Dr. Alvarado is originally from Mexico (Sonora). Prior to arriving at CSU, Chico, Carolina was a Postdoctoral Research and Visiting Libra Diversity Professor at the University of Maine working in the Maine center of Research in STEM Education.
Education:
Ph.D. — Educative Innovation specializing in Physics at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Escuela Nacional de Posgrado en Educación, Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Monterrey, México
B.S. — Physics Engineering at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey, México
Courses Taught:
- SCED300w - Revolutionary Ideas in the Natural Sciences
- SCED321w - Scientific Inquiry
- SCED352 - Museum Docent Training
- SCED490 - Natural Sciences Seminar
- SCED495 - Natural Sciences Capstone
Research Interests:
Building collaborative communities among in-service K-12 science teachers and pre-service K-12 science teachers. Her main focus is to foster the recognition of students' valuable ideas to create responsive science classrooms. This is targeted in pedagogical development courses that analyzes the reasoning behind students' responses and other strategies.
Publications
Refereed (selected)
Wittmann, M.C.,Millay, L., & Alvarado, C (2017).Teacher awareness of problematic facets of meaningful metaphors of energy. Latin-American Journal of Physics Education
Wittmann, M.C., Alvarado, C., & Millay, L. (2016). Teacher responses to their multiple goals for teaching energy. Physics Education Research Conference 2015. College Park, MD.
Kranich, G., Wittmann, M.C., & Alvarado, C. (2016) Teachers’ conflicting conceptual models and the efficacy of formative assessments. Physics Education Research Conference 2015. College Park, MD. College Park, MD.
Invited (selected)
Alvarado, C (2016, July). Finding myself, without losing me. Physics Education Research consortium of Graduate Students Special Issue 2.
Professional Affiliations:
- American Association of Physics Teachers
- Physics Education Coalition
- American Association of Physics Teachers, Mexico Section
- Latin America Science Education Research Association
For research, publications, and more information, see Dr. Alvarado's LinkedIn(opens in new window).
