Amalgamating sustainable design strategies into architectural curricula

In the era of climate change, rising sea levels, the hole in the ozone layer and current food crisis, sustainability is no longer a matter of choice; it is a must. While the term sustainability manages to embed itself in all aspects of contemporary life, sustainability in the built environment requires special attention. Designs created by architects and planners play a fundamental part in shaping the way we live, behave and interact with our surroundings. Smith (2001) argued that instilling sustainable design in curricula at schools of architecture is a significant method of encouraging sustainable architectural design in practice. This is particularly important in non-sustainable societies such as those of the Middle East. For these reasons, this study aims at exploring ‘sustainability strategies,’ as they may be described, adopted in different schools of architecture. The research surveys architectural curricula at different Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) exempted schools of Architecture, at part 1 and 2 levels. Meanwhile, it also observes the contradiction and difficulties of teaching sustainable architectural design in Egyptian and Middle Eastern societies, whose cultural fabric does not encourage environmental awareness. Finally, the study attempts to investigate, in an increased level of detail, how sustainable design education fits into the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula of the Architectural Engineering and Environmental Design Department (AEED) at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) in Alexandria, Egypt. The paper concludes that the proper application of sustainable design strategies at early stages of architecture education has developed architects with sturdy understanding of their environment, climate and local identity, which can never happen if this is addressed in postgraduate studies or at later stages of the Architecture career

SciTech News Volume 70, No. 4 (2016)

Columns and Reports From the Editor 3 Division News Science-Technology Division 4 SLA Annual Meeting 2016 Report (S. Kirk Cabeen Travel Stipend Award recipient) 6 Reflections on SLA Annual Meeting (Diane K. Foster International Student Travel Award recipient) 8 SLA Annual Meeting Report (Bonnie Hilditch International Librarian Award recipient)10 Chemistry Division 12 Engineering Division 15 Reflections from the 2016 SLA Conference (SPIE Digital Library Student Travel Stipend recipient)15 Fundamentals of Knowledge Management and Knowledge Services (IEEE Continuing Education Stipend recipient) 17 Makerspaces in Libraries: The Big Table, the Art Studio or Something Else? (by Jeremy Cusker) 19 Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division 21 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews 22 Advertisements IEEE 17 WeBuyBooks.net 2

CybHER: A Method for Empowering, Motivating, Educating and Anchoring Girls to a Cybersecurity Career Path

There are challenging problems to solve in cybersecurity. We must engage women as an untapped resource in our national effort to protect our country and critical infrastructure. Developing original ways to engage young women serves to address this recognized national need for recruitment through security education at the K-12 and undergraduate level. This would further address the widening gap between the availability and demand for qualified and diverse security professionals. Designing security iterations that are creative, socially relevant, and accessible to an underrepresented population in cybersecurity is a challenge that informs how education and outreach can be performed within other contexts. This research will discuss the CybHER model for engaging and supporting young women in cybersecurity while anchoring them to this field. By providing 5 different interventions, CybHER seeks to empower, motivate, educate, and anchor girls to cybersecurity. Further, existing CybHER outreach activities and lessons will be discussed

Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation

Machine Learning for Fluid Mechanics

The field of fluid mechanics is rapidly advancing, driven by unprecedented volumes of data from field measurements, experiments and large-scale simulations at multiple spatiotemporal scales. Machine learning offers a wealth of techniques to extract information from data that could be translated into knowledge about the underlying fluid mechanics. Moreover, machine learning algorithms can augment domain knowledge and automate tasks related to flow control and optimization. This article presents an overview of past history, current developments, and emerging opportunities of machine learning for fluid mechanics. It outlines fundamental machine learning methodologies and discusses their uses for understanding, modeling, optimizing, and controlling fluid flows. The strengths and limitations of these methods are addressed from the perspective of scientific inquiry that considers data as an inherent part of modeling, experimentation, and simulation. Machine learning provides a powerful information processing framework that can enrich, and possibly even transform, current lines of fluid mechanics research and industrial applications.Comment: To appear in the Annual Reviews of Fluid Mechanics, 202

Work at the Boundary: A Research-Practice Partnership to Integrate Computer Science into Middle School Science

The Maine Center for Research in STEM Education (RiSE Center) is currently developing a partnership between university education researchers, computer science faculty, and middle school science teachers throughout the state. The goal of this partnership is to develop a set of lessons that integrate computer science concepts and practices into existing science curricular materials. This STEM+C partnership brings together individuals who have a wide range of experience and comfort with computer science and teaching middle school. This study focuses on the partnership’s early stages through its initial summer collaborations. We designed and administered interviews prior to the module design process to gather information about participants’ initial impressions of collaboration, computer science, the overall project, and their role in the partnership. Using grounded theory techniques (Charmaz, 2006), we categorized these preliminary responses and used information about the respondents to predict where boundaries might arise during collaboration of the larger partnership. Preliminary analysis of interview transcripts revealed differences in how individuals in the partnership spoke about aspects of the project including science teaching and computer science. We examined these potential misalignments in communication among members of different subgroups in the partnership. Such misalignments constituted group boundaries (Akkerman and Bakker, 2011), where communication may be difficult or misconstrued by either party and where strategies may be needed to facilitate communication. Based on prior research, we predicted boundaries between university researchers and K-12 practitioners (Robinson and Darling-Hammond, 1994). In addition, we anticipated that participants who were computer science novices might have conflicting definitions of computer science, as suggested by Winitzky, Stoddart, and O’Keefe (1992) and Barr and Stephenson (2011). We anticipated that school district affiliates who served on planning committees for the project may act as boundary spanners who ease communication across the researcher-practitioner boundary, because they work more closely with university affiliates than the participants not involved in the planning process. Differences in interview responses, as well as changes in computer science definitions, revealed that a boundary may exist between participants who were involved in planning the collaboration, regardless of affiliation, and those who were not. The difference may be based on access to information about the project as a whole as well as details of the planning team’s efforts to define computer science for themselves before bringing the concept to the summer collaboration process. These findings suggest the need for clear communication protocols throughout the formation process of any such partnership, as well as explicit role definition for those designated to communicate information across a boundary

Advancement, Spring 2005

Advancement, a supplement to Bostonia magazine, provided updates on BU development activities, including major gifts and projects

Where and how 3D printing is used in teaching and education

The emergence of additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies is introducing industrial skills deficits and opportunities for new teaching practices in a range of subjects and educational settings. In response, research investigating these practices is emerging across a wide range of education disciplines, but often without reference to studies in other disciplines. Responding to this problem, this article synthesizes these dispersed bodies of research to provide a state‐of‐the‐art literature review of where and how 3D printing is being used in the education system. Through investigating the application of 3D printing in schools, universities, libraries and special education settings, six use categories are identified and described: (1) to teach students about 3D printing; (2) to teach educators about 3D printing; (3) as a support technology during teaching; (4) to produce artefacts that aid learning; (5) to create assistive technologies; and (6) to support outreach activities. Although evidence can be found of 3D printing‐based teaching practices in each of these six categories, implementation remains immature, and recommendations are made for future research and education policy.This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [number EP/K039598/1]

Burroughs Wellcome Fund - 2006 Annual Report

Contains mission statement, president's message, program information, grantee profiles, financial statements, grants summary and guidelines, and lists of board members, advisory committee members, and staff

A Departmental Focus on High Impact Undergraduate Research Experiences

Undergraduate research experiences have become an integral part of the Hamilton College chemistry experience. The major premise of the chemistry department’s curriculum is that research is a powerful teaching tool. Curricular offerings have been developed and implemented to better prepare students for the independence required for successful undergraduate research experiences offered during the academic year and the summer. Administrative support has played a critical role in our ability to initiate and sustain scholarly research programs for all faculty members in the department. The research-rich curriculum is built directly upon or derived from the scholarly research agendas of our faculty members. The combined strengths and synergies of our curriculum and summer research program have allowed us to pursue several programmatic initiatives