Outreach and More

New Projects

	The Listening Project The Listening Project, starting in 2017-18, is an ambitious effort funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's initiative for Inclusive Excellence. It focuses on introductory science courses at Tufts, based on the idea that a key part of supporting inclusion and excellence is instructors' recognizing and engaging with the diverse strengths and productive intellectual resources students bring to their studies.
	Tisch College Social-Emotional Learning, Civic Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion Initiative Associate Director: Deborah Donahue-Keegan This is a year-long Faculty Fellows program aimed at integrating social-emotional learning into core teaching, research and education activities at Tufts. It is funded through the Zussman Fund for Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, and it is facilitated in collaboration with the Center for the Enhancement of Learning & Teaching (CELT). 17 faculty are participating, in 2017-18, from across the university.
	Tufts Ed MAKER Internship Program Brian Gravel The Tufts Ed MAKER Internship Program is funded by the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program at the National Science Foundation. Interns are developing makerspace for a local K-8 school and run summer workshops for children. Children make animations, interactive digital sculptures, e-textiles, and objects out of wood and paper. They use 3D printing technologies, low-cost high-tech electronics (e.g., Arduino, Makey Makey), craft technologies (e.g., sewing, wood burning).

Continuing Projects

Here is a sampling of the outreach currently going on by faculty and staff in the department. Take a look, and feel free to get in touch with any of us for more information, with questions, and with ideas for collaboration.

	Global Partnerships for Education Linda Beardsley and Pearl Emmons Since 2008, Senior Lecturer Linda V. Beardsley has been working with the Maranyundo Initiative, a group of Boston area women who has collaborated with the Benebikira Nuns of Rwanda to build and develop the Maranyundo School in Nyamata, Rwanda. Colleagues at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach and in the Education Department - including media specialist Pearl Emmons, who has visited and filmed the school and has worked with the teachers at the school on using video and technology to enhance their teaching - have also been involved in this ongoing work.
	Journal of Museum Education Cynthia Robinson Museum Studies Program director Cynthia Robinson is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Museum Education, keeping in touch with museum educators all over the country, informing her teaching, and allowing her in turn to help shape the field. The fall 2014 issue of the Journal of Museum Education devotes a section to teen engagement in museums, guest-edited by local museum educator Gabrielle Wyrick, who works at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.
	SPARC Silas Pinto SPARC (School Psychology Awareness and Recruitment Committee) is a student committee in the school psychology program designed to raise awareness and educate our campus and community about school psychology as an viable career in education and schools.  The committee is composed of current students, usually in the first and second year, who meet on a regular basis to plan activities and events for the academic year, such as the school psychology Open House/student panels, the School Psychology Awareness day, and interview day. The committee also serves as the Liaison between the program and Tufts Graduate Students Council.  Student volunteers are also available to discuss career options in school psychology as well as talk about their experience in the Tufts School Psychology Program.
	Student Centered Teaching at Tufts David Hammer and Phil Gay (and participating faculty) With Professor David Hammer in the interviewer seat and videographer Phil Gay behind the camera, Tufts University faculty members from across disciplines and departments are captured on video while teaching in their classrooms and later interviewed as they observe themselves in real time and reflect on specific moments of interaction with their students.
	Students Write at Malden High School Sean Walsh, the Lead Teacher of the English Department, and several other faculty at Malden High School developed a space for students interested in writing called the Writers' Den. The Tufts Education Department supported setting up the space through sharing resources and creating an internship for a Tufts Senior to work closely with teachers and students to promote literacy activities and publish student work. Larry Evans, the first Writers' Den intern, describes the space as one in which "young writers are not judged at first by their grammar usage. All writers, including ELLs, need a place where they feel a sense of acceptance and the importance of self-expression."
	Urban Mathematics and Science Teacher Collaborative - (Noyce) Todd Quinto, PI Phase I; Bárbara Brizuela, PI Phase II We have been awarded two Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program grants, through the National Science Foundation. In Phase I, the department and project partners prepared two cohorts of math and physics teachers, who are now working in middle and high schools around the country. Phase II Teaching Fellows will begin their programs in fall 2015, working in Malden Public Schools, in math, science, and elementary teaching. Both projects include community and professional partnerships as well as ongoing professional development for several years after graduation.