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Job Title(s)Associate Lecturer in Science
 
Phone No.+44 (0) 28 9026 8288 
Internal Phone No.ext. 288 
Emailj.prenter 

Departments

Science

Short Description

At St. Mary’s I have contributed to all areas of the BEd Science program and Curriculum Studies from BEd 1 to BEd 4.
My current teaching duties and interests cover the following BEd undergraduate courses:


  • BEd 1 - MSC1011, MSC1022 Foundation Studies in the Physical Sciences.

  • BEd 2 - MSC2011, MSC2023, MSC2081 Life Systems and Environment.

  • BEd 3 - MSC3033 Environmental Science: Systems and Solutions [Ecotoxicology]

    MSC3012 Perspectives in Ethology.

  • BEd 4 - MCS 3020 Primary Science Curriculum Studies: Interdisciplinary Art and Science Education [The Leonardo Effect].



Supervision of Capstone Projects in Science and Science Curriculum.

PDP Tutor.


Current Research

I am a member of the STEAM Education Research Group at St Mary’s in which I am involved in the following research projects:


  • STING: STEM Teacher Training Innovation for Gender Balance.

  • An impact analysis of the efficacy of the “Microbot” project.



Other research interests include the following:
Analytics designed to inform learning and teaching: Examining students’ conceptual understanding and addressing misconceptions in science.

Issues related to science in the Northern Ireland Curriculum.

Analysis of problem-solving skills in Mathematics and Science using item level data.

I supervise BEd 3 independent research projects on environmental pollution and behavioural observation in nursery school children. I also supervise BEd 4 Capstone educational research projects on a range of science related topics and advise on the design and analysis of research studies.

I am generally interested in causal and functional aspects of behaviour.

Recent Publications
McGinley, R.H., Prenter, J. & Taylor, P.W. (2015) Assessment strategies and decision making in male-male contests of Servea incana jumping spiders. Animal Behaviour, 1010, 89-95

Elwood, R.W. & Prenter, J. (2013) Aggression in spiders. In I.C.W. Hardy & M. Briffa (Eds.), Animal Contests (pp. 113-133). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

McGinley, R.H., Prenter, J. & Taylor, P.W. (2013). Whole organism performance in a jumping spider, Servea incana (Araneae: Salticidae): links with morphology and between performance traits. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 110, 644-657.

A full list of publications in available at http://publicationslist.org/johnprenter

Professional Societies and Services
I am a member of a number of professional societies including the following:

Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

Association for Science Education.

I provide peer review services for a number of academic journals including the following:

Animal Behaviour, Function Ecology, Journal of Ethology, Ethology, Ecology & Evolution

Please use the Staff Directory if you wish to contact another member of staff.