Education Commons^™

Report Of The President / November 21, 2018, José M. Torres

President's Report

LEADERSHIP MATTERS

This report provides the Board of Trustees with information regarding Academy activities and the progress that we are making toward achieving our IMSA Impact and Outcomes Statement and Priority Outcomes. I organize the Report of the President, where appropriate, around the IMSA Impact and Outcomes document:

Three Pillars:

1. STEM Teaching and Learning
2. Operational Capacity
3. Stakeholder Engagement

One Strategy:

Strengthen Employee Engagement

Four Priorities for Academic Year 2018-2019:

• Guide the integration of UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals
• Advance equity and excellence
• Develop our international strategy
• Work on phase 1 of the innovation camp

Leadership Education And Development In Stem High Schools, Andrea Stuiber, Katie Berger

Staff Publications & Research

Leadership. Education. Development. How are we inspiring young adults to grow as good and ethical leaders? Leadership should not be defined by a title or label. It’s about developing the perspective, skills and personal style of the whole individual. Through the LEAD program at IMSA, we believe that leadership can be learned through discussion and application. Thus, we have designed a year long course that takes an intricate look at various definitions, theories, models, and conceptualizations of leadership. Students are challenged to think critically about leadership during peer-to-peer facilitated class discussions, hands-on exercises, and group work.

03. Socent Networking Fair, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

SocEnt

No abstract provided.

04. Dead Aid & Theory Of Change, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

SocEnt

The theory of change method is designed to bridge the gap between the initiation of an effort and the solution. Using the Theory of Change model, students will be able to find a long-term goal for their macro-problem and work backward to find an entry-point where an intervention is required. Groups will ultimately finalize their pain-point, target audience, and a more specific area of research. In addition, understanding dead aid is necessary for creating a successful product. A solution falls under dead aid when it doesn’t consider its target audience enough or dives deep enough into a pain point, resulting …

07. Pitching And Sustainability, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

SocEnt

It’s important to look at how a venture affects the world around it; ventures don’t exist in their own universe, after all! This module intends to go in-depth as to what metrics a social venture should look at in order to gauge how sustainable its practices are, both externally — with respect to its environment — and internally, with respect to its funding cycle. It will also help students become more comfortable with pitching their ideas, speaking off the cuff, and being creative!

02. Target Audience And Pain Point, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

SocEnt

This module will introduce students to the first key part of design thinking: understanding the problem. Understanding the problem encompasses having a clearly defined target audience and a well-researched pain point. They’ll find out how to dig deep into a problem to find the causes and issues surrounding it, rather than just settling with problems at face-value. They will also be able to apply those concepts on a local level and develop the beginnings of an SEV by working with these ideas.

06. The Lean Startup, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

SocEnt

This modules aims to go further into the lean startup than students have done in previous modules. It introduces three key features from the lean startup: the minimum viable product, the Build-Measure-Learn loop, and pivots. These three techniques are integral in the lean startup methodology, which focuses on minimizing risk, failing fast, and using the minimum amount of resources, time and funding.

01. Welcome To Socent, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

SocEnt

What is Social Entrepreneurship?

06. Mid, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

For the first time, MID will be done on a smaller, classroom-to-classroom scale. It aims to serve as a checkpoint for student progress on their policies and give a place to provide feedback.

03. Legitimation And Implementation, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

In module 4, students will begin to explore some of the political aspects of public policy, that is, legitimation and implementation. Thus far, they should have developed an adequate array of facts, statistics, and demographics from many perspectives for their issue; now they begin the task of making their policy into something that really works. This module will also introduce students to the ethics of political lobbying.

02. Agenda Setting And Problem Definition, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

This module aims to introduce students to the first two steps of EnACT’s policy cycle: Problem Definition and Agenda Setting. Through this, students will understand what inherency is and learn how to bypass political gridlock and break the status quo. In addition, students will learn the differences between saliency and intensity and apply it to real-life situations.

12. Post-Slx, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

In this module, students will research about different philosophers and their beliefs. They will understand how their beliefs differ and how they can apply them to real world situations. Along with the political philosophers, the students will learn about up-to-date current affairs, and try to make connections with previous lessons taught throughout the entirety of LEAD, CORE and EnACT. Since this is a closing module, heavy emphasis will be added on skills and topics that were utilized during SLX. The lesson will be updated soon before the date of the module for the most relevant and recent connections to current …

10. Impact Ii, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

A crucial aspect of politics is the use of data as a means to convince people of their side. Data can be manipulated to say almost anything a person wants, which can be a means of deception. A common phenomenon in the political sphere is “fake news,” which is often caused by a misconstruction of facts. In order for students to be able to find credible and reliable information, they must be able to identify and acknowledge bias when looking through different sources of media.

04. Evaluative Criteria And Policy, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

As a result of many obstacles in the political sphere, it can often be difficult to pass policies. A multitude of reasons such as morals, values, beliefs, economics, and more can inhibit a policy from appealing to enough politicians to make it all the way through the process of becoming a law. Because of this, policy alternatives should be created. These are different approaches to solve the problem that was being addressed with the initial policy. Module 4 will also give students a perspective on the issues they are attempting to resolve with their policies by introducing them to evaluative …

09. Talking, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

Quality public speaking is a skill needed by most yet possessed by few. It is a skill needed at least once by every individual in their lifetime, and being able to speak well and with purpose helps draw the line between giving a speech and ensuing motivation in an audience to follow your purpose. Students will learn the different aspects of a good speaker and how these skills can benefit not only their presentation abilities, but their personal confidence and career assets as well. This module will also help students prepare meaningful and significant presentations for SLX.

08. Enactivism, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

This module will further explain activism, introducing students to methods of activism as well as providing modern day examples.

07. Beginner Skillsintroduction To Activism, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

This module serves to give an introduction to activism, one of EnACT’s new primary focuses alongside policy creation. Activism vocabulary will be introduced and connections to current events will be made.

01. Government & Public Policy, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

EnACT

The structure of the US government is very detailed and often treated as a separate field from policy development. This module will serve as an introduction to the basic principles that allow the US government to function and the reasoning behind its growth. This module discusses the fundamental structures of the US government including the electoral process, economy, checks and balances, and separation of powers. This basic understanding is critical to learning about the policy cycle and the differences between policy and politics, presented in the second half of the module. By the end of the class, students will also …

05. Data(Sets), Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

Agenda

1. Empathy and Ethics of Journalism (15-20 minutes)
2. Misleading Statistics (20 minutes)
3. Dataset Types (10 min)
4. Finding Data! (15-20 minutes)
5. Identifying Important Variables (15-20 minutes)

04. Dear Data And Sources, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

Agenda

1. Dear Data/Interviewing
   1. Viewing (10)
   2. Discussion (5)
2. Dear Data practice Interviews (10)
3. Project Groups (20)
   1. Interview Fair Reflection → Finalize topic (10)
   2. Begin specific background research (10)
4. Spotting Spin (Media Bias) (15-20 minutes)
5. What Would Willie Say (Credible Websites) (20-30 minutes)

03. Interview Fair, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

Agenda

1. Dear Data Reminder
2. Spotting Spin (Media Bias) (15 minutes)
3. What Would Willie Say (Credible Websites) (20 minutes)
4. Finalize Group Topics (15 minutes)
5. How to write an email (10 minutes)
6. What’s Skype (5 minutes)
7. Skype interview (25 minutes)

07. Beginner Skills, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

In this module, students will explore the use of FOIA as a means of collecting data, and they will begin learning basic data skills including sorting and filtering as a means of cleaning their data.

10. Stories!!!, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

In this module, students will learn the importance of story writing when writing data articles. They will also learn how to use data truthfully, and to its fullest. With this, they will then be able to display their data more effectively, making them good journalists. However, there are lots of bad journalists out there. These journalists skew data and manipulate it in a way that is more beneficial to their standpoint. It is important that student are able to not only identify and avoid these articles, but also don't make skewed visualizations themselves.

02. Interviewing, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

Agenda

1. Dear Data - Topics and variables are due (5 minutes)
2. Assign Groups
3. Interviewing Crash Course (35 minutes)
4. Interviewing Activity
5. Begin the search for project topics (10 minutes)
6. Crowdsourced Sophs survey (5 minutes)

08. Data Visualizations, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

This module introduces pivot tables, Plotly, and following up on FOIA data, serving as an introduction to digital data visualizations. In addition, students will be able to apply their data filtering skills learned from last module on their FOIA data.

01. Welcome To Data Journalism!, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

As the first module within the IMPACT curriculum, this module serves as an introduction to the course. The students will get a good idea of what’s expected of them, as well as what they can expect of the class throughout the rest of the year.

09. Plotly With Extra Plotly, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

Students learn plotly and use it for their projects. Facilitators introduce plotly, and guide them through the tool until they are comfortable, and then the facilitators give the students time to use their new skills to make fulfilling visualizations for their overarching projects.

11. Data Visuals, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

IMPACT

Let’s make some cool graphicks!!!!!

01. Evolution Of Leadership, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

CORE

This module serves as an introduction to the academic study of leadership and leadership theory, encouraging students to dissect leadership concepts through an objective and subjective lenses. With a general understanding of how leadership has changed through time and how it is classified today, students can explore where they fit into the definition itself.

07. Gender In Leadership, Illinois Mathematics And Science Academy

CORE

This module encompasses the controversy and broadness of gender. Students begin with recognizing their subconscious gender biases, followed by a providing them with a vernacular of culture to help students better understand and differentiate terms. Then the students will explore the fluidity of gender through discussion on gender X and transgender. Furthermore, there will be an activity about the origin of gender roles, and how that shaped gender roles today. The students will also be able to apply their learnings to the real world by learning how to resolve conflict regarding gender and sexuality.