Biography
Dr. Eshani Lee joined Penn State Brandywine in Fall 2025 as an Associate Professor. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry Education and her M.A.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and holds a B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Lee’s interdisciplinary research bridges chemistry and education, focusing on understanding and addressing the persistent learning barriers students encounter in general chemistry. Her work aims to make foundational chemistry courses more equitable, accessible, and conceptually meaningful for diverse learners, particularly multilingual students. She actively disseminates her scholarship at national and regional conferences and mentors undergraduate students interested in both research and teaching.
She recently completed a National Science Foundation–funded project examining language barriers in general chemistry assessment. Her scholarship includes work on students’ epistemological resources in stoichiometry items and strategies for enhancing the accessibility of chemistry assessment items for multilingual learners.
Publications
Kim, A. E., Farris, A. V., Lee, E.N. (2026). Students’ Epistemological Resources and Framing of Stoichiometry Assessment Items Across Linguistic Backgrounds: Insights for Equitable Design. Chemistry Education Research & Practice.
Lee, E. N., Orgill, M. (2025). Enhancing the accessibility of chemistry assessment for multilingual learners: Understanding challenging features in assessment items, Chemistry Education Research & Practice, 26, 126-140.
Sigmon. A., Lee, E.N. & Bodek, M. (2024). Transforming student interactions with flipped content from an isolated, passive activity into a collaborative and engaging endeavor, Journal of Chemical Education, 101(8), 3107-3117.
Kim, A. E., Farris, A. V., & Lee, E. (2024). Epistemological Framing of Chemistry Assessment Items. In Lindgren, R., Asino, T. I., Kyza, E. A., Looi, C. K., Keifert, D. T., & Suárez, E. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2024 (pp. 1642-1645). International Society of the Learning Sciences.
Lee, E.N., Nealy, S. & Cruz, L. (2023). Navigating the interlanguage space: Chinese international students’ perceptions of a virtual chemistry laboratory course, Chemistry Education Research & Practice, 24, 674-687.
Lee, E.N., Orgill, M. (2022). Toward equitable assessment of English language learners in general chemistry: Identifying supportive features in assessment items. Journal of Chemical Education, 99, 1, 35-48. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00370
Lee, E.N., Orgill, M., & Kardash C. (2020). Supporting English language learners in college science classrooms: Insights from chemistry students. Multicultural Education, 27, 25-32.