Robert Kolvoord
Professor of Integrated Science and Technology
and Educational Technologies
James Madison University
Teaching with Technology
Bob Kolvoord is a Professor in the Department of Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT), where he teaches in all of the department’s undergraduate and graduate degree programs. His teaching has focused on data visualization, modeling and simulation, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). He has a joint appointment in the College of Education. He joined the JMU faculty in 1995 and was recently appointed as the Interim Director of the School of Engineering.
Dr. Kolvoord is the creator (with Ms. Kathryn Keranen) of the Geospatial Semester, a unique dual-enrollment partnership between JMU and Virginia high schools, where high school seniors learn about geospatial technologies and apply them to local projects. Students earn JMU credit for the experience and use it as a transition to higher education or employment. In its sixth year, students in 15 school districts have participated in the project. The Geospatial Semester was recognized with an honorable mention in the 2010 Governor’s Technology Award for Innovation in K-12. He and Ms. Keranen are also co-authors of the award-winning Making Spatial Decisions Using GIS from ESRI Press.
Dr. Kolvoord has co-created other innovative programs, including the Master’s in Educational Technology, and the dual Master’s degree with ISAT and the University of Malta.
Dr. Kolvoord’s scholarship focuses on integrating data visualization tools in K-16 classrooms to engage all students in different curricular areas, especially science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. He has conducted workshops for thousands of teachers in Virginia and beyond, including teachers in the Defense Department schools on bases in Germany. His projects have received more than $4 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Virginia Department of Education, and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. He has been recognized by the Virginia Association of Science Teachers with the 2008 Outstanding Science Educator (non-K-12) award.
Dr. Kolvoord received a Bachelor’s in Physics and a Master’s in Materials Science from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from Cornell University.
"Geospatial technologies have given me a platform to work with an amazingly talented group of teachers. Together, we bring these tools to K-12 classrooms. For people in my generation, geography is sadly remembered as a sleep-inducing slog of memorization of facts and places. We missed out on the idea that the map is not the end, rather it is the beginning."