Stephanie Ryan
BIO
Researcher in learning sciences and educator, author and mother to a 3.5-year-old, Charlie.
Twitter: @ScienceNerdSACR
Stephanie Ryan
“I worked part-time during his naps or at night when he went to bed.”
I’ve always loved science. My parents enrolled me in Super Saturday at Purdue University when I was young. We made the long drive every weekend so that I could participate in science courses, often the youngest in the class.
In college, I majored in Chemistry with the hopes of becoming either a teacher or a doctor. The University at Chicago had a program where graduate students worked with local public school teachers as part of an NSF project. And I loved it! One student told me she didn’t know she was allowed to become a doctor, and it broke my heart and warmed it at the same time.
During this time, I started to feel very unwell. After a week of extensive testing, we found that I had a Chiari Malformation that was progressing too quickly and that to avoid permanent damage I would need surgery to decompress it.
When I woke up from surgery, it changed my perspective. Instead of becoming a chemistry researcher, I wanted to have a career in education.
It took me longer to complete my Masters program with this setback in health, but I did complete it and promptly enrolled as the first student in the Learning Sciences Research Institute at UIC. My research focused on how students learn chemistry and how math and science interacted in this understanding.
Fast forward a few years, and 2016 was a big year for me, starting my own company and growing a human! Charles August Ryan was born in August and I got a new title: mommy! His entry into this world was a bit traumatic as I developed sudden onset preeclampsia and both our lives depended on an emergency c-section under general anesthesia. Charlie was fine but I stayed in the intensive care unit for about a week. We are both truly fortunate to be happy and healthy today.
During his early years, I worked part-time during his naps or at night when he went to bed. I watched him play and grow and learn and he inspired me to write a book.
My book teaches science through a game of “which of these is not like the other” using everyday objects, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time reading it to classrooms of children and hearing their comparisons. Sometimes their answers are scientific and sometimes they are silly and I love it!