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.

Erick Negron

Erick joined the Randles Research Group in May 2024 as an undergraduate researcher. His work will focus on create data collection protocols for eye tracking glasses in the context of chemistry. These protocols will be used in test, classroom and lab-based studies. Erick is originally from Jacksonville and earnt a double major in Chemistry and Psychology. He is a member of the UCF Esports team for Call of Duty and was team manager for over 2 seasons. He aims to graduate in Fall 2029.

Jonathan Dang

Jonathan joined the Randles Research Group in August 2025. His work explores the interplay between perfectionism and anxiety in students enrolled in general and organic chemistry, and the potential links between motivational strategies that contribute to students feelings on the importance of learning and beliefs in their self about learning.

Jonathan Dang is a sophomore majoring in Biomedical Sciences with aspirations of becoming a pharmacist. Outside of academics, he has a passion for music and has been playing the piano for over a decade!

Hunter Engh

Hunter joined Dr. Randles Research group in June 2025. His work focuses on the assessment, implementation, and interpretation of informational literacy in K-16 science and chemistry curriculum in the United States. The aim is to improve and understand the state of information literacy in schools around the country.

He aims to graduate with his bachelors in fall of 2025.

Elisa Guerrero

Elisa joined the Randles Research Group in May 2024. Her work explores the development of data collection protocols to understand anxiety in GTAs and ULAs. Currently she is working to develop GSR data collection protocols for GTAs and ULAs instructing in chemistry lab settings

Elisa is a studying for a degree in health sciences on the pre-dental track. She enjoys creating small clay crafts to practice her dexterity and volunteering to give back to her community. After graduating from UCF, she plans to attend dental school.

Sun Fardeen

Sun joined the Randles Research Group in May 2025. His work focuses on prompt engineering for the development of isomorphic problem banks using generative AI platforms

Sun is studying for a degree in physics, and is currently training to be a pilot. His aim is to become a qualified pilot for the commercial aviation sector.

Jana Ibrahim

Jana joined the Randles Research Group in February 2024. Her work focuses on the user experience of students using an AI academic advising chatbot and the development of prompts for the creation of isomorphic problems using generative AI platforms.

Jana is studying for a degree in physics. She loves traveling, reading, and horse riding. Jana aims to graduate in Spring 2025.

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.

Sarah Loza

Sarah joined the Randles Research Group in January 2025 after transferring to UCF, as a sophomore majoring in biomedical sciences, pre med track. Her work mainly focuses on interviewing students to develop AI tools that can provide adequate support to students seeking guidance in  academic advising and career development.

Sarah is an aspiring anesthesiologist. She enjoys working out and running in the mornings. Her go to shake afterwards is a granola peanut butter banana shake. Sarah intends to graduate from the College of Medicine in spring 2027.

Jamy Parrilla

Jamy joined the Randles Research Group in September 2024. Her work focuses on conducting think aloud interviews with students to better understand the correlation between students’ mental health and chemistry courses. 

Jamy is studying for a degree in clinical psychology, intending to graduate in 2027. Once graduated, she plans to attend medical school to either become a neurosurgeon or psychiatrist.

Alex Ride

Alex joined the Randles Research Group in August 2025. Their work focuses on understanding student mental health through survey metrics.

Besides a passion for chemistry, they really enjoy teaching! Their goal is to become a chemistry college professor, and enjoy their hobbies like reading and gaming!

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.

Sarah Bush

Professor, Lockheed Martin Eminent Scholar Chair, Director of Lockheed Martin/UCF Mathematics and Science Academy

Our collaborative work focuses on K-12 teachers, curriculum development and professional learning in STEM, with particular focus on multiple literacy framework, transdisciplinary perspectives, and holistic workforce development.

NSF Awards: EDU 2225185, EDU 2050606

ZhongZhou Chen

Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida

Our collaborative work focuses on the use and functionalization of AI tools to improve education settings. This includes the development of academic advising tools and the creation of isomorphic problem creation protocols. We collaborate by implementing an annual workshop for university and college educators to implement AI tools in their Chemistry, Physics and Math classrooms.

NSF Awards: EES 2421299

Franziska Lang

Managing Director at Experimenta at Das Science Center Heilbronn, Germany

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

Maria Langworthy

Founder and Managing Partner at CampusEvolve

Maria Langworthy is a global leader accelerating innovation in education. In her two decades of leadership roles at tech startups, Microsoft, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she has developed innovative learning design models, spearheaded new products for Microsoft Education, and developed a global community of education systems collaborating on using data and AI to improve learning.

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

Michelle Taub

Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida

Our collaborative work focuses self regulation learning practices of students and faculty in various STEM contexts including problem design and creation, AI and educational technologies and informal learning settings

NSF Awards: EES 2421299

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.

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.

Adrienne Evans

Adrienne joined the Randles Research Group in September 2024. Her work includes conducting semi-structured interviews with the purpose of providing a more thorough understanding of the correlations between anxiety and education.

Adrienne graduated in the Summer 2025 with a degree in Biochemistry and intends to apply to Medical School to become a certified Dermatologist. She enjoys spending time with her eyelash crested gecko and helping others learn mathematics as a UCF learning assistant.

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.

Autumn LeBleu

Autumn joined the Randles Research Group in October 2023 and graduated in Spring 2025 with a BS in Chemistry

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.

Tracy Pham

Tracy joined the Randles Research Group in May 2024 as a summer intern. Her work currently investigates student experiences with anxiety and test anxiety in large enrollment courses by analyzing student reflective interview data.

Tracy graduated in Summer 2024 with BS in Forensic Science

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.

Evan Rodman

Evan joined the Randles Research Group in May 2024 as a summer intern. His work currently focuses on creating data collection protocols when using Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) equipment as part of the Test Anxiety Sub-team. These protocols will be used to better understand student anxiety when presented with visual representations of scientific phenomena (e.g. Citric Acid Cycle)

Evan graduated in Summer 2024 with a BS in Forensic Science

Chanelle Rolle

Chanelle joined the Randles Research Group in May 2024. Her work focuses on developing latent class statistical models to understand the presence of test anxiety in General Chemistry and its links to intrinsic, extrinsic and task value characteristics.

Chanelle was born in South Florida and is studying a major in Forensics Chemistry. She loves reading, analyzing poetry, and playing video games. Chanelle graduated in Fall 2024 with the goal to become a Medical Examiner.

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

Jaden Salameh

Jaden joined the Randles Research Group in August 2024. Her work explores the links between the feels of perfectionism, motivation, and test anxiety in STEM courses in Chemistry, Physics and Forensics.

Jaden graduated in Spring 2025 with a BS in clinical psychology. After graduating from UCF, she plans to become a mental health councilor, focusing on disadvantaged children (e.g. children in homeless shelters).

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