The Rosenbloom Owings Mills JCC new Children’s Theatre Program is seeking a Costume Designer for its production of The Wizard of Oz presented at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts. The ideal candidate is a creative, resourceful designer with construction experience.

Dr. Jeff Leips honored by USM Regents for excellence in teaching Jeff Leips, Associate Professor in Biological Sciences, was presented with the 2014 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Presidential Faculty and Staff Awards Ceremony held in the University Center Ballroom on April 2, 2014.  He was the only UMBC faculty member to receive a prestigious Regents Award this year.

Leips spear-headed the creation of two new minors at UMBC in Quantitative Biology and Biomathematics.  He also co-chairs the Undergraduate Training in Biology and Mathematics (UBM) program.  In addition, Leips is a leader in creating student-centered experiences in undergraduate biology courses. He leads an HHMI grant-sponsored effort to create, implement, and evaluate student-centered modules in introductory biology classes at UMBC that emphasize quantitative skills.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Leips leads a research lab focused on quantitative and evolutionary genetics in fruit flies. “I like what I’m doing," [said Leips].  It’s part of our job – the teaching part probably affects way more students than anything I do in research.”

In that vein, Leips believes UMBC and other universities need to improve teaching training for graduate students and faculty.  If you are a graduate student thinking about a career in academia, “A large fraction of your job is going to be teaching.  And you’re doing the students a disservice if you don’t treat it seriously,” he said.

CSEE’s Marie desJardins is currently collaborating with Maryland educators and researchers for the NSF-funded CS10K Teacher Training Project. The project seeks to change how computer science is taught by high school teachers. Researchers work together with high school teachers to craft new curricula for high school computer science programs. This project is unique in that actual high school teachers are creating the new curricula, rather than professional curriculum writers. The CS10K Maryland Project team includes faculty from UMCP, as well as high school teachers from Charles County and Baltimore County.

The CS10K team has facilitated the creation of “a complete curriculum package for a new College Board Advanced Placement (AP) course called CS Principles.” Originally, the goal of the CS10K team was to train 10,000 teachers to teach computer science in 10,000 schools nationwide. The project has been revised to reflect its new goal of training teachers in all U.S. schools.

In academia there is a growing concern that females–as well as minorities and those with disabilities–are being repeatedly discouraged from pursuing programming in high school. Professor desJardins is trying to change this by directing the CS Matters in MD Project. (CS Matters in MD is part of the larger, NSF-supported initiative known as CS 10K.)

“I believe that CS should be included throughout the K-12 curriculum as a set of basic skills and knowledge for today’s world,” desJardins said. “All citizens of the 21st century, especially the next generation of knowledge workers, will benefit greatly from learning about computational thinking and the problem-solving skills that are a core part of computer science.”

In addition, desJardins explains that, “We need to expand the pool of available workers to fill the many computing-related jobs that our economy demands, and in order to be sure that the technology we develop is robust and useful, we need to increase the diversity of the computer scientists who take those jobs.  To meet these goals, we must broaden our notion of what it means to teach computer science (beyond just teaching coding skills), and we must reach a broader audience at an earlier age.  Our ‘CS Matters in Maryland’ project is particularly focused on creating appealing and engaging curriculum materials for the newly announced AP CS Principles course, and on training teachers to deliver this material effectively to a diverse population of learners.”

More information about CS Matters in Maryland and the CS10K Project can be found here.

Unleash your passion!

Handel Choir of Baltimore is holding auditions for the rest of our 2014-2015 season SATURDAY JANUARY 3, 2015.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

WHERE: Church of the Holy Comforter, 130 West Seminary Avenue in Lutherville.

WHO: Community singers, all parts, for Jan-Apr 2015 AND soloists for our 2015-2016 season.

HOW DO I SIGN UP?: Call 667.206.4120 and leave a message, or email anne@handelchoir.org to schedule an audition.

UMBC Head Men’s Soccer Coach Pete Caringi was named 2014 National Division I Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

The award is voted upon by Caringi’s fellow coaches who are members of the NSCAA. It is the Retriever mentor’s third top honor in 30 years, as he was selected as the National Junior College Coach of the Year in 1984 and 1989. At the senior college level, Caringi earned South Atlantic regional honors in 1999 and Northeast regional honors in 2013.

Caringi just completed his 24th season at UMBC and has piloted the Retrievers to America East titles and NCAA Championship appearances of four of the last five seasons and five overall.

The 2014 Retrievers advanced further in an NCAA tournament than any previous UMBC squad in school history. UMBC set a tournament record by knocking off four opponents on the road and all by shutout, before falling, 1-0, to eventual national champion Virginia in the national semifinals.

The Baltimore native has an overall record of 260-150-59 (.619) during his tenure on Hilltop Circle and in 32 years as a head coach, he is 430-177-67 (.691).