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Category: MAP Academy

Collaboration aims to study, shape children’s attitudes toward engineering

Teacher. Firefighter. Doctor. Astronaut. Many of these careers land on children’s lists of what they want to be when they grow up. CYFS research assistant professor Lorey Wheeler would like to see another profession added: engineer.

With a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Wheeler is joining a team from Arizona State University to study how children’s knowledge, stereotypes and achievement-related beliefs affect their interest in engineering. It’s a field in which job growth is outpacing the number of adults who pursue related degrees, especially among women and ethnic minority students. Full Article

MAP Academy hosts Emerging Scholars Series

Stefany Coxe
Stefany Coxe

The MAP Academy hosted visiting scholar Stefany Coxe for the Jan. 19-20 Emerging Scholars Series. The event featured a public keynote presentation titled “Real-world questions about using regression models for counts” and a two-part workshop titled “Generalized linear models: All in the family.” Full Article

Graduate Student Q&A with Jared Stevens

Jared Stevens
Jared Stevens

Name: Jared Stevens

Hometown: Omaha, Nebraska

Major/program: Quantitative, Qualitative, Psychometric Methods

Graduate assistantship: CYFS’ Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics

Anticipated date of graduation: 2019

Educational background: Bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Full Article

Study: Link between older, younger siblings’ dating decisions

Lorey Wheeler
Lorey Wheeler

When making decisions about dating, sex, and even marriage, Latino teens are likely to follow in the footsteps of their older siblings, according to a study led by CYFS research assistant professor Lorey Wheeler.

“We’re all in relationships at some point in our lives, and we know they affect our health later in life,” said Wheeler, who also co-directs CYFS’ Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics. “Within the context of learning about relationships, it is important to know how older siblings influence that developmental process.” Full Article

Arthur receives student paper, travel awards

Ann Arthur
Ann Arthur

Ann Arthur, CYFS graduate assistant, has earned student paper and travel awards from the International Conference on Questionnaire Design, Development, Evaluation and Testing.

During the Nov. 9-13 conference in Miami, Florida, Arthur will present her paper, “Advances in Questionnaire Design for Youth.” She developed the paper while working on a project with CYFS’ Nebraska Academy for Analytics, Psychometrics and Analytics (MAP Academy). Full Article

Team supports 4-H program evaluation

CYFS methodologists with the MAP Academy are helping 4H enhance a set of survey instruments. The team includes, from left, Jarrod Stevens, Natalie Koziol, Lorey Wheeler, Ann Arthur, Michelle Howell Smith and Leslie Hawley.
CYFS methodologists with the MAP Academy are developing measures to help 4-H assess youth development outcomes. The team includes, from left, Jared Stevens, Natalie Koziol, Lorey Wheeler, Ann Arthur, Michelle Howell Smith and Leslie Hawley.

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. Full Article

Methodologists discuss cross-cultural measurement

Leslie Hawley, Betty-Jean Usher-Tate and Sara Gonzalez.
The April 15 Methodology Applications Series was led by Leslie Hawley, Betty-Jean Usher-Tate and Sara Gonzalez. View video.

The Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics continued its Methodology Applications Series on Friday, April 15. The series is free and open to the public.

The April 15 presentation, titled “Evaluating Measurement Invariance with Cross-Cultural Sensitivity,” was led by Leslie Hawley, CYFS research assistant professor, and doctoral students Betty-Jean Usher-Tate and Sara Gonzalez. Full Article

Spybrook leads fall Emerging Scholars Series

Jessaca Spybrook leads the Emerging Scholars Series.
Jessaca Spybrook begins the fall Emerging Scholars Series with a keynote presentation. Video available.

The MAP Academy hosted Jessaca Spybrook, associate professor of educational leadership, research, and technology at Western Michigan University, for the Dec. 3-4 Emerging Scholars Series. The series featured a keynote presentation, statistics workshop and an early career meeting for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Full Article