Lab Director

My current research projects involve design and development of programming and modeling platforms for a wide age group of K12 students, with an eye towards developing complex learning progressions to foster scientific and computational expertise.

I am a learning scientist and a physicist whose interests are located along two strands of learning sciences research: Design and Cognition. Along the Design strand, the focus is on development and classroom implementation of LTHC (i.e., Low-Threshold and High-Ceiling) models-based, computational learning environments for learning and teaching science in elementary, middle school, high school and college classrooms. I am particularly interested in studying how new forms of computational representational systems (e.g., multi-agent-based modeling, visual programming, tangible computation, narrative-based programming, etc.) can lead to rethinking how knowledge is represented in various scientific domains (specifically, physics and ecology), and the implications for learnability of those domains.

Along the cognition strand, I am interested in building models of how experts and students reason about and learn scientific phenomena, using a combination of theoretical, empirical and computational approaches. I am particularly interested in the issues of knowledge representation, representational practices, conceptual change and transfer.