Integrating Courses Through Project Based Learning

Integrating three courses (one sophomore level, two senior level) through Project Based Learning (PBL) within the Industrial Engineering curriculum at the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo is presented. Three courses (IME 443 Facilities Planning and Design - senior level; IME 420 Simulation - senior level; and IME 223 Process Improvement Fundamentals - sophomore level) were linked by various mechanisms: Common industry projects, common students in two of the three courses; senior students having access to sophomores in their teams to carry out time consuming tasks such as time studies, and sophomores having access to seniors as team members, and as coaches and mentors. “Industry partners” opened their doors to a group of students to identify “process improvement opportunities”. Each student team included students from each of the participating classes. Scheduling of courses back to back in the morning provided students longer periods of class time to visit companies for their project work. One of the unique opportunities in this project was for the faculty to model collaboration around complex problems with no easy solution (integration of course), just as the students are required to do. Student interest is high. Faculty development is also enhanced by the enjoyable collaboration experience

Integrating 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine into the Epigenomic Landscape of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Covalent modification of DNA distinguishes cellular identities and is crucial for regulating the pluripotency and differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells. The recent demonstration that 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) may be further modified to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) in ES cells has revealed a novel regulatory paradigm to modulate the epigenetic landscape of pluripotency. To understand the role of 5-hmC in the epigenomic landscape of pluripotent cells, here we profile the genome-wide 5-hmC distribution and correlate it with the genomic profiles of 11 diverse histone modifications and six transcription factors in human ES cells. By integrating genomic 5-hmC signals with maps of histone enrichment, we link particular pluripotency-associated chromatin contexts with 5-hmC. Intriguingly, through additional correlations with defined chromatin signatures at promoter and enhancer subtypes, we show distinct enrichment of 5-hmC at enhancers marked with H3K4me1 and H3K27ac. These results suggest potential role(s) for 5-hmC in the regulation of specific promoters and enhancers. In addition, our results provide a detailed epigenomic map of 5-hmC from which to pursue future functional studies on the diverse regulatory roles associated with 5-hmC

Work in Progress - A Design Guide to Retain Female (and Male) Students in Engineering

Despite a rich body of research on factors contributing to attrition of women during the college, women continue to be underrepresented in the graduating classes of most traditional engineering disciplines. We present our Four-Domain Development Diagram (4DDD) in an attempt to enable a systems approach to managing all the factors that contribute to retention. This diagram makes explicit the connections between the learners\u27 response factors in the learning environment, including motivation, interest, and ultimately retention. Although we are only three years into our use of the diagrams\u27 relationships, we have seen a lower overall net attrition rate (male and female) from freshman year from ~50% to ~20%, seeing a net influx of female students, from numbers as low as 2 of 44 in the entering freshmen cohort to 6 out of 40 (now sophomores) in that same cohort. In this paper, we present the diagram, briefly introduce the theoretical underpinnings with preliminary quantitative and qualitative data