CEDAR LAB
Creativity, Education, Affect, and Rest Lab
Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Learning Sciences and Technologies
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Welcome to the CEDAR Lab!
The CEDAR Lab conducts research on creative thinking in mathematics, negative affect in the classroom, and the role of wakeful rest periods for creativity, learning, and student wellbeing. Our lab uses experimental methods, observational data, learning analytics, and qualitative methodologies in an effort to improve STEM education and better understand students' experiences in education.
News
March 2023
A paper Stacy collaborated on about math anxiety was used in the National Council of Teachers in Mathematics' new stance on Procedural Flexibility in Math
Paul received an honorable mention for the Ford Fellowship, congratulations!
Aaron and Stacy hosted a workshop for the Center for Open Science's educational unconference on licensing and copyright
Aaron and Stacy hosted an open science workshop at Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK) Conference
Kirk, Andrew, Ashish, and Aaron published and presented three papers at LAK!
Aaron's paper was nominated for best paper at LAK, congratulations!
February 2023
A paper Stacy collaborated on in the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education is now one of the most-read articles of the journal.
December 2023
A paper Stacy collaborated on in Educational Psychologist is now one of the most-read articles of the journal.
October 2022
A new article was published in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice
September 2022
A new article was published in Anxiety, Stress, & Coping
Congratulations to Paul Pacheco for being awarded an Honorary Undergraduate Scholar (HUS) Award awarded by the New England Psychological Association!
July 2022
Stacy is a part of a research team that was awarded an IES grant to replicate interleaving findings in mathematics
June 2022
Chayanne's research with Dr. Craig Wills was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education
A new article was published in the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education
WPI has awarded the CEDAR lab and collaborators with a diversity seed grant to study experiences of rest among transfer students, international students, and first-generation college students at WPI.
April 2022-- Congratulations to Paul for an Honorable Mention for the 2022 WPI Provost Award for his honor's thesis on math anxiety and timed exams!
April 2022-- Congratulations to Vy Ngo for a successful Master's Thesis presentation!
October 2021-- Stacy was awarded a Women's Young Investigator Fellowship presented by the Women's Impact Network at WPI.
September 2021-- Stacy was on a critical conversations panel on Science & Creativity for WPI’s Arts and Sciences week, talking about the role of creativity in arts and science. Click here for a recap of the event!
August 2021 -- Alena Egorova, Andrew McReynolds, and Kirk Vanacore join the CEDAR lab as incoming Ph.D. graduate students! Welcome!
August 2021 -- Stacy is a part of a research team that was collectively awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to study common errors students make on short-answer math questions. (PI - Andrew Lan, MIT, $374,775; Co-PI Neil Heffernan, Co-PI Stacy Shaw, WPI, $239,307; PI- Cristina Heffernan, ASSITments Foundation, $235,639).
June 2021 -- Chayanne joins the CEDAR Lab as Lab Manager, welcome!
April 2021 -- Stacy participated in the faculty lightning talks for WPI’s Arts and Science Week, a recording can be found here.