Outreach and Engagement Awards

Ohio State University Nominated Programs

In 2008, Ohio State had a pool of 34 outstanding programs from which to choose its nominees for the regional Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award and the C. Peter Magrath University/Community Engagement Award. The scope and quality of these programs represent the broad spectrum of Ohio State’s partnerships with communities and industry.

Educational Improvement

Forensics in the Classroom 2007

Ohio State Partners: Department of Anthropology, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Moritz College of Law
Community Partners: PAST Foundation; Battelle Foundation, Metro High School, Crane Plastics, Columbus Schools for Girls
Links: onCampus article

The Ohio State Department of Anthropology’s Forensics in the Classroom program is a model for the kind of exciting, engaging, and enduring outreach program sought by the university and community at large. Partners in the program include the PAST Foundation, a nonprofit educational and research organization of anthropologists and educators; Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law; the Metro High School, a Columbus public high school emphasizing science, technology, engineering, and math; Crane Plastics; the Columbus Schools for Girls; and the Battelle Foundation, a global leader in science and technology, headquartered in Columbus. In the summer of 2007, high school students from around the country convened on the Ohio State University and Metro High School campuses for the inaugural Forensics in the Classroom summer camp, an in-depth program focusing on teaching high school students how to recover forensic evidence, how to process a crime scene, and how to present evidence in a court of law. Over the course of 2 weeks, high school students participated in field and classroom instruction in excavation and forensic exploration, DNA and fingerprint analysis, bone and tooth analysis, crime-scene processing, and evidence collection and documentation. Students met with experts from around Ohio, including city and university police, homicide investigators, criminal psychologists, entomologists, lawyers, forensic dog handlers, medical examiners, ballistics specialists, and crime-scene experts as they proceeded through the excavation of a mock homicide scene on Waterman Farm, at Ohio State. The sessions ended with a mock trial at which student forensics teams presented evidence to a visiting judge and attorneys from the Ohio Attorney General’s office. Dr. Samuel Stout, professor, and Jules Angel, graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, worked with Dr. Annalies Corbin, executive director of the PAST Foundation, to further develop a forensics curriculum that PAST began in 2006. Stout has many years of forensic osteological experience working with the FBI and local and state agencies. Jules Angel has 10 years of experience with Scotland Yard as an archaeologist. Dr. Corbin works with schools to build innovative programs. Battelle provided 50 scholarships for students to attend the camps and funding for Jules Angel as the Battelle Scholar to work with PAST to further develop the camps. Crane Plastics also provided scholarships. The Ingram White-Castle Foundation via the Columbus Foundation is providing funds to fully complete the curriculum. The Ohio State Department of Anthropology and its partners have a strong commitment to educating Ohio’s children. The Forensics in the Classroom program expands that commitment dramatically, as we seek to increase the enrollment and success of students in Ohio and beyond in the fields of anthropology and archaeology. As we look to the future, our intent is to expand the program to include more partners, such as the Center for Science and Industry (COSI), an international science center in Columbus, Ohio. Through our partnerships we hope to provide teachers across the country with a model curriculum to educate a new generation of young students in the fields of forensic science, archaeology, and anthropology.

Haiti Empowerment Project

Ohio State Partner: College of Education and Human Ecology, School of Teaching and Learning, Mansfield campus and Columbus campus
Community Partners: CREFI (Center for Research in Education, Formation and Instruction), Université Caraibe, University of Notre Dame (U.S.), Benito School, and Faith Academy (Haiti)
Links: onCampus article

The average annual income in Haiti is $400. This contributes to the fact that only 67% of Haitian children attend primary school with teachers who have little educational preparation. The Haiti Empowerment Project brings together the intellectual and material resources of OSU and other U.S. faculty and graduate students with Haitian counterparts to assist in the development and implementation of culturally relevant professional training. The bonds developed through this work are based on the needs of global community partners and the ability of OSU to best meet those needs through experienced faculty and graduate students. In the past 3 years, through mutual trust and respect, the Empowerment Project has grown in both application and vision, evolving from work with pilot schools, to working with inservice and preservice education, and now to addressing the unique needs of Haitian Teacher Education through partnerships with Haitian universities and other nongovernmental organizations. This project has produced a vibrant, equally rewarding professional development model driven by a mutual desire for educational transformation. Support for this work started with the Mansfield campus and has continued through an Excellence in Engagement grant from the Ohio State Office of University Outreach and Engagement. Currently, the University of Notre Dame is working together with Ohio State to broaden the work with Haitian teacher authors to provide Haitian children’s literature for instructional purposes. The primary function of the project is to bring U.S. faculty and graduate students from varying fields to Haiti to work with Haitian teachers, students, and university faculty. Pilot schools provide grounding for the instructional strategies and learning theories for U.S. faculty. The participating faculty and graduate students first work in the Haitian primary and secondary schools with teachers and students and then imbed those experiences in the teacher education courses. It is through these pilot school experiences that the project promises to enlist culturally relevant teaching practices for the unique needs of the larger Haitian education community. There are two partner universities for the Haiti Empowerment Project: CREFI (Center for Research in Education, Formation and Instruction) is an extension unit of the University of Notre Dame Haiti and Université Caraibe (UC), a teacher education college in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Faculty and BA graduates from the partner universities attend and assist in the seminar courses. They then are able to revise and replicate the course in other areas of Haiti. This project provides faculty with an opportunity to work side by side with colleagues who are fighting the restraints of oppressive education. One of the core Ohio State University values according to the Academic Plan is “making the world a better place and opening the world to our students.” Through the experiences of the faculty participating in this project, OSU students hear of the connections between culture, economics, and outreach. The result is a broadening of one’s perceptions of the world and various cultures and an introduction of a vision of empowerment for global education in their own professional lives.

Education Outreach at Ohio State Lima

Ohio State Partner: Education Outreach, Ohio State Lima
Community Partners: various including Ohio Environmental Education Fund, AEP, Embarq, Allen County Health agencies, Girl Scouts, Lima City Schools, Head Start
Links: K-12 Outreach at Ohio State Lima
Photo: Starlab Planetarium

Starlab planetarium Education Outreach at The Ohio State University at Lima brings a little bit of OSU to the children, families, schools and agencies in a 10-county area. For many, these outreach programs are the first point of contact with the university. They engage students, teachers, and community members in high-quality programming that has been designed specifically to meet community needs. Each program has been built through mutually beneficial partnerships. Regional campuses are the natural first contact site for outreach and engagement. The Lima campus connects more than 7,000 people each year with university programming and it makes an impact. The students, even those who are very young, remember that Ohio State is part of their lives. For example, The Many Hats of Agriculture is a third- and fourth-grade activity. Students who have participated in the third-grade programs have returned for the fourth-grade experience with pictures from the previous year, complete with the agricultural crowns that mark the hats. All K-12 Outreach programs fill a unique niche. They provide high-quality hands-on teaching and learning for children and adults of all ages. A new observatory, coupled with the portable planetarium, provides the forum for Star Parties for families, school groups, agencies, and the Ohio State community. How Cool Is Space brings the planetarium to students and schools that cannot afford to take a field trip to a “real” planetarium. The Many Hats and Many Puppets of Agriculture bring the big business of agriculture alive to second, third and fourth graders, while Inquiry, Scientists and the Environment enables fifth- and sixth-grade students to don lab coats and become scientists for the day while solving real life environmental problems. As issues arise, Outreach provides a forum to bring community members together, creates new partnerships, and then develops programming to address the issues. Give Me Five, the most recent community partnership, focuses on childhood wellness. Working with Extension, the health community, Girl Scouts and others, all first graders in Allen County will be actively engaged in discovering how to make FIVE healthy choices: FUN, FOOD, FITNESS, Family, and Fiesta. All programs rely on partnerships for their existence, both for implementation and funding. OSU CARES has provided the seed funding for many programs, including the Many Hats and Give Me Five. The Ohio Environmental Education Fund, AEP, and Embarq support other programs. Of course, the outreach programs couldn’t exist without the support and partnerships with local schools. Career and Technical Education at the Lima City Schools provides funding for many urban youth to participate in programs. Outreach also facilitates moving the classroom to the community through new formats for classes supported by funds from Ohio State’s Office of Continuing Education. Other classes are moving to the community because of new partnerships: Spanish 100 for Communication will be offered at Head Start and tailored to meet the needs of the staff, who have discovered that they need basic Spanish to communicate effectively with new families. This is a partnership that fosters community growth.

The Mathematics Coaching Program: Improving Student Achievement

Ohio State Partners: College of Education and Human Ecology, School of Teaching and Learning; College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Department of Mathematics, Statistical Consulting Services
Community Partners: Ohio Department of Education, University of Dayton, John Carroll University, Miami University, Ohio University, Youngstown State University; with educational service centers including: Lake County Educational Service Center, North Central Ohio Educational Service Center; and Tri-County Educational Service Center, and 29 school districts
Links: MCP website
Photo: Math mentor solving problem

Ohio has huge achievement gaps in children’s mathematics achievement by race and socioeconomic status. The Mathematics Coaching Program (MCP) at The Ohio State University has entered low achieving schools in Ohio to provide children access to the opportunity to succeed in mathematics and resolve the academic emergency. MCP has achieved remarkable success in a short time. Preliminary results show, for example, in the first year, rural students from an economically disadvantaged group scored at an 85% passage rate; also in the first year, our first Appalachian school had gains of over 100% in grade three; during the first 2 years, the average gain of the 11 participating urban schools across grades three through five was 13 percentage points, with 7 of the 11 schools leaving Academic Emergency to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Even more stunning, in one school, students in coached classrooms scored 85% on the math portion of the Ohio Achievement Test, whereas students in the same school who were not in a coached classroom remained at a 44% achievement rate. Ann Mikesell, former Ohio Department of Education (ODE) official, stated about MCP, “A key component of this program is the collaboration among the Ohio Department of Education, Ohio schools, and the project leadership at The Ohio State University to improve student achievement and instructional leadership at the building level. Partners are committed to insuring high quality design, delivery and evaluation of this technical assistance program and its impact on student performance.” Currently, MCP has partnerships and collaborative programs with the Ohio Department of Education, The Ohio State University and OSU Newark, University of Dayton, John Carroll University, Miami University, Ohio University, and Youngstown State University; with educational service centers including Lake County, North Central, and Tri-County; and 29 school districts. Thus, the MCP project is in every corner of the state, thereby not only forming and maintaining partnerships, but also reaching out to communities, to their students and ultimately, to Ohio’s future. The Mathematics Coaching Project has been funded through the Ohio Department of Education for the past 3 years at $350,000, $675,000, and $1.1 million respectively. The first year was a pilot year to test the MCP’s professional development and coaching model. It demonstrated promising results. The second year showed such strong results that ODE asked that the program expand from the initial 34 schools to 100. MCP provides access to mathematics for students who have underachieved. The MCP leadership believes in investigating how children can learn, with collaborations designed to study children who struggle. As the preliminary research indicates, students have moved from struggling with mathematics to embracing and ultimately becoming mathematically successful. According to Kip A. Bisignano, a former ODE Field Relations Manager, the field faculty directing this program selected the most promising instructional strategies, aligned them to cognitive learning theory, and used a high quality method of deployment that embeds ongoing professional development into daily routine of classroom teachers.

2008 O&E Awards: Educational Improvement page 2

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The Ohio State University

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Forensics students with “body”

Jules Angel and students dig for evidence.

Haitian teachers in professional development

Haitian children at recess

Math coach working with students