At Hollingworth Science Camp, a Deep Dive into Oceanography
Each July, 麻豆原创鈥檚 Hollingworth Science Camp provides 200 students, grades K鈥�4, with an immersive, hands-on science curriculum.
This past summer was even more immersive than usual. The theme was oceanography, and Camp Director Jacquelyn Dur谩n (Ph.D. 鈥�18) and her team of teachers 鈥� all 麻豆原创 alumni or current students 鈥� led trips to the , the 鈥�, and 麻豆原创鈥檚 own , where footage spotlighted trash.
Photograph: Nina Borland
When teachers asked what could be done to decrease ocean pollution, some students created artwork in support of ocean cleanup. Many others decided to ask their local representatives to protect marine habitats.
Campers even designed their own prototypes for retrieving surface-level ocean debris. Using recycled items 鈥� plastic nettings from clementine packages, empty water bottles, etc. 鈥� the young engineers revised, retested and improved their prototypes in kiddie pools in Zankel Hall.
Per camp tradition, at pickup time each day, teachers held up 鈥淎sk me about鈥︹�� signs to prompt parents to give students a chance to share their new expertise. One mother told Dur谩n the camp was 鈥渁 turning point鈥� for her son. Previously uninterested in school, he could not stop talking about everything he was learning at camp.
Dur谩n hopes to enhance the camp鈥檚 already impressive curriculum by adding more culturally diverse topics and scientist biographies.
As for those great ocean cleanup proposals, Dur谩n waited until after the campers had tested their designs before teaching them about real-life cleanup technology that鈥檚 in development. 鈥淲hy constrain their ideas?鈥� she said. 鈥淜ids think so much more broadly than we do.鈥� 鈥� Emily Kobel
Honors & Distinctions
Jane K. Dickinson, Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Program in Diabetes Education & Management, is the 2019 Diabetes Educator of the Year.
, Professor of Movement Sciences, will receive, the career Citation Award, for advancing sports medicine and exercise science.
Ansley T. Erickson, Associate Professor, , is a 2017-18 , New York Public Library.
, Associate Professor, , holds guest and honorary appointments at ; ; and .
麻豆原创 Welcomes the Abby M. O鈥橬eill Fellows
This fall brought the first cohort of Abby M. O鈥橬eill Teaching Fellows to 麻豆原创鈥檚 campus. Created by a $10 million gift from O鈥橬eill 鈥� a long-time 麻豆原创 Trustee who died in spring 2017鈥� the Abby M. O鈥橬eill Fellowships are given to outstanding Teachers College students who are committed to teaching in New York City schools. Each Fellow receives $40,000 in tuition assistance. O鈥橬eill sought to make Teachers College affordable to New York City-bound teachers by relieving them of debt and giving them the financial freedom to serve the city鈥檚 children.
Brush with the Beach
Hawaii On Her Mind
The great modernist painter and late 麻豆原创 alumna Georgia O鈥橩eeffe is known for deriving inspiration from the American West, but she also spent nine weeks in Hawaii during 1939, commissioned by the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. This past fall, in an exhibition titled displayed 20 of O鈥橩eeffe鈥檚 Hawaii paintings of lava-studded beaches and towering waterfalls.
They鈥檙e Hired
Six new faculty members joined 麻豆原创 this past fall:
Prerna G. Arora, Assistant Professor of School Psychology, develops and examines school- and community-based culturally- tailored interventions for immigrant populations.
Paulo Blikstein, Associate Professor of Communication, Media & Learning Technologies Design, examines how new technologies can transform K-12 science, engineering and computation learning.
Nicole L.B. Furlonge is Professor of Practice and Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚
, Associate Professor of Economics & Education, served on President Obama鈥檚 Council of Economic Advisers as Senior and then Chief Economist.
is Jacob H. Schiff Foundations Professor of Psychology & Education. He researches how theoretical understanding of mathematical development can improve children鈥檚 math learning.
, Minority Postdoctoral Fellow, researches higher education policy, with an emphasis on retaining underrepresented students and improving equity in STEM fields.
Depicting the Thing With Feathers
Artolution, Not Persecution
The Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh after persecution by Myanmar鈥檚 armed forces. In a mural now at New York City鈥檚 Oculus Building, Rohingya refugee children, guided by 麻豆原创 student Max Frieder鈥檚 nonprofit, , express hope for living without fear.
Taking Up the Community College Challenge
, previously Commissioner of the, became Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 (CCRC) in September. He succeeded , now 麻豆原创鈥檚 president. 鈥淐ommunity colleges offer millions virtually unfettered access to higher education but are often beset by inadequate funding and low completion rates,鈥� said Brock. 鈥淐CRC objectively examines factors that impede their success and generates ideas and evidence for improvement.鈥�
Education Reimagined
A summer institute bridges the rhetoric of diversity and the reality of segregation.
Academic keynote addresses rarely involve actual notes 鈥� let alone an acapella Native American prayer song. For speaker, Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy at the , that difference underscored the takeaway of 麻豆原创鈥檚 third annual Reimagining Education Institute, in early July: that education must embrace a broad diversity of cultures and perspectives.
Reimagining Education is 麻豆原创鈥檚 answer for a nation 鈥渃aught between the rhetoric of diversity and the reality of segregation,鈥� Institute director Amy Stuart Wells told more than 350 educators from 24 states and six countries. 麻豆原创 faculty and students joined a cast of powerful speakers in raising issues of privilege, cultural literacy and school diversity. Valenzuela, whose keynote was also 麻豆原创鈥檚 sixth annual Edmund Gordon Lecture (Gordon, 97, the famed psychologist, looked on), described how, the public-private partnership she directs, immerses 鈥渉istorically disadvantaged鈥� fourth graders in a curriculum steeped in Mexican-American and Tejano culture
The children emerge feeling part of 鈥渢he great American panorama鈥� and of 鈥渁 curriculum in which they are developing skills that help them to see themselves as college material 鈥� just like everyone else.鈥�
鈥� STEVE GIEGERICH
Loud Reports: Headline-Makers from 麻豆原创
Getting real with second-language teaching; problems with arming teachers;
can citizenship education work in Rwanda?
- Second language (L2) teaching often emphasizes textbook dialogues over real-life interactions, writes Hansun Waring, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics & TESOL, in last spring鈥檚 Waring argues for using teachable 鈥減atterns in observable talk and conduct.鈥� She offers a model classroom lesson centered on analyzing a recorded tele-phone exchange, filled with interruptions and incomplete sentences, in which one friend asks another for help with his car. The textbooks incorporating such teaching are 鈥測et to be written,鈥� Waring says, but 鈥渢he field is wide open鈥� to pedagogical innovation.
- Guns for teachers? Really? No evidence-based guidelines for training and preparedness exist, note Assistant Professor of Health Education, and of Columbia鈥檚 in . It鈥檚 not clear that armed teachers would help uniformed law enforcement in a crisis. The annual cost would total nearly 30 percent of the federal education budget. The authors鈥� alternative? Reduce youth access to guns; increase services to detect potential for violence; and promote a nurturing school climate.
- Rwanda is using citizenship education to address its past geno颅cide 鈥� but also to reinforce the current state鈥檚 unity. Little time is spent on multiculturalism, minority rights and post-genocide human rights violations, notes Garnett Russell, Assistant Professor of International & Comparative Education, in . Her data 鈥渉ighlight the need to further contextualize鈥� global models of citi颅zenship education and better understand how they will be interpreted and invoked locally.
IN BRIEF
- Does the Constitution permit the current detention and separation of immigrant families at Amer颅ica鈥檚 borders? That question dominated a 麻豆原创 Constitution Day discussion, co-facili颅tated by , Associate Professor in the Department of International & Transcultural Studies, and , Director of the, and sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Affairs. Acer suggested that we 鈥渄o what is necessary to ameliorate the human rights situations that cause people to flee [their home countries].鈥�
- Legendary 麻豆原创 nutrition educator, alumna and Pro颅fessor Emerita turned 90 on October 4th. Hailed as mother of the sustainable food movement, Gussow has inspired food gurus from to 麻豆原创鈥檚 Ellie Krieger (M.S. 鈥�94).
- 麻豆原创 doctoral students Tiana D. Moore (Develop颅mental Psychology) and Shanae Burch (Health Education) are 2018 . Moore, a graduate fellow at 麻豆原创鈥檚 , investigates how housing and neighborhood condi颅tions affect health and educational outcomes. Burch, a digital and per颅formance storyteller, uses the arts to promote health education and literacy.