Science Education Professor Ann Rivet explores how students develop deep and meaningful understandings of Earth and environmental science concepts. Her work is grounded in the belief that science education should not only teach core disciplinary ideas but also help students to make sense of the world they inhabit. By focusing on how young people learn about complex Earth systems, she aims to make science education more engaging, relevant, and equitable.
After earning her bachelors degree in physics from Brown University, and doctoral degree in science education from the University of Michigan, Professor Rivet began working as an Assistant Professor of Science Education at TC in 2003. After spending roughly 13 years researching and teaching in the MST department, she served as a program officer in the Directorate for STEM Education at the National Science Foundation between 2016-2019. Since then, Professor Rivet has returned to TC and has been actively involved with current efforts to support the adoption and implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) at both the policy and practitioner levels. This includes the development of OpenSciEd, a program of free open source high quality curriculum materials for middle and high school science.
Professor Rivet’s current research investigates the ways that real world experiences and prior knowledge are related to and influence students’ understandings of core disciplinary ideas. She also looks at how phenomena-based instructional approaches can help students to understand large-scale Earth systems. Her work has been published in leading journals including Science, the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, and the American Education Research Journal, and she has presented her work in places such as the National Geographic Society, the International Society of the Learning Sciences, and at the annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association.
Additionally, Professor Rivet is currently an Assistant Director of the Center for Sustainable Futures (CSF) here at TC. CSF “envisions a regenerative world in which we achieve a balance between planet, people, and prosperity.” Here, Professor Rivet works with colleagues to conduct research, builds research-practice partnerships, mentors graduate students, and leverages data to inform evidence-based policy, practice, and communication. This dynamic group of researchers has hosted events such as the International Workshop on Environment, Sustainability, & Education and a webinar series titled Thinking Global, Educating Local, offering rich opportunities for dialogue, collaboration, and critical engagement with sustainability education across global and local contexts.
For Professor Rivet, the urgency of her work stems from a deep belief that all students deserve equitable access to scientific knowledge that equips them to navigate and shape the world around them. In today’s climate, students must develop a more sophisticated understanding of the difference between weather and climate, the dynamics of climate systems, and how energy moves through and influences those systems. These concepts connect not only to environmental science but to biological, economic, food, and water systems as well, all of which directly affect students’ daily lives. By introducing these foundational ideas earlier and in more accessible ways, Rivet hopes to foster a sense of agency in students. “I want them to have the conceptual tools to explain what they’re experiencing and what’s happening around them,” she explains. This work is rooted, in part, in her own childhood when she spent time in garden centers and pruning trees with her father, a landscaper. This shaped her early awareness of living systems and change over time.
In her work, Professor Rivet emphasizes that climate change is not just a science topic, but a social, political, and ethical issue. Her work pushes students, teachers, policy-makers, and society more broadly to ask critical questions: Who is responsible? What does meaningful action look like? How can educators support students in envisioning and enacting change? “The students we’re educating now will be the citizens and leaders of the future,” Rivet says. “They’ll be responsible for leading society in a rapidly changing world. So we need to prepare them. It's our responsibility now to give them the tools, the knowledge, and the resources they’ll need to make the best decisions they can moving forward.” As an educator and teacher educator, Professor Rivet helps to ensure that future generations can live in a world where they are healthy, safe, and able to thrive.