On Thursday, May 4th Early College Experience Biology Instructors visited the Storrs campus for a professional development workshop. Instructors worked with UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator, Dr. Tom Abbot, Dr. Chris Malinoski, and Rebecca Newcomer on a laboratory exercise where Instructors received hands on experience. Instructors performed a colorimetric assay allowing them to observe the activity of the mechanism that yeast use to import maltose.

UConn Biology courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Wednesday, May 10^th UConn Early College Statistics Instructors met with UConn ECE Statistics Faculty Coordinator, Prof. Nalini Ravishanker for their annual professional development workshop.

The day included STAT 1100 content and problem discussions with presentations by fellow ECE Instructors. After a break the group took part in a virtual presentation by Dr. Bonnie K. Ray, VP of Data at Chartbeat: “Using statistics to measure engagement with the news”. Dr. Ray provided examples of fairly basic statistical procedures that are used in the Chartbeat product to identify spikes in engagement on a story, benchmark engagement, and other factors.

UConn Statistics courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday, May 9^th UConn Early College Experience Human Development and Family Sciences Instructors met with UConn ECE HDFS Faculty Coordinator, Shannon Weaver and ECE HDFS GA Jessie Gentilella for the Spring UConn ECE HDFS Workshop.

The day included a celebration of past year successes, program updates, and a keynote presentation:

“Covid Three Years Later: Implications for Individual and Family Development and Well-being from a Longitudinal National Study and Human Development”

• Shannon E. Weaver, Ph.D., Associate Professor Human Development & Family Sciences, University of Connecticut
• Carol A. Johnston, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
• Eboni Baugh, Ph.D., Associate Professor Human Development & Family Science, East Carolina University
• Dana Weisser, Associate Professor Human Development & Family Sciences, Texas Tech University

After a break, the group reconvened to share ideas for teaching challenging topics in their classrooms and a panel discussion.

“Learning from Our Experience: Veteran Instructor’s Answers to Common Course Questions and Issues” occurred.

The panel included ECE Instructors:

• Rebecca Daddio, Cheshire High School
• Diane Richards, Trumbull High School
• Martha Goldstein-Schultz, Ph.D., Coordinator for Youth Development, Education, and Language and Literacy Programs, Student Activities Community Outreach, University of Connecticut
• Amanda Stirgwolt, Ph.D. University of Connecticut

UConn Human Development and Family Sciences courses offered through Early College Experience.

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 Wednesday, October 11^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for SPSS, Julia Kuzovkina met with certified ECE SPSS Instructors at this professional development workshop at Southington High school.  This year the group implemented a different approach: instead of UConn faculty developing a program, the teachers designed their own workshop to provide them with relevant experiences.

The workshop included diverse activities: during a field practicum Brian Bostrom explained how to analyze the soil for specific purposes (photo 1); a representative from academia Nick Goltz provided a recent update on plant diseases; an owner of a landscape company Nicole Ali described new trends in the landscape industry;  a presentation by Dustyn Nelson, past president of the Connecticut Nursery and Landscape Industry, discussed  students preparation for future careers in the Green Industry (photo 3). In addition, there was a Hands-On Floral Workshop, run by a practitioner Paul Lumia from Nyren’s of New England, where teachers were introduced to beautiful fall arrangements which can be introduced in the ECE Floral Art courses at schools (photo 2).

Photo 1  

Photo 2

Photo 3

UConn SPSS courses offered through ECE.

On Wednesday, October 11^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for American Studies, Laurie Wolfley met with certified ECE AMST Instructors at this professional development conference.

Instructors received a copy of Ann Petry’s The Street which they read beforehand. Shawn Salvant, Professor of English and Africana Studies (UConn) shared his presentation “Ann Petry’s The Street: Revisiting a Classics” and discussed how curriculum can be designed around the text.

Later groups of Instructors worked together to develop lessons, gather resources and share teaching strategies. Materials will be posted to the ECE American Studies HuskyCT site for reference.

UConn American Studies courses offered through ECE.

On Thursday, October 12^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Natural Resources & the Environment, Prof. Morty Ortega met with certified NRE Instructors for their annual professional development workshop. The workshop was held at Sessions Woods Wildlife Management Area in Burlington, CT. Presentations by the Sessions Woods staff included:

• The private life of bears – Melissa Ruszczyk (DEEP)
• The private life of bobcats – Jason Hawley (DEEP)
• Habitat – Peter Picone (DEEP)

The presentations were well received by the teachers, and they had many questions for each of the presenters.

UConn NRE courses offered through ECE.

On Thursday, May 18th UConn Early College EDCI (Education Curriculum and Instruction) and EDLR (Educational Leadership) Instructors met virtually with UConn ECE EDCI and EDLR Faculty Coordinators, Tom Levine and Danielle Derosa for their annual professional development workshop.

Instructors discussed the concept of justice as it relates to equity, within education specifically, and society broadly. In preparation for this portion of the workshop, instructors read “Justice a Short Story” by Mariame Kaba and engaged in a restorative justice workshop as a group. Later in discipline specific breakout sessions, instructors discussed effective instruction specific to the course taught.

UConn Education courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Wednesday, April 26th UConn Early College Experience Earth Science Instructors met with faculty from UConn’s ERTH Department. ECE Faculty Coordinator for ERTH, Dr. Robert Thorson led a walking tour around campus. After leaving Rowe, they headed east to Augustus Storrs Hall, the oldest masonry building on campus, which set the precedent for the campus layout in 1906 to follow the glacial grain. Crossing Swan Lake, they examined in sequence: the Stone Pavilion, a rubble of glacial slabs, the local bedrock (the Paleozoic Hebron Gneiss), and ended the walking tour with a walk up to experience the view from Horsebarn Hill. Returning to the center of campus, the group stopped in Beach Hall—home to UConn’s Earth Sciences Department. They toured the building, visited teaching labs for introductory geoscience courses, research labs, and met with Department Head, Tracy Frank.  After lunch the group engaged in presentation by Prof. Thorson on the Connecticut Landscape. Thor shared an article from CT insider that he wrote and highlighted the Climate Underground podcast.

UConn Earth Sciences courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday, May 2^nd Early College Experience Allied Health Instructors visited the Storrs campus for a professional development workshop. After a welcome by Allied Health Sciences Department Head, Dr. Justin Nash, the group introduced themselves and discussed AH 4092: EMT Training, AH 1100: Introduction to Allied Health Professions, and AH 2001: Medical Terminology in roundtable sessions discussing best practices and strategies for engaging with students.

UConn Allied Health Sciences courses offered through Early College Experience.