Jaime Casap will be the first speaker in the 2018-2019 Discover Science Lecture Series. Casap is an Education Evangelist at Google. This unique role is specifically designed to evangelize the power and potential of technology and the web to enable and support students in pursuit of inquiry-based learning.
His lecture, Generation Z is going to college; are you ready?, takes place Wednesday, Aug. 22, in the Redfield Auditorium in the Davidson Math and Science Center at 7 p.m. Casap will also be speaking to the Science Fit freshman on Aug. 21. He will speak to students about learning to thrive in this new digital era shaped by technology and the web.
{{RelatedLinks}}
The Aug. 22 lecture is free and open to the public and will touch on how Generation Z is the first truly native digital generation, never knowing a world without constant connectivity. Casap will discuss a more student-centric education model with technology as the enabling and supporting mechanism for millennials headed to college. The lecture will examine the renewed focus on developing critical skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, iteration and global competency.
Growing up in New York, Casap experienced first-hand how the power of education and technology can offer a way out of poverty and violence. Education became his way out of that life and now he sees how technology can further enhance learning opportunities.
In addition to his role at Google, Casap teaches a 10th-grade communications class at the Phoenix Coding Academy, a computer science public school he helped launch. He often guest lectures at Arizona State University, and was recently named the ASU Global Silicon Valley 2018 Innovator of Color for leading global innovations in the learning and talent world. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Felician University.
Casap is also the author of the children's book "Our First Talk About Poverty," part of the World Around Us series that aims to introduce children to complex cultural, social and environmental issues.
The Discover Science Lecture Series was founded by the University of Nevada, Reno's College of Science in 2010, with the goal of bringing the country's top scientists to the University to share their knowledge, research and wisdom with the community.
Past speakers in the series include astrophysicists Michio Kaku and Neil deGrasse Tyson; Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck of the Titanic; and Bill Nye the Science Guy. More speakers in the 2018-2019 series will be announced.
