Rate My Professor Sinem Siyahhan

Sinem Siyahhan is a Professor of Educational Technology and Learning Sciences in the School of Education at California State University, San Marcos, where she has been since 2014. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Learning Sciences with a minor in Inquiry Methodology from Indiana University in 2011. Before joining CSUSM, she served as an Assistant Research Professor at Arizona State University and worked at the Center for Games and Impact for three years. In addition to her professorship, she is Associate Director of the Center for Research and Engagement in STEM Education (CRESE), Faculty Director of Service Learning, Co-Director of the CSUSM-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership, and Director of the iTeachSTEM Program. Her career emphasizes community-engaged scholarship in informal STEM education.

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).