Principal Investigator

Dr. Trish Stoddart is a Professor of Education at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. Stoddart is an expert at improving the teaching of science in culturally and linguistically diverse classroom. She has extensive experience in research on instructional innovation and science education and has led several large federally funded projects including the NSF funded Effective Science Teaching for English Language Learners (ESTELL) project, the NSF funded Local Systemic Initiative LASERS (Language Acquisition through Science Education for Rural Schools) which brought together seven school districts to improve the teaching of science to English Language learners in California's Central Valley and the USDOE Federal Eisenhower Project CCTD (California Consortium for Teacher Development) which brought together 18 CSU and UC campuses in a research and development project on preparing pre-service teachers to work with diverse learners. She is the author of over 70 journal articles and monographs on science education, teacher education and educational policy and reform.

Trish Stoddart, Ph.D.

Professor of Education University of California Santa Cruz
Principal Investigator: ESTELL, ELLISA and SSTELLA project
Office: Education Department, 3168 McHenry Hall
University of California,
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Email: stoddart@ucsc.edu

Co Principal Investigator

Edward Lyon is an Assistant Professor of Science Education in the School of Education at Sonoma State University. He was formally Assistant Professor of Science Education at Arizona State University. Dr. Lyon conducts K-12 science education research to understand how core instructional and assessment practices enhance learning for ELs, including how science teachers are prepared to enact those practices. Dr. Lyon’s dissertation work, exploring the development of pre-service science teachers’ expertise at ambitious assessment received a $20,000 UC-ACCORD Dissertation Fellowship, the 2012 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the California Council of Teacher Education, and the 2013 NARST Outstanding Paper Award. Dr. Lyon is currently engaged in two primary research projects. He is Co P.I. on the NSF DR K-12 Secondary Science Teaching with English Language and Literacy Acquisition (SSTELLA) project to study the impact of a teacher education model on novice science teachers' beliefs, knowledge, and practice of teaching science to ELs. He is also P.I. of the Ambitious Assessment in Secondary Science classrooms (AASC) Project funded by a Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Internal Grant and a Fulton Scholars Challenge Award to refine research tools and a conceptual framework for assessing science in secondary science classrooms with ELs. Dr. Lyon formally taught biology and chemistry for in culturally and linguistically diverse high schools. 

Edward Lyon, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Science Education at Sonoma State University
Co P.I SSTELLA
Email: lyone@sonoma.edu


 

Jorge L. Solis (Ph.D. in Language, Literacy & Culture, University of California, Berkeley; Public Policy from Stanford University) is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual studies in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Jorge is firmly committed to improving the schooling prospects and achievement of all students through the production and sharing of practical and innovative research. Dr. Solis’ research interests in bilingual studies and English language learner education involves examining a range of teaching and learning contexts from children in elementary classrooms to secondary school adolescents as well as the study of experienced and novice classroom teachers. Much of this work focuses on understanding the academic transitions of English language learners across into secondary school. His ongoing research on novice teacher education aims to understand how beginning teachers can take-up more authentic sociocultural and disciplinary approaches that use language and literacy practices to advance content comprehension in linguistically diverse classrooms. Ten years of research involving in-service and pre-service teachers in elementary classrooms contexts has focused on science instruction with English Language Learners (ELLs) across varied language programs. Dr. Solis’ recent work in San Antonio expands on this work by examining secondary school contexts where novice teachers possess much stronger scientific knowledge expertise yet with much more varied familiarity with pedagogical language knowledge. He is the UTSA principal investigator of the National Science Foundation DRK-12 funded SSTELLA project examining higher education education reform for science teachers in linguistically diverse classrooms. Through this new research, Dr. Solis hopes to provide more effective teacher education models for secondary school teacher education programs that addresses the science learning contexts of adolescent English language learners in bilingual, mainstream, and ESL classrooms. Jorge has presented his work at the American Educational Research Association, American Anthropological Association, National Association for Research on Science Teaching, and National Association for Bilingual Education. His work has been published in Linguistics and Education, Issues in Teacher Education and has been recognized in the Review of Research in Education and several edited volumes. Jorge has taught education courses to undergraduates, elementary and secondary teacher credential students, and doctoral students on issues of bilingualism, classroom discourse, disciplinary literacy and second language literacy, and English-language development. Previous or current courses he teaches at UTSA include: BBL. 6063:Research Methods in Bilingual & Second Language Studies, BBL 5033: Bilingual Content Instruction, BBL 7223: Seminar in Biliteracy & Second Language Literacy, BBL 4353: Approaching to Teaching Science EC-6, and BBL.3053: Foundations of Bilinguals Studies.

Jorge L. Solís, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor Bicultural-Bilingual Studies
Co P.I SSTELLA
Office: room MB 3.302D, University of Texas, San Antonio
Email: jorge.solis@utsa.edu


 

The Ash Lab is committed to the following research goals:
Generate theory on how families learn in dialogue and interaction with each other, particularly in out-of-school settings;
Develop theoretically-grounded tools to collect and analyze data and understand scientific meaning making over time
Examine the potential contribution of out-of-school environments to contribute to science education for a public of diverse learners
Address issues of equity and access to science education for diverse learning communities

Doris Ash

Associate Professor of Education at UC Santa Cruz
Co P.I SSTELLA
Office:
Education Department, 3142 McHenry Library
University of California,
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Email:
dash5@ucsc.edu
dorisbash@gmail.com


Sara Tolbert is Assistant Professor of Science Education in the Teaching, Learning, & Sociocultural Studies Department at the University of Arizona’s College of Education. Dr. Tolbert received a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2011. Dr. Tolbert’s research focuses on redesigning science teacher education as a vehicle for improving English learners and other minoritized students’ opportunities to learn relevant and contextually authentic science, and on facilitating social change and youth leadership through school science. Before pursuing her graduate degrees, Dr. Tolbert taught science and sheltered science in formal and informal settings in the South Bronx, NY, Atlanta, GA, South Auckland (Papatoetoe), New Zealand, and Latin America. 

Dr. Tolbert has been a member of TEEL since 2006, serving as graduate research associate on the Institute of Education Sciences grant Integrating Science and Diversity Education: A Model of Pre-Service Elementary Teacher Preparation, and the NSF grant Effective Science Teaching for English Language Learners (ESTELL), and Co-PI on the NSF DR-K12 project, Secondary Science Teaching with English Language and Literacy Acquisition. Her latest publication is titled "Because they want to teach you about their culture…”: Analyzing effective mentoring conversations between culturally responsible mentors and secondary science teachers of indigenous students in mainstream schools, published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching.

Sara Tolbert

Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona
Co-P.I., SSTELLA
Office : Room 813
College of Education,University of Arizona
1430 E. Second St.
Tucson, AZ 85721
Email: saratolbert@email.arizona.edu

Key Collaborators

George Bunch's research focuses is on language and literacy challenges and opportunities for language minority students in K-12 and higher education, and on policies and practices designed to serve such students. I am also active in efforts to prepare teachers for working with English Learners. 

I recently served on the English Learner Advisory Panel for the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, and I am a founding partner of the Understanding Language Initiative (ell.stanford.edu), formed to heighten awareness of the role of language for English learners as new common core standards are implemented throughout the United States. 

Prior to my research and teacher education career, I taught high school ESL, social studies, and Spanish in Maryland and Washington, DC.

Areas of interest: Education of language minority students in US schools; language and literacy for academic purposes; language policies and practices in community colleges; preparation of K-12 teachers for linguistic diversity; second language acquisition; bilingualism.

George Bunch

Associate Professor of Education at UC Santa Cruz
Co P.I SSTELLA
Office: Education Department, 3144 McHenry Library
University of California,
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Email: gbunch@ucsc.edu


 

Ivan Salinas is an Assistant Professor in the Departamento de Estudios Pedagógicos at Universidad de Chile. He holds a Ph.D. in Teacher and Teacher Education from The University of Arizona. Dr. Salinas is interested in understanding science learning from embodied perspectives on language. Also, his research is concerned with narrative representations of science classrooms and the impact of science teaching innovations on students' linguistic representations of scientific phenomena.

Ivan Salinas

Email: ivan.salinas@ciae.uchile.cl


 

Dr. Barry Roth is an Associate Professor of Practice and Co-Director of the Teach Arizona master’s degree teacher preparation program in the department of Teaching Learning and Sociocultural Studies at The University of Arizona. A former state and nationally recognized high school biology and chemistry teacher and school district science curriculum coordinator, he has extensive experience with using research-based and inquiry-based science pedagogy. Barry has developed and implemented programs for both pre-service and practicing science teachers that include both science content and pedagogical components. A collaborator on the NSF funded Secondary Science Teaching with English Language and Literacy Acquisition (SSTELLA), he is committed to supporting English Language Learners’ acquisition of both English language and science content knowledge. He is a key player in developing the new AZ Science Standard and is active in the Arizona Science Educational Leaders Association, a statewide network of science education advocates. Barry has served as liaison between higher education and K-12 districts on a number of federal, state and local grants. He is active in United States Master’s Swimming and is an ardent supporter and volunteer official for the University of Arizona Swimming and Diving Team.

W. Barry Roth, Ed.D.

Director, Teach Arizona
Associate Professor of Practice

Office:
Department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies
College of Education
The University of Arizona
PO Box 210069
Tucson, AZ 85721-0069
Email: 
roth@email.arizona.edu
teach.arizona.edu

 

Project Coordinator

Joanna Sherman Gardiner is the Project Coordinator for two currently research funded projects, the U.S. Department of Education, English Language and Literacy Integration in Subject Areas (ELLISA) and the National Science Foundation, Secondary Science Teaching with English Language and Literacy (SSTELLA). Joanna assists Project Principal Investigator Professor Trish Stoddart in implementing and maintaining on all aspects of the ELLISA and SSTELLA project management. The ELLISA and SSTELLA projects have five subcontracts with six collaborating institutions and other universities. Joanna works with the Pl.’s and administrators at each of the following sites. University of California, Santa Cruz, Arizona State University, University of Arizona, University of Texas, San Antonio, San Francisco State University and San Jose State University. Joanna received a B.A. in Sociology and an M.A. in Education from UCSC.

Joanna Sherman-Gardiner

Project Coordinator
PC ELLISA, SSTELLA 
Office: 0282 ELLISA & SSTELLA
Education Department McHenry Building
University of California,  Santa Cruz
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Email: joannasg@ucsc.edu

Research Assistants

Caroline Spurgin is a doctoral student in the Education Department at UC Santa Cruz. There she studies science education through Sociocultural and Feminist frameworks. Her most recent work investigates pre-service science teachers' developing science teacher agency.

Caroline Spurgin

Graduate Student Researcher
Location: 0 Floor, McHenry Library
Email: cspurgin@ucsc.edu


 

Corey Knox is a doctoral candidate in the Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural studies Department at the University of Arizona. She is also an undergraduate instructor in psychology and applied social sciences. Her research focuses on environmental justice and schooling, and how local issues and the ideologies of students, teachers, and communities inform science curriculum content.

Corey J Knox

Doctoral Candidate/Research Associate
Science & Environmental Education
Location: Department of Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies 
University of Arizona/College of Education

 

Jackie Guilford is trained as a cancer biologist at the Penn State Hershey College of Medicine and the University of Hawaii College of Pharmacy.  She currently teaches in the Biology and Environmental Science Departments at Sonoma State University.  She also teaches NGSS-aligned science labs to grades K-6 as a Science Specialist at the Bennett Valley Unified School District in Santa Rosa, California.

Jackie Guilford

Jackie Guilford, PhD
Location: Sonoma State University
Department of Biology
Darwin 236


Salvador Huitzilopochtli is a graduate student in Education at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Mr. Huitzilopochtli was a math teacher for 10 years and his research interests include mathematics education and mathematics discourse.

Salvador Huitzilopochtli

Doctoral Student- Education

Location: University of California Santa Cruz
274 McHenry
Email: shuitzil@ucsc.edu


 

Vicki Lynton is a research assistant and doctoral student in the Culture, Literacy and Language program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her interests include disciplinary literacy and  classroom discourse. Currently, Vicki is exploring instructional practices that support students’ language and literacy development in mathematics classrooms.

Vicki Lynton

Research Assistant
Location: College of Education and Human Development
The University of Texas at San Antonio
MB 3.112
Email: vicki.lynton@utsa.edu


 

Undergraduate Student Interns

Calvin graduated University of California Santa Cruz with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. He started out working as a transcriber for TEEL, then he took on the role of Web Designer to help create and design the TEEL and SSTELLA websites. He helped migrate content from the older websites to a newer web platform called WordPress. In addition to transferring content, he also designed and implemented the SSTELLA logos and graphics. He has a passion for coding and connecting people with technology and hope to share the same interest with everyone. 

Calvin Lowe

Web Designer
Email: calvinwolfelowe@gmail.com

Former Research Assistants and Undergraduate Student Interns

  • Acacia Overoye

  • Deena Gould

  • Maria Ugha

  • Jesus Lugo

  • Karmin San Martin

  • Joanne Couling

  • Ivonne Blancas

Advisory Board

  • Eugene Garcia (Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University)
  • Norma Gonzalez (Professor, University of Arizona)
  • Okhee Lee (Professor of Childhood Education, New York University)
  • Mark Windschitl (Professor of Science Teaching and Learning, University of Washington)