Contact Info

Primary Title: 
Faculty
Email Contact: 
Voice Contact: 
(541) 737-1692
Office: 
Weniger 499

Education

PhD, Physics, University of California San Diego
MS, Physics, University of California at San Diego
BS, Astrophysics, University of California at Los Angeles

Research

Research Description: 
I’m really interested in understanding the ways that physicists engage with thinking about the universe and how to help students develop those ways of thinking. My research tends to focus on upper-division physics majors, particularly (1) sense-making and metacognitive practices (making connections across topics/problems/situations and thinking about your own thinking), and (2) ability to coordinate multiple representations of physics ideas and problems (representational fluency). Helping more students be able to think in these powerful, disciplinary ways will improve STEM education for all and hopefully lead to greater participation of underrepresented groups in physics and STEM more broadly. I’m involved in the Paradigms in Physics program, a novel upper-division physics program at Oregon State University to prepare students for physics-related careers. I’m also involved in the Raising Physics to the Surface project where we’ve created a set of instructional physics activities where students work collaboratively to discover and explore physics concepts and mathematical/geometric relationships. These activities involve the use of 3D, dry-erasable graphs that represent functions of two variables.
Secondary Title: