Congratulations to Kaveri Sheth on receiving the 2024-2025 Graduate Research Excellence Award! Here's more about Kaveri’s research in her own words:
"During Summer 2024, I conducted my final dissertation study that built on what I have been working on at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (ILABS) for the past 4 years. I used a research-based teacher training developed by Pat Kuhl and Naja Ferjan Ramírez, called SparkLing™, to train educators on the most effective ways to teach a second language to young children who are 0-5 years old. I ran a summer camp with 34 4-year-old monolingual English speakers who came to learn Spanish for 7 weeks, where the teachers were implementing these research-based teaching strategies for language learning. We conducted standardized testing before and after the camp, as well as collected audio recordings at the beginning and end of the camp. There was quite a bit of data, so I've spent the past 2 quarters this year analyzing the data.
I received the Department Excellence Award for Spring 2025, which will enable me to focus solely on writing the last chapter and a cohesive introduction and conclusion to my dissertation. I plan to defend at the beginning of June."