March 13, 2024
Sara creates pathways for meaningful, equitable, and innovative STEAM learning — places where teachers and students engage in sense-making that integrates the beauty and complexity of the inner and outer worlds. With Making Sense of SCIENCE, she draws on her many interests and a broad swath of experiences, including as an ecologist, informal science educator, educational researcher, lab tech, and painter. Her expertise lies at the intersection of place-based education, outdoor education, data science, statistics, and data visualization.
Sara enjoys collaborating with scientists, STEAM educators and researchers to find innovative ways to leverage technology to support equitable, data-driven teaching and learning. Her current work at WestEd focuses on co-designing curricula and professional learning to amplify the voices and stories of teachers, students, and places across the United States. Cultivating student and teacher identities, self-efficacy, communication skills, place-consciousness, and awareness of the human endeavors in STEAM are vital in this process.
Sara received her BS in Environmental Science from Allegheny College, MS in Biology from Texas State University, and her PhD in Mathematics and Science Education from Middle Tennessee State University.