Preparing STEM Teachers for Integration of NGSS: a Summer Workshop Development

The increasing emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in United States and across the world created the demand for STEM education to start as early as elementary school. Especially in the past decade, the demand for middle schools and high schools to increase the involvement of the STEM components in their curriculum has been on the rise. The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)(http://www.nextgenscience.org/) are testimonial to this demand and need. With the fast-pace the NGSS are being adopted by different states, the expectations from science, engineering, and technology teachers to develop and design their courses to reflect the new standards and meet the updated goals increased. To support teachers with the necessary resources and training, a Summer STEM training program and a set of STEM training modules have been developed by a 4-year accredited State College. This paper provides an overview of the STEM initiatives and a step-by-step approach of the design and development of the STEM modules to train K-12 teachers

Collaborated Efforts in TI ARM M4/32Bits Microcontroller Curricula Developments and Assessments

The disappearing and lack technical supports in hardware and software of 68XXX and 80XXX microcontrollers have made the finding of the replacement an urgent issue in the academic communities. There are many new comers such as Microchip PIC, Arduino ATMEL, and Texas Instruments ARM M series to choose from, but obstacles and learning curve for the faculty to adopt the new environment with these new microcontrollers have issues to slow the process. There were efforts made with grant supports to disseminate the curricula development on PIC and Arduino microcontrollers. But, industries have suggested and expressed the needs and desire of 32 bits ARM microcontroller’s skills from engineer and technology programs graduates to fill the job markets. This article presents a preliminary study and comparison that introduce a concept of collaborated efforts among different institutions to develop the ARM curricula that aimed to fit the industry’s call for duties. These curricula development efforts are not only aim at on-campus face-to-face teaching and learning strategy but also distance hands-on learning through delivering course modules using both synchronous and asynchronous. An assessment of this jointed efforts are also part of the studies. Engineering technology focuses on both hands-on and mind-on design work and the article is to demonstrate the collaborated efforts in advanced curriculum development such as the ARM microcontroller which is the key ingredient for success. Through the development efforts and online Learning Management System (LMS) designs that make the distance delivery and cyber-enabled learning possible. These efforts not only benefit the interested faculty/teachers in better teaching and learning, but also support the students who can learn more advanced technical concepts that are needed for emerging high-tech jobs for today and in the future. Highlights of the presentation will address the following: • Research and development of the virtual classrooms and open source service server. • Design and development of the supported material. • Implementation strategies and planning for the distance hands-on approach. • Preliminary assessment of the teaching and learning. • Recommendations of potential adoption of the development. • Continuous improvement of teaching and learning in academic community

A Statistical Model for Energy Intensity

A promising approach to improve scientific literacy in regards to global warming and climate change is using a simulation as part of a science education course. The simulation needs to employ scientific analysis of actual data from internationally accepted and reputable databases to demonstrate the reality of the current climate change situation. One of the most important criteria for using a simulation in a science education course is the fidelity of the model. The realism of the events and consequences modeled in the simulation is significant as well. Therefore, all underlying equations and algorithms used in the simulation must have real-world scientific basis. The "Energy Choices" simulation is one such simulation. The focus of this paper is the development of a mathematical model for "Energy Intensity" as a part of the overall system dynamics in "Energy Choices" simulation. This model will define the "Energy Intensity" as a function of other independent variables that can be manipulated by users of the simulation. The relationship discovered by this research will be applied to an algorithm in the "Energy Choices" simulation