David Birchfield

Professional Title
Associate Professor
Organization/Institution
About Me (Bio)
Dr. David Birchfield is an Associate Professor in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering at Arizona State University. He serves as the lead for K-12 Embodied and Mediated Learning Group at ASU. In this role he is responsible for the coordination of research and outreach activities for a team of interdisciplinary collaborators that spans eight ASU departments and includes a national network of school and community partners. Under his leadership since 2005, this research effort has reached tens of thousands of students and educators in museums and schools across the country. He has served as PI and co-PI for major grants from the National Science Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Intel. These awards support research in embodied learning for mixed-reality environments. In 2009 he co-chaired a convening for Data Visualization in K-12 Learning that was co-sponsored by the Carnegie and Woodrow Wilson Foundations. His personal research is focused on interactivity and media system design as applied to creative and educational spaces. This work includes paradigms for real time interaction, interface design, and generative mechanisms for media. His scholarly and creative output has been published in international venues and presented in high profile forums throughout the North America, Australia, Europe, and China.
Keywords
Arizona State University (ASU)
08/15/2010

This project conducts interdisciplinary research to advance understanding of embodied learning as it applies to STEM topics across a range of current technology-based learning environments (e.g., desktop simulations, interactive whiteboards, and 3D interactive environments). The project has two central research questions: How are student knowledge gains impacted by the degree of embodied learning and to what extent do the affordances of different technology-based learning environments constrain or support embodied learning for STEM topics?