education

Afghanistan did not have to be Vietnam 2.0, says former intelligence advisor

Anonymous — Thu, 30 May 2024 18:52:16 +0000

Afghanistan did not have to be Vietnam 2.0, says former intelligence advisor Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/30/2024 - 12:52

Bradley Worrell

Gail Nelson, a career intelligence officer and CU Boulder alumnus, advised Afghan military intelligence leaders after the United States drove the Taliban from power

It’s been almost three years since the Afghanistan government fell to the Taliban, and with the passage of time some have come to believe that America’s efforts to install and support a government that was democratic and friendly to the West were doomed from the start.

Gail Nelson is not one of them.

“It didn’t have to be that way,” he says. “If there was more respect and authority given to the Afghan leaders to take responsibility for combating the Taliban, things might have been different. I can’t say for sure the outcome would have changed, but at least the responsibility would have been more on the Afghans and less on the U.S. and NATO.”

Nelson speaks from experience. A �鶹��Ƶ graduate with master’s and doctorate degrees in political science and a U.S. Civil Service and Air Force intelligence career , Nelson served as a military advisor to top Afghan intelligence officials for two years during the early 2000s and for three years during the early 2010s.

Gail Nelson is pictured in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2013, with the tomb of the late king, Mohammad Nadir Shaw, in the background. Nelson says he was optimistic about the country’s chances during his first deployment to the country as a senior intelligence advisor from 2003 to 2005 but grew increasingly concerned about its prospects during his second deployment, from 2010 to 2013.

Those first years in Afghanistan—after the Taliban had been driven from power by U.S. and coalition forces following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on American soil—were promising, according to Nelson.

Promising early years

In December 2003, Nelson was one of about two dozen U.S. advisors—all military veterans of senior military ranks —who were hired by a U.S. military contractor to work in Afghanistan. Representing different military branches and experienced in different fields, all were hired to advise top Afghan defense and intelligence officials.

“ We and the Afghans had radically different cultural backgrounds” Nelson says, “But we all had the common goal in getting Afghans out from under their experience of Soviet occupation and civil war. They had a clear determination of moving Westward as was mine. It was a positive approach but there was much work to do in institutionalizing the change.”

Afghan intelligence leaders he worked with were Soviet-trained from the 1980s, when the Soviet Union occupied the country, so they already knew intelligence strategies and doctrine, but they wanted to embrace U.S. and NATO methods as quickly as possible, according to Nelson.

“Afghanistan’s top intelligence official personally asked me: Help us develop an organization that is Western-oriented in organization and doctrine,” he says. “They wanted our help learning to run a defense and intelligence organization aligned with the West. They saw it as important for Afghanistan to be part of the West.”

In Afghanistan, the culture grants respect to people based on their age, honoring the experiences of life they must share, according to Nelson, so the fact that he and many of his fellow advisors were older was an asset used for maximum effect.

“They decide how old you are, and then they decide if they should listen to you,” he says. “So, my fellow advisors and I had the advantage of age in our favor when offering advice to younger Afghan leaders.”

Nelson says his daily duties at the time typically involved meeting with top defense and intelligence officials to exchange ideas on military intelligence theory and practice, and to develop papers on intelligence production, collection, and counterintelligence. These matters included doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, and facilities.

Plenty of expertise to share

Nelson had extensive strategic intelligence knowledge based upon his 26 years in Western Europe, where he was responsible for Soviet/Warsaw Pact and Post-Soviet political intelligence estimates. His master’s and doctorate degrees in political science earned at CU Boulder specializing in German and Soviet studies were invaluable reinforcements to the challenges that lay ahead.

He took mandatory retirement from the Air Force in 2001, at the age of 57, retiring as a colonel and retired from the U.S. Civil Service as well. However, after 9/11, military contractors were looking for individuals with specialized expertise, and Nelson says he believed he could put his skills to good use in Afghanistan, where national leaders were seeking to create a country free of the Taliban’s harsh rule.

Nelson is pictured recently in his library in his Boulder home. The framed photo on the bookshelf is the late CU political science professor Edward J. Rozek, who was a mentor. Nelson says what he learned in his German and Soviet area studies courses while obtaining a master’s degree and PhD from CU Boulder were invaluable to him in his job as an Air Force intelligence officer.

Although Nelson worked in Afghanistan as a private contractor, he had plenty of opportunities to observe the interactions of U.S. and NATO active-duty military leaders with their Afghan counterparts. He believes Afghans were willing to give those Western military representatives the benefit of the doubt for the first year or so that he was in the country, but things changed over time.

“U.S./NATO officers found great difficulty in adapting to Afghan culture and were not inclined to do so. They had no background in South Asian area studies, making it difficult for them to understand the political, psychological and leadership styles of Afghan military leaders,” Nelson says. For their part, Afghan officers generally found it difficult to embrace the primacy of computer technologies within their institutions preferring instead the affinity of direct human discourse.

Complicating matters, Nelson says the decision to limit U.S./NATO military personnel deployments in Afghanistan to one year limited how effective those officers could be working with representatives of the Afghan defense ministry and general staff leadership.

“Institution-building is not easy; it takes time,” he says. “And in a culture like Afghanistan, you’re not going to make changes quickly.”

What’s more, it was always clear to both U.S. military officials and their Afghan counterparts that Iraq—which the United States invaded in 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein from power and search for weapons of mass destruction—would take precedence over Afghanistan, Nelson says.

Despite these obstacles—and many others associated with attempting to assist governing a country with eight major tribal groups and more than 15 subcultures—Nelson says he still felt reasonably optimistic about the country’s prospects when he departed in December 2005.

He went on to take consulting assignments as a military advisor in the Philippines and Iraq.

Signs of a downward spiral

In September 2010, Nelson returned to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and he says it was immediately clear things had changed for the worse, in part because the security situation had deteriorated.

Threats to Afghanistan leaders including NATO officers were visible throughout Kabul with the construction of barriers on major roads and thoroughfares. One assassin attempted to kill the chief of military Intelligence in 2011 but failed to reach his target. Safehouses for advisors were primary targets as well, in which two guards were killed at Nelson’s residence, followed by at least two advisors killed in car bombs in 2012. Three Afghan children known to Nelson were also killed at the Gate to Camp Eggers by a suicide bomber.

Kabul had become a more dangerous place.

Meanwhile, Nelson says he was disheartened to realize that he and other military contractors were increasingly being sidelined by U.S./NATO active-duty military members, despite their deep connections with their Afghan counterparts. He says Western leaders also increasingly bypassed Afghan leaders as they took the lead on Afghan-NATO missions against the Taliban—a decision that had negative repercussions for the country’s security when Western forces drastically scaled down their presence in the country while Afghans felt disempowered to fill the vacuum

At the same time, years into the operation in Afghanistan, Nelson says U.S./NATO military planners still had not done their homework when it came to teaching U.S. military personnel about Afghan history, culture, and geopolitics.

Outside of the capital, most of Afghanistan’s population live in small, rural villages, many without electricity, that adhere to tribalism and Islamic traditions. Most of the Afghans who live in those communities never leave them, which creates a provincial attitude reinforced by complete indifference to events in Kabul, according to Nelson.

“So, a young U.S. military officer from Kansas telling a village chieftain how to run things is not going to go over well,” he says. “You can’t just march into a country like Afghanistan and think they are going to embrace a modern, computer, business-oriented model when 10 miles outside of Kabul they don’t have lightbulbs.”

For their part, the Taliban were successful in their propaganda efforts to get those villagers to see Western troops not just as foreigners, but as alien outsiders with no respect for the country’s deep cultural and religious traditions, Nelson says.

When he left Afghanistan for the last time in September 2013, he was deeply ambivalent about the country’s prospects. When the country fell to the Taliban in September 2021, it did not surprise him, Nelson says.

Marching into an area we had no real knowledge of, you see the lesson now for what it is once it collapsed in 2021, and we’re back to a Taliban regime.”

“We lost traction on the Afghan defense side,” he says. “They were no longer responsible for what was happening in the field. It was too late; they were not engaged. That had morphed over to NATO and the U.S. taking the lead in combatting the Taliban.”

What’s more, the Trump administration’s decision in February 2020 to negotiate directly with the Taliban—and to exclude the Afghan government—for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country “effectively surrendered Afghan sovereignty,” Nelson says.

Lessons not learned

Today, three years after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, Nelson says he is worried that America has not learned two vital lessons from its longest war.

The first is not standing by Afghans leaders who stood with the United States after the Taliban was driven from power in 2001. Specifically, Nelson says he is deeply troubled that the U.S. and NATO have made no concerted efforts to evacuate and provide asylum for top Afghan political and military leaders before or after the country fell to the Taliban in August 2021.

Of the Afghan intelligence leaders he worked with, Nelson says one was killed in the aftermath of the Taliban’s retaking of the country, at least one is in hiding in Afghanistan and one is in neighboring Tajikistan but is in limbo there, unable to gain U.S. assistance. Nelson says he is unsure about the fate is to several other top Afghan intelligence officials he knew from his time in the country.

Leaving those Afghan leaders behind was not right and sends a bad signal to U.S. allies and potential allies, Nelson notes. He says he has contacted the U.S. State Department, the White House and other government agencies advocating for asylum for those Afghan leaders but has received no response.

Meanwhile, Nelson says he believes many of the problems the United States faced in Afghanistan arose because military planners were not experts in area studies for the region, and he says part of that blame goes to universities, which he says typically do not offer master’s degrees and PhDs in area studies.

“If universities aren’t graduating MA/PhDs in area studies for various regions of the world, we are going to continue to produce people who know nothing about regional histories, cultures and geopolitics that dictate whether U.S. national security policies are a success or a failure,” he says. “We blew it in Vietnam, and we blew it in Afghanistan. I believe one of the key issues was there was a failure among the Pentagon planners, who were coming out of a background that was functional and not area-studies related.”

Reflecting on America’s war in Afghanistan, Nelson says, “Marching into an area we had no real knowledge of, you see the lesson now for what it is once it collapsed in 2021, and we’re back to a Taliban regime.”

Top image: a view of Kabul, Afghanistan (Photo: iStock)

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Gail Nelson, a career intelligence officer and CU Boulder alumnus, advised Afghan military intelligence leaders after the United States drove the Taliban from power.

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Reducing gender inequality, one biodegradable menstrual pad at a time

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 18:01:33 +0000

Reducing gender inequality, one biodegradable menstrual pad at a time Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/05/2023 - 11:01

Sarah Kuta

Through his nonprofit, Ajume Wingo, CU Boulder associate professor of philosophy, is providing sanitary pads and menstrual education in his home country, Cameroon

Several years ago, Ajume Wingo was riding a bus in his home country of Cameroon when the vehicle made an unexpected stop.

From his seat, the CU Boulder associate professor of philosophy watched as a group of women began shouting at a young girl who looked to be between 11 and 13 years old.

“I heard them say things like, ‘You are a disgrace to women,’ and, ‘How dare you travel when you ought to be sitting in place,’” Wingo said. “When I heard that phrase, I understood what was going on.”

“Sitting in place” is a euphemism for menstruation, and Wingo quickly realized that the bewildered girl had just gotten her period for the first time. He calmly approached her and explained that menstruation is a normal, natural experience—and that she had nothing to be ashamed of.

Ajume Wingo, a CU Boulder associate professor of philosophy, co-founded PridePads in 2019 to educate youth and community members in Cameroon about menstruation and provide biodegradable sanitary pads.

After that experience, Wingo decided he needed to do something to help reduce the stigma around menstruation in Cameroon. In 2019, he co-founded PridePads Africa, a nonprofit that educates girls, boys and community members about menstruation and gives them biodegradable sanitary pads.

Though the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the organization’s work, PridePads Africa has already reached thousands of rural Cameroonians. Slowly but surely, it’s changing the narrative around periods.

“In a couple of years, students and community members have gone from thinking menstruation is bad, dirty or something to be ashamed of to understanding that it’s a natural biological process,” says Elizabeth Cleveland, PridePads Africa’s executive director.

Addressing period poverty

Around the world, period poverty remains an often-overlooked problem that can exacerbate gender inequality. This term applies to women and girls who have limited or inadequate access to menstrual products and menstrual health education, either because of financial constraints, social and cultural stigmas or some mix of both. The World Health Organization, UNICEF and other global humanitarian organizations have all identified period poverty as a major issue.

In Cameroon, girls often stay home from school each month during their periods. Over time, they fall behind in their classes and, eventually, many drop out entirely. This may ultimately lead them down a path toward early teenage marriage, sex trafficking and teenage pregnancy.

“In most African primary schools, the girls are at the top of their class,” says Wingo. “And they go on like that until toward the end of secondary school, when the whole thing reverses. Girls disappear from classes every month and, suddenly, the boys are ahead, and the girls are behind.”

Poor performance in school—or dropping out altogether—means African girls have limited options as they reach young adulthood. Because of the stigma and shame around menstruation, many also grapple with low self-esteem. And, without access to sanitary products, some girls develop infections from using old newspapers, leaves or rags.

But providing them with sanitary pads—and educating communities about menstruation more broadly—means girls can stay in school and thrive. This gives them more choices, like whether to work, get married (and, perhaps just as important, whom to marry) and raise a family.

“Women have so much to offer the world, and we are giving them a chance to have a voice and a seat at the table in many places where that is uncommon,” says Stephanie Carter, PridePads Africa co-founder. “It is hard to believe that something as simple as a sanitary pad and education can have such a profound impact on the world, but that is the power of information.”

PridePads Africa staff members in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon, produce and distribute biodegradable pads, as well as spread the message of menstrual health and hygiene.

‘Simple ways’ to make life better

PridePads Africa relies on a team of staffers in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon, to produce and distribute biodegradable pads, as well as spread the message of menstrual health and hygiene.

They make the biodegradable pads using two machines from Aakar Innovations in India, including one that was purchased with funding from the Boulder Valley Rotary Club, the Boulder Flatirons Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Denver Southeast.

The machines have the capacity to produce between 1,500 to 1,800 pads per day using materials that break down completely within 90 days, like natural gum fibers sourced from pine trees. That’s a huge improvement from commercially produced sanitary pads, which are made primarily of plastic. Scientists estimate plastic pads will take between 500 and 800 years to decompose.

“In fighting one problem, period poverty, we did not want to contribute to another, environmental degradation,” says Cleveland.

On the education front, the Cameroon-based team also visits schools and women’s groups, where they explain the biological process of menstruation and the reproductive system more broadly. They also teach girls how to manage their periods by wearing pads.

In the future, Wingo would like to expand the reach of PridePads Africa to other regions of Cameroon and beyond. In the meantime, he likens the organization’s impact to the starfish story, in which a child walking along the sand throws one beached starfish at a time back into the water. A passerby asks, “There are so many, how can you make a difference?” The child tosses another starfish and replies, “I just made a difference in that one’s life.”

Even seemingly small actions—like providing a teenage girl with sanitary pads—can lead to big ripple effects, Wingo says.

“A lot of people talk about high-level philosophical principles to address gender discrimination when, in fact, there is something concrete we can do,” he says. “This project has caused me to start thinking about very simple ways we can make life better for people.”

[video:https://youtu.be/_WsTDU1UjYM?si=VQVbHE0mbBlZVrxo]

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Through his nonprofit, Ajume Wingo, CU Boulder associate professor of philosophy, is providing sanitary pads and menstrual education in his home country, Cameroon.

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Rise of book banning stems from ‘culture war,’ experts say

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 17:39:04 +0000

Rise of book banning stems from ‘culture war,’ experts say Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/26/2023 - 11:39

Maxwell Garby

At a panel discussion co-sponsored by CU Boulder Center for Humanities and the Arts, literacy experts championed children’s access to literature

Though censorship and book banning are nothing new, the recent upswing in this censorship in public institutions has compelled many to protest these limitations on their access to diverse views.

During a panel discussion hosted at the Boulder Public Library Wednesday evening, co-sponsored by the �鶹��Ƶ Center for Humanities and the Arts, Adam Crawley, a CU Boulder assistant teaching professor of literacy studies and the discussion's moderator, led a conversation on the right to read in K-8 schools and libraries and the fundamental right to access literature.

Jo Currier, a fifth-grade teacher in the Boulder Valley School District and a mother of three, offered the perspective of a parent and an educator. Currier strongly supported “promoting access for all students and representation in the curriculum.”

Colorado author Andrea Wang, who explores Asian American culture and identity in her picture books and middle school novels, said that as a second-generation Chinese American, she recognizes the importance of children being able to read books in which the characters are like them. “I write the books that I needed as a kid,” she said. “Everyone deserves to see themselves represented in a book.”

Panelists Adam Crawley (left), Jo Currier, Andrea Wang and David Farnan discuss frequently challenged children's books.

David Farnan, director of the Boulder Public Library who has extensive experiences dealing with censorship, noted that this current surge in book banning is due, in part, to the ongoing “culture war.” Mentioning the librarian code of ethics, Farnan emphasized that he “will not just oppose but resist censorship in all of its forms.”

Farnan said he believes the recent uptick in censorship is related, in part, to an “orchestrated attack primarily on LGBTQ authors and stories, and authors and stories about people of color.” He added that this attack is on “any type of curriculum having to do with a story that is not having to do with White hegemony.”

Wang added that this is also due to the “fear of the other,” and cited the “rising anti-Asian sentiment since the pandemic began.”

In response to the question of whether censorship might ever be appropriate, Currier noted how some curriculum can tend to favor one predominant perspective over less dominant ones, so educators face a challenging dilemma. Should they opt to substitute these materials with more diverse viewpoints, or should the original content be taught, but through a more critical lens? As difficult a question as that is, it is important to make sure that there is equal opportunity for representation, Currier said.

Another challenging aspect is the issue of self-censorship. Pointing to a few recent examples—including the award ceremony for a Palestinian author being canceled at the Frankfurt Book Fair and, earlier this year, an author's decision not to publish a novel set in Russia following criticism from Ukrainian readers—Farnan said that these acts are “just solely inappropriate” and that it both “underestimates the power of books and overestimates it too."

“Books do not cause harm,” Farnan said. “They may represent viewpoints that are different. They may be offensive, they may be something that you find difficult to identify with, but you can choose not to read them. The point of books is, in some ways, to explore ideas and selves and identities and worlds that you cannot and do not live.”

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At a panel discussion co-sponsored by CU Boulder Center for Humanities and the Arts, literacy experts championed children’s access to literature.

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Science-education experts recognized for ground-breaking work

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 16:22:07 +0000

Science-education experts recognized for ground-breaking work Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/13/2023 - 10:22

CU Boulder professors Noah Finkelstein of physics and Valerie Otero of education have won the 2023 Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture from Stockholm University

Two experts in science education at the �鶹��Ƶ have won the Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture of 2023 for their “major and lasting” contribution to science education, Stockholm University has announced.

Noah Finkelstein, professor of physics, and Valerie Otero, professor of science education, share the 2023 award and are planning to deliver a joint lecture in Sweden early next year.

Stockholm University bestows the Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture annually to a researcher who has made a “major and lasting contribution” within the fields of mathematics education or science education internationally.

The award, which was unsolicited, recognizes their joint contribution to “teacher education praxis.” The cross-disciplinary collaboration between physics and education “led to the development of the highly influential and successful Learning Assistant Program,” Stockholm University said.

Noah Finkelstein and Valerie Otero

“Finkelstein and Otero are both leading researchers in physics/science education, and both their individual and collaborative work has gained recognition internationally and inspired researchers at the Department of Teaching and Learning at Stockholm University,” the award citation notes.

Finkelstein’s research focuses on university students’ interests and capacities in physics and also on educational transformations. Finkelstein is one of leads of the Physics Education Research (PER) group and was founding co-director, with Otero, of CU’s Center for STEM Learning.

Otero’s research focuses on the interplay of learning environments, instructional teams and materials that make learning more accessible. Otero is the faculty director and co-founder of CU Boulder’s Learning Assistant Program and the International Learning Assistant Alliance.

Finkelstein’s research projects range from the specifics of students’ learning particular concepts to the departmental and institutional scales of sustainable educational transformation. His research has yielded more than 150 publications.

He is increasingly involved in education policy and in 2010 testified before the U.S. Congress on the state of STEM education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He serves on many national boards, including chairing both the American Physical Society’s Committee on Education and PER Topical Group.

He is a Fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Presidential Teaching Scholar and the inaugural Timmerhaus Teaching Ambassador for the University of Colorado system.

Explaining his research focus, Finkelstein says, “At root, I see higher education as a fundamental public good—advancing the lives of individuals and capacities of our societies more broadly. In the long haul, I know of no better way to enhance societies and individuals' lives than to support the core missions of our colleges and universities, and to help them realize the promises that they hold toward these ends.”

He acknowledges that there is much work still to do. “And that's where I spend my time—through teaching and educational programs, through my research and scholarly work, and through my professional service efforts. I particularly focus on higher education—colleges and universities—as these are a tremendous resource and lever for change in our broader educational system.”

Partly in response to expert warnings that the nation was falling behind its international peers in science education, U.S. educators have in the past two decades renewed their focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM) education. This focus is reflected in levels of funding, national discourse, programs focused in STEM, numbers of students, diversity of students and even faculty hiring trends, Finkelstein says.

I see higher education as a fundamental public good—advancing the lives of individuals and capacities of our societies more broadly. In the long haul, I know of no better way to enhance societies and individuals' lives than to support the core missions of our colleges and universities, and to help them realize the promises that they hold toward these ends.”

“Two decades ago, it was far less common to find discipline-based education researchers—folks such as myself hired into disciplinary departments to conduct research on education from within,” he observes, adding that when he was hired in 2003, CU Boulder was “extremely forward-looking” in such a hire.

“Now it is both much more common and CU has established itself as an international leader in this space, boasting researchers across a wide array of disciplinary departments focusing on education and in schools of education focusing on undergraduate science learning,” he says.

Finkelstein also notes that educators have broadened goals in their courses “to focus on the whole array of learning and educational practice, rather than the initial staples of attending to students’ conceptual understanding and algorithmic capacities.”

Now, he adds, “we are attending to how students think about our fields; what habits of mind they are developing; how we build inclusive environments and support a sense of belonging among the breadth of learners; who we are not including and why.”

Additionally, educators have also moved way from viewing their jobs as “fixing students” or addressing their "deficiencies" and now place greater emphases on the “systems that our learners are participating in to support their substantial capacities.”

Otero is internationally recognized for her foundational work with the Learning Assistant (LA) model and the International LA Alliance. The LA model was established in 2001 when Otero was hired by the �鶹��Ƶ in STEM education and as the first physics education researcher at CU Boulder.

She is a President’s Teaching Scholar and served as an advisor for NASA, on committees for the National Academy of Science and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, which awarded her team the Excellence in Physics Education Award in 2019 for their work on the LA model.

The LA model improves student success by increasing the diversity of CU Boulder’s instructional teams through the inclusion of pedagogically trained undergraduate LAs. Otero’s team provides continuing development opportunities for professors and undergraduates, supporting their growth as educational leaders, mentors and state-of-the-art educational innovators.

“Working with LAs has helped me refresh my teaching strategies and resist the temptation to just do what's worked in the past,” a participating professor commented. “I enjoy helping LAs take on responsibility and gain confidence in their leadership skills, and in turn, this experience reminds me of the greater purpose and goals of education.”

LAs rarely provide direct instruction; instead, they facilitate group interactions, answer questions that students may be embarrassed to ask instructors and give general guidance such as how to study and where to find health care resources.

They relate to students, give them voice, care about them and help them learn. LAs plan and reflect with professors, providing information about how students are experiencing the course, bringing students closer to the professor, especially in large courses.

Learning Assistants maintain both a peer and educator role, which may allow the breaking down of psychological barriers in the minds of students due to formal boundaries, possibly preventing them from seeking help for fear of bothering the professor or appearing incompetent.”

participating LA observed, “LAs maintain both a peer and educator role, which may allow the breaking down of psychological barriers in the minds of students due to formal boundaries, possibly preventing them from seeking help for fear of bothering the professor or appearing incompetent.”

Today, approximately 400 LAs are hired each year at CU Boulder, serving more than 20,000 students each year. Research shows that students who have experienced a STEM course with LAs are 60% more likely to succeed in subsequent STEM courses. The model has caught on.

Universities all over the world have realized that the LA model can transform their institutions, building lasting capacity for sustained offerings of high-quality, learner-centered instruction.

In these settings, students feel included and valued and are comfortable accessing multiple forms of support in and outside of the classroom. The thousands of CU Boulder students who have served as LAs and LA mentors have become effective leaders, teachers and team members, prepared for the increasingly diverse and interdisciplinary workforce.

On Oct. 27, professors from universities around the world will come to CU Boulder, as they do each year, to learn about and share research regarding the LA model.

Otero founded the Learning Assistant Alliance in 2009, and since then, more than 3,000 professors from more than 560 universities and 28 countries have joined. Otero has been invited to Norway, Egypt, Japan and the United Kingdom to provide guidance and support for country-level adoptions of the LA Model.

Otero is also known for her foundational work with PEER Physics, a high school physics curriculum and teacher professional learning community adopted by high schools from Seattle to New York.

“We used to be gullible before this class, but now evidence has our backs,” a PEER Physics student said, while another noted, “This course has provided a very safe and helpful learning environment for me. This class is all about working with others and has really helped me learn the material—it has also lifted my spirits about the science subject in general.”

A PEER Physics teacher said, “PEER Physics gives ownership to students who haven’t had ownership in other science classrooms before. It empowers them to take charge of their own learning rather than just being fed information. I think it challenges their analytical skills.”

Another teacher said, “I think if the PEER Physics teacher community didn’t exist, I would have left education. This has kept me in, really enhanced my life, and the life of my students.”

Otero found empowerment and joy in physics when she took her first physics course at the University of New Mexico. “I always loved learning,” she says. “My dad always taught us that learning is a great privilege, and I committed my life to making positive learning opportunities available for students like me.”

As a first-generation college student, Otero has first-hand knowledge about how a Hispanic woman can navigate physics and academia and achieve great success through a supportive community like CU Boulder. Otero says that she developed leadership skills by working at her parents’ grocery store and at the New Mexico State Fair since she was 12.

Twenty-three years after starting at CU Boulder, she continues to work with the Learning Assistant Alliance and PEER Physics to find ways to include, rather than exclude, people from physics.

Did you enjoy this article? Subcribe to our newsletter. Want to learn more? View Otero's Ed Talk at this link.

CU Boulder professors Noah Finkelstein of physics and Valerie Otero of education have won the 2023 Svend Pedersen Award and Lecture from Stockholm University.

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Museum creates science teaching tools for deaf students

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 22:11:37 +0000

Museum creates science teaching tools for deaf students Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/24/2023 - 16:11

Katie Langford

CU Museum of Natural History launches pilot for science-education tools using American Sign Language

A team at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History is working with education and disability advocates to create science-education resources for deaf and hard-of-hearing children.

Funded through a $22,800 grant from the CU Boulder Office for Outreach and Engagement, university staff are collaborating with educators and experts to develop free archeology, paleontology and biology lessons in American Sign Language, Spanish and English available to the public online.

“The COVID-19 pandemic drove home in a relatively immediate and urgent way just how serious the impact is on all communities that are losing access to education resources,” says William Taylor, assistant professor of anthropology and curator of archeology at the CU Museum of Natural History.

William Taylor, curator of archaeology in the �鶹��Ƶ Museum of Natural History, is part of a team creating educational resources for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

“I think we observed that some of the communities that are hardest hit by the impact are those that are underserved to begin with.”

Creating inclusive science education

The idea to create science education tools in ASL, as well as Spanish and other languages, was a long time coming for Taylor and Cecily Whitworth, project co-directors and siblings.

Taylor and Whitworth, a former linguistics professor who now works in advocacy with Montana Family ASL, each brought a distinct perspective to the project.

Whitworth, who is deaf, says her approach to the project has roots in seeing how inadequate education resources affect deaf children in rural communities.

It’s not unusual for there to be only one deaf child in a rural town or school district, and with resources far away or otherwise inaccessible, language deprivation is “a huge problem,” Whitworth says.

While newborn-hearing screenings are the norm, deaf children can still miss out on weeks, months or even years of language acquisition before and after they’re identified.

“If the family lives a far distance away from a big city or maybe decides they don’t want to rely on ASL, the infant continues to miss out on a lot of typical language acquisition milestones, and that causes permanent problems throughout their life,” Whitworth says.

Rural communities may not have ASL classes or a deaf community to support families, Whitworth adds. That’s where online education resources for deaf children can start to bridge the gap.

Taylor says Whitworth’s experience is the reason he enters museums thinking about whether the content is being shared with the deaf community.

Cecily Whitworth, who works in advocacy with Montana Family ASL and who is deaf, created illustrations for the ASL educational materials, including the ASL words for archaeology (left) and hat (right).

“The truth of the matter is that at most museums, especially smaller museums that struggle with funding, that are understaffed and reactive rather than strategic with their planning, the folks that get the short shrift with content, accessibility and science education are the disabled community,” Taylor says. “That’s true at every museum, but it’s also true at our museum.”

Highlighting excellence

The program’s first lesson, “Let’s Talk �鶹��Ƶ Archeology,” is aimed at children ages 4-7 and introduces them to Amelia Dall, an archeologist who is deaf, who talks about what archeologists do and what tools they need in the field. Dall uses ASL, and the video includes English captions.

Students can also learn ASL archeology vocabulary and fill out a worksheet.

Taylor and Whitworth developed the materials along with the museum’s archeology team, Montana Family ASL and other public-education experts, who met to decide what core concepts to introduce through the lesson and how to make it accessible for young children.

“One of the things about the project is we want to have it not just be an archeologist talking in ASL translation. We want deaf scientists and educators to present directly to kids, because there’s something special about learning it in their language,” Taylor says.

Archaeologist Amelia Dall, who is deaf, explains archaeology in ASL for the video "Let's Talk �鶹��Ƶ Archaeology."

While the concepts being taught are simple, the lessons give kids a chance to encounter deaf scientists, Whitworth says.

“I think that’s where the potential long-lasting impact is of a project like this, to show people excellence and show them you can do this. Those hopes and dreams can get hard-wired when you’re really young,” Whitworth says. “Deaf, hard-of-hearing youth and other minority children often don’t think they can achieve those goals or do those jobs.”

In the coming months, the team plans to launch similar lessons for biology and paleontology, offer lessons in Spanish and potentially expand into other areas of study.

“Our hope with this project is we get other folks excited to develop resources for things like planetary sciences, engineering—there’s a whole diverse range of exciting academic fields and sciences,” Taylor says. “We want for folks to come forward and say, ‘We want to add our voice to this project.’”

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CU Museum of Natural History launches pilot for science-education tools using American Sign Language

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Karen Gebhardt wins national kudos for online teaching

Anonymous — Tue, 16 May 2023 16:41:53 +0000

Karen Gebhardt wins national kudos for online teaching Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/16/2023 - 10:41

Doug McPherson

CU Boulder faculty member recognized with national excellence in teaching award from a leading group for professional, continuing and online education

Karen Gebhardt, faculty director for Undergraduate Online Learning and the director of the Online Economics Program, has won a national excellence in teaching award from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA), a leading group for professional, continuing and online education.

The UPCEA, which gave Gebhardt the award in March at its annual conference in Washington, D.C., bestows the honor to those who have provided “outstanding teaching, course development, mentoring of students and service to continuing education.”

Judges say they were impressed with all aspects of Gebhardt’s nomination. One judge wrote, “I saw that she was taking constructive criticism and making changes. She was listening to her students.”

Prior to joining CU in 2018, Karen Gebhardt worked for Colorado State University in the Economics Department leading the online program, teaching core and elective courses, and improving student learning outcomes and at the United States Department of Agriculture conducting research related to the interactions of humans and wildlife. She earned her Master and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Colorado State University. (Read her bio here)

Another judge wrote, “The materials for this nomination clearly illustrate the impact the nominee has had as a faculty member in her department. Most notably, it is clear that the nominee has been a champion for online education and effective instructional design within her unit. For example, it was shared that at the onset of the pandemic, the nominee stepped outside of her immediate teaching responsibilities to create a course that provided other faculty with the foundational knowledge they needed to successfully navigate remote teaching.”

Gebhardt says the award “speaks to the excellent work that’s done at CU Boulder and in the College of Arts and Sciences to support online education, and receiving this award means the world to me. My goal is to help others be successful learners and teachers. To me, good teaching is all about student success, and I’m constantly evaluating my teaching and students' learning to improve success.”

Gebhardt and her team are credited with getting all the courses needed to complete the economics major online as of this spring. All nine required 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000-level courses are online, and a rotating group of three to four 4000-level electives are now offered every term.

“This has provided flexibility for our students and offered additional elective options, so students can complete their degree quicker, and in some cases, it has allowed students to complete their degree when they could no longer attend in-person classes because of health, family or work reasons,” Gebhardt says.

She says she’s also pleased with being named in January as the inaugural faculty director for Undergraduate Online Learning, supporting senior vice provost of online education, Robert McDonald.

“I’m really excited for this position because it demonstrates the university’s continued commitment to excellence in online teaching and learning,” she says. “And part of this role involves supporting Glen Krutz, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to help him realize his stated goal to support student success through increasing online teaching and learning in the college.”

Gebhardt became interested in teaching after working as a teaching assistant in her undergraduate and graduate programs.

“I loved teaching so much that I’d spend my time preparing to teach instead of completing my research projects,” she says.

She went on to earn her PhD and completed research related to her dissertation topic in natural-resource economics and agricultural economics. However, since shifting her focus to teaching about 10 years ago, she has published articles and given many presentations related to teaching and improving student success in online education.

I like how online education supports student success—especially for those students who need flexibility when they access the course materials, communicate with their peers and the instructor and complete assignments.”

“I love online education for a ton of reasons. To teach online well, it’s really challenging. The curriculum may be the same, but the pedagogy can be quite different. So, it’s really fun and exciting to develop a good online course. I also like how online education supports student success—especially for those students who need flexibility when they access the course materials, communicate with their peers and the instructor and complete assignments.”

When asked if she had a teacher who made a difference in her life, Gebhardt says the former chair of the Department of Economics, Nicholas Flores, has been “an incredible mentor.”

“He’s not my teacher in a traditional sense, because I have never taken a class from him, but he has been an important mentor. He’s honest and transparent, always has time, listens well, provides fair and honest advice, is an advocate, and gives me the trust and agency to get things done. It is incredibly motivating, and I have learned to be a better mentor and administrator myself.”

CU Boulder faculty member recognized with national excellence in teaching award from a leading group for professional, continuing and online education.

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Dance and tech do a pas de deux on NSF-funded project

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 21:23:36 +0000

Dance and tech do a pas de deux on NSF-funded project Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 10/28/2019 - 15:23

Kenna Bruner

One goal is to increase the diversity of STEM fields by emphasizing that ‘we need to stop trying to get girls to act like boys in order to be part of the math world’

Under-represented students in STEM are about to get a leg up, thanks to a new project merging dance and technology from the �鶹��Ƶ and New York University.

Michelle Ellsworth, Ben Shapiro and Edd Taylor

The cross-disciplinary project, which was awarded a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, will examine how to integrate machine learning, data science and physical computing in the context of movement-based learning to expand the scope and relevance of creative computing into established dance practices.

“Cross-disciplinary collaborations open up many doors you wouldn’t expect,” said Michelle Ellsworth, professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance and interim director for the Center for Media Arts and Performance in the university's ATLAS Institute.

On the team are Ben Shapiro, assistant professor of computer science at CU Boulder, Ellsworth and Edd Taylor, assistant professor in STEM education, who also has a background in cheerleading. Mary West, doctoral student in computer science with experience as a performance artist, is also part of the team.

“What’s unique is that none of us has just one neighborhood of expertise. We’re not just the dancer, the education specialist,” Ellsworth said.

“Rather than making the existing clubhouse of computer science more friendly, (we sought) to build a new kind of clubhouse which goes to the dancers’ space, to the dance studio. It’s tapping into their existing interest and knowledge. To have dancers and cheerleaders feel they legitimately and inherently have access.”

An image from a performance-art piece by Michelle Ellsworth called "Post Verbal Social Network," which was supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, typifies the kind of transdisciplinary work she does. That work, she said, shows what a "physically productive, non-language based, non-mediated, pre-industrial, 3D dance/communication looks and feels like.” Photo by Nicholas Caputo. At the top of the page is an image of student Emily Daub, who fuses dance and technology. Photo courtesy of ATLAS Institute.

The research project, which is titled Integrating Physical Computing and Data Science in Movement Based Learning, will focus on the design of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning-environments for an underrepresented group: female high school students who are dancers or cheerleaders in Colorado and New York.

Working with a step team, two cheerleading teams and the New York City nonprofit, STEM From Dance, researchers will explore how established practices and knowledge of dance can support learning about computing.

“This is about finding ways to connect computer science and education with dance and cheerleading,” Shapiro said.

“Young women who are dancers or cheerleaders are members of the same population that have been for many years systematically excluded from the field of computer science. The vision for this project is to ask what are the ways we can bring computer science to dance and cheerleading. The idea is to use technology to improve your athletic skills or enhance your performances. For example, costumes that react to movement.”

As part of the project, students will create computing systems with programmable electronics worn on the body (physical computing) and use those systems to create statistical models of movement and gesture (data science and machine learning), and then apply the models in a “digital experiential learning environment,” or a digital environment where students learn by doing.

Working closely with physical education teachers and participating students, researchers will produce design principles, curricula, new educational technologies and comparative analyses.

Some of the questions the research team will address include:

How can computing be leveraged to build expertise in dance and cheerleading?
How can dance and cheerleading be leveraged to build expertise in computing?
What are the challenges and opportunities of integrating computing into physical education practices?

The research will be conducted in three parts. Phase one will consist of conducting interviews and observations at three sites—New York and two locations in Colorado. Phase two involves design sessions with physical educators and computing educators to better understand how physical movement and computing can complement both. Phase three will entail piloting the integrated physical education and computing curricula across the three sites.

“Something I think about is identity,” Taylor said. “The argument is that we need to stop trying to get girls to act like boys in order to be part of the math world. We’re not asking them to do things they would not normally do or are interested in. By integrating this type of work within a context they are confident in and that is consistent with their identity has some interesting identity play and a lot of cool learning.”

One goal is to increase the diversity of STEM fields by emphasizing that ‘we need to stop trying to get girls to act like boys in order to be part of the math world.’

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Doing Democracy Day brings government to students

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 23:30:00 +0000

Doing Democracy Day brings government to students Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/12/2019 - 17:30

James McCurdy

What could we do in high school to better prepare kids for social sciences in college?

That’s the question �鶹��Ƶ political science Professor Kenneth Bickers and Senior Instructor Kent Willmann in education probed when they met 12 years ago. Now, what began as a friendly conversation at their children’s soccer game has turned into an annual day of public engagement for students.

Ken Bickers and Kent Willmann

Doing Democracy Day, scheduled for this month, is an all-day event for high schoolers in the St. Vrain Valley School District in which some 80 students from various schools meet to have a voice in local political discussions. By doing so, they are able to understand the interworking’s of political action and understand how policies are formed and affect communities.

“To me the biggest problem was that (public policy) hasn't been interesting to them. They haven't seen why it's important, and they don't see how it can be fun,” says Bickers.

Willmann concurs, “Oftentimes when we think about civic education, we think there are all these details. You have to learn all these facts that line up. You to need get (the students) interested—get students interested and they’ll learn the details because of their interest.”

At the event, students are assigned random groups. Within these groups, students are given a current school or local government related issue and asked to propose a way to solve the problem at hand.

The student groups talk with leaders involved in the school district, local business and government officials, all volunteering their time, to gather information. They are also given brief seminars to teach them how to create and present proposals (in this case proposals to address public policy issues). At the end of the day, a panel of the local leaders judge the proposals based on content and presentation quality and declares a winner.

The results of their proposals, however, are not limited to winning the competition. Their solutions are often considered by local leaders and affect local policy. For instance, a policy change followed a presentation in which the school board allowed input from students by consulting student councils in decision making.

In the event, students have tackled issues such as later school start times, free Wi-Fi access for students, prairie dog relocation and medicinal marijuana.

Bickers and Willmann developed the program with an outreach grant from CU Boulder, and it is now sponsored primarily by St. Vrain Superintendent Don Hadid’s Office and the Colorado Municipal League, with smaller contributions from various other sources.

Willmann says the local focus avoids the partisan nature of national politics and shows students that working together on civic issues can yield real results and build trust and mutual respect between the youth, government and its local officials.

The event is beginning to spread outside of St. Vrain school district, with interest expressed from Boulder Valley schools at hosting a similar event in the next few years.

This year, on its 10th anniversary, Doing Democracy Day has also expanded to two days, one devoted to high schoolers and the second day to middle schoolers. The topics this year will be: plastic bag usage, school safety, screen addiction, vaping, driverless cars and homeless teens.

Doing Democracy Day has been rescheduled for Thursday, April 18 (high school), and Tuesday, April 30 (middle school). The location remains the same at the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools in Longmont.

Professors of political science and education have joined forces to help introduce students to the joy of local politics.

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