Sarah Symons - School of Interdisciplinary Science

Sarah Symons

Contact Info

Title:

Associate Professor

Office:

Thode 306A

Phone:

(905) 525-9140 ext. 21641

Email:

...

Website:

https://aea.physics.mcmaster.ca/

Summary

Program Coordinator, Honours Integrated Science

Director, William J McCallion Planetarium

Associate Member, Departments of History and Physics & Astronomy

Dr. Sarah Symons is an Associate Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Science and an associate member of the Departments of History and Physics & Astronomy. She was educated in the UK, gaining a BSc Honours Degree in Mathematics and Astronomy and PhD in History of Astronomy in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Leicester. She began her career as an academic pedagogical project manager in the UK. Since arriving at McMaster, she has been a pedagogical designer and teaching professor in the Honours Integrated Science Program and has also helped to develop the SCIENCE nexus of courses in the Faculty of Science.

Research Interests:

pedagogy, history of science, history of astronomy, Egyptology, science literacy

Courses

ISCI 1A24, ISCI 2A18, ISCI 3A12, SCIENCE 1A03, ISCI/ARTSSCI 3IE1

Research

Sarah's involvement in scholarship of teaching and learning includes pedagogical research in science education, educational consultancy focusing on active learning and assessment design, and collaborative projects with teaching-stream and interdisciplinary faculty internationally. She is particularly interested in science literacy and scientific skills development in science courses big and small. Her research outside pedagogy is in history of astronomy, concentrating on astronomical texts and instruments from ancient Egypt.

Publications

Hurkett, C P, Symons, S L, Gretton, S N, Harvey, C T, Lock P E, Williams, D P & Raine, D J (2018) "The benefits of sustained undergraduate inter-programme collaborations between international partners" Journal of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 1 pp. 31-42.

Symons, S L (2017) "A survey of astronomical tables on Middle Kingdom coffin lids" in G Rosati and M C Guidotti (eds.) Proceedings of the 11th International Congress of Egyptologists. Archaeopress, Oxford, pp 608-612.

Symons, S L (2016) "Challenges of interpreting Egyptian astronomical texts" in A Imhausen & T Pommerening (eds) Translating Writings of Early Scholars in the ancient Near East, Egypt, Rome, and Greece - Methodological Aspects with Examples. Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 344. De Gruyter, pp 379-402.

Symons, S L, Colgoni, A, and Harvey, C T, (2017). "Student Perceptions of Staged Transfer to Independent Research Skills During a Four-year Honours Integrated Science Undergraduate Program" Canadian Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 8(1) paper 6.

Symons, S L and Khurana, H, (2016). "A catalogue of ancient Egyptian sundials" Journal for the History of Astronomy 47 pp 375-385.

Symons, S L, and Tasker, E (2015) "Stars of the Dead" Scientific American, 313(4) pp 70-75.

Teaching Innovation