Thu, Oct 02, 2003

W138 NEBRASKA HALL, 3:30PM Engineering Mechanics/Center for Materials Research and Analysis Seminar - 'Phase Transitions and Dynamical Behavior in Ferroelectrics by Molecular-Dynamics Simulation' Simon Phillpot, Argonne National Laboratory •• 110 HAMILTON, 3:30PM School of Biological Sciences Seminar Steve Orzack, Fresh Pond Research Institute •• 208 OLDFATHER, 4PM Mathematics Colloquium - 'Ramanujan Graphs and Ramanujan Hypergraphs' Wen-Ching Winnie Li, Pennsylvania State University •• 211 BRACE LAB, 4PM Physics and Astronomy Colloquium - 'The History and Current Progress in the Development of Boron Carbide Solid State Neutron Detectors' Peter Dowben, UNL •• http://casnr.unl.edu/fair/ http://casnr.unl.edu/ 20031002_casnr.gif 100x100 EAST UNION, 10AM-3PM CASNR to Host Career Fair The College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources is hosting a Career Fair from 10am-3pm today in the East Union. The career event is intended for students and recruiters and targets full-time and internship opportunities in agricultural sciences, natural resources, environmental areas and non profit/governmental organizations. The fair will welcome over 500 students, faculty and staff. ••• $5M Grant to Allow UNL to Study School Readiness Strategies A research team at UNL has received a $5 million grant to develop strategies to enhance school readiness in children from birth to age 5. The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Lincoln Public Schools are project partners in the study titled Parent Engagement and Child Learning Birth to Five. The grant, funded through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a division of the National Institutes of Health, is a five-year project to study the effectiveness of a comprehensive approach working across home and school settings to help children who are at risk for school failure. The project focuses on strengthening the relationships between parents and children, and between parents and their children's teachers and other caregivers. "The goal is to strengthen and empower parents to become more actively engaged in their children's learning and development," said Susan Sheridan, Willa Cather professor and professor in the Department of Educational Psychology in the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences and lead investigator on the grant. Carolyn Pope Edwards, Willa Cather professor in the departments of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences and Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Education and Human Sciences, is co-investigator. Blending a number of exemplary models and approaches to working with parents and schools, the project capitalizes on the strengths of individual families and of the school programs in Lincoln, Sheridan said. Many prior research projects have studied the roles of parents and teachers, but no project has looked at how creating and supporting partnerships between families and schools can benefit young children across the entire birth-to-five age span, and for both social-emotional and cognitive outcomes. This work is important, she said, because educators recognize that "getting ready for school" is not just about the child; it is about parent and child readiness, building bridges between parents and educators. Over the course of the five-year project, about 600 children and their families will be recruited, Sheridan said. The children will be monitored over time to measure the effects of implementing the parent intervention early, as compared to implementing it at a later age. Prem Paul, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies at UNL, said the project is an outgrowth of UNL's Alliance on Children, Youth, Families and Schools. "This grant is a wonderful example of how bringing together faculty who have related research interests while building on the particular strengths of the institution, in this case research in families and education, can help us secure funding that benefits both the university and the people of Nebraska," Paul said. http://www.unmc.edu/ UNMC http://www.lps.org/ LPS http://www.nichd.nih.gov/default.htm NICHD http://www.nih.gov/ NIH http://tc.unl.edu/edpsych/ ED PSYCH http://cehs.unl.edu/ CEHS http://www.unl.edu/psypage/ PSYCHOLOGY Permalink