My passion is working with future and current teachers, collaborating on ideas that ultimately create better learning experiences for every student.

I am a science educator and researcher who studies how context shapes the way people learn. My work asks: What happens when science teaching connects to the real world? Whether in outdoor field experiences, teacher-scientist partnerships, classrooms, or virtual environments, I explore how students build understanding when learning is tied to authentic places, problems, and data. I also mentor doctoral students who are researching the relationship between science learning and authentic contexts. We use and develop a wide variety of research methods, often utilizing mixed methods approaches. Please see my page for more details.

My current project, funded by the National Science Foundation, is called Mechanisms to Optimize Contextualized Science Instruction (MOCSI). This study investigates how different ways of situating science teacher professional learning, specifically place-based fieldwork and online experiences, affect classroom instruction. . 

At ÐÇ¿ÕÓ°ÊÓ-Cascades, I serve as Faculty Lead for teacher education programs, working with faculty and local partners to prepare future teachers and strengthen science and STEM education in Central Oregon and beyond.

Research Interests

• Contextualized and place-based science learning
• Outdoor and experiential science education
• Teacher professional learning
• STEM curriculum design and innovation
• Bibliometric and meta-analytic methods in science education research

Teaching

I regularly teach graduate courses in ÐÇ¿ÕÓ°ÊÓ’s teacher preparation programs. I also enjoy teaching undergraduate courses in education and advanced courses in research methods. My teaching emphasizes the practical application of theory to classroom practice.