February 2024 Newsletter: Black History Month, NSF grants fund creation of smart playgrounds, and more

Monthly News | February 2024

Celebrating Black History Month

Supporting language variation of African American children

Explore language and literacy with UC Irvine School of Education Professor Julie Washington. As a speech-language pathologist, she investigates how language variation, like African American English, impacts early literacy in African American children.

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Tiana Heron

Master of Arts in Teaching + Credential, Single Subject

Heron started the MAT program a week after graduating with a B.A. in English in June 2023. She is a third-generation teacher, following in her mother and grandmother's footsteps.

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Jasmine McGary

Master of Arts in Teaching + Credential, Multiple Subject

After earning her bachelor's degree from UC Irvine in 2022, McGary landed a long-term substitute teaching position, calling it one of her "most rewarding experiences."

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Nearly $3 million in NSF-funded grants sparks creation of smart school playgrounds

Researchers will learn from Latinx parents and kindergarteners about their favorite activities to do at their existing play structure. Local co-design sessions are being coordinated with the Santa Ana Unified School District and the Santa Ana Early Learning Initiative, partners with UCI education researchers.

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Young-Suk Kim selected as 2024 AERA Fellow

The American Educational Research Association recognized the professor and senior associate dean for her exceptional contributions to, and excellence in, education research.

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Consensus report urges industry-wide social media standards

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee, which included Professor Stephanie Reich, made its recommendations in the interest of minimizing harm and maximizing benefits to adolescent health.

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National summit to feature several School of Education presenters

The AI K12 Deeper Learning Summit offers educational leaders insights, strategies for smartly and safely integrating AI into K-12 education.

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National Academy professor video series

A conversation with National Academy of Education Professor Greg Duncan

Distinguished Professor Greg Duncan shares about his decade-plus research project, Baby's First Years, which assesses the impact of poverty reduction on early childhood brain development. Learn more

Doctoral student awarded two-year, $81.4K fellowship

Third-year student Alejandro Granados Vargas seeks to inform culturally relevant assessment and intervention practices with "Documenting the Home and Community Storytelling Practices of Mexican-American Bilingual Children with Developmental Language Disorder."

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Becoming a Hispanic-Serving Research Institution

Report co-authored by Dean Frances Contreras provided pathways the UC can follow to become a HSRI system.

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Lunar New Year celebration

On Feb. 21, the School of Education community celebrated the Lunar New Year with games and activities in the courtyard. The event was presented by the School's DEI Climate Council & Friends.

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Upcoming Events

Mar. 1-2 – AI K12 Deeper Learning Summit, featuring Professors June Ahn, Kylie Peppler and Mark Warschauer

Mar. 12-28 – UCI Science Project: NGSS Certification Program (Tier 2)

Mar. 14 – Stories of Vietnamese Communities in the OC, sponsored by the UC Irvine School of Humanities

Mar. 25 – Registration deadline for UCI Science Project: STEAM PK-5 Books Program

Apr. 16-May 2 – UCI Science Project: NGSS Certification Program (Tier 1)

Apr. 29 – Registration deadline for UCI Science Project: PK-5 STEAM Books Program

May 2 – A More Inclusive History of the OC, sponsored by the UC Irvine School of Humanities

May 3 – Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects (ECCLPs) Annual Forum Symposium, with featured speakers Kelley Lê, ECCLPs executive director and Jennifer Cao, UC Irvine Science Project associate director

May 6-17 – UCI Science Project: NGSS Certification Program (Tier 2)

May 17-18 – Teaching for Justice Conference, presented by the UCI Teacher Academy

Please visit the Teacher Academy website to view more upcoming workshops.

In the Media

Jenny Woo '22 dreamed up successful emotional intelligence card games in classroom (CNBC)

New Publications

Professor Drew Bailey: "Effects of Voice Pitch on Social Perceptions Vary With Relational Mobility and Homicide Rate." In: Psychological Science

Professor Gustavo Carlo: "Measuring early adolescents' prosocial behavior toward diverse others: Considering multiple social identities." In: Journal of Adolescence

Assistant Professor Shayan Doroudi: "Turtle-like Geometry Learning: How Humans and Machines Differ in Learning Turtle Geometry." In: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence

Associate Professor Michael Hebert: "A National Survey of the Writing Instructional Practices of Teachers of Students With Visual Impairments." In: The Journal of Special Education

Associate Professor Jade Jenkins: "Investigating if high-quality kindergarten teachers sustain the pre-K boost to children's emergent literacy skill development in North Carolina." In: Child Development

Professor Young-Suk Kim: "Instruction influences cross-language transfer of reading skills: evidence from a longitudinal randomized controlled trial." In: Reading and Writing

Assistant Professor Nia Nixon: "Catalyzing Equity in STEM Teams: Harnessing Generative AI for Inclusion and Diversity." In: Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Professor Sandra Simpkins: "Examining changes in adolescents' high school math and science motivational beliefs and their relations to parental STEM support and STEM major choice at the intersectionality of gender and college generation status." In: Developmental Psychology

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STAY CONNECTED

Learn more about the UCI School of Education as seen on Viewpoint, hosted by Dennis Quaid