About Us

For too long now the nation's best research universities have often sat idle while our the problems of our system of public school education have reached crisis proportion. Rensselaer, through CIPCE, intends to take the lead in forging new relationships which will become models for others to follow. Educators at all levels, and leaders in government, business and the philanthropic community, are unanimous in their deep concern that students in kindergarten through twelfth grades are not receiving the type of education which will permit them to enter the technological workplace that awaits them. Therefore Rensselaer believes that it shares with the nation's schools an obligation to develop and deliver a first-class education to students at all levels. It also believes that the work of CIPCE in pursuit of that goal can enrich its own intellectual environment, tap new sources of external funding, and improve its public and community relations.

Director

Lester Rubenfeld, Ph.D

Lester Rubenfeld , Professor of Mathematical Sciences, is a graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School in New York City, has a BS is Applied Mathematics from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and an MS and PhD in Applied Mathematics from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. He was awarded the 1987 Rensselaer Distinguished Teaching Fellowship, he was the recipient of the 1992 Community Service Award from the Hudson-Mohawk Association of Colleges and Universities for his work with Capital District schools, and received the 1999 Jerome Fishbach Faculty Travel Award from Rensselaer. He is the author of twenty one research papers on applied mathematics and two graduate applied mathematics textbooks, and has conducted numerous workshops and institutes on mathematics inquiry.

Michele Murray- Assistant to Director

Michele began working for CIPCE August 2003. Her role includes all of the usual administrative tasks as well as the added responsibility of seeing that the CIPCE train does not totally derail. It is her responsibility to manage the chaos that ensues as CIPCE goes forward with both old and new projects, while at the same time retaining enough sanity to weather all storms that develop. In her spare time she confronts the challenging task of finding the most expedient ways of administrating the creativity of CIPCE's varied programs within the Rensselaer system.

Core Staff

Melissa Hershey- Project Administrator for LEGO Robotics

Melissa's undergraduate studies were in Mechanical Engineering and Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Much of her STS research focused on high-tech toys and the effects of using creative mediums such as these to captivate students and improve learning both in and out of the classroom. At CIPCE, she coordinates LEGO Robotics classroom outreach and RPI & GE¹s FIRST LEGO League. She is also involved in heading a program to place undergraduate college students in local middle schools as mentors for after school robotics clubs.

Josephine Carnevale - Project Manager for Teacher Professional Development

Josie’s undergraduate studies were in Mathematics and Sociology at the University of Waterloo in Canada. She completed her Masters degree in Mathematics and Technology Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Her thesis focused on teacher professional development in mathematics education. Josie has over 17 years teaching experience from K-12.  She has taught courses for the Faculty of Education at York University, and worked as a consultant in curriculum and technology. She has played an active role in conferences for educational computing and involved in math steering committees. Her research interests center on supporting teachers and students in their mathematics learning and in the use of technology in mathematics education.

Sybillyn Jennings, Ph.D- Cognitive Consultant

Sybillyn Jennings coordinates the research arm of CIPCE. She is fascinated by inquiry and problem-solving approaches to mathematics and science and studies learning in classrooms, labs, on-line discussions, workshops, with interactive multimedia, and through clinical interviews with children and adolescents. With colleagues Karen Swan and Ellen Meier, she is exploring CATIE's situated professional development model for K-12 teachers who are working with CATIE mentors to integrate technology into their instruction. Syb teaches in the RPI Summer Masters program in Natural Science, and serves as a consultant in the developmental and social foundations of cognition and learning. In her other life, she is a Professor of Psychology at The Sage Colleges and co-directs the General Education program, Women in the World and Women Changing the World. Syb earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and she conducted research in cognitive and social development during post-doctoral work at the University of Denver.