The Graduate Student Association (GSA) and the Graduate College welcome the Drexel community to join us for our next Scholars Share: Conversations on Graduate Student Research to hear from current graduate students and postdocs about their research endeavors and a faculty moderator who will facilitate questions and discussion from the audience. Lunch is provided.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019
12-1PM
Graduate Student Lounge
Main Building, Lower Level, Room 010A
3141 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Download Event Flyer [PDF]

Watch the Recording [YouTube]

Featured Speakers:

Meghan Barrett

PhD Candidate in Biology
College of Arts and Sciences

The mentorship syllabus: structuring learning outcomes for undergraduate researchers

Meghan Barrett is a PhD Candidate in the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University in the Biology Department studying insect neuroanatomy. She has also earned her graduate minor in STEM Education through the PROFESS program and mentors a large population of undergraduate students internationally in the field, and at home in the lab. She has co-authored numerous publications with her Drexel undergraduate mentees, helped advise two undergraduate thesis projects, co-authored presentations for national conferences with her co-PIs on the effectiveness of their mentorship practices, and won the 2018 CoAS Mentorship Award for her work at Drexel.

Kelley Commeford

PhD Candidate in Physics
College of Arts and Sciences

Characterizing active learning environments in physics

Kelley Commeford is a graduate student in the Physics department. She is originally from Colorado, where she completed her Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering Physics at Colorado School of Mines in 2010, and her Master of Science in Applied Physics in 2012. She worked as a high school physics teacher with Teach for America in south Texas for two years. Currently, she’s pursuing her PhD in Physics at Drexel University with a focus on Physics Education Research. Kelley's research characterizes active learning environments in physics.

Hamideh Talafian

PhD Candidate in Educational Leadership and Learning Technologies
School of Education

Perceived STEM career identity in informal learning environments

Hamideh Talafian is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Educational Leadership and Learning Technologies (STEM concentration) at Drexel University. Her research interests focus on students’ motivation and identity exploration in STEM, educational simulations and games, experiential learning, and research methods. Since she entered the program, Hamideh has been working with the Dean of the School of Education, Dr. Penny Hammrich on two NSF-funded projects on “Experiential Learning” and “Hypothesis-Driven Computational Genomics” which focused on engaging and motivating students in STEM disciplines. She is also working in Games and Learning in Interactive Digital Environments (GLIDE) lab, on an NSF-funded CAREER project with Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Aroutis Foster on designing and implementing educational games.

Hamideh received her Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and her Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from the top-ranked universities in Iran and has over seven years of teaching experience in a number of schools and English institutes in Iran. She is currently working on a newly funded project aiming to develop STEM career awareness identity exploration among middle school under-representative minorities. In addition, she has recently joined Songer's Lab and working on "Life Right Here and Everywhere" on a science education NFS-funded project with Dr. Nancy Songer and former Dean of the School of Education.

As a part of her professional services, she is in the editorial board of the Emerging Voices in Education Journal based in the School of Education which is only for graduate students and is run by graduate students. She is also the reviewer of a number of journals and conferences including but not limited to JXE, NSTA, AERA, SITE, etc.

Faculty Moderator:

Jennifer Stanford, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Biology
College of Arts and Sciences
Co-Director of the Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence (CASTLE)

Dr. Jennifer Stanford is an Associate Professor of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Co-Director of the Center for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence (CASTLE). Dr. Stanford’s research interests focus on evaluating and improving approaches to teach STEM content in higher education environments to promote student learning, engagement in STEM courses, and STEM student retention. Her current work focuses on: evaluating approaches to increase student access to undergraduate research opportunities, incorporating evidence-based thinking into diverse learning environments, and developing practical training opportunities to support STEM student professional development. Through her research activities and work with CASTLE, she is collaboratively working with colleagues to transform STEM teaching and modernize STEM learning across disciplines and educational levels. Her work has been supported by grants from organizations such as: the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, NSF, The Panaphil and Uphill Foundations, the Colonial Academic Alliance, and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.