James Minogue

Professional Title
Associate Professor Elementary Science Education
Organization/Institution
About Me (Bio)
James Minogue is Associate Professor of Elementary Education Science Education at North Carolina State University. Prior to joining NCSU in the fall of 2007, James held a tenure-track position at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). His research efforts center on haptic (touch) perception and cognition within the context of teaching and learning, exploring the efficacy of game-based learning environments in elementary science, and examining how to best structure elementary students’ “conceptual encounters” with invisible science phenomena. He holds a B.S. in Marine Science and has eight years of experience teaching public school science. He has been developing and teaching the elementary science methods courses since the Fall of 2005. Additionally, he has created professional development workshops for elementary school teachers, the focus of which has been the critical analysis, implementation, and extension of commercially available inquiry-based science modules. He recently served as the curriculum leader for a large-scale NSF DR K-12 project to introduce game-based science learning into the elementary school classroom. He was also part of a recent AISL venture that designed, built, and evaluated a critical issue-based exhibit that engaged users in the exploration of key environmental sustainability issues including climate change, alternative energies, and energy trade-offs. Most recently he was awarded a three year NSF DR K-12 Exploratory project that will develop and pilot test a suite of haptically-enhanced simulations for upper elementary (grade 3-5) science content.
North Carolina State University (NCSU)
09/01/2013

This project combines Unity (a cross-platform game engine and integrated development environment) with cutting-edge haptic technology to provide upper elementary students with a new way of accessing core science content. The core research question that undergirds this exploratory project is: How does the addition of haptic feedback influence users' understandings of core, often invisible, science content?