The Language Pod course EDUTL/LING/PSYC 5700 Training in Informal Science Outreach is featured in the College of Arts & Sciences News. Check out the article Teaching the Science of Language. The Pod Course is now in its 4th year. I am teaching it this semester, and I am very excited to be teaching at COSI and in one of OSU’s Innovative Spaces on campus.
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NSF REU grant for Language Pod
The Language Pod at COSI will be an NSF Research Exerience for Undergraduates (REU) site. PI Laura Wagner and Co-PI Kathryn Campbell-Kibler have been awarded a 3-year (2015-2017) NSF grant of $353,750 to make the Language Pod an REU site devoted to “The Science of Language and the Language of Science“. I will be one of the mentors in the summer program at the Pod in which undergraduates are trained simultaneously in research skills and science communication skills. We will recruit students from all the OSU campuses and from Columbus State Community College.
Student internship program in language science outreach
The BLN Language Sciences Research Lab at COSI (aka the Language Pod) is launching a student internship program that expands on the core instruction provided in LING/PSYC/EDUTL 5700 Training in Science Education Outreach course and gives students a more intensive hands-on learning experience that involves close one-on-one instruction with a faculty mentor. All students who have completed the 5700 course will be eligible to participate. Students with alternative relevant experiences may be invited to participate on a case by case basis. The program is funded by a Special Grant from Social and Behavior Sciences and matching funds from the departments of Linguistics, Psychology, Speech & Hearing Science, and Teaching & Learning, as well as the Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Applied Developmental Sciences in Education.
Summer Linguistics Institute for Youth Scholars 2014
The Department of Linguistics is offering two sessions of the Summer Linguistics Institute for Youth Scholars, a week-long event designed for high school students interested in the study of language on OSU’s main campus from Sunday (7/6)-Friday (7/11) and Sunday (7/13)-Friday (7/18). The cost is $695, which covers instruction, materials, housing and meals. Commuter option is available. Apply by May 30. For more information, contact Julia McGory at mcgory.1@osu.edu.
Science Museum Educators Overseas Study Program
This fall a team from the Hubei Science and Technology Museum (HSTM) will come to OSU for the HSTM Core Talent Training Program. The program is part of OSU’s Global Gateway and is directed by Kathy Trundle (lead), Donna Farland-Smith and me. In addition to taking courses with OSU faculty, HSTM scholars will be matched with science museum professionals at COSI for mentoring and hands-on experiences in the science center.
Language Pod at COSI awarded Engagement Impact Grant
‘The Science of Language: Using Language Sciences to Promote Science Education at COSI‘ (PI Shari Speer) has been awarded a 2013 Engagement Impact Grant in the amount of $60,000. The College of Arts and Sciences will contribute an additional $30,000. The project has four goals: (1) to conduct research in the language sciences, (2) to educate the public about how human language works and about the scientific process more generally, (3) to encourage OSU students to participate in research programs and consider careers in science education, and (4) to inspire future scientists –perhaps even future scientists of language.
Language Pod Course featured by Digital First
Digital First has done a feature on the Buckeye Language Network’s Language Pod at COSI and the Language Pod Course (aka EDUTL/LING/PSYC 5700 Training in Informal Science Outreach). The feature focuses on our use of iPads to engage COSI visitors with linguistic research in hands-on ways that get them thinking about how language works and how our brains process language.
Work-in-progress session at NCTEAR 2013
OSU hosts NCTEAR this year. My Second Language and Literacy Lab (SL3) group have a work-in-progress session on Saturday, February 16, 1:45-3:15 in Arps 100. In our session, ‘Multiple Perspectives on Talk around Storybook Read-alouds in a Kindergarten Classroom’, we discuss our collaborative work on 23 read alouds 
recorded in a Kindergarten classroom in a charter school that serves primarily the children of Somali refugees who have resettled in Central Ohio. Sirad Shirdon, Se Jeong Yang, Tanti Sari, and Ani Pujiastuti will present their analyses, each having taken a different analytic approach to the read aloud data. We will then discuss our efforts to integrate these different insights into read alouds as key sites for constructing meaning and developing cultural/linguistic minority children’s familiarity and facility with English language and literacy practices.
Language research in Labs in Life pod at COSI
The Buckeye Language Network is currently operating a research lab at COSI. The Language Pod has state of the art equipment including computers, sound-recording equipment, cameras, and an ASL eye-tracker. We are IRB-approved to collect data from the adult and child visitors at the museum. The BLN hosted a workshop on September 21, 2012 to inform and members of the BLN and other OSU faculty members who are working on language about how they can use the pod. Information from the workshop is available on the BLN website. Read more about the Language Pod and the associated Language Pod Course on informal science education, which I will teach in Spring 2013. The Pod is also on Facebook.
Somali Studies for Educators website is live!
At long last, the Somali Studies for Educators website went live in late February. The site grew out of a 2009 teachers’ workshop held in Columbus, Ohio, which was initiated by The Ohio State University. Somali Studies for Educators offers many resources, including workshop syllabi, a growing list of online resources, and selected video clips from the 2009 workshop. These clips are organized into themes: identity, arts, family, education, language, and global cross-currents. We are still cleaning up a bit after the site’s migration from the development server, so please forgive any glitches.