Sean Fox
Technical Director
Science Education Resource Center - Carleton College
507-222-4365 | sfox@carleton.edu | ORCID
I am the Technical Director for SERC. Since 2002 I have led the team that designs, builds, and operates Serckit, the technical infrastructure that underpins the websites (like this one) which are central to much of SERC's work. In addition to guiding the evolution of our online platform, I have served as project or technical lead on many of SERC's grant-funded efforts over the years. As part of SERC's leadership team I am involved in project visioning, grant writing and strategic planning.
Roles and Projects
At the center of my work is facilitating the development of websites through which projects can engage with their community in creating and sharing teaching resources. One key early project was On the Cutting Edge, which included a series of over 100 professional development workshops for geoscience faculty. Alongside these workshops, we developed a model of collecting faculty experiences — teaching activities, descriptions of courses, and reflective essays — that can then be easily shared with the larger community through searchable online collections. This model, and the underpinning technologies we built to facilitate it, are foundational to much of the work SERC does with partners today. We have evolved this model over time. For instance, as part of the InTeGrate program, I developed a framework for faculty-authored descriptions of teaching modules. These served as templates for this program's collection of sustainability-related course materials, as well as a number of more recent projects such as GETSI and TIDeS. These collections are supported by a range of digital library tools including infrastructure facilitating formal online peer review as used in the curation of the CLEAN collection of climate teaching resources.
As the technical lead for SERC I regularly work with partners to develop grant proposals through which we envision and develop new online tools and systems: from a bespoke membership management system for NAGT to custom student data collection systems used to support work like Project EDDIE. I've also served as project lead and PI on several grants focused on our technical infrastructure. The community contribution tool project developed new capabilities for Earth educators to share their experiences and advice on using existing materials in our collections. Most recently, the Compass project took a deep dive into understanding and improving the search and discovery experience for our users — work that extended into using new generative AI tools to enhance search performance behind the scenes.
Background
My academic background is as a physicist (condensed matter theory), but early on in my graduate work I got involved with building and hosting websites. I've worked with most of the technologies connected to web development as that field has evolved since I installed my first web server in 1994. My work in physics transitioned into a career helping science faculty take advantage of educational technologies. I worked as the Academic Computing Coordinator for the Natural Sciences at Carleton College before shifting into my current role when the SERC office was formed. Beyond my leadership role at SERC, I'm active in community efforts around advancing STEM education — serving as a reviewer for granting organizations, a consultant on education technology, and in leadership roles such as my work as a board member for the Council on Undergraduate Research.
Education
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR — Physics, M.S., 1993
Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA — Physics, B.A. with honors, 1991
Select Publications and Presentations
- Fox, S., Mohamed, M., (2024) Generative AI in Support of Geoscience Education Resource Discovery. GSA Annual Meeting (Anaheim, CA)
- Fox, S., Mohamed, M., Bruckner, M.Z., Carlson, A., Huyck Orr, C., Iverson, E.A., McDaris, J.R., O'Connell, K. (2024) Four Years of Discovery Improvements for SERC website visitors. Earth Educators' Rendezvous (Philadelphia, PA).
- Singer, J., Weiler, D., Zimmerman, B., Fox, S., and Ambos, E. (2022). Assessment in undergraduate research, in H. A. Mieg, E. Ambos, A. Brew, D. M. Galli and J. Lehmann (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research, Cambridge University Press, p.158-171
- Fox, S. (2022). Ensuring a thriving geoscience open education resource ecosystem: perspectives from 20 years at SERC. American Geophysical Union Meeting (Chicago, IL).
- Fox, S. and Manduca, C., (2019). Serckit: Infrastructure Supporting the Geoscience Education Community, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 51, no. 5.
- Mogk, D., Kastens, K., Fox, S., Fredrick, K., Tewksbury, B., and Wysession, M. (2017). On the Cutting Edge: Development of a Geosciences Community-Generated, Peer-Reviewed Teaching Activity Collection, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 49, no. 6.
- Egger, A., Fox, S., McDaris, J., and Gilbert, L., (2017) Facilitating Three-Dimensional Learning With Adaptable, Searchable, NGSS-Aligned Curricular Materials from Integrate, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 49, no. 6..
- Singer, S., Schwarz, J., Manduca, C.A., Fox, S., Iverson, E., Taylor, B.J., Cannon, B.J., May, G.D., Maki, S.L., Farmer, D., Doyle, J. (2013). Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction: Keeping an Eye on Biology: Science, v. 339, no. 6118, pp. 408-409. DOI: 10.1126/science.1229848
- Manduca, C. A., Mogk. D., Tewksbury, B. R., Macdonald, H., Fox, S., Iverson, E. R., Kirk, K., McDaris, J., Ormand, C., and Bruckner, M. (2010). SPORE: Science Prize for Online Resources in Education: On the Cutting Edge: Teaching Help For Geoscience Faculty: Science, v. 327, no. 5969, pp. 1095-1096. doi: 10.1126/science.1183028
- Fox, S., Manduca, C.A., Iverson, E.R. (2007). Development and Application of Ontologies in Support of Earth and Space Science Education. Eos Trans. AGU, 88(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract IN53B-1208.
- Manduca, C. A., Fox, S., Iverson, E. R. (2006). Digital Library as Network and Community Center D-Lib, 12(12). doi:10.1045/december2006-manduca
- Fox, S., Manduca, C. A., Iverson, E. (2005). Building Educational Portals atop Digital Libraries D-Lib, 11(1). doi:10.1045/january2005-fox
- Manduca, C.A., Fox, S., Iverson, E., McMartin, F. (2005). Influencing User Behavior through Digital Library Design D-Lib, 11(5). doi:10.1045/may2005-fox