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David Phelps

David Phelps is a second year doctoral student in the Learning Sciences program at Indiana University. He is interested in conceptual learning and the scientific practices of young children as they create, evaluate, and modify science representations. His research draws from Dr. Danish’s work on representation practices, Dr. Lesh’s models and modeling perspective, and his own background experience studying cycles of symbolic learning with preschoolers in a Reggio-Emilia inspired school in Vermont. He is also passionate about philosophy and digital art, especially as they relate to education and ethics, and has used these interests to contribute to Quest Atlantis (through the creation of in-game comic-book style machinima), to the Videogames and Ethics research literature, and to an art gallery in Indiana.

Currently: Conducting research with Dr. Danish and Dr. Peppler on the Cross-Curricular Representational Practices of First- and Second-Graders as they learn about honey bees. He is excited to playtest a recently designed computational-thinking boardgame for young children that maps out the possible if-then trajectories honey bees can take as they search for nectar.