Welcome to the NUMBERS research lab, where we are committed to supporting students in Navigating their Understandings, Motivation, and Behaviors through Education Research in STEM. The research lab is led by Dr. Ian Thacker, but our team of graduate student researchers truly make the magic happen.

Research Focus

Conceptual Change

Conceptual Change

We study how learners revise deeply held ideas through engagement with data, instruction, and engagement with interactive technology (see e.g., Thacker & Sinatra, 2022).

Attitude, Emotion, Beliefs

Motivation, Emotions, Beliefs, Biases

We study the interacting roles of motivation, affect, beliefs, and race/gender bias in STEM learning and conceptual change processes (see e.g., Thacker, Copur-Gencturk, & Cimpian, 2021; Thacker, 2024).

Motivation

Technology Design

We use design-based research methods to develop and evaluate learning technologies focused on data-interaction and a variety of STEM topics (see, e.g., Thacker et al., 2024; Thacker et al., 2025).

Data Literacy

Data Literacy

We study strategies for supporting students' in making meaning of data to better understand their world and advocate for change (see e.g., Thacker & Herrick, 2025).

Current Lab Members

Former Lab Members