Whether contending with torrential rains, viscous mud or venomous snakes, all under the din of screeching monkeys and the clatter of exotically feathered fliers, things in a densely vegetated rainforest can seem larger than life. But it was a wee creature that captured Erica Parra's imagination. “Once you really stop and observe them you realize they are not just ants but they are individuals who are working together to make their colonies function efficiently. And not only that, but they each have their own personality and mission, which in turn helps the environment that surrounds them,” Parra asserted. The California State University, Dominguez Hills senior, who is majoring in biology ... Read More
Teacher Education
CSUDH Hosts Hundreds for Common Core Education Standards Training
Nearly 1,400 educators from Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles public charter schools went back to the classroom at California State University, Dominguez Hills, this time as pupils, as it were, of the Launch LA: Common Core conference, where they had the opportunity to prepare for the implementation of the new national Common Core State Standards (CCSS) of what students are expected to learn. An equal number of teachers were on the waiting list to attend the Aug. 24 conference, which was organized by Teach Plus, a national nonprofit focused on improving educational access and outcomes for all students, and sponsored in partnership with LAUSD and CSU Dominguez Hills. ... Read More
Making the Grade: Teacher Candidates Learn With Their Students in Summer Lab School
“It's alive!” a child's voice could be heard over the chatting and laughing of students excited with the soggy, messy task of turning old notebook pages and newspapers into usable paper. Over the din, Sasha Magidi ('13, B.A. liberal studies: math) kept them focused. “Double-timing with the sponges, triple time, and then every time the water starts coming out of the sponges you have to drain it,” she instructed and encouraged. In another room, teens were on their feet learning what looked to be dance moves. At the head of the class, Mario Romero had the class demonstrate positive, negative, zero and undefined graph slopes using arm movements. He then set them to work finding the slope ... Read More
Salvadorian Educators Study at CSU Dominguez Hills through USAID SEED program
Some have lost parents and even entire families to a civil war that lasted 12 years, yet others narrowly escaped getting caught up in the endemic gang life in El Salvador before finding their professional calling, and they have put the details down on paper. Deep in concentration, some fighting back tears, 17 middle school teachers and administrators from the Central American country read each other's autobiographical essays that were published in personalized books they can take with them when they complete their six months of study at California State University, Dominguez Hills. “Some were raised by grandparents when their parents were killed in the revolution in El Salvador. ... Read More
Janet Andrade: Leading the Way Toward Science Education Earns Alumna Accolades
On the heels of receiving four pink slips in as many years, California State University, Dominguez Hills alumna Janet Andrade was recently named the 2012-2013 Project Lead The Way (PLTW) California Teacher of the Year for her ability to engage students at Bud Carson Middle School in Hawthorne in progressively advanced hands-on engineering activities. The award was presented during the 2nd Annual Statewide PLTW Conference held in Sacramento in February. “I was shocked when they announced my name. It was very unexpected,” recalled Andrade (Class of '03, B.A. public administration; '07, teaching credential, multiple subject; '11, M.A., education curriculum and instruction), who is only ... Read More