Research Experience
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UAF: University of Alaska Fairbanks
UV: University of Vienna
WSC: Wayne State College
GU: Georgetown University
2022 - Present
Investigating Student Learning in Asynchronous Environments (UAF)
➢ Design, implement, evaluate, and improve a week-long learning module on
radioactivity featuring simulated groupwork
2018 - 2022
Investigating Student Reasoning about Radioactivity: Randomness and Emergent
Properties , (Principal Investigator), University of Vienna (UV)
➢ Collaborated with faculty in the Digital Education and Learning Group at the
University of Vienna to design a research proposal for the creation of a game to
enable students to learn about radioactivity in a more inclusive environment
➢ Collaborated on interdisciplinary projects with colleagues in chemistry and ecology
regarding student views on long-term storage of radioactive waste
➢ Collaborated with Dr. Alexandra Jansky at CERN on the creation, administration,
and analysis of a survey to probe fluidity of student reasoning
➢ Interviewed high school students regarding their reasoning about radioactivity and
probability
➢ Published literature review on student naïve ideas that stem from difficulty in
understanding randomness across physics topics
2018 - 2022
Measuring Perceived Agency of Pre- and In-service Physics Teachers
(Principal Investigator), UV
➢ Collaborated with Prof. Haruko Uematsu at TGU in collecting survey responses
from in-service physics teachers across Japan and Austria
➢ Published survey findings from pre-service physics teachers at UV and TGU,
including Rasch analysis of the data
➢ Mentored a junior researcher in carrying out survey validation interviews
2015 - Present
Assessing the Accuracy of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) – PI Junichiro Yasuda
(Yamagata University)
➢ Attend biweekly group meetings via Zoom
➢ Offer suggestions for content and English proof-reading for papers being written
➢ Administered modified FCI to students at WSC for international comparison
2012 - 2016
Evaluating Tutorials for the Matter and Interactions Curriculum (Principal Investigator), GU
➢ Interviewed first-year physics majors involved in the Matter and Interactions
course to probe their attitudes about the course, how difficult it was to adjust to the
new pedagogy, and to what degree Tutorials in Introductory Physics assisted with
that adjustment
➢ Mentored a senior undergraduate student in transcription and analysis techniques of
the video-recorded interviews
2010 - 2012
The Role of Japanese Primary Schooling on Adaptation to OSTs – PIs Edward Redish and Andrew Elby, UMD
➢ Assisted in translating OSTs into Japanese with Professor Haruko Uematsu for use
at TGU and later at Meijo University in Nagoya
➢ Videotaped and took field notes of students in the new OSTs course at TGU
(weekly, during the spring semester of 2011)
➢ Interviewed (in Japanese) 28 students in the class to probe their attitudes about the
new course, what they think the nature of physics is, what their primary schools
were like, and to observe how they approached a few physics problems
2008 - 2012
Engineering Education (Subgroup of PERG) – PI Andrew Elby
➢ Interviewed undergraduate engineering to ask about their current physics classes
and observed as they solved a few physics problems
➢ Analyzed videos taken from interviews and discussion sessions of reformed
physics classes to identify how and when students make sense of math that appears
in the context of physics
➢ Analyzed videos taken from discussion sessions of traditional upper-level
engineering courses to observe if students who had previously taken the reformed
physics courses had a greater tendency to make sense of the mathematics,
indicating the effectiveness of the reformed physics curriculum
➢ Attended weekly meetings where researchers showed video data from interviews
and science classrooms to help interpret data
2006 - 2007
Army Corps of Engineers ERDC-CERL Lab - PI Charles Marsh
➢ Carried out experiments on solubility and conductivity enhancement of
nanoparticles and nanotubes
➢ Designed theoretical designs for a ferroelectric–source wake-field accelerator and
initiated evaluations of device with theory learned in plasma physics and
electromagnetism courses
2005 Summer
Argonne National Laboratory - PI Nachappa Gopalsami
➢ Researched and developed methods of using millimeter wavelength RADAR for
the detection of trace radioactive substances
➢ Designed and constructed an air tight chamber, created supersaturation humidities,
and analyzed experimental results
2004 - 2005
UIUC Reactor Physics Group – PI Barclay Jones
➢ Tested Fortran code to determine its accuracy in predicting reactor boron coolant
crud buildup and subsequent impact
➢ Delegated tasks and advised two less-experienced students