Science Literacy Week, an annual nationwide festival of science, takes place this September 18-24, 2017, throughout the University of Toronto and across Canada. Fun demos, insightful talks, special displays, and many other exciting events are taking place all week long at participating libraries from St. George, UTM, and UTSC campuses.
This year’s theme is Science in a Post-Truth Era. As recent political events have brought the problems of fake news and the trustworthiness of digital information to the world’s attention, the very relevance of facts has been called into question. This year’s science literacy week considers the place of science in a world where the importance of truth itself is contested.
The display on the ground floor of the library, Indigenous Contributions to STEM, invites viewers to think about current debates about our post-truth era in light of the history of the marginalization of Indigenous knowledges, and seeks to highlight the ways that Indigenous knowledges incorporate and express STEM principles.
On Tuesday, September 19th from 12-1pm, Thursday, September 21st from 4-6pm, the OISE Library will be hosting two makerspace pop-ups on the ground floor of the library. Makerspaces are increasingly becoming part of the teaching landscape, and hands-on experimentation is a great way to incorporate scientific literacy into teaching. Come and explore resources from the OISE Library collection that encourage tinkering, problem-solving, group work and exploration. We will be highlighting activity kits and resources like Makey Makey, Snap Circuits Jr., and littleBits. For additional maker resources, check out Makers & Tinkers and Technology in Education.
On a shore, a little girl stares off into the ocean. She wonders, “What is over the ocean? Could there be more ocean or maybe lots of ships?” Follow her imagination and curiosity about life across the ocean. Renowned children’s author and illustrator Taro Gomi invites young readers to celebrate imagination and wonder, and find joy in mystery far away.
“I count the things that matter. Chop, twist, toss, check. Chop, twist, toss, check. Two more pods make twenty-five total.”
Translanguaging with Multilingual Students is based on work completed for the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York project on the education of emergent bilinguals that originated with, and is run by, educators and linguists at the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York (CUNY-NYSIEB). In the book, the editors define translanguaging as a concept on the language of bilinguals and the set of student behaviors and teaching approaches that follow from it, where bilingual is seen as having a single, or unitary, linguistic competence as opposed to a dual or bifurcated one. This book hopes to enlighten educators so that they can become effective at recognizing the social demands of treating two languages of emergent bilinguals as separated and, at the same, unitary. Written in three parts, the book extends theoretical understandings from psychology and sociolinguistics research to case studies from the CUNY-NYSIEB project and implications for policy and practice.
The Newcomer Student is a field guide on resettlement of refugee and immigrant students into Westernized regions. From personal experiences, observations, and research, author Kreuzer discusses topics in English language learning (ELL) education. The guide delves into theories regarding second language acquisition that embodies current theoretical practice, and the cultural history of the immigrant journey. Detailed descriptions of many practical step-by-step activities, flowcharts, relevant quotes, graphic organizers, and student samples enhance the text. Readers are also introduced to instructional methods including academic vocabulary strategies, cooperative structures, the usefulness of visual cues, oral and written expression in storytelling, and textile manipulation. Educators working with different age-levels and experiences are provided a list of suggested multicultural books by world regions to support authentic learning. The Newcomer Student brings insight into the 21st Century classroom and newly arrived immigrant/refugee learners.
Drawing on current research, Multilingualism in the Early Years examines the political, theoretical, ideological, and practical issues involved in the education of children speaking two or more languages. Using case studies, Smidt draws on the the ways bilingual learners acquire new language(s). Revealing the impact of multilingualism, the book studies what it means to be bilingual and how it shapes children’s educational and life changes. The book consists of four sections that take the reader from personal to formal setting. They are “the bilingual child in the home and family” (section 1), “from the home and local community to the classroom or setting” (section 2), “supporting children in classes and settings to learn and remain attached to their languages and cultures” (section 3), and “moving from the personal to the public” (section 4). Educators, parents, researchers, policy makers, and community members are invited to embrace the richness of language, culture, and identity to achieve an education system that fits all.
