UC Davis News: K-12 Education

UC Davis plans 13 commencements, will graduate first nursing students

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:25:00 -0700

Thousands of students from the University of California, Davis, will participate in 13 commencement ceremonies this spring, including the first class from the new Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Commencement season begins Thursday, May 17, and concludes Sunday, June 17.

Guest speakers will include:

Goodwin Liu, an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, at the commencement for the School of Law on May 17;
Marie V. McDemmond, president emeritus of Norfolk State University in Virginia, at the commencement for the School of Education on June 13;
James C. Davis, president of Chevron Energy Solutions, at the commencement for the Graduate School of Management on June 16; and
Secretary General Chris Buijink of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation for the Netherlands, at the commencements for the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences on June 17.

For more about speakers, visit: http://commencement.ucdavis.edu/speakers.html.

Commencement dates, times and locations are as follows:

May 17 — School of Law at 2 p.m. at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts;
May 19 — School of Medicine at 10 a.m. at the Mondavi Center;
June 13 — School of Education at 4 p.m. at the Mondavi Center;
June 14 — Graduate Studies at 4 p.m. in the ARC Pavilion;
June 15 — College of Biological Sciences at 9 a.m. in the ARC Pavilion;
June 15 — School of Veterinary Medicine at 10 a.m. at the Mondavi Center;
June 15 — College of Engineering at 3 p.m. in the ARC Pavilion;
June 16 — College of Letters and Science at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. in the ARC Pavilion;
June 16 — Graduate School of Management at 10 a.m. at the Mondavi Center; and
June 17 — College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the ARC Pavilion.

In addition, the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing will hold a special celebration of its first graduates at 12:30 p.m. on June 14 at the UC Davis Conference Center, before students participate in the Graduate Studies commencement. About 25 nursing students are candidates for a Master of Science degree.

Established in 2009, the nursing school admitted the first students to its master’s and Doctor of Philosophy programs in fall 2010. The school focuses on preparing graduates as educators, researchers and leaders to promote health, advance quality of care and safety, and shape policy.

The School of Law will award 23 Master of Laws and 202 Juris Doctor degrees at its ceremony, and the School of Medicine will award 108 Doctor of Medicine, four Master of Health Informatics and 24 Master of Public Health degrees.

Estimates of degrees to be awarded at the other ceremonies will be available in June. In 2010-11, UC Davis conferred 8,350 degrees.

Tickets are required for all commencement ceremonies except Graduate Studies, and they are distributed to graduating students by individual schools and colleges.

UC Davis will offer live and on-demand webcasts of each of the commencements at http://commencementvideo.ucdavis.edu/.

C-STEM Day conference, robot competition promotes robotics in teaching

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:25:00 -0700

(Read about a synopsis of the event, including the awards ceremony for students and teachers.)

Middle and high school students will show their skills in robotics and problem-solving while teachers, educators, researchers and policymakers discuss how to use computing, technology, engineering and robotics in K-14 education at the second annual UC Davis C-STEM Day, Saturday, May 5.

"Robotics is an interdisciplinary field and working with robots can really get students excited about computing and STEM," said Harry Cheng, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Davis, using the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Cheng is director of the UC Davis K-14 Outreach Center for Computing and STEM Education, or C-STEM. With the support of the National Science Foundation, the center is working on several key issues: How can STEM learning help close the achievement gap for minority students and promote success for all students; How will STEM learning change school environments, curriculum, instructional and assessment practices; and how will a focus on STEM learning impact teacher preparation and professional development?

C-STEM Day runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with most events taking place in the UC Davis Conference Center. During the morning, there will be a conference on the theme of integrating technology and engineering into math and science education, with a keynote speech by UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, herself an engineer by training. Panel discussions will cover teaching algebra, math, computing and technology; closing the achievement gap; and professional development for pre-service and in-service STEM teachers.

Among those taking part will be Deputy Director Michael Hardwick of Sandia National Laboratories; Winfred Robinson, superintendent of the Davis Joint Unified School District; Timothy Taylor, assistant superintendent of the Sacramento County Office of Education; and Matthew Perry, director of High School Reform Initiatives for the Sacramento City Unified School District.

At the same time, K-12 students from regional schools will be working on the RoboPlay Robot Challenge. The challenge lets students showcase their real-world problem solving skills in a competitive environment. The teams will be presented with a problem at a remote location such as a space station or planetary habitat, where they have to quickly develop and deploy a robotic solution using only existing resources. The specific challenge will be kept secret until the day of the competition.

In the afternoon, the students will present their results from the Robot Challenge Competition, as well as videos from a "RoboPlay Robot Dance" and “Robot Show” that they have been working on over the preceding weeks and other robotics demonstrations. The day will end with an awards ceremony.

A number of schools from across the greater Sacramento region, including Westmore Oaks Elementary, Bridgeway Island Elementary, and River City High School in West Sacramento, Harper Junior High in Davis, Einstein Education Center in Woodland, and Hiram Johnson High in Sacramento, are working with Cheng's center to implement programs that teach algebra and computer programming, using the modular robot "Mobot" invented in Cheng's laboratory at UC Davis.

The center's RoboPlay competitions are open-ended design challenges that integrate computer programming and math with elements of writing, art, music, choreography, design and filmmaking. Middle and high school students write computer programs to create robot dances and robot shows as well as complete challenges using the Mobot.

The center also offers summer programs and fellowships for STEM teachers to get experience in computing and robotics research that can be applied in their teaching.

A single Mobot module has wheels at each end and two hinges in the center. An individual module can drive on its wheels, crawl or raise one end of its body and pan around. Modules can be connected together to make wheeled vehicles, "snakes", "gorilla," humanoid or other shapes with different applications. Each module is fully programmable and can be controlled simultaneously, making it extremely versatile for a wide range of exercises.

As well as figuring out how to program the robots for different applications, students can design new parts and accessories for the robots and prototype them with three-dimensional printers.

Watch another video featuring the Mobots, Mobots in the Forest.

C-STEM Day is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the UC Davis College of Engineering and University Outreach and International Programs.

To register for the conference or for full program details, please visit http://c-stem.ucdavis.edu/activities/conference/. Attendance is free, but advance registration by May 1 is required.

Modular robots win NSF funding

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:15:00 -0700

A robotics company started by a UC Davis engineering professor and his former graduate student has been awarded a second round of funding from the National Science Foundation small business innovation research program.

The grant provides at least $500,000 over the next two years to Barobo, based in West Sacramento, with potential for up to another $500,000 in matching funds if the company can make sales and attract venture capital.

"We are very excited about receiving this grant," said Harry Cheng, professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. "This is a milestone in transferring our technology from the lab into a commercial product."

Cheng hopes his modular robot "Mobot" can become a useful tool for teaching robotics as early as third grade, and engage a new generation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

A single Mobot module has wheels at each end and two hinges in the center. An individual module can drive on its wheels, crawl like an inchworm, or raise one end of its body and swivel around.

The modules can be connected together to make wheeled vehicles, "snakes," “gorilla,” humanoid, or other shapes with different applications. Watch the robot in motion on video.

Cheng and Barobo have been working with regional middle and high schools to use the Mobot in classes. Students can learn to build and program the robots using laptop computers. They can also design and build new prototype parts for the robots using three-dimensional printing.

Cheng and his former graduate student, Graham Ryland, started the company in 2011 based on the patented technology the two invented while Ryland was studying for his master's degree. The technology is licensed by the university to Barobo. The inventors received an NSF SBIR Phase I grant of $150,000 from NSF last year.

Cheng also established the UC Davis K-14 Outreach Center for Computing and STEM Education (C-STEM) to improve education in computing, science, technology, engineering and math. The center is hosting C-STEM Day at UC Davis on Saturday, May 5, an event that will include “RoboPlay Competitions” in which local students will demonstrate their projects with the Mobot.

UC Davis dean elected to Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:30:00 -0700

Immunologist James Hildreth, dean of biological sciences at the University of California, Davis, has been elected to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars.

Hildreth, a leading AIDS researcher, came to UC Davis in 2011 upon his appointment as dean. He left Tennessee’s Meharry Medical College, where he was a professor and director of the Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research.

Before that he served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he began his research on HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

His work at Johns Hopkins University qualified him for the Society of Scholars. Established in 1967, it includes former postdoctoral fellows, postdoctoral degree recipients, house staff, and junior or visiting faculty who served for at least one year at Johns Hopkins and later gained marked distinction in their fields of physical, biological, medical, social or engineering sciences, or in the humanities.

Hildreth earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1979; his doctorate in immunology from Oxford in 1982, as a Rhodes scholar; and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins in 1987.

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Newly awarded fellowships are supporting a half-dozen University of California, Davis, faculty members in their research and writing.

Simons Foundation fellowships went to Anne Schilling, professor, and Dan Romik, associate professor, both of the Department of Mathematics; and Warren Pickett, professor of physics.

The awards provide support to extend academic leaves for up to a year, allowing recipients to focus solely on research.

The American Council of Learned Societies is supporting three faculty members in their book projects on medieval French farces, Mark Twain and human rights in the Middle East. The recipients:

• Noah Guynn, associate professor, Department of French and Italian, who is writing The Many Faces of Farce: Ethics, Politics, and Urban Culture in Late Medieval and Early Modern France, challenging assumptions that such farces were used to entertain the masses while reconciling them to lives of subservience. Instead, Guynn reveals evidence of cultural resistance and political risk in the genre.

• Hsuan L. Hsu, professor, Department of English, who is writing Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain and America’s Asia. Hsu describes it as “the first book-length study of Mark Twain’s responses to trans-Pacific historical phenomena such as Chinese immigration, diplomatic relations with China, the annexation of Hawaii and the U.S. regime in the Philippines.”

• Keith David Watenpaugh, associate professor, Department of Religious Studies, who is writing Bread from Stones: The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism, the first major study of the history of human rights and international humanitarianism in the Middle East.

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Professor John Eadie of the University of California, Davis, has been honored for his waterfowl conservation efforts.

The waterfowl biologist, affiliated with the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, received the awards at the 77th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference.

Ducks Unlimited presented a Wetland Conservation Achievement Award, commending Eadie for his research on food resources for migrating ducks in the Central Valley’s seasonally flooded wetland and rice land — data that contributed to a conservation model for these critical wintering grounds.

Eadie received the National Blue-Winged Teal Award from the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, a joint project of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Eadie, who runs the Avian Conservation and Ecology Lab, joined UC Davis in 1995 as the first holder of the Dennis G. Raveling Professorship.

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Composer-musician Kurt Rohde of the faculty at the University of California, Davis, has scored two commissions and two residencies.

One commission is from the Lydian String Quartet at Brandeis University, and the other is from the independent and nonprofit Meet the Composer, part of New Music USA. For the latter, Rohde is collaborating on a work for small ensemble, with narrator and projected images.

Rohde’s residencies will be at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, where he will work on the chamber opera projects during the 2012-13 academic year; and the Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga (Santa Clara County), where, during the summers of 2013 and 2014, he will collaborate on a film project.

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With a swearing-in ceremony in Washington, D.C., physics professor Robin Erbacher of the University of California, Davis, officially became a member of the federal government’s High Energy Physics Advisory Panel.

It advises the government on research in theoretical and experimental physics, reporting jointly to the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

Erbacher earned her doctorate from Stanford University and joined the UC Davis faculty in 2004. She is a member of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland.

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Professor Laura Marcu of the University of California, Davis, has been elected a fellow of the professional organization SPIE, in recognition of her achievements in biomedical optics.

For example, she developed handheld probes for identifying the edges of tumors during surgery, and probes that can be inserted through catheters to investigate atherosclerotic plaques in heart disease.

SPIE began in 1955 as the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, and has changed names twice. It is now known simply as SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

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Nancy McTygue, executive director of the California History-Social Science Project, based at the University of California, Davis, has taken a seat on the California Instructional Quality Commission, by appointment of the state Board of Education.

The Instructional Quality Commission, known as the Curriculum Commission up until Jan. 1, 2012, serves in an advisory capacity to the state board, on issues related to kindergarten through grade-12 curriculum and instruction.

This is McTygue’s forte. The only panel member with a university-affiliated post, she oversees seven regional sites, each a collaborative of teachers (kindergarten through four-year college) and scholars dedicated to improving history and social science curriculum and instruction in the state’s schools.

The sites range from the UCI History Project at UC Irvine in the south, to The History Project at UC Davis in the north.

Learning algebra too early may harm some students, UC Davis study says

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:10:00 -0700

Learning about all those x’s, y’s and quadratic equations too early in life may do more harm than good for some students, a new University of California, Davis, study says.

The study will be presented at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association in Vancouver, Canada.

In the study, UC Davis School of Education professors Michal Kurlaendar and Heather Rose, together with education programs consultant Don Taylor, found that the lowest-performing eighth-grade math students — who are least likely to be prepared for algebra — may be academically harmed by a policy that requires all eighth graders to take the course.

Such a universal policy, first proposed by the California Board of Education, does not take into account the skills and needs of individual students, the researchers argue.

Much of current education policy — including proposed policy by the California state Board of Education — bears out that, overall, students who complete algebra earlier are more likely to take advanced math courses in high school, graduate from college and earn more money in their lifetimes.

The study is the first of its kind to focus solely on the impact of placing the lowest-performing students in eighth-grade algebra.

“The ‘algebra for all’ argument is that taking algebra in the eighth grade will benefit minorities and low-income groups,” said Rose. “But our study found that the lowest-performing students, composed significantly of low-income students of color, did not benefit on standardized tests and had significantly lower GPAs than their peers, which may be a result of unfavorable comparisons to higher-performing students in the same courses.”

Low-performing students more often fail algebra in the eighth grade because they have not received the additional support they need to succeed, requiring them to take the course again in ninth grade, the study reported.

“Although placement in algebra courses as soon as possible should remain a goal to ensure students are not tracked out of college placement, we believe that a universal eighth-grade algebra policy has not been proven to benefit all and requires more research to better understand potential issues,” said Rose. “We have an obligation as educators to ensure that the lowest-performing students do not see school as a punishment in the form of lower grades, social embarrassment and parental ire.”

This paper will be presented at the AERA Conference at the Vancouver Convention Center Sunday, April 15, East Ballroom C, from 8:15 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.

Other UC Davis research

Other UC Davis research being presented at the AERA conference, which runs from April 13 to 17:

Some English Learners Are Losing Literacy at the Price of 'Standards'

The emphasis on standardized, packaged curricula to eliminate disparities among students actually reduces students’ literacy, a new UC Davis study suggests.

“This runs counter to everything we know about good teaching, which is designed to differentiate instruction for the needs of learners with different linguistic and academic needs, not standardize it,” said Kerry Enright, the UC Davis School of Education professor who authored the study. She looked at language and literacy practices across the high school curriculum at a comprehensive high school in California’s Central Valley whose teaching, assessment, and accountability practices are typical of many linguistically diverse schools.

Enright will present her study, “Raising Standards and Reducing Literacy,” at the conference on Monday, April 16, at the Vancouver Convention Center, Sheraton Wall Centre, North Gulf Islands BCD.

Students Appreciate Science More When They Experience It in Nature

A combination of hands-on environmental restoration, classroom work and writing can help improve students’ environmental stewardship and understanding of science, a new UC Davis study finds.

Heidi Ballard, assistant professor of environmental education at UC Davis, teamed up with colleagues at the Center for Land-Based Learning in Winters, Calif., (http://landbasedlearning.org/) to study 60 students at three public high schools in California’s Central Valley. The students participated in five days of habitat restoration work and wrote pre- and post-field day reflections on their understanding of the scientific concepts and outcomes of their work.

“Stewardship attitude scores jumped immediately following the field day, and students themselves pointed out how important knowledge and understanding was to their sense of ownership and competence with respect to their restoration projects,” said Ballard.

Ballard and her team will present “Building Bridges Between Science Classrooms and Working Landscapes Through Collaborative Environmental Education Research" on Friday, April 13, Vancouver Convention Center, East Room 1.

Visual language, cognition and deaf education topics of summit

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

How deaf children learn to read will be one of the topics of a conference at UC Davis Nov. 18-19. The Visual Learning Summit is co-sponsored by the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, Gallaudet University’s Science of Learning Center on Visual Language and Visual Learning, and the departments of psychology and linguistics at UC Davis.

Deaf children often face challenges in learning to read, said David Corina, professor in the Department of Linguistics and the Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis, who is one of the organizers of the meeting. For example, hearing children learn to read by sounding out words, but deaf children often have to learn to read without access to sound. How they accomplish this ability requires an understanding of the language used by deaf children — often a visual sign language such as American Sign Language.

“How does growing up in a primarily visual world impact language, memory and attention, and how can educational practices be structured to optimize the strengths of a deaf child? There are a lot of questions about the best way to educate deaf children, and many things we can learn from visually oriented learners,” Corina said. For example, understanding how some deaf children successfully learn to read may help us design interventions for normally hearing children with other reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, he said.

How our brains interpret the external world is one of the major research areas at UC Davis’ Center for Mind and Brain, one of a rich set of connected centers and institutes dedicated to understanding the human mind and brain. Research projects range from measuring the effects of intense meditation training to understanding the causes of autism.

For neuroscientists, deafness raises other issues, too. Hearing-impaired people show evidence of better peripheral vision and different patterns of eye-gaze from hearing people. Whether this helps them in reading in unknown, Corina said.

The first-of-its-kind summit is a great opportunity to bring together researchers and educators in the field of deafness with researchers who have not traditionally worked with deaf populations, Corina said.

“There are not many forums for us to get together, and this type of conference can lead to fruitful collaborations,” he said.

Keynote speakers at the meeting will be Laura-Ann Petitto, Gallaudet University, the world's only university in which all programs and services are specifically designed for deaf and hard-of-hearing students; and deaf scholar Carol Padden, associate dean of social sciences at UC San Diego and 2010 MacArthur genius award winner.

For registration information, see http://mindbrain.ucdavis.edu/labs/Corina/VLS.

Experts on SB 48 curriculum changes

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The following UC Davis experts are available to comment on Senate Bill 48, signed July 13 by Gov. Jerry Brown, which will amend the education code to include social sciences instruction on the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well as people with disabilities and members of other cultural groups.

Social sciences curriculum

Rebecca Rosa is a supervising lecturer in the UC Davis School of Education who specializes in social sciences teaching and curriculum. She has conducted research on gay and lesbian issues in teaching. Contact: Rebecca Rosa, School of Education, (707) 718-3644, robrien@ucdavis.edu.

Gay and lesbian rights

Courtney Joslin is co-author of the 2009 book, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Family Law.” She is a past staff attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, where she litigated cases on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families. She is a UC Davis law professor. Contact: Courtney Joslin, Law, (415) 902-7981 cell, cgjoslin@ucdavis.edu.

Curriculum expansion and changes

Steven Athanases is a professor in the UC Davis School of Education and is a former high school English teacher. His research interests include an emphasis on teaching diverse youth in urban, public schools. He is interested in teachers holding onto best practices while continually examining ways to meet the learning needs of all youth. Contact: Steven Athanases, School of Education, (510) 501-9357, szathanases@ucdavis.edu.

Youth support needed to secure future of California’s Capital Region, UC Davis report says

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Sacramento Capital Region can prosper and achieve its full potential only if it drastically improves education, health, civic participation and job opportunities for the region’s young people, according to a UC Davis study commissioned by the Sierra Health Foundation.

The study, “Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions,” is the first in the nation to examine youth health and well-being on a regional scale and across multiple issues, said study leader Jonathan London, a professor of human and community development and director of the UC Davis Center for Regional Change.

The study was released today during a presentation to community leaders and media at the Sierra Health Foundation office in Sacramento.

The two-year research project was funded by the Sierra Health Foundation with additional support from The California Endowment.

“The message we heard over and over again in this research is that there is no greater challenge and no greater potential opportunity for the Capital Region than coming together to care for our young people and for young people themselves to play leadership roles in this effort,” London said.

The report focused on young people ages 12 to 24 in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

It documents disparities in resources and opportunities available to the region’s youth based on their geographic location, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, immigration status and other factors, and offers a startling set of youth statistics for the region:

Graduation rates

Of the approximately 41,000 students who entered ninth grade in 2004, only 66 percent graduated in four years.
In 2008, 9,000 students in the region left high school without graduating, increasing costs for services to support these youth and decreasing their potential earning power.
The estimated lifetime cost for just one year’s high school dropouts in the Capital Region totals $480 million for state and local governments, and more than $1 billion for the federal government.
Cutting the region’s drop-out rate in half would yield $1.5 billion in savings to state and local governments.
Only 28 percent of Latino students and 31 percent of African-American students attend schools with high or very high graduation rates (schools in the region ranked in the top 40 percent for graduation rates).This contrasts with 57 percent for white students and 38 percent for Asian/Pacific Islander students.

Higher Education

Among students who graduated from the region’s high schools in 2008, only 23 percent had completed the courses required to enter the University of California or California State University systems, compared with 37 percent statewide.
Only 39 percent of the region’s students entered a public college or university (including four-year and community colleges) within one year of graduation, far fewer than the statewide average of 55 percent.
Fewer than one in 10 middle school students reported high levels of adult encouragement to explore future careers or pursue formal education.

Employment

In 2008, one in five of the Capital Region’s 20- to 24-year-olds were neither enrolled in school nor employed.
Latino and African-American youth are underrepresented in high-growth and high-wage professions in health care and education and overrepresented in retail jobs.
Young people in lower-income areas reported a lack of adult counseling to seek jobs. Latino youths reported lowest levels of such support.

“We hope this study will provide the information needed for sectors throughout our region to determine where investment in young people is needed to ensure their health and well-being, which in turn will allow them to contribute to the region’s ability to remain competitive and prosperous in the global economy,” said Sierra Health Foundation President and CEO Chet Hewitt.

London and his research team, which included faculty experts and graduate and undergraduate students from multiple disciplines, looked at a wide range of census, education, health, employment, voting and other data.

The team also surveyed middle-school youth and conducted in-depth interviews with “adult allies,” including guidance counselors, health providers, teachers and family members. In addition, the study drew on original research conducted by young people in the region.

“The future prosperity of the Capital Region will depend on our ability to prepare young people for success in a challenging and ever-changing economy,” said David Butler, CEO of Linking Education and Economic Development, a Sacramento-based coalition of business, education and government leaders focused on strengthening the region’s economy. “The Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions study is a clear, concise benchmark for the region to help ensure that all of our youth graduate from high school are prepared for the workplace and relevant post-secondary education.”

The 40-page report recommends a wide range of actions, but emphasizes that:

programs aimed at reducing school dropout rates, improving mental and physical health, providing sustained mentoring and increasing quality job opportunities must be better integrated and supported through more effective use and targeting of resources; and
Capital-area leaders need to convene a forum that would bring together youth and adults from across the region to help shape and coordinate regional youth strategies.

The report documents youths’ own commitment to improve community and regional conditions — whether by engaging in social and digital media storytelling, supporting their families and peers, or getting involved in their communities.

“Youth are an unrealized community asset, whose potential for this region is unlimited,” says Pat Fong Kushida, president and CEO of the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce. “This study calls for us to take action now on youth-centered and youth-informed policy solutions to ensure our young people are given more opportunities to succeed. From an economic development standpoint, our region needs this more than ever.”

Vacaville Police Chief Richard Word, who reviewed the report and leads a community-based policing approach that emphasizes crime prevention for young people, emphasized the power of youth to improve their lot.

“I’ve seen the positive outcomes that can be achieved when youth are allowed to lead and are exposed to positive opportunities to express themselves,” Word said. “If we can engage youth, I know we can reduce truancy, improve classroom performance and ultimately improve our labor pool, which will result in less crime and safer communities.”

A key challenge facing the region’s youth is mobility, according to the study.

“Many people live their lives regionally as they seek jobs, education, services and recreation, and change their residence frequently as dictated by family crisis or opportunity,” it notes.

These frequent moves put young people at increased risk of dropping out of school, developing mental or physical health problems, becoming pregnant, engaging in crime, and experiencing unemployment, according to the researchers.

While crediting the Sacramento Area Council of Governments for its work to improve transportation planning in the region, the study also points out transportation challenges. The challenges include inadequate sidewalks and bike lanes.

Some youth interviewed for the study reported problems getting to school or work or accessing such services as counseling, health care, tutoring or babysitters in a safe and timely fashion.

Young people of all socioeconomic backgrounds also reported that expensive, infrequent or nonexistent public transportation can leave them socially isolated.

”Our collective research suggests that the Capital Region contains many of the elements necessary to uproot even the most entrenched problems facing young people today,” the report states. “While these young men and women spoke candidly about their doubts, confusion and fears for the future, they also described their deep desire and efforts — which in some cases are truly heroic — to be part of the solution.”

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The University of California, Davis Center for Regional Change is dedicated to producing “research that matters for the region.” To accomplish this, the CRC builds two kinds of bridges. One set is on campus among faculty and students from different disciplines and departments; the other between the campus and its surrounding home regions. These bridges allow us to bring together faculty, students and communities to collaborate on innovative research to create just, sustainable and healthy regions in California’s Central Valley, Sierra Nevada and beyond. Learn more on the center’s website.

Sierra Health Foundation is a private philanthropy with a mission to invest in and serve as a catalyst for ideas, partnerships and programs that improve health and quality of life in Northern California. The foundation is committed to improving health outcomes and reducing health disparities in the region through convening, educating and strategic grant making. Visit Sierra Health’s website.

The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. From 2010-2020, The Endowment will focus the majority of its resources on its 10-year strategic plan, Building Healthy Communities. For more information, visit The Endowment’s website.

UC Davis students, faculty and staff serve hundreds of young people throughout the greater Sacramento area and beyond each year, helping to prepare them for undergraduate school, graduate programs and professional schools. Here is a partial list of the university’s outreach programs.

Math talk for kids: The science of origami

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

July 13, Wednesday, 1 p.m. — Origami artist Robert J. Lang of Alamo, Calif., will give this year’s MathFest talk on “From Flapping Birds to Space Telescopes: The Modern Science of Origami.” This free public event is aimed at high school students but also suitable for younger children. It will take place in the ARC Ballroom and is sponsored by the COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science) program.

Lang will discuss how mathematical techniques have been applied to the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, enabling the folding of shapes of stunning complexity and realism. As often happens in mathematics, theory developed for its own sake has led to some surprising practical applications, from airbags to giant space telescopes.

Lang is recognized as one of the foremost origami artists in the world as well as a pioneer in computational origami and the development of formal design algorithms for folding. He holds a doctorate in applied physics from Caltech and has worked at the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Spectra Diode Laboratories, and JDS Uniphase on lasers and optoelectronics as well as authoring, co-authoring or editing 12 books and a CD-ROM on origami.

Kids get hands-on with brain science

Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

May 15, Sunday — Seventh- to 10th-graders and their parents from around Northern California will spend a day at UC Davis learning about the brain, with talks, demonstrations and hands-on activities that will include dissecting sheep brains. Organized by the UC Davis Graduate Group in Neuroscience, the event will give students and their parents the opportunity to learn about cutting-edge science and technology from experts in the field. From 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., participants will engage in hands-on activities of visual and perceptual illusions; from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., they will take part in sheep brain dissections and measuring brainwaves. Hands-on activities will take place in the Sciences Laboratory Building, Hutchison Drive, on the UC Davis campus, and lectures will take place in the adjacent Sciences Lecture Hall. The participants are taking part in Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth.

Youth Media Forum: Social media for social change

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Social media documentaries, blogs, photo maps, public service announcements and an online teen newspaper produced by local youth will be presented at a forum on Saturday, May 7, at The Sacramento Bee, 2100 Q Street, Sacramento.

The Youth Media Forum will run from 9 a.m. until noon. The event is free and open to the public.

Coordinated by the UC Davis School of Education's Center for Community School Partnerships, the forum is part of an effort to recognize and support social media projects created and produced by youth for social change.

Youth poetry summit and slam

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

"Know Your Writes," a daylong poetry summit and slam that is expected to attract more than 900 of the region's best young poets, rappers and singers, will take place Friday, May 13, at Freeborn Hall.

Hosted by the UC Davis School of Education's Sacramento Area Youth Speak (SAYS) program, the event will start at 9 a.m. with a student town hall meeting and workshops on writing, social justice and youth empowerment. The poetry slam will begin at 6 p.m.

The top six poets will represent the Sacramento region at Brave New Voices, an international youth poetry slam held in San Francisco in July.

The third annual SAYS summit and slam is a culmination of year-round programming in regional schools, in which youth from different communities and economic and ethnic backgrounds come together to learn and celebrate their accomplishments. Students also develop plans for school improvement and community change.

Participants were chosen in April through semifinal competitions at high schools and community centers throughout the Sacramento area.

Tickets for the slam finals — $5 for those 10 and under, $7 for ages 11-21, and $15 for all others — are available at the Freeborn Hall box office or by calling (530) 752-1915. Tickets are also available online through tickets.com.

A limited number of seats for the daytime summit will be available to schools.

SAYS is supported by funding from the Sierra Health Foundation.

For more information, contact Vajra Watson, (530) 370-2889, vmwatson@ucdavis.edu, or visit http://says.ucdavis.edu.