I've been a science teacher in middle and high school settings for 7 years, but I came to education from a science research background. One thing I liked about MACSME is that several of our courses overlapped with the SESAME program, and I got a taste of education research from both the literature and research end. My masters project examined supporting preservice science teachers in developing progressive, inquiry-oriented teaching practices; now that I have a few years of teaching under my belt, I want to more deeply understand how students understand (and misunderstand) how science works, how those understandings manifest through reading and discourse, and the kinds of classroom experiences that can support strong understandings of the nature of scientific knowledge.
I really liked the structure of SESAME, so I was bummed to conclude that there wasn't anyone doing research in my specific area of interest right now (unfortunately, Berkeley has lost a few faculty in science education recently). However, I do remember a couple doctoral students mentioning that they felt supported in pursuing their own independent projects in the program, even if it didn't neatly overlap with a professor's research.
I remember quite a few people in SESAME were focused on undergraduate STEM education. Who were you interested in working with at Berkeley? Is there a particular discipline within undergraduate STEM education that you hope to focus on?