News

Assistant Professor Z Nicolazzo wins 2019 ASHE Early Career Award

Oct. 2, 2019

"The scholarly accomplishments of Dr. Nicolazzo, which are linked to her accomplishments in outreach as a public intellectual and in her advising as a mentor are truly exceptional, exemplifying the best of what a professor can be. I can say with full confidence that Dr. Z Nicolazzo’s record of accomplishment is on a level achieved by only a couple of other scholars in that time. It is hard for me to imagine how anyone could have done more in...

Professor Regina Deil-Amen

Diversifying STEM pathways in Arizona

Aug. 28, 2019

The National Science Foundation has funded a  $4.8 million grant awarding an effort to create a culture of belonging in higher education STEM fields for low-income, high-achieving students from our community. Regina Deil-Amen, professor of educational policy studies and practice and principal investigator on the grant, says a key benefit of the grant is that it can help diversify STEM talent pathways in Arizona, where there is a "...

Ben Anderson, a high school calculus teacher participates in Teachers in Industry during the summer.

Bringing employee experience in tech companies into the high school classroom

Aug. 8, 2019

As Arizona students head back to class in August, so too will a group of about 50 middle and high school teachers who spent the summer working in industry as part of the University of Arizona College of Education Teachers in Industry program. The business-education partnership is in its 11th year of placing experienced teachers in Arizona industries each summer. 

Ben Anderson, a...

Congratulations Kathy Short!

Aug. 1, 2019

Professor and Worlds of Words Director Kathy Short was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame. Congratulations!

Rebecca Ballenger works with her students to prepare books for their silent books exhibit

Enriching our professional environment

July 10, 2019

Forbes Magazine recognizes UA as one of the best employers in Arizona. Employees like Rebecca Ballenger have something to do with it. Ballenger, Associate Director for Worlds of Words, inspires creativity and deep thought in her approach with students and interns. She goes beyond that by building relevant experiences for local school groups visiting the world-renowned international literature collection, as well as hosting workshops for...

Informing major steps against cyberbullying

July 10, 2019

Professor Sheri Bauman was quoted in July’s Time magazine article, Inside Instagram’s War on Bullying. An expert on bullying, Bauman calls Instagram a “one-stop shop for the bully” because everything they need is there: an audience, anonymity, an emphasis on appearances, and channels that range from public feeds to behind-the-back group chats. Instagram executives are introducing comment warning, using AI to detect even borderline comments,...

Dr. Kortencamp and POEM students on UA mall during solar system modeling

Sending a clear message that science is accessible for visually impaired students

June 20, 2019

Through a combination of project-based learning and strong mentoring, from both professionals and university students, Project POEM prepares visually impaired students for STEM fields, where they are sorely underrepresented.

Dr. Kortenkamp, astronomer, is pictured here leading an exercise that creates a solar system model. Each participant represents a planet and walks away from the stationary sun to demonstrate the order of the...

Youth Purpose as a Framework for Supporting STEM Engagement in Adolescence

June 19, 2019

In order to make classroom experiences successful in interesting youth in STEM careers, students must be able to view the content as personally meaningful and connect it to real-world concerns. Developing a sense of purpose may increase students’ motivation to learn by helping them to see how the knowledge they gain in school will be useful in the future to make an impact in the community. Lia Falco, in...

Globalizing the Common Core Reading List

June 19, 2019

The Common Core State Standards and their variations influence K-12 curriculum, particularly in the teaching of literacy, across the U.S. and internationally. Funded by the UA’s language resource center CERCLLKathy Short worked with the Common Core State Standards exemplar list to pair those recommendations with global fiction and nonfiction. Short also found...

Reviving an Ancient Whistle Language

June 19, 2019

We often think shouting is the way to get our voice to carry, but evidence of whistle languages around the globe prove otherwise. Whistle languages were developed specifically for the efficiency of communication between people over distance. On the island of La Gomera, one of the smallest of the Canary Islands, ‘el silbo’ is one such ancient whistling language. A large community used ‘el silbo’ to get sometimes-urgent messages across the...