On Friday, October 28th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for, Maritime Studies, Laurie Wolfley, met with ECE certified MAST Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Teachers and faculty discussed Winslow Homer’s “Fog Warning” and took to the water to experience the fog first-hand from dories on the water. Later participants discussed Stephen Crane’s Own Story” (the newspaper account of the shipwreck) and “The Open Boat” (Crane’s fictionalized version of the same event).

UConn Maritime Studies Courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday, November 3rd, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for, Chemistry, Fatma Selampinar met with ECE certified CHEM Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The group heard from Dr. Michael Kienzler, Assistant Processor, Chemistry, UConn. Dr. Kienzler discussed molecular photoswitches that reversibly interconvert between isomers when irradiated with different wavelengths of light. At the same time, using ring strain to increase reactivity of a substrate is a well-established technique for completing otherwise sluggish chemical reactions. In his research he is interested in combining these two ideas to develop cyclized photoswitches to reversibly generate ring-strain, and study the activation of functional groups for light-dependent spatiotemporal control of target reactions, in particular for ring-opening polymerizations and for electrocyclzation reactions.

After a short lecture, ECE Chemistry Instructors were able to participate in an experiment “Synthesis and Photoswitching of Azobenzene” before ending the day with lunch and conversations about their UConn Chemistry courses.

UConn Chemistry Courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Wednesday, November 9th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Library Liaisons and Student Success Librarians Zach Claybaugh and Kelsey Brown met with Library Media Specialists from ECE partner high schools for a training session.

Librarians selected breakout sessions based on their interests. Sessions included:

Session 1:

• Richard Bleiler—English & History
• Jennifer Chaput—STEM
• Laura Smith—Primary Source Research

Session 2:

• Fyansia Nsilo-Swai—Sociology
• Jane Strudwick & Kristina Edwards—Latest Electronic Resources and Troubleshooting Off-Campus Access
• Roslyn Grandy—Strategies for Searching UConn Library Databases
• Jason Nicosia—Using HuskyCT for your ECE Class

Session 3:

• Theresa Palacios-Baughman—Interlibrary Services
• Hilary Kraus—A Brief Introduction to Citation Managers
• Jennifer Schaefer—Engaging with Primary Sources in Latinx, Caribbean and Latin American Studies Courses
• Nancy Dryden—Finding Books & EBooks Fast: Using the Library Catalog

An ECE Lib Guide which provides key links to essential resources from UConn’s libraries can be referenced here.

On Tuesday, November 15^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Music, Shannon McAlister met with ECE certified Music Instructors for their annual professional development conference. Topics for the workshop included accessibility in the music classroom and reframing participation in the music classroom. Instructors also participated in a teaching demonstration activity.

UConn Music courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, November 18, 2022 our UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators for Spanish Eduardo Urios-Aparisi and Gustavo Nanclares ran the workshop “Cinema in the Spanish classroom.” This is their first online workshop out of the four that they will conduct this year (three will be held online and a fourth one in person). The goal of these online workshops is to discuss a single topic and present some practical ideas and resources for the classes and to offer a space for everyone to interact, discuss, and share experiences related to the teaching and learning of Spanish.

In this first workshop the group explored the topic of Spanish and Latin-American short film and its use in the classroom. They discussed the importance and peculiarities of the short film as a genre, shared a number of online resources for Hispanic short films. They then proceeded to discuss and analyze the animation short Niebla by the Mexican director Emilio Ramos. After this analysis, participants worked in groups analyzing visual, technical, narrative, and thematic aspects of the short films Amor, Nuestra Prisión (Carolina Corral Paredes, 2016) and Una Carrerita, Doctor (Julio Ramos, 2015). The workshop ended with a general discussion of the advantages of using this type of cinematic genre in the ECE Spanish classroom followed by participants sharing their own experiences and ideas using film in their classes.

UConn Spanish courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, October 28th , UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Marine Science, Claudia Koerting met with ECE certified MARN Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Teachers were treated to a presentation by Dr. Zosia Baumann, assistant research professor with Marine Sciences on an oyster rehabilitation project on the Quinnipiac River. Dr. Baumann is seeking further funding to expand the program to Southeastern Connecticut and engage secondary school students. Her presentation demonstrated outreach and engagement with students from the Sound School and their teacher Chuck Mulligan.

Karen Moré Director of Research Compliance-Animal Research & Safety, UConn spoke about regulations on using animals in UConn courses. They discussed good practices that can be introduced to the high school students when working with vertebrates and were provided with CT NERRS information and what having a National Estuarine Research Reserve System (https://coast.noaa.gov/nerrs/) means for local educators.

Later the teachers were introduced to our newest marine sciences professor, Assistant Professor Cara Manning, who also teaches introduction to oceanography. They were invited to collaborate with Professor Manning and her graduate student on future projects. Professor Manning also directed teachers to her website where past publications and the data are available for students to work with.

Finally, Dr. Koerting shared some information from post doctoral fellow Dr. Jessie Turner who works with Professor Heidi Dierrsen on ocean optics. Dr. Turner has developed a low cost, DIY reflectance sensor that teachers and their students can construct themselves.

In between presentations the group chatted about several topics specific to high school students, administrations, expectations, grading, and more.

UConn Marine Science Courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, October 28^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems, Julia Kuzovkina met with ECE certified SPSS Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The day included presentations by UConn Faculty Dr. Berkowitz: GMO’s: Plant Biotechnology; focused on genetic engineering of crop plants,  and Dr. Wong: BIofuels, Biomass and Plant Stem Cells. After lunch Neil Mattson (Cornell) discussed Controlled Environment Agriculture and Dr. Yi Ma led instructors through pGLO Bacterial Transformation.

UConn Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems Courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, October 21st , UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Physics, Dave Perry met with ECE certified Physics Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The group discussed final exams and syllabi for the UConn Physics courses offered through ECE and later Associate Professor in-Residence and Director of Teaching Laboratories, Diego Valente spoke about virtual platforms and gave a presentation on Quantum Computing.

UConn Physics Courses offered through Early College Experience.

Connecticut high school teachers who are certified instructors with the UConn Early College Experience (ECE) – Economics program gathered (virtually) on October 26, 2022, for an annual professional development workshop. The Economics Department sees these instructors as colleagues and values their participation in the University mission.

For a detailed blog about the days events see:

https://econ.uconn.edu/2022/10/31/early-college-experience-economics-workshop-2022/

UConn Economics Courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, November 4th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Sociology, Ingird Semaan met with ECE certified Sociology Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

To start, the group introduced themselves and discussed the courses they are teaching and their successes and challenges. Later Dr. Semann provided an overview of teaching college-level sociology courses, teaching the sociological imagination, and a review of UConn’s library resources as they pertain to sociology.

UConn Sociology Courses offered through Early College Experience.