

Education
PhD in Engineering Education, Tufts University, 2017
MS in Civil & Environmental Engineering, MIT, 2012
BS in Ocean Engineering, Texas A&M University, 2008
Biography
Dr. Chelsea Andrews was a postdoctoral researcher at the Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) and University of Massachusetts-Boston where her primary research involves investigating children's engagement in engineering design through in-depth case study analysis. She is now a research assistant professor at Tufts. She completed her PhD in the Tufts STEM Education program where she looked at how elementary students engage in physically testing their designs, how they handle the inevitable failures that occur during this testing, and how adults can productively support them through these failure experiences. Prior to switching to education research, Chelsea studied environmental fluid mechanics and coastal engineering, specifically looking at wave-current boundary layer interactions. Chelsea lives near Somerville with her husband and two young sons, and in her spare time enjoys playing outdoors, board games and puzzles, and singing with children.
CEEO Responsibilities:
Chelsea works with Dr. Kristen Wendell and Dr. Tejaswini Dalvi (assistant professor, UMASS-Boston) on the ConnecTions in the Making project, studying student engagement in community-connected, integrated science and engineering curriculum units in diverse elementary classrooms. She also teaches in the Teacher Engineering Education Program (TEEP).
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Wendell, K., C. J. Andrews, C. J., & P. Paugh (in press). Supporting Knowledge Construction in Elementary Engineering Design. Science Education.
- Andrews, C.J., K. Wendell, T. Dalvi, N. Batrouny, F. Rahman, & R. Londhe (2019, June). Revising ConnecTions in the Making to Improve Equity and Sustainability. Paper to be presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Toronto, Canada.
- Wendell, K., Andrews, C.J., & Paugh, P. (2018, June). Multimodal engineering design notebooks and meta-representational competence. Poster presented at the International Conference on the Learning Sciences, London, UK.
- Andrews, C. J. (2017). Elementary Students' Engagement in Failure-prone Engineering Design Tasks. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Tufts University, Medford, MA.
- Wendell, K. & C. J. Andrews,(2017, April). Multimedia Notebook Cards in Support of Engineering Design Practices and Disciplinary Discourse in Elementary School. Presented at the 90th Annual International Conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), San Antonio, TX.
- Wendell, K. & C. J. Andrews,(2017, June). Elementary Student Engagement with Digital Engineering Notebook Cards (Fundamental). Proceedings of the 124th Annual American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference & Exposition, Columbus, OH.
- Andrews, C. J. and Wendell, K. (2016, August). Designing a digital notebooking tool to support disciplinary Discourse in elementary engineering, Presented at the 3rd P-12 Design and Engineering Summit, Chicago, IL.
- Andrews, C. J. (2016, June). Failure and idea evolution in an elementary engineering workshop, Proceedings of the 123rd Annual American Society of Engineering Education Conference, New Orleans, LA.
- Andrews, C. J. (2016, April). "Can I see if this fails?": Positioning during an elementary engineering design task, Poster session presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Washington, D.C.
- Wilkerson, M. H., C. Andrews, Y. Shaban, L. Vasiliki, & B. Gravel. (2016). What's the Technology For? Teacher Attention and Pedagogical Goals in a Modeling-Focused Professional Development Workshop. Journal of Science Teacher Education, (), 1-23.
- Wilkerson-Jerde, M. H., B. E. Gravel, C. Andrews, & Y. Shaban. (2015, April). Teacher attention and pedagogical goals in a computational modeling-focused professional development workshop. Presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Chicago, IL.
- Andrews, C. J. (2014). Physical testing in an elementary engineering camp, Proceedings of 121st Annual American Society of Engineering Education Conference, Indianapolis, IN.
- Andrews, C. J. (2014). Importance of failure in children's Engineering design tasks, Presented at the 44th Annual Meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, San Francisco, CA.