Associate Professor of Science Education, College of Education
Early Childhood And Elementary Science Education, Education, Teacher Leadership
At A Glance
According to Julianne Wenner, there are many ways families explore science. They use kits, and they try online experiments. But, fixing a car is science. Knowing what ingredients to use when cooking — and when to add them — is science. Planting a garden in a particular way to make things grow is science. In an effort to promote more authentic engagement with science, Wenner focuses her instruction and research on elementary and early childhood science education, investigating what families are already doing in their homes to support their children in science, and equipping schools and teachers with information to better support science education for all students.
Bio
Julianne Wenner specializes in elementary and early childhood science education, dedicating her work to exploring how teachers and families can best support their children’s science learning at both school and home and developing tools to help with those activities. Her focus is ensuring all students feel empowered to engage in and explore careers or hobbies in science. She conducts research to identify effective practices and equips schools and teachers with the tools and information necessary to teach and enhance engagement in high-quality science education.
In collaboration with others, Wenner has published more than 30 articles in well-renowned journals and six book chapters. Her works include: “Science teacher leadership: The current landscape and paths forward.”; “What do families have to say about it?: Family supports for children’s interest, engagement, and aspirations in science”; and “Supporting STEM graduate students in strengthening their professional identity through an authentic interdisciplinary partnership.” Additionally, she has presented in over 80 international, national and regional conferences, and has been nominated for the Outstanding Mentor Award in 2024 for the Association of Science Teacher Education and recently received awards from Clemson University for securing over $2.5M in grants and having over 1,000 citations of a single published work.
Before joining Clemson in 2021, Wenner served as an assistant professor for the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Foundational Studies at Boise State University. Prior to serving in higher education, she taught in both middle and elementary schools as a science teacher and fourth grade teacher. She is a member of the Association for Science Teacher Education, National Association for Research in Science Teaching, National Science Teachers Association and American Education Research Association.
As a parent of kids who were in kindergarten and second grade, the year that COVID happened, I noticed that they were not being taught science that year. They were being taught ELA and math, right? That was the focus. And teachers and administrators were rightly very concerned about kids falling behind in those spaces. But because of that, we then had a year or two where science wasn’t taught and teachers are out of the groove and kids are out of the groove, and so they’ve kind of fallen behind in science.
