Steven Semken

Biography

Steven Semken is an ethnogeologist and geoscience education researcher interested in ways that place, culture, and affect influence modes of inquiry, teaching, and learning in the Earth system sciences. He has studied and worked extensively in Native American and Hispanic/Latino communities across the Southwest United States, and was a faculty member at the tribal college of the Navajo Nation for 15 years before joining ASU. His current research activity encompasses place-based science education and the function of sense of place; Native American ethnogeology and Earth science education; strategic K-12 STEM teacher professional development; geoscience interpretation in Southwestern National Parks; diversity in the geoscience community; and regional and environmental geology of the Southwest.