2014-2015 Civic Ambassador Call

The Iowa Campus Compact Civic Ambassadors applications for the 2014-2015 Civic Ambassador Network are now available! Please help us spread the word on your campuses and with students that you think would benefit from the program!

http://ht.ly/zYrFP

Last year was the inaugural year for the program and while there were some bumps and bruises along they way, the program appears to be off to a great start. Six schools from across Iowa had projects that connected campus to community in a number of different ways:

Buena Vista University
Bonnie Keller, Post-trip Service Opportunities for Alternative Break Participants
Sloane Morrow, Adopt-A-Day Service Campaign for Student Groups

Central College
Emily Rouse & Lisa Langenberg, Increase Student Group Involvement in Service

Coe College
Amanda Kohn, Program Development for Children of Promise Mentoring Program
Eastly Johnson, Community Engagement Fair

Cornell College
Caryn Shebowich & Dan Carney, Increase Male Involvement in Service

Simpson College
Taylor Besser & Dylan Anderson, "No More" Students Against Sexual Assault Event

University of Iowa
Bethany Welsh & Jake Kurczek, Civic Summit

Banting

Two weeks ago I submitted my first post-doctoral grant to the internal review committee at York University. The grant competition is for the prestigious Banting Fellowship, the most attractive post-doctoral grant available in Canada that looks to be used strategically to first attract and then keep top talent at the post-doctoral level. I should hear by the middle of this month whether the grant moves past this first round and then will have another month to prepare it for submission to the actual Banting Competition. If it does move on I will provide more details on the grant and proposal itself.

OGTE Update

A traditional assumption of teaching at the university level is that expertise in a subject makes one qualified to teach and communicate information to students. While many college professors are principally researchers, they are still often expected to teach. Without training and experience beyond that of grading assignments and holding review sessions as a teachers assistant, it is very difficult to be a professor at the university level. Here at the University of Iowa a center has been established to help foster graduate students in the art and science of teaching. The purposes of this study are twofold. First we look to investigate the motivations and design behind the center as well as its goals for students. Subsequently, our second goal is to assess the thoughts and feelings of students both enrolled in and graduates of the program especially as they relate to the goals established by the program.

This is the abstract of a project that I am working on with Dr. Mitchell Kelly of the College of Education at the University of Iowa. We recently submitted our IRB continuing review modification and should have data coming in soon.

Prospectus

I'm getting pretty close to finishing my prospectus and scheduling a date. The end is near..

Twitter Up-dates

I will also post updates, thoughts and articles on twitter. Make sure to follow me.

Follow @EngagedBrain

Welcome

Here you'll find updates to my recent and past research projects. The pages of each project are meant to give a summary or overview of the background and motivation.

Busy Business

Now since I am in the full swing of school, I guess these posts are going to be shorter and less frequent.

Here is the inspiration for the title...

5:30 AM - Wake up/run
7:00 AM - Set up experiment
7:30 AM - Morning Meeting - Confirmation Bias
9:00 AM - Run subject
11:00 AM - Run subject
1:00 PM - CRISIS - find lost parking passes
2:00 PM - Data Entry
3:00 PM - Meeting
5:30 PM - Dinner
6:00 PM - Study
7:00 PM - Class
9:00 PM - Class over

So I guess I have a little less time than I previously anticipated. However, the thing about it is that I love all of it. I think that it is so great to do doing what I am doing.

A quick word about Confirmation Bias...

A flavor of cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias occurs when a person seeks out data to support their choice or ignores data that doesn't support their choice. It is thought that it reduces the negative feelings associated with making a faulty choice. It is also a part of the egocentric attitude that our personal choices are similar to other peoples choices.

More on the neural correlates later...