Dr. Becca Price fulfilled the dream of her four-year-old self to become a paleontologist. Once she began her faculty career, however, she realized how little her students understood about how evolution actually works. That inspired her to switch research directions to focus on how students learn science and how early career scientists learn how to teach with evidence-based practices. Since 2011, she has run the Science Teaching Experience Program, which has the mission to engage a diverse pool of early career scholars at the University of Washington and affiliate institutions in a closely mentored apprenticeship to learn how to teach scientifically with inclusive, demonstrably effective, student-centered pedagogies. To date, she has mentored 131 postdocs through STEP-WISE. As a professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell, Dr. Price teaches students to conduct scientific research and encourages them to think about how they’ll use their college and other life experiences in a way that is gratifying to them after graduation. She still dreams about fossils.
