Impacting communities begins with building community.
That was the message and purpose of the Sept. 19 Interdisciplinary Science Retreat, which drew more than 75 UNL researchers from the social, educational and behavioral sciences. The event provided opportunities to learn from national experts, identify local expertise and facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations.
With concussion awareness at an all-time high, school personnel are increasingly responsible for supporting students’ recovery.
Scott Napolitano, assistant professor of practice in educational psychology, has been awarded a $1.1 million grant to develop evidence-based training that will help schools diagnose and manage cases of concussion and mild traumatic brain injury in students.
A CYFS team is traveling nationwide to help 4-H assess its impact—one that extends to nearly six million youth through school and community programs, clubs and camps.
The team is working to enhance the 4-H Common Measures, a collection of multiple survey instruments that assess youth development outcomes. The team’s revisions began last year with input from a national advisory board. They are now heading into the field to get perspectives from the survey’s intended demographic—4-H youth and leaders.
National experts in translational science will present at UNL’s Nebraska Union on Sept. 19 as part of the 2016 Interdisciplinary Translational Science Retreat.
Hosted by CYFS and five UNL colleges and organizations, the all-day retreat will focus on translational science for social, behavioral and educational research fields. Speakers include Diana Fishbein, Penn State University; Elaine Wethington, Cornell University; and Richard Spoth, Iowa State University.
The MAP Academy will host visiting scholar David MacKinnon for a Sept. 30 methodology workshop. The event is titled “Introduction to Modern Mediation Analysis” and will be held at UNL’s city campus.
Discounted early workshop registration is available through Sept. 23.
As the school year begins at North Bend Elementary School, preschool teacher Morgan Root is supporting students of all grade levels with an evidence-based model developed by CYFS researchers.
Root is learning to facilitate the model, Teachers and Parents as Partners, as part of a new project focused on training rural school personnel. TAPP supports collaborative relationships between parents and teachers to improve students’ social, behavioral and academic outcomes. It also features a facilitator who guides the problem-solving process.
Though nearly one of every four U.S. students identifies as Latino, the country’s fastest-growing minority demographic faces many disparities in education outcomes.
The Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools has earned a $3.5 million grant to explore how to better support Latino students by connecting their experiences at home and school.
Among mattresses lining the living room floor, a mother of two—recently evicted and living with a friend—shares her parenting story with a CYFS data collection team.
Her story is one of many that will guide an evaluation of the Superintendents’ Early Childhood Plan, launched last year by the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska to close achievement gaps for at-risk children in the Omaha metropolitan area.