Christina Schwarz is a professor of teacher education at Michigan State University. She focuses on promoting equitable, inquiry-oriented, and constructivist learning environments from preschool through college. Her research involves collaborating with students and teachers to develop an understanding of and engagement in scientific practices such as scientific modeling. Schwarz also investigates beginniteachers'rs' noticing and responding practices to create equitable spaces for scientific sense-making. Her interests extend to technology and computation, science curriculum development, science teaching and learning in urban schools, and social/cultural practices in the classroom.
Schwarz has been a Co-Principle Investigator for NSF projects such as CT4EDU and StudyiStudents'ts’ Mechanistic Explanations, and was previously the Principal Investigator for the NSF grant Studying How Beginning Elementary Teachers Notice and Respond to Scientific Sense-making. She has contributed to NSF-funded projects, including Supporting Scientific Practices in Elementary and Middle School Classrooms, Learning Progression for Scientific Modeling, Head Start on Science, and Modeling Hydrological Systems in Elementary Science. Schwarz received the MSU College of Education Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award in 2005 and was an associate editor for the Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Her co-edited book, Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices, was published in 2017 by NSTA Press. She also served as a faculty mentor for the 2017 NARST Abell Institute in Taiwan.
Christina Schwarz earned her Ph.D. in Education in Math, Science, and Technology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1998, her M.A. in Education in Math, Science, and Technology from the same institution, and her B.S. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990.
