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National parks teach students about environmental issues in this course

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: Environmental Issues in National Parks What prompted the idea for the course? The University of Tennessee is a natural fit for this course, with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and all the learning opportunities it offers being only a one-hour drive away. Although I did not create this course, I jumped at the opportunity to serve as an instructor for it. Growing up as a Boy Scout, and later a merit badge counselor, I found a love for place-based education. I have always valued using the outdoors to teach about the theoretical concepts shared in the classroom. What does the course explore? Each week of the semester we discuss an ongoing environmental issue and then dive into an applied case study in a different national park. For examp
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Colleges are using AI to prepare hospitality workers of the future

If you’re planning to go into the hospitality industry, the pathway is increasingly going to involve some sort of familiarity with AI. That’s one of the key messages in “Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robot Applications in Hospitality Businesses,” a new book by hospitality professor Rachel J.C. Fu. In the following Q&A, Fu discusses how the hospitality jobs of the future will rely more and more on technology to provide a pleasant guest experience. Will AI reduce the number of jobs in hospitality? AI could not only reduce the number of jobs, but it has already begun to change the way existing jobs are done by handling tasks such as guest check-ins, customer inquiries and the like. For that reason, in the hospitality industry of the future , rather than people who interact with customers, the industry will need more data analysts, AI managers and people who can provide tech support. That’s because AI can perform routine and re Pet itive tasks, such as book
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Students with disabilities often left on the sidelines when it comes to school sports

“Teen with special needs makes thrilling buzzer beater shot.” “Special needs student offered shot of a lifetime.” “High school basketball manager gets his time on the court.” These inspirational headlines may sound familiar. They highlight brief but exhilarating moments of disabled students in sports. They represent what’s commonly referred to in the disability community as “inspiration porn,” but they often miss an injustice that deserves far more attention. Student athletes with disabilities are sidelined or, even worse, never granted the opportunity to try out, even though they gained equal rights to extracurricular activities such as school Sports more than 50 years ago. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. As a professor who studies sport and physical activity participation of children with disabilities, it’s clear to me that this public law has been misinterpreted for more than 50 years, in ways that deny s
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Nick Saban’s ‘epic era’ of coaching is over, but the exploitation of players in big-time college football is not

When Nick Saban, the legendary University of Alabama football coach, announced his retirement at age 72 in January 2024, various analysts and colleagues depicted his departure as the end of an “epic era” of coaching. “WOW! College football just lost the GOAT to retirement,” the outspoken University of Colorado coach, Deion Sanders, stated on X. Sanders went on to lament how college football has changed so much that it “chased the GOAT away.” Without a doubt, Saban’s college coach ing record of 297 wins, 71 losses and 1 tie – not to mention seven national championships – puts him in an elite group of college coach es. However, as the author of a book on the racially exploitative nature of college sports, I don’t see Saban as having been “chased away.” Rather, I see Saban’s retirement as his stepping away from an evolving college sports system that is increasingly empowering athletes in ways that he vocally condemned. Saban was no champion for college athletes’ ri
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For some NBA draftees who overcame adversity, making the transition to fame and fortune is no slam dunk

When a young athlete is drafted into the NBA – as 58 players were on June 22, 2023 – it is often seen as a life-changing event. The money makes it so. Salaries for first-round draft picks this year are projected to range from about $2.4 million at the low end to $12 million at the very top. That’s a lot of bread for a young person to handle. The three youngest prospects this year will still be 18 at the time of the draft. Perhaps for some spectators, the big salaries might seem as if they should cushion the young players from whatever economic hardships or social challenges they may have faced growing up. But through research that I conducted with NBA coaches, NBA union representatives and former NBA players, I discovered that it’s not always so easy. “Poverty is a trauma, and there is a lot of data to support that,” one NBA union representative told me. “Men are essentially incentivized to say nothing, be tough, man up, and this mask is what I call invisible tattoos. We
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AI helps students skip right to the good stuff in this intro programming course

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: “Learn AI-Assisted Python Programming” What prompted the idea for the course? Generative AI is really good at computer programming – to the point where the way we teach and assess students who are learning to program must change. We used to give students dozens or hundreds of small targeted programming tasks, drilling each aspect of the syntax – the words and symbols – of programming. That worked well as a starting point, except now generative AI tools can solve all of these problems. Educators can try to ban these tools (good luck with that!), or embrace them. We chose to embrace them in our new course, where students learn to program – supported by a generative AI assistant. What does the course explore? The course re-imagines what learn
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Students in this course learn the art of the apology

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. Title of course: Sorry: The art and literature of the apology What prompted the idea for the course? A number of years ago our students and faculty read Eula Biss’ book “Notes from No Man’s Land” for our first-year reading program. It ends with her essay “All Apologies,” which braids together seemingly disparate moments of apology: Biss to her little sister for hitting her, Ronald Reagan’s apology to Japanese Americans for WWII internment, and Bill Clinton’s apologies for marital indiscretion, to Hawaiians for the U.S. overthrowing their monarchy and for the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. I had the opportunity to expand on a discussion of Biss’ book with a class of first-year students. It started me thinking about the significance of the apology in our lives. F
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How age-friendly universities can improve the second half of life

By 2030, more than 1.4 billion people across the globe will be at least 60 years old. This number will shoot up to 2.1 billion by 2050. At this point, there will be more people age 60 or older than people between 10 and 24. These dramatic demographic shifts prompted the United Nations and World Health Organization to declare the 2020s the decade of healthy aging. The creation of a more age-friendly world includes basic things like improving health care access. But one critical component is often overlooked: taking college courses in your 50s, 60s or beyond. These opportunities to learn later in life have been associated with a host of positive health outcomes. These include being less socially isolated and staying sharp mentally. Many older adults know as much. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 550,000 U.S. adults 50 and older were enrolled in college undergraduate and graduate programs in 2021. Their reasons for going back to school range
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A Texas court ruling on a Black student wearing hair in long locs reflects history of racism in schools

A Texas judge ruled on Feb. 22, 2024, that the Barbers Hill School District didn’t violate the law when it punished Darryl George, a Black student, for wearing his hair in long locs. The Texas law in question – the CROWN Act – prohibits discrimination against hairstyles in schools and workplaces. The school district argued – and Judge Chap B. Cain III agreed – that the law doesn’t mention anything about hair length. In the following Q&A, Kenjus Watson, an education professor at American University who studies the psychological and social effects of racism, discusses how the decision upholds a long-standing legacy of cultural assimilation . What message has the court just sent? I’d argue it’s a harsh reminder that the natural appearance, cultural expressions and freedom of Black children are incompatible with the objectives and ideals of the school system in the U.S. Those objectives and ideals were created to establish social order, enforce conformity, demand cultural assi
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Bristol-Plymouth Tech carpentry students build podium for Dighton Police Department

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Photo, top: Acting Chief George Nichols stands behind a podium hand-constructed by Bristol-Plymouth Carpentry and Computer-Aided Drafting/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) student s. (Photo Courtesy Dighton Police Department) Superintendent Alex Magalhaes is pleased to share that Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School Carpentry and Computer-Aided Drafting/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM)  student s recently designed and built a wooden podium for the Dighton Police Department. During the month of December, junior Carpentry student s Justin Deangelis and Casey Williams embarked on a two-week community service project to prepare a new wooden Dighton Police podium . Each year, Bristol-Plymouth Tech provides services to community members and organizations as part of its vocational-technical programs as a way to provide authentic learning opportunities for students.  Deangelis and Williams were joined by CAD/CAM senior student Jason Awalt, who was tasked with
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Catholic Schools Week: academic, artistic, spiritual and social education. Open Houses

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by Bishop Richard G. Henning, Bishop, Diocese of Providence “In November, I had the opportunity to attend a meeting with Governor Daniel McKee and his staff concerning his Learn365RI initiative. The Governor explained his deep concern for the young people of our state and outlined the post-Covid challenges for Education . While I was aware of these challenges in general, I was still shocked by the data the Governor presented. Far too many of the young people in our state have not fully returned to school following the pandemic. The rates of chronic absenteeism are much too high in many districts, particularly in urban and poor neighborhoods. The Governor explained his efforts to reduce absenteeism and the significant progress to date. He also explained his Learn365RI initiative to involve the wider community and provide young people with broader opportunities for learning year-round. I thanked Governor McKee for his leadership in identifying this critical need and str
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Call for records for new Rhode Island Portuguese American Archives at Rhode Island College

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Marie Fraley, co-founder and former director of the Institute for Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies at Rhode Island College and former managing director of the Portuguese American Leadership Council of the United States, has donated $25,000 to the college to establish the Joseph George Ray Portuguese American Archives Endowed Fund.  Administered by the Rhode Island College Foundation and named in honor of Fraley’s father, the fund is designed to support the establishment of the Rhode Island Portuguese American Archives , housed in Special Collections at Adams Library. Specifically, the endowment will support the cataloging and preservation of the collection, sponsor internship and research opportunities for RIC students and support cultural events related to the collection. Clark Greene, interim executive director of the RIC Foundation, states, “We are so grateful for Marie’s gift and her continued support of Portuguese studies at Rhode Island College.” I
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FAFSA delays cast uncertainty over university budgets as Colorado lawmakers look at how to fund higher education

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High school seniors and college students across Colorado aren’t the only ones wondering what their fall will look like amid serious hiccups in the new process for applying for federal student aid. Colorado universities are facing their own bout of uncertainty with fears that fewer students may end up enrolling in higher Education , questions about how their budgets will shape up and the anticipation of an unusually busy summer making last-minute adjustments before the new school year. What lies ahead is “one of the roughest years in higher education history probably in this country in many generations,” said Marty Somero, director of financial aid at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. About 28% of students have qualified in recent years for Pell Grants, which are usually awarded to undergraduate students who have significant financial need. When the U.S. Department of Education set out to introduce a new Free Application for Federal Student Aid form and proc
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