Elaine Westbrook

Dr. Elaine Westbrook

Assistant Professor, Educational Theory and Practice, COE

Dr. Westbrook joined the MSU Billings faculty in 2021 and teaches integrated science courses and labs to elementary education majors. She hosts, co-designs, and facilitates informal STEM curricula for the Movin’On Camp (MCIE), GeoSpatial Skills (MSU), and the Co-ed and Girls’ STEM camps (MSUB). She also coordinates outreach STEM activities, which involves MSU Billings graduate and undergraduate student facilitators in nearby rural and Native American communities.

Her research work on “STEMulating Interest with a Rural Place-Conscious Curriculum,” was published in the journal Theory & Practice in Rural Education in 2022, and she has presented on STEM interest among rural youth. Other research areas include the influences of Native American culture and its integration with western scientific methods, such as documenting the Northern Cheyenne Star Stories and integrating Makerspaces in Apsáalooke communities.

Dr. Westbrook is the Montana Space Grant Consortium Faculty Affiliate, representing MSU Billings among the state’s universities and tribal colleges.