Dan Bisaccio
Lecturer in Education
After teaching high school science for 30 years, Dan Bisaccio wants to share his experience with the next generation.
“I enjoy immensely the opportunity to work with the science educators of the future,” says Bisaccio, lecturer of education in the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) program.
The New Hampshire resident enters what he calls the “sea of acronyms” that is higher education with jubilance and purpose. The last decade has seen a critical shortage of science, math and modern language teachers in the United States, he says.
“We’re at a real crossroads with No Child Left Behind, state standards, mandatory testing, the graying and retiring of science faculty across the country,” Bisaccio says. “But we’re at the cusp of something cyclical. When I started teaching 30 years ago, Earth Day was a big deal. Students today are interested in social justice, the environment, which is coinciding at a very opportune time.”
Offered by the Graduate School at Brown, the 12-month M.A.T. program prepares college graduates for careers as secondary school teachers of English, social studies/history and biology/science. The program consists of three courses taken in, or directly related to, the student’s teaching field and five courses taken in education, including the summer practicum and academic-year student teaching.
“With the program that Brown has to offer, M.A.T. graduates have a significant advantage in the workforce,” Bisaccio says. “Future science educators can name the location where they want to work.”
Most M.A.T. students enroll fresh from an undergraduate program, but among the students Bisaccio met last year at Brown was a woman in her 30s. “She was a researcher for a pharmaceutical company, who decided to teach,” he recalls. “She was passionate about her subject and she wanted to work with adolescents.”
In an era when nearly every scientific field offers more money and prestige, why teach? To Bisaccio, it’s simple: “The strong sense of personal satisfaction, inspiring all ages to be scientifically literate.”
In his spare time 13 years ago, Bisaccio founded HabitatNet to connect teachers and high school students with global biodiversity research. He teaches them to collect primary data at one of five field stations in the Yucatan, Jamaica, the Netherlands Antilles, Tahiti/Moorea, and New Hampshire. “They get a publication credit out of it,” he says, smiling at the fact that many don’t appreciate it until much later in their education.
HabitatNet has since become affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution, and its students have addressed the United Nations on the importance of studying global biodiversity. These are inspired students — and yes, Bisaccio has whispered in their ears about someday teaching.
Bisaccio holds a B.S. in Geology and Biology from St. Lawrence University, where he was a George Baker Scholar. After pursuing graduate work at Northern Arizona University and Colorado School of Mines, he earned his M.S.T. in Environmental Science from Antioch New England Graduate School. He has won numerous teaching awards on the state and national level.