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College of Education Graduate Assistant wins 2015 Wiley Research Exposition

By Trevor Havard – College of Education Intern

Doctoral candidate Andy Scheef won a $1,000 scholarship for his research presentation in WSU’s 2015 Wiley Research Exposition.4P7A6149cropped

Scheef is in the College of Education’s special education program.

The Wiley Research Expo is held every spring and gives graduate and professional students the opportunity to showcase their research through either oral or poster presentations, which are then judged by WSU alumni.

This year Scheef took first place in the International Research category for his oral presentation on his research endeavors in Singapore.

Scheef collected interview data last year in Singapore about the world-wide problem of the underemployment of people with disabilities, which Singapore has addressed in recent years by developing school programs to increase opportunities for youth with disabilities.

Scheef explained this problem in his presentation, along with data describing how Singapore schools develop and support relationships with businesses that provide these job training experiences for students.

“Any opportunity to share information is incredibly valuable and the potential to win an award through the process is an added bonus,” Scheef said. “The other presentations in my group were quite strong and I felt lucky to have received the 1st place award.”

Award winners brighten end of semester

Did you notice? When the Office of Undergraduate Education announced its honorees this week, the list included two elementary education majors who received Harold and Jeanne Rounds Olsen Awards for Undergraduate Excellence in Writing:  Holly Barker at WSU Vancouver and Ingrid Kraig, who is in the Honors College at WSU Pullman.

From left: Dean Judy Mitchell, Kromann Medal winner Andrea O'Brine, Assistant Professor Jane Kelley
From left: Dean Judy Mitchell, Kromann Medal winner Andrea O'Brine, Assistant Professor Jane Kelley

Ingrid also put her writing skills to work as a competitor for this year’s Inga Kromann Medal Award. The two medal winners for the annual children’s book prize were Katie Shanks and Andrea O’Brine, both of whom delved into their own childhoods for inspiration.  The  winners were announced at the annual celebration presented by the arts integration class on the Pullman patio, which explains  Andrea’s colorful dancing outfit in the accompanying  photo.  Read about the Kromann awards.

The full, impressive list of College of Education faculty, staff and student award winners for 2008-09 is online.

Striding toward a conference

Professor David Slavit reports that on May 26-27 the  WSU Vancouver STRIDE research team will host a national conference on “Research on Supported Collaborative Inquiry.” Five teacher-researchers will rub elbows with leading researchers from across the country.  Stanford University researcher Hilda Borko will give a plenary address.  The conference is funded by two National Science Foundation research grants.

Reading matter
A Cautionary Video About America’s ‘Stuff’ A short video about the effects of materialism has become a sleeper hit in classrooms across the nation.
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Reading Programs Found Ineffective A federal study intended to provide insight into the effectiveness of programs for reading comprehension has found that three such programs had no positive impact, while a fourth had a negative effect on student achievement.
Coaches struggle to find balance between work and family

Vacation time
Here’s a timely and not-overly-commercial idea:  an educators’ B&B network founded by two Oregon educators to help frugal travelers meet like-minded people.