
Meng-Yang (Matt) Wu received a BS in Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013. By 2016, he obtained his MS in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. During his master’s program, he worked with Dr. Sandrine Berniolles as a Senior Teaching Assistant, supporting dozens of teaching assistants and hundreds of general chemistry laboratory students. He also began his chemistry education journey with Dr. Thomas Bussey by investigating the features of a voltaic cell representation to which students would attend using the Three Phase Single Interview Technique, Variation Theory, an eye tracker, and a LiveScribe pen. Eventually, he obtained his PhD from Purdue University in 2020, where he had worked with Dr. Minjung Ryu to understand modeling and intertextuality with pre-service teachers and graduate teaching assistants’ identities-in-practice. Specifically, he developed and established a conceptual framework that leverages good game design principles to understand the affordances of productive failure within the instructional laboratory. As a postdoctoral researcher at Miami University from 2020-2023, he worked with Dr. Ellen Yezierski and Dr. Roy Tasker on the VisChem Institute, an intensive summer professional development program for in-service high school chemistry teachers. Together, they have contributed new insights on reimaging chemistry lesson planning, pedagogical conceptual change, teacher-teacher feedback, and the historicity of chemistry pedagogy. Currently, Dr. Wu is interested in understanding the nature of chemistry teaching practices, micro-moments of teacher-student interaction, and the theories that drive chemistry reasoning, sensemaking, and engagement for all. He endeavors to repurpose the utility of chemistry knowledge for world readiness and civic engagement, appealing to both STEM and non-STEM majors.