Overview

Our research group currently includes six faculty members, as well as postdocs, Masters students, undergraduate students, and former students who have continued to collaborate with us. Our research includes a focus on teacher preparation, undergraduate Learning Assistant programs, identity development for students of color and LGBTQ+ students, and instructional change for faculty, as well as research to support the development of curriculum around  computational reasoning, ethical reasoning, astrophysics, and biophysics.

Dr. Eleanor Close and other members of our research group run the Texas State Physics Learning Assistant program, which supports the use of research-based instructional practices in our department, particularly in the introductory majors-level courses. Dr.’s Hunter Close, Eleanor Close, and Dave Donnelly have also established and sustained Texas State as a PhysTEC teacher preparation site.

In addition, Dr.’s Alice Olmstead and Eleanor Close are co-PIs on the Texas State faculty-student STEM Communities project: a 5-year, NSF-sponsored, $2.5 million initiative to build faculty-student communities around instructional improvement within the Texas State College of Science and Engineering. Several members of our research group are also contributing to this initative.