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 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 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 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 Friday, May 5th Early College Experience French Instructors participated in their annual professional development workshop. The day included the following sessions:

Podcasts in French: UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for French, Professor Florence Marsal, spoke to teachers about different podcasts in French, and brainstormed ideas for activities in the classroom. Examples of interesting podcasts: « L’Heure du Monde », « une vie une œuvre », « French voices », « pile ».

Multimedia Medievalisms, Elisabeth Buzay, Visiting Assistant Professor in French: Elisabeth talked contemporary adaptations of medieval stories in a variety of media, and how they can be integrated into the second language classroom.

“La laïcité” Mary Beth Allen, Visiting Assistant Professor in French: Mary Beth talked about the concepts of secularism and multiculturalism in France.

“Booktube”, Nada Elshabrawy,Teaching Assistant – Graduate Student in French: Nada talked about the differences between Booktube channels in the US and in France, common topics found on Booktube, and how to employ Booktube/Booktok techniques in the French language classroom.  

Participants also received e-copies of “La bande dessinée” by Annie Baron-Carvais, and “Le Multiculturalisme” by Patrick Savidan.

UConn French 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 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 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.