Dr Alena Moon

UNT Faculty Profile Link

Research Group Website: 

Dr. Alena Moon received her B.S. from the John Brown University, and then her Ph.D. from Purdue University. After finishing her Postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, she joined the Department of Chemistry at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Moon joined UNT in 2024.

Research Area:

• Chemistry Education

Research:

• Scientific Argumentation
• Science Practices
• Learning Progressions

National calls for educational reform have identified the absence of explicit instruction of scientific practices in the science classroom. The absence is problematic as it leaves students with a potentially limited scientific understanding because of a lack of understanding of how scientific knowledge is constructed. For this reason, our group seeks to characterize how students participate in a key knowledge-generating scientific practice: engaging in argument from evidence. The aim of this inquiry is to develop instructional materials that provide students with opportunities to construct arguments. In order to effectively scaffold the development of students’ abilities, we are developing analytical tools that can quickly and efficiently characterize the quality of students’ arguments.