STARTALK academy offers students variety

Sixteen high school students attended a free Chinese language and astronomy academy June 5-18 on the University of North Georgia's (UNG) Dahlonega Campus. The campers included students from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Illinois. 

A $327,000 STARTALK grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) funded the endeavor, which also includes post-camp activities throughout the 2022-23 academic year to reinforce what participants learned at UNG.

Dr. Yunjuan He, associate professor of Chinese, is the principal investigator for the grant. She said the academy helped students improve their language proficiency, develop their knowledge of astronomy, and deepen their understanding of Chinese culture connected to the topics of astronomy and related myths. It also aimed to develop students' interest in federal careers, such as working for NASA and other aeronautics-related educational and research institutes.

"The UNG STARTALK program was the only STEM-based language program in the funded 2022 STARTALK programs. The curriculum of UNG STARTALK Chinese and Astronomy Summer Academy was innovative. It was an integration of science, language and literacy," she said. "Students were excited to explore outer space through well-designed content and context-based and student-centered scientific and language learning activities, making connections across disciplines, and relating content to real-world experience."

Dr. Donna Governor, associate professor of science education, trained STARTALK faculty in teaching Astronomy and designed the teaching evaluation of the science component of the camp. Dr. Gregory Feiden, director of the North Georgia Astronomical Observatory and an associate professor of astronomy, and Dr. Lesley Simanton-Coogan, director of the George E. Coleman Sr. Planetarium, provided support by giving on-site demonstrations and presentations.

Ying Feng Kline, a lecturer of Chinese from Penn State University, served as lead instructor for the summer academy. 

In addition to the academy and the 2022-23 activities, the STARTALK grant also supported tutoring through UNG for high school students during the spring 2022 semester. A total of 111 students from 48 high schools in 14 states participated in the pre-camp activities, including the 16 who took part in the two-week academy. They improved their language skills by having individualized studies with their tutors online.

The mission of STARTALK is to support "innovative programs that create strong language learning outcomes for K-12 students, provide in-depth, quality teacher development, and develop support materials and resources for educators in order to meet the goals for critical need languages in the United States."