Expedition After-School Program

Located at Roosevelt Middle School in the San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland, this site engages youth in “digital storytelling” and archeological activities such as computer exploration of ancient cultures and project-based, hands-on investigative activities.

Expedition

Site Info
Roosevelt Middle School
Oakland, CA
Principal Investigators: Professor Ruth Tringham (Anthropology, UC Berkeley), Professor Margaret Conkey (Anthropology, UC Berkeley), and Professor Kent Lightfoot (Anthropology, UC Berkeley)
Project Director: Tamara Sturak
Email: tamara@uclink.berkeley.edu

Participants

50 children

Aged 11-14 years

Predominantly Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, and African American

Collaborators

Roosevelt Middle School, Oakland Unified School District
San Antonio Village Collaborative
East Bay Asian Youth Center
Archaeological Research Facility, Department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley

Activities

• Collaborative exploration of archaeology and ancient cultures through computer-based and hands-on activities.
• Group Projects: creating board games, puppets, animated cartoons with undergraduate mentors
• Digital storytelling with the same aims as above

Goals

• Increase computer, information, and basic literacy skills for participating youth
• Teach the practice of archaeological inquiry as a way to engage and develop children's critical thinking and research skills
• Increase knowledge and improve attitudes and aspirations toward higher learning for participating youth
• Increase awareness of the cultural diversity in the meaning of material culture in the past and present

Evaluation Strategies

Local adaptation of a rubric developed by UCLA and UCSB researchers to document changes in writing competencies over time

Special Topics in Archaeology: Practice in a Sixth Grade After-School Program

Anthropology 128
Department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley

Course Instructors

Kent Lightfoot, Professor (Anthropology)
Margaret Conkey, Professor (Anthropology)

Participants

52 undergraduates

Diverse majors, including Anthropology, Comparative Education, History, Sociology, and Microbiology

Fieldwork

Undergraduates participate three hours per week in the Expedition UC Links program.

Course Goals

• Improve undergraduate education for participating students by connecting theory to practice and improving conceptual and practical knowledge of course content
• Support a field site for the practice of participatory research and ethnographic field methods
• Provide undergraduates with an opportunity to work with sixth-grade students and contribute to neighborhood development
• Provide undergraduates with an opportunity to explore the possibility of teaching as a career, especially in under-resourced schools

Evaluation Strategies

A local adaptation of standard UC Links pre-test/post-test survey

Harding Elementary School

Site Info

El Cerrito, CA
Principal Investigators: Prentice Starkey, Alice Klein
Project Director:
Email:

Participants

25 children

Aged 6–10years

Latino (3), African-American (10), Asian-American (7), Caucasian (2), Inter-ethnic (3)

Collaborators

Harding Elementary School (West Contra Costa Unified School District)
Graduate School of Education (UCB)
the Instititute of Human Development

Rosa Parks Elementary

Site Info

Berkeley, CA
Principal Investigators: Prentice Starkey, Alice Klein
Project Director:
Email:

Participants

25 children

Aged 6–9 years

Caucasian (3), Latino (7), African-American (8), Asian-American (1), Inter-ethnic (6)

Collaborators

Rosa Parks Elementary School (Berkeley Unified School District)

Practicum in Early Development and Education

Education 114C
Department of Education, UC Berkeley

Course Instructors

Starkey

Participants

64 undergraduates

The majority of students were social sciences majors and Education minors; more than half are considering careers in K-12 teaching.

Fieldwork

Each semester, undergraduates were at the sites 12 weeks (24 days), at 2.5 hours per day.

Course Goals

The general goal of our UC Links program at both sites is to develop a model after-school program that provides grade-appropriate academic support in reading and mathematics to low-income children in grades 1 – 3 (Rosa Parks) or 1-4 (Harding). Additionally, we are studying their academic development as they participate in the program over multiple years.

Economically disadvantaged children attend the program on their school campus after school twice per week over the course of the school year. Children typically enter our program at grade 1 and remain in it through grade 3 or 4. University of California undergraduate students mentor the children in mathematics and reading using both on-computer activities (state-of-the-art educational software) and off-computer activities (primarily dialogic reading of books, and manipulative-based math activities). Over the course of the school year, mentors guided children through the UC Links Maze to ensure that the program supported key concepts and skills in mathematics and language arts that appear in school district curriculum outlines for grades 1-3. Rooms of the UC Links Maze correspond to areas of the math or language arts curriculum in the two school districts in which our partner schools are located. Where possible, we identified computer activities that support specific concepts or skills included in the curriculum outlines. Our academic achievement goal is for children to work at or above grade level in reading and mathematics.

Evaluation Strategies

Students’ level of achievement will be measured primarily by achievement tests (Gates-MacGinitie reading test and the CAT/5 mathematics test), undergraduates field notes, and case studies.

Youth Sounds

Site Info
McClymonds High School
Oakland, CA
Principal Investigator: Professor Ingrid Seyer-Ochi (Education, UC Berkeley)
Project Directors: Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, Maris Thompson
Email: seyeroch@uclink.berkeley.edu

Participants

25 youth

14-17 years old

Predominantly African American, but also includes Latino, Asian, and Arab American students

Collaborators

Corner Store Productions
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley
Center for Popular Education and Participatory Research, UC Berkeley
Oakland Unified School District
San Francisco State University

Activities

• Digital video production
• Computer-assisted music production
• Graphic design
• Storyboarding

Goals

• Increase computer, information, and basic literacy skills for participating youth
• Increase knowledge and improve attitudes and aspirations toward higher learning for participating youth
• Provide participating youth the opportunity to plan, write, produce video stories about their world
• Provide participating youth the opportunity to take creative risks and learn to communicate with each other
• Provide participating youth with opportunities to work collaboratively with university students.
• Provide participating youth with opportunities to visit the UC campus and to learn more about college life

Evaluation Strategies

• Analysis of participants’ grades and attendance
• Analysis of feedback from interns, mentors and volunteers
• Analysis of weekly written reflections
• Examination of digital media productions to assess literacy development over time
• End of semester project and class feedback groups

Oakland-UC Berkeley Research Collaborative

Education 198
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

Course Instructors

Dr. Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, Assistant Professor, and Maris Thompson, Graduate Student Instructor, (Education)

Participants

6 undergraduates

Majors include Political Science, History, English, and Public Health; all students are minoring in Education

Fieldwork

Undergraduates participate at least 3 hours per week in the Youth Sounds UC Links program. All undergraduates work with a class of 25 students at McClymond’s High School one afternoon a week. Additionally, they shadow high school students two full days (for a total of ~16 hours) at the site, share the UC campus with their high school partners (~10 hours), and document all their fieldwork in weekly field notes and personal reflections. The fieldwork experiences of the course are facilitated through the weekly course meeting with the instructors and students. The fieldwork is coordinated through a course Blackboard website.

Course Goals

• Provide students with opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills, with an emphasis on research skills which will serve them as undergraduate students, potential graduate students, and active citizens
• Provide students with opportunities to work collaboratively with their peers
• Encourage students to critically consider, question, and challenge the organization of the structures (including educational, political, social, and economic) surrounding them
• Help students to develop an analytic framework for understanding the complex relationship among diversity, difference, equality, inequality, and educational systems, both historically and in the present
• Improve undergraduate education for participating students by connecting theory to practice and improving conceptual and practical knowledge of course content
• Provide undergraduates with advanced training in research theory and qualitative research methods
• Provide undergraduates with experience working with students and teachers in local schools
• Help undergraduates to develop deeper understandings of urban schooling structures and the organization of learning opportunities in urban contexts
• Help undergraduates to develop nuanced understandings of the nature of equity, specifically in terms of educational processes
• Use education as a tool for social change

Evaluation Strategies

• Analysis of pre- and post-course written reflections on the nature of research and equity.
• Analysis of weekly written reflections
• Analysis of e-mail and Blackboard-facilitated conversations among undergraduate participants
• Analysis of class assignments for evidence of change in undergraduates’ conceptual and practical knowledge
• Analysis of final papers
• One-on-one hour-long “exit interviews” with each student and the course instructors on “lessons learned.”

Y-PLAN (Youth - Plan, Learn, Act Now)

Site Info
McClymonds High School
Oakland, CA
Principal Investigators: Professor Harrison Fraker (Urban and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley) and Dr. Deborah McKoy (Director - Center for Cities and Schools, UC Berkeley) Project Director: Deborah McKoy
Email: debmckoy@berkeley.edu

Participants

47

grades 10 and 11

85% African American
10% Latino
5% Asian

Collaborators

McClymonds High School and other schools in the East Bay
Department of City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley
Oakland Housing Authority and City Councilwoman Nancy Nadel

Activities

• Collaborative development of a plan to redesign the historic West Oakland Central Train Station into the center of the community.
• Multimedia presentations to city officials, UC Berkeley professors, and professional architects at Oakland City Hall

Goals

• Increase basic literacy, technology, and critical thinking skills for participating youth
• Increase knowledge and improve attitudes and aspirations toward higher learning for participating youth
• Increase participating youth’s knowledge about their community and environments

Evaluation Strategies

• Analysis of undergraduates' field notes and case studies of youth to track changes in learning for high school participants
• Local adaptation of a rubric developed by UCLA and UCSB researchers to document changes in writing competencies over time
• Analysis of class assignments for evidence of change in high school participants' conceptual and practical knowledge

Community and Schools Youth—Plan, Learn, Act, NOW

City Planning 290c (also formerly Ed290c)
Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley
Department of City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley

Course Instructors

Deborah McKoy, Lecturer (City and Regional Planning)

Harrison Fraker, Professor (Environmental Design)

Participants

4 undergraduate and12 graduate students

Majors include Urban Planning, Education, Environmental Design and Architecture

Fieldwork

UC Berkeley students taught for 2 hours a week (or more) at the Y-PLAN at McClymonds High School.

Course Goals

• Improve undergraduate and graduate education for participating students by connecting theory to practice and improving conceptual and practical knowledge of course content
• Develop undergraduate and graduate students’ abilities to teach and communicate ideas effectively

Evaluation Strategies

• A local adaptation of standard UC Links pre-test/post-test survey
• Analysis of undergraduate and graduate field notes to document changes in conceptual understanding linked to practical activity