Engineering the Future: A Workshop for High School Teachers

The framework guiding the development of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) identifies eight science and engineering principles essential for all students to learn. The Engineering the Future workshop, offered by South Dakota State University (SDSU) in the summer of 2012, focused on helping teachers better understand those principles and how to employ them effectively in their classrooms. Each day of the week-long workshop, teachers participated in a variety of engineering-related activities, accessed low and high-end instrumentation, took tours of engineering-related facilities in the region, and developed lesson plans to incorporate what they learned into their science classrooms. We used pre- and postworkshop surveys to assess the participants’ understanding and attitudes regarding science and engineering. Results of the survey showed participants had a narrow view of engineering prior to the workshop but by the end of the workshop, they were more aware of the nature of engineering, the various types of engineering, and they better understood how they could incorporate engineering principles into their current curriculum

Analyzing Factors Influencing Teaching as a Career Choice Using Structural Equation Modeling

The purpose of the study is to analyze factors influencing students’ perceptions of teaching as a career choice using structural equation modeling with the goal of shaping a teacher education recruitment program. In this study, 458 students from a Midwestern university in the United States responded to an online survey about career-related factors they value, their expectation that teaching would offer those factors, and any social-influence factors that might encourage them to choose a teaching career. The effect of 10 exogenous motivation variables (value-environment, value-intrinsic, value-extrinsic, value-altruistic, expectancy-environment, expectancy-intrinsic, expectancy-extrinsic, social-media-education, social-prior-experience, and social-suggestions) on choosing a teaching career was examined. Results of our analysis showed that the factors related to expectancy-environment, expectancy-intrinsic, social-media-education, social-prior-experience, and social-suggestions were found to be significant, whereas value-related factors and expectancy-extrinsic factors were found to be insignificant

Appearing, disappearing, and reappearing fumed silica nanoparticles: Tapping-mode AFM evidence in a condensation cured polydimethylsiloxane hybrid elastomer

Preparation of Fumed Silica nanoparticles (FSN) poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) hybrids coating by utilizing polydithoxysiloxane 9PDES) as the siliceous domain (SD) precursor of Fumed Silica nanoparticles (FSN) was discussed. The surface analysis is done by tapping-mode atomic force microscopy (TM-AFM) of the hybrid materials. It was observed that for certain compositions and cure conditions the near surface FSN seemed to disappear. The inability to image near-surface nanoparticles was explained by the formation of an amorphous reticular siliceous surface domain that mechanically isolated near surface nanoparticles. Nanoparticles reappear or never appear depending on composition and nanoparticle surface chemistry. An identical phase image was observed after 100°C cure, and the results demonstrated that at low volume fractions of siliceous phase, the near surface nanostructure is independent of cure temperature