Professor of Practice
UTeach Maker Director
Assistant Dean for Professional Track Faculty - College of Natural Sciences
Dr. Rodriguez is a master teacher for the UTeach program and has supported multiple courses including Step 1, Classroom Interactions, and Student Teaching. Dr. Rodriguez is also the director of UTeach Maker, a micro-credentialing program that helps UTeach students bring innovative, project-based maker practices into their STEM classrooms or makerspace environments. Additionally, Dr. Rodriguez helps to coordinate the UTeach Noyce scholars program and serves as the Internship Coordinator for the UTeach program. In each of her roles, Dr. Rodriguez supports beginning and pre-service teachers and works to develop partnerships between the community, school district, and the UTeach program.
Before joining UTeach, Dr. Rodriguez was a science teacher with 12 years of secondary science teaching experience and certified by The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Her science interests center on field-based ecology and she has experience as both an undergraduate and science teacher engaged in field-based scientific research. She has a wide array of field experience from studying mating preference of tropical frogs at the Smithsonian Institute in Panama to working with scientists at the University of California-Davis on undergraduate research projects for minority students. In 2012, Dr. Rodriguez was awarded The Outstanding Paper Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) for the paper titled: ‘Enhancing Teacher Knowledge and Pedagogical Reasoning: A case study of cooperating science teachers that mentor preservice teachers’. Her current research interests include maker education, play, mentoring, and teacher professional development. Dr. Rodriguez received her Ph.D. in Science Education in 2013.
Rodriguez, S. R., Harron, J. R., & DeGraff, M. W. (2018). "UTeach Maker: A micro-credentialing program for preservice teachers." Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 34(1). doi:10.1080/21532974.2017.1387830
Rodriguez, S., Harron, J., Fletcher, S., & Spock, H. (2018). Elements of making: A framework to support making in the science classroom. The Science Teacher, 85(2).
Rodriguez, S., Harron, J., Benfield, P., & Reyes, M. (Accepted). "Illuminating Food Webs: A maker jigsaw." Science Scope.
Rodriguez, S. R. (2013). What they see: noticings of secondary science cooperating teachers as they observe pre-service teachers. (Doctoral dissertation). The University of Texas, Austin.
- Rodriguez, S. R. (2018, January). The UTeach Maker Showcase: A Micro-credentialing Framework. Session presented at The Association of Science Teacher Education Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD.
- Harron, J. (2017, August). UTeach Maker: Supporting making in STEM education. Presentation at the AISD Science + Mathematics X Conference, Austin, TX.
- Rodriguez, S. R., Harron, J. R., & DeGraff, M. (2017, May). UTeach Maker - An Innovative Micro-credentialing Program. Presentation at the UTeach Institute Annual Conference, Austin, TX.
- Rodriguez, S. R. & Harron, J. R. (2017, May). Making your way through Step 1: A Maker Final Project. Presentation at the UTeach Institute Annual Conference, Austin, TX.
- Rodriguez, S. R. (2017, January). Developing a Maker Endorsement Program for Pre-Service Science Teachers. Session presented at The Association of Science Teacher Education Annual Conference, Reno, NV.
- “Unpacking the noticing of secondary science cooperating teachers” (2014, April) National Research on Science Teaching Annual Conference
- “Windows of opportunity: Noticings and self reflections from a cooperating secondary science teacher” (2013, April) National Research on Science Teaching Annual Conference
- “Engaging in pedagogical reasoning through the work of mentoring: A case study” (2012, April) National Research on Science Teaching Annual Conference
- “Capturing science teacher thinking: A reflection on framework and methods” (2011, September) Science at the Crossroads
- “Enhancing Teacher Knowledge and Pedagogical Reasoning: A case study of cooperating science teachers that mentor preservice teachers” (2011, April) National Research on Science Teaching Annual Conference
- “Unpacking Mentorship: Voices from science teachers that mentor pre-service candidates” (2011, March) National Science Teacher Association Annual Conference