Hello! I am the director of the CoRE Lab. My research focuses on how young people learn with and about the texts of scientific computing – things like data visualizations, computer simulations, and large public datasets. Lately, I’ve been exploring how data science can be integrated into the middle and high school curriculum, especially in the context of storytelling with public datasets. I am also exploring what teachers know about scientific computing and its related epistemologies—that is, what computing is “good for” when we think about making sense of our world, whether and when we should be teaching about it in K-12 math and science classrooms, and how it plays a role in various STEM practices. Another sustained, collaborative line of my work has explored when and how computer simulation, in particular agent-based modeling, should be meaningfully integrated into science instruction. I hold a dual Bachelors in Mathematics and Diversified Liberal Arts (that’s a weird code for Education) from the University of San Diego, and a PhD in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University.
For more: The video here provides an overview of my longer-term work and trajectory. You might be able to learn more about me here, if I’ve managed to update things recently. If you can’t find them here, many of my papers are also available on ResearchGate and/or Google Scholar. You are more than welcome to contact me for a copy of anything that isn’t available.
Fun fact. I am simultaneously completing projects in R/Quarto and python/Jupyter because these are the kinds of situations I sometimes manufacture for myself.
Aside from my research, I’m involved in various research and capacity building efforts related to data science education, computing education, and the learning sciences. Most recently the Berkeley Data Science Education Fellowship, developed in collaboration with colleagues from the Berkeley School of Education, the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, and the Berkeley D-Lab, will support the training of postdoctoral scholars to explore how data science education unfolds across educational trajectories, and how it can be taught ethically and accessibly. I currently serve as the Financial Officer of the International Society of the Learning Sciences, and serve on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Cognition & Instruction, and the Journal for Statistics and Data Science Education.