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Students, parents and administrators gathered at the Allegany–Limestone High School on May 9 for the Third Southern Tier Annual Film Festival. The festival highlighted grades 9–12 student work completed in academic coursework during the 2018–19 school year. The festival submission categories were video poems, video themes and narratives.

After earning her PhD in curriculum, instruction and the science of learning from UB in 2016, Monica Ridgeway (Science Education ’16) wanted to focus on the educational disparities that create barriers to minorities. Ridgeway first noticed the obstacles minorities encountered when she was teaching middle school science. “The school I was teaching in was very ethically and richly diverse,” Ridgeway said. “However, the classes were not as the classes were being sorted out based on how well the students were performing on their English language and arts, and math assessments.”

Douglas Hoston, a PhD student from the Department of Learning and Instruction (LAI), received a scholarship award from his international fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, for his research evaluating how stress affects underrepresented students. Hoston is collaborating with Richard Lamb, associate professor from LAI, regarding the impact of John Henryism, a belief that low socioeconomic groups may not have the resources to successively cope with psychological stressors.

MaryEllen Elia, New York State Commissioner of Education and alumna from the Department of Learning and Instruction, was invited to UB by GSE to discuss future plans for the State Education Department. Elia was given an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award for her extraordinary service, outstanding leadership and exemplary contributions to the education profession. The award was presented by the GSE Alumni Association.

Students in the Graduate School of Education held their annual research symposium to address research and practice that is contributing to the field of multiculturalism. This event is completely organized by students from the departments of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology (CSEP); Educational Leadership and Policy (ELP); Information Science; and Learning and Instruction (LAI). The title of this year’s symposium was “United We Stand, Divided We Fall: Centering Diversity and Social Justice in our Research Field and Practice.”  

The experience sampling method (ESM) allows researchers to study human behavior and cognition on site, capturing the subjective experiences that make up everyday life. The method was developed in the 1970s as Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi looked for ways to study the experience of flow. Library and information science research has begun to utilize ESM to learn more about flow and other experiences users have in libraries and in interacting with technology. This talk will describe how ESM is being used in a study of child welfare workers’ experience using information communication technology in the course of performing their work.

Myles Faith, professor from the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology, was the lead author of a research study that examined the link between the temperament of babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes and childhood obesity. Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes found in women during pregnancy.

Twenty-seven students from Enterprise Charter’s Junior Frontiers of the Mohawk Valley program visited the UB North Campus to learn about diversity, intercultural experiences and the importance of going to college. Part of the tour was organized and sponsored by multiple faculty in the Graduate School of Education.

Chris Banas, a GSE alumnus (EdM ’12, Spanish Education), brought 27 Amherst High School students on a mission trip to Costa Rica to engage his students interculturally, as well as improve their Spanish proficiency. Banas has been a Spanish teacher in Amherst High School since 2016. Previously, he worked at Health Sciences Charter School for four years where he did two service learning trips to Puerto Rico.  

Randy Yerrick, professor from the Department of Learning and Instruction, and Andrew Olewnik, an adjunct assistant professor from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, have received a two-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help engineering students become better problem solvers. The grant also helps students connect their coursework and their professional preparation, and GSE will measure whether the project has lasting effects.

Science Exploration Day welcomed hundreds of Western New York’s most promising STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) high school students to UB on March 20, 2019.  Rodney Doran, professor emeritus from the Department of Learning and Instruction, has served on the event’s planning committee for 33 years.