Jamie Jirout, Phd (CV)
​principal investigator

Jamie Jirout leads the Research in Education and Learning Lab at UVA. She is originally from Florida, and attended the University of Miami where she majored in psychology and began studying cognitive development with Dr. Daryl Greenfield. She earned her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University under the mentorship of Dr. David Klahr. While at CMU, she developed a measure of young children's curiosity based on uncertainty preference, which she continues to use in her research today. She was trained in the Program for Interdisciplinary Education Research, and was affiliated with the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. Jamie then joined the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center as a postdoc working with Dr. Nora Newcombe at Temple University. While there, she worked at the Temple Infant and Child Lab to study the development of spatial reasoning skills, and how spatial learning takes place through playful activities. She continues research in these areas now as a faculty member at the University of Virginia. Jamie enjoys living in Charlottesville, VA with her family, including her three young children who provide inspiration and feedback on new research protocols and are expert research participants.

Current students and lab members

​Affiliated Faculty: Ginny Vitiello, PhD, Sharon Zumbrunn, PhD, Erik Ruzek, PhD 

Postdoctoral Researcher: Natalie Evans, PhD​
(Bio coming)
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(bios coming)
Ryan Burke
Current PhD student in Education and VEST affiliate. Ryan's research interests include curiosity and STEM learning, science belonging, and TBD.  

Shoronda Matthews (email) 
Current PhD student in Education and VEST affiliate. Shoronda's research explores how to teach science through digital learning using narrative text.  

Sophie Yue, Current MEd student and part-time lab coordinator
Sarah Payne, Current MEd student
Shihan Wang, Current MEd student
​
Other current RAs: 
Sarah Mackey 
Emma DeMartino
Tiffany Malley

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Alumni

Graduate students: 
Sierra Eissen, PhD 
Jessica Scoville, M.Ed. 
Yiwei Li, M.Ed. 
Malina Carroll, M.Ed.
Sophie (Huiling) Yan, M.Ed.
Anna (MWatanna) Kalesia Barnett-Jefferson, M.Ed.
Rachel Siefring, M.Ed.
Nadine Rozzel, M.Ed.
Josh Medrano, M.Ed. 
Emily Maxfield, M.Ed. 
Karime Cameron, M.Ed. 
Tessa Boutwell, M.Ed. 
Tiffany Leones, M.Ed. 
Mckenzie Canard, M.Ed.  

Undergraduate lab alumni: 
Claire Watson, Jamie Kang, Olivia Little, Cait Hagan, Keara Meyerson, Sabrina Shisbey, Christian Rivera, Marlow McMullan, Meg Ritchie, Caroline Crossman, Jasmeen Dhillon, Holly Battist, Khin Kyaw, Michelle Miller, Tara Srivastava, Kelsi Jensen, Jay Huff, Kaleigh Warburton, Gracie Tillman, Maxime Pierre-Louis

Past lab coordinators: 
Jinhee Lee  
Mary Grace Britton 
​Savannah Sunvold 

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) alumni: 
Miles Arrington (Current PhD student at Penn State) 
Jamila Salim 
Juhi Nath (Current M.SW. student at Boston University) 
Iris Sanchez