Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment Progress Report: 2003 Funded Projects
Continuing Projects | Completed Projects
Advancing the Wisconsin Idea through
Education and Outreach in Environmental Justice
Project leader: Herb Wang, Professor, Geology and Geophysics (608-262-5932,
wang@geology.wisc.edu)
Project duration: 2003-2005
This statewide education and outreach program in environmental justice included two summer field courses for college students and high school teachers; service-learning opportunities with community organizations, including participation as a partner in a new three-year federal Environmental Protection Agency grant to the People for Community Recovery based in Altgeld Gardens, a Chicago Housing Authority project with 5,000 African-American residents; a Web site for People for Community Recovery; and planning for a spring field trip to the "Cancer Alley" region of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The project's summer field course received an award from the North American Association of Summer Sessions. One project partner, People for Community Recovery, was among only 15 projects nationwide that received an environmental justice problem-solving grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. Project leader Herb Wang was also selected for a "Distinguished Faculty Award" in recognition of his work in the area of environmental justice. And, a new distance education environmental justice course is being developed and will be offered in spring 2005.
Dance and Community
Project leader: Jin-Wen Yu, Associate Professor and Department Chair,
Dance Program (608-262-6655, jwyu@education.wisc.edu)
Project duration: 2003-2005
The project is exposing K-12 students and other special groups to dance as an art and culturally expressive form, as well as providing venues for dance students to extend their expertise of performance and teaching. Since 2003, more than 6,150 K-12 students, teachers and community groups have attended lecture-demonstrations that were linked to guest concerts and performances by faculty and students. Six performances/lecture-demonstrations were given in schools to 960 children, teachers and parents. An additional 2,100 people attended five community performances, and 300 children attended six summer workshops. Programs and topics included modern dance, dance films, cultural dance forms, and dance and technology. More than 40 UW-Madison students have performed dances created by guest artists, faculty and/or themselves as well as teaching in the community. Participating schools include: Sauk Trail Elementary, Hawthorne Elementary, Memorial High School, Glendale Elementary, East High School, Shorewood Elementary, Kennedy Elementary, Crestwood Elementary, Oconomowoc High School, Waunakee High School, Middleton High School, Sun Prairie High School and Mendota Elementary.
Center for Integrated Agriculture Systems-Growing
Power Student Internship Program
Project contact: Brent McCown, Professor, Center for Integrated Agriculture
Systems (608-262-5201, bhmccown@wisc.edu
Project duration: 2003-2004
The Center for Integrated Agriculture Systems developed a two-way student exchange program in sustainable agriculture with Growing Power, a non-profit organization based in Milwaukee that promotes and cultivates urban agriculture enterprises and food systems and agriculture education for inner-city youth. The project provided six full-time summer internships for UW-Madison students at Growing Power's Community Food Center in Milwaukee who gained hands-on experience. The interns helped create and develop a number of reports on urban agriculture growing systems, as well as helped conduct tests and designed experiments to improve urban food systems. In addition, some 30 junior high and high school students from inner city Milwaukee schools participated in on-campus and on-farm learning opportunities with agricultural and life sciences faculty working on sustainable agriculture projects.
Economic Justice Institute, University
of Wisconsin Law School
Project leader: Juliet M. Brodie, Clinical Assistant Professor, Law School
(608-262-4013, jmbrodie@wisc.edu)
Project duration: 2003-2004
The Law School's Frank J. Remington Center established a new Economic Justice Institute, a community-based, anti-poverty clinical education program headquartered in South Madison's Villager Mall. The Institute extends law students' experience and expertise into the community through the provision of direct services and legal representation to low-income clients in actual cases, under the guidance of clinical law faculty. This hands-on experience exposes students to legal service to the poor by engaging them in a sustained and practical manner in addressing the persistent social problems of urban poverty, economic injustice, and income inequality. Student evaluations of their clinical program were overwhelmingly positive and some 500 community individuals were served over the two years of the project. And finally, the Law School is now committed to the Economic Justice Institute as an important part of its educational and clinical community programs.
Genomic Expeditions Partnership: Engaging
Rural & Urban Youth in Exploring BioSciences
Project leader: Thomas M. Zinnen, Outreach Program Manager, UW-Madison
Biotechnology Center & UW-Extension (608-265-2420, zinnen@biotech.wisc.edu)
Project duration: 2003-2004
Genomic Expeditions provided urban and rural youth opportunities to explore genomics through a new series of hands-on science education activities based on the signature research projects of UW-Madison's Biotechnology Center and the Genome Center. The project engaged faculty and staff with high school teachers and students from Discovery World in Milwaukee, UW-Extension's 4-H Youth Development programs in Milwaukee, Sawyer and Bayfield counties, and the Natural History Museum in Cable. Working both on campus and in community settings, the high school students and teachers helped to design, test, and revise new prototype learning materials on the topics of biotechnology and genomics, as well as two videos examining genomics. In all, almost 4,000 participating youth gained increased science savvy, improved their communication skills by sharing science with their peers, and achieved a greater awareness of career and educational opportunities in the biosciences. Genomic Expeditions also helped to create a new annual week-long spring "Science Expeditions" open houses at several dozen science laboratories and facilities on the UW-Madison campus. The project also helped spawn a two-day "Conference on the Future of Science Outreach," in April 2004. And, the Science Expeditions and Genomic Expeditions projects have accelerated the development of the "Exploration Stations" concept that transforms exhibits as places where scientists explain phenomena into exhibits where scientists offer learners puzzles and a chance to probe into the riddle of the phenomena.
Taking Stars Statewide
Project leader: James M. Lattis, Director, UW Space Place, Astronomy
Department (608-263-0360, lattis@sal.wisc.edu)
Project duration: 2003-2004
Taking Stars Statewide expanded and enhanced two successful programs ("Universe in the Park" and "Scopes for Schools") of the Astronomy Department and its outreach education center in south Madison, UW Space Place. "Universe in the Park" expanded upon its current summer repertoire of programs on astronomy, followed by star and planet viewing with a powerful telescope in state parks. Expanded efforts included spring and fall programs in new venues (schoolyards, nature centers, country parks) throughout Wisconsin with an effort to target school groups. "Scopes for Schools" branched out to work with high schools in Kimberly, Neenah, Stevens Point and other cities to build telescopes and make astronomical observations. The teachers and students learned how a typical astronomical telescope works by building one themselves. The sessions combine learning about telescopes, optical principles and astronomy altogether. The teachers and students often form astronomy clubs that offer star parties during the rest of the school year. More than 1,000 people, mostly students, were served by this project, which will continue, although at a scaled down level.
2003 Midwest Rural Arts Forum
Project leader: Harv Thompson, Professor and Department Chair, Liberal
Studies and the Arts (608-263-7787, hthompson@dcs.wisc.edu)
Project duration: 2003
The four-day Midwest Rural Arts Forum held in October 2003 in Spring Green, Wisconsin, brought together some 300 rural artists, staff, volunteers, and community activists who explored: 1) innovative entrepreneurship, business partnerships and programming in the arts; 2) the changing face of rural communities and the growth of ethnic diversity; 3) the arts in education; and 4) integrating the arts into rural lives. The project allowed for expanded discussions of the Wisconsin Idea, grassroots participation and community arts development. The forum also provided opportunities for participants from small communities to attend and share information with each other. Partners included the: UW-Madison Department of Liberal Studies and the Arts; Wisconsin Assembly for Local Arts; Wisconsin Arts Board; Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters; Wisconsin Humanities Council; Robert E. Gard Wisconsin Idea Foundation; and the River Valley Arts Coalition Task Force. Participants came from Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Colorado. Participants reported the conference was very inspiring and that what they learned will be useful in their community's future development and well-being.
Wisconsin Weather Stories
Project leader: Steven Ackerman, Professor, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences,
Cooperative Institute for Meteorological and Satellite Studies (608-263-3647,
stevea@ssec.wisc.edu)
Project duration: 2003
Wisconsin Weather Stories involved two University partners (the Folklore Program and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological and Satellite Studies) and the Wisconsin Arts Board. This project developed classroom-tested lessons (adaptable to different grade levels) that integrate earth sciences, social studies, language arts and math. Stories are an excellent way to approach the science of weather and weather prediction, explain how weather impacts our lives, and uncover cultural beliefs and traditional practices. Wisconsin Weather Stories also hosted a teacher workshop in August 2003 and will hold another workshop in spring 2004 to develop a companion K-12 curriculum guide. The project's Web site is designed for ongoing use of the materials generated during this project.