On Tuesday, April 18^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for English, Profs. Scott Campbell and Jason Courtmanche, and GA Maddie Gehling met with certified ECE English Instructors at this professional development conference.

Topics for the day included, reading in ECE English, using UConn library resources, and building text into the course inquiry. After a working lunch a brief Q&A period occurred before the day concluded.

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

UConn English courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday, April 25th UConn Early College Experience Environmental Science Instructors met with faculty from UConn’s NRE Department. ECE Faculty Coordinator for NRE, Dr. Morty Ortega invited Dr. Cynnamon Dobbs to share her talk, “Urban Forests for a Resilient Future” with the group.

Dr. Dobbs is an Assistant Professor in Urban and Community Forestry with University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on urban forest ecosystem services and its link to the sustainability and resilience of urban areas. She uses quantitative data from biophysical and social factors to distinguish drivers of change, and to produce evidence for improving urban decision making. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Ecology at the University of Melbourne, Australia; her MS degree at the University of Florida; and her BS at the Universidad de Chile, Chile. Dr. Dobbs has a large number of publications in scientific journals, book chapters, and extension journals. As a teacher, she has instructed courses such as Forest and climate change, Urban ecology, Landscape ecology, and many others.

After the presentation, the group discussed class activities to teach about Urban Forest and their courses as they are dealing with post-covid student behavior and other struggles.

UConn NRE courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday, March 10th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from Anthropology, Dr. Alexia Smith and Dr. Noga Shemer, Assistant Professor-in-Residence of Anthropology at UConn met with certified ECE Anthropology Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

This workshop focused on practical strategies for teaching anthropology today. The focus was on some of the recent changes within the field, “hot topics,” participation agreements, accessibility issues, and engagement modalities.

Dr. Alexia Smith serves as an Associate Professor of Anthropology, the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Anthropology, and the ECE Anthropology coordinator. She regularly teaches Anth 1500 Great Discoveries in Archaeology which includes ongoing discussions of cultural heritage.

Dr. Noga Shemer served as a guest facilitator for the workshop. Dr. Shemer is an Assistant Professor-in-Residence of Anthropology at UConn, where she also serves as an Affiliate faculty member of El Instituto (Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies) and as an Assistant Director of Faculty Development at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. She is a cultural anthropologist who has many years’ experience teaching Anth 1000W, a writing intensive version of Peoples and Cultures of the World, Anth 2000W Social Anthropology, Anth 3152 Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, Anth 3029 Caribbean Cultures, and Anth 3251 Psychological Anthropology. She provides workshops across the university focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the classroom and has published journal articles focusing on her use of person-centered ethnographies to build empathy.

The group explored “Teaching Anthropology Today” through guided discussions, interspersed with mini-presentations/responses from Dr. Shemer. The workshop concluded with a more open-ended discussion regarding teaching experiences and questions from the instructors.

UConn Anthropology courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Tuesday, March 21st, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Classics, Associate Professor Sara Johnson met with certified ECE Classics Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Associate Professor Roger Travis spoke with the group about UConn’s CAMS 1103 course and discussed the process for certification to teach the course in a partner high school. Teachers must audit Prof. Travis’ course and work with him to develop a version of the syllabus that works in the high school classroom.

After a short break, the group discussed “Circe” by Madeline Miller.

 

UConn Classics courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Wednesday March 29th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators for Political Science, Department Head and Associate Professor Oksan Bayulgen and Assistant Professor Evan Perkoski met with certified ECE Political Science Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

After introductions, a panel of UConn Political Science Faculty spoke with the group about “Challenges and Opportunities of Teaching Introductory Political Science Courses”. Panelists included Associate Professor Thomas Hayes, Professor Jeremy Pressman, and Associate Professor Fred Lee.

After lunch the group engaged in an interactive conversation with Professor Tom Deans on “AI in Academic Writing”.

 

UConn Political Science courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday March 23rd, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for German, Professor Anke Finger met with certified ECE German Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The group discussed Intercultural Literature in the German Classroom and discussed their UConn courses.

UConn German courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday, February 16^th  UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators for Animal Science, Dr. Jen Nadeau and Dr. Amy Safran met with certified Animal Science Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Instructors met for a tour of UConn’s animal facilities including the voluntary milking system. Later, Drs. Safran and Nadeau went over guidelines for all ECE instructors including sample syllabi with course description and philosophy, required books, and course specific grading policies. The group discussed their courses and possible topics for future workshops before observing a UConn section of ANSC 1676: Introduction to Companion Animals where Molly Riser, UConn ANSC PhD student provided an overview of the domestication and breeding of dogs.

UConn Animal Science courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, December 19^th, UConn Early College Experience and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Math, Associate Professor in Residence, Anthony Rizzie met with ECE Certified Math Instructors for their annual professional development meeting. After a short welcome and discussing the UConn Math courses offered through ECE including course schedules, expectations, and general updates the group broke into groups to discuss MATH 1030Q and 1131Q and 1132Q. Later the group had a discussion about AP Precalculus and AP Calculus AB and BC and their impact on UConn Math course offerings at their high schools and the other concurrent and dual enrollment programs high schools may have partnerships with throughout the state.

UConn Math courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday, March 2nd, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Educational Psychology, Prof. Joe Madaus met with certified EPSY 1100: Special Education Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Dr. Jason Irizarry, Dean of the Neag School of Education welcomed the group and then Dr. Madaus spoke to the instructors about the courses they are teaching in their high schools. Later in the afternoon we were joined by Patricia Wood, author of “Lottery: A Novel”: who spoke to the group. This text is used in the EPSY 1100 course.

UConn Education courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday, March 2nd, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from Digital Media & Design Ken Thompson met with certified ECE DMD Instructors for an in person professional development conference.

The day included a variety of workshops and discussion sessions:

• Sound Capture/Engineering Workshop

Faculty: Catherine Masud, Assistant Profesor in-Residence, Digital Film/Video Production | Storrs

• Non-Linear Narrative Tools Workshop

Faculty: Ken Thompson, Assistant Professor in-Residence, Digital Game Design | Storrs

• Design Thinking and successfully leading a class full of creatives

Faculty: Ken Thompson, Assistant Professor in-Residence, Digital Game Design | Storrs

• Environmental Science Communication in Multimedia

• Faculty: Heather Elliott-Famularo, Department Head, Digital Media and Design | Stamford/Storrs

 

UConn DMD courses offered through Early College Experience.