In 1999, I started what turned out to be a four-year sabbatical (with interruptions for a couple of big non-education-related software projects) for graduate studies in Math/Science Education at the University of Texas at Austin. I also used the opportunity to take UT's modest offerings in cognitive science, another longstanding interest. At the least, I will use what I have learned to strengthen my contribution to the discussions about math/science education that have been a staple of my interacton with Mary Parker, the mathematics professor who is my longtime friend and living partner. But I am also interested in other possibilities, especially in informal science education and the development and distribution of free educational software.

Mathematics For Measurement: Mary and I developed a new entry-level college course designed to encourage a "math for practical arts" perspective that is more appealing and useful to many students than the traditional "math for liberal arts" course. While there is a lot more to be done, the trial sections that Mary has been teaching are well-received. Work related to the course is the basis for my master's thesis in math/science education.

Why children should learn to program computers: A Natural Sense of Algorithm.  This adaptation of one of my student papers discusses a task I hope at some point to address on a practical level.  Its description of the programming experience is the heart of my argument that learning to program computers is profoundly and broadly educational.

• Central Limit -- The design for a computer program to enable student investigation of the phenomena related to statistics' central limit theorem.
• Compelling Belief -- An examination, from an anti-formalist perspective, of student learning about mathematical proof.
• Connecting with Reality -- An examination of the background and implications of the successful 1990's reform of the elementary-statistics curriculum.
• Educational-Software Design -- An extended discussion of criteria for design of educational software.
• Enabling Statistical Sophistication -- A paper presented at the 2000 annual meeting of the American Statistical Association.
• Teaching Learning -- An appreciation of the excellent classroom-practice engineering of Ann Brown and her collaborators, as exemplified by her "distributed expertise" model.
• Meaning for Free -- Why human language may have been an easier accomplishment than it appears to be in retrospect. This paper, like my thesis, uses some of the "order for free" evolved-systems theory developed by geneticist Stuart Kauffman.
• Modeling Aesthetic Response -- A report on a cognitive-science project I did with another student, using web-based surveys to test a classic theory.
• Strands of Developmentalism -- A quick comparison (in my first graduate-school paper) of the ideas of G. Stanley Hall, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky, pioneers in educational theory. The beginning of my unabated enthusiasm for Vygotsky's work.
• Textbook Evaluation -- A design for a web site to enable collaborative evaluation of statistics textbooks.