Welcome to the
NJ DOE Northern Hub and
Montclair CS ED Hub

We are a professional development office specializing in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Our mission is to provide high-quality professional development events and resources for educators and professionals in STEM fields.

PRISM (Professional Resources in Science and Mathematics) at Montclair State University is a New Jersey STEM Professional Development Provider. PRISM provides a center for continuous learning and skill enhancement to improve teaching practices, curriculum design, and student outcomes in biological and biomedical science, computer and information science, engineering, health science, mathematics and statistics, and physical sciences like astronomy, physics, chemistry, and earth science. Teacher professional development activities at PRISM align with the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science (NJSLS-S).

As scientific and technological advancements emerge, teachers must help their students develop current scientific literacy and critical thinking skills. Through workshops, resources, and mentoring, PRISM helps educators integrate three-dimensional science instruction (science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts) into their teaching. Teachers engage in meaningful, cumulative, and progressive learning experiences to design curriculum units that engage students in inquiry-based learning, problem-solving, and evidence-based reasoning.

About PRISM

The University already offer programs relevant to Computer Science Education for K-12 teachers. We will establish Professional Development Opportunities through our CS Education Hub and our CS for Everyone Everywhere Program. We are also happy to announce two funded NSF programs to help K-12 teachers bring cutting-edge data sciences in solar flare research into their classrooms.

About K-12

Our Team

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Dr. Katherine Herbert-Berger

Director - an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Montclair State University. Dr. Herbert currently researches database management, data warehousing, and data quality issues in scientific data sets. Currently, she is working with the EarthCube Data capabilities group, examining data and deep learning solutions. Previously, she has examined the data integration problems with regards to integrating protein-ligand data with respect to the phylogenetic relationships within the protein data. Dr. Herbert is also looking at problems regarding sustainability data and mobile applications. Dr. Herbert is a researcher with funding from the National Science Foundation, NJ Department of Health, and PSE&G. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2004, focusing on data quality in biological databases. She’s also funded by NSF for the S-STEM NECST Program, investigating non-computer science students pursuing computer science master’s degrees. Dr. Herbert has authored numerous papers in Computer Science and Interdisciplinary education, influencing curriculum development at Montclair. She served as curriculum committee chair and on the graduate council at the College of Science and Mathematics. Additionally, she’s involved in the Weston Scholars program, delivering talks to local school districts, and serving on science advisory boards for NJ schools.

Dr. Sumi Hagiwara

Director - an Associate Dean of College of Education and Human Services and also an Associate Professor in early childhood and elementary education at Montclair State University. She teaches about equity, diversity, culture, and early childhood/elementary science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. Dean Hagiwara researches equity and agency in STEM, educational technology, games-based learning, and parent involvement in education. She is the creator and director of the epiSTEMic Summer Program at MSU that links an inclusive summer STEM camp for children with teacher preparation and teacher professional development. Her publications appear in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Cultural Studies in Science Education, and the International Journal of Science Education. Dr. Hagiwara is co-editor of Change Agents in Science Education to advance the discourse on change agency using science across settings. Dean Hagiwara is a 12-month employee and therefore cannot receive pay for her work on the proposal. She is committing 0.3 months of work to ensure that the computation thinking component at the Red Hawk CS Lab is completed and that she can complete the various required activities for the academic year. Dr. Hagiwara is a 12-month employee, devoting 3% of her 12 month effort to this project.

Dr. Minsun Shin

Minsun is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Montclair State University, specializing in infant and early childhood studies. She earned her doctorate in Early Childhood Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Graduate Program Coordinator for MAT Early Childhood Education (p-3) Programs. With a strong belief that education takes place in and through human relationships, her research interests include social development among young children, infant caregiving, caring pedagogy, early childhood teacher education, and professionalism in early childhood care and education.

Colette Killian

Colette is the Assistant Director of Budgets and Grants at PRISM and the RYTE Center. She is responsible for the administrative and financial components of the NJ DOE Computer Science grants and is the Professional Development Coordinator. She currently works in a similar capacity at PRISM (Professional Resources in Science and Math) housed at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Center for Science Teaching and Learning located at 1515 Broad Street, Bloomfield. She has worked at Montclair State University for over 20 years. Previously she worked at Patient Care Inc., American Cyanamid and Touche Ross. Colette graduated from Bentley University and is a CPA.