Assistant Professor of Science Education

Department of Teacher Education & Curriculum Studies

View my CV here

UMass Faculty Profile

PhD Candidate

Chris is a doctoral candidate in the Mathematics, Science, and Learning Technologies program. Her primary research is informed by science education, engineering education and cognitive psychology. She is interested in how young children learn science concepts while engaged in engineering design activities and how their concept development manifests in different modalities of representation. Her secondary research interests are undergraduate STEM students' sense of belonging and supporting Nature of Science education in elementary classrooms. She currently teaches science communication in the integrated concentration in science (iCons) program at UMass Amherst.

PhD Student

Kathleen is a doctoral student in the Mathematics, Science, and Learning Technologies program. Her research interests focus on the relationship between play-based learning and scientific reasoning skills across early childhood education models framed through cultural-historical theory. She is the recipient of the College of Education Fellowship. She has taught in public, private, and alternative schools as a Special Education Teacher. From 2011-2018 she owned and directed her own nature-based Head Start Preschool. She is currently the Program Supervisor for the Collaborative Teacher Education Program (CTEP) and has served as a Teacher Assistant for Human Development and a Research Assistant for Dr. Jeanne Brunner focusing on teaching Nature of Science using trade books. Upon graduation Kathleen hopes her research will strengthen the perspective, acceptance, and practice of science education through play-based learning across various early childhood education models.

PhD Student

Angela D’Souza is a doctoral student in the Mathematics, Science, and Learning Technologies program. Before beginning the doctoral program, she taught middle school humanities, high school environmental science and history in Massachusetts, and as an adjunct, she taught undergraduate anthropology courses in New York City. Her research focuses on the intersections of science epistemologies; reclamation and revitalization of Indigenous languages; post-colonial and Marxist critiques of historiography, science, and history pedagogy; and productions of race and class. Through her teaching and scholarship, Angela aims to collapse the boundaries between educational institutions and community practices, more specifically by valuing cultural practices and [muted] knowledge systems of marginalized communities. She is currently studying the Ojibwe language and seeks guidance from Land (Betasamosake Simpson), and learns from Indigenous scholarship, ways of knowing and being, and theory. In addition to her research responsibilities, Angela teaches in Holyoke Public Schools, which is on unceded Nipmuc territory.

EdS Student

Julie is an EdS Student in Mathematics, Science, and Learning Technolgoies. Their interests focus on gender and physics education.

EdS Student

Amy Byron is the product manager of the Science Exchange at New Meridian Corporation, an NGSS-aligned assessment non-profit company. After working as a bench scientist for a number of years, she made her way into education. She is an experienced science educator with 15+ years of classroom experience who continues to work in a variety of K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions, which together represent multiple cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Amy has an undergraduate degree in microbiology from the University of New Hampshire, a Master’s degree in forensic science from Staffordshire University, and is currently enrolled in the MSLT program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Undergraduate researcher, iCONS.

Nora is a senior, studying Biology and Education, with an Integrated Concentration in Science through the UMass iCons Program. This spring, she is concluding her work on her Honors Thesis, which focused on investigating the impact of trade book read-alouds on elementary students' views of NOS. After graduating in December 2022, she hopes to pursue a graduate program where she can continue to learn and research science education in some capacity!