Jean Bell is one of the founding authors of Everyday Mathematics and part of the Author panel that has responsibility for general oversight of the Publishing Agreement for Everyday Mathematics and the Center Agreement that established the Center for Mathematics and Science Education (CEMSE) at the University of Chicago. Early in her career Jean Bell was a microbiologist in the California State Public Health Laboratories and in the laboratory of Dr. Marc Beem at the University of Chicago. In a career change after some years of full-time parenting Bell began teaching pre-school children and then with an MST degree from the University of Chicago became a primary school teacher. In the early 1980's Bell did interview-based research on the mathematics capabilities of young children that showed very clearly that these capabilities had been seriously underestimated. This led her to work with other founding authors within the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP) on development of the grades K-6 Everyday Mathematics curriculum. On completion of the First Edition of Everyday Mathematics she returned to her science roots, founding with others the Chicago Science Group to develop the K-5 Science Companion curriculum. That curriculum, distributed by Pearson Scott Foresman, seeks to be inquiry based, relatively easy to implement, firmly rooted in "reform" oriented national standards, and easily integrated with such programs as Everyday Mathematics.
jeanbell@chicagoscience.com
831-646-8950