Research Experience

Principle Investigator The Science of Sailing: Recruiting Lines of Practice in Interest Development (2018–present), Supported through an NSF Dear Colleague Letter grant extension
Designed and implemented a mini Design-Based Research study looking at summer camps that support STEM learning through traditional maritime practices

Research Assistant Re-Crafting Mathematics Education: Designing Tangible Manipulatives Rooted in Traditional Female Crafts (DRL-1420303)
Principle Investigators: Melissa Gresalfi and Kylee Peppler 2014– present
Designed multiple interventions and data collection. Lead and supported multiple analyses  

Research Assistant Playful Mathematics: An Exploration of Design and Learning (DRL: 1643313) Principle Investigators: Ilana Horn and Melissa Gresalfi 2016
Designed and implemented data collection protocols in complex environment  

Research Assistant Feedback as an Element of Designed Environments: An Exploration of Structure and Context (DRL-1252380)
Principle Investigators: Melissa Gresalfi and Sasha Barab 2014–2017
Supported research design and implementation

In Development:

Sailing into CS, a research-practice partnership between CWB and EnLearn (submitted to AISL 2023)
This proposal fits within the AISL Project Type 4: Integrating Research and Practice. The project represents a design-based research initiative within a longstanding research-practice partnership. Within this initiative we will iteratively design and run six multi-day sailing and computational thinking camps across three summers while testing design principles for building productive conversations across different social practices. The goal is to formalize design principles for creating informal learning environments involving disparate fields that maintain authenticity to those separate fields for the participants in a way that promotes epistemic agency in developing “nature of science” understanding. We will do this by finding productive overlap between disciplines that creates opportunities for participants to negotiate historical boundaries between social practices.

In these camps, students (ages 10-12) will negotiate the boundaries and synergies between sailing and computer science. Camp activities include: Whiteboard sessions introducing important sailing concepts, especially the no go zone; Experimentation with model boats and actual sailing lessons; Collection of geographic, wind, and video data from sailing experiences; Analyzation and visualization collected data as direct evidence for core sailing concepts; Engagement with an experimental communication protocol where students explain their algorithmic data analysis process; Culminating project in which students will develop data displays to help explain the no go zone to museum visitors. Keywords: GIS, sailing, computational thinking, data interpretation, epistemic agency