Winter 2020

Celebrating Languages with UConn ECE

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by Jessica Dunn 

 

Congratulations to the following high schools for participating in the 2019 UConn ECE Student Language events:

 

Bristol Central High School  Nathan Hale Ray High School 
Cheshire High School  Newington High School 
Coventry High School  Norwich Free Academy 
Edwin O. Smith High School  North Haven High School 
Glastonbury High School RHAM High School 
Granby Memorial High School Staples High School 
Lewis S. Mills High School 

 

November was UConn Early College Experience’s month of celebrating languages! For the first time, UConn Early College Experience hosted three different Language Immersion Days which included a competitive Quiz Bowl to culminate each event.

 

We started our celebrations with our 19th annual UConn ECE French Immersion Day and Quiz Bowl Competition on November 13, 2019, closely followed by our new UConn ECE German Immersion Day and Quiz Bowl Competition on November 14th, and wrapped up with our new UConn ECE Italian Immersion Day and Quiz Bowl Competition on November 22nd.

 

For each event, UConn ECE Students from across the state came together on the UConn Storrs Campus for a day of immersion and fun competition in the respective language of the event. In the morning of each event, students participated in academic sessions with department specific UConn teaching assistants and competed in a Quiz Bowl Competition in the afternoon. The academic sessions reflected the interests of the TAs, and all lessons were given in the respective language of the event. Each participating high school put forth a team of up to four UConn ECE Students to compete in the afternoon Quiz Bowl Competitions, which were moderated in French, German, or Italian. The Students were then required to answer in the same language that the questions were presented to them in.

 

All day, students were given the opportunity to be culturally immersed in the language by practicing their vocabulary and pronunciation, tuning their ears to new voices speaking foreign languages, learning about different cultures, and interacting with other Connecticut high school students who have a passion for learning a second (third, fourth, fifth, etc.) language. With just about 250 students in attendance for all three events, it was apparent the Students were very enthusiastic about being at the UConn Storrs Campus and excited to engage with the UConn ECE Faculty and Staff over a love of languages.

 

As this was the first year for the German and Italian Immersion Days and Quiz Bowl Competitions, we look forward to these events growing and becoming annual events as French has for many years. With UConn courses in Chinese, Latin, and Spanish as well, we hope to grow the number of student events in the languages in the future.

Our Chat with Nalini Ravishanker

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by Melanie Banks  

 

Get to know our faculty and learn some tricks of the trade with advice they have to offer. To answer some questions about her personal and professional interests, we are giving the spotlight to Nalini Ravishanker, UConn Faculty Coordinator for Statistics and 2018-2019 award winner of the Thomas E. Recchio Faculty Coordinator Award for Academic Leadership.

 

  1. How did you get involved with UConn ECE?
    It was a while ago, when UConn ECE was called the UConn High School Co-op Program. I liked what I heard about the program either through the UConn Mentor Connection or from our Department Head, Uwe Koehn, and agreed to become the faculty coordinator for Statistics. I am sure I must have continued to like it a lot, since I am still here!
  2. Where did you go to college, and what attracted you to statistics?
    My Undergraduate major was in Statistics at Presidency College, Chennai, India. I got my PhD in Statistics from NYU. I have always been attracted to Mathematics and recall deciding to major in statistics when I heard someone say it combined Math with the randomness that arises in practical applications. I think this now has a cooler name: “Uncertainty Quantification (UQ)”.
  3. What is your philosophy of teaching and learning?
    I think my philosophy in teaching is to make sure the material reaches each learner. A friend recently suggested I do the semi-flipped classroom format, which I think both my students and I like a lot.
  4. What are your hobbies?
    I like gardening, indoor and outdoor.
  5. What was your favorite course you took in your undergraduate career?
    As an undergraduate, I liked Linear Algebra a lot.
  6. What is the best advice an instructor can give to their students?
    I like to ask my students whether they wish to really learn the material or be satisfied with the perception of having learned the material.
  7. What would you recommend students do to succeed in a UConn ECE course?
    The UConn ECE Statistics course is the first real introduction students get to statistics. I think the teachers in our high schools build enthusiasm through a variety of examples that resonate with their students. It would be great if the students catch the enthusiasm from their teachers, and if they are also strong in calculus, consider majoring or minoring in statistics. Their teachers and I can give them more information.
  8. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?
    As a South Indian (Tamil) girl, I should say “rasam sadam” (white rice with a tomato based thin soup), but I am going to go healthy and say spinach.