Assistant Professor of Science Education
Contact Information: 3403 Science & Engineering Complex (SEC), drpimentel@ua.edu
Education:
Ph.D., Science Education; Education Data Science; Learning Sciences and Technology Design, Stanford University
M.Ed., Secondary Science Education, Boston College
B.S., Biology (minor: Music), Boston College
Graduate Certificates:
Science, Technology, and Society (STS), Stanford University
Special Education, Relay Graduate School of Education
Awards and Honors:
2023 Best Paper in Strand 8: Scientific Literacy and Socio-scientific Issues, European Science Education Research Association 2023 Conference
2023 Doctoral Student Award: Research and Academic Excellence, Stanford Graduate School of Education
2022 Markowski-Leach Scholar, Horizons Foundation
2019 Outstanding Mentor of an American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Student, Stanford Native American Cultural Center
Areas of Expertise:
- Science Media Literacy
- Nature of Science
- Socioscientific Reasoning
- Epistemic Cognition
- Secondary Science Teaching and Learning
- Public Engagement with Science and Technology
Current Research and Grant Projects:
- Developing Performance Assessments for Scientific Online Reasoning: Assessing Secondary Students’ Evaluations of Science Information Sources on the Internet
- Teaching Science Media Literacy: Supporting Secondary Science Teachers with Incorporating Authentic Information Sources in the Classroom
- Designing a Science & Society Course for High School in a Research-Practice Collaborative
- Novel Instructional Routines to Incorporate Science Journalism Practices into the Secondary Science Classroom
- Using the Publication Facts Label as an Educational Tool with High School Students and their Communities
- Engaging High School Students in Socioscientific Reasoning Using Green Spaces as a Social Justice Science Issue
Highlighted Publications and Grants:
- Pimentel, D.R. (accepted). Learning to evaluate science (mis)information on the internet: Assessing students’ scientific online reasoning.
- Willinsky, J. & Pimentel, D.R. (2024). The publication facts label: A public and professional guide for research articles. Learned Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1599
- Osborne, J., & Pimentel, D.R. (2023). Science education in an age of misinformation. Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21790
- Osborne, J., & Pimentel, D.R. (2022). Science, misinformation, and the role of education. Science, 378(6617), 246-248. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq8093
- Lee, V. R., Pimentel, D. R., Bhargava, R., & D’Ignazio, C. (2022). Taking data feminism to school: A synthesis and review of pre-collegiate data science education projects. British Journal of Educational Technology, 53(5), 1096– 1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13251
Brief Biography
Dr. Pimentel’s research explores the intersection of science, education, & society. He collaborates with teachers and students to re-imagine science classrooms as spaces that promote public engagement with science and technology in our increasingly digital world. Toward that end, he studies teaching and learning about a range of topics, including science media literacy (with a focus on the internet and social media), the nature of science-in-society, socioscientific reasoning, science information networks, digital information literacy, science journalism, and trust/distrust in science.
Dr. Pimentel received a PhD in Education from Stanford University, where he also completed a Graduate Certificate in Science, Technology, & Society (STS). He holds a B.S. in Biology and an M.Ed. in Secondary Education from Boston College and an Advanced Certificate in Special Education from the Relay Graduate School of Education. Dr. Pimentel is also a proud first-generation college student. He previously taught middle school science and high school chemistry in Boston, MA, and Brooklyn, NY.