Week Three August 3-9, 2008

UTEP-UMCE News – Dr. Bill Robertson, Fulbright Scholar, UTEP Assistant Professor

Week Three August 3-9, 2008

The following is a summary of the activities that I have been engaged in during the week of August 3-9 as they relate to the work I am doing here at UMCE as part of my Fulbright Scholarship.

US Embassy Radio Interview

On Thursday, August 7, Claudio Perez Matzen and I went to be interviewed on the radio at the US Embassy here in Santiago.  The radio show will be broadcast as a thirty (30) minute taped delayed broadcast that was done in Spanish as an outreach for the citizens of Chile on education and other issues.  The interview will be available throughout Chile in the coming weeks as part of a regular US Embassy program and should also be archived and accessed on the Web in the future.  The interview was over topics in science education, including the physics education projects that I am working on with Claudio while here in Santiago. Information on US Embassy in Chile can be accessed at the Web site (http://www.usembassy.cl).

Fulbright Mentor Program Meeting

As part of the Fulbright Mentor Program that I am participating in while here in Santiago, I will have the opportunity to interact with students who are interested in applying for Fulbright Chile scholarships and discussing US university options with them. This is also a good time to promote the Doctoral and graduate programs that we have at UTEP, not only in the College of Education, but throughout the university.  This week I met with a student who is interested in applying for a Fulbright scholarship and is considering programs in the US, but also in Europe.  I discussed our new Ph.D. program as well as others in the US southwest, paying particular attention to schools near the US/Mexico border.  The student is applying for a scholarship that is due this month with the goal of entering a program in the fall of 2009.

Planning for Campus Work in Quinta Normal

In the coming well, I will begin a project working with students at 2 schools in the Quinta Normal region of Santiago on a physics education project that will incorporate technology in the study of motion.  The main idea is to use the physics of skateboarding as a focus and have the students engage in experiments and modeling that use both traditional methods and computer programs, such a s Excel, Modellus and Data Studio. We plan to have 3 sections at 2 different schools that will meet each Monday to study this curriculum, and we plan to assess the students in both attitudes and content abilities.

Faculty Meeting

On Wednesday, August 6, I attended what the regular weekly staff meetings with the Physics department on the new physics project they are implementing this coming semester.  At this meeting, we discussed the issues of the physics units that are being developed as well as looked over in detail 2 of my 4 instruments I will be using in my study with students.  The faculty in the physics department reviewed the instruments with me as a group, and this was very helpful as they were able to both familiarize themselves with the instrument and also to aid in the syntax of the Spanish translation. There are subtle differences in terms and meanings here in Santiago, as compared to my experiences in Mexico, and this session allowed for a good assessment and where the instruments needed to be changed. Upon completing the changes, I posted the instruments into the online platform that they use (Moodle) so that others who were not at the meeting could see the instrument and learn more about the project.

Student Projects – Debate on Nuclear Energy Issues

On Tuesday, August 5, 2008, I was a guest observer for the second part of Prof. Perez’s class on the study of energy and the nuclear energy option (Debate Energético: La Opción Nuclear).  In this final class, the 2 student teams engaged in a debate that covered the final 2 main issues the study of radioactive materials and the proliferation of nuclear materials.  The student teams were divided into areas of Pro Nuclear and Antinuclear and each team gave a PPT presentation for each area and engaged in a wonderfully spirited debate that went on for upwards of 2 hours and 30 minutes with questions and answers from the audience and panel alike.

UMCE facts

This was the final week of classes and the final exams as well. The semester was shortened this semester, as the students held a sit in (a toma) throughout the universities in Santiago, and the work at the universities was halted for upwards of 20 days. This went on before I got here, but did change the length of the semester. It made for a hectic end to the term for students and faculty alike.  Each day was another exam or project, and students and faculty on campus to well into the evening. The faculty have to prepare grades directly and have only a few days off (1 week) between semesters this term in order to get ready for the second semester which will begin August 18.

Personal Transition to Work in Spanish

Each week brings a new challenge and also new insights into my work both here and back in El Paso. For example, I am now interacting completely in Spanish on campus, whether it is in speech, writing, reading or listening. This is a challenge as the accents and word choices are often quite different, and the pace of the Spanish spoken here is quite rapid as well. There is also the added challenge of the vocabulary associated with science, especially physics, and this often has me struggling for the correct terms.  All of the faculty and students are quite helpful and patient with me, and are helping me at every turn. This also, I believe, will better equip me with experiences and abilities to in turn help the students I serve at UTEP.  For the most part, things are progressing, there a good days and hard days, and I am often exhausted from trying to stay alert and attentive, but this is also part of the reason I am here, to grow and learn in many phases of my academic life.