LEGO Americas – What does the future bring?- Skip Kodak When: Mon, 12 May 2008, 4:00pm EST Duration: 1:00 (hrs:mins) Enrollment limit: 90 Already registered: 25     Description: Skip Kodak, VP of our Direct to Consumer As a global toy company, LEGO has been engaging children in play and learning for over 70 years. Skip Kodak, Vice President of Direct to Consumer for LEGO Systems in the United States, will discuss how the company is thinkin...(more) g about moving forward in the retail and education space. ...(hide)

Conceptual Continuity: Using informal science literacies to promote students Science Learning - Bryan Brown When: Mon, 02 Jun 2008, 4:00pm EST Duration: 1:00 (hrs:mins) Enrollment limit: 90 Already registered: 10     Description: Conceptual Continuity: Using informal science literacies to promote students Science Learning The manuscript introduces scholars to the notion of Conceptual Continuity as a framework for understanding how to craft learning environments that maximize the relations...(more) hip between students’ native ways of understanding phenomenon and its connection to those ideas as represented in science teaching. This two-year ethnographic study involved documenting 15 high school baseball players’ as they learned components of physics through the sport of baseball. The data revealed that students’ informal learning of physics paralleled some of the primary conceptual understandings commonly understood in physics. The analysis of the data is separated into two components. In analysis 1 I used Conceptual Continuity to examine the similarities between students’ conceptual understanding in the informal contexts and their similarities to canonical scientific ideas. In analysis 2 I used Conceptual Continuity to examine the differences in student learning as measured over the course of 2 seasons of participation. The implications call attention to the need to reconstruct our vision of science learning to include a more language sensitive approach to teaching and learning. Bryan A. Brown is a professor of teacher education. His research interest explores the relationship between student identity, discourse, classroom culture, and academic achievement in science education. He focuses on the social connotations and cultural politics of science discourse in small-group and whole-group interaction. Additionally, his research work in science education examines how teacher and student discourse serve to shape learning opportunities for students in science classrooms. Dr. Brown's work in science education in urban communities focuses on developing collaborative curricular cycles and classroom pedagogy based on developing discourse intensive instruction for urban learners. His research has expanded beyond his focus on science education, to include issues of college access in urban communities. As the founder and director of the Etu Schule Educational Project (KiSwahilli for "Our Schools"), his recent work explores how classroom and school culture shapes access to higher education. The Etu Schule Educational Project provides academic training and long-term mentoring for minority students throughout the state of California. ...(hide)