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| October 2010 | Subscribe |
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II. Congressional Hotline |
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CLIMATE CHANGE: A SHIFT TOWARD ACTION BY POLICYMAKERSNot soon enough for some, perhaps, but discussion of climate change is shifting from how fast it's happening to what to do about it. While energy-climate legislation remains stalled in the U.S. Senate, a new report from the National Academies examines how to measure the impact of climate change on food, water, energy, shelter and health. "As public policy in response to climate change evolves, it will be increasingly important to think with a systems perspective in order to understand the components and their interconnections," the report says. Meanwhile, a report on a White House-backed National Climate Adaptation Summit calls for an overarching federal strategy that includes education. "It is increasingly clear that traditional discipline-based education approaches are not adequate for producing the climate-savvy leaders and workforce required for effective climate adaptation planning." One of the greatest needs is "increased federal funding for interdisciplinary education and research programs, including 'professional certificate' programs, at the undergraduate and graduate levels." Also, a newly available report from the Congressional Research Service says "policymakers are considering policies and strategies for addressing geoengineering at the national and international levels."
DOE BASIC RESEARCH AIDS INDUSTRY, R&D CAUCUS HEARSThe House Research and Development Caucus and the Energy Sciences Coalition recently drew speakers from SEMANTECH, Dow, and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to a meeting headlined, "Basic Research with a Purpose: How DOE Science Helps U.S. Industry Compete." The speakers lauded DOE-sponsored basic research and noted the important role that Ph.D.s who have actually worked in university basic research play in transferring basic research to industry. COMPETES REAUTHORIZATION IN LIMBO UNTIL LAME-DUCK SESSIONThe House and Senate left town to campaign, with plans to return for a week starting Nov. 15, break for Thanksgiving, then return in the first week of December, Congress Daily reports. The long list of unfinished business includes all 12 appropriations bills, which will be addressed "probably in an omnibus package," according to the newspaper, and Senate action on reauthorizing the 2007 America COMPETES Act, which passed the House early in the summer. Of the three Senate committees involved in COMPETES, only Commerce has cleared it. Energy Committee staff completed its portion, which would likely be added on the floor, along with a section from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. That's if it gets to the floor. Supporters, including the Task Force on American Innovation and higher ed. institutions, circulated another letter to senators urging passage of COMPETES. ASEE is among the listed signatories. Rep. Judy Biggert, Illinois Republican and co-chair of the R&D Caucus, expressed optimism that the reauthorization would clear Congress during the lame-duck session, but she also urged supporters to nonetheless contact their senators.
NASA BUDGET REAUTHORIZATION SOARS OUT OF HOUSEAfter a period of House-Senate negotiation, the House recently opted to approve a $58 billion, three-year reauthorization of the space agency that had already passed the Senate. The measure allows development of a new heavy-lift launch vehicle, continues support for the International Space Station until 2020 and encourages a commercial spacecraft industry.
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III. TEACHING TOOLBOX |
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Fired UpIn a showcase for teen inventors, math and science fuel creativity SAN MATEO, Calif. – As you might expect in the technologically savvy Bay Area, electronic gadgets loomed large at Maker Faire, an annual celebration of hackers, inventors, and do-it-yourself creators that drew 100,000-plus spectators last spring. A fleet of R2-D2s blipped and chirped just like their Star Wars inspiration. An inventor showed off a homemade 3-D camera, while a laptop maestro conducted a robotic orchestra. And then there was Saphira, an 81/2-foot-tall, fire-breathing dragon.
Saphira represented a new dimension for Maker Faire, a festival launched in 2006 by Make magazine that has spread to Austin, Detroit, New York, and the United Kingdom. A huge science fair with the ambience of Burning Man, the summer-solstice campers' romp in the Nevada desert, Maker Faire attracts mostly adult exhibitors. Saphira, however, was the creation of Sam DeRose, 16, and Alex Jacobson, 15, who teamed up to build it as part of Young Makers. Spearheaded by Sam's dad, Tony DeRose, a senior scientist and leader of the research group at Pixar Animation Studios, Young Makers joins middle and high school students and adult mentors in inventive projects that stimulate math and science learning. Sam has always enjoyed creating things, beginning with Legos and graduating to more complex projects. Working out of their garage, he and his father built a 2-by-3-foot multitouch computer display – something like a giant iPad – that required knowledge of physics, electronics, software, and woodworking. DeRose's younger son made a video documenting the project, and the family displayed the creation at the 2008 Maker Faire. The next year, the DeRoses made a six-barrel Gatling gun that shoots potatoes. As creating something for Maker Faire became a family tradition, the elder DeRose began to think about how he could bring that experience to others. "Many kids are born makers, but there's not much of a support network to help them," DeRose observes.
In January, DeRose teamed up with the San Francisco Exploratorium museum to launch Young Makers. Eighteen students, ages 12 to 17, were recruited through DeRose's social networks, the Exploratorium, and TechShop, a public do-it-yourself workshop in Menlo Park, Calif. The students were matched with adult mentors who helped them find a project vision – if they didn't already have one – and work out a plan to realize it in time for the Maker Faire in May. Kids and mentors met once a month at the Exploratorium to review designs. The resulting projects covered a wide range: One father-son team designed an elevator that ferried tools up and down a ladder. Three girls teamed up to transform a table from IKEA into a hamster habitat. Joining the younger DeRose in producing Saphira, Alex Jacobson had the job of handling the programming that controlled the dragon's electrical system and pneumatics. He had built websites and written a chat program before but had never used his skills to control a live machine. Nathaniel Cooney, 13, had always made things but figured Young Makers offered a chance to be more ambitious. He settled on turning a broken electric scooter into a vehicle that shot flames out the back. He and his dad spent Saturday mornings working on Flame Chopper, as the project was dubbed, in Tony DeRose's garage. In the process, Nathaniel learned how to weld metal parts. "That was great!" he says.
The mentors took the opportunity to expose the math and science principles underlying the projects. Motivated, the kids learned material that was often more advanced than what is taught in middle school or even high school, DeRose says, and used it in their designs. Shawn Neely doubled as mentor and fire safety consultant, helping with Saphira and Flame Chopper. Both projects burned propane for their flame effects, so the team talked about the chemical reaction and experimented with the fuel-air mixture to produce just the kind of flames that they wanted. The ignition system on the dragon gave them an opportunity to discuss how transformers work, since the electricity of the 110-volt wall outlet needed to be stepped-up to 5,000 volts to trigger a spark plug. The projects also taught the young people that things don't always work the first time. At the 11th hour, the charger failed on the chopper, which required a group debugging, using multi-meters to determine the location of the problem. They pinpointed it on a blown diode, and Nathaniel did some soldering to work around it. "It was kind of nerve-wracking at the end," he says, but otherwise, the project went smoothly, and he met the Maker Faire deadline. Fifteen out of the 18 kids exhibited their creations, talking with hundreds of people, young and old, over two days. "It was tremendously fun to see them describing their projects," DeRose says. "You could really tell that the kids understood it deeply when you listened to them describe their projects at the fair." Honing their communications skills will likely serve the students well in the future. "That's really important in today's industrial landscape," says Michelle Hlubinka, education director at Maker Media. "What story are you telling people about what you're making, and why they need it?"
Some parents were already makers themselves and could shepherd their kids through their chosen project. Others had the interest but not the skills, so established makers acted as "meta-mentors" to those parents. The organizers of Young Makers want to open the program to 80 or 90 participants next year. The challenge will be to recruit mentors who have the tools and space to host fabrication centers, DeRose says. The ultimate goal is to scale up the program nationwide. For DeRose's employer, Disney/Pixar, both a sponsor of Young Makers and a source of mentors, it's part of an effort to make math and science education more inspiring and relevant. "Kids that like to do this stuff are like little Imagineers," DeRose says, referring to Disney's term for their designers and developers.
"The hope is that, as kids come back each year, their skills grow, their project visions become more ambitious, and they'll eventually start serving as mentors to the younger kids," DeRose says. They will do so with the encouragement of Maker Faire organizers. "We'd be delighted to see lots more kids become innovators and leaders in science and technology," says Hlubinka. While waiting for Young Makers to reach their communities, parents and teachers who want to encourage kids to become makers have lots of online resources available. Maker SHED and SparkFun Electronics offer kits. Another website, Instructables, hosts forums so makers can share tips and network. "Learning to become makers together is great fun, so if possible, work on projects together, starting smaller and simpler and working up in complexity," DeRose advises. "Kits are a great way to start." For Alex Jacobson, who is pondering projects for next year, it will be hard to top Saphira: "It was one of the most exciting things I'd done in a while."
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IV. JEE Selects |
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Resisting InnovationWhy faculty are slow to adopt new teaching methods. Each year, the National Science Foundation invests millions to support educational research and develop innovative instructional strategies. To what extent have these investments systemically influenced practice in engineering classrooms, and how can returns on investment be improved? These fundamental questions were addressed in our survey of engineering department chairs across the country. We studied seven established engineering education innovations, including service learning and design projects in first-year engineering courses. While 82 percent of department chairs had heard of the innovations, only 45 percent reported using them.
Survey responses and Diffusion of Innovations theory help explain complexity of adoption and suggest recommendations for action. Findings reinforce existing theory that adoption occurs in stages, that complexity of the innovation matters, and that social and professional networks can encourage adoption. Adoption occurs in stages. To adopt an innovation, an engineering faculty member makes a series of decisions that require different types of information at different times. Dissemination approaches commonly used in engineering education - websites, conference papers and presentations, and workshops - increase awareness of the innovations, but they do not necessarily encourage sustained adoption. Concerns voiced by department chairs included financial resources, class sizes, space, technology, instructional staff time, and whether student learning and satisfaction would really improve. Once faculty and administrators become aware of innovations, local and interpersonal networks become more important in helping them understand exactly whether and how to implement the innovations. These informal interactions can also help dispel some of the misconceptions revealed by survey responses; for example, that active learning requires expensive technology. Campus teaching and learning centers, particularly those with resources dedicated to engineering, can play key roles as information brokers and help faculty select innovations that best fit their needs. Complexity matters. Survey results showed innovations that could easily be implemented by individual faculty members - for example, research-based instructional strategies, including active learning - were adopted at higher rates than innovations that required coordination across multiple departments, such as interdisciplinary capstone design projects. The biggest gaps between awareness and adoption were observed for the most complex innovations requiring significant coordination across departments and/or significant material resources: service-learning, artifact dissection, and learning communities or integrated curricula. Open-ended comments also indicate that complexity and coordination are more critical concerns with some innovations than others. In these cases, it is doubly important to help faculty and administrators understand how to coordinate organizations and resources to try out, scale up, and successfully adopt the innovations. Social and professional networks encourage adoption. Department heads were skeptical of evidence of increased student learning with some of the innovations. Further, they preferred to rely on direct experiences of trusted colleagues, gaining awareness from them about the innovations, along with conference and on-campus presentations. Our survey highlighted the importance of engineering professional societies. We support the recommendation of the recent ASEE report Creating a Culture for Scholarly and Systematic Innovation in Engineering Education that professional engineering societies reward faculty members for educational activity; create "education-focused interest groups, publications, and meetings"; and integrate student and professional activities. To translate awareness to adoption, change agents need to make better use of networks (including professional societies) and informal interactions, tune their dissemination approaches to different stages in the adoption process, and invest greater creativity and effort in dissemination of more complex innovations. Positive experiences with educational innovations and practical advice on implementation remain critical to encouraging adoption by others.
Jeffrey Froyd is director for faculty development at Texas A&M University. Maura Borrego is an associate professor at Virginia Tech. This article is an extract from "Diffusion of Engineering Education Innovations: A Survey of Awareness and Adoption Rates in U.S. Engineering Departments," coauthored by T. Simin Hall, a research assistant professor at Virginia Tech, in the July 2010 Journal of Engineering Education.
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V. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS |
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Job-hunting? Here are a few current openings:1. Agricultural Engineering -- 1 opportunity 2. Biomedical Engineering -- 2 opportunities 3. Civil Engineering -- 3 opportunities 4. Mechanical Engineering -- 8 opportunities Visit here for details:
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VI. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS |
ASEE Executive Director Search
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VII. COMING ATTRACTIONS |
Upcoming in November's Prism magazine:COVER: Nanotechnology is big business. More than 1,000 consumer products and 20 medical products use it. Global research and development is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2015. But the ubiquity of nanoparticles is a cause of concern, because so little is known about their longterm impact on human health and the environment. Engineers are playing a critical role in trying to find out. FEATURE 1: The Centers for Excellence, university research consortia funded by the Department of Homeland Security, have produced software to intercept contraband at points of entry, tracked down the source of a salmonella outbreak and helped predict the worst coastal damage of the BP oil spill. Despite these successes, however, the program faces deep cuts and could be scaled back. FEATURE 2: If you were looking for hotbeds of innovation in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, the nation's tribal and native peoples' colleges probably wouldn't be your first stop. But what's happening there would surprise you.
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VIII. SOUND OFF! |
Do you have a comment or suggestion for Connections? Please let us know. Email us at: connections@asee.org. Thanks!
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