Source: Physics Central By Korena Di Roma Howley As a young girl growing up in Sacramento, California, Ximena Cid would sit on her roof and stare at the night sky. “I always had a love of the stars, of the universe,” she says. Today, Cid is chair of the physics department at California State University, Dominguez Hills and has pivoted from a focus in space science to one in physics education research (PER). “In grad school, I became more and more fascinated with the way people learn [and how] the ways in which we present ideas impacts how people understand them,” she says. She looks at how topics in physics might be rendered to better support students, noting that teaching in ... Read More
College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences
Faculty Highlights: July-August 2020
Our faculty members participate in conferences around the world, conduct groundbreaking research, and publish books and journal papers that contribute to their field and highlight their expertise. We feature those accomplishments and more in this section. To share faculty news, email ucpa@csudh.edu. College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences Professor Matthew Jones, chair of the Mathematics Department, and mathematics lecturer Sharon Lanaghan have co-written the article “Building and Sustaining Success in Precalculus: A Multi-Pronged Approach" for the journal Primus. Their paper describes the rationale, implementation, and impact of the redesign of precalculus at ... Read More
Sociology Student Noé López Named a Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar
Master of Sociology student Noé López is focusing his research and thesis on examining higher education through a “racial and sociological lens.” Now, as California State University, Dominguez Hills' (CSUDH) 2020 CSU Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar recipient, he will be much better equipped to pursue his aspirations of becoming a professor at a Hispanic-serving institution, where he can fuse his research and teaching to empower historically “disinvested” students. López, who is on track to complete his master's degree in spring 2021, carries a notepad to jot down ideas for his thesis as they emerge. “I really enjoy doing this kind of work,” he said. “With my research and thesis, ... Read More
CSUDH-led Consortium Receives $550,000 to Develop Hybrid, Lab-Based Biology Courses
(Carson, Ca.) The California Education Learning Lab has awarded $550,000 to California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), El Camino College (ECC), and University of California, Irvine (UCI) to develop hybrid, lab-based biology courses that offer authentic research experiences. The new program will be designed to bring lab research to a much larger number of students, and to expand with demand. Housed in the Governor's Office of Planning and Research, the California Education Learning Lab (Learning Lab) was established by state law in 2018 to “increase learning outcomes and close equity and achievement gaps in the state, particularly in the science, technology, engineering, and ... Read More
Virtual Graduation Celebration Honors Toro Class of 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic may have postponed commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2020, but California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) still found a way to celebrate its graduates with a week-long Virtual Graduation Celebration. Given the task of quickly creating a series of online and virtual events to celebrate Toro grads, several departments teamed up and got to work. The effort was led by the CSUDH Office of Ceremonies and Events, with staff from the Office of Student Life (OSL), communications, alumni, the Academic Affairs Division, and DHTV all pitching in. “None of us had ever done anything like this before,” says Marilyn McPoland, director of Ceremonies and ... Read More
