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Research Advisor

Dr. Minjung Ryu            

  MJR_1

Assistant Professor - Chemical Education
Email: mryu@purdue.edu
Phone: 765-494-2357
Office: WTHR110A / BRNG 4166

Education:

  • B.A. Chemistry, Seoul National University (2003)
  • M.S. Chemistry, Seoul National University (2005)
  • Ph.D. Science Education, University of Maryland, College Park (2012)
  • Postdoc Training, University of Maryland, College Park  and Johns Hopkins University (2012-2014)

I started my career as a chemist in industry. While studying chemistry in schools and working as a chemist, I had been curious why chemistry, and science in general, is so hard to some people, how people learn chemistry, and what it means to learn chemistry. I transitioned to education to pursue those questions, and now I teach chemistry and science teaching methods for students who want to be teachers. In my research, I seek to understand issues around diversity, equity, language, and participation in formal and informal science learning settings. My hope is to find ways to make science learning environments more equitable in order to make science accessible to everyone and empower all learners.

For more information:

Post Docs

Dr. Amy Ricketts

Email: amyricketts@purdue.edu
Office: WTHR110A 

Education:

  • B.A.Ed. Elementary Education (science concentration), University of Michigan (1997)
  • M.S.Ed. Curriculum & Instruction (Science Education), University of Southern California (2004)
  • Ph.D. Curriculum & Instruction (Teacher Education/Science Education), Pennsylvania State University (2017)

For thirteen years, I taught elementary and middle school science in Southern California public schools.  During that time I became increasingly frustrated with the lack of professional learning opportunities available to me, and decided to pursue a doctoral degree to continue my learning.  In graduate school, everything I thought I knew about professional development was turned (literally) upside down. Now, my passion is supporting teacher learning across the career span through job-embedded professional development—namely designing, facilitating and researching school-based, collaborative professional learning communities that position teachers with agency.  Most importantly, I strive to learn with and from teachers.

Graduate Students

Camille Gabrielle Love

Email: love43@purdue.edu
Office: WTHR110B

Jocelyn Elizabeth Nardo

Josie

Email: jnardo@purdue.edu  
Office: WTHR110B

My name is Jocelyn Nardo, but everyone calls me Josie.  I did my undergraduate at Florida International University (FIU) and obtained a bachelor's of science degree in chemistry, as well as a certificate in public and professional writing.  I was born in Florida, but my parents are originally from Cuba, so I identify myself as a Cuban American.  I applied to Purdue to pursue a doctoral degree in chemical education, focusing on the identities of racially and linguistically non-dominant groups in the chemistry classroom. I hope that my research will help provide more understanding and opportunities for these groups to achieve in chemistry.  I believe that Dr. Ryu's research will help me accomplish this goal. In my spare time, I like to watch YouTube videos and to hang out with my awesome friends. 

Mavreen Rose Tuvilla

 MT

Email: mtuvilla@purdue.edu  
Office: WTHR110B

My first love has always been chemistry and my passion is teaching. My first job straight out of college was as an assistant instructor in general chemistry to engineering students. Yet, teaching middle school and high school in Arizona was quite an eye opener to me. I realized that students start off curious and eager to learn when they first encounter science, yet start to grow a dislike for science as they progress through school. I began to wonder if there is something wrong with how we teach science! I wondered why some students stopped asking questions when they enter middle school, why some of my lessons worked better than others, and why some students seemed more engaged than others. I wanted to understand what made my students identify as "science people" and what discouraged them from science. My need to understand brought me to Purdue University to pursue chemistry education. I hope that as I find my answers, I also find ways to make science truly for all.

Meng-Yang Matthew Wu

Matt

Email: wu1061@purdue.edu  
Office: WTHR110B

My involvement with educational research is fundamentally rooted in the notion of promoting freedom within learning: the agency to evaluate, appropriate, and reconcile knowledge and how it fits within a personalized context. As a result, this passion has carried me into looking at challenges embedded in higher education such as teaching assistant professional development or social tensions in interdisciplinarity. I am also interested in the purpose and theory behind the application of video games within chemical education where the digital space itself can become a potential platform for students to innovatively explore their own learning. With this research, I hope to increasingly foreground the importance of encouraging students to be more aware of their beliefs and practices when fitted in the contexts they encounter in their everyday lives. 

Casey Elizabeth Wright

Casey

Email: wrigh401@purdue.edu
Office: WTHR110B

 

I am a second-year student pursuing a doctoral degree in Chemical Education. My interests in pursuing a graduate degree in this area came from a combination of curiosities. I minored in Philosophy while pursuing my undergraduate degree and began to question what it means to do science and who gets to do science. I knew that I wanted to teach chemistry and teach it in way that is accessible to as many students as possible, but that also meant asking questions about what makes science learning accessible. I found my passion when I had the opportunity to work as an undergraduate research assistant on a project that focused on the pressures ethnically and racially non-dominant students pursuing careers in STEM-SBE fields face in attaining their graduate degrees.

The theme which ties together my research interests is identity – How does science learning impact the way one sees their self? What does it mean to be a person who does science? How do students mediate between identities in science classroom settings? How does one construct a lasting understanding of the self as someone who pursues science as a career? I remain interested in issues in higher education, specifically with ethnically and racially non-dominant women and how they pursue graduate with careers in chemistry while mediating social and cultural pressures at work and at home. The other vein of my research interests lies in how students build on one another’s ideas in classroom interactions to achieve new understanding and how humor and joking can provide a lens for understanding student’s identity work in science settings.  

Past Undergraduate Students

Shen Duan

SD

Email: duan31@purdue.edu

I am an undergraduate student at Purdue majoring in communication and anthropology. My interests are focused on public relations and human cultures. The profile picture was taken in my Brazil study abroad trip this past summer. This program was about indigenous people and environmental protection in Amazon forest. I spent the most exciting 3 weeks there to live with local villagers. Before I joined the RESET project, education is fascinating for me because education exists everywhere in today’s society. Good education stimulates people’s motivation to learn while bad education could discourage people to learn. After several weeks I spent in this program, I realize the huge difference that education can make. It can influence a student’s career choice and interest. We have to concentrate on every detail that might affect student’s understanding and participation in the class so that we can make it better. Therefore, this program provides me invaluable experience about education. My hope is to contribute a unique perspective of anthropology and communication to this education program.