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Dr. Carol O'Donnell
The Douglas M. Lapp and Anne B. Keiser Director, Smithsonian Science Education Center Smithsonian Institution
CV
Dr. Carol O’Donnell is the Douglas M. Lapp and Anne B. Keiser Director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC), an education organization of the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to transforming K-12 Education through Science in collaboration with communities across the globe. Carol is responsible for all operational activities for the organization, including building awareness for K-12 science education reform; supporting professional growth of teachers and school leaders; and, overseeing all research, curriculum development, and philanthropy. In her role as the Lapp-Keiser Director, Carol serves as the U.S. representative on the Global Council of the InterAcademy Partnership Science Education Programme, an appointment by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, which jointly founded the SSEC in collaboration with the Smithsonian. Carol serves on the UN Broadband Commission on Sustainable Development Working Group on School Connectivity. She also represents the Smithsonian on the Subcommittee on Federal Coordination in STEM (FC-STEM), which advises and assists the Committee on STEM (CoSTEM) of the Office of Science and Technology Policy of the Executive Office of the President of the US. In her organization's role with the International Dialogue on STEM Education (IDOS), Carol co-authored the position paper “STEM Education for Sustainable Development”. Prior to joining the Smithsonian, Carol was a leader at the US Department of Education, supporting US States’ and districts’ implementation of K-12 federal programs. She oversaw the Cognition and Student Learning research grant of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research arm of the ED.
Carol is the winner of the 2008 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Graduate Research Excellence Award; 2021 National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity “Unsung Hero Award;” and 2018 University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Alumni Award. O’Donnell’s team at SSEC received the 2018 Smithsonian Innovation in Education Award and the 2024 One Smithsonian Education Award for their work on the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project.
A former elementary science teacher and curriculum developer, Dr. O’Donnell served for 15 years on the part-time faculty of the Physics Department at The George Washington University, where she earned her doctorate. She earned her Executive Education certificate in nonprofit management from Harvard Business School.
Abstract
Abstract:In her presentation, Dr. Carol O’Donnell will discuss how the Smithsonian Institution, through the Smithsonian Science Education Center, in collaboration with the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP), has helped to transform our traditional understanding of inquiry-based science education (IBSE) into the future. Together, the Smithsonian and IAP are helping young people “Discover”, “Understand”, and “Act” on the world’s most complex socio-scientific issues of our time (e.g., climate change, infectious disease, biodiversity loss, the ethics of biotechnology, humans and the atmosphere, clean energy, clean water, the health of our ocean). The Discover, Understand, Act framework builds student sustainability mindsets (agency and action-taking; open-mindedness and reflection; relationships and interconnection; and equity and justice) while developing their scientific literacy. Dr. O’Donnell will discuss how the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project is helping young people engage as partners and action researchers to realize the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within their own local communities. She will discuss how students discover the connections between themselves, their communities, and global issues; investigate issues using their communities as their laboratories; gather data relevant to them and their communities using science and social science approaches; and act on what they have learned, applying their new knowledge for social good. This innovative approach centers young people in leading their science learning and casts science educators as facilitators of that process. Upending traditional approaches to IBSE, the project centers student voices, diverse perspectives, representational role models, an emphasis on inclusion, and multiple ways of knowing. Filtered through the lenses of systems and futures thinking, this approach transforms education into an experience relevant to the complexities of the 21st Century and integral to the accomplishment of the SDGs.