Summer camp for kids to help build engaged citizens


February 19, 2010

Parents who would like to help their children develop interpersonal and leadership skills while learning how to be engaged in their local communities have a new opportunity this summer. Arizona State University’s Center for Civic Engagement and Leadership (CCEL) is launching a Civic Engagement Summer Camp that will bring civic involvement alive for children entering grades three through eight.

The weeklong camp, to be held at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus, will be offered three times, during the weeks of June 7, 14, and 21. Hours are 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Download Full Image

Student participants will learn how they can make a positive impact in the community. Activities include field trips to civic locations including courts, the Arizona Legislature and Phoenix City Hall. Campers will actively engage in age-appropriate collaborative projects, simulations, and conversations with local leaders. The experience will culminate with a town hall meeting, led by the students, to which family and community members will be invited.

“Children of all ages need to discover not only who they are but how they are able to participate in their local, state and national communities,” says Sherman Elliott, CCEL’s director.

Through partnerships with university, community, and civic organizations throughout the region and world, CCEL aspires to increase civic engagement through research and education. CCEL was created to address the need for inquiry and action to increase the quantity and quality of participation in a civil society.

“Schools and families typically don’t have the time and resources needed to enable all children to develop these essential life skills,” Elliott says. “We are confident that CCEL’s summer camp will help students discover their leadership skills and unearth their own desire to strengthen their communities.”

Camp counselors are pre-service teachers enrolled in ASU’s College of Teacher Education and Leadership, which houses CCEL. The ASU students possess experience working with groups of children in classroom settings. They also have completed the fingerprint clearance process required for Arizona teacher certification.

The cost of the Civic Engagement Summer Camp is $225 per student, which includes a $25 non-refundable registration fee. Sponsorships are available for students from families meeting income requirements.

The camp will be held in Building C of the Mercado at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus, 641 E. Van Buren St. Fifteen minutes of free parking will be provided at the Heritage Square Parking Garage for student drop-off and pick-up.

The registration process may be completed online at http://ccel.asu.edu/camp">http://ccel.asu.edu/camp">http://ccel.asu.edu/camp. For more information, contact Daisy Talavera at (602) 496-0117 or civicscamps">mailto:civicscamps@asu.edu">civicscamps@asu.edu.

Confronting critical engineering challenges


February 19, 2010

Arizona State University engineering professor Brad Allenby gave two presentations this week at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He will talk about his ideas on how to effectively confront climate change challenges, and how to transform engineering education to better prepare students for meeting the world’s technological needs in the 21st century.

Here is an overview of his presentations.

Geoengineering solutions to environmental problems must take into account social and cultural impacts

The adage says that to discover the right solutions to a problem you first have to ask the right questions. Download Full Image

As Arizona State University engineering professor Brad Allenby sees it, our search for technological solutions to large-scale environmental problems sometimes gets off on the wrong track largely because we're posing the wrong questions.

Particularly in the debates about how to respond to atmospheric greenhouse gas buildup, climate change and humankind's impact on the global environment, Allenby says, "We are often framing the discussion from narrow and overly simplistic perspectives, but what we are dealing with are systems that are highly complex. As a result, the policy solutions we come up with don't match the challenges we are trying to respond to."

Allenby will offer his recommendations for reframing the approach to such challenges in his Feb. 19 presentation, "Technological Change and Earth Systems: A Critique of Geoengineering," at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Diego, Calif.

Allenby is a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, a part of ASU's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

He's founding director of the Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management, and chair of the Consortium on Emerging Technologies, Military Operations, and National Security. He's also a professor of ethics and engineering in ASU's Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.

Geoengineering focuses on designs for large-scale environmental engineering to influence or counteract such things as climate or atmospheric changes.

One misstep in such endeavors is that we are searching for solutions that will restore natural systems. But Allenby contends "the planet no longer has purely natural systems. What we have is an integrated natural-human environment, one shaped over centuries by a combination of natural factors and technological evolution."

The questions in which we must frame discussion of potential geoengineering solutions should be grounded in awareness of this reality, he says.

"Responding to something like climate change is not just a scientific and technical matter," he says. "Whatever attempted solutions we chose, or reject, will have significant cultural and ethical implications

Engineering education must break out of 'techie' box

Engineering frequently expands technological boundaries, but Brad Allenby says engineering education is often less pioneering.

"The way we are teaching engineering now is not sufficiently responsive to the rapid technological change we're seeing in the world around us," says the Arizona State University professor.

Today's engineering students need not only a broader palette of technical knowledge but a finely tuned cultural literacy and competency as communicators, he explains.

He'll expand on those ideas in the presentation "Educating Sustainable Engineers: From Batch Processing to Personalized Education" on Feb. 19 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Allenby is a professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, a part of ASU's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

He's also a professor of ethics and engineering in ASU's Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics, and founding director of the Center for Earth Systems Engineering and Management, and chair of the Consortium on Emerging Technologies, Military Operations, and National Security.

A sustainable engineering education in the 21st century requires educators and students to break out of the box of convention more radically than ever before.

Every engineer – no matter their specialty – needs to know the fundamentals of emerging fields such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, information and communication technology, and cognitive science.

Beyond more extensive technical proficiencies, they also must understand the evolving global context to which modern engineering must respond, Allenby says.

This means developing business savvy, along with keen awareness of the social and environmental implications of emerging technologies.

"We're talking about the engineer not just as a techie, but as a leader, a competent designer and manager of complex systems, who can adapt to rapid societal and technological change," Allenby says.

In his presentation, Allenby will critique current engineering education methods and propose ways to create new learning environments to provide the type of education he outlines.

SOURCE:
Brad Allenby, mailto:braden.allenby@asu.edu ">braden.allenby@asu.edu
Professor, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment
(480) 727-8594

MEDIA CONTACT:
Joe Kullman, mailto:joe.kullman@asu.edu ">joe.kullman@asu.edu
(480) 965-8122 direct line
(480) 773-1364 mobile
Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

Joe Kullman

Science writer, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering

480-965-8122