News from WCER
New Resources for Families Help Multilingual Learners with Disabilities Thrive in Virtual Classrooms
June 15, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Designed to cushion the shift to distance learning, new resources from WIDA include tools and tips around social stories, adaptive devices and understanding Individualized Education Programs to ensure multilingual students with disabilities still receive all the language and other services they're due under federal law.
WCER Researchers Studying Surge of Online Internships during COVID-19
May 29, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
CCWT Director Matthew Hora will work with Zi Chen on a six-month analysis focused on ‘micro-internships,’ with a second angle examining whether companies in STEM fields are shifting their internships online, to help measure student academic and career impacts of web-based internships amid a COVID19-driven surge in their use.
Six Universities Join Renowned Network to Improve Research & Teaching Skills of Future STEM Faculty
May 28, 2020 | By Lynn Armitage, WCER Communications
A new cohort of universities in the U.S. and Canada will be welcomed this fall into the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL), an international network of 35 research universities dedicated to delivering more effective undergraduate STEM learning by ensuring that today’s STEM graduate students the science, technology, engineering and math faculty of the future―are skilled in both teaching and research.
UW–Madison’s Hidden Village Computer Game Selected for Sixth Annual Virtual STEM Video Showcase
May 10, 2020 | By Janet L. Kelly
A video about a UW–Madison online learning game – titled “The Hidden Village: Mathematical Reasoning Through Movement” – is among 170 videos featuring science, technology, engineering and math education initiatives selected to compete in the 2020 STEM for All Video Showcase. The public can view the videos at any time and through May 12 they can communicate online with presenters and vote for their favorites at https://stemforall2020.videohall.com .
‘Beats Empire’ Simulation Game Moves Hip-Hop from Fiction to Online Learning Tool for Middle School
April 23, 2020 | By Janet L. Kelly, WCER Communications
“Beats Empire,” released to the public this week, is designed for use in middle school classrooms and at home. Built upon education research, the game is recommended for players from middle school through adults. It was developed with National Science Foundation funding as a project among research universities, private sector partners and the New York City Department of Education. With its name inspired by the hip-hop drama series "Empire," the Jay-Z song and New York City vibe, university researchers from Columbia, UW–Madison and Georgia Tech worked together to create the game, which places players in the roles of music producers who leverage data and analyze trends to dominate the music industry.
CareerLocker: Helping Adults & Children With Career-Planning and Learning During COVID-19
April 10, 2020 | By Lynn Armitage, WCER Communications
As the world is sheltering safely at home from COVID-19, everyone has more time to look ahead and think about their future―including children, who can explore the age-old question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Parents now can help their kids answer that and other questions right from home, and get career help themselves, with a self-paced, online career-information system called CareerLocker.
COVID-19 and Social Distancing Do Not Need to End College Internships
April 7, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Careful redesign of traditional face-to-face internships can ensure web-based alternatives that are meaningful for students and recent graduates seeking real-world work experience or a bridge to a permanent job during the health crisis.
New At-Home Language Activity Booklet for Young Children Available Online
April 1, 2020 | By Janet L. Kelly
WIDA Early Years is making a new booklet, “Learning Language Every Day: Activities for Families," available free online in English and Español to help children keep learning at home during the COVID-19 outbreak. The booklet can be downloaded for printing and sharing.
New Fulbright Scholar Bob Mathieu Heads to Chile in 2021
March 27, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
Bob Mathieu, director of CIRTL at WCER and the Albert A. Whitford Professor of Astronomy at UW-Madison, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award that focuses on his two academic passions—advancing STEM education and studying binary stars—and a goal to grow personally by living abroad for the first time. He hopes to gain more of an international perspective by living life in Chile for three month next year between February and May.
EdNeuroLab Zeroes in on Math Learning
March 26, 2020 | By Lynn Armitage, WCER Communications
In 2012, Edward Hubbard, an assistant professor in UW‒Madison’s Department of Educational Psychology, created the Educational Neuroscience Lab to understand—through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)—how the physical changes that occur in children’s brains as they learn may help improve education practices.
Education on the Home Front: How to Keep Young Children Learning in the Early Days of COVID-19
March 20, 2020 | By Janet L. Kelly, WCER Communications
For families with young children, UW–Madison educator, doctoral alum and family engagement researcher Lorena Mancilla has some advice on how to create spaces and establish routines for learning and working effectively from home.
First Analysis of UW System Hmong Undergrads Finds Low & Declining Enrollments, Grad Rates
March 10, 2020 | By Janet L. Kelly, WCER Communications
A team of HMoob (Hmong)* American undergraduates mentored by UW–Madison education researchers in WCER's Center for Research on College to Workforce Transitions has completed the first analysis of University of Wisconsin System student data disaggregated by race and ethnicity for the state’s largest Asian ethnic population.They find that except for UW–Oshkosh and UW–Green Bay, UW System enrollment of HMoob Americans is proportionally low and declining, particularly at the state’s flagship UW–Madison campus.
“Meet Your Immigrant Neighbor” Series Pitched by UW-Madison Researcher Airs this Week
March 9, 2020 | By WCER Communications
Starting today, a television news series pitched by Ruslana Westerlund, a researcher in UW-Madison's School of Education, begins on Madison’s NBC affiliate during its "News at 4" time slot. "Meet Your Immigrant Neighbor” will air at 4:15 p.m. today through March 13, featuring immigrants and the contributions they make to Dane County. Westerlund, who has lived in the United States for 25 years, pitched the interviews to highlight the positive contributions of immigrants and counteract negative rhetoric in the media.
Teacher-Guided Play Seen as Key to Deeper Student Learning
February 14, 2020 | By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications
An errant paper airplane, and a teacher’s insightful response to it, led to one of the best examples of successful play-based learning in a classroom that Angela Pyle, a faculty member in early childhood education at the University of Toronto, has witnessed in her extensive research.
Termed “inquiry play,” it’s a type of teacher-guided play in which an instructor seizes on young students’ expressed passions for a topic or activity, even if it means shifting gears to pursue an unexpected interruption as a multi-faceted learning opportunity.
WIDA Receives $4 Million to Support Multilingual Learners with Cognitive Disabilities
January 14, 2020 | By Katie Stenz, WIDA
Educational tools and resources for assessing a small but important group of students, multilingual learners challenged with the most significant cognitive disabilities, now will become reality thanks to a $3.998 million U.S. Department of Education grant awarded to WIDA.
