Rate My Professor Noemi Waight

Noemi Waight serves as an Associate Professor of Science Education within the Department of Learning and Instruction at the University at Buffalo's Graduate School of Education. She holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction (Science Education) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2008), an MSc in the same field from the same institution (2004), and a BSc in Biology from the University of Belize (1998). Dr. Waight's research focuses on the design, development, implementation, adoption, and enactment of technological tools—such as computer-based models, bioinformatics tools, and databases—in the context of reform-based K-12 science teaching approaches. Guided by two complementary perspectives, her studies document the full cycle from tool design to classroom implementation and explore the theoretical underpinnings of the Nature of Technology (NoT) in K-12 science education, including factors and conditions that mediate technology enactment. Recent research extends to school leadership and STEM implementation in high-needs schools locally and internationally (Belize, Japan), as well as using Computer Science to foster scientific understanding among high school girls.

Throughout her career, Dr. Waight has been principal investigator or co-PI on several prestigious grants, including National Science Foundation awards for STEMcyclists: Black and Brown Youth Transforming Science and Engineering via Bikes ($2 million, 2024-2026), which engages Buffalo youth in hands-on STEM via cycling; RAPID: Co-Developing a Community-Based Science Education Curriculum for Disaster Justice and Resilience following the 2022 Buffalo Blizzard (2023-2024); and Connected Chemistry as Formative Assessment. Additional funding supports culturally responsive science teaching in Belize via NARST. Her scholarly contributions include the 2023 article “Like They Are Everyday Substances, You Like See Them, Hold Them, Use Them Every Day”: Students’ Understanding of Big Ideas and Macro and Submicro Chemistry Phenomena in the Context of Computer-based Models (Research in Science Education, with Liu and Whitford); co-edited special issues in Journal of Research in Science Teaching (2020); and book chapters such as School Leadership for Social Justice and STEM (2019). Dr. Waight serves as Associate Editor for JRST, Editorial Board Member for Journal of Science Teacher Education, and Board Member for the Williamsville Teacher Center Policy Board (2020-2023). She presented an invited lecture at the University of Southampton's School of Education Seminar Series in 2022.