 1984 he was awarded the University of California presidential fellowship to pursue graduate studies at UC Santa Barbara where he worked under Robert Warner. His Ph. D. research project was on the ecology and behavior of two species of grassbed parrotfish in the San Blas Islands, Panama where he was researcher at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute field station. In 1985 he was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, to continue his work with parrotfish population dynamics. In 1987 he became assistant professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras where he remained for two years. Subsequently he held teaching positions at Saint John's School (San Juan), where he developed the number one ranked high school science program on the island and led his science and biology teams to a record 4 years as state champions.

In 1989 and 1990 he was voted by the student body 'Most Outstanding Teacher' and the faculty elected him their representative to the Headmasters cabinet. Jose has taught secondary and college levels course in biology, environmental science, marine biology, zoology, educational psychology, philosophy of education. In 1992, he was awarded the Presidential State Award for Excellence in Teaching Science and Mathematics. In 1993 he became research associate at Columbia University's Institute of Urban and Minority education, where he did public policy research in teacher training, science and math education, and educational reform efforts. He completed a Ph.D. in Science Education at Columbia University in 1998, specializing in cognition and learning in science. His thesis research characterized student and teacher misconceptions of biological evolution and experimentally tested the effectiveness of conceptual change teaching approaches in transforming student understanding.

During the last 12 years Jose has directed an intensive summer nature camp - Tropical Adventure, in the islands of Puerto Rico, Culebra and Mona. The camp explores 11 of the island's ecosystems including Rainforest, Dryforest, Coral reefs, Mangrove swamps and Karst forests. In 1996 he founded the Environmental Education Project of Puerto Rico (PROEA) an organization that has impacted over 6000 students and 250 teachers in outdoor nature and biodiversity education. Under Jose's leadership the organization obtained over $550,000 in grants, including a major startup grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 1997 PROEA won the prestigious Manuel Medina Award for excellence and innovation in education.

Jose has given over 75 talks in a wide variety of subjects including Methods in Nature Education, Biofilia and biofobia in Puertorican culture, Pseudoscientific thinking: the role of religious beliefs, Educational implications of the Biodiversity crisis, The teaching and learning of evolution, Student misconceptions of evolution, Student misconception of ecology, the Integration of computers in biology education and Outdoor education methods. He has directed a dozen in-service teacher-training programs in areas such as Integration of Computers in Biology Education, EcoPsychology, Outdoor Nature Education, Evolution Education and Marine Ecology. He is founding member of the Puertorican Association of Environmental Educators and the Puertorican Skeptics Organization - Rational Alternative. He has been a consultant to the Department of Education of Puerto Rico and from 1994-6 served as the community representative of the school board of the Vega Alta School District.

He is currently working on two book length manuscripts on educational reform in Puerto Rico and on the teaching and learning of evolution; a manual for outdoor biodiversity education; and assorted articles in conceptual change teaching and learning in biology.

Since 1998 he was assistant professor of education at Hartwick College and serves as head of the Department of Education, where he taught courses in educational psychology, philosophy and sociology of education, science education and assorted interdisciplinary seminars in education and biology.

During his free time Jose enjoys kayaking, hiking, camping, scuba diving, racquetball; listening to Latin-American nueva trova and Celtic music; reading history, political and military biographies, philosophy, and Latin-American fiction. During the summers he spends most of the time in his farm in the Karst hills of Puerto Rico gardening and exploring the rainforest, mangrove swamps and coral reefs of Puerto Rico.

Favorite QUOTES

"If you are not a rebel, if you meekly accept the world's present deteriorating state of affairs, its not because you don't have a heart or a brain. It's because you are an idiot."    Joan Manual Serrat

"Nothing in Biology makes sense except in the light of evolution"   T. Dobzhansky

"Creation is not an act but a process; it did not happen five or six thousand years ago but is going on before our eyes. Man is not compelled to be a mere spectator; he may become an assistant, a collaborator, a partner in the process of creation"    T.Dobzhansky

"Personal knowledge is not made but discovered. It commits us, passionately and far beyond comprehension, to a vision of reality. Like love, to which it is akin, this commitment is a shirt of flame, blazing with passion and, also like love, consumed by devotion to a universal demand."    K. Polanyi (1958)

"Ecological education is directed towards changing our intellectual emphasis, loyalties, affections, and convictions. It requires breaking free of old pedagogical assumptions, of the straight-jacket of discipline centered curriculum, and even of the confinement of the classroom and school buildings.Ecological education means changing the substance and process of education contained in the curriculum, how educational institutions work, the architecture within which education occurs, and most important, the purpose of learning."   D. Orr.

"Ours is about the most ignorant age that can be imagined"   E. Chargaff

"The function of education must be: to equip young people with a basic understanding of systems and to develop habits of mind that seek out patterns that connect humans and nature, to teach young people the analytical tools necessary for thinking accurately about cause and effect, to give students the practical competence necessary to local problems".   D. Orr

"Genius exist, it is done by working very hard at it."    Pablo Picasso