On Wednesday, October 11^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for SPSS, Julia Kuzovkina met with certified ECE SPSS Instructors at this professional development workshop at Southington High school.  This year the group implemented a different approach: instead of UConn faculty developing a program, the teachers designed their own workshop to provide them with relevant experiences.

The workshop included diverse activities: during a field practicum Brian Bostrom explained how to analyze the soil for specific purposes (photo 1); a representative from academia Nick Goltz provided a recent update on plant diseases; an owner of a landscape company Nicole Ali described new trends in the landscape industry;  a presentation by Dustyn Nelson, past president of the Connecticut Nursery and Landscape Industry, discussed  students preparation for future careers in the Green Industry (photo 3). In addition, there was a Hands-On Floral Workshop, run by a practitioner Paul Lumia from Nyren's of New England, where teachers were introduced to beautiful fall arrangements which can be introduced in the ECE Floral Art courses at schools (photo 2).

Photo 1  

Photo 2

Photo 3

UConn SPSS courses offered through ECE.

On Friday, October 28^th, UConn Early College Experience, and the UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems, Julia Kuzovkina met with ECE certified SPSS Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The day included presentations by UConn Faculty Dr. Berkowitz: GMO’s: Plant Biotechnology; focused on genetic engineering of crop plants,  and Dr. Wong: BIofuels, Biomass and Plant Stem Cells. After lunch Neil Mattson (Cornell) discussed Controlled Environment Agriculture and Dr. Yi Ma led instructors through pGLO Bacterial Transformation.

UConn Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems Courses offered through Early College Experience.

On Wednesday, October 14th UConn Early College Experience and UConn ECE Faculty Coordinator for SPSS, Prof. Julia Kuzovkina met with ECE SPSS Instructors for their annual professional development conference.

The group discussed Phytotechnology (the use of plants for ecosystem services) and Phytoremediation (the practice of using living plants to clean up soil, air and water). Participants also received a free copy of Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy which was discussed as a part of the professional development conference.

UConn Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems classes offered through UConn ECE.

On September 12th, UConn Early College Experience Faculty Coordinator for SPSS, Prof. Julia Kuzovkina welcomed her group of UConn ECE certified SPSS instructors to attend their annual professional development training. This year the instructors were able to meet with Professor Pamela Ronald from the University of California-Davis and later heard her lecture titled Serving up Science: Plant Genetics and the Future of Food. Dr. Ronald explained how genomic approaches are being used to produce the next generation of crops.

UConn SPSS Courses through UConn ECE