Week Two July 27-August 2, 2008

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

Week Two July 27-August 2, 2008

The following is a summary of the activities that I have been engaged in during the week of July 27-August 2 as they relate to the work I am doing here at UMCE as part of my Fulbright Scholarship.

UMCE facts

La Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencia de la Educación (UMCE) was founded over a hundred years ago and has about 6 thousand current students within its enrollment.  It maintains about 200 full time professors and a large number of adjust faculty to meet the variety of class offerings and meeting times.  There is also about 800 total staff, which includes faculty, support staff and general employees. By comparison, UTEP has over 20,000 students with over 800 faculty and close to 2000 employees.  As one of many universities in the area, the focus of la UMCE on pedagogical studies is unique and widely important.   An important difference is the relative size of the population that UMCE serves, being part of a city with between 5-6 million inhabitants while El Paso itself comes in around 750,000 people (and Ciudad Juarez with 1.5 Million people for a total of around 2.25 Million in the Metropex area.  More information on the history of la UMCE can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.umce.cl/universidad/historia.html.

Faculty Meeting

On Wednesday, July 30, 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 some of the media entries (see Media heading below) as well as the scope of my overall plan and adjustment to life here in Santiago.  We spent most of the time reviewing the information associated with 2 units covering the areas of Experimental Physics and Mathematical Methods in Physics.  Specifically, the interaction centered on the classroom strategies for engaging students in constructivist science education as well as meeting the standards in module based approaches.   For the last part of the meeting, I presented my matrix over the evaluation study that I will be implementing in the upcoming semester.  In my matrix, I have identified the instruments, and which student and faculty populations will be tested.  The instruments I am using will measure quantitative changes in student attitudes toward science and computers, science efficacy, technology use and science content in physics, as well as evaluating the physics faculty in science efficacy and technology use.

US Embassy Meeting

On Wednesday, July 30, Claudio Perez Matzen, Sarah and I went to visit with the director of the US Embassy here in Chile, Michael Orlansky, who along with his team helps to select and facilitate the Fulbright program for US citizens.  It was quite an honor to go there and meet with everyone, and Dr. Orlansky is a former Fulbright participant himself, as he was previously a professor of Special Education at Ohio State University.  After his experience as a Fulbrighter, he launched a diplomatic career that has taken him to 4 different countries over the past 20 years.  He and his team had much to offer concerning the issues in education in Chile and how we might be able to best contribute to things while we are here. They also have invited me to participate in upcoming events, including an interview on the radio next week as well as a panel discussion on education issues later in August. Information on US Embassy in Chile can be accessed at the Web site (http://www.usembassy.cl).

Student Projects – Debate on Nuclear Energy Issues

On Friday, August 1, 2008, I was a guest observer in Prof. Perez’s class on the study of energy and the nuclear energy option (Debate Energético: La Opción Nuclear).  In this class, teams of students have taken on researching the issues associated with Nuclear Energy and the students are engaging in a debate that covers 5 main issues including fundamental scientific understandings, heath impacts, security issues, 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. What impressed me was the way in which the students integrated the technology within their discussions as well as communicated well researched and thought out positions.  It was an exercise that demonstrated the use of critical thinking in a final project, with students having to collaborate in order to analyze and synthesize information and then present that information to their peers. Their peers and the instructor using a rubric for the final exercise also evaluated them. 

Professional Community of Scholarship

Each Wednesday, the Physics faculty go to lunch at the Faculty Cafeteria and have a time to chat as well over issues in their lives as well as develop a personal community of scholarship within their department. This group as a result has had a relatively stable and productive term over the last number of years, and find that these regular lunches along with casual interactions such as having coffee in someone’s office in the mid-morning or mid-afternoon, help to strengthen collaboration.  This is also built into their days on campus, and everyone takes the time to interact.  

Personal Transition to Work in Spanish

Personally, I continue to be challenged in my full time transition to life and work in Spanish, and feel that I have had some great successes and personal set backs as well.  I have really felt welcomed by the community and supported in my work, as well as in my adjustment to new schedules, styles and ways of interacting.  I feel that I am most adjusted in my content area (of course), but also in my abilities to communicate in written formats.  I feel I am improving daily with my abilities to speak and listen, yet struggle with getting the right words out in a the right order at the right time.  I can certainly understand completely how this can help me in my work back at UTEP and look forward to strengthening these abilities throughout my stay here in Santiago.