Faculty Cooperative Projects

Archive: [2005] [2006]

A group of 26 UAEM students and faculty members sharpens English skills at UNT, July 7-18, 2008 / view pictures — Twenty-six high school and college students from Toluca, Mexico, visited the University of North Texas this month as part of a new program for them to learn English and U.S. culture. The intensive English program ran for 2 weeks (July 7 – 18). The Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication's Summer Institute is part of UNT’s growing partnership with the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico.

Katie Crowder, institute director, said the program has flowed beautifully but has experienced the earmarks of a pilot program. “The focus is to not only get these students more familiar with the [English] language and Texas culture, but to build community, culture and camaraderie,” she said.

As part of the program, students spent six hours a day in class learning English and participated in interviews and other activities to apply the language. Toward the latter part of each week, they would visit different parts of the city to grasp Denton and Texas culture. UNT graduate students taught the classes and consequently received valuable teaching experience, Crowder said.

Maria de Rosario Martinez-Uribe was the visiting professor who traveled with the group. “This is certainly much more than we expected,” she said. “Some of them have never even been out of the country.”

As a high school student in the program, Yocelyn Roxel Perez said it could take at least six years to learn English in Mexico. “We probably use English no more than 30 minutes a day, and now we’ve gone to 17 hours a day using it,” she said. Located in Toluca, the Mexican university is one of the country’s public universities and offers a high school program, 58 undergraduate programs and 74 graduate degrees.

Fernando Guzman, assistant director of that university’s office at UNT, said the new program is becoming popular. “We already have 100 people signed up for next year, and many of the students now are very interested in coming to UNT for graduate school,” he said.

Students are split into either intermediate or advanced English classes, and they move forward accordingly. “Many kids don’t take English as seriously, and I’m glad I’m doing it because I know it will help me in my future career,” Perez said.

Article by: Arlinda Arriaga - Staff Writer for Denton Record-Chronicle.

Dr. Witold Brostow continues to teach full semester courses for UAEM students via satellite, April 28, 2008 / view pictures — In his efforts to support and promote international education, Dr. Witold Brostow will continue to teach Materials Science courses to UAEM students via satellite from UNT Center for Distributed Learning.

After two successful courses in Fall 2006 “Materials Science and Engineering” (MSE) and Fall 2007 “Polymer Science and Engineering” (PSE), Dr. Brostow will offer a distance education class in MSE again Fall 2008.

The class format is in English but questions during the class can be asked also in Spanish. Assignments are acceptable in both languages.

School of visual arts works with UAEM students and faculty on Fry Street Project, October 22 - Nov 2 / view pictures — A unique collaboration between art students from the University of North Texas and the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, or UAEM, may leave a lasting impression of the cultural, artistic and musical heritage of Denton's Fry Street area in the proposed Fry Street Village retail development to be located at Fry and Hickory Streets, just north of campus.

When Fry Street Village opens next summer, it aims to include a public art project installed on two parallel walls 60 feet long and 20 feet high facing each other along a small street that will feature seating areas.

Four students and one faculty member from UAEM arrived Oct. 22 (Monday) stayed for two weeks. They partnered with a dozen students and four faculty members from UNT, in teams of three or four. As part of the design process, the student teams met with the developer, historians and architects as well as members of the Fry Street community. They also toured Denton, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center, and possibly the Modern Art Museum and the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth.

Robert Milnes, dean of UNT's College of Visual Arts and Design, says, "We have wanted to include UAEM in an exchange program for some time. This is an excellent opportunity for collaboration, and I predict that it will lead to additional opportunities. If United Equities, the developer of Fry Street Village, approves a project concept, the next step will be the actual production of the art in the spring. If all goes well, the art will be installed when the buildings are completed."

The project is being underwritten by a donation from United Equities and supported by a donation of materials from Artisan Santa Fe, an art supply store. Milnes points out that the UNT-UAEM project takes the university's themes of collaboration, globalization and diversity to a new level.

Manuel Goel, director of the UAEM-UNT Academic Liaison Office, says, "I think this project will benefit the students in many ways. In addition to working in a solid, culturally diverse, multidisciplinary group, they were also involved in discussions with developers and contractors outside the academic realm. This will also motivate students from other areas in UNT and UAEM to experience studying abroad and strengthen the unique relationship between both institutions."

Article by: Rafael McDonnell

Vice provost for Learning Enhancement, Philip Turner, participates in Colloquium at UAEM Chalco Campus, September 12 - 14, 2007 / view pictures — In an effort to internationalize academic views and research on Computer Science, UAEM Chalco Campus organized the second annual “Colloquium of Current Trends in Information Technologies in Mexico”, with foreign collaboration from the following guests:

  • Dr. Philip Turner (UNT, US)
  • Ms. Arnulfo Zepeda (Sony, US)
  • Dr. Francois Pluvinage (IREM in Strasbourg, France)
  • Dr. Lázaro Gorostiaga Canepa (CARTIF, Spain)
  • Dr. Alejandro Cabrera (IPSIJAE, Cuba)

Dr. Turner gave a conference on “Next Generation Course Redesign”, which had a very positive impact on the young audience. The main topics covered were:

  1. Symptoms of Problems with Large Enrollment Classes
  2. Experiential and problems based learning is desired
  3. Encouraging high levels of student engagement
  4. The redesign occurs within an interdisciplinary Community of Practice
  5. Primary goal is quality improvement through higher level Student Learning Outcomes (SLO), valid assessment, and student engagement
  6. Secondary goal is cost reduction through reallocation of human resources and increased success (input and output)

As part of the visit, Dr. Turner had the opportunity to take a trip to the pyramids and other important cultural spots in Mexico City.


Department of Geography teaches a Maymester course in Mexican cities Tenancingo and Toluca, May 23 - June 2, 2007 / view pictures — Professors Miguel Acevedo and Bruce Hunter taught the course “Human Impacts on the Environment: Mexico”, to UNT and UAEM students in Mexico, so everyone could get an on site perspective of environmental issues caused by human beings.

The goals of the class were as follows:

· Introduce graduate and upper level undergraduate students to Mexico though the eyes of a Geographer and Environmental Scientist - an interdisciplinary approach.

· Connect with faculty, staff and students at the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico through classroom and field work.

· Compare and contrast environmental issues pertinent to the U.S. and Mexico individually, as trade partners and as neighbors.

· Continue the work started in Spain, 2006, with “Human Impacts” as the theme.

Course Design:

The basic concept of the two-week course was to examine the impacts of various human activities on the Mexican environment. During the first week, students stayed at Centro Universitario UAEM - Tenancingo, a satellite campus of UAEM in a rural setting in the heart of the cut flower agricultural industry of the State of Mexico. The second week, students were in Toluca, the capital of the state, a major industrial center in the country with a population in excess of one million. The two locations promoted two perspectives - rural and urban impacts on the environment.

The course contained twenty-five lectures, eighteen of which were presented by faculty of UAEM, and eight field trips (attached schedule and lecture list). In addition, the group conducted weekend visits to three cities chosen for their interesting history and significance in colonial architecture.

Classes:

While in Tenancingo, classes were held in the Capilla, the chapel built in the mid 1800s for the hacienda, which is now the campus. Dra. Santamaria provided computer and projection equipment for the all the presentations. UNT and UAEM faculty conducted a total of twelve presentations the first week. In addition, there were 4 field trips including archeology, flower production, soil and water sampling, and caverns.

The week in Toluca included an additional twelve presentations from UAEM and UNT faculty. On several occasions, UAEM students attended the presentations. Four field trips were conducted including a tour of the UAEM campus, an industrial waster water treatment plant, a hydrological research facility and the headwaters of the Lerma River.


UAEM Political Science Director, Leticia Heras and professor Igor Vivero, to participate in UNT Symposium: “Prospects for Democracy in Latin America” April 5-6, 2007 / view pictures — Dr. Leticia Heras formed part of Panel 3 (Culture, Participation and Democracy) where she talked about “Mexican Political Culture and Democracy” while Igor Vivero was part of Panel 4 (Mexico and Central America) and presented a paper on “Democracy and Mexico’s Political Parties”

This symposium explored issues related to the status and challenges of democracy in Latin America. Four panels of experts on and from the region analyzed the Latin America’s democratic prospect. They sought answers to such questions as: What is the quality of democracy in Latin America, and is it eroding or deepening? Does public opinion support democracy, and is popular commitment to democratic norms growing or fading? Does poor governmental performance undermine the legitimacy and support for democratic institutions? What are the implications of the rise of populism and indigenous movements and the growing electoral power of the political left? Can governments provide adequate public security under neoliberal fiscal constraints without resorting to antidemocratic practices or strengthening their militaries’ political roles? Can democracy survive such threats? Where is democracy most at risk?


Manuel Garduño visits UNT to continue pursuing the UAEM-UNT Dual Master’s Degree in ESL, February 5-7, 2007 / view pictures — Continuing with the strong relationship between UAEM Languages Department and UNT Linguistics, Director Manuel Garduno and a 5-member delegation visited UNT for the second time, achieving great progress towards their ultimate academic goal: The UAEM-UNT Dual Master’s Degree in ESL.

This time, UAEM delegation members were the following:

Manuel Garduño
Leticia Guadarrama
Pauline Moore
Luis Juan Solís
Clara Uribe
Georgia Grondin

The visit helped faculty members on both sides meet their counterparts and it fostered in-depth discussion as to how the program should be delivered to the students. It was very interesting to share American and Mexican views on information transmission and reception, as well as the differences in credit hours, topics, courses, programs and academic regulations.

Several workshops took place for program planning, where all the participants talked about two options for semester arrangements: students can take the first 2 semesters of the program in Toluca and the last two in Denton or the exact opposite.

Also, professors thought of potential core and elective units to be taken in both universities, so the program is solid in content, flexible and attractive. In terms of students, there were dialogues about grading, workload, admissions and minimum qualifications for entering students.