Highlights from BYU colleges

Family Home and Social Sciences

• Fulton Conference political science winner Mandi Eatough studied the privatization of foster care — hiring private companies to find foster homes for children. Her study found privatized foster care increases the risk of neglect and abuse to foster children. She also found changes in the foster care system usually have immediate effects on children, and children placed by private agencies have an increased likelihood to have case goals that are more efficient and less costly. Eatough said there are two main theories for privatized foster care systems: one, that privatization increases efficiency and decreases the cost of placing children in foster homes, and two, that this increase in time and efficiency pressures social workers to work faster, lowering the quality of the placement for foster children. Eatough plans to publish her findings and re-examine them to better understand foster care and its policies.

  

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology

• BYU recently hosted its third annual Girls Cybersecurity Camp in an effort to raise the low women-to-men ratio in the information technology industry. Information technology professor Dale Rowe started the camp with the goal to bring more girls into the IT profession and build their talents in technology. The camp offers hands-on workshops to teach skills like basic coding, password security, basic cryptography and even handling cyber bullying. The camp includes a high-tech starship escape room designed with touch screen panels to teach students how to work in cyber defense competitions and build communication and problem-solving skills.

  

Marriott School of Management

• BYU information systems professor James Gaskin and his team created an app that catalogs and interprets dreams. The app allows users to record their dreams, connect with other dreamers and consult with psychologists to find more about the meaning of their dreams. Gaskin and his crew also have a YouTube channel explaining the possible meanings behind common dreams. The uDreamed app is available on the iTunes and Android app stores for free.

David O. McKay School of Education

• The David O. McKay School of Education hosted its first annual LDS Educators Conference on July 15, with over 150 people in attendance. BYU–Hawaii President John S. Tanner spoke about the LDS Educators Association’s purpose: to shape individuals and help them become something instead of just know things. Elder Tad R. Callister, Sunday School general president, also spoke at the conference. He mentioned the five important aspects of principles: they promote agency, are flexible and adaptable, are simple statements of truth, lead to feelings of trust, and help us understand the “why” behind the commandment. He said principles tell us what we should do, and the spirit teaches us how to apply them in given situations.

  

College of Life Sciences

• Science education professor Ryan Nixon studied secondary science teachers who were assigned classes out of their field. Nixon and a team of University of Georgia researchers found 40 percent of new teachers taught mostly or entirely out of their field, and 64 percent had taught at least one course out of their field in their first five years of teaching. The team’s study focused on teachers in their first five years of their careers because half of early career teachers don’t make it past their fifth year. The study also found urban and rural schools with high English-language-learner populations are more likely to have teachers instructing in classes out of their fields. Nixon said this makes the students’ learning even more difficult by giving them teachers who aren’t prepared to teach the subject they’ve been assigned.

  

College of Fine Arts and Communications

• Director of the BYU School of Music Kirt Saville will speak at Devotional Aug. 1. Saville is a music education professor and associate director of bands at BYU. He teaches instrumental music education, focusing on developing practical applications, and conducts the Symphonic Band. Saville has written many articles that have been published in various music journals.

  

College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

• JD Shumway graduated from BYU with a master’s at the end of 2016.  After applying being turned down for a dream job, Shumway asked to be an intern for the company to gain experience and then hopefully be considered for the job again in the future. He is now the youngest geologist working at the organization. Though Shumway is still an intern, the company will hire new geologists soon and he hopes to be hired full-time. Shumway said instead of waiting for opportunities to come to you, you have to go out and make them.