Contact Information Phone: (773) 995-2172 Email: msabella@csu.edu Office: SCI-220C

Education B.S., State University of New York at Binghamton Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park Postdoctoral, University of Washington, Seattle

Hobbies and Interests Biking, frying fish, building furniture

Research Interests

My work in Physics Education and Physics Education Research involves systematic studies of the effectiveness of innovative learning spaces. I'm interested in the resources that students from urban institutions bring to the STEM classroom. One way to create innovative learning spaces is to leverage the experience and expertise of peer mentors. Part of my research focuses on how peer mentors can be collaborative partners in education reform and curriculum development.

Representative Presentations & Publications

Publications

• Little, A. J., Curry, G., Smith, E., Whitehorn, J., & Sabella, M. S. (2024). Designing for Proudness. The Physics Teacher, 62(3), 168-173.
• Sabella, M.S. and Roberts, J., Creative Astronomy: Broadening the scope of an online general education course by leveraging an authentic collaboration between Learning Assistant and Instructor (The Physics Teacher, 2023 61(1), 43-48) https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0080890
• Emenike, M. E., Schick, C. P., Van Duzor, A. G., Sabella, M. S., Hendrickson, S. M., & Langdon, L. S. (2020). Leveraging Undergraduate Learning Assistants to Engage Students during Remote Instruction: Strategies and Lessons Learned from Four Institutions. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9), 2502-2511.
• Price, E., Van Duzor, A. G., deLeone, C., Sabella, M.S (2019). Faculty-driven two-year college and four-year institution partnerships, Journal of College Science Teaching, 48 (6), 20-27
• Sabella, M.S., Mardis K. L., Sanders, N., & Little, A. (2017). The Chi-Sci Scholars Program: Developing Community and Challenging Racially Inequitable Measures of Success at a Minority-Serving Institution on Chicago’s Southside. The Physics Teacher, 55(6), 350-355.
• Davenport, F., Amezcua, F., X Sabella, M.S., and Van Duzor, A. G., Exploring the Underlying Factors in Learning Assistant - Faculty Partnerships, 2017 PERC Proceedings [Cincinnati, OH, July 26-27, 2017], edited by L. Ding, A. Traxler, and Y. Cao, doi:10.1119/perc.2017.pr.021.

 Presentations

• Mel Sabella (2024, April), Leveraging the LA Model to build inclusive physics and STEM learning spaces that leverage student expertise and voice, presented virtually to the Physics Faculty Online Learning Community (FOLC)
• Mel Sabella, Laurie Langdon, Mary Emenike, Andrea Van Duzor (2023, June), Leveraging student expertise through the Learning Assistant Model to build inclusive STEM learning spaces, Invited Keynote at the 2023 LSAMP PI/PD Conference, Washington DC
• Mel Sabella, (2023, April), Building inclusive physics and STEM learning spaces that leverage community expertise, University of Kansas (Virtual, Invited Physics Colloquium)
• Mel Sabella, (2023, March), Building inclusive physics and STEM learning spaces that leverage student expertise and voice, Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (Invited Physics Colloquium)
• Anthony Escuadro and Mel Sabella (2023, March), Leveraging the TEAM UP factors to support students through instructional partnerships and transitions, The Organization for Physics at Two Year Colleges March Workshop. 

Memberships

• Member of American Association of Physics Teachers Exec. Board; AAPT Past President
• Vice Chair of AAPT DEI Council
• Member of American Physical Society
• Fellow of the American Physical Society
• Member of National Society of Black Physicists
• Past President, Chicago Section of the AAPT
• Member of Planning Committee for Chicago Symposium Series on Excellence in Teaching Mathematics and Science

Representative Grants & Funding 

• 2021 REsiliency and Capacity Expansion for Student Success (RECESS), Department of Education, Personnel, $587,729.
• 2021 Catalyst: Leveraging the community of learners to envision and support innovative and engaging instructional spaces, Partnership for College Completion, PI, $12,000.
• 2019 Louis Stokes STEM Pathways and Research Alliances: The Illinois LSAMP STEM Pathway and Research Alliance (ILSPRA), NSF (Senior Personnel)
• 2017 Connecting Physics and Engineering through a Modernization of the Advanced Laboratory Curriculum (CPE-MALC), NSF-IUSE, $298,727

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