Theoretical STEM Program Proposal

Many schools are turning towards STEM to help students prepare for the future and to mend deficits in science and mathematics programs that are proving less than successful. This article provides background, theoretical support, and a plan for how to transform a school from a traditional model to a model STEM school

STEM Shift Action Plan

That there is an ever-growing need for students to enter STEM fields is no longer news. The need for people to fill STEM related jobs continues to expand (Bybee, 2013). Today’s students are global citizens who will need to collaborate and communicate with people around the world when they enter the workforce. Therefore, it is imperative that they are prepared with problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills before they enter secondary school (Myers & Berkowicz, 2015). Knowing that this must be done is the easy part, figuring out how to do it is the challenge. STEM must be incorporated into schools in a way that makes sense, gives teachers a chance to prepare to make the change, and build skills systematically. Change of this magnitude will not happen without turbulence, but there are ways to minimize the chaos (Myers & Berkowicz, 2015). Staying focused and implementing change in an organized and effective manner will help making the shift to STEM more palatable and more successful

The Value of a Program of Health Habits in the Rockdale High School Milam County, Rockdale, Texas

The concern and interest which school officials show in the health of the child are comparatively new things. It was once thought that schools were for the purpose of giving the child mental training. Health was regarded as a function of the home only.1 Modern trends in school practice are toward the development of the child in all its aspects. This of course includes the health habits of the child as well as his mental, moral and social dealings. The modern school is similar to a laboratory and everything done in this laboratory is done for the benefit of the children. New additions which once would have been considered non-essentials are now added to the school as a matter of course.2 Most of the additions are to serve in some way the development of the child\u27s health. Among the new additions mentioned are swimming pools, skating rinks, gymnasiums, tennis courts, cafeterias, swings, rings and various other health building facilities. The Rockdale, Texas High School has a faculty membership of seven persons and an enrollment of two hundred eighty-six pupils. It is the policy of this school to keep abreast of modern trends. Success along this line is shown in equipment and routines followed by a teacher in the system. During the last five years special emphasis has been placed on health. The essential effort has been to develop correct health habits in the children. It is the purpose of this discussion to check and measure the results of the activities in the health program. Efforts will also be made to show that there is definite relationship existing between good health and good scholarship. 1Emma Smedley, The School Lunch, Innes and Son, Philadelphia, Pa., 1930. p. 8. 2Ibi

Nondestructive Ultrasonic Characterization of the Orientation Distribution of Short-Fiber Composites

The ease of fabrication and relatively low cost of composites containing short glass or ceramic fibers embedded in a polymer or metal matrix has made them attractive candidates for a wide range of applications. The preferential alignment, or misalignment depending on one’s view, of the short fibers results in an overall texture of the composite and strongly influences its mechanical and physical response, for example, stiffness, conductivity, strength, and so on. The orientation of the short fibers depends strongly on the processing conditions. From a process-control viewpoint, it is imperative to determine if a composite component has adequate strength, stiffness, and so on, and it is preferable to obtain this information nondestructively. In short-fiber reinforced composites, the orientation distribution of the short fibers is the most significant variable that determines these overall properties. Thus its determination is essential

Temperature dependence of the nitrogen-vacancy magnetic resonance in diamond

The temperature dependence of the magnetic resonance spectra of nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) ensembles in the range of 280-330 K was studied. Four samples prepared under different conditions were studied with NV- concentrations ranging from 10 ppb to 15 ppm. For all of these samples, the axial zero-field splitting (ZFS) parameter, D, was found to vary significantly with temperature, T, as dD/dT = -74.2(7) kHz/K. The transverse ZFS parameter, E, was non-zero (between 4 and 11 MHz) in all samples, and exhibited a temperature dependence of dE/(EdT) = -1.4(3) x 10^(-4) K^(-1). The results might be accounted for by considering local thermal expansion. The observation of the temperature dependence of the ZFS parameters presents a significant challenge for room-temperature diamond magnetometers and may ultimately limit their bandwidth and sensitivity.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Spike-timing computation properties of a feed-forward neural network model

Brain function is characterized by dynamical interactions among networks of neurons. These interactions are mediated by network topology at many scales ranging from microcircuits to brain areas. Understanding how networks operate can be aided by understanding how the transformation of inputs depends upon network connectivity patterns, e.g. serial and parallel pathways. To tractably determine how single synapses or groups of synapses in such pathways shape transformations, we modeled feed-forward networks of 7-22 neurons in which synaptic strength changed according to a spike-timing dependent plasticity rule. We investigated how activity varied when dynamics were perturbed by an activity-dependent electrical stimulation protocol (spike-triggered stimulation; STS) in networks of different topologies and background input correlations. STS can successfully reorganize functional brain networks in vivo, but with a variability in effectiveness that may derive partially from the underlying network topology. In a simulated network with a single disynaptic pathway driven by uncorrelated background activity, structured spike-timing relationships between polysynaptically connected neurons were not observed. When background activity was correlated or parallel disynaptic pathways were added, however, robust polysynaptic spike timing relationships were observed, and application of STS yielded predictable changes in synaptic strengths and spike-timing relationships. These observations suggest that precise input-related or topologically induced temporal relationships in network activity are necessary for polysynaptic signal propagation. Such constraints for polysynaptic computation suggest potential roles for higher-order topological structure in network organization, such as maintaining polysynaptic correlation in the face of relatively weak synapses