Rate My Professor Sinem Siyahhan

Siyahhan's research specializes in informal STEM teaching and learning, with a focus on technology, engineering, making, design thinking, and the role of digital media technologies such as gameplay and game design in supporting human-computer interaction, teaching, learning, and social change across formal and informal environments. She co-authored the book Families at Play: Connecting and Learning through Video Games (MIT Press, 2018, with Elisabeth Gee), and key publications include 'The Mobile Making Program: Supporting maker-based STEM Engagement among youth during out-of-school time' (2023, in Developing and Sustaining STEM Programs across the K-12 Education Landscape), 'Mobile Making: A research-based afterschool program led by STEM undergraduate service as near-peer mentors' (The Journal of STEM Outreach, 2023, with E. Price et al.), and 'Intergenerational play around video games: A context for family connection and learning' (Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of the Learning Sciences, 2014). As Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator, she has obtained grants from the National Science Foundation, including the Expansion of a Mobile Making Project that Engages Underserved Youth Across California in STEM (2022-2027) and EAGER: MAKER: Play in the Making (2016-2019), as well as from the Nordson Foundation, Chevron, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. She received CSUSM’s President’s Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching Innovation & Excellence (2020-2021) and the University’s Exceptional Service Assigned Time Award (2020-2021).