Sarah Blackowski

Sarah's research is at the crossroads of understanding and supporting engineering faculty and students in engineering classrooms. She has worked on funded projects related to K-12 engineering interventions, supporting undergraduate student retention and informed major choice, supporting doctoral engineering students to complete their degree, understanding how engineering faculty learn about teaching, and more.

Sarah is interested in expanding her research portfolio at UWM to include integrating engineering industry partnerships in core engineering classes and understanding the experiences of engineering students at urban institutions. She is currently working to improve industry collaborations in Civil & Environmental Engineering Senior Design. If you have any possible projects in and around Milwaukee for students to begin preliminary senior design proposals on, please contact her at: blackows@uwm.edu

Additionally, the Civil & Environmental Engineering department and Architecture department are collaborating on a Design & Build Camp for rising MPS (Milwaukee Public School) juniors and seniors. Students will collaborate with UWM faculty and staff, college teaching assistants, STEM professionals, and community stakeholders to design a park in the Milwaukee area. More information about the Design & Build Camp can be found at this link: UW-Milwaukee Design & Build Camp – College of Engineering & Applied Science

Education

• PhD, Engineering Education, Virginia Tech
• BS, Aerospace Engineering, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Research Interests

• Faculty development
• Student motivation, metacognition, and self-regulated learning

Refereed Papers

• Cunningham, P. J., Matusovich, H. M., Venters, C., Blackowski, S. A., & Bhaduri, S. (2018). The Impact of Metacognitive Instruction on Students’ Conceptions of Learning and their Self-monitoring Behaviors. In American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition.

• Cunningham, P., Matusovich, H., Blackowski, S., McCord, R., & Carrico, C. (2018). Teaching Metacognition: Helping Students Own and Improve Their Learning. In American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition, Salt Lake City, UT.

• Grohs, J. R., van Montfrans, V., Matusovich, H. M., Kirk, G. R., Carrico, C., Gillen, A. L., Blackowski, S. A., Lesko, H. L., & Paradise, T. (2018, June). Findings from the First Year of a Project that Partners Engineers and Educators in Rural Schools. In 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

• Lesko, M. H. L., Grohs, J. R., Matusovich, H. M., Kirk, G. R., Carrico, C., van Montfrans, V., Gillen, A. L., Paradise, T., Blackowski, S. A., & Baum, L. M. (2018, June). Engagement in Practice: Lessons Learned Partnering with Science Educators and Local Engineers in Rural Schools. In ASEE Annual Conference proceedings.

• Artiles, M. S., Waters, R. C., Taylor, A. R., Boyd-Sinkler, K., Blackowski, S. A., Hampton, C., ... & Lee, W. C. (2017, June). Action on Diversity: A Content Analysis of ASEE Conference Papers, 2015–2016. In 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.

• Cunningham, P., Williams, S.A., Matusovich, H.M. (2017). Beginning to Understand Student Indicators of Metacognition. In 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. Columbus, OH.

• Williams, S.A., Lutz, B., Hampton, C., Matusovich, H.M., Lee, W.C. (2016). Exploring Student Motivation towards Diversity Education in Engineering. In Frontiers in Education. Erie, PA.
  

• Williams, S.A., Cunningham, P., Morelock, J., Matusovich, H.M. (2016). Lessons in Transfer: Better understanding of engineering students? metacognitive development. In Frontiers in Education. Erie, PA.

• Jordan, K., Pembridge, J., Williams, S.A. (2015). Characterizing knowledge transfer in faculty communities of practice. 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. Seattle, WA.  

• Williams, S. A. (2014). Pedagogical communication in STEM education. Discovery Day 2014. Presented at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, FL.