From service to science: NIH shifts focus of mentoring network aimed at boosting grantee diversity

January 6, 2020   |   By Jeffrey Mervis, AAAS

Begun in 2014, the National Research Mentoring Network was designed to scale up successful mentoring practices in the biomedical sciences. NIH officials hoped its efforts would boost the fortunes of minority applicants. But last summer, when NIH renewed the network for another 5 years, officials decided to spend most of the money on the science of mentoring, that is, testing different approaches to mentoring with a small, carefully chosen population.


Researcher Gloria Ladson-Billings on Culturally Relevant Teaching, the Role of Teachers

December 30, 2019   |   By The 74 Interview

Gloria Ladson-Billings remembers that there was a difference between the black and white teachers she had growing up in Philadelphia. African-American teachers could give the students “the talk,” she recalls, referring to a 2017 Procter & Gamble television advertisement that showed black parents talking to their kids about racism. The black teachers could speak to students honestly about what it means to be African-American in a way their white counterparts never could, she remembered.


Local Women Level Up In Game Development

December 17, 2019   |   By Emily McCluhan, BRAVA Magazine

Gear Learning's Iva Ivanova is featured in a recent BRAVA Magazine piece about local women succeeding in the male-dominated field of game development. Ivanova, photographed in jeans and a Gear Learning T-shirt for the piece with three other women, says about her job as a 2D/3D artist: “At Gear, you have the opportunity to be a Swiss Army Knife. If you want to do something outside of your comfort zone you can, like this year I’m getting into sound effects. This is the end-all be-all career choice for me. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”


Latest Gear Learning Game, ‘Newt’s Voyage,’ Teaches Laws of Physics by Feel

December 16, 2019   |   By Karen Rivedal, WCER Communications

Players learn scientifically sound concepts about motion and gravity as they fly virtual spaceships around the moons of distant planets.


NHHS teacher panelist at STEM event in Madison

December 10, 2019   |   By Staff at iwanttheNews.com

The Rural Education Research and Implementation Center (RERIC) hosted 19 rural STEM educators from 18 school districts around Wisconsin for the third annual Teacher Speakout! on Friday, Nov. 15 at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in Madison. Beth Allcox, a high school science teacher in the New Holstein School District, attended the event as a panelist. The goal of Teacher Speakout! is to bring the voices of rural teachers into a collaborative, public forum with researchers, legislators, and rural school advocates.


Bob Mathieu Appreciation Celebration

December 9, 2019   |   By David Marcou

The Wisconsin Center for Education Research hosted an appreciation celebration Dec. 9 for WCER Director Bob Mathieu, who leaves this post at the end of the calendar year. Mathieu will continue at WCER as the director of the CIRTL Network, one of the center's most far-reaching projects in higher education, and as the Albert. E. Whitford Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


What’s Right With Rural

December 4, 2019   |   By Lynn Armitage

We hear a lot about the challenges of rural education: declining enrollment, limited resources and funding, difficulty recruiting teachers and keeping them. And at UW‒Madison’s Rural Education Research & Implementation Center (RERIC), much good work is being done to improve educational outcomes in the state’s distant, sometimes forgotten classrooms. But on a recent day in November, the narrative shifted when 19 STEM teachers from 18 rural school districts in Wisconsin traded stories at the third annual Teacher Speakout! sponsored by RERIC, housed at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. This exchange of ideas between teachers, researchers, policymakers and rural advocates turned into a public display of spirit, grit and passion for what is right with rural education.


Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings to Keynote Edgewood College’s Black History Education Conference

December 3, 2019   |   By Madison365 Staff

National educational consultant Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings will be the featured keynote speaker at Edgewood College’s “Dreaming In Ethnic Melodies Black History Education Conference,’ which will be held on February 21-22, 2020 at Edgewood College, the Overture Center, the Madison Concourse Hotel, and the Wisconsin Historical Society.


Visualizing Invisibility

November 20, 2019

In his work, Bohyun Yoon explores the conceptual properties of glass more than the actual, physical glass itself. He searches for ways to visualize its transparency, often experimenting with other materials to do so. He currently is expanding his study of visibility and perception by researching the illusion of human relationships. His work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, West Collection, Tama Art University and Song Eun Art Space.


WIDA Seeks Input on English Language Development Standards Edition 2020

November 20, 2019   |   By WIDA

WIDA, a leading support organization for multilingual learners, educators and families, is seeking public input on the 2020 edition of its English Language Development Standards. The research-based nonprofit includes a consortium of 40 U.S. state education agencies as well as an international consortium of more than 400 international schools. WIDA invites anyone involved in multilingual learner education to share their views by completing an online survey by Dec. 15, 2019.


Mishicot’s Justin Gerlach speaks at Madison Teacher Speakout! event

November 18, 2019

Justin Gerlach, a high school science teacher at Mishicot High School who in 2018 was named Rural Wisconsin Teacher of the Year, was a panelist at the third annual Teachers Speakout! event Friday at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in Madison.


Rural Wisconsin STEM teachers build connections to researchers at UW event

November 18, 2019   |   By Yvonne Kim

Jennifer Seelig was working on her dissertation in the Northwoods in 2017 when the Wisconsin Center for Education Research reached out to her about involving teachers in education research. A former rural teacher herself, Seelig jumped on board to help plan the first Teacher Speakout! event and is now the assistant director of WCER’s Rural Educators Research and Implementation Center. On Friday and Saturday, RERIC hosted 19 teachers from the state’s rural districts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the event’s third year.


UWO takes part in research on undergraduate military service members, veterans

November 15, 2019

A new research project focuses on the experiences of undergraduate military service members and veterans enrolled in Wisconsin universities, including the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. The Wisconsin Center for Education Research recently launched the Veteran Education to Workforce Affinity and Success Study (VETWAYS), a three-year, $556,000 research project funded by the National Science Foundation.The study seeks to better understand the unique social experiences and challenges this special student population encounters as they progress through college and into the workforce.


Rural Teachers & UW–Madison Education Researchers Share Perspectives on STEM Education in Wisconsin

November 13, 2019   |   By Lynn Armitage

The Rural Education Research and Implementation Center (RERIC) will host 19 rural STEM educators from 18 school districts around Wisconsin for the third annual Teacher Speakout!, Friday, Nov. 15, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, 1025 West Johnson Street, 13th Floor; followed by field trips on Saturday, Nov. 16 from 8 a.m. to noon starting at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. The goal of Teacher Speakout! is to bring the voices of rural teachers into a collaborative, public forum with researchers, legislators and rural school advocates.


New online tool helps businesses start internship programs

November 12, 2019   |   By Sun Prairie Star

Matthew Hora is quoted in this article about the availability of a new online tool that helps businesses start internship programs. "Internship programs are the focus of growing attention within higher education, according to UW-Madison’s Dr. Matthew Hora. He is a widely recognized scholar of career development initiatives and the study of 21st century competencies in the workplace."