Research Team

Principle Investigator

Christopher Randles has taught at almost all levels of the K-16 education sector. He received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry with Forensic Science and Toxicology, teaching license for secondary science and Ph.D. in chemistry education under the mentorship of Professor Tina Overton from the University of Hull, UK. He moved to the United States in 2016 to take a postdoc at Purdue University under Professor Roy Tasker and later Professor George Bodner, before becoming an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida.

Matilynn Lam

Matilynn joined the Randles Research Group in August 2022 as a research assistant, before transitioning to a graduate student in January 2023. Her work focuses on the interpretation, implementation and assessment of information literacy in K-16 science and chemistry education. She additionally works with Dr Julie Donnelly probing at students understanding of visual representations in the context of STEAM education. Matilynn will sit her candidacy in Spring 2025 and expects to graduate in Fall 2027

Noor Alaraj

Noor joined the Randles Research Group in August 2023, as a sophomore majoring in health sciences, pre-med track. She is conducting interviews with students to better understand the presence of test anxiety in students studying lower-class division chemistry classes. 

Noor is an aspiring physician, with the intention of becoming an OBGYN. She enjoys running and runs half marathons. Her favorite snack is an acai bowl. Noor intends to graduate from the College of Health Professions and Sciences in Spring 2026.

Han Le

Han joined the Randles Research Group in October 2023. His work explores the international perspectives and practices of information literacy in the context of K-16 science and chemistry classrooms and curriculum.

Han is originally from Sarasota, Florida and is studying Biomedical Sciences with a Health Science minor. His favorite food is Ramen. Once he graduates in Spring 2026 Han plans to apply for medical school, ideally in Florida.

Jared Breakall

Assistant Professor at Snow College, Utah

Our collaborative work focuses on assessment writing professional development for faculty and Graduate Teaching Assistants, understanding the assessment writing practices of Chemistry faculty, and the implementation of information literacy practices in chemistry classrooms at rural colleges.

Kathleen Jeffery

Postdoctoral Assistant at the University of New Hampshire

Our collaborative work focuses on the use of Multi-literacies framework for developing Chemistry and Biology Curriculum across K-16 education settings.

Franziska Lang

Program Coordinator for STEM Education at Experimenta at Das Science Center Heilbronn, Germany

Our collaborative work focuses on trans-cultural experiences in learning in formal and informal education environments.

Elijah Roth

Assistant Professor at Azusa Pacific, California

Our collaborative work focuses on student motivation for flipped large enrollment general chemistry classrooms, professional development programs for Undergraduate Learning Assistants (ULAs) and Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTAs), and the use of information literacy practices in higher education classrooms

Barbara Chiu

Barbara joined the Randles Research Group in Fall 2019 to conduct her honors thesis. Frequently in problem solving research we assign labels to participant groups that equate expertise to their identity (e.g. expert vs novice studies). The focus of Barbara’s research is to probe at problem solving approaches of freshman undergraduates students solving open-ended problems and establish characteristics that might equate to expertise. Barbara is attending FIU medical school, and started in Fall 2022.

Ethan Cote

Ethan joined the Randles Research Group in the Spring 2023. His research focused on the reflective practice of undergraduate learning assistants under a Vitruvian Model paradigm, and the use of Bibliometric methodologies to understand research literature communities. His work has led to two spin off projects investigating the reflective practice of GTAs and the use of Bibliometric methodologies in the construction of systematic literature review methods. Ethan graduated in Spring 2023

Leila Elhail

Leila joined the Randles Research Group in the Fall 2020. Her research focuses on the use of visual literacies to support and demonstrate transferability of organic chemistry concepts to concepts in Biochemistry. Currently, her focus is dedicated towards the transfer of external representations of hydrolysis reactions between organic chemistry and biochemistry. Leila graduated in Fall 2021.

Stefan Irby

Stefan joined the research group in September 2019 from Purdue University where he previously worked evaluating CURE curriculum as part of the Visualization in Biochemistry Education (VIBE) research group. His research focus at the University of Central Florida focused on two projects. The first project focused on the approaches used by participants to solve open-ended problems and probing at what characteristics equate to expertise. The second project focused on the development and application of methodologies and metrics to probe at threshold concepts and multiple literacies in chemistry and biology K-16 curriculum. He know works at Microsoft in their Teams Development team as a UX researcher.

Astry Jimenez

Astry joined the Randles Research Group in Fall 2020. Her research focuses understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on how instructors and GTAs create professional relationships with their students during remote instruction. Astry currently works at Johnson Matthey as a Kilo Chemist, but continues to work with our group during her free time. Astry graduated in the Summer 2021

Emmanuel Jimenez

​Emmanuel joined the Randles Research Group in the Fall 2020. His research focuses on using classical test theory frameworks to determine the effects of item writing flaws in multiple choice questions have on examination statistics as well developing metrics for evaluating the ‘quality’ of student generated assessment items. Emmanuel graduated in Fall 2021

Yvette Kirkland

Yvette joined the Randles Research Group in Summer 2020. Her research focused on the use of document co-citation analysis to analyze the underlying architecture for how Information Literacy in Chemistry is reported in published journal articles. Yvette graduated in the Fall 2020 and now works in the microbiology department at the University of Michigan Hospital with an interest in pursuing a career as a pathologists assistant.

Kaitlyn Medina

Kaitlyn joined the Randles Research Group in Spring 2022 as an undergraduate research student, before transitioning to a research assistant in December 2022. Her work focused on undergraduate and graduate student assessment writing practices in the context of learner sourcing communities.

Juna Purifoy

Juna joined the Randles Research Group in Fall 2020. Her research focuses on understanding how the identity of under-represented groups influences the decision making process about studying STEM majors. Juna aims to attend Pharmacy Graduate School in the Fall 2022.

Draven Ruiz

Draven joined the Randles Research Group in August 2023. His work looks at survey metric data to understand the presence of and contributions to test anxiety in lower division chemistry courses. Presently he is developing statistical models to explain connections between intrinsic motivation, perfectionism and test anxiety.

Draven graduated in Summer 2024 with a BS in Biochemistry

Kevin Wee

Kevin was a PhD student at Purdue University who worked on developing methodologies to evaluate the saliency of animated external representations. Kevin graduated from Purdue University in Summer 2021. He now works as a Senior Analyst at Discover in Chicago

Gavin Winslow

Gavin joined the Randles Research Group in October 2022. His work is exploring the use of biophysical data through the use of galvanic skin response to identify stress indicators when students are presented with biochemistry visual stimuli. His work seeks to link working memory functionality and field dependency with biochemistry visual stimuli, and understand how visual stimuli can induce stress responses. Gavin graduated in Spring 2024