Kostya Nakazny

Kostya Nakazny

Graduate Research Fellows
Image
Nakazny, Kostya
Year
2011

I am in my second year of the Masters program in Educational Psychology at the University of Arizona. My greatest interest is in technology enhanced learning environments in the STEM fields. I work closely with my institutional partner, the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum (ASDM) and its Education Director to design and develop an online student built interactive web based portal. The interactive portal allows teachers to easily manage classes, create groups, and evaluate students’ work. Students use NASA aerial and satellite temporal images and other resources to investigate a geographical area on such topics as water resources, urban heat islands, wild fire impact, and others. Once an investigation is complete the students report significant findings and present before/after images of the area using intuitive tools of the interactive web based portal.

I will develop 2 or 3 complete lesson plans that will cover topics such as water cycle, urban water use, wild fires in Arizona and others (the exact topics will depend on the needs of the ASDM). The lesson plans will be project-based and include the latest findings in educational research.

My previous experience in working on technology enhanced learning environments and what I learned in the first year of my Masters program lead me to believe that it is very important to understand how teachers evaluate and use available technology for educational purposes. I am developing a questionnaire that will shed light on the process teachers go through when evaluating technologies for educational purposes. The design and functionality of the web portal and the findings from the answers to the questionnaire will form part of my Maters thesis.