The Walsh Lab:
Where Oceans, Education and Justice Connect

About the Walsh Lab

In our research group at San José State University, we explore questions related to understanding climate changes and how we can support all communities in equitably adapting to and mitigating impacts of those changes in their everyday lives.

Lines of work include science education to support just learning and responses to climate change, and paleoclimatological studies in the ocean sciences.

People

Elizabeth (Elly) Walsh, Principal Investigator

Email: elly.walsh@sjsu.edu

Elly Walsh is an associate professor with a joint appointment in Science Education and Meteorology and Climate Science at San José State University. She received an M.S. Oceanography and a Ph.D. Learning Sciences from the University of Washington, and has experience both as an ocean scientist and science education researcher. In fact, she is currently working on her second PhD in Ocean Sciences with Christina Ravelo and Pratigya Polissar at UCSC!

Her education work focuses on how youth participate in climate change related activities across the contexts of their lives, addressing issues of social justice and equity in science education, and exploring the role of politics and social values in climate science learning. Recent work has included the use of art and narrative to support learner identity and agency in climate change, and participatory action research to foreground community voice and power in designing equitable climate change responses. Her work has been published in Nature Climate Change, the Journal of the Learning Sciences and Environmental Education Research amongst others, and has been funded by local governments and the National Science Foundation.

Her ocean sciences work focuses on understanding the climate and carbon cycle of the past. She is currently working on analysis of an IODP core from the Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean, to better understand the climate transitions of the late Miocene (5-8 Million Years ago).

Current Group Members

Sara Brown, MS Science Education

Eden Conghuyen, MS Science Education/Science SSCP

Eileen Lindsey, MS Science Education/Science SSCP

Danielle Olenak, MS Science Education/Science SSCP

Past Group Members

Andrea England, MA Science Education '21, "Student Retention Through the Lens of Engagement in an After School Computer Coding and Robotics Club"

Kate Sover, MA Science Education '20, "Climate Change Education Must be Education for Justice: Historical and Conceptual Foundations for Centering Equity in Climate Change Education"

Anne Cassell, MA Science Education '18 "No! Not That One! Competing Goals, Conflict, and Negotiation, Among Group Members at Two Science Museum Exhibits"

Christina MacMillan, MA Science Education '18 "Design of a feedback tool and online resource for scientists in K-12 outreach"

Julie McVay, MA Science Education '18 "Imaginative Space and Real Identities in School Science: Girls and Positioning in Science in the Context of Superheroes"

Liza Smullen, MA Science Education '18, "Identity and Agency in Middle School Youth’s Climate Science Digital Storytelling"

Jennifer Miller, MA Science Education '17, "Comparison of student engagement with project based learning and pod (cross curricular) classes"

Jessica Peak, MA Science Education '16, "When Professional Development Ends: Teacher Agency in Project Based Learning Implementation."

Ferdinand Cadiente, MA Science Education '15, "Collaborative Concept Mapping with Technology and its Impact on Learning in Environmental Science"

Derek Jenkins, BS Meteorology, '15

Alyssa Vales, BS Meteorology, '15

Publications

Walsh, E.M. (Ed), Forthcoming 2021. Justice and Equity in Climate Change Education: Exploring Social and Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change Education.

An edited volume coming from Routledge in 2021, featuring the work of group members Kate Sover & Liza Smullen!

Walsh, E. M. (2020). Authoring Imaginative Selves Through Digital Narratives in the Science Classroom. In Narrating Childhoods: Knowledge, Place and Materiality (K. Reilly, L. Moran & B. Brady, Eds). Palgrave Macmillan

Walsh, E.M. & Cordero, E. (2019) Climate action filmmaking to support youth science expertise and environmental identities. Environmental Education Research. doi: 10.1080/13504622.2019.1569206

Walsh, E.M. and Tsurusaki, B. (2018). “Thank you for being Republican”: Case studies of high school students negotiating political and scientific experiences with climate change. Journal of the Learning Sciences. 27(1), 8-48. doi: 10.1080/10508406.2017.1362563

Walsh E.M., Smullen, E. & Cordero, E. (2018). "My Favorite Part is When We Tell the Truth": Identity and Agency in Middle School Youth's Climate Science Digital Storytelling. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. London, UK.

Walsh, E.M. (2018). Being, Becoming and Sometimes Leaving: Longitudinal Trajectories of Climate Scientists in Education. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. London, UK.

Walsh, E.M. (2017). Joint Media Engagement. In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Out-of-School Learning. K.Pepper, Ed. SAGE Publishing: Thousand Oaks, CA.

Walsh, E.M. and Cassone McGowan, V. (2016). ‘Let your data tell a story:’ Climate change experts and students navigating disciplinary argumentation in the classroom. International Journal of Science Education. 39 (1), 20-43. doi: 10.1080/09500693.2016.1264033

Walsh, E.M., Jenkins, D., and Cordero, E. (2016) The Promise of an Energy Tracker Curriculum for Promoting Home-School Connections and Youth Agency in Climate Action. Journal of Sustainability Education. 11.

Walsh, E.M. and Dominguez, K. (2016) The Lonesome Penguin: Unraveling youth voice, agency and identity in climate action filmmaking. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. Singapore.

Walsh, E.M. and Cassone McGowan, V. (2016) Let your data tell a story: Disciplinary expert feedback locates engaging in argumentation from evidence in a holistic, socially-situated system of disciplinary practices. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences. Singapore.

Hartley, M. K, Vine, S., Walsh, E.M., Avrantinis, S., Daub, G.W. & Cave, R.J. (2015) Comparison of Relative Activation Energies Obtained by Density Functional Theory and the Random Phase Approximation for Several Claisen Rearrangements. Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 120(8), 1486-1496.

Walsh, E.M. and Tsurusaki, B. (2014). Social Controversy Belongs in the Climate Science Classroom. Nature Climate Change. 4(4), 259-263. doi: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2143

Walsh, E.M.; Ingalls, A.E. and Keil, R.G. (2008) Sources and transport of terrestrial organic matter in Vancouver Island fjords and the Vancouver-Washington margin: A multiproxy approach using d13Corg, lignin phenols, and the ether lipid BIT index. Limnology and Oceanography, 53(3), 1025-1039.

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