Education & Outreach

Creating shade: Building sun-safe communities in Denver

Megan Maneval — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 18:49:28 +0000

Creating shade: Building sun-safe communities in Denver Megan Maneval Thu, 12/19/2024 - 11:49

Last summer, CEDaR explored the connection between sun exposure, skin cancer and the built environment to work toward building sun-safe communities in the Mile High City.

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CU Boulder violence prevention program featured in Human Kindness Initiative

Megan Maneval — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 15:43:46 +0000

CU Boulder violence prevention program featured in Human Kindness Initiative Megan Maneval Wed, 11/20/2024 - 08:43

On Nov. 12, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival joined forces with the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence to participate in the Human Kindness Initiative, organized by the Parent Engagement Network. This free event, held at New Vista High School, combined the power of art and connection to address building safer, healthier communities.

Shakespeare & Violence Prevention Program event at New Vista High School on Nov. 12

Professional actors from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival performed an abridged version of “Much Ado About Nothing,” a play that addresses rumors, gossip and misinformation. This 45-minute adaptation was directed by Professor Kevin Rich of CU Boulder’s Department of Theatre & Dance. The performance was followed by a dynamic conversation featuring violence prevention experts from CU Boulder and “Much Ado” actors, who discussed how the arts can foster empathy, strengthen relationships and encourage “upstander” behavior (taking action to help prevent mistreatment).

Beverly Kingston, director of CU Boulder’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, who appeared on the panel, encouraged community members to learn more about how to prevent violence: “Parents and community members are on the front lines of shaping the culture around young people,” said Kingston. “When we come together to normalize and practice upstander behavior, we’re giving the next generation the tools they need to handle conflicts in healthier, more constructive ways.”

“Shakespeare’s work is shockingly relevant today,” said Amanda Giguere, director of outreach for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. “Shakespeare understood a lot about violence and mistreatment, and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ gives us the opportunity to think about the harmful impacts of rumors and the role we all play in preventing violence.”

Community and parent engagement were emphasized throughout the evening as vital components in spreading messages about violence prevention. Experts highlighted how families can pay attention to red flags and warning signs that people may be struggling with, and shared some resources, including Colorado’s Safe2Tell program, a tool to anonymously report dangerous behavior.

The event is part of the ongoing Shakespeare & Violence Prevention Program, an initiative that has reached more than 140,000 students across Colorado since its 2011 launch, combining live theater with practical strategies to prevent harm. This program is the subject of a forthcoming handbook for educators, which will help teachers implement these lessons in the classroom. “Shakespeare & Violence Prevention: A Practical Handbook for Educators,” written by Giguere, will be published in 2025 by University Press of Colorado.

Organizers encouraged attendees to continue the conversation at home, with friends, and within their broader communities to ensure the messages shared during the event extend beyond the stage.

Find more information about sending the Shakespeare & Violence Prevention Program to a school near you.

The Shakespeare & Violence Prevention production of “Much Ado About Nothing” is funded in part by Shakespeare in American Communities, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, and by individual donors. Make a gift to this program.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival joined forces with the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence to participate in the Human Kindness Initiative, a series organized by the Parent Engagement Network.

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Textbooks come alive with new, interactive AI tool

Daniel William Strain — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 15:18:56 +0000

Textbooks come alive with new, interactive AI tool Daniel William… Fri, 11/01/2024 - 09:18

Daniel Strain

With a new tool called Augmented Physics, students can transform static diagrams in textbooks into moving simulations. (Credit: Gunturu et al., 2024, UIST '24)

With just an iPad, students in any classroom across the world could soon reimagine the ordinary diagrams in any physics textbook—transforming these static images into 3D simulations that run, leap or spin across the page.

These new, living textbooks are the brainchild of a team of computer scientists led by Ryo Suzuki at CU Boulder.

“Usually, those diagrams are fixed. We have to imagine what happens,” said Suzuki, assistant professor in the ATLAS Institute and Department of Computer Science. “But what if we could take any static diagram from any textbook and make it interactive?”

He and his colleagues recently took home a “best paper” award for their work at the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology this October in Pittsburgh.

Picture this: You crack open your high school physics textbook to a drawing of a skier teetering at the top of a jump. The diagram is supposed to teach you about topics like kinetic energy, such as the energy of a skier zooming down a hill. But the skier never actually moves. He just sits there.

Until now.

For the new study, Suzuki’s team designed a tool that allows students to record that diagram with their iPads. Then, after users adjust some settings, the tool draws on artificial intelligence to get the skier to move across the screen. He zooms down the hill, hits the jump and soars. It’s scientifically accurate, too: �鶹��Ժ can adjust the friction of the snow, making their skier zoom faster or slower with a few swipes.

Suzuki sees the project as a chance to reinvent the textbook—giving learners the opportunity to not just read about physics but see topics like momentum and electrical currents in action.

“We believe the future of education and learning should be more interactive and personalized,” said Suzuki, who began the project as a researcher at the University of Calgary in Canada.

It’s alive!

Aditya Gunturu, first author of the study, remembers his own days learning about physics. He used to sit in science class in high school, thinking there must be a better way to visualize topics to convey motion.

“I was so frustrated,” said Gunturu, a master’s student in computer science at the University of Calgary. “I wanted to visualize these concepts.”

He’s not alone: Gunturu’s mother is a biology teacher in India and often draws on a blackboard to show students, for example, how cells divide—a phenomenon textbooks can only capture in snapshots.

Augmented Physics visualizes electric currents flowing through a circuit. (Credit: Gunturu et al., 2024, UIST '24)

The team's invention, Augmented Physics, could help.

The tool relies on a model called Segment Anything from the tech company Meta. It’s a computer visualization tool that allows users to click on a photo to isolate particular objects—a dog, or maybe a face. Similarly, through Augmented Physics, students and teachers select various objects inside a diagram, such as the skier and the ski jump, and assign those objects roles. The AI then applies some basic physics, such as the force of gravity, to make those objects move.

It works for a several different kinds of diagrams, too. They include optics diagrams—so students can simulate how a prism refracts sunlight, for example—and electrical circuits—so they can see currents zip along wires. In a full circle moment, the researchers tested their tool out on some of those same diagrams in Gunturu’s physics textbook from years ago.

Beyond physics

The team also designed its product with feedback from real students studying physics and with science teachers. One educator was impressed by the tool’s ability to help students lead their “own little experiments.”

The tool isn’t perfect yet, Suzuki noted. So far, it can only turn a brand new diagram into an effective simulation about 60% of the time. But the team is working to improve those success rates.

Ultimately, the researcher and his colleagues would like to move beyond physics—using similar technology to transform any diagram in any kind of document into a vivid, 3D world that students can step into with the aid of augmented reality glasses.

“That’s our goal—to escape from static 2D into the interactive 3D world,” Suzuki said.

Gunturu’s mom, meanwhile, can’t wait for him to design a tool that works on biology textbooks.

“That would be her dream come true,” he said.

Other co-authors of the new study included Rubaiat Habib Kazi at Adobe Research; Nandi Zhang and Jarin Thundathil at the University of Calgary; and Yi Wen at Texas A&M University.

In an ordinary physics textbook, a skier teeters at the top of a hill. Now, with a new tool called Augmented Physics, students can make that skier move—giving them a chance to see physics in action.

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What is Colorado’s ‘school choice’ Amendment 80 all about? Legal expert weighs in

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 15:48:46 +0000

What is Colorado’s ‘school choice’ Amendment 80 all about? Legal expert weighs in Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/16/2024 - 09:48

Daniel Strain

This election season, voters across Colorado will decide on a host of proposals and amendments touching on areas such as bail, abortion and trophy hunting. Among the boxes waiting to be filled in is Amendment 80, which would add language establishing, among other things, a “right to school choice” into Colorado’s constitution.

Amendment 80 needs to bring in 55% of the vote to go into effect since it changes the constitution. Kevin Welner, professor in the School of Education at CU Boulder, is a legal scholar and director of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC). He’s examined policies across the United States around issues like charter schools and school vouchers—or programs in which states give K-12 students subsidies to attend private schools. Welner co-authored the 2021 book “School’s Choice: How Charter Schools Control Access and Shape Enrollment” and co-edited the 2023 book “The School Voucher Illusion: Exposing the Pretense of Equity.”

To help voters make an informed choice, he gives his take on the language in Amendment 80—and the types of new lawsuits its passage might lead to.

What is Amendment 80?

The Blue Book, which is the information provided to voters about the initiatives on the Colorado ballot, identifies three things this amendment would do: One is to create a right to school choice. It also creates a right for parents to direct the education of their children. The third is that it creates a right for all children to have an equal opportunity to access a quality education.

The second two that I mentioned are identified in a separate section of the amendment that's labeled “Purpose and Findings.” Whether a court would interpret that language as actually creating those rights is up in the air—one of many questions that will be left to judges in the future.

Doesn’t Colorado already allow school choice?

Colorado is among the states that have most enthusiastically embraced school choice. We have the choice to send our children to a neighborhood school, as well as other public schools within our local districts. We can also send our children to public schools outside our local districts. And we have magnet schools, innovation schools and many charter schools. Of course, parents can choose to homeschool or to send their children to private schools, including private religious schools. A key exception is that, in Colorado, we don’t have vouchers.

Kevin Welner

If that’s the case, why do proponents say that Colorado needs a constitutional amendment?

The stated reason is that, by putting this into the Colorado constitution, we would prevent the state legislature from ever taking away all the forms of school choice that we currently have. What if, for example, a future state legislature and governor decided to repeal our laws around charter schools?

I'm skeptical, however, that this is really the reason behind the ballot initiative. It’s hard to imagine a circumstance where any of these school choice options would be eliminated in the state.

What do you think is the main concern?

The advocates behind this initiative are advocates of school vouchers and probably see this as a way to advance that cause. I do think that if this got into the state constitution, it would make vouchers more likely in the state—vouchers, in this case, being a public subsidy for private school tuition.

Around the country, we have about a dozen states now that have universal or near-universal voucher programs, where almost every student is eligible for a subsidy.

You’ve studied those programs. What have we learned from them so far?

We have strong evidence in two areas: academic outcomes and budgetary impacts.

On the academic side, we have high-quality studies of four large-scale voucher programs. For three of these programs—in Louisiana, Indiana and Ohio—the research shows strongly negative outcomes, particularly in mathematics test scores. For the fourth, in Washington, D.C., the research shows no academic impact.

What about on the budgetary side?

We see these universal programs blowing a hole in state budgets. The lingo that we use when we talk about voucher uptake is that there are “switchers” and “stayers.” The switchers are people who see the voucher and say, “I'm now enticed to move from public school to private school.” A stayer, in contrast, already attends private school or intends to. In those cases, the state is subsidizing education that it otherwise wouldn't have subsidized at all. Switchers generally help the state budget, while stayers hurt the state budget.

When you're calculating the budgetary impact of a voucher policy, you have to guess at that ratio of switchers and stayers. A lot of states guessed way wrong. Most notably, Arizona had officially estimated a price tag for fiscal year 2024 of $65 million, but the actual cost was $332 million.

You’ve said that Amendment 80 might kick off a lot of lawsuits. How so?

The most likely litigation that would be successful would be from a parent challenging a school district's decision to deny a charter school application or revoke or non-renew a school’s charter.

Imagine you're the parent of a child who either is attending or wants to attend a charter school. The district doesn't allow that charter school to go forward because of poor performance, low enrollment or fiancial mismanagement. If there's no other charter school nearby at the child’s grade level, the parent could point to Amendment 80 and say, “Well, I have a right to send my kid to a charter school, and you've just taken away that right.”

What other litigation is possible?

It's sort of (perverse) fun as a legal scholar to play with this language and come up with all the lawsuits that it could engender. Lots of people anticipate lawsuits from parents who can’t afford tuition and therefore demand that the state subsidize a private school education—so that they have a meaningful right to choose that private school education.

For the parents’ right to direct their child’s education: If I, as a parent, object to a history class where my child is taught that the South left the union to preserve slavery, can I insist that my child be excused or the lesson be changed? Can I do the same with a science class where my child is taught Darwinian evolution? Can I object to assigned books with passages I don’t like? This can go on and on, with each individual parent exercising this new right in various ways and making things very difficult for everyone else in the school.

CU Boulder Today regularly publishes Q&As with our faculty members weighing in on news topics through the lens of their scholarly expertise and research/creative work. The responses here reflect the knowledge and interpretations of the expert and should not be considered the university position on the issue. All publication content is subject to edits for clarity, brevity and university style guidelines.

Amendment 80, which Colorado voters will decide on this election, could lead to a flurry of new lawsuits across the state, says legal scholar Kevin Welner.

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Journalism Day makes triumphant return to Boulder

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 14:15:41 +0000

Journalism Day makes triumphant return to Boulder Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/10/2024 - 08:15

College of Media, Communication and Information

More than 1,400 Colorado high school students and advisors visited the College of Media, Communication and Information to sharpen storytelling skills and learn about careers.

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Bridging Colorado and Mongolia through science, cultural exchange

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 19:56:25 +0000

Bridging Colorado and Mongolia through science, cultural exchange Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/10/2024 - 13:56

This year, a multi-year partnership between SCENIC’s program lead and co-founder Daniel Knight and two organizations in Mongolia allowed SCENIC to spread its wings.

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CIRES Girls* on Rock program finds new footing in 2024

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 15:12:56 +0000

CIRES Girls* on Rock program finds new footing in 2024 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/10/2024 - 09:12

High school students from across the country traveled in Colorado’s mountains to learn science, outdoor skills and art.

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Giving high school students hands-on STEM experiences

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 14:21:53 +0000

Giving high school students hands-on STEM experiences Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/22/2024 - 08:21

Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences

Colorado high schoolers got a unique summer experience through a CU Science Discovery program focused on engineering remote sensing.

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Influential media conference becoming a CMCI showcase

Anonymous — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 18:19:01 +0000

Influential media conference becoming a CMCI showcase Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 08/19/2024 - 12:19

With multiple best paper awards, CU’s College of Media, Communication and Information is building an impressive reputation at the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference.

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Are school boards becoming politicized? Expert weighs in

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 22:59:24 +0000

Are school boards becoming politicized? Expert weighs in Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/13/2024 - 16:59

Daniel Strain

Ah, the end of summer: a time for students to trudge back to school, and for public school boards—perhaps among the country’s most unsung governing bodies—to ramp up their work.

In recent years, media headlines have painted a picture of school boards across the country embroiled in heated politics. Candidates for school board elections are certainly raising more money than ever before: In Denver alone, groups spent $2.2 million during the 2023 school board elections, according to news reports.

But Anna Deese, a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at CU Boulder, said that most school board meetings are still, at least on the surface, pretty dry events.

“We hear stories about fist fights breaking out, and people shouting at school board meetings,” she said. “But that is probably not happening as much as we think. There are 13,000 school districts in the United States, and most of them are pretty sleepy.”

Deese, a former high school science teacher and Army National Guard soldier, served on a school board in a Montana district with fewer than 2,000 students. She gives her take on why school boards matter and on some common misconceptions about these entities.

What was your experience like serving on a school board?

I served for three years in Whitefish, Montana, from 2016 to 2019. It was a really rewarding experience, but not entirely what I expected. I thought that we would be making all these interesting policy decisions, having these deep conversations. But you learn very quickly that, as a board, there are a lot of ways in which you're restrained. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

OK, school board 101: What powers do school boards have?

What a school board can do varies from state to state. In general, all school boards are going to hire their superintendent and then monitor that superintendent's progress. They are going to enact and debate policy.

They should be looking at the financial records of the district. They should understand what's happening with enrollment, the status of their buildings and, of course, how students are scoring on assessments and other measurements of academic achievement. Issues of equity should also always be kept at the forefront: Are they serving all students equally well?

What can’t they do?

No school board member has authority on their own. They only have authority as a group and only at the board meetings.

School boards also generally can't respond in the moment. This frustrates a lot of people at school board meetings. You might have somebody that comes to advocate for a specific policy change. The board, a lot of times, has to just sit there. They might be able to nod. They might be able to ask some questions. But almost always, the board can't do anything at that time because of open meeting laws.

Do you think school boards are becoming more politicized?

Overall, I don't agree that school boards are becoming more heavily politicized—consider how politicized board meetings must have been around the time of desegregation rulings—but in some places, they probably are.

Most school board activities should be pretty apolitical. When it comes to approving a budget, a lot of those decisions have been made by the state’s funding formulas and are also constrained by contracts. There’s not as much flexibility as people think.

Where have we seen school boards become caught up in politics?

A lot of the political escalation had to do with COVID, with the opening and closing of schools. That choice affected every part of a community's life, so families certainly got more invested in that.

You’ll also hear debates about CRT. CRT, or critical race theory, is a legal field of study, and it is not taught in K-12 schools. But people have conflated that term with, in general, how we talk about privilege, systemic marginalization and issues of equity in schools. School boards should be talking about equity as they do their work. Unfortunately, in some communities that is seen as too political. Additionally, in some communities there has been an influx of outside money in school board elections. Most board elections, however, are low profile and low spending.

What are the biggest issues that school boards will face in the coming year?

School boards have to be aware of what the political conversation is at the national level right now, with the presidential election coming up.

But probably the biggest issue that most board members are going to face has to do with the ending of ESSER, which is the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. Those are funds that came out because of COVID. All those funds need to be allocated very shortly. Schools are already generally underfunded, and we have a lot of places where there's declining enrollment, and that also further stresses the budget.

Why should people care about school boards, even if they don’t have kids?

We want folks to care because they probably use school facilities and services, whether they know it or not—if people need to rent a field so that they can have a soccer tournament. And school schedules impact our commute times. I promise you, traffic is going to change at the end of summer.

Schools are also such an important part of direct democracy. You can walk down the road and see a governing body making policies. These policies will impact an entire generation, so it's important to pay attention.

This month, children across the U.S. are heading back to class. Their educations will be shaped by the decisions of nearly 13,000 school boards. Anna Deese, a former school board member from Montana, breaks down some of the biggest misconceptions.

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Education & Outreach

Creating shade: Building sun-safe communities in Denver

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CU Boulder violence prevention program featured in Human Kindness Initiative

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Textbooks come alive with new, interactive AI tool

It’s alive!

Beyond physics

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What is Colorado’s ‘school choice’ Amendment 80 all about? Legal expert weighs in

What is Amendment 80?

Doesn’t Colorado already allow school choice?

If that’s the case, why do proponents say that Colorado needs a constitutional amendment?

What do you think is the main concern?

You’ve studied those programs. What have we learned from them so far?

What about on the budgetary side?

You’ve said that Amendment 80 might kick off a lot of lawsuits. How so?

What other litigation is possible?

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Influential media conference becoming a CMCI showcase

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Are school boards becoming politicized? Expert weighs in

What was your experience like serving on a school board?

OK, school board 101: What powers do school boards have?

What can’t they do?

Do you think school boards are becoming more politicized?

Where have we seen school boards become caught up in politics?

What are the biggest issues that school boards will face in the coming year?

Why should people care about school boards, even if they don’t have kids?

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