Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center an NSF Science of Learning Center

At the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS), LIFE Center researchers in collaboration with University of Texas, San Antonio (UTSA) hosted a highly successful 3-day analyses and feedback workshop. As part of both academic and diversity chapters within the LIFE Center , the research team from the UW’s I-LABS led by PI Patricia Kuhl and Prof. Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola met with a portion of the team of Sociologists led by Dr. Harriett Romo from UTSA, a minority serving institution.

PI Pat Kuhl and Prof. Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola invited Prof. Harriett Romo and her team to enhance the interaction between the UW and UTSA teams by meeting face-to-face and updating each other on data gathering, analyses techniques/procedures and future publications, product of their collaborative work on the bilingual brain/culture that started 2 years ago. Both teams gave presentations (live and video-conference), met with the larger LIFE group, members of the College of Education (UW), and other members from the I-LABS for an informal academic lunch to communicate findings and to receive feedback. By the end of the visit, the working teams produced an extremely rich and informative common database, completing phase 2 of the teams’ academic work. In order to make this a model of successful collaboration, more face-to-face interactions in Seattle were proposed as well as a request for continuation of funding to promote deeper studying of the sample in San Antonio as the infants grow, and their language, cognitive development and their families change.

Organizers: Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola, Patricia K. Kuhl, Lindsay Klarman, Denise Padden, Erica Stevens.

UW Team: Patricia Kuhl, Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola, Barbara Conboy, Lindsay Klarman,
UTSA Team: Harriett Romo, Sophia Ortiz, Tamara Casso, Maria Rodriguez, Maria Quezada, Ricardo de la Cruz.

Presenters: Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola (UW), Harriett Romo (UTSA), Lindsay Klarman (UW), Maria Rodriguez (UTSA) and Ricardo de la Cruz (UTSA).
Days: July 11-13, 2006

To represent the student and post-doctoral scholar perspective of the LIFE Center, a student advisory board called the Student Leadership Group was formed to organize student participation. The Group has a valuable role in working to accomplish the LIFE Center’s larger mission of building future capacity in the learning sciences field by focusing on organizing professional development opportunities for students within and outside of the Center.

The roles of the members of Student Leadership Group are to act as liaisons, communicators, and advisors. The Group’s main functions as (a) facilitating better communication between students and the LIFE Leadership Team members, (b) organizing professional development events involving students and post-doctoral scholars, (c) providing the student and post-doctoral scholar perspective to the LIFE Leadership Team in a formal way, and (d) representing students to other organizations outside the Center.

Group members are:

• Jennifer Amsterlaw: amsterj@u.washington.edu
• Robb Lindgren: robblind@stanford.edu
• Laurie McCarthy: lsmccarthy@earthlink.net
• Sandra Okita: yuudra@stanford.edu
• Heather Toomey Zimmerman: htoomey@u.washington.edu

Philip Bell, LIFE Scientist of Informal Learning, gave an invited lecture at the Third Annual Knowledge Sharing Institute of the NSF-funded Center for Curriculum Materials in Science. The presentation, entitled “A cultural framing of the ‘learning of scientific practices’ from an everyday cognition perspective,” summarized LIFE center research focused on how children learn and consequentially use science across the social settings of their lives. The presentation was part of an expert panel convened to explore a range of research on how scientific practices are learned for various purposes. The presentation is available for download.

Bell, P. (2006, July 10). A cultural framing of the “learning of scientific practices” from an everyday cognition perspective. Invited talk at the 3rd Annual Knowledge Sharing Institute of the Center for Curriculum Materials in Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.