Recent Former Lab Members
Kaley Curtis
Kaley is a PhD student at UC Berkeley in clinical psychology. She loved her time at HGSE and Project Zero and especially appreciated the chance to work with Dr. Grotzer and the research team on Causal Learning in the Classroom, the catpurse causal study with kindergarteners, and EcoXPT. Her interest in the creative ways that students think and learn has led her to study child development, cognitive science, and psychology and motivated her work supporting healthy and happy children. She is currently researching parent-child relationships in immigrant families.
Miles Malbrough
Miles worked with the CLiC team as an undergraduate Social Studies concentrator at Harvard College. He is interested in developing more effective public education programs for non-traditional students. Miles also worked as the Co-Director of the Refugee Youth Summer Enrichment, a summer ESL program that serves 120 recent immigrant and refugee high school students through the Phillips Brooks House Association. He was a volunteer tutor through PBHA’s Youth Prison Tutoring Program. His interests are in teaching ESL, study law, and work to reform systems of public education for English language learners, adult learners, and incarcerated students.
David Sabey
David Sabey earned his Ed.M. in the Human Development and Psychology program where he thoroughly enjoyed his studies. Before coming to HGSE, he taught 7th grade English in Las Vegas. As an undergraduate at BYU, he studied Italian and English. He is married to the beautiful Danielle Messina Sabey, who is very patient with him when he “geeks out” about education stuff. He worked on the EcoMobile and EcoXPT projects.
Eva Shultis
Eva earned her Masters in the Mind, Brain & Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She did her undergraduate work in Biology at Brown University, and taught high school Biology for three years. She is ultimately interested in applying our understanding of cognition to curriculum design and teaching practice, particularly in science education. Eva worked on the CLiC and EcoXPT projects.
Stephanie Landicho
Stephanie Landicho earned an Ed.M. in the Mind, Brain and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She holds bachelor degrees in neuroscience and biological science from the University of Southern California and her Master of Urban Public Health from the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Previously, she worked as a high school chemistry teacher, research education consultant and research assistant at the USC Brain and Creativity Institute. She is interested in understanding deep learning of complex health and biomedical systems.
Rosemarie Sese
Rosie earned her master's in the Learning and Teaching program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She previously worked as a consultant at a learning center that focuses on literacy remediation for students of all ages and abilities. During her time there, she became interested in effective methods for teaching students with learning differences and how educational assessments inform instructional decisions. She worked on the Causal Learning in the Classroom project.
Michael Hoe
Michael Hoe earned his Ed.M. in the Mind, Brain and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from Brown University. He has taught high school science (biology, chemistry, and neuroscience) at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, MA. During his time at Nobles, he has also coached various sports, advised students, and serves as the Assistant Director of Residential Life. Michael worked on the CLiC and EcoXPT projects.
Kasia Derbiszewska
Kasia was the Project Manager for the Causal Learning in the Classroom Project. Kasia received her Ed.M. from Harvard University where she studied translational cognitive neuroscience and program design in the Mind, Brain, and Education program. Her B.S. in Secondary English Education from Indiana University, coupled with additional graduate coursework in English and pedagogy, allowed her to bring a unique perspective to the work. She has expertise in curriculum design, program facilitation, communication, and teaching.
Daniel Oh
Daniel graduated from Northwestern University, where he studied communication sciences & disorders as well as neurobiology. He then earned a master’s degree with the Mind, Brain, and Education cohort at HGSE. As a part of the Understandings of Consequence Project, he explored the educational implications of cognitive science.
Therese Arsenault
Therese worked as a research assistant with Tina Grotzer on the Understanding of Consequence Project in 2009-2010. While at Harvard, her work focused on understanding how students reason about science concepts and how teachers come to understand and develop students’ conceptual understandings. Upon graduation, she moved to San Francisco. She has been involved with mentoring graduate students in the advancing of learning and teaching of science. She is currently working with a science specialist in a local elementary school, facilitating a community-school partnership between local scientists and the students. In giving back to her community, she was recently accepted into the California Academy of Sciences docent program in the As the World Evolves specialty and will be facilitating the learning and teaching of evolution.
Maya Bialik
Maya completed her Undergraduate Degree in Psychology, Biology, and Linguistics. She has worked with infants in an ERP lab, Zebrafish in a Molecular Biology lab, and University students in an eye-tracking lab. She also has experience tutoring children one-on-one, teaching SAT prep, and teaching both group and private swimming lessons of all ages and levels. Her research and career interests include a wide variety of topics in the interdisciplinary domain of Mind, Brain and Education.
Nicole Brooke
Nicole graduated in 2011 from University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in Cognitive Science and minored Education. As an undergraduate, she worked as a research assistant for Alison Gopnik's Cognitive Development lab. She conducted her honors thesis jointly with the Gopnik lab and Tania Lombrozo's Concepts and Cognition lab, a project which studied preschooler's explanation biases when reasoning about non-living natural kinds, like clouds and mountains. Nicole completed her master's degree in the Human Development and Psychology program at HGSE, and was a research assistant in the "Causal Learning in the Classroom" study where she helped to develop tasks, interview students, and analyze data.
Erin Carr
Erin Carr earned her B.A. in biology and elementary education from Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. in 2009. She completed her Ed.M. at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Mind, Brain and Education program in 2010. While attending HGSE, Erin worked as a research assistant on the Understanding of Consequence project under Tina Grotzer. Upon graduation, Erin began her first year teaching as a lower school science teacher at The Pennfield School in Portsmouth, R.I. She teaches nursery age through fifth grade students.
Ruthie Chang
Ruthie graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in Sociology and Communication Studies. She was a graduate student in the Mind, Brain, and Education program and joined the Understandings of Consequence Project as a Research Assistant in both the RECAST and the CAREER projects. Prior to her master's program, she worked as a researcher at a private education research company in Palo Alto, CA working on several projects including a study of a state-wide math, science and technology initiative in grades 4-8.Ruthie has also worked in elementary schools as a literacy instructor with the Americorps program as well as a substitute teacher. She is presently working at WestEd in education-related research. She is interested in early childhood cognitive development, the acquisition of math skills, and social-emotional aspects of learning.
Evelyn Chen
After Evelyn earned her B.A. in Biological Sciences from Mount Holyoke College, she served as a high school chemistry teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. During this time, questions arose about how students develop complex scientific concepts and how educators can best support these cognitive processes. As a result, Evelyn earned a Master of Education at HGSE with a concentration in Mind, Brain, and Education, and she joined Understandings of Consequence in an effort to further improve science education through the lens of cognitive science.
At UCP, Evelyn was involved in studies that investigate how K-6 students perceive causes and its effects that are temporally delayed or spatially distant, and how students interpret system-level emergent outcomes that differ from simple individual-level interactions. Furthermore, Evelyn assisted Tina in the RECAST project, analyzing the remaining student and teacher data from curricula activities that aim to help students restructure their understanding of cause and effect relationships.
Evelyn returned to the classroom, teaching high school biology at Taipei American School where she frequently discussed science education through the lens of cognitive science with fellow colleagues. She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program at Vanderbilt.
Lauren Farrar
Lauren Farrar has a BS in biological sciences and a BA in cinema-television production from the University of Southern California. Since she graduated, she has worked on various documentaries and video projects, several which focused on science. One of her most memorable experiences was participating on the educational outreach component of a research cruise that was investigating deep sea hydrothermal vents. Looking to learn more about science education, Lauren moved to Cambridge where she pursued her Ed.M in Technology, Innovation, and Education at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. She worked as a Research Assistant on the Understandings of Consequence Project and the EcoMUVE Project. After she graduated, she began working with the Harvard Smithsonian Science Media Group.
Heidi Fessenden
Heidi received an MS in Elementary Education from Wheelock College in 2002 and graduated from the Learning and Teaching (Instructional Leadership) program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2012. She has been teaching first and second grade at the Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot School in Mattapan, Massachusetts for ten years. Heidi has worked with teacher groups engaged in inquiry into their own practice, including helping to plan a Practice-Based Inquiry seminar with the Cheche Konnen Center at TERC. She has led professional development for teachers with all levels of experience, worked as an instructional coach, and taught a graduate-level course on teaching elementary mathematics at Wheelock College. Her work at UCP has been involved in understanding children's reasoning about distributed causality, and designing classroom activities to build on their thinking.
Rose Honey
Rose Honey grew up in Darby, Montana and received her B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Oregon and her Ed.M. in Mind Brain & Education and her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, focusing on American Indian science education. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zimbabwe she taught science and mathematics in a rural secondary school, has developed and taught science summer camps at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and at an elementary school in Maui, and was a preschool teacher in Lincoln, MA. She also worked as a Teaching Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in educational media and formative evaluation courses. She has done research in fluid dynamics at the University of Oregon under Prof. Russell J. Donnelly, functional brain imaging research at Oregon Health and Science University under Alexander A. Stevens, science education research with the Understandings of Consequence group under Prof. Tina A. Grotzer and educational media research for Big Big Productions, Sesame Workshop, and Nick Jr. She lives in Missoula, MT and is broadly interested in Indigenous cultures and cultural integration into science education.
David Jeong
David Jeong graduated Magna Cum Laude from UCLA in 2009 and stayed on as a research assistant on the UCLA Digital Civic Learning Initiative project. His research areas were in media studies, digital technologies, consciousness, imagination, mirror neurons, and perception. David graduated with his Master's in the Mind, Brain, and Education program at HGSE and is now pursuing a doctorate at the University of Southern California. David is interested in the relationship between human perceptual systems and the changing digital media landscape.
Tim Johnson
Tim is a graduate of the HGSE Learning and Teaching program. His background is in youth development and informal education, along with marine biology and anthropology. He is interested in identifying non-traditional learning practices that are intrinsically motivating and of personal relevance for young learners. Tim worked on complex causality data analysis.
Lisa Kim
As graduate student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in the Technology, Innovation and Education program, Lisa focused on integrating multimedia experiences with science based learning. Previously, her work at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago entailed collaborating with a team of interdisciplinary scientists to promote community conservation efforts in the Chicago Region and Andes/Amazon. For 3 years as a visual communications specialist, she created materials—ranging from websites, printed booklets, to animations and videos—that explained our work to a variety of stakeholders (i.e. funders, community organizations, general audiences, other researchers/scientists). She loves where education and communication intersect, and worked with organizations such as the MIT Media Lab and FableVision Studios tell their stories in fun and engaging ways.
Reuben Posner
Reuben graduated from the Master's Program in Learning and Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has taught and developed curriculum for all ages - from pre-school aged children to adults. Reuben is interested in researching and exploring the moments when a learner has an idea (that they believe to be true) and it comes into conflict with another idea that they have been newly exposed to and they also believe to be true. In particular he is interested in what happens to a learner in that moment, in order to think about what teachers can do to make the most of those moments.