Category: Academics

Writing and Communication Center (WCC) Faculty Coordinators, Kelly Concannon (College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Associate Professor of Writing) and Janine Morris (CAHSS Assistant Professor of Writing), presented at the 2019 Feminisms and Rhetorics conference at James Madison University, November 13-16, 2019. Their presentation, “Mindful Mentorship, Self-Care, & Fostering Graduate Student Well-Being in the Writing Center,” focuses on a month-long mindfulness project the two conducted in fall 2018 with CAHSS Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Master’s student Nicole Chavannes and alumna Veronica Diaz (both WCC graduate assistant coordinators at the time).

Their presentation focused on the effects of a four-week project Concannon, Morris, Chavannes, and Diaz undertook to examine how performing self-care and mindfulness practices affected mentorship and leadership positions. The presentation concluded with acknowledging the benefits and challenges of practicing mindfulness and self-care as mentors and provided attendees with strategies to enact in their own writing centers.

Concannon stated, “The conference allowed us to share our experiences cultivating mindfulness in the writing and communication center and to create collaborations with faculty and students who were additionally invested in feminist practices.”

The mindfulness project is also the focus of a co-written article by Concannon, Morris Chavannes, and Diaz that will appear in a forthcoming issue of WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship.

 

Over 175 first-year biology students visited the NSU Writing and Communication Center (WCC) for its first BIOL Night Against Procrastination (BNAP) on Sunday, October 27th, 2019, from 6 – 10 p.m. Students received assistance on writing their major enzyme lab reports from WCC Biology Fellows and BIOL 1500 Lab Assistants. The event was part of a collaboration between the WCC and the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography Department of Biological Sciences that provides course-embedded writing assistance to all sections of BIOL 1500: Biology I/Lab.

Over the course of four weeks each semester (from the time the report is assigned to when it is due), the WCC offers BIOL 1500 students course-specific one-on-one consultations and a series of open studio hours, which are times when students can visit the WCC to write and get quick feedback from trained BIOL Writing Fellows. This semester, the WCC offered BNAP on the Sunday night before the week final reports were due in order to provide students with an additional opportunity to visit the center; collaborate with peers, fellows, and lab assistants; and get their final reports completed.

The event opened with over 100 students visiting during the first hour. Students were offered pizza, while a DJ from Radio X played downtempo /ambient music students could work to while completing their reports. “It was eye opening to see 177 students show up for an academic event focused on writing. It was not just a social or happy hour, it was a chance to better their writing, and they all showed up! It was very fulfilling,” said Melissa Vaz-Ayes, junior Biology major and an undergraduate student coordinator in the NSU WCC.

The overall project is based on collaborative efforts of Dr. Kevin Dvorak, Executive Director of the NSU WCC; Dr. Kelly Concannon, Associate Professor in the CAHSS Department of Writing and Communication and Faculty Coordinator at the WCC; Dr. Aarti Raja, Associate Professor in the Halmos College Department of Biological Sciences; and Melissa Vaz-Ayes.

The WCC anticipates running the program and BNAP event for the coming semesters. For more information about the NSU Writing and Communication Center, please visit www.nova.edu/wcc or call 954-262-8108.

Faculty from two NSU colleges created a conference that attracted researchers from around the world in the fields of neuroscience and exercise/sport science.

The Society for NeuroSports was founded by Professor Jaime Tartar, Ph.D., of the College of Psychology and Associate Professors Jose Antonio and Corey Peacock, both Ph.D., of the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences. The society and the conference grew out of multiple research projects that Tartar, Antonio, and Peacock have collaborated on in recent years. The society’s goal is to provide an outlet for research in the increasingly integrated fields of neuroscience and exercise/sport science.

The conference, which took place November 15-16 in Deerfield Beach, attracted over 140 visitors, which was about double what was initially expected, Tartar said. Attendees came from across the country, but also Canada, England and Belgium.

“People liked talking to other people outside of their area who are doing similar research,” Tartar said about the conference’s multidisciplinary nature.

That sentiment was echoed by Antonio. “The most interesting part of the conference was the fact that you had two completely different fields merging as one.”

The conference included presentations on topics like “Sleep Science and Swoleness,” a keynote on “Cognitive Contributions to Motor Learning,” poster presentations and a data blitz, where participants had exactly one minute to present findings on their research.

Following the inaugural conference, the society will debut a journal in January, with the debut issue featuring the abstracts from the conference. The Journal of the Society for NeuroSports will be edited by Assistant Professor William Kochen, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

“I’m a brain injury and stress researcher, so it fits perfectly with neurosports,” Kochen said. “It’s marrying the concepts and putting them together.”

The second annual conference will take place November 13-14, 2020.

“We were proud to bring 150 participants together with leading scholars across the country to advance science and practice as it relates to sports,” said College of Psychology Dean Karen Grosby, Ed.D. “Such a venture set a unique stage for future research and practice  collaborations.”

For more information, visit https://www.neurosports.net/.

Research has demonstrated that children clearly benefit from top-quality, early childhood programs, providing better outcomes both socially and academically. However, state-funded prekindergarten programs in Florida rank in the bottom 30% nationally for quality by the National Institute of Early Education Research. The A.D. Henderson Foundation and Nova Southeastern University’s Mailman Segal Center for Human Development (MSC) are working together to change that.

Under a two-year grant from the Foundation, MSC launched the Innovative Instructional Institute (i3) community outreach initiative to help address this educational disparity. “It is well documented that children who start kindergarten behind their peers academically and socially experience compounding challenges that prevent them from catching up,” said Lorraine Breffni, Ed.D., executive director, Early Learning Programs, MSC.

Over the initial year of the i3 project, MSC ‘s lead teaching staff provided in-depth training to Jack & Jill Children’s Center lead instructors on how to create meaningful learning experiences using open-ended natural and found resources.

In addition, monthly training was held at MSC’s i3 – a specially-designed training environment. A key element covered how to implement the Constructivist Approach in early childhood classrooms. Mentors at MSC were paired with mentees at Jack & Jill to implement these techniques. They also focused on the following:

• How to ask questions to encourage children’s learning,
• How to add “invitations” in the classroom that ignite children’s curiosity, and
• How to create a community of learners where teachers wonder and learn alongside children.

Now, in the second year under the grant, the impact is expanding. The lead Jack & Jill and MSC teachers have teamed up as peer mentors in at least 16 community-based, early childhood programs in Broward County.

Breffni added, “Sharing our expertise as a team will surely benefit a large number of South Florida preschoolers. We are so thankful to the A.D. Henderson Foundation for supporting this outreach effort.”

“We support programs to improve early childhood education in Broward County,” said Monica Menahem,  program director, A.D. Henderson Foundation. “One of the best ways we can do that is by funding high-quality teacher training through grants like this one with MSC.”

Please contact Nathalie Sloane, director of development, Nova Southeastern University, to further contribute to programs like these. Sloane can be reached at nsloane@nova.edu or 954-262-7123.

This fall has been a very active semester for the Chemistry Club, housed at Halmos College. In November, they celebrated National Chemistry Week with Chemistry Club members as well as Halmos College faculty and staff.

During that week, the students traveled to the Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, where they made slime with the kids. On Tuesday, the American Chemical Society presented how chemistry is applied to everyday life with the Chemistry in a Box activity. This was followed by the most well-known day in chemistry: Mole Day!

Mole day, October 23, commemorates Avogadro’s Number (6.02 x 10²³), which is a basic quantity used in chemistry. Mole Day was created to foster interest in chemistry. Colleges and schools around the world celebrate Mole Day with various activities related to chemistry and/or moles. The Chemistry Club, in collaboration with Tri Beta (the Biology Honor Society), entertained all who walked by with fun activities, snacks and prizes.

The week wrapped up with a speaker event. The Chemistry Club was proud to present Halmos faculty member, Dimitrios Giarikos, Ph.D. to present his research in biometals. The title of the presentation was “Using Biomass Modified Algae for a Solution to Heavy Metal Pollution; an Example in the Alaskan Marine Environment”. This fit with this year’s National Chemistry Week theme of “Marvelous Metals”.  Students interested in joining Chemistry Club can contact Halmos faculty member Jessica Brown, Ph.D. at jbrown3@nova.edu.

Halmos College Chemistry faculty Jessica Brown, Ph.D. and Beatrix Aukszi, Ph.D. are the Chemistry club advisors.