Contact Information:
rstowe@chem.wisc.edu
- Research Associate
Michigan State University
Dr. Melanie Cooper - Ph.D. (2016)
The Scripps Research Institute
Dr. William Roush - B.A. (2010)
Albion College
Ryan earned his Ph.D. from the Scripps Research Institute under the guidance of Prof. William Roush. While enrolled in graduate school, Ryan was appointed a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the Board on Science Education at the National Academy of Sciences.
As a post-doctoral researcher mentored by Prof. Melanie Cooper at Michigan State University, Ryan worked on several projects related to teaching and learning in chemistry. He led a team of teachers and researchers in designing, assessing, and refining curricular materials for a high school chemistry curriculum aligned with nationally deployed science standards. Additionally, Ryan conducted several studies examining student use-of-knowledge in the context of organic chemistry coursework.
The Stowe Group at UW-Madison focuses on understanding how chemistry learning environments could and should engage all learners in authentic, meaningful scientific work. This program of research is highly interdisciplinary and draws from literature in science education, cognitive psychology, and discipline-based education research. Ongoing projects range from small-scale investigations focused on modeling student cognition to large-scale cross-sectional studies comparing transformed chemistry enactments that enroll thousands of students.