NSF to continue I-Corps for Learning project

July 23, 2014

After a successful pilot led in large part by STEM Education Center co-director Dr. Karl Smith, the National Science Foundation has granted $1.2 million to support the next 24 I-Corps for Learning teams.

The I-Corps for Learning (I-Corps-L) project was designed to guide research teams on how to use business strategies to propagate and scale their educational innovations.

Steve Blank, key architect of the I-Corps model and author of “The Startup Owner’s Manual” wrote in the Huffington Post, “It turns out that on the whole educators are great innovators but have had a hard time translating their ideas into widespread adoption.”

With this in mind, Don Millard of NSF and Karl Smith developed the I-Corps for learning project using Blank’s Lean LaunchPad system. Blank writes, “Karl and his teaching team really nailed it. So much so that the NSF is now rolling out I-Corps for Learning on a larger scale.” Read more of Blank’s blog here.

Congratulations to the I-Corps for Learning team! The STEM Center is excited to hear more about future team accomplishments and further advances to the I-Corps initiative.

Minnesota ramps up

July 22, 2014

By 2018, an estimated two of every three U.S. jobs will require postsecondary education. But making the leap from high school to college, and staying in college, isn’t easy for many students.

Enter Ramp-Up to Readiness, a school-wide advisory program that helps students master the skills needed to get to college and succeed. The program was created by the University’s College Readiness Consortium, now part of CEHD.

Since 2012, Ramp-Up to Readiness been implemented in 56 middle and high schools across Minnesota, reaching more than 34,000 students in grades 6–12. A new cohort of schools began preparing for the program last spring, which will bump the number of participating schools to more than 100 this fall, with more than 55,000 students.

While preparing students academically for courses in technical, community, or four-year colleges, the program focuses on non-academic aspects of readiness. Its curriculum rests on five “pillars”: academic, admissions, career, financial, and personal/social readiness. Ramp-Up to Readiness is a research-based program, with ongoing research to study its impact and improve its effectiveness.

Program director Jim Bierma emphasizes the importance of school counselors in connecting students to postsecondary options. Ramp-Up works closely with counselors to integrate “college thinking” into junior high and high school courses.

“We hope that by helping students feel college-ready, we will give them the confidence and the mindset that they can be successful in college,” says Bierma, who has been an elementary, junior high, and high school counselor himself and brings national leadership experience to his current role.

Any Minnesota public secondary school may apply to participate in the program. Learn more.

Meeting the need for special education teachers

July 22, 2014

The shortage of special education teachers in Minnesota is significant and growing. The Department of Educational Psychology is stepping up to meet the demand in two ways that begin this fall.

A new B.S. in special education responds to the legislature’s mandate for academic behavioral strategist (ABS) initial licensure. Candidates will prepare to teach students with mild to moderate disabilities and earn the K–12 ABS teaching license.
The program also creates a pathway for those who want to go on to a master’s. Learn more on the web or contact Kathy Seifert at seif0074@umn.edu.

The Minnesota Board of Teaching also approved a first-of-its-kind type of delivery of the existing special education M.Ed. program in emotional and behavior disorders (EBD). Northeast Metro District 916 approached the college, looking for a way to help current staff stay on the job while gaining professional development needed for licensure.

Professor Jennifer McComas got to work adapting the EBD master’s program for onsite delivery to a cohort of 20–30. Four more districts joined the effort. The individuals who start this fall were recommended by their districts and accepted into the U program. The cohort is full, but McComas says future cohorts in EBD and other areas are possible.

Green Team for the all-stars

July 22, 2014

When the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game came to Minnesota in July, a local team swung into action. Sporting Green Team hats, t-shirts, and gloves, 36 U students grabbed color-coded waste bags provided by MLB and worked the aisles between innings, helping fans recycle and manage their recyclable and compostable waste. Game-time action was part of a two-week online course, KIN 4520, Soup to Nuts: MLB All-Star Game, taught by School of Kinesiology’s Tiffany Richardson. She worked closely with the league, designing the course so students could get experience working directly with MLB.

STEM education researchers receive award for innovations in teaching science teachers

July 16, 2014

Curriculum and Instruction professor Gillian Roehrig and Ph.D. students Joshua Ellis, Justin McFadden, and Tasneem Anwar, all researchers in the STEM Education Center, were recently selected by the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE) Awards Committee for the Award IV: Innovations in Teaching Science Teachers for their conference paper, “If You Can’t Say Something Nice: A Design-Based Research Approach Investigating the Social Interactions of New Science and Math Teachers Using a Video Annotation Tool.”

The four researchers have been involved in designing, developing, and improving the Teacher Induction Network (TIN) together since September 2012. (Roehrig has been involved with TIN for much longer.) They have presented their work at a number of conferences (ASTE 2013/14, NARST 2013/14, SITE 2013, E-Learn 2013) and are celebrating their first publication related to TIN, “Beginning Science Teachers’ Use of a Digital Video Annotation Tool to Promote Reflective Practices” (published in the Journal of Science Education and Technology last month).

TIN aims to create a bridge between a science teacher’s education and training and his or her first two years in the classroom. This extra support helps new teachers implement research-based teaching techniques they learned in their teacher education programs and set a path for professional growth.

This particular study made use of VideoANT, an internet browser-embedded, video annotation software that allows a user to add time-marked text annotations to a video of choice. The study explores how in-service teachers might use video to identify successes, progress and missed opportunities for action in the classroom. The results demonstrate that, when left to their own devices, teachers will primarily respond to each other’s teaching practices with praise and agreement. This praise and focus on success might be counterproductive to developing an introspective and reflexive teaching practice. Consequently, this study recommends possible changes to direct participating teachers using software like VideoANT toward more critical analysis.

“We are humbled and thrilled to receive this award,” said Ellis. “We’re very excited that ASTE has placed a focus on innovations in teaching science teachers, and we view TIN as an important vehicle for supporting science teachers in an online environment. We hope this will inspire others to develop their own online teacher induction programs and improve those that are already out there.”

For more information on the STEM Education Center or the Teacher Induction Network research, please visit the STEM Education Center website. For more information on academic programs in STEM Education or Science Education, please visit the STEM Education Program Area page on the C&I website.

Great Lakes to continue support for Prepare2Nspire program

July 16, 2014

Great Lakes Community Investments has granted the Prepare2Nspire project a continuation to further provide mathematics “mentutors” to eighth and eleventh graders in the Minneapolis area.

Prepare2Nspire is an innovative, cascading, multi-grade mathematics tutoring and mentoring opportunity that will include graphing calculator technology.

Principal Investigator Dr. Lesa Covington Clarkson, associate professor, has a history of working in urban schools with diverse populations in the Twin Cities. “Too often, underrepresented students aren’t served in our urban classrooms,” she said, “This program will provide additional time and tools to support students in their mathematics learning.”

As University undergraduate students are tutoring and mentoring eleventh grade algebra 2 students in the program, the eleventh grade cohort is tutoring and mentoring eighth grade algebra students. Graphing calculator technology supports students’ development of algebraic thinking and their preparation for postsecondary study.

Every student profits from this model, according to Clarkson. Tutors are developing mathematics communication and reasoning skills as they explain content in which they are recently engaged and at the same time they are developing roots in mathematics that are fundamental to their current study. Middle school participants are receiving individualized tutoring and mentoring services designed to meet their unique challenges in the mathematics content studied. Simultaneously, grade-level skills will be continually addressed through mini lessons at weekly meetings.

STEM Center Authors to Receive ASTE Award IV: Innovations in Teaching Science Teachers

July 16, 2014

Congratulations to Graduate Students Josh Ellis, Justin McFadden, Tasneem Anwar and to Professor Gillian Roehrig for being awarded the ASTE Award IV: Innovations in Teaching Science Teachers for their paper, “If You Can’t Say Something Nice: A Design-Based Research Approach Investigating the Social Interactions of New Science and Math Teachers Using a Video Annotation Tool”. Each author will receive a plaque from ASTE (The Association for Science Teacher Education) at the 2015 Annual ASTE International Conference Awards Luncheon on Saturday, January 10^th in Portland, OR as well as a cash award from Carolina Biological Supply.

Ellison shares inspiration and insights with TRIO Upward Bound students

July 9, 2014

U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison visited PSTL 1366: Stories of Self and Community, Multicultural Perspectives on July 7, 2014, where TRiO Upward Bound students, student athletes, and other University students had the opportunity to hear the Congressman speak. This summer, under the instruction of Ezra Hyland, the class is reading the Congressman’s book, My Country Tis of Thee, where he recounts his background, his professional career, the social injustices we see in our country, and how that can change. In his discussion with students, Congressman Ellison covered a number of topics including identifying the traits of a good leader, student athletes unionizing, and most notably the impact TRiO has had on improving college attendance and graduation rates for low-income communities. Ellison succinctly reinforced the discussion with a quote he wrote on the white board: “If you want to change something, you need to do something.” Congressmen Ellison urged the students to become involved and vocal in their communities.

Masten approved by Board of Regents as newest Regents Professor

June 25, 2014

For her field-shaping contributions to the study of risk and resilience among children, the University of Minnesota Board of Regents unanimously approved the appointment of Ann Masten as Regents Professor at its June meeting. She joins a select group of 30 professors at the U of M who have earned this highest faculty honor.

Regents Professors are recognized for their national and international prominence and for their exceptional accomplishments in teaching, research, creative work and contributions to the public good. The program provides a stipend of $50,000 annually, with $20,000 dedicated to a salary augmentation and $30,000 dedicated to a discretionary research fund.

Masten, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychology in the Institute of Child Development, is an expert on child development, children’s resilience and interventions promoting children’s adaptation in the face of risk, adversity and trauma. Since the late 1980s, she has conducted a series of studies focused on displaced children and youth, particularly looking at homeless and highly mobile children in Minnesota. Additional research areas include immigrant youth, refugees, war survivors and victims of natural disasters.

“Regents Professor Masten continues to be exceptional in all she does,” said U of M President Eric Kaler. “She has dedicated her career to understanding human resilience, and her insights greatly benefit our society. I look forward to her ongoing research and scholarship and congratulate her on this well deserved honor.”

Masten has published numerous empirical, theoretical and review papers on risk and resilience, competence and developmental psychopathology. Her publications have been widely distributed to scientists, policymakers and practitioners, and she is frequently invited to speak and consult at the national and international level. Masten coined the term “ordinary magic” to describe how human resilience typically arises from the operation of normal rather than extraordinary human capabilities, relationships and resources.

She has served as president of the Society for Research in Child Development and president of the developmental division of the American Psychological Association. She is a member of the Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Academies and the U.S. National Committee for the International Union for Psychological Science.

Masten recently received the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contributions to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society from the American Psychological Association. She is also the recipient of several teaching awards, including the U of M’s Horace T. Morse Alumni Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.

Masten, who received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the U of M in 1982, will be formally recognized by the Board at its September meeting.

The College of Education and Human Development has two other Regents Professors: Megan Gunnar and Karen Seashore.

Read more on Masten’s accomplishments.

Roosevelt High School and CEHD partnership highlighted

June 24, 2014

A recent MinnPost piece by Beth Hawkins featured the successes and challenges of the innovative partnership between Roosevelt High School and CEHD. Read the full story.

STEM Education Center at ASEE Annual Conference

June 17, 2014

Check out the highlights from the 2014 Annual ASEE conference in Indianapolis, IN and see if you can spot the STEM Education Center representatives! The EngrTEAMS project was also recognized for its interactive session. The STEM Education Center is happy to be an active member of the ASEE community and thank the organization for another successful event.

Alternative teacher preparation program approved by Minnesota Board of Teaching

June 13, 2014

A first-of-its-kind alternative teacher preparation program, created by the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), has been granted conditional approval by the Minnesota Board of Teaching (BOT). The program is designed to provide high quality teacher preparation for individuals who need to continue working during their preparation or who come to the field of teaching after earning a degree in another major. A cohort of 38 Teach for America (TFA) corps members (see photo) will be the first enrolled in the program.

The board decision means the first cohort will move forward with an eight-week summer residency in Minneapolis and a partnership with the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ), which includes co-teaching with experienced instructors. The program continues beyond this summer for an additional two years of coursework and professional development.

The program began on June 2 under a BOT-granted discretionary variance approved in May. The conditional approval means the BOT requires additional explanation on some state standards before full approval is granted.

Teacher candidates in the TFA cohort will be prepared in four areas: secondary science, secondary mathematics, K-12 English-language learners and elementary teaching. The corps members will be held to the same standards as those in the comprehensive U of M teacher education programs, according to Deborah Dillon, CEHD associate dean for graduate, professional and international programs.

“This program will allow us to work with our first partners—TFA and the Northside Achievement Zone— in an innovative and flexible way to create the highest quality experience possible and to best prepare this cohort of teachers,” said Dillon. “This is the latest research-based development in our college’s history of creating innovative teacher preparation models for over a century.”

Candidates who are admitted into TFA (which recruits high-achieving college graduates and professionals to teach in high-needs schools) and who meet U of M admission requirements begin teaching this fall with a limited-term teaching license. In addition to the eight-week summer residency (which is longer than the usual five-week TFA summer institute), corps members will have more hours as the instructional leader in front of students and more time working directly with teaching mentors. With nearly two hours of lead teaching per day, the new summer residency increases the pre-service teaching experience of corps members compared to the current model.

Corps members who successfully complete the summer residency and two additional years of study, and who meet the rigorous standards and assessments at the U of M and the state of Minnesota, may be recommended by the U of M for a regular full-time teaching license. These candidates will also have the option of earning additional credits to receive a master’s degree, as do students in the U of M’s comprehensive teacher education programs.

“Our comprehensive program design informed this new alternative program,” said CEHD Dean Jean Quam. “We have huge challenges in our K-12 education systems now that require us, as part of our land-grant commitment to the state, to create additional routes to teaching and to attract a broader diversity of candidates.”

TFA approached the U of M in 2013 to explore developing a partnership under a 2011 law that created alternative pathways for teacher licensure in Minnesota.

“We are excited to work side by side with the University in a program that shows collaboration in working to solve our most complex challenges in education for the benefit of students and teachers,” said Crystal Brakke, executive director of TFA-Twin Cities.

The goals of the “Alternative Pathway to Teaching Program: University of Minnesota-Teach For America Partnership” include preparing effective teachers based on current research in teacher development, focusing on support for student learning grounded in principles of equity and cultural responsiveness, and preparing candidates to teach in diverse settings, such as NAZ, which is a federal Promise Neighborhood. Developing participants’ long-term commitment to teaching is another goal.

“We want to prepare individuals who will teach beyond their initial two-year commitment, who will want to stay in the classroom and in education long into their careers,” said Dillon, “and we believe that will happen because our candidates will be well-prepared and supported as they learn to teach and develop as new educators.”

TFA corps members will pay a fee to the University for program delivery and supervision. Any revenues generated will be invested in research that allows CEHD to study how to most effectively improve alternative models.

See a short video about the program on the CEHD YouTube site .

C&I’s Foundations of Reading students receive award celebrating collaboration and friendship

June 6, 2014

Many of the awards and scholarship funds at the University of Minnesota are established to honor a truly inspiring person. But, a handful of these awards honor not just one person, but multiple people, and in some cases, the relationships between them. One such award, the “Best Friends” award is a perfect example.

Virum and Scatliff at their graduation in 1949

Members of the Class of 1949, Margaret “Muggs” Virum and Irene Scatliff were both “A” students. Instead of competing against each other for the top score, however, their love for learning fueled an enduring friendship united by a mutual love of books, teaching, politics, and child education. After graduation, Virum taught for forty-nine years in the Minneapolis Public School System, and Scatliff moved to New Haven, Connecticut to work for the Gesell Child Development Institute. Their lives took different paths but the two friends stayed connected. Over the years, Irene and her family visited Margaret’s classrooms frequently.

An insatiable passion for literacy was at the core of Irene and Margaret’s friendship. Even though Irene never returned to live in Minneapolis, Margaret made Irene a lifelong subscriber to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. They read the same columnists, loved and hated the same politicians, and enjoyed the same comics. They collaborated by reading and talking about the news together and then reflecting upon how current affairs might affect the lives of children. Irene and Margaret loved discussing educational policies and the latest news from Margaret’s elementary school and the Minneapolis school system. Their relationship never diminished, despite their geographic distance; their long distance phone calls would often creep into the wee hours of morning.

Irene’s hope in establishing a way to honor her best friend Margaret (formerly called the Virum Award), and now the Scatliff Family in creating the “Best Friends” Fund, is to support collegiality among future educators in the same manner Irene and Margaret practiced with one another throughout their lives as educators. The Scatliff family believes that by encouraging collaboration, future teachers can be inspired to seek greatness in the classroom. Through small grants to future educators, the hope is that the “Best Friends” Fund will inspire other future educators to further childhood literacy through collaborative efforts and their own singular endeavors.

This year’s awards offer future early childhood education and elementary preservice teachers, enrolled in CI 5413 Foundations of Reading the opportunity to review the Margaret Virum collection, write about what they learn, and collaborate with a colleague who also reviews the collection. Each winner receives $250 designated for the purchase of books and electronic texts created for early childhood education and elementary age-level students, allowing future teachers the ability to create the beginning of a strong classroom library. Ms. Virum left a lasting legacy of her passion for teaching in the form of student work and materials from lessons, scrapbooks that document life in her classroom each year she taught, and her own reflections in the form of personal journals. The materials have been cataloged and are housed in a special collection in the Curriculum and Instruction Library. This year’s recipients enjoyed a ceremony at the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul.

2014 Recipients:

Kirsten Ptak
Zach Steigauf
Annie Fischer
Angela Madison
Alexandra Richardson
Jill Houghton
Bertha Ortiz
Jennifer Rose Martin
Christine Sack
Courtney Zellmer

The course, CI 5413: Foundations of Reading is a requirement of the Elementary Education Foundations program. To learn more about Elementary Education Foundations, please visit the program’s webpage. To learn more about scholarships and awards available, please visit CEHD’s Scholarships and Awards page.

Lensmire featured on TCR’s The Voice

June 4, 2014

This week, Timothy Lensmire, associate professor in Curriculum and Instruction discusses his paper, “White Men’s Racial Others,” on The Voice, a video series produced for the Teachers College Record. As an accompaniment to the video, Lensmire is also participating in an online discussion where he will write and respond to comments to the video. The Teachers College Record is a journal of research, analysis, and commentary in the field of education. It has been published continuously since 1900 by Teachers College, Columbia University.

Lensmire’s article examines race and whiteness in a rural community in Wisconsin. He explores how white people use people of color (both real and imagined) to produce their own white racial identities. His work responds to past conceptions of white racial identity that oversimplify whiteness and possibly undermine our critical pedagogies.

We encourage you to participate in the discussion. To watch his video and leave comments, please visit the Teachers College Record website. For more information about Tim Lensmire’s research, please visit his profile page.

Woodbury Middle School EngrTEAMS Students Test Solar Ovens

May 30, 2014

Students of EngrTEAMS Teacher Fellow, David Rafferty, tested solar ovens they built as part of the EngrTEAMS curricular unit Mr. Rafferty developed for the project. Read more about their work and the EngrTEAMS project here: http://www.woodburybulletin.com/content/solar-ovens-yield-sunny-side-smores-wms

STEM Center Congratulates Ph.D. Candidates for Successfully Defending Projects

May 23, 2014

The STEM Education Center would like to congratulate the following individuals for successfully defending their Ph.D. project.

John Czaplewski, Mathematics Education, Ph.D. “An Evaluation of Blended Learning Method of Instruction in Terms of Knowledge Acquisition and Attitude in an Introductory Mathematics Course”

Kristina M. Tank, Science Education, Ph.D. “Examining the Effects of an Integrated Science Unit on Student Learning”

Scot Hovan, Science Education, Ph.D. “Contributing to Meaning Making: Facilitating Discourse in the High School Physics Classroom”

Eric McDonald, Science Education Ph.D. “Sharing and Moving Toward, the Evolution of Expertise in the Science Classroom”

Mary Hoelscher, Science Education “LGBTQ-Inclusion in Educator Preparation: Getting Ready for Gender and Sexual Diversity in Secondary School Settings”

Tasneem Anwar Receives WPLC Award

May 20, 2014

Congratulations to, Tasneem Anwar (STEM GRA), for receiving the Women’s Philanthropic Leadership Circle’s 2014 award. A total of $17,000 in awards were made to outstanding women throughout the College of Education and Human Development. There will be a WPLC’s Annual Awards Celebration on June 17, 9-11 a.m., Town and Country Club, where the award recipients will be honored. Holly Zanville (Ph.D. ’76), strategy director for the Lumina Foundation, will give a keynote talk. There is no cost to attend, but RSVPs are required by June 6, to wplc@umn.edu. For questions about WPLC, contact Raleigh Kaminsky.

Dr. Gillian Roehrig Receives Tenure Promotion

May 20, 2014

Dr. Gillian Roehrig recently received approval by the Board of Regents on her new associate professor with tenure promotion. Dr. Roehrig has been a valued leader in the STEM Education Center; her passion and dedication to STEM education has greatly impacted the success of the center. The STEM Education Center would like to congratulate Dr. Roehrig on this accomplishment and thank her for everything she has done for STEM Education.

Study of Family Liaison Positions in High-Poverty, Urban Schools

May 19, 2014

Education and Urban Society has published a study authored by Beverly Dretzke, a CAREI Research Associate, and Susan Rickers, a former CAREI Graduate Research Assistant who is now an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Bemidji State University. The paper, titled “The Family Liaison Position in High-Poverty, Urban Schools,” examines the roles and responsibilities of family liaisons working in urban schools with enrollments characterized by high poverty, high mobility, and ethnic diversity.

Results of the study indicated that the major responsibilities of the liaisons were creating a trusting and welcoming environment, facilitating parent involvement in the schools, keeping parents informed on school-related topics, and connecting parents with resources. To increase their effectiveness, the liaisons requested greater job clarity and more flexibility in their formal work hours. In general, it appeared that the family liaisons investigated in this study placed a stronger emphasis on creating a welcoming environment and establishing trust than has been found in research on family liaisons in more affluent communities.

Miksch part of William T. Grant Foundation grant

May 19, 2014

Karen Miksch (associate professor in the Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning) is part of a new William T. Grant Foundation funded team looking at how amicus briefs (friend of the court briefs) use research. The group will be looking at the Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin affirmative action case and the use of research by nearly 100 amicus briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The work will also be informed by the court’s recent decision in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action–in particular, as Justice Sotomayor discusses and cites to social science evidence extensively in her dissenting opinion. More information about the award is available at http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/news/grant_announcements/spring-2014-research-grants-and-distinguished-fellows. Congratulations to Karen on her grant award and her new faculty position in OLPD!

CEHD News Jeff Webb

CEHD News Jeff Webb