09/19/2003

Details on Sept. 23 meeting

(1) More Details about General Program on Sept. 23, 2003, 2:30-4:00 pm (SEED

and new web site/UA Capabilities Database).

(2) Opportunity to participate in a new UAEDI Discussion Group about the

enhancement of pre-college math and science education in Arkansas

– Sept. 23, 2003 (12:30-2:20 pm)

I want to tell you a little more about the UAEDI General Meeting program to be held on Tuesday, 2:30-4:00 pm, September 23, 2003, in rooms 507-509 of the Arkansas Union and make you aware of an opportunity to participate in a “pre-meeting” UAEDI Discussion Group to be held from 12:30-2:20 pm at the same place.

1. SEED – Student Efforts in Economic Development (2:30 – 3:15 pm):

The SEED program was officially introduced on the UA campus during the 2003 spring semester. The goal of SEED is to assist and encourage UA faculty in working with Arkansas communities, businesses, and related organizations to provide mutually beneficial “real world” experiences for University of Arkansas students.

One method that this may be done is through student class projects. Last spring, there were two such projects on this campus, one in Interior Design and the other in Landscape Architecture. Both projects involved a working relationship with Bill Thomas, Cross County Economic Development Corporation.

The Interior Design course (taught by Betty Loewer) involved preparing space plans for the new Technology Center for the Delta as a major class project. The Landscape Architecture course (taught by Catherine Willey with input from Karen Rollet-Crocker) had a class project that was targeted towards possible ecotourism opportunities in Wittsburg, an old community on the St. Francis River.

Karen, Betty and some of their students will be discussing their “SEED experience” to open the UAEDI program. Bill Thomas had planned to attend but presently has a scheduling conflict. Carolyne Garcia (University Relations) provided publicity about these projects and will be available to offer her perspective as to what worked well and what didn’t.

As a side note, the timing of this presentation is especially interesting in that I had a visit yesterday with a consultant who was on campus promoting service-based learning activities, such as these projects, for students at the University of Arkansas. If any of you are interested in more information about SEED, give me a call.

2. UAEDI Web Page and University of Arkansas Capabilities Database (3:15-4:00 pm)

UAEDI will introduce its new web page and the new University of Arkansas Capabilities Database at the meeting. The plan is that the web site will go online immediately afterwards. Snow Winters (CAST) and Critina Scarlat (Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Department) will be making the presentation. Janet Parsch and Beth Juhl (Mullins Library) and Brian Culpepper of CAST were also major players in making this happen with administrative support from Carolyn Allen, Duane Wolfe and Fred Limp.

Along those lines, there is the ongoing opportunity to add your UA program (including departments and similar units) or you as an individual faculty/staff member to the database. We now have perhaps 75 individuals listed either individually or as part of a UA program. If you have an interest in SEED, the database is a good place to define that interest. It takes only a few minutes to fill out the form and we can help you do so. Contact me if you want to be included in this database.

2. UAEDI Discussion Group – Enhancement of Pre-college Math and Science Education in Arkansas (12:30-2:20 pm)

Immediately before the UAEDI General Meeting, we will initiate a UAEDI Discussion Group on enhancement of pre-college math and science education in Arkansas.

This meeting will be focused on addressing the following questions:

1. Can the faculty, staff, administrators and students at the University of Arkansas, in strong partnership with others, generate and implement “breakthrough solutions” to enhance math and science education in Arkansas?

2. If the answer to “1” is “yes,” then how do we organize ourselves to make this happen along with developing a projected timeline for certain intermediate goals?

If we decide that this is an effort worth pursuing, I anticipate that this Discussion Group will eventually be transformed into a UAEDI Special Initiatives Group(s). The Special Initiative Group(s) would then focus on putting together proposals for funding to address what they believe are great ideas for enhancing pre-college math and science instruction in Arkansas. We will have some “non-UA” guest joining us for this discussion.

Details on Sept. 23 meeting