today.uic.edu January 31 2018 Volume 37 / Number 19 today.uic.edu For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago SHARKS BITE Student makes deal on TV show / pg. 5 Photo: ABC UIC awarded ‘Real Talk’ Hospital 2 - student voice $2.5M grant with rapper unveils 4 - campus news to study how Vic Mensa renovated 8 - calendar teachers learn emergency 10 - deaths 4 department 12 - sports Facebook / uicnews 3 Twitter / uicnews YouTube / uicmedia 4 Instagram / thisisuic & uicamiridis 2 UIC News | Wednesday, January 31, 2018 Looking back at my undergrad years By Michelle García De La Vega — [email protected] In about three months, my navigate themselves through feared failure. college undergrad journey will BSB for the first time. For about Eventually, that changed. In come to a halt, marking four three or four semesters, I dealt these past four years, college years of my academic life at UIC. with the pressure of those who has taught me that life is not I will sit in a lecture hall for the told me time was running out and perfect. I learned that we are not last time, take my last stroll on that I should know what career I born knowing everything and no campus, leave behind many wanted to pursue. I also dealt career path is going to be easy memorable moments and peo- with my own indecisiveness. I — you just need to try. ple, but I will take with me a knew that I wanted to be a news Throughout my first two grand accomplishment. I will reporter; however, fear continu- years at UIC, I met a variety of have completed the mission that ously kept me astray from work- people of different back- brought me to UIC in the first ing toward my dream job, grounds, views and career place: deciding my future and As a child, I pretended to be goals. I met students who had gaining the knowledge and prac- Ligia Granados, the weather failed classes, then took them tice I need to create it. woman from Univision, reporting again and passed; students It feels like it was only yester- the weekly forecast to my family, working toward long and ardu- day that my reluctant, hesitant and in high school I turned proj- ous careers in medicine and Michelle Garcia De La Vega and insecure self stepped foot ects into news segments where science who sometimes want- onto campus for the very first I was anchor or reporter. ed to give up — but didn’t; and can and that you will. cause I opted to try. time, without being able to an- Growing up, I was not much students who had changed ma- As my last semester begins With confidence gained in swer the question every single of a reader and I always deval- jors three times but were not and I sit in my communication my writing and the determina- college student has heard: What ued my writing skills, therefore, I discouraged. I realized that life and journalism classes, I cannot tion to improve and keep on is your major? convinced myself that I would is not solely about success or help but look back at my under- moving forward, I’m ready to When I first started UIC, I was not be able to obtain such a job. solely about failure. Life is about grad years and smile. make the best of this last se- as lost as anyone who tries to I held myself back because I trying and believing that you I’m so proud of myself be- mester. Want to contribute a story? E-mail Christy Levy at [email protected] today.uic.edu UIC News | Wednesday, January 31, 2018 3 UIC awarded $2.5M grant to study how teachers learn By Brian Flood — [email protected] UIC’s Learning Sciences Research In- latter is led by Alison Castro Superfine, stitute has been awarded a five-year, $2.5 UIC associate professor of mathematics million grant by the James S. McDonnell education and learning sciences, who Foundation through the foundation’s ini- serves as the new grant’s co-principal in- tiative to better understand teacher vestigator. change and teachers as learners in K-12 Joining Goldman and Superfine on the classrooms. new project are UIC team members Mari- The institute’s newly funded project, Anne George, Monica Mon-Lin Ko, James “How Teachers Learn: Orchestrating Dis- Pellegrino, Allison Hall, Kathleen Pitvorec, ciplinary Discourse in Science, Literature, and Angela Fortune. Carol D. Lee of North- and Mathematics Classrooms,” focuses western University is partnering with the on instruction and classroom discussion institute on the grant. Classroom teachers that promotes critical inquiry, deep read- from Project READI and iFAST complete ing and reasoning on the part of students the project team. in science, mathematics, and literature/ The initial work will involve all project literary reading. team members in analyzing classroom “We are concerned with two funda- and professional development data from mental questions in the new grant,” said Project READI and iFAST. principal investigator Susan R. Goldman, “These analyses will inform ideas about co-director of the institute and UIC distin- how teachers acquire the different forms Susan R. Goldman is principal investigator on a new grant that will hep better guished professor of liberal arts and sci- of knowledge and practices that go into understand how teachers in K-12 classrooms learn. (Photo: Jenny Fontaine) ences, psychology and education. “What teaching science or literature or mathe- knowledge and instructional practices do matics in ways that make it possible for als and activities to ensure that all stu- meets the needs of no one,” Goldman teachers need to effectively promote students to problem solve and conduct dents can achieve these competencies.” said. “We plan to work with teachers to these student learning goals? How do their own inquiries,” Goldman said. “This The second phase of the grant will fea- design approaches that ‘fit’ the context teachers learn these types of knowledge kind of teaching and learning goes far be- ture a small-scale trial with one or two while adhering to important principles of and practices?” yond lectures and factual recall.” districts and schools in the Chicago area what and how they learn.” The grant builds on classroom and According to Goldman, a key part of this to integrate lessons learned from the pre- Founded in 1950 by aerospace pio- professional development activities con- type of teaching and learning is what hap- viously collected data. neer James S. McDonnell, the foundation ducted through two earlier Learning Sci- pens in classroom discourse during whole “Local conditions vary considerably supports research, scholarship and chari- ences Research Institute projects, Project and small group work and “how teachers ensuring that a ‘one-size-fits all’ ap- table causes aimed at improving the qual- READI, led by Goldman, and iFAST. The support, structure and sequence materi- proach to professional development ity of life around the world. With community’s help, police collect jeans for shelter By Christy Levy — [email protected] UIC Police officers presented more than 100 pairs of jeans and other clothing items to the Pacific Garden Mission Friday after hosting a donation drive in Decem- ber and early January. The clothing will benefit men at the homeless shelter on the Near West Side, addressing a shortage of clothing at the facility. UIC Police officers met with the Pacific Garden Mission last year and asked how they could help. The Policing and Commu- nity Engagement (PACE) unit led the do- nation drive. “The first thing they said was, ‘Get us some jeans,’” said Todd Edwards, lieu- tenant of support services for UIC Police. “I knew we could do it, but we couldn’t do it without a community effort.” The Pacific Garden Mission provides temporary living spaces, resources and other services to hundreds of people fac- ing a variety of hardships. Adult men make up about 90 percent of the population served by the mission. “We wanted to bring awareness to the needs of this community, and we accom- plished getting the word out there,” Ed- UIC Police officers deliver more than 100 pairs of donated jeans to the Pacific Garden Mission Friday.(Photo: Jenny Fontaine) wards said. 4 UIC News | Wednesday, January 31, 2018 CAMPUS NEWS University of Illinois Hospital unveils emergency department renovation By Sharon Parmet — [email protected] The University of Illinois Hospital un- our patients see a physician or ad- veiled its newly renovated emergency vanced practice provider within 30 min- department Monday at a ribbon-cutting utes of arrival. Since many of the new ceremony attended by faculty, staff and features of our emergency department hospital administrators. have come online, we have been able to The $3.5 million renovation, which meet that goal,” said Vanden Hoek. began in January 2017, will help care Under the new renovation, patients providers see patients sooner and give will enter through a newly redesigned patients an overall better experience. entrance and waiting room, where they “I’m so pleased that our emergency will be greeted by a nurse trained to rec- department has had these updates,” said ognize symptoms of serious conditions Robert Barish, vice chancellor for health that require immediate attention, includ- affairs at the University of Illinois at Chi- ing stroke or heart attack. If tests are cago. “This renovation not only improves needed as part of a patient’s evaluation, the look and feel of the space, but it also they will be started right away. provides the alterations necessary to Incoming patients will have the op- better accommodate our patients’ tion to receive text messages from staff needs, keep wait times low, and support regarding lab test results, information our staff in doing their jobs more effi- about the doctors and nurses providing ciently.” care, and next steps during their visit.