On Wednesday, February 28^th UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators from Political Science, Oksan Bayulgen and Evan Perkoski met with a group of 14 UConn ECE certified Political Science Instructors for a professional development workshop.

Instructors heard from a panel of two political science professor and two undergraduate students who  are active in student organizations on  how to address electoral issues and partisanship in political science courses and how to encourage in student civic engagement. After a short break, Sandra Sirota (Director of Human Rights and Close to Home program) shared her talk "The importance of civic action in order to strengthen democracy and respect for human rights in our Connecticut communities and beyond."

UConn POLS courses offered through ECE.

On Wednesday March 29th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinators for Political Science, Department Head and Associate Professor Oksan Bayulgen and Assistant Professor Evan Perkoski met with certified ECE Political Science Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

After introductions, a panel of UConn Political Science Faculty spoke with the group about "Challenges and Opportunities of Teaching Introductory Political Science Courses”. Panelists included Associate Professor Thomas Hayes, Professor Jeremy Pressman, and Associate Professor Fred Lee.

After lunch the group engaged in an interactive conversation with Professor Tom Deans on “AI in Academic Writing”.

UConn Political Science courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Friday, October 15^th UConn Early College Experience, UConn’s Political Science Department and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator Political Science Dr. Fred Turner met with certified Instructors for their professional development workshop. Jamelle Bouie was the keynote speaker. Mr. Bouie is a columnist for the New York Times and political analyst for CBS News. He covers campaigns, elections, national affairs, and culture. There was also a panel discussion “Teaching Politics in Deeply Divided Times “ hosted by Department Head for Political Science, Prof. David Yalof, and Profs. Shareen Hertel, Jeremy Pressman, Brendan Kane.

L-R: UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Political Science Dr. Fred Turner, ECE instructors Claude Morest, Michelle Pusser, Katie Boland, Keynote Speaker, Jamelle Bouie, and ECE Instructors Christopher Todd and Jonathan McGlynn.

UConn Political Science courses offered through ECE.

On Friday, October 16th UConn Early College Experience and UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Political Science, Prof. Fred Turner met with ECE Political Science Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

First, David Yalof, Professor and Department Head with UConn’s Department of Political Science chaired a group discussed about teaching political science courses in the current global climate, and later we were fortunate to have Dr. Meira Levinson, Professor of Education Harvard Graduate School of Education share her talk "Teacher Speech and Dilemmas of "Partisanship" in K-12 Classrooms". Participants broke into groups to discuss a case study: “Talking Out of Turn: Teacher Speech for Hire” by Ellis Reid, Meira Levinson, and Jacob Fay.

Resources can be referenced at: http://justiceinschools.org

UConn Political Science classes offered through UConn ECE.

On Tuesday, October 15th, UConn Early College Experience and UConn's Political Science Department invited Prof. Sanford  Levinson (Law Professor from University of Texas) and his wife, children's book author Cynthia Levinson to Storrs to speak with UConn ECE Political Science instructors and UConn Political Science students. Prof. Levinson is a notable legal scholar, most known for books and publications about constitutional law.

Prof. Levinson spoke at length during the morning session about "Why the Impeachment Clause Is a Failure” and was most was recently quoted in a article posted to Vox: "Are we in a constitutional crisis yet? ".  The Levinson's blog "Fault Lines in the Constitution" is a valuable teaching resource for political science instructors.

After lunch the group of instructors met to discuss their UConn courses and exchanged ideas and best practices. Many thanks to the Political Science Department (Department Head, Prof. David Yalof and Prof. Matt Singer),  ECE Faculty Coordinator, Fred Turner and ECE instructor Aaron Hull -Greenwich High School) for their hard work in planning this exceptional professional development day.

UConn Political Science classes offered through UConn ECE.