Tag: Education

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Mathematics in Cultural Contexts 2018: Emergent Professionals Today and Responsible Educators Tomorrow

In this partnership with Muncie Community Schools, participants engaged with elementary students and teachers at East Washington Academy to develop knowledge and skills for fostering children’s learning, with special attention to mathematics. Through the range of experiences, participants acquired the disposition to critically reflect on the larger social, political and cultural forces at work in American culture, the K -12 educational system as nested within it and locate themselves as culturally situated emergent educators. Participants also worked with parents to develop an understanding of the cultural contexts of children’s lives and encouraged building awareness of children’s mathematical learning experiences in the home and family life. Collaborative, interdisciplinary learning experiences for participants included working with the teachers to provide supplementary mathematics instruction for small groups of children, designing and implementing lessons for whole-class instruction, and designing and implementing a Family Math Night as the primary setting in which to engage parents and children in doing mathematics together! Students also supported a blog (https://preparingtoteachk12.wordpress.com/) aimed at building community and camaraderie among teacher candidates at a challenging time for the profession.

Faculty Mentors: Sheron Fraser-Burgess, Sheryl Stump, Lynette Varner
Departments: Educational Studies, Mathematical Sciences, Elementary Education
Community Partner: East Washington Academy
Students: Emily Alig, Sydney Amstutz, Lilia Arroyo, Megan Chalfant, Erin Halioris, Ayrrana Hickman, Logan Inman, Bryttani Knight, Josie Valentine

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Dance! Muncie After School

Students worked together to conduct research and develop dance curriculum for grades K-5, implement curriculum in Muncie Community Schools, and disseminate findings through presentations and a curriculum handbook. Upon completion of this class, the students gained a greater understanding and appreciation of the importance and power of dance in young lives, became well-versed in effective teaching methods, and developed strong collaborative skills.

Spring 2019

Faculty Mentor: Melanie Swihart
Department: Theatre and Dance
Community Partner: Muncie Community Schools
Students: Hannah Bertrand, Natalie Bollinger, Victoria Bullick, Katrina Conte, Lily Deeg, Carmen Gorsuch, Eugenia Jones, Kailyn Kelley, Darcy Kummerow, Greta Linder, Drew Mack, Kali Marquart, Annika Pairitz, Eddie Ramos, Samantha Shoufler, Caroline Tribl, Jillian Wilschke, Keely Wissel

Spring 2018

Faculty Mentor: Melanie Swihart
Department: Theatre and Dance
Community Partner: Muncie Community Schools
Students: Adrian Alora, Jordyn Bush, Kelsey Davis, Ella Donovan, Audrey Fosson, Alexandria Koontz, Breinne Mudrack, Erin Simons, Jillian Wilschke

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Professional Development, Differentiated and Digitized (PD3): Muncie Community Schools Learning Management System Adoption and Implementation

The Professional Development, Differentiated, and Digitized (PD3) immersive learning project has the primary goal of assisting Muncie Community Schools (MCS) develop teachers who adopt and integrate different technologies within their instructional practices.This was done in several ways. First, PD3 students focused on assisting the district in the adoption and implementation of a new Learning Management System (LMS) Schoology. Students created professional development opportunities, helped teachers create digital curriculum and assessments, and promoted use of the LMS. These included creation of a Schoology professional development course within the LMS, individual technology mentoring between BSU students and MCS teachers, and a district wide professional development session. Second, students designed, developed, and implemented a four-week Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math (STEM) unit on electricity for kindergarten through third grade students at a MCS after school program. BSU students modeled effective pedagogical practices and meaningful technology integration as they implemented the unit with teachers and for K3 students. In the Fall 2017, students have continued working with Muncie community school teachers and are developing content within the Schoology LMS. They are also developing the initial stages of the Professional Learning Program (PLP) for teacher education candidates, faculty, and community partners. The PLP will focus on the National Technology Standards for Educators and is intended to aid educators at all levels to learn more about meaningful technology integration for learning and teaching.

Faculty Mentor: Jon Clausen
Department: Educational Studies
Community Partner: Muncie Community Schools
Students: Karen Huey, Demi Novinger, Katlyn Redman, Sarah Schlosser, Jeremy Svoboda, Carli Vose, Sam Walden, Jordan Wallace

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Maplewood Mansion Learning Lab

Fall 2018: Students from the IU School of Medicine complete a “clerkship” by working for 4-6 weeks in a medical establishment in one of several locations in Indiana. The Ball Brothers Foundation would like more medical students to complete their clerkship in the Muncie area, with the ultimate goal that these future doctors will return to Muncie to live and work upon graduation. Maplewood Mansion Learning Lab is a collaborative arrangement between Ball State University, IU School of Medicine – Muncie, and the Ball Brothers Foundation to provide short-term housing for these medical students. Residential Property Management (RPM) students researched ways to improve Maplewood Mansion as housing for these medical students and how to offer an outstanding Muncie experience that will attract and retain these future doctors. RPM students will share their recommendations for improvements to the physical site, management of the site, and ways to connect the residents to the area.

Fall 2017: Maplewood Mansion Learning Lab (MMLL) opened in Fall 2017 and had no policies or procedures for operations, nor did they have a promotional campaign. The Residential Property Management students (seniors and a graduate student) created all of this for MMLL. They are assisting with the operations of Maplewood Mansion as short-term rental housing for the IU Med School students doing their “clerkship” at IU Ball Memorial Hospital. They are in the process of completing internal policies and documents (emergency plan, move-in/move-out checklist and form, resident handbook, guest satisfaction survey, etc.) as well as products related to external relations (logo, career apparel, Muncie visitor information, vision/mission statement, website, Facebook page, etc.). Specific course objectives include evaluate an apartment community’s policies and procedures for marketing, management, and maintenance; make recommendations for alternative solutions; and apply professional skills to the development of a final report/presentation of project results.

Fall 2018

Faculty Mentors: Carla Earhart
Departments: Management
Community Partners: Maplewood Mansion Learning Lab, Ball Brothers Foundation, IU School of Medicine-Muncie
Students: Michael Dickens, Madison Egold, Dustin Geise, Jacob Greer, Colin Harrison, Andreas Hji-Avgoustis, Akeem Hutchinson, Mason Knox, Hayden Olszyk,Jordan Sherman, Rachael Sloan, Paige Snyder, Morgan Truhan, Cihai (Charles) Zhang

Fall 2017

Faculty Mentor: Carla Earhart & David Martin
Department: Management
Community Partners: IU School of Medicine – Muncie Campus
Students: Alex Byerly, Rachel Cox, Ronald Harrington, Amy Herron, MacKenzi Roe

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Computer Science for Middle Schoolers (CS4MS)

Diversity is essential for the future success of Computer Science (CS). Further, there is simply a lack of student exposure to CS in elementary and high school.Via the regular school curriculum, students are exposed to the hard sciences and mathematics, but seldom CS. As a result, students are likely to have little idea of what it means to be a Computer Scientist or if they have any interest in being one. With the recent adoption of CS K-8 academic standards in Indiana, this is changing, but most teachers have little, or no experience teaching these new topics. The focus of this immersive learning class was to expose the partner’s students, particularly underrepresented minorities and females, to CS and Computational Thinking (CT)–a need expressed by our partner. Our project team accumulated instructional resources, and developed activity templates and modules that will better incorporate CS and CT experiences, with a focus on meeting the Indiana CS academic standards.The school administrators and teachers can utilize the compiled resources, and implement the completed modules during normal school classes, during the summer, after school, or during extended breaks, based on their needs.

Fall 2019

Faculty Mentor: David Largent
Department: Computer Science
Community Partners: Northside Middle School, Burris Laboratory School, Muncie Central High School
Students: Sara Bailey, Luke Betts, Ben Bishop, Chris Bucker, Corbin Creedon, Gwyn Hultquist, Dakota Savage, Joe Schmidt, Madison Turley, Brian Walker, Sean Wolfe

Fall 2018

Faculty Mentor: David Largent
Department: Computer Science
Community Partners: Northside Middle School, Daleville Junior/Senior High School, and Burris Labratory School
Students: Ryan Ahler, Luke Betts, Austin Bolles, Michael Bratton, Will English, Josh Passey, Alexander Perry, Sarah Phipps, Adam Wessel, Morgan Williams

Fall 2017

Faculty Mentor: David Largent
Department: Computer Science
Community Partners: Northside Middle School
Students: Monica Appel, Meghan Duffy, Rachel Harvey, Anna Hawkins, Benjamin Lawson, Ryan Magley, Joshua Pegg, Ian Pemberton, Jordan Reidy, Timothy Skinner, Cody York

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Book Arts Collaborative

Book Arts Collaborative is a community letterpress and book bindery located in the Madjax Building in downtown Muncie. We preserve and teach apprentice-taught skills and run a small business. We teach analog design skills, business skills, and professionalization of all majors.

Faculty Mentors: Rai Peterson, Colleen Steffen, Amy Trendler
Departments: English, Journalism, University Libraries
Community Partners: Tribune Showprint Posters, Inc.
Students: Lauren Hansen, Marisa Sloan, Holly Westerfield, Kaytlyn Bell, Natalie Rokosz, Tier Marrow, Hannah Bihn, Sophie Gordon