People

Dr. Amelia Wenk Gotwals is a Professor of Science Education in the Department of Teacher Education. As a former middle and high school science teacher, she has a particular interest in exploring the ways that students learn to engage in science practices with core ideas in science and the ways that curricular and assessment materials interact with teacher instruction to support this learning. She specifically focuses on researching the learning progressions students take as they develop more sophisticated understandings and ways of assessing this complex learning. She was the co-PI on an NSF grant, Deep Think, that developed and tested a learning progression and associated curricular and assessment materials that supported 3rd-5th grade students' reasoning about issues in biodiversity. She was the PI on the NSF-funded project, Learning Progressions in Science (LeaPS), which organized the first national conference on learning progressions and she is the co-editor of the LeaPS book that emanated from this conference. She was also the PI of the Formative Assessment for Michigan Educators (FAME) project that explored how a statewide professional development program can support teachers in developing formative assessment practices.