Student Profiles
Brian Gravel
Hometown: Manchester, ME
Degrees: B.S. Mechanical Engineering; M.S. Mechanical
Engineering - Tufts University
I came to Tufts in 1997 as an undeclared engineer. As an
undergraduate, I played soccer for the university and spent a
semester at the University of Sussex, England. Drawn to Tufts
for the variety of education available, as time went on I became
more interested in interdisciplinary work. I graduated with a
B.S. in 2001 and went directly into a Masters program in
Comparative Biomechanics. While in graduate school. I held an
NSF Fellowship through the GK-12 program which allowed me to
teach 5th grade and 9th grade for one year each. In these
classes, I worked with the teacher to incorporate engineering
into math and science education. I completed my degree and went
on to manage the GK-12 project here at Tufts. This all took
place at the Center for Engineering Educational Outreach where I
spent the past three years working as a program manager. During
this time I realized my love of teaching and education and thus
I applied for a PhD in the MSTE program.
Research Interests: I am working on a piece of software that allows students to
make stop-action animations. My research goals are to use this
tool to better understand children's mental models of physical
concepts and to see how the process of making an animation can
enhance science knowledge and understanding. For more
information on my research, please visit this site: http://www.tuftl.tufts.edu/files/bgravel/donotedit/bgravel_thesis.shtm
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