Faculty Profile
Maria Varelas, Professor
Curriculum & Instruction
Mailing Address: 1040 W. Harrison M/C 147 Chicago IL 60607
Email: mvarelas@uic.edu
Office Phone: 312-996-2454
EDUCATION
1992 - Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, Science EducationRESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
My teaching and research interests include: Classroom-based teaching and learning of science in urban settings; collaborative teacher action research; discourse in science classrooms; integration of science and literacy; science education reform in elementary school and college science classrooms. Focusing on the teaching and learning of science in elementary school and college classrooms, I engage in theoretical and empirical explorations of what it means to teach and understand science using primarily qualitative, interpretive approaches. I study various interplays that are enacted in science classrooms, namely the interplay between developing theories and collecting and analyzing data, between the individual student and the larger classroom community, between the teacher and the learner, between affective, cognitive, and social dimensions of experience, between reading, writing, drawing, talking, and doing science, between an individuals construction of meaning and the existing socio-cultural practice of science, between intellectual-thematic and social-organizational aspects of a classroom community. The collaborative teacher action research that I have been conducting has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the State of Illinois, professional organizations, and the university, as I work with elementary school and college teachers to reform science education and explore the possibilities and challenges that emerge.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (more)
in press - Varelas, M., Kane, J. M., Tucker-Raymond, E., & Pappas, C. C. (in press). Science learning in urban elementary school classrooms: Liberatory education and issues of access, participation, and achievement. In B. J. Fraser, K. Tobin, & C. McRobbie (Eds.), Second International Handbook of Science Education. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer-Kluwer.
in press - Varelas, M., Kane, J. M., & Pappas, C. C. (in press). Concept development in urban classroom spaces: Dialectical relationships, power, and identity. In K. Tobin & W.-M. Roth (Eds.): Re/structuring science education: Reuniting sociological and psychological perspectives. Rotterdam, Netherlands: SensePublishers.
2009 - Varelas, M., & Kane, J. M. (2009). Language undertheorized: Conceptual metaphors and conceptual change. Human Development, Letters to the Editor, May 29, 2009, 3-5.
2009 - Pappas, C. C., Varelas, M., Ciesla, T., & Tucker-Raymond, E. (2009). Journal and book writing in integrated science-literacy units: Insights from urban primary-grade classrooms. In K. Richardson Bruna & K. Gomez (Eds.), The work of language in multicultural classrooms: Talking science, writing science (pp. 13-47). New York: Routledge.
2009 - Plotnick, R., Varelas. M., & Fan Q. (2009). Physical World: An integrated earth science, astronomy, and physics course for elementary education majors. Journal of Geoscience Education, 57(2), 152-158.
2009 - Christodoulou, N., & Varelas, M. with Wenzel, S. (2009). Curricular orientations, experiences, and actions: Graduate students in science and mathematics fields work in urban high school classrooms. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46(1), 1-26.
HONORS AND AWARDS (more)
2008-2011 - University Scholar, University of Illinois
2008 - WOW Award, University of Illinois at Chicago
2006 - Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Illinois at Chicago
2003 - Teaching Recognition Program Award, University of Illinois at Chicago
2003 - Silver Circle Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Illinois at Chicago
2000 - Silver Circle Award for Excellence in Teaching, University of Illinois at Chicago
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND ACTIVITIES (more)
Faculty Advisor, University of Illinois at Chicago Honors College and College of Education, Project ESTEEM. Motorola Foundation. $12,000.
Equal PIs: M. Varelas & C. Pappas, Integrated Science-Literacy Enactments (ISLE) in Chicago Public School (CPS) Early Elementary Grades. Polk Bros Foundation. $300,000.
Co-Editor of the Learning section of the journal "Science Education"
Higher Education Editor of the journal of the Illinois Science Teachers Association (ISTA) "Spectrum"
Equal PIs: M. Varelas & C. Pappas, Integrated Science-Literacy in Urban Early Elementary Classrooms: Exploring Scientific Understandings and Discourse Genres. National Science Foundation (Award #: REC-0411593). $1,054,088
Equal PIs: D. Wink, M. Varelas, T. Moher, M. Nishimura, & S. Wenzel, Scientists, Kids, and Teachers (SKIT): A GK-12 partnership with the Chicago Public Schools. National Science Foundation (Award #: DGE-0338328). $2,027,287.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
9/24/2008 Maria Varelas has been featured in UIC NEWS for being named University Scholar.
11/15/2006 Maria Varelas has been featured in UIC NEWS for her Award for Excellence in Teaching.
5/28/2003 Maria Varelas has been featured in UIC NEWS for being a Silver Circle Award winner.
4/26/2000 Maria Varelas has been featured in UIC NEWS for her Silver Circle Award.