Chris Dede

Chris Dede is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education (HGSE). His fields of scholarship include emerging technologies, policy, and leadership. In 2007, he was honored by Harvard University as an outstanding teacher, and in 2011 he was named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. Chris has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Foundations of Educational and Psychological Assessment, a member of the U.S. Department of Education’s Expert Panel on Technology, and a member of the 2010 National Educational Technology Plan Technical Working Group. His edited books include: Scaling Up Success: Lessons Learned from Technology-based Educational Improvement, Digital Teaching Platforms: Customizing Classroom Learning for Each Student, and Teacher Learning in the Digital Age: Online Professional Development in STEM Education.

Tina Grotzer

Tina Grotzer is a Faculty Member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and and Principal Research Scientist at Project Zero. She directs the Causal Learning in a Complex World Lab. Her research focuses on how causal reasoning interacts with complexity and on developing instructional supports for complex causal learning and public understanding of science. Tina received a Career Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2009 and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2011. She is the author of Learning Causality in a Complex World (2012) and lead author of the Causal Patterns in Science series.

Shari Metcalf

Shari Metcalf is the Project Director of the EcoXPT and EcoMOD projects at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and was previously the Project Director of EcoMUVE and EcoMOBILE. Her research focuses on educational technology projects in STEM education, including research on computer-based data collection and analysis tools for middle school science students. Her PhD research involved the design and development of Model-It, a software tool for students building models of dynamic systems. Her professional interest centers on the design of modeling, simulation, and immersive environments to support inquiry-based STEM learning.

Amy Kamarainen

Amy Kamarainen is a senior research manager at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she manages research related to both the EcoXPT and EcoMOD projects. Amy is an ecosystem scientist who holds a B.S. in Zoology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her Ph.D. work focused on studying the movement and fate of pollutants in aquatic ecosystems using environmental sensors, historical data, and models. She applies her understanding of ecosystems science and research to the design and evaluation of technologies that support science learning inside and outside of the classroom. The Ecological Society of America named Amy an Ecology Education Scholar in 2011.

Karen Brennan

Karen Brennan is an Associate Professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education (HGSE). Her research is primarily concerned with the ways in which learning environments—in and out of school, online and face-to-face—can be designed to support young people's development as computational creators. Before joining HGSE, Brennan completed her Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab, where she was a member of the team that developed the Scratch programming environment.

Amanda Dickes

Amanda Dickes is a postdoctoral research fellow on the EcoMOD project at Harvard University. Her research focuses on the design of learning environments that integrate computational modeling with other forms of scientific modeling - physical, embodied and mathematical - in an attempt to understand how computation and computational modeling can become the “language” of practice in the elementary science and math classroom. Before joining Harvard, Amanda completed her Ph.D. in the Learning Sciences at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College where she was a member of the Mind, Matter and Media Lab under the direction of Dr. Pratim Sengupta.

Joseph Reilly

Joseph Reilly is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he is a research assistant on the EcoMOBILE and EcoMOD projects. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Georgetown University and a M.A. in Special Education from American University. Joe taught middle school science in Washington D.C. and high school chemistry in Virginia prior to beginning his doctoral work. His research interests include immersive virtual environments for learning, stealth assessment of student understanding, automatic generation of dynamic scaffolding, and leveraging data science techniques in educational research.

Shane Tutwiler

Shane Tutwiler is an Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations at the University of Rhode Island, and supports data analysis on the EcoXPT project. Shane's work encompasses educational psychology, science education, and educational technology. He earned his Doctorate of Education in Human Development and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he researched modeling student behavior, as a function of prior knowledge and attitude, in complex environments such as science simulations. Shane previously served as a post-doctoral research fellow and lecturer on the faculties of the University of Connecticut and Harvard University.