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An afterschool STEM learning partnership between and the ���ߺ��� ���ߺ��� and a multi-state initiative to support mentor teachers are featured during the taking place May 13 to 20.

Now in its fifth year, the annual video showcase features more than 240 innovative projects aimed at improving STEM learning and teaching which have been funded by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. During the weeklong event researchers, practitioners, policymakers and members of the public are invited to view the short videos, discuss them with the presenters online, and vote for their favorites.

STUDIO: Build Our World

connects low income and immigrant middle and high school students with undergraduate mentors from the UW who are pursuing studies in STEM fields. Based at Neighborhood House’s High Point Center, the partnership offers youth who are underrepresented in STEM disciplines opportunities to explore their interests. .

“The center of STUDIO is relationship and partnership,” said Jiyoung Lee, a UW doctoral student and STUDIO instructor. “The youth know the mentors and the mentors know what youth are good at and what they respond to.”

Warsame Mahdi, a STUDIO participant featured in the video, said the opportunity to learn about topics that are personally relevant makes the experience particularly meaningful.

“The way I’m learning, it’s different from school where they put a bunch of books on you,” he said. “I’m learning with hands-on experience.”

Lee noted that STUDIO provides the one-to-one interaction time between students and mentors that’s required to form tight bonds, something that’s often missing in a school environment.

“Through the curriculum we marry this interest of youth and expertise of mentors together,” Lee said. “They build an understanding not only about the project itself but about each other and, through the relationship, [students] understand why STEM is important for them.”

Read more about STUDIO: Build Our World in the UW ���ߺ���’s Research That Matters magazine.

New Approaches to Support the Clinical Experience of Novice Teachers (NASCENT)

The NSF-funded NASCENT project led by researchers at the UW ���ߺ��� and three other universities in partnership with their local school systems aims to make pre-service teachers’ clinical experiences more productive and, ultimately, help them launch their careers with a more confident footing.

In their showcase video, researchers share how they are developing a system of tools, practices and resources that mentors and preservice teachers can use together over the course of student teaching. This system includes videos and protocols for six key mentoring practices — making thinking explicit, modeling the work of teaching, pre-briefing and debriefing, co-planning, co-teaching, and analyzing student work together. .

NASCENT builds upon data and insights from a previous study of pre-service science teachers in the UW’s teacher preparation program. UW followed the pre-service teachers over the course of their internships to document how they experienced opportunities to observe and gradually take up the complex work of teaching in their field placements.

New resources are being piloted this year with pre-service teachers in math and science at the UW and their mentor teachers. In the coming year, the project will expand to teacher preparation programs at the University of California, Irvine; University of California, Santa Barbara; and Boise State University.

Members of the public can cast votes for the showcase’s Public Choice awards via Facebook, Twitter or email for videos they find most compelling. Voting closes at 5 p.m. PDT on May 20 and award winners will be announced May 22.

The STEM for All Video Showcase is created and hosted by TERC a non-profit, research and development organization, and partners with six NSF-funded resource centers: MSPnet, CADRE, CAISE, CIRCL, STELAR, CS for All Teachers. The Showcase is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Contact

Dustin Wunderlich, Director of Marketing and Communications
206-543-1035, dwunder@uw.edu