Dr. Jasmine Joy Welch-Ptak
Director, STEM Learning
Dr. Jasmine Joy Welch-Ptak, affectionately known as "Dr. J," earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in STEM Education from The University of Texas at Austin in 2019. She also holds a Master's Degree in Curriculum Studies from UT Austin, and a Bachelor's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Texas State. Along her educational journey, she completed over a dozen courses in Human Psychology and Cognitive Science which greatly informs her work and her varied approach to instruction across all content areas and age groups.
Jasmine has had the opportunity to share her love of learning with thousands of Central Texas' students and families over the last eighteen years. From Austin to San Antonio, Jasmine has worked as a middle school math intervention teacher, K-8 instructional coach, curriculum developer, teacher educator, academic researcher, and micro-school co-founder. She is the mother of two boys and bonus mom to two more. She and her partner devote much of their free time to their blended family with various sporting events, home improvement projects, and an occasional weekend getaway or day on the lake.
Jasmine has a lifelong affinity for nature, and is inspired by the opportunity to bring S.T.E.M. concepts to life by exploring and observing all 96 acres of the beautiful Blaze campus.
Publications:
Peer Reviewed Articles
Hunt, J. H., Martin, K., Khounmeuang, A., Silva, J., Patterson, B., & Welch-Ptak, J. (2020). Design, Development, and Initial Testing of Asset-Based Intervention Grounded in Trajectories of Student Fraction Learning. Learning Disability Quarterly, 0731948720963589.Hunt, J. H., Westenskow, A., Silva, J., & Welch-Ptak, J. (2016). Levels of participatory conception of fractional quantity along a purposefully sequenced series of equal sharing tasks: Stu’s trajectory. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 41, 45–67. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2015.11.004
Hunt, J. H., Welch-Ptak, J. J., & Silva, J. M. (2016). Initial understandings of fraction concepts evidenced by students with mathematics learning disabilities and difficulties: A framework. Learning Disability Quarterly, (July), 1–13. http://doi.org/10.1177/0731948716653101
Hunt, J. H., Westenskow, A., Silva, J., & Welch-Ptak, J. (2015). Stu’s initial and evolving conceptions of unit fractions. Early Algebra, Algebra, and Number Concepts: Brief Research Reports In: Bartell, T.G., Bieda, K.N., Putnam, R.T., Bradfield, K., & Dominguez, H. (Eds.). (2015). Proceedings of the 37th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. East Lansing, MI: MSU
Manuscripts in Preparation
Silva, J.M., Hunt, J.H., & Welch-Ptak, J.J. (accepted). Fractional Reasoning in Intensive Intervention: Individualization from Student Thinking. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education.
Hunt, J.H., Silva, J.M., &Welch-Ptak, J.J. (submitted). Changing the goal: Reasoning and sense making to support conceptions of fractions for students with learning disabilities
Presentations:
Welch-Ptak, J.J., Callahan, R.M., & Tharayil, S.A. (April 2019). Boxed In: Barriers to Open-ended EL-focused Instructional Innovations in Elementary STEM Classrooms. American Education Research Association Annual Conference, Toronto, Ontario.
Welch-Ptak, J.J., Callahan, R.M. (April 2018). Navigating “the Dip”: Preparing Students for the Emotional work of STEM Through Engineering Tasks. American Education Research Association Annual Conference, New York, NY.