As a kid who did pretty well in school, Victor Lee often wondered why other students struggled, especially in math and science. “I wanted to figure out how it could make more sense to them,” says Lee, who joined the faculty of Stanford GSE as an associate professor this year.

Some of his latest research looks at ways to get K-12 students engaged in data science by working with information from their own wearable devices, like fitness trackers. Another branch of his work focuses on makerspaces—pinpointing aspects that are most powerful for student learning, and finding strategies to help libraries adapt to provide this opportunity for kids. More recently his work has expanded into computer science education for young children: With new toys hitting the market purporting to give preschoolers and kindergartners a leg up in coding and STEM education, he is working to help develop a protocol for assessing the toys’ effectiveness and a curriculum for using them in the classroom.

He and his wife have two young daughters who, not unexpectedly, are quite comfortable with computer science technology themselves. “Having a dad who’s kind of a nerd about it—they get plenty of exposure.”