National Urban Service-Learning Institute Session Information Available
Detailed session and workshop information is now available for the National Urban Service-Learning Institute at the Colloquium on P-12 STEM Education Research, Aug. 15-16, 2011.The STEM Education Center website has a page with the full session information, and online registration is still open.
NYLC and the STEM Education Center at the University of Minnesota have integrated service-learning sessions throughout the Colloquim, and the result is a good fit for both events.
“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the STEM Education Center to host the National Urban Service-Learning Institute as part of the 2011 Colloquium," said NYLC Conference and Events Director Amy Meuers. "It is a great opportunity for participants to hear different perspectives, learn strategies to implement what works, find out about emerging research, and get clarity on how to meet common-core standards.”
Sign up for sessions and workshops online at the STEM Education Center Website.
National Urban Service-Learning Institute Session Information:
10:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m.
STEM Breakout Session #5 (Day 2)
1. Designing Academic Rigorous Service-Learning Opportunities (service-learning)
Susan Root and Caryn Pernu, National Youth Leadership Council
This session is designed to help teachers think deeply about the abstract concepts and skills they want students to develop before designing service-learning experiences. This hands-on workshop explores using Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s backward planning model to design service-learning around academic content standards. You’ll learn a process for tying service-learning experiences directly to STEM standards you’re expect to meet in your classroom, explore strategies for assessing student learning throughout the service-learning experience, and create a plan to boost your students’ academic knowledge and skills — while they contribute to their community.
12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
STEM Breakout Session #6
8. Addressing Needs of Urban Learners through Service-Learning
Rosilyn Carroll, Jean Strait, Richard Webb, Center for Excellence in Urban Education, Hamline University
Join a dialogue among urban teacher educators as they explore how service-learning can be an effective instructional strategy for addressing the needs of urban learners. With educational disparities growing, particularly in urban areas, today’s teachers need to know how they can better meet the developmental and academic needs of their students using a culturally competent approach. Service-learning is one evidence-based strategy that has been shown to increase student engagement in learning and school, including in STEM subjects. Note: These presenters asked if Monday would be possible for their presentation but could make either day work.
1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
STEM Breakout Session #7
8. Environmental STEM Projects in Urban Schools
2:45 p.m.-3:45 p.m.
STEM Breakout Session #8
5. The Generator Go Green Project: Evaluation of a Middle School Environmental Science Service-Learning Initiative (service-learning)
Susan Root and Caryn Pernu, National Youth Leadership Council
Generator Go Green (G3) is an initiative of the National Youth Leadership Council designed to engage economically disadvantaged students in STEM-based service-learning to build environmentally sustainable communities. G3 involves schools in the Twin Cities, Chicago, and the Gulf Coast. Using a school energy audit curriculum from the Alliance to Save Energy and other resources, students and teachers create service-learning experiences focused on environmental stewardship in their home communities. Projects focused on a variety of issues including school recycling, school energy audits and recommendations for new school design, wetlands protection, and food production systems. Projects were integrated in curricular settings in the context of classroom academic instruction over the course of a school year.
4:00 p.m.
Poster Session
Mike VanKeulen, National Youth Leadership Council
Project Ignition is a national program that supports high school students and teachers in working together to create research-based, result oriented, service-learning projects that increase teen driver safety. Students explore STEM subjects such as crash physics, statistics, and data analysis while encouraging their peers to change their driving knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors. Hundreds of students and their schools across the United States and Canada have formed teams that explore how their academic goals could be used to address significant social issues. There have been several examples of how students have approached their teachers requesting that they be more of a partner in shaping how STEM learning outcomes could be addressed. The resulting increased student engagement in STEM learning holds great promise for all STEM efforts to expand interest, rigor, and relevance for a more diverse population of students that are already well served.
