Natalie Rusk Explained

Natalie Rusk
Birth Date:	2 February 1965
Nationality:	American
Field:	Learning Motivation Emotions Educational programs Educational technology Youth Development
Work Institution:	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Alma Mater:	Brown University (BA) Harvard University (EdM) Tufts University (PhD)
Known For:	Scratch Computer Clubhouse
Thesis Title:	Learning goals for emotion regulation: A randomized intervention study
Thesis Url:	http://hdl.handle.net/10427/011521
Thesis Year:	2011
Doctoral Advisor:	Fred Rothbaum

Natalie Rusk is a research scientist in the Lifelong Kindergarten (LLK) group,^[1] part of the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^{[2] [3]}

Education

Rusk was educated at Brown University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus on Chinese language, Chinese literature and Computer science in 1988. She moved to the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she was awarded a Master of Education (EdM) degree specializing in educational technology in 1989. She completed her PhD in child development supervised by Fred Rothbaum at Tufts University in 2011.^[4] Her thesis used a randomized controlled trial to investigate learning goals for emotional self-regulation.^[4]

Career and research

Rusk's research interests are in learning, motivation, emotions, educational technology and child development.Rusk co-founded the Computer Clubhouse,^[5] a network of after-school activities serving children and young adults, in 1993. Rusk is a co-creator of Scratch,^{[6] [7] [8]} a programming language and online community designed for children to make and share computer animations, video games, interactive stories, and other media. She has collaborated extensively with Mitchel Resnick on technology education and computer science education for young people.

Rusk is the lead author of Scratch Coding Cards^[9] and editor of Start Making,^[10] a guide to engaging young people in maker culture.^[11]

Awards and honors

Rusk was the keynote speaker at the Cambridge Computing Education Research Symposium (CCERS) hosted by the Raspberry Pi Foundation and the University of Cambridge in 2020.^[12]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Group Overview ‹ Lifelong Kindergarten. mit.edu. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
2. Web site: Nitasha. Tiku. 2014. How to Get Girls Into Coding. The New York Times. New York City.
3. Natalie Rusk Homepage
4. Natalie. Rusk. 10427/011521. . Learning Goals for Emotion Regulation: A Randomized Intervention Study. PhD. tufts.edu. Tufts University. 2011.
5. 1998. Resnick, M., Rusk, N., Cooke, S. . The Computer Clubhouse: Technological Fluency in the Inner City. High Technology and Low-Income Communities. MIT Press.
6. Maloney. John. Resnick. Mitchel. Rusk. Natalie. Silverman. Brian. Eastmond. Evelyn. The Scratch Programming Language and Environment. ACM Transactions on Computing Education. 10. 4. 2010. 1–15. 1946-6226. 10.1145/1868358.1868363. 9744698.
7. Mitchel . Resnick . John . Maloney . Andrés . Hernández . Natalie . Rusk . Evelyn . Eastmond . Karen . Brennan . Amon . Millner . Eric . Rosenbaum . Jay . Silver . Brian . Silverman . Yasmin . Kafai . Scratch: Programming for All . . 52 . 11 . 60–67 . 2009 . 10.1145/1592761.1592779. 9390203 .
8. Maloney. John H.. Peppler. Kylie. Kafai. Yasmin. Resnick. Mitchel. Rusk. Natalie. Programming by choice: urban youth learning programming with Scratch. 2008. 367. 10.1145/1352135.1352260. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin. 40. 1. 13884453.
9. Book: 2019. The Official Scratch Coding Cards: Scratch 3.0. 978-1457187919. 945947519. Natalie. Rusk. Kristin. Osiecki. Zoe. Bentley. Eric. Schilling. Helen. He.
10. Book: Rusk, Natalie. 2016. Start Making! A Guide to Engaging Young People in Maker Activities. 978-1593279769. 1011088647.
11. Web site: Person Overview ‹ Natalie Rusk. mit.edu. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
12. Web site: Cambridge Computing Education Research Symposium. raspberrypi.org. Cambridge.