At our 2026 GCI Postdoc Showcase, Postdoctoral Fellow Joelle Prate presented a poster about investigating virtual simulations in elementary science. She also studies the role of noticing and sensemaking in undergraduate quantitative reasoning in biology. To learn more about her research, reach out to Dr. Prate at joprate@chapman.edu.

Joelle Prate, Ph.D.

 

Abstract:

My research focuses on the improvement of science education. At the K-12 level, I focus on the effectiveness of virtual simulations, paired with pedagogical best practices, to improve students’ scientific and quantitative sensemaking. I also study undergraduate-level biology education, focusing on what students notice and how they make sense of quantitative representations of biological data. My work spans many approaches, including the analysis of interview and focus group data, pre- and post- test analysis, and single-case design methods. In my upcoming work, I intend to use eye-tracking data to understand what features students attend to when working with virtual simulations and how these features may differ between groups.