Bulletin Board

Sachmpazidi, D., Van Dusen, B., & Henderson, C. (2025). Role of departmental support structures and self-efficacy on physics student persistence: An examination of students’ experience from 19 physics graduate programs. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 21(1), 010158

SoPA Assistant Professor, Diana Sachmpazidi together with co-authors Ben van Dusen and Charles Henderson, has published an article in Physical Review - Physics Education Research titled "Role of departmental support structures and self-efficacy on physics student persistence: An examination of students’ experience from 19 physics graduate programs"

Multiple CASTLE members presented at SABER East, held at RIT! Christian Cammarota, Mike Foster and Mike Verosek gave short talks. Crystal Uminski gave a shark tank pitch and presented a poster.

Dina Newman published a paper, “Examining the Influence of Vision & Change and a mentoring network on teaching philosophies and strategies” in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education.

Drs. Crystal Uminski, Kate Wright, Dina Newman and several undergraduate researchers, in collaboration with Dr. Mingyu Yang of UC San Diego, published “Showing the Bonds--A Subtle but important difference in figure design that may alleviate student confusion about ATP hydrolysis” in micropublication Biology. https://micropublication.org/journals/biology/micropub-biology-001540.

Drs. Crystal Uminski, Kate Wright and Dina Newman published a paper, “Sketchy understandings: drawings reveal where students may need additional support to understand scale and abstraction in common representations of DNA” in the Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education. https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00070-25

Ben Zwickl with University of Oslo collaborator, Tor Ole B. Odden, published "How physics students build computational literacy by creating computational literature" in the Journal of the Learning Sciences.

Crystal Uminski received the RIT College of Science Excellence in Scholarship Award for her postdoctoral research.

Crystal Uminski, postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. Dina Newman and Dr. L. Kate Wright, presented her research “Assessing Visual Literacy Skills in Molecular Biology” at the University of Washington Biology Learning and Teaching Seminar.

Scott Franklin and Alia Hamdan presented “Attending to our Humanity: Empathy in Times of Conflict and Uncertainty” in the Haverford College “Meeting the Moment” discussion series. The moderated discussion explored their journey navigating their research and relationship in the context of Israeli/Palestinian crisis with a focus on implications for academic collaboration in the current political environment.

We are proud to announce that our CASTLE REU in STEM Education Research alumni, Annabelle Li, is a 2025 Barry M. Scholarship Award winner!  This prestigious scholarship is awarded to undergraduate students who show exceptional promise in STEM and will likely go on to a career in research.  Annabelle is currently a neuroscience major at Smith College.  Way to go, Annabelle!

Ben Zwickl contributed to a workshop at the University of Colorado Boulder on forming a national center for quantum education. The outcomes of the workshop were published in the journal EJP Quantum Technology.

Tony Wong, assistant professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, along with mathematical modeling Ph.D. student Cameron Bundy, published “Analyzing Learning Assistant influence on STEM student success using logistic and hierarchical regression” in Contemporary Mathematics and Science Education.

CASTLE postdoc Alia Hamdan will start her new position as a Teaching Assistant professor of Physics at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in Fall 2025. This permanent position includes teaching large lecture halls in a studio format, working with faculty and graduate students to develop active learning practices, and maintaining some physics education research.

M. Verostek, D. Sachmpazidi, C. Turpen, J. Petrella, and S. Lee, “Centering community input in the design of survey tools to empirically assess cultural change in physics departments,” presented at APS Global Physics Summit, Anaheim, CA, 16–21 March 2025 
Sachmpazidi, D., Turpen, C., Verostek, M., Petrella, J., Henderson, C., & Lee, S. (2025, March 16–21). Survey instruments to assess the student experience in physics: A data-driven approach to improve retention and inclusion. Presented at the APS Global Physics Summit, Anaheim, CA, United States.

Kierstin Muroski, Assistant Professor in ASL and interpreting education at NTID, and Dina Newman, Professor in the Gosnell School of Life Sciences, received an Advance grant to run workshops empowering faculty to develop strategies for self-promotion and networking. Together with Sarah Stager, Assistant Teaching Professor at Penn State, they ran their first workshop, “Strategic Visibility: Define your Academic Identity & Develop your Professional Brand” at Penn State. A second workshop is planned for April 21st at RIT.