gma research team

Erin Ottmar (Lead Researcher) is an assistant professor of psychology and learning sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Erin co-developed the game From Here to There and Graspable Math with the goal of innovating and promoting math teaching and learning. Her role is to integrate the learning sciences research into the project and also oversee the initial usability and feasibility studies.

Jenny Yun-Chen Chan (post-doc researcher) is a developmental psychologist studying cognitive processes involved in math learning. She contributes to development of tasks for user studies, and will analyze student behavior and learning gains through the intervention.

Vy Ngo (research project coordinator) recently graduated from undergraduate college, and she is interested in gender equity and social influences in education. She contributes to development of tasks for user studies, the project website, and other forward-facing materials.

Jennifer St. John (High School Math Teacher and LST graduate student) has been a math teacher for more than 25 years. She contributes to development of tasks and activities used in the research studies and provides feedback to the team about the designs for the tasks and teacher dashboard.

Bryan Matlen is a Senior Research Associate in the Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM) program at WestEd. He explores how cognitive science-based strategies can be applied to support learning and inform instructional decision-making.

Yvonne Kao works as a Senior Research Associate at WestEd and her goal is to improve K-12 math and computer science education, focusing on quality and equity in curriculum and instruction.

Charles Westrin is the Vice-President of Higher Ed & Careers @ Pearson. He works with executives and teams across Product, Sales & Technology to understand, evaluate, articulate and execute the digital transformation strategy of the business.

Erik Jacobson is Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at Indiana University. His research focuses on how mathematics teachers develop knowledge and beliefs—including those related to equity and diversity—that support effective instruction.

past members of the gma team

Katharine Sawrey received her PhD in Math Education, and her research revolves around teaching and learning algebra. As a postdoctoral research scientist at WPI, she helped lead the effort of developing initial content for user studies of GM. She also worked with schools and districts to implement the project.

Taylyn Hulse received her MS in Learning Sciences and Technologies at WPI in 2019. She helped lead the effort of designing the research-based task types and also worked with schools and districts to implement the research components of the project. She is now a UX Designer at Google.