The University of Wyoming's Malcolm Wallop Civic Engagement Program has launched a new online K-12 catalog for English language arts teachers and expanded content in its social studies catalog. The updates are through a grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) titled "Integrating the Humanities Across Civics Education in Wyoming."
The Wallop project has developed resources focusing on three themes: culture and peoples of the West; identity, community and rural life; and rights, liberties and civic responsibilities. Specific topics include content focusing on Wyoming's suffrage and the Heart Mountain stories, and other materials originally created for the social studies catalog.
The new English language arts-focused content is organized and structured around the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening, Writing, Language and Reading. The catalog will launch Wednesday, Feb. 15.
The catalog is free to all teachers and the public in UW's WyoLearn catalog at https://civic.catalog.instructure.com/.
The Wallop Program is partnering with the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation to create new catalog content using resources from the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center to describe the lives of nearly 14,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in Wyoming during World War II -- and the wider contexts surrounding their forced relocation and confinement.
"The mass incarceration of Japanese Americans at Heart Mountain is part of the fabric of our state's history and of our nation's history," says Aura Sunada Newlin, a UW graduate from Riverton and a descendant of Heart Mountain incarcerees. She also is the foundation's interim executive director. "We are thrilled to be working with the Wallop Civic Engagement Program to bring these deeply human stories to a wider audience."
"The partnership with the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation illustrates one important Wallop Program goal, which is to partner with organizations like this to share Wyoming stories to teachers and, through them, students across the state," says Jean Garrison, Wallop Program co-director.
The Wallop Program also has partnered with UW's Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center to bring its Wyoming Student Atlas interactive content to the Wallop WyoLearn catalog.
The NEH grant provides the Malcolm Wallop Civic Engagement Program with a two-year grant to expand its online catalog of civics education resources and to host its third summer professional development workshop for teachers June 7-8 in Laramie.
NEH project co-directors are Garrison and Jason McConnell, of UW's School of Politics, Public Affairs and International Studies; Colby Gull, from the UW College of Education's Wyoming School-University Partnership; and Curtis Biggs, from UW's Office for Research and Economic Development.
"This project brings together a diverse set of humanities, social science and education partners to work with Wyoming teachers on issues of crucial importance to our democracy, public institutions and core issues of importance in America today," McConnell says.
The project is inspired by former Wyoming U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop who, in his distinguished career serving in the U.S. Senate for three terms and in the Wyoming Legislature, is remembered for his commitment to civil discourse, public education and public service.
"Special thanks to The Tucker Foundation, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation and our supporters who, with the support of NEH, make this work possible," Garrison says.
