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Pre-K-16 Education Initiatives

Improving Quality Education

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  A New Approach to Teaching Math Using Building Blocks Using a curriculum based on children’s activities, Building Blocks is a creative, innovative way to use childhood experiences to improve math skills. | Learn More  
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  Writing a New Chapter in Elementary EducationTeachers from D’Youville-Porter Academy, Buffalo Elementary School of Technology, and the Martin Luther King, Frank Sedita, and Herman Badillo schools use UB’s Six Traits of Writing program to improve students’ writing skills. | Learn More  
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  Greater Literacy Success with Reading First Each year more than 80 UB tutors work one-on-one and in small groups with children, both in their schools and in community-based after-school programs.
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  Literacy Center Provides Solid Foundation for Learning The Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction helps area children in grades 2-6 overcome literacy problems while training future teachers to build students’ reading skills. | Learn More  
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  Resources for After-School Services Providers UB offers members of the Buffalo After-School Provider Network training, staff development, and peer-to-peer learning for quality improvement.
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  UB has a continuing influence on education around the world. President John B. Simpson recently participated in a U.S. Department of Education trip to Asia to underscore U.S. interest in students from China, Japan and Korea.
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  Math shapingDouglas H. Clements, professor, Department of Learning and Instruction, Graduate School of Education, has spent his career ensuring that underrepresented children's potential to learn math does not go unrealized, and has been named a member of President Bush's National Mathematics Advisory Panel. | Learn More  

Creating Opportunities

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  Exposing area high school students to environmental education Over 3,500 students from more than eighty high schools throughout the Buffalo Niagara region received complimentary tickets to attend a special lecture given by former vice president and environmental activist Al Gore at UB, as part UB's goal is to encourage area high school students' involvement in science and environmental conservation. | Learn More 
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  Encouraging Student Athletes Nearly 2,000 young men and women took part in UB Athletics summer camp programs run by UB Athletics faculty. The camps provide complete instruction for area youth in an atmosphere geared toward skill improvement, competition and fun. | Learn More  
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  Giving Children and Their Parents a Reason to SmileMore than 500 Buffalo school children received free dental care at the UB Dental Clinics on the fifth annual Give Kids a Smile Day. | Learn More    

Overcoming Learning Challenges

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  Gap Program Provides Treatment for Children with ADHD The United Way, UB’s Center for Children and Families and the Buffalo Public Schools collaborated to launch the Closing the Gap program that provided summer treatment services for 60 children with ADHD and other behavioral and learning problems from PS 27. | Learn More  
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  Community Partnerships Launch Violence Intervention Model UB and the Buffalo Public Schools have partnered with community-based and family counseling organizations to apply a violence intervention model in PS 97.
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  Mentoring Gifted Children for Success UB houses Buffalo Prep, where academic support, mentoring, and in-school advocacy is given to gifted students from distressed communities preparing for academically challenging high schools.
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  Collaboration in Preventing School Violence in PS 44 The Buffalo Public Schools and the UB School of Social Work are collaborating to bring together best teaching and clinical practices and community support in a new Center for the Study and Prevention of School Violence in PS 44. | Learn More  
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  Liberty Partnership Programs Help the Academically at Risk Seven hundred academically at-risk students in 16 Buffalo area schools receive tutoring in their schools, in community-based settings, and on the UB South Campus to help them meet academic standards.

Creating a New Generation of Scientists
and Engineers

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  Creating a New Generation of Scientists and Engineers UB has “adopted” the Buffalo Public Schools’ Native American Magnet School (K-8) to interest students in science and engineering careers. | Learn More  
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  BEAM Shines Light of Hope on Inner-city Students UB’s BEAM program has prepared hundreds of inner-city, female, minority, and other underrepresented middle and high school students for science, engineering, and technology careers. | Learn More  
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  Promoting Diversity in Geosciences Through the Buffalo Geoscience Program UB and other Western New York colleges promote diversity in the geosciences with school demos and independent study in the Buffalo Geoscience Program.
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  STEP Prepares Students for College Programs in the Sciences The Science and Technology Enrichment Program (STEP) provides mentoring and academic support to prepare 120 middle and high school students to enter college programs in the sciences.
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  Buffalo Public School Children Received a First-hand Look at the New Frontiers in Life Sciences Two-hundred Buffalo Public School children received a first-hand look at the new frontiers in life sciences and bioinformatics when they had a visit with UB president John Simpson at the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences. | Learn More  
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  Sparking Student Interest in Science For over 20 years, UB has been hosting Science Exploration Day, exposing thousands of high school students to the world of science and science careers with compelling presentations, experiments, and tours of university labs.

School Partnerships

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  Extending educational services to Amherst UB is engaged in a range of partnerships with schools throughout Amherst, including Eating Disorder Prevention Project, Gifted Math Program, Initial Certification Program, Pre-K Initiatives Program, Reading First Program, and Small Schools Project.
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  Improving outcomes in Buffalo A new partnership between UB and the Buffalo Public Schools brings the university's multidisciplinary expertise to bear on improving outcomes for the more than 36,000 students in the city's public schools.
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  Kids Voting Western New York UB is part of a national bi-partisan effort to encourage children to be educated, responsible voters as they learn about government and democracy through lessons, activities and family dialogue. | Learn More  

Increasing Community Involvement
in Education

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  Get Graphic: The World in Words and Pictures UB and the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library are introducing school children, parents, teachers, and librarians to graphic novels, funded by a Family Literacy Grant. | Learn More  
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  Supporting Greater Community Participation UB assists local leaders technically in the Kellogg Leadership for Community Change Project and the Public Policy and Education Fund.
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  Supporting Community Efforts Towards Early Childhood Learning UB is home to a Bethel Head Start site providing community access to this model of parental involvement with pre-K learning.

Expanding the Knowledge Economy Workforce

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  New Workforce Needs Met at EOC The Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) offers more than 2,000 students training and life skills to successfully enter emerging fields. | Learn More