Tammy Clegg
Brief Biography
Tamara “Tammy” Clegg is an associate professor in the College of Information Studies and the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership and at the University of Maryland, where she co-directs the Youth eXperience (YX) Lab. She received her Ph.d. from Georgia Tech’s College of Computing and her B.S. in Computer Science from North Carolina State University. Tammy’s work focuses on designing technology (e.g., social media, mobile apps, e-textiles, community displays) to support life-relevant learning where learners, particularly those from underrepresented groups in science, engage in science in the context of achieving personally relevant goals. She seeks to understand ways such learning environments and technologies support scientific disposition development. Tammy’s work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, and Google.
Keynote Abstract
Communities, Computing, & the Carolinas
In this talk I will briefly connect participants virtually to the conference site through tracing my own entrée into Computer Science as a woman of color in North Carolina, sharing ways community experiences played pivotal roles in my developing interest in Computer Science and STEM. More broadly, I will share research insights from my research that illustrate the pivotal role of communities for STEM learning and that point to ways to mobilize communities to support such learning. Lastly, I will share some examples of STEM and computing learning environments that draw upon inherent characteristics of communities to promote life-relevant STEM learning.