Gabriela C. Weaver is Vice Provost for Faculty Development, Director of the Center for Teaching and Faculty Development and professor of chemistry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Dr. Weaver received her B.S. in Chemistry in 1989 from the California Institute of Technology, and her Ph.D. in Chemical Physics in 1994 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Weaver joined the Chemistry faculty at the University of Colorado at Denver in 1994 and joined the Chemistry faculty at Purdue University in 2001, where she served as Associate Head of the department from 2008-2009 and as the Jerry and Rosie Semler Director of the Discovery Learning Research Center from 2008-2014. Dr. Weaver’s research work in science education has focused on using inquiry-based methods for teaching science and on supplementing innovative instruction with technology tools. She has also engaged in work on faculty development and institutional transformation toward institutionalizing research-based teaching practices.
From 2004-2012 she directed the NSF-funded Center for Authentic Science Practice in Education (CASPiE), a consortium of 17 universities and 2-year colleges that developed and implemented a teaching approach to provide 1st and 2nd year undergraduate students with authentic research experiences as part of their laboratory coursework. Initially developed for chemistry, the program is now being adopted in other science disciplines, including biology and atmospheric sciences. Over 5200 students at 17 institutions nationwide and in Australia have been through the program in the last 5 years. The success of the program among several different dimensions of learning and perception has been assessed. New institutions continue to adapt the CASPiE approach – the newest of which is the United States Military Academy at West Point, combining research projects in analytical chemistry, toxicology and chemical engineering through the CASPiE framework.