Research

My research goals are to explore how computer science learning can support physics and astronomy learning. My CV has a list of all public talks, publications, and conference proceedings.

Computational Thinking

One way to study how learning in physics and astronomy is impacted by computing is to use a computational thinking framework. You can read my current thinking on what that means here.

Since mid-2020, I have created a variety of physics and astronomy coding projects using Google Colab for Python and the STEMcoding platform using p5js. Most of the Python projects are available as a GitHub repository.

Research Projects

• Analyzing video game dynamics with computation in introductory physics (2021 RET)
• Authentic research to teach computational thinking – Check out the CSTaR Materials Here
• Authentic Astronomical Research as Science Teacher Professional Development
• DIY PPG: Comparison of waveform parameters from open-source vs commercial photoplethysmography (2018 RET)
• Real-time remote photoplethysmography using a webcam and graphical user interface (2019 RET)

Student Research Mentoring

• MIT/Harvard Quantum Computing for Secondary Students
  • 2022 – Pilot Initiative at Bellaire High School
• ExMASS (4 teams)
  • 2011 – Crater Chains
  • 2012 – Lunar Landing Sites
  • 2015 – Asteroid Analysis
  • 2016 – Asteroid Analysis
• Bellaire Astronomy Research Team (3 teams)
  • 2018 – Quasar outflows
  • 2019 – Quasar outflows
  • 2022 – Spectral Energy Distributions of Quasars
• AP Research 2021 (Carnegie High School student)
  • SDSS and Gaia data filtering for quasars