Leah Cook earns Ph.D.

Leah Cook, Interim Associate Department Chair and Lab Coordinator for Science at the W.A. Lettinga Campus, successfully defended her dissertation on May 11 for a Ph.D. in Science Education from Western Michigan University.  The title of her dissertation is Using Concept Maps to Monitor Knowledge Structure Changes in a Science Classroom.

Dr. Cook has been employed at Davenport University for 10 years.  She earned a Master’s in Biology with an Aquatic Ecology emphasis from Eastern Michigan University in 2012.

Her publications include, Effects of simulated short-term road salt exposure on lotic periphyton function. Journal of Freshwater Ecology. 2013.

Her presentations include, “Relating Students’ Conceptions and Highlighting Misconceptions using Concept Mapping”, Great Lakes Conference on Teaching and Learning, May 2015, and “Using concept maps to measure undergraduates’ Nature of Science conceptions during a biology course”, National Association of Biology Teachers, November 2014.