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f e l l o w s about mangala joshua

Mangala Joshua was born in the island nation, Sri Lanka. She did her undergraduate studies at the University of Sri Lanka majoring in Physics. In 1979, she came to the US for graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She obtained a Doctorate in Physics in 1984. Since then she has held teaching positions at the University of Sri Lanka, University of Virginia, George Mason University, Chandler†Gilbert Community College, Arizona State University and Mesa Community College. Since 1994 she has been a member of the Mesa Community College Physical Science Department.

She became interested in physics in grade 9, when she took her first physics class. Since then her enthusiasm for learning and teaching physics has continued to grow. She is very interested in sharing her excitement and enthusiasm for physics with her students.

At present she is in the process of reforming physics courses to be inquiry-oriented. In these classrooms the students encounter phenomena through a series of inquiry-based experiments. Simple laws are established through observation, analysis of data and group discussions. She is also in the process of incorporating pedagogically proven technology into the classroom. She has held two workshops, for the Maricopa Community College District faculty, on using this technology in an inquiry-based classroom. These workshops were sponsored by the Arizona Collaborative for the Excellence in Preparation of Teachers (ACEPT) which is a NSF funded project to improve math and science preparation of teachers in Arizona. She is actively involved in promoting science education at the elementary and secondary levels.

She has been married to her husband Sarath for 20 years and is the mother of three great kids. She likes to garden, read play chess and table tennis in her spare time.

f e l l o w s about mangala joshua