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Christina Broomfield ’09, an elementary school teacher in North Kingstown, R.I., says that her participation in GEMS-Net has made science her strongest teaching area.

Liberal Arts: Ethical and Engaged Work One of the architects of the 1862 Morrill Act, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, wrote that the land-grant system was meant to “extend the boundaries of our present knowledge.” The liberal arts are a necessary component of that pursuit. While applied scientific research produces measurable impact, the liberal arts fortify land-grant work. Madison Jones, URI assistant professor of professional and public writing and natural resources science, sits between two worlds: liberal arts and applied sciences. “Humanists do land-grant mission work in a way that has typically gone unseen or unacknowledged because it isn’t

“Research is only important if it’s useful,” she adds. “We need it to be translatable.” An elementary school teacher in North Kingstown, R.I., Christina Broomfield ’09 began attending GEMS-Net workshops early in her career. “I appreciated that it was the same team of workshop facilitators every time, and not a company sponsoring the curriculum,” she says. As GEMS-Net staff co-present workshops with teachers and researchers, Broomfield says she also appreciates the emphasis on collaborative expertise. Science is Broomfield’s strongest area of teaching, she says, because of the professional development and ongoing support she’s received from GEMS-Net. “GEMS-Net has been a constant in my career,” she says. “I know I’m always going to get support from the team. It makes me feel really empowered.”

“Research is only important if it’s useful; we need it to be translatable.” - Sara Sweetman Ph.D. ‘13, URI associate professor of education

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