Ala Samarapungavan: Research

Interests

In broad terms, I am interested in how people think and learn in knowledge rich domains. My research focuses on reasoning and learning in science from childhood through adulthood. Within this context, I am interested in several specific research questions:

• How does apprenticeship in authentic or "real world" scientific inquiry shape people's understanding of the nature of science?

• How can children learn to understand the nature of scientific inquiry in different areas of science?

• How do children restructure their ideas about the natural world in the course of formal schooling?

• How can people learn to generate and use models of complex physiological systems such as the immune system?

Special Projects

• The Scientific Literacy Project

One of the projects that I am currently working on is the Scientific Literacy Project (SLP).  The project is funded through the US Department of Education. As part of this project, I work with kindergarten classrooms to help teachers implement inquiry-based science curricula and to study how young children learn science.  I collaborate on this project with Youli Mantzicopoulos who is interested in the effects of parent-child dialog and shared science book reading on children's learning and Helen Patrick who is interested in the effects of teacher support and classroom climate on student motivation and engagement.

• IMMUNOWEB

I am the lead investigator on IMMUNOWEB – a multidisciplinary research project involving faculty from the Indiana University School of Medicine (R. Kreisle), Purdue School of Veterinary Medicine (H. HogenEsch) and Information Technology (J. Mohler). This project examines how students learn biological modeling in an electronic learning environment. The goal of the project is to develop a web-based electronic learning environment that can help students develop a deep understanding of complex systems such as the immune system. IMMUNOWEB is currently under construction. Its design uses a case-based approach to embed information about the immune system in real world problem solving scenarios.  The learning environment is designed to help student connect and model processes at multiple levels ranging from the gross anatomical level, to the cellular and sub-cellular levels. which can be modeled at multiple levels and exhibit complex and non linear processes.

Funded Research

• The Scientific Literacy Project: Enhancing Young Children’s Scientific Literacy through Reading and Inquiry-Centered Adult-Child Dialog. (2005-2009). Agency: US Dept, of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Amount: 1, 490, 693.00.   Mantzicopoulos, Y., Patrick, H., & Samarapungavan, A.

• ACCESSSCOPE Project: Independent Microscope Operation for Students with Mobility and Visual Impairments (2005-2009). Agency: NSF. Amount: $ 299,519,000. Duerstock, B., Robinson, P. Shwarte, D. &  Samarapungavan, A

• Creating a Freshman Engineering Learning Environment (1999-2002). Agency: GE Fund. Amount: $ 450,000.  Schwartz, R. J., Oakes, W., Bodner, G., & Samarapungavan, A

• Developing the Foundation for Transforming Freshman Engineering at Purdue University (1998). Agency: GE Fund. Amount: $ 85,000. Wright, J. R., R. J., Oakes, W., Bodner, G., & Samarapungavan, A.

• Learning Excellence in Science and Engineering - Transforming Theory Into Practice (1997). Agency: GE Fund. Amount:  $149,786.00. Bodner, G., Oakes, W., & Samarapungavan, A.

• Coordinating Theories with Evidence: What Develops? (1993-1995) Agency: National Academy of Education / Spencer grant. Amount: $ 35,000.  Samarapungavan, A.

• IMMUNOWEB: The Development of Students’ Scientific Reasoning and Modeling Skills in an Electronic Learning Environment (2005). Agency: Discovery Learning Center (Seed Grant Program). Amount: $ 18,281.00. Samarapungavan, A., HogenEsch, H., & Mohler, J.

• IMMUNOWEB: The Development of Students’ Scientific Reasoning and Modeling Skills in an Electronic Learning Environment (2003-2005). Agency: Purdue Research Foundation. Amount: $ 27, 552. Samarapungavan, A.

• Student's Epistemologies of Science: The Development of Beliefs about the Nature and Origins of Scientific Knowledge (2000-2001). Agency: Purdue University - School of Education, Undergraduate Research Trainee (URT) grant. Amount:  $500.00.  Samarapungavan, A.

• Thinking as Argumentation. The Effects of Debate Training on the Application and Transfer of Higher Order Thinking Skills (2000-2002). Agency: Purdue Research Foundation. Amount: $30,384.  Samarapungavan, A.

• International Travel Grant to give invited address, "Ontology, epistemology, and domain-specific beliefs as constraints on conceptual change in science" at the National Seminar on Philosophy of Science: Cognitive, Historical, & Educational Perspectives. Bombay, India.(1998). Agency: Purdue Research Foundation. Amount: $5,000.00.  Samarapungavan, A.

• Children’s Epistemologies of Science: The Development of Beliefs about the Nature and Origins of Scientific Knowledge (1997). Agency: Purdue Research Foundation. Amount: $5,000.00. Samarapungavan, A.

• Young Children’s Theories of Matter (1997) Agency: Purdue Research Foundation, Amount: $23,332.00. Samarapungavan, A.

Click on picture to see my academic family tree