UNL faculty and staff have again demonstrated that to give is to receive – especially during the holidays.
CYFS recently completed its fourth annual Gift of Creativity donation drive in an effort to provide art supplies to disadvantaged children, families and schools throughout Nebraska this holiday season.
Natalie Koziol, a CYFS graduate student affiliate in educational psychology, recently received the 2010-2011 Folsom Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award. The award recognizes distinguished scholarship and research at the master’s level.
Koziol’s thesis is titled “Evaluating Measurement Invariance with Censored Ordinal Data: A Monte Carlo Comparison of Alternative Model Estimators and Scales of Measurement.” In it, Koziol addresses the statistical testing of measurement invariance, which assumes that a scale measures the same construct when used across time or groups. She specifically evaluates how several factors, including sample size and the non-normality of data, influence the validity of statistical conclusions. She also examines how the effects of these factors vary according to measurement models and estimators.
CYFS faculty affiliate Malinda Eccarius recently received a four-year, $1.2 million U.S. Department of Education grant aimed at helping 25 K-12 instructors earn teaching endorsements in deaf education.
Eccarius’ “Mountain Prairie Upgrade Partnership-Itinerant” (MPUP-I) project will prepare instructors in regular and special education to become itinerant teachers – those qualified to assist students who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) but take classes with their hearing peers.
CYFS director Susan Sheridan discussed how relationships, environments and interventions shape the futures of children as part of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Lecture Series on Nov. 30, 2010.
The great irony of research on family-school partnerships is that its scholars have yet to fully tap the potential of collaboration.
With this in mind, CYFS recently spearheaded a movement to forge ties and unify research among leaders in the field.
The Center catalyzed these efforts by hosting more than 20 family-school partnership researchers at a national meeting held September 19-21 in Omaha, Neb.
It takes years to develop the knowledge and expertise necessary to practice engineering. As Nebraska’s science and math teachers recently showed, however, it takes only a day to sow seeds of interest in the field.
The 2010 UNL Excellence in Engineering Education Institute, coordinated by CYFS and UNL’s Nebraska Transportation Center, gave dozens of Nebraska’s middle and high school students the chance to learn about the foundations and numerous applications of engineering. The mid-July retreats – held in Lincoln, Omaha, Lexington and Hastings, Neb. – were led by nearly 30 teachers who developed lesson plans during UNL’s Professional Development Math and Science Summer Technology Institute in June.
Dr. Lisa Knoche, research assistant professor with the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, was selected for the State Champion Award by the Region VII Head Start Association.
The State Champion Award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and commitment in the improvement of the lives of children, youth and families. Dr. Knoche will be honored at the opening session of the 2010 Region VII Head Start Association Annual Leadership Conference in Kansas City, Missouri on May 25th.
The first CYFS Summit on Research in Early Childhood was held April 14, 2010 at the Holiday Inn in downtown Lincoln. Approximately 100 early childhood researchers, practitioners and administrators, and policy representatives participated.
The day-long event was designed to communicate cutting edge research findings in early childhood emanating from CYFS; link early childhood research with ongoing efforts in the early childhood field of practice; and advance the science of early childhood education and development via connections between community partners, key stakeholders, early childhood practitioners and CYFS researchers.