Monday, 2/6   -   9:00 pm (already played)
Monday, 2/13 -   6:00 pm
Tuesday, 2/28 -  8:00 pm
Monday, 3/5   -   7:00 and 7:30 pm (playoffs)

Also, some combination of: Tuesday, 3/6 – 9:00 pm; Monday, 3/12 – 7:00 or 8:00 pm; Tuesday, 3/13 – 8:30 pm (depending on how we do in the playoffs.

Directions to Fields:
(http://www.fields4kids.org/directions)

From I-95
Take exit 182A and follow route 395
Take exit 3A (Hampden/Farm Road)
Turn right at stop sign
At top of hill enter Beal College
Follow parking lot to right and drive around back to the warehouse.

Present

Erik DaSilva
RiSE Center
University of Maine

“Presenting a background of the design and testing for CPO Science, Foundation Science, and EarthComm”

The Maine Physical Science Partnership (PSP) is currently pre-piloting three sets of ninth grade curricula in several high school classrooms.   These curricula were selected after rigorous investigations were completed during the summer of 2011 by a team of Teachers in Residence
and MST students.  The team confirmed that all three curricula fulfilled nine essential qualities including that they be inquiry based, have appropriate content, connect math and physical science,
include useful assessments, teach the nature of science, engage students, include high quality teachers guides and resources, encourage student reflection, and cover systems, models, and scale.
Ensuring that each curriculum had previously been field tested and that research data backed its design was a final requirement, however this step was never completed.  During this seminar I will present an unbiased background for each curricula based on research performed by the publishers and/or third party sources.

Present

Maya Patel
Department of Biology
Ithaca College

“Learning inquiry and nature of science through undergraduate research: mentoring matters”

Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) have the potential to involve students in authentic and cutting edge scientific inquiry.  While research has shown that UREs can be effective in recruiting and retaining students and increasing students’ confidence in their abilities to do research, the literature on science-learning through participation in UREs is scant.  My research investigated what students learned about the practice of scientific inquiry and the natures of scientific knowledge (NOS) and inquiry (NOSI) through participation in summer UREs in cutting edge biotechnology laboratories.  I also explored the types of research projects and intern-mentor transactions taking place in the UREs in order to explain students’ gains or lack of gains.  I employed a mixed-methods approach involving a pre-post assessment of gains and an exploratory investigation of the laboratory research situations.  In general, interns’ independent practice of inquiry was of the most basic skills (e.g. collecting and summarizing data), though their guided practice included many of the more advanced inquiry skills important in developing scientific thinking (e.g. design, evaluating evidence, revising hypotheses).   While few interns made gains in understandings about NOS, many made gains in understandings about NOSI.  NOSI gains were associated with greater autonomy and independent practice of more advanced inquiry skills.  The exploratory investigation found that mentors played a critical role in determining the type of research project and in driving the intern-mentor transaction.  These in turn, contributed to intern’s learning outcomes.  For example, multifaceted research projects (both observational and hypothesis-driven) provided more opportunities to practice advanced aspects of inquiry in this setting. Interns engaged in more indeterminate projects, where methods were less prescribed and outcomes less predictable, generally made greater gains in understandings about NOSI.

Speaker Bio:

Maya received a BS from Mount Holyoke College, where she studied Biology and Environmental Science, and a MS in Entomology from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.  From there Maya returned to the east coast where she taught biology at both Ithaca College and Georgetown University for several years.  She continues to serve as an instructor and Science Faculty Chair for GU’s Myer’s Institute for College Preparation (MICP) for inner-city youth.  Maya’s experiences in large-enrollment, gateway-science courses and as a mentor for students of color helped to revise her views of teaching and learning science in higher education.  She began working with fellow faculty to bring student-centered pedagogies into the large lecture and more inquiry into the teaching laboratory.  This work eventually lead her back to school to pursue a PhD in Education Cornell University.  Maya conducted her dissertation research on student learning through undergraduate research.  Her time at Cornell also afforded her several opportunities to engage in evaluation efforts of both undergraduate and graduate-level science education programs, and to participate in a K-12 teacher professional development program.  Maya is currently Assistant Professor of Biology at Ithaca College where she continues her efforts to bring student-centered and inquiry-based pedagogies to her large-enrollment and non-majors science courses.

While on his way to Ellsworth to make a delivery to the Mt. View School, one of our Resource Coordinators, Jason Baker, found this little fellow in the middle of the road. He was cold, wet, shivering, and being attacked by crows, so Jason stopped, wrapped him up in a sweatshirt, and brought him along to the school.  Not knowing where the best place to take him was, he asked for guidance. The folks at the school directed him to take the little owl to Birdsacre Stanwood Wildlife Sanctuary in Ellsworth, where they would take good care of him.

I think we should name him Ollie York … isn’t he just the cutest thing?!

SCHEDULE

Mon, Nov 14 – 8:00 pm – WIN!
Mon, Nov 21 – 8:00pm – WIN!
Mon, Nov 28 – 6:00pm –
Mon, Dec 5 – 6:30pm
Mon, Dec 12 – 8:30pm
Mon, Dec 19 – 7:30pm
Mon, Dec 26 – No League Games – HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
Mon, Jan 2 – 7:30pm
Mon, Jan 9 – 6:30pm AND 7:00pm

Directions to Fields:
(http://www.fields4kids.org/directions)

From I-95
Take exit 182A and follow route 395
Take exit 3A (Hampden/Farm Road)
Turn right at stop sign
At top of hill enter Beal College
Follow parking lot to right and drive around back to the warehouse

Wednesday, November 30
3:10 – 5:00 p.m.
Arthur St. John Hill Auditorium (165 Barrows Hall)

-Mitchell Bruce and Mackenzie Stetzer, facilitators

Over the next few years, many of you may find yourselves teaching alongside undergraduate peer instructors who are participating in the Maine Learning Assistant Program.  In this workshop, we will provide a brief overview of our campus programs and give you some firsthand experiences with the unique kinds of professional development opportunities that the program offers.

Students participating in the RiSE Center workshops will receive a stipend of $50 for their participation.

Refreshments will be provided.

A few weeks ago, a call was put out to all RiSE Center members (and some of our pilot teachers for PSP)  for interest in an indoor soccer team. Well, enough people were interested that Team RiSE is now a reality!  They played their first game on Monday night (November 14), and not only were they injury free (for the most part), but they won their first game!  Everyone has incredible team spirit, and are just having a blast!

A full schedule will be appearing soon, and will be posted here as well.

Come on out, wear your RiSE Center t-shirts, and support our team!

Team RiSE
Back Row: Jason Baker, Mandy Baker, Laura Millay, Lauree Gott, Rob Blaisdell
Front Row: Erika Allison, Levi Lucy, Michael Wittmann, Dan Laverty

The RiSE Center held a Halloween Open House on Monday, October 31 to show off our newly decorated office space. Almost everyone came in costume, there was lots of food and lots of fun (thank you to Erika for your entertaining interpretation of “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”!). A big thank you to everyone who made it happen!

To see some photos, go here.

ORAL THESIS DEFENSE

MST Candidate
Allison Dorko

Thesis Advisor: Natasha Speer

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science in Teaching
May 2012

Calculus Students’ Understanding of Area and Volume
in Non-Calculus Contexts

         Researchers have documented difficulties that elementary school students have in understanding area and volume. Although area and volume show up in various ways later in the curriculum, we know very little about older students’ understanding of these concepts. The goal of this study is to develop descriptions of calculus students’ understanding of area and volume concepts in non-calculus contexts. Participants included 255 introductory calculus students and 43 multivariable calculus students. Clinical interview transcripts and students’ written responses to area and volume problems (computational and short answer) were analyzed. Findings indicate that some differential calculus students struggle with the units associated with various spatial measures. This is consistent with findings from literature about elementary school students. In addition, some differential calculus students mistakenly find surface area when directed to find volume.

Monday, December 5, 2011
8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Arthur St. John Hill Auditorium
165 Barrows Hall