{"id":56,"date":"2019-05-28T13:40:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T17:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/?page_id=56"},"modified":"2025-09-12T13:58:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:58:39","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"heading-underline\" style=\"text-align: left\">Welcome to the Group!<\/h2>\n<h3>Who Are We?<\/h3>\n<p>Dr. Saitta&#8217;s group is a dedicated team of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researchers in UCF&#8217;s Department of Chemistry. We work together to contribute to the advancement of chemistry education &#8211; primarily at the postsecondary level. Our research is focused on the extent to which professional development interventions such collaborative action research, rehearsal-based teaching simulations, and learning communities elicit change in instructor attitudes, beliefs, and practices. Our work is grounded with the understanding that quality instruction begins with equity and accessibility.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<div class=\" col-12 col-sm-6 col-lg-2\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t \t\t\t<div class=\" col-12 col-sm-6 col-lg-4\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_717\" style=\"max-width: 888px;\" class=\"figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"888\" height=\"664\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid w-100 wp-image-717 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Lab-Picture-2023-4-3.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people standing in front of a tree.\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Lab-Picture-2023-4-3.jpg 888w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Lab-Picture-2023-4-3-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Lab-Picture-2023-4-3-768x574.jpg 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 888px) 100vw, 888px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 888px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 888\/664;\" \/><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Saitta Group 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t \t\t\t<div class=\" col-12 col-sm-6 col-lg-4\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_1041\" style=\"max-width: 1891px;\" class=\"figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1891\" height=\"1418\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid w-100 wp-image-1041 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2025\/09\/Saitta-Group-April-2025.jpg\" alt=\"Saitta group picture April 2025\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2025\/09\/Saitta-Group-April-2025.jpg 1891w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2025\/09\/Saitta-Group-April-2025-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2025\/09\/Saitta-Group-April-2025-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2025\/09\/Saitta-Group-April-2025-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2025\/09\/Saitta-Group-April-2025-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1891px) 100vw, 1891px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1891px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1891\/1418;\" \/><figcaption class=\"figure-caption\">Saitta Group 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n<h3>What is Chemistry Education Research?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<div class=\" col-12 col-sm-6 col-lg-8\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n<p>Chemistry Education Research (CER) combines the chemistry discipline\u2019s perspectives and priorities with the theoretical frameworks and research methodologies from human learning and cognition (Lohmann &amp; Froyd, 2011).\u00a0 CER is grounded in theory, investigated through methodologies exhibiting strong experimental design and produce verifiable and generalizable results. Our lab specifically addresses instructor belief and practice, the factors that affect learning, and the methods for evaluating that learning.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\" col-12 col-sm-6 col-lg-4\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1416\" class=\"img-fluid alignnone wp-image-620 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Dr.-Saitta-and-Dr.-Chini-Close-Up-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two people talking and laughing\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Dr.-Saitta-and-Dr.-Chini-Close-Up-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Dr.-Saitta-and-Dr.-Chini-Close-Up-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Dr.-Saitta-and-Dr.-Chini-Close-Up-1024x566.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Dr.-Saitta-and-Dr.-Chini-Close-Up-768x425.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Dr.-Saitta-and-Dr.-Chini-Close-Up-1536x849.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/02\/Dr.-Saitta-and-Dr.-Chini-Close-Up-2048x1133.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 2560px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 2560\/1416;\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Group! Who Are We? Dr. Saitta&#8217;s group is a dedicated team of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researchers in UCF&#8217;s Department of Chemistry. We work together to contribute to the advancement of chemistry education &#8211; primarily at the postsecondary level. Our research is focused on the extent to which professional development interventions such [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-56","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>About Us - Saitta CER Lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dr. Saitta&#039;s group is a dedicated team of undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty from UCF&#039;s Department of Chemistry.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/chemistry\/saittalab\/about\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About Us - 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