Rate My Professor Gina Navoa Svarovsky

Svarovsky’s research examines how youth and families from underrepresented populations develop engineering interests, skills, knowledge, and ways of thinking through authentic engineering activities in formal and informal learning environments, with a focus on early childhood engineering education and family-level STEM interest development. She has conducted research and led large-scale evaluations for NSF-funded projects and the National Informal STEM Education Network. Notable publications include “Family values, parent roles, and life challenges: Parent reflections on the factors shaping long-term interest development for young children and their families participating in an early childhood engineering program” (Science Education, 2022), “Understanding Early Childhood Engineering Interest Development as a Family-Level Systems Phenomenon: Findings from the Head Start on Engineering Project” (Journal of Pre-college Engineering Education Research, 2020), “Exploring moments of agency for girls during an Engineering Activity” (International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology, 2018), “SodaConstructing knowledge through exploratoids” (Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2007), and “Epistemic Network Analysis: A prototype for 21st Century assessment of learning” (International Journal of Learning and Media, 2009). She has received the Spencer Doctoral Research Fellowship, Future Faculty Partner award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Teaching Academy, and Notre Dame Scholar honors. Svarovsky has held leadership roles such as Associate Editor of the Journal of Pre-college Engineering Education Research (2018-2022), Executive Committee Member of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education (2018-2022), and Co-director of the National Data Project for Catholic Schools (2017-2021). As principal or co-principal investigator, she has secured NSF grants including REACH-ECE ($478,805, 2019-2023) and Head Start on Engineering ($738,505, 2019-2023).