Maker Fridays: Engaging Rural and Underrepresented High School Students in Pre-Engineering Design and Creativity

The engineering field struggles to develop sufficient interest and sustained participation across underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural, Hispanic, or Native American origin. It is critical to foster interest in engineering during formative years when students are deciding career paths. Northeast Community College (Northeast) addressed the shortage of diverse students entering into engineering fields by developing a course to engage rural and underrepresented high school students in maker design and creativity and to determine best practices that attract and retain these students. The Maker Fridays pre-engineering course was part of the Fridays@Northeast program that targets high school seniors, offering them the opportunity to learn from College faculty using Northeast lab spaces and classrooms to earn college credit. Northeast augmented an existing by incorporating a maker design area at the South Sioux City and Norfolk campuses. There were three cohorts of high school students involved in the EAGER Maker project at Northeast Community College throughout its two-year duration (Fall 2018, Spring 2019, and Fall 2019). Among the three cohorts, twenty-one students were enrolled in the course with eleven students participating in the research component, resulting in a 52% participation rate. The Maker Fridays project was designed to engage rural and underrepresented high school students in maker design and creativity and determine best practices that attract and retain these students. Through the Maker Fridays project, high school students were provided with learning activities and career exploration that will help them understand engineering while earning them college credits that will lead right into a program of study upon high school graduation. The researchers worked with the instructor to collect baseline and relevant continuing data on student background, academic preparation, engineering perceptions, career interests, course engagement, and overall student experiences. This was accomplished through a combination of student assessments, recorded class sessions reviews, and in- person class visits. The intent of the research study was to create a theoretical explanation for the development of interest in engineering careers for students from underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural, Hispanic, or Native American origin. However, the failure of Northeast to meet enrollment goals resulted in insufficient sample sizes for theoretical development. Thus, we are only able to report descriptive characteristics and general thematic findings from this study. In order to protect participants’ confidentiality, we cannot make the deidentified dataset available through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan as originally planned. However, the tools developed for this study and related codebooks are available as appendices to this report. There is a continued need to increase the number and diversity of students who pursue and complete engineering degrees to meet current and future national workforce needs. The Maker Fridays project will impact Northeast\u27s rural revitalization efforts due to the significant regional workforce demand for engineers. A major emphasis of this project was the focused partnerships created by inviting college faculty, educational researchers, and industry partners to be genuine colleagues who co-create educational pathways that both excite and encourage students to consider careers in engineering. From the perspective of employers, the project engaged engineering companies in ways that are fundamentally more active than how these partners are typically engaged with higher education. This project not only informed Northeast\u27s program, but it also benefited the students directly by highlighting the ongoing workforce needs of the region\u27s rural employers. The Maker Fridays project was designed to dispel misconceptions and transform careers in engineering into a tangible and viable option for underrepresented students by engaging high school seniors in a college-level maker course. A student’s positive experience in science that is integrated with maker design and creativity has been found to increase enthusiasm and a belief in the ability to pursue a science career (Linder et al., 2002; Feinstein et al., 2016). The Maker Fridays project engaged rural high school students in maker design and creativity. The engineering field struggles to develop sufficient interest and sustained participation across underrepresented demographic groups including women and individuals from rural communities. Through the Maker Fridays project, high school students were provided with learning activities and career exploration that helped them understand engineering while earning college credits that will lead to an engineering program of study upon high school graduation. These experiences were offered early enough in their education to allow changes in their career path. Through activities targeted to a high school audience, the Maker Fridays project dispelled misconceptions and transformed careers in engineering into a tangible and viable option for rural students

PHM Triage Curriculum Enhances Residents’ Skills and Comfort of Leading Triage Calls

Background: Though hospital triage is typically considered a role of pediatric hospitalists, these skills are important for residents to learn for any pediatric subspeciality. Additionally, many of these skills are addressed in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME) Pediatric Milestones and the American Board of Pediatrics’ (ABP) Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) as competencies expected of residency graduates. Currently, the pediatric residents at our medium-sized midwestern program do not participate in hospital triage, leaving this as a large gap in their education. Objective: To evaluate how a Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) Triage Curriculum enhances pediatric residents’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes pertaining to hospital triage. Methods: After developing learning goals and objectives, we implemented a 2-week rotation for third- or fourth-year pediatric residents to lead supervised hospital triage phone calls. Asynchronous self-study materials included a triage guide and handoff checklist, and learning occurred through the Experiential Learning Cycle with explicit self-reflection and instructional guidance from the supervising attending. The curriculum was evaluated through a case study-mixed methods explanatory sequential design with 1. A quantitative retrospective post-pre survey assessing self-perceived knowledge and skills, and 2. A qualitative post-rotation interview. Results to date have been reviewed with descriptive statistics and a general qualitative approach. Results: 12 residents have completed the rotation with a 10/12 (83%) response rate. 10/10 (100%) residents agreed or strongly agreed that it is important to learn skills of triage hospital medicine and stated that they are comfortable leading triage calls much more or somewhat more than before. Themes identified in the qualitative interview include increased comfort in leading triage calls; improved assessment of patients over the phone to determine disposition and level of care; improved patient care; and applicability to all their future careers. Conclusions: All residents had perceived improvements in knowledge and skills pertaining to triage medicine after completing the rotation, and they recognized the utility of these skills for their future careers. We will continue to address the logistical and systemic barriers to resident and faculty engagement in the curriculum.https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/chri_forum/1052/thumbnail.jp

Thematic Analysis of Third-Year Medical Student Reflections on Social Determinants of Health During Their Pediatric Clerkship: Emergent Themes and Topic Interconnectedness

Background. Social determinants of health (SDOH), as defined by the World Health Organization, are the “non-medical factors that influence health outcomes… the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.” Studies have estimated that SDOH account for 30-55% of health outcomes. Understanding the impact of SDOH can be integrated into medical education in different formats, here we explore student reflections. Methods. In the 2021-2022 academic year, third-year medical students at a midwestern medical school submitted discussion board reflections on their experiences with SDOH during their 8-week pediatric clerkship. We analyzed de-identified posts to look for emergent themes that showcase the experiences and perceptions of medical students as they care for patients and learn about the socio-environmental factors in the community. Initial coding was built on a preliminary codebook drafted based on the medical school’s SDOH curriculum. Utilizing a grounded theory approach, we added new codes as novel topics and themes emerged. We then examined the relationships between the codes and SDOH categories outlined in the US Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2030 objectives. Results. Ninety-seven student discussion posts were analyzed. Our preliminary results demonstrate the two most common themes, social support and communication, together represented approximately 50% of all student responses. With the addition of the next two most frequently discussed topics, healthcare access and diet/nutrition, this set of themes comprises over 75% of student responses. Student responses also demonstrated the interconnectedness of SDOH categories through frequent overlap of categories during coding and analysis. Conclusion. Our study demonstrates the most common SDOH themes students identified during the pediatric clerkship involve social support, communication, access to care, and diet/nutrition. We found a multifactorial, connected nature of those themes as they impact patient health. This study validates the need for explicit education on SDOH topics during medical school so that future physicians are well-equipped to intervene or accommodate these factors throughout their careers. Future directions include comparing our results to preexisting social and educational frameworks and future cohort comparisons as curriculum evolves.https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/chri_forum/1065/thumbnail.jp

Peer Feedback on Teaching for Health Professions Lectures

The Peer Feedback on Teaching Rubric was developed to support health professions educators in assessing their teaching. It provides a rubric of meaningful feedback to individuals to make improvements in learning and engagement. The rubric can be used to evaluate both in-person and online lectures. Educators can use the rubric in three ways: For self-reflection to assess their own teaching To observe a master teacher to identify important teaching techniques and see how they are effectively implemented To receive peer feedback by having a fellow educator evaluate a live teaching sessionhttps://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/iae_tools/1000/thumbnail.jp

Camilla: A Centaur reconnaissance and impact mission concept

Centaurs, minor planets with a semi-major axis between the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune (5–30 AU), are thought to be among the most diverse small bodies in the solar system. These important targets for future missions may have recently been Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), which are thought to be chemically and physically primitive remnants of the early solar system. While the Kuiper Belt spans distances of 30–50 AU, making direct observations difficult, Centaurs' proximity to the Earth and Sun make them more accessible targets for robotic missions. Thus, we outline a mission concept designed to reconnoiter 10199 Chariklo, the largest Centaur and smallest ringed body yet discovered. Named for a legendary Centaur tamer, the conceptual Camilla mission is designed to fit under the cost cap of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) New Frontiers program, leveraging a conservative payload to support a foundational scientific investigation to these primitive bodies. Specifically, the single flyby encounter utilizes a combined high-resolution camera/VIS-IR mapping spectrometer, a sub-mm point spectrometer, and a UV mapping spectrometer. In addition, the mission concept utilizes a kinetic impactor, which would provide the first opportunity to sample the composition of potentially primitive subsurface material beyond Saturn, thus providing key insights into solar system origins. Such a flyby of the Chariklo system would provide a linchpin in the understanding of small body composition, evolution, and transport of materials in the solar system

Omicron neutralising antibodies after COVID-19 vaccination in haemodialysis patients.

Funder: Kidney Research U

Clinical and genetic heterogeneity in familial focal segmental glomerulosclerosis

Clinical and genetic heterogeneity in familial focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.BackgroundFamilial forms of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FFSGS) that exhibit autosomal dominant or recessive patterns of inheritance have been described. The genetic basis of these hereditary forms of FSGS is unknown. One recent study of a kindred from Oklahoma with an autosomal dominant form of FSGS linked this disease to a region of chromosome 19q. In addition, polymorphisms in a gene in this region on chromosome 19q13 have been linked to congenital nephrotic syndrome of the Finnish type. We have ascertained and characterized a large family with autosomal dominant FFSGS (Duke 6530).MethodsFamilies were compared for clinical and genetic heterogeneity. To test for linkage of our family to this portion of chromosome 19, genomic DNA was isolated from 102 family members, and polymerase chain reaction was performed using eight microsatellite markers that spanned the area of interest on chromosome 19. Data were evaluated using two-point linkage analysis, multipoint analysis, and an admixture test.ResultsLinkage was excluded at a distance of ±5 to 10cm for all markers tested with two-point log10 of the odds of linkage (LOD) scores and from an approximate 60cm interval in this area of chromosome 19q via multipoint analysis.ConclusionFSGS has been called the “final common pathway” of glomerular injury, as it is a frequent pathological manifestation with diverse etiologies. This diversity likely correlates with the genetic heterogeneity that we have established. Thus, our data demonstrate that there are at least two genes responsible for this disease, and there is genetic as well as clinical heterogeneity in autosomal dominant FSGS

Mammographic density adds accuracy to both the Tyrer-Cuzick and Gail breast cancer risk models in a prospective UK screening cohort

This work was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal (references GA10-033 and GA13-006). This article presents independent research funded by the NIHR under its Programme Grants for Applied Research (grant RP-PG-0707-10031). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. The authors also acknowledge the support of Medical Research Council Health eResearch Centre grant MR/K006665/1

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe

The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure