Robert Sternberg, Director
Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences
Email: robert.sternberg@tufts.edu
View biographical sketch

Liane Gabora, Associate Director
Email: liane.gabora@tufts.edu

Christina Bonney, Senior Researcher
Email: christina.bonney@tufts.edu

Christina Rhee Bonney earned her Ph.D. in education and psychology from the University of Michigan, where she wrote her dissertation on the influence of achievement goals on college athletes' motivation and performance. Following graduate school, Dr. Bonney spent two years in Chicago as a research associate with Learning Point Associates, a non-profit education organization, conducting program evaluations aimed at school improvement efforts in New York, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. She also helped provide analytic support for afterschool programming in the 50 states and Puerto Rico, under the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative. Dr. Bonney also holds a bachelor's degree from Yale University in psychology and a master's degree in psychology with a developmental focus from the University of Michigan.

Kathleen Connolly, Researcher
Email: lee.connolly@tufts.edu
Phone: 7-4016

After studying electrical engineering at MIT, Kathleen became an intensive tutor and math teaching assistant at the MATCH School, a Boston Charter High School. Now at PACE, Kathleen serves as a co-director for the Transforming Elementary Science through LEGO™ Engineering project. She helps develop the LEGO™ Engineering curriculum and triarchic measures to assess the curriculum. Her primary interests are the implementation of engineering projects in K-12 classrooms and their effects on learning, particularly on female's interest and confidence in studying math, science, and technology fields. She plans on beginning graduate studies in Math, Science, Technology, and Engineering Education in 2008.

Kristen Wendell, Graduate Student
Email: Kristen.bethke@tufts.edu

Kristen Bethke Wendell is a doctoral student in the Math, Science, Technology, and Engineering (MSTE) Education program at Tufts University. She is also a research assistant at the Tufts University Center for Engineering Educational Outreach (http://ceeo.tufts.edu). Her research examines how engineering-based science curricula affect children's science learning. She is a member of the research team for the PACE Center’s NSF-funded project on "Transforming Science Learning through LEGO™ Engineering Design." Kristen received an M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT in 2005 and a B.S. in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University in 2003. After completing her Ph.D., Kristen hopes first to teach at the elementary or middle-school level as a science specialist. Eventually, she hopes to combine her teaching and research experience by working at the university level as an education researcher and teacher educator.

Chris Wright, Graduate Student
Email: Christopher_G.Wright@tufts.edu

Christopher graduated from Hampton University with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1996 and dedicated his time to educating youth for the next ten years. Looking to expand his passion for and knowledge of the field of education, he decided to pursue an advanced degree in education. Christopher is currently in the M.S.T.E. PhD program at Tufts University focusing on bringing engineering education to K-12 urban communities and schools. His research focus is the impact of engineering design curricula/intervention, with particular interests in the intersection between race, class, and gender on students’ science achievement, attitudes, and participation. Currently, Christopher is exploring the relationship of everyday language-use versus scientific language-use within the context of engineering design units designed for elementary science classrooms. His goal is to utilize engineering design activities as a vehicle for inviting marginalized cultures and communities into the culture of science, thus creating a natural identification with science/technology.