Education Lecture Series Kicks Off Jan. 29 With Talk on Women and Engineering

January 25, 2010 — The University of Virginia's Curry School of Education will launch its spring Education Research Lectureship Series on Friday with a talk by Margaret Eisenhart that challenges the emerging view that young women are not interested in engineering.

Eisenhart, University Distinguished Professor and Charles Professor of Education at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is one of five experts the Curry School will bring to U.Va. this semester to discuss topics ranging from the way play enhances development to matriculation trends in China.

Eisenhart's talk will take place in Newcomb Hall Ballroom from 11 a.m. to noon.

The remaining lectures will be held in the Curry Library Innovation Commons, on the third floor of Ruffner Hall. All talks will be from 11 a.m. to noon and are free and open to the public. No registration is required. Parking is available at the Central Grounds Parking Garage on Emmet Street.

The schedule:

• Feb. 5: James Lee, dean of humanities and social sciences at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, will discuss his research comparing matriculation trends at two elite Chinese universities.

• Feb. 12: Brian Jacob will discuss whether the federal No Child Left Behind Act influenced student achievement. Jacob is a Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.

• Feb. 26: Dr. Adele Diamond will talk about the role of play, physical education and the arts in relation to academic achievement. Dr. Diamond is professor of developmental cognitive neuroscience at the University of British Columbia and Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at British Columbia Children's Hospital.

• March 26: Daniel McCaffrey will discuss his findings on the impact of technology-based geometry curriculum on students' geometry achievement. The curriculum uses collaborative classroom exercises and software. McCaffrey is senior statistician and the PNC Chair in Policy Analysis, funded by PNC Financial Services Group, at the RAND Corporation.

More about the speakers and lectures can be found on Curry's Web site.

— By Rebecca Arrington

Media Contact