On Thursday, October 26^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for European History (HIST 1400), Prof. Tom Maulucci met with certified HIST 1400 Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. Prof. Elizabeth Della Zazzera (UConn History Department), shared her talk “How to be Modern in Post-Napoleonic France,” followed by questions and comments from the Instructors. Later, the Instructors shared their insights from the assigned readings and videos on the 1848 Revolutions by Christopher Clark and Jonathan Sperber with Prof. Maulucci. Zach Claybaugh (UConn Library) also joined the group to share resources for the 1848 Revolution available through the UConn Libraries. To end the day everyone participated in a conversation about AI and it’s implications in the history classroom.

UConn History courses offered through ECE.

On Thursday, November 16^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Music, Shannon McAlister met with certified ECE Music Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. After introductions, where the group shared their teaching history, the UConn music courses they teach, and their favorite part of being a teacher they discussed their goals for the day. Next the group engaged  in conversation with Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Dr. Stefanie Acevedo on popular music. After a short break, the group reconvened and Shannon shared updates and new resources with the Instructors and highlighted the UConn ECE HuskyCT site for Music Instructors.

UConn Music courses offered through ECE.

On Tuesday, November 14^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators for Animal Science, Drs. Amy Safran and Jen Nadeau met with certified ECE Animal Science Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. After introductions, Dr. Safran went over guidelines for all ECE Instructors including sample syllabi with course descriptions, philosophy, required texts, and grading policies. Later the group participated in a discussion about their courses and ideas for future professional development meetings. After lunch, they were able to get hands on experience in a Horse Science lab on equine myofascial release therapy with Cathleen Peabody, a professional equine therapist.

UConn Animal Science courses offered through ECE.

On Wednesday, October 18^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Philosophy, Prof. Mitch Green met with certified PHIL Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. Prof. Green spoke with instructors about grading student essays. Each instructor provided three anonymized graded samples of student essays for the conversation.

Later, Prof. Green led a discussion on “post-truth” epistemology after instructors watched, a Ted Talk by UConn Professor Michael Lynch(below): “How to See Past Your Own Perspective and Find Truth.”.

UConn PHIL courses offered through ECE.

On Friday, October 13^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Marine Science, Prof. Claudia Koerting met with certified MARN Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. The purpose of the day’s workshop was to familiarize teachers with both old and new equipment used to sample and analyze water quality and to make connections among faculty new to the ECE program and veteran Instructors.

The group of 13 ECE Instructors set out on a boat and enjoyed the scenery while becoming acquainted. They gathered at the Sabino dock to board the “Mystic Seaport Express” captained by Liz Sistare (UConn ’13), Waterfront Operations Supervisor. Participating instructors represented 5 of Connecticut’s counties.

The breezy but sunny day began with a trip through the Mystic Drawbridge. After passing the railroad bridge they found a site by channel marker 30 in the Mystic River to make their first set of measurements using instruments that measure salinity, oxygen, and temperature. They deployed a water sampler to retrieve water samples near the bottom and used a simple bucket for surface water samples. They performed two plankton tows and brought those samples back for microscopic evaluation. Two more sites were chosen: one nearer to the mouth of the river and the other closer to the outflow for the treatment plant. Water samples were returned with the group to the seaport sailing center where they tested for chlorophyll content using a fluorometer and performed a light/dark experiment with water from two sites. Conversations were held about how these samples could inform scientists and regulators about policy guiding water use in the river. Comparisons were drawn with boat trips teachers have made all along the Connecticut shoreline.

After lunch at the sailing center the group ran their analysis, looked at the plankton tow and compared oxygen uptake in the light/dark bottle experiment. The day ended with Instructors learning a new method, learning a new instrument, or walking away with new connections and ideas.

UConn MARN courses offered through ECE.

On Monday, October 23^rd, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Physics, Dave Perry met with certified PHYS Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. Dr. Perry shared a program overview and discussed labs and exams with the Instructors. Later the group heard from ECE Instructor Alina Britchi (Daniel Hand High School) about her CERN experience this summer and from Keynote  speaker Heather Osborne, Lab Technician/Curator from Wesleyan University regarding “Playing Science”.

UConn PHYS courses offered through ECE.

On Friday, November 3^rd, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Sociology, Ingrid Semann met with certified Sociology Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. After some general introductions and a discussion of the successes and challenges instructors have in their UConn courses the group heard from a panel of UConn faculty. Fumilayo Showers, Kim Price-Glynn, and Noël A. Cazenave comprised the panel.

• Fumilayo Showers

Dr. Showers’ research focuses on the social organization of health and long-term care; health professions; care work; and immigrant workers. Her book, Migrants Who Care: West Africans Working and Building Lives in US Health Care, documents the experiences of recent West African immigrants in a range of health care occupations in the US. In another project, Post-Mortem of a Pandemic: A Temporal Frame of Work, Life, and Death in COVID-19, she is conducting interviews among frontline health care workers to trace a history of loss, vulnerability, stress and burnout, moral injury, occupational inequality, racism, coping strategies, and unanticipated opportunity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Kim Price-Glynn

Professor Price-Glynn’s research interests center on gender, labor and carework. She is co-editor of the volume, From Crisis to Catastrophe: Care, COVID and Pathways to Change. Her current study (under contract with Rutgers University Press) explores the direct and indirect care of parenting groups that demonstrate both barriers and solutions to more equitable and transformative care practices. Professor Price-Glynn’s past research addresses diverse settings including strip clubs, nursing homes, and home health care. Her book, Strip Club: Gender, Power, and Sex Work, examined the processes through which men and women wield, negotiate, and contest power in a gendered organization.

• Noël A. Cazenave

In addition to numerous journal articles, book chapters, and other publications, Professor Cazenave coauthored Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card against America’s Poor, which won five book awards; and has since then published Impossible Democracy: The Unlikely Success of the War on Poverty Community Action Programs; The Urban Racial State: Managing Race Relations in American Cities; Conceptualizing Racism: Breaking the Chains of Racially Accommodative Language; and Killing African Americans: Police and Vigilante Violence as a Racial Control Mechanism. His most recent book is Kindness Wars: The History and Political Economy of Human Caring.

To end the meeting the group shared helpful resources with each other and mentioned possible topics for future workshops.

UConn Sociology courses offered through ECE.

On Wednesday, October 25^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Economics, Prof. Natalia Smirnova met with certified ECON Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. Presentations by a UConn ECE Instructor Ian Tiedemann (Greenwich High School), Scott A. Wolla, Economic Education Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and Ariel Slonim, Curriculum Designer, Marginal Revolution University (MRU) made up the day. Presentation topics are below:

• Success Sharing: Journal of Future Economists — 2023 — Greenwich HS (page 78) Teacher: Ian Tiedemann, Greenwich HS.
• Teaching Market Structures with Gum (Active Learning), Scott A. Wolla, Economic Education Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Bio: https://research.stlouisfed.org/staff/wolla
• Supply, Demand, Action! Harnessing interactive tools to teach supply and demand. (Active Learning), Ariel Slonim, Curriculum Designer, Marginal Revolution University (MRU).  Aiel Slonim is sharing her passion for economics literacy by helping to improve resources for economics education in the US. Prior to joining MRU, Ariel taught economics to 8th grade students in Brooklyn and taught as an adjunct at the King’s College, NYC. Ariel has a Masters in Economics from GMU.
• Monetary Policy has Changed. Has Your Teaching? (Active Learning), Scott A. Wolla, Economic Education Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
• Cracking the Code: Understanding GDP and Inflation through interactive tools. (Active Learning) Ariel Slonim, Curriculum Designer, Marginal Revolution University (MRU).
• Teaching Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Topics in Economics, Natalia V. Smirnova, UConn

For more information see the Department of Economics post about the event at ECE Economics Workshop 2023 | Department of Economics (uconn.edu)

UConn Economics courses offered through ECE.

On Thursday, May 22^nd UConn Early LLAS (Latino and Latin American Studies) Instructors met on the Hartford campus with UConn ECE LLAS Faculty Coordinator, Anne Gebelein for their annual professional development workshop.

Instructors heard from guest speaker, Dr. Rodolfo Fernandez on “Liberalism and Neocolonialism in Latin America 1870-1920”. After lunch ECE Instructors Bonnie Nietupski (Glastonbury High School) and Dan Marak (Manchester High School) shared resources with the group. Bonnie spoke about Developing Latin America-centered Curriculum and Dan spoke about Tobacco Cultivation and Latin American Migration. Prof. Gebelein also shared additional materials with the group for teaching about Caribbean migration and Tobacco.

UConn LLAS courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, October 6^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for English, Profs. Scott Campbell and Jason Courtmanche, and GA Adam McLain met with certified ECE English Instructors at this professional development conference.

The theme was “Salutations, Congratulations, and Critiques”

The conference built on the work of Deonna Smith on joy and the anti-racist classroom, Gholdy Muhammad on cultivating genius and unearthing joy, and Felicia Rose Chavez on the anti-racist writing workshop in a series of workshops that brought together the community of ECE English teachers to share in the delights and failings of giving feedback.

For additional details see: https://ece.english.uconn.edu/fall-2023-conference/.

UConn English courses offered through ECE.