On Friday, March 3rd, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators from Spanish, Profs. Urios Aparisi and Nanclares met with certified SPAN 3178 and 3179 Instructors for an in person professional development conference.

After welcoming remarks by UConn Early College Experience Director, Christopher Todd, the group discussed their courses with the faculty and later heard from special guest speaker: Maria Lourdes Casas, Professor in the World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department, Central Connecticut State University with her talk ‘Less is more’/’Menos es Más.’

UConn Spanish courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday, March 9th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator from Italian, Prof. Tina Chiappetta-Miller met with certified ECE Italian Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

After welcoming remarks by UConn Early College Experience Director, Christopher Todd, the group discussed their courses and ideas for student events with the faculty, and ECE Assistant Director Jessica Dunn. Later the group heard a presentation by Melina Masterson, Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies at UMass Amherst (and a graduate of UConn’s ILCS Ph.D. program) who has recently co-authored and published an OER text of Italian called Tutt* a tavola!. She spoke about the experience of writing the text, what it has to offer, and why OER is important.

UConn Italian courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Thursday, February 16th, 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 workshop.

Sessions included:

Jason Nicosia, Associate Systems and Technology Administrator (UConn Health Sciences Library)

“Linking Library Resources: An Overview”

An overview of how to integrate library resources such as articles, videos, and other electronic items into any course within a learning management system. Linking resources in Blackboard and Google Classroom was demonstrated.

Nancy Dryden, Research & Instruction Librarian (UConn Stamford Campus Library)

“How To: Using the Library General Search”

This presentation demonstrated tips and tricks for using UConn Library’s Articles + Online Catalog search tool. Participants learned how to search using the tool, and how to save items in their library accounts and how to request items available other UConn campuses or libraries.

Roslyn Grandy, Pharmacy Librarian (UConn Pharmacy Library)

“Strategies for Searching UConn Library Databases”

Participants learned the basics of using UConn Library’s discovery search as well as searching subject-specific databases on various platforms. Best ways to limit searches to identify most relevant resources was discussed.

 Theresa Palacios-Baughman, Interlibrary Services Associate (UConn Library, Storrs)

“Interlibrary Services for ECE”

An over iew of UConn’s Interlibrary Services which support academic research, learning, and professional growth. Participants were shown all things ILL including how to place requests for non-UConn materials using MyILLiad and how to request scans of chapters and articles from print resources in UConn Library’s collection.

Kristina Edwards, Electronic Resources Librarian (UConn Library, Storrs)

“Electronic Resources @ UConn Library”

The presentation provided a summary of what online resources and tools are available at the UConn Library and how they can be accessed. Information on the variety of ways access to electronic resources is provided through link resolver (UConn Full Text) and LibKey Nomad was highlighted.

On Tuesday, November 15^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for History, Thomas Maulucci met with ECE certified HIST 1400: Modern Western Traditions Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

Prior to the meeting Instructors listened to “As Ukraine Goes, So Goes the World: Thoughts on propaganda, violence, and democracy” a lecture by Timothy Snyder, Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Instructors were also to review two articles: “The World Putin Wants” by Fiona Hill and Angela Stent and “Ukraine Holds the Future” by Timothy Snyder. The lecture and articles provided structure for the day’s events.

ECE History Faculty Coordinator, Tom Maulucci spoke to the group about ideas for fitting Eastern Europe into HIST 1400 and discussed the Snyder lecture. Assistant Professor, Sarah Silverstein, from UConn’s History Department shared her talk on “Eastern Europe’s Invention of the West”. Later two of UConn’s Student Success Librarian’s, Zach Claybaugh and Kelsey Brown, gave an overview of library resources available to Instructors (with a special focus on the Ukraine).

 

UConn History courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, December 2^nd, UConn Early College Experience and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS) Associate Professor, Shannon Weaver met with ECE Certified HDFS 1070 instructors for their annual professional development meeting. After sharing ECE news and updates and celebrating past year successes the group spoke with Charles Super, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Human Development & Family Sciences Co-Director, Center for the Study of Culture, Health, & Human Development, University of Connecticut who shared his talk titled “Culture and Human Development”. Later, Darlis Juvino, Human Development & Family Sciences, UConn shared her research on “The Makings of Multicultural Identity and Expression”.  Instructors then broke into small groups to discuss incorporating culture into course topics.

UConn HDFS courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, December 9^th , UConn Early College Experience and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Chinese Associate Professor of Chinese and Applied Linguistics, George Yang met with ECE Certified Chinese Instructors for their annual professional development meeting. After a short welcome with some general questions from the group and a discussion about recruitment of additional instructors, keynote speaker Dr. Phyllis Ni Zhang, Associate Professor of Chinese and International Affairs, George Washington University joined the meeting to share her research: “Optimizing the L2 Hanzi Instruction: The Facilitating Role of Typing in L2 Chinese”.

UConn Chinese courses offered through Early College Experience.

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.