Faith Frings (she/her) is a discipline-based researcher (DBER) interested in student motivation and cognition in statistics and data science in the undergraduate life sciences. She is currently a PhD candidate under Dr. Aikens’ Biology Education Research Group. Her dissertation research uses qualitative and mixed methods to investigate mechanisms underlying the development of student motivation and engagement in coding in R in life sciences courses.
She earned a M.S. in Biology with a concentration in Ecology and Evolution at the University of South Florida under the advisement of Dr. Luanna Prevost. Her thesis investigated how undergraduate students interpret different styles of phylogenetic trees in introductory biology and evolution courses.
She is passionate about teaching statistics and data science. Her career goal is to become a full professor of biology education research to continue discovering how instructors can help life sciences students develop data literacy skills.
In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, and snowboarding.