Silver City Volunteer Library: Looking Forward to Summer 2013!

It's so beautiful out today that I started thinking about summer in Silver City. Every summer since 2003, Silver City Community Partners task force has organized a themed free kids' summer program for the Comstock region (Silver City, Virginia City, Dayton area). Parents and kids come to the program together and do all sorts of fun things as a family. Below is a small sample of some the activities that the Silver City Community Partners have organized since 2003. The Silver City Volunteer Library organizes its events to coordinate with the Community Partners events, hosting performances or presentations, featuring special book collections relevant to whatever the kids are studying for the summer, etc. The Silver City Volunteer Library and the Silver City Community Partners are both partners with the nonprofit Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey.

Sample of Events Since 2003:

Field trips to Shakespeare at Sand Harbor, to organic farms like Smith and Smith Farms, to museums and hands-on discovery centers in Reno, Carson, Tahoe, and Virginia City, to pools and state and large municipal parks, and to opera and musicals in Reno.

Summer reading programs at the local volunteer library

Themed book release parties for popular fiction such as the Harry Party series

Science, math, and engineering activities with 4-H and visiting engineers, scientists, geologists,  park rangers, River Wranglers, Mackay School of Mines Museum, Nevada Department of Minerals, Department of Wildlife, etc

Art lessons with professional artists like Deb Glogovac, Alison Harris, Andrea Delfin, and Larry Wahrenbrock, and artists and folk artists from Nevada Council on Arts 

Theatre productions like Old Plumbottom written by Will Rose and performed by local kids

Acting lessons with Nevada Shakespeare Company

Music lessons with Will and Sheree Rose, Chris Bayer, and Bob and Cashion Elston

Cooking lessons with locals like Renate Victor, Meg Burns, Louise Crawford, Sara Ross, Bonnie Brown and Cashion Callaway

Gardening and horticulture lessons by Renate Victor, Mary MacDonald, UNCE Master Gardeners and others

Lessons in basketball, yoga, and dance

Chautauqua or “living history” events with Civil War groups and Nevada Humanities scholars and Young Chautauqua performers

Bicycle repair classes with Chris Brown

“Tune In To Kids” parents and kids hands-on educational enrichment fairs with United Way

Chess lessons with Jim Allander

Rocket-building with Mind Builders teachers on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). 

Old-fashioned ice cream making with a hand-cranked ice cream maker (using organic fruit). 

Photography and journaling workshops with Renate Victor

Workshops on water systems of the region with Linda Conlin of River Wranglers

Workshops on animals like bats with Nevada Department of Wildlife

Geocaching Treasure hunt with Nevada Dept of Geology staff who taught how to use GPS systems

 

Silver City's 2012 Summer Program Begins June 19

Creating the Problem-Solvers of Tomorrow:
Summer Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Classes

The first STEM class of Silver City Summer Youth Program is on Tuesday, June 19th from 10am-noon and will be taught by University of Nevada Cooperative Extension teachers Rebecca Wellnitz and Jessica Ramirez. Parents are encouraged to stay and help build Eco-Bots, small proto-type robots like those used to clean the ocean when a disaster like an oil spill hits. The Eco Bot Challenge is designed to help kids learn about robotic engineering.They'll learn to assemble their own robots and can even test its design features to determine the most effective environmental clean-up solution.

The class is at the Silver City School House/Community Center and is part of the annual free Silver City summer youth program organized by Silver City Community Partners, a partner group of Healthy Communities Coalition. For more info about the program, please call Sara Ross or Quest Lakes.

Because creativity and "thinking outside the box" are essential elements of human progress, we also add the Arts to our STEM lessons, to make "STEAM". On other Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer, volunteers from Silver City will offer activities in art, culinary arts (cooking), organic gardening, photography, etc.The annual field trip to  Shakespeare at Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe will take place in August. The summer program also includes access to 1,000's of books in the Silver City Volunteer Library, including books and reference sets for all reading levels on many science topics. Watch the bulletin board and your P.O. Box for announcements about the summer program special events on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am-noon.

The STEM classes in Silver City this summer are funded through the Lyon County 4-H and UNCE, Silver City Community Partners and donations from Silver City Volunteer Fire Department. If you'd like to know more about the 4-H programs in Lyon County, including robotics and engineering programs through 4-H Clubs, please contact Jessica Angle, Lyon County 4-H Program Manager at 463-6541.

Find a comfortable chair: good old fashioned reading is the best bet for building comlex reasoning skills and academic success

The 2011 book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses has often been misrepresented as evidence that a college education is no longer worthwhile. However, what the book in fact revealed was that the quality of college education is connected to coursework that demands high academic rigor in both reading and writing. The book cited an in-depth longitudinal study of 2,300 students at 29 diverse, 4-year colleges in the U.S. showing that many areas of study in college - particularly business, education, health, and social work – have low classwork expectations which result in minimal gains in measurable skills during college. In contrast, traditional liberal-arts majors (such as literature, natural science, archaeology, psychology, mathematics, history, sociology, etc.) demonstrated markedly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills.

Using survey responses, transcript data, and results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), the study tracked the academic gains of 2,300 students enrolled at four-year colleges and universities. At several points during and then after their college careers, the students took the CLA, a test designed to measure gains in critical thinking, analytic reasoning and other "higher level" skills. The study included only students who graduated from four-year institutions within six years and did not transfer.

In 45% of the students studied, there were no significant gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning or writing skills. The study found a correlation between poor performance on the Collegiate Learning Assessment and unemployment, credit card debt, and likelihood of living with parents.

Many reviews and summaries of the book have swept a crucial finding of the study under the rug: researchers found that students majoring in traditional liberal-arts fields see much higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over time than students in other academic concentrations. Students showing the smallest gains were those who majored in K-12 education, business, social work, and communications. Engineering and computer science majors fell below liberal arts majors in gains, but above education, business and social work. The study tracked data that suggest those much larger gains for liberal-arts majors are a result of greater academic rigor in those fields of study. Most liberal-arts majors are required to write more, and their writing is held to a higher standard by professors in those fields. Based on the study, those majors were more likely to read at least 40 pages per week of material with complex concepts that required high level reading comprehension.

The research also found a direct relationship between academic rigor and gains in learning:

• Students who studied by themselves gained more knowledge than those who spent the most time studying in peer groups.
• Students whose classes included more than 40 pages of reading a week and more than 20 pages of writing a semester gained more than other students.
• Students who spent the most time in fraternities and sororities showed decreased learning.
• Off-campus or extracurricular activities like social clubs and volunteer work showed no relation to gains on CLA
• Students majoring in liberal arts fields had "significantly higher gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing skills over time than students in other fields of study." Students majoring in business, education, social work and communications showed the smallest gains.
• Students who had more advanced classes (advanced placement) in high school had greater subsequent gains on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) in college

· Researchers recommended that colleges need to shift focus from "social engagement" on campus, which may indeed result in greater student retention and contentment, but has little to do with goals to improve students’ complex reasoning and writing skills.

The Study:

https://www.aacu.org/meetings/annualmeeting/AM11/documents/AcademicallyAdriftAACUJan2011.pdf

http://highered.ssrc.org/?page_id=28

http://highered.ssrc.org/files/SSRC_Report.pdf

New Books by Shelia Swan and Peter Laufer

Shelia Swan and Peter Laufer have donated a collection of their work to the Silver City Volunteer Library, including the new edition of Neon Nevada and the autobiography of Milan Melvin.

Shelia Swan studied photography as an assistant in her father’s portrait studio. Later, at the Nevada Craft Guild, she began her study of Nevada’s neon tradition. She was the associate producer and editor of the award-winning documentary film "Exodus to Berlin.” Her current photography is focused on Polaroid transfer and emulsion prints.

Silver City folks may remember Peter Laufer from his days as editor-in-chief in the early 1970s of the Gold Hill News and his stints at KPTL in Carson City and KOLO in Reno (he is “an innovator and specialist in bringing magazine content to speech radio.”) Laufer is an independent journalist, broadcaster and documentary filmmaker who has traveled the globe as a correspondent for NBC News and taught at universities across the world, including Sonoma State University, Western Kentucky University, San Francisco State University, the University of Nevada at Reno, the University of Oregon at Eugene, California State University at San Luis Obispo, American University in Washington, the Freie Universität in Berlin, and Misr University in Cairo. He has also written dozens of books, including those listed below that you can now find in the Silver City Volunteer Library:

Highlights of a Lowlife: Autobiography of Milan Melvin, 2004

Forbidden Creatures: Inside the World of Animal Smuggling and Exotic Pets, 2010

Nightmare Abroad: Stories of Americans Imprisoned in Foreign Lands,1993

Calexico: True Lives of the Borderlands 2011

Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq, 2006

Safety and Security for Women Who Travel, Travelers Tales, 1999 (co-authored with Sheila Swan Laufer)

Neon Nevada by Shelia Swan and Peter Laufer, 2011

More About These Titles (taken from peterlaufer.com)

Neon Nevada

The glow of Nevada and neon is more than an advertising call. Since the invention of the neon sign the flashing colors documented the development of the Silver State. Sheila Swan and Peter Laufer criss-cross Nevada to bring both the frivolity and the reality of Nevada neon to life. This updated and revised edition of Neon Nevada was published by Globe Pequot Press in 2011. Swan and Laufer made a third survey trip across Nevada in late 2010 to complete their field work. The new edition of the book includes some 100 full color images, about a third of them from the 2010 expedition.

Highlights of a Lowlife

This book is the autobiography of Milan Melvin, edited and completed by Peter Laufer. Rolling Stone magazine’s Ben Fong-Torres wrote of the work, “Milan Melvin was one of the most fascinating figures out of the sixties. In fact, a case could be made that he helped to shape that time of our lives. Peter Laufer is one of the sharpest journalists out of the sixties. In one of his last major decisions, Milan asked Peter to help him tell his story. Together they do, and it is one for the ages. Light up, buckle up, and enjoy the flight.”

Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq

Disillusioned, outraged, and betrayed, some American soldiers took a stand against the war in Iraq.

A shattering journey of revelation, pain, and betrayal, Mission Rejected takes the reader deep into the turmoil of U.S. troops confronting the Iraq War. Some of these soldiers have decided not to fight in Iraq. Others, who have served in the “Sand Box” only to return so appalled by their experience and by what that experience has done to them, choose to declare, in the words of the old Phil Ochs song, “I’m not marchin’ anymore!”

Praise for this timely and important book by Peter Laufer comes from Cindy Sheehan, Norman Solomon, and Jim Hightower along with this poignant appraisal from Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Reserves Colonel and former U.S. diplomat. “In the military, real courage is taking a stand against orders one believes are unlawful and accepting the consequences. Moral cowardice is taking the easy way by accepting unlawful orders and committing illegal actions. Ultimately, one must live with oneself. These women and men have chosen the hard short path to freedom from the long-term emotional, spiritual and physical consequences of conducting state sponsored murder in a conflict that has nothing to do with our national security.” About Mission Rejected, Howard Zinn wrote, “These heartbreaking, powerful stories tell more about the war in Iraq than any analysis by pundits or journalists. I hope this book will be widely read, especially by young people who may be enticed, by false promises or deceptive patriotic exhortations, to go to war.” To see and hear Peter Laufer talking about this book with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, see this link:

http://www.democracynow.org/2006/6/15/mission_rejected_u_s_soldiers_who

Nightmare Abroad

The outgrowth of Laufer’s multiple award-winning NBC radio documentary on U.S. citizens held in foreign prisons, this eye-opening survey should be read by any one traveling abroad. Laufer, who visited Americans jailed in 21 countries, emphasizes three major points: that most nations adhere to the Napoleonic code, which presumes the accused to be guilty until proven innocent; that few nations grant bail between arrest and trial; and that the State department will rarely intervene to aid an accused or convicted American for fear of upsetting relations with the host country. NBC Today show producer Rich Minner, producer says, “Any American traveling outside the United States should read Nightmare Abroad.

Safety and Security for Women Who Travel

Personal safety is a prime concern for women on the road, and this collection of tips and wisdom gives women the tools they need to be secure, confident travelers. Authors Sheila Swan and Peter Laufer help lay to rest fears and provide guidance for women to travel securely anywhere in the world. Published by Traveler’s Tales; The Christian Science Monitor writes, “A cache of valuable advice.”