Assessing the Pedagogical Impact of the VaNTH Engineering Research Center on Faculty and Postdoctoral Professionals

From 1999 to 2007, the Vanderbilt-Northwestern-Texas-Harvard/MIT (VaNTH) Engineering Research Center focused on improving bioengineering education through the applications of learning science, learning technology, and assessment and evaluation within the domain of bioengineering. This paper discusses results from a survey to explore the impact of the VaNTH experience on participating faculty and postdoctoral professionals. The results note that respondents differed in their familiarity with and applications of dimensions of the “How People Learn” framework and in their operationalization of effective instruction after their participation in VaNTH. Implications for teaching and learning with the context of a Center model are discussed along with next steps for exploring the experiences of faculty and professionals engaged in the VaNTH ERC

Academic Problem-Solving and Students’ identities as engineers

Socially constructed identities and language practices influence the ways students perceive themselves as learners, problem solvers, and future professionals. While research has been conducted on individuals’ identity as engineers, less has been written about how the language used during engineering problem solving influences students’ perceptions and their construction of identities as learners and future engineers. This study investigated engineering students’ identities as reflected in their use of language and discourses while engaged in an engineering problem solving activity. We conducted interviews with eight engineering students at a large southeastern university about their approaches to open and closed-ended materials engineering problems. A modification of Gee’s analysis of language-in-use was used to analyze the interviews. We found that pedagogical and engineering problem solving uses of language were the most common. Participants were more likely to perceive themselves as students highlighting the practices, expectations, and language associated with being a student rather than as emerging engineers whose practices are affected by conditions of professional practice. We suggest that problem solving in an academic setting may not encourage students to consider alternative discourses related to industry, professionalism, or creativity; and, consequently, fail to promote connections to social worlds beyond the classroom. By learning about the ways in which language in particular settings produces identities and shapes problem solving practices, educators and engineering professionals can gain deeper understanding of how language shapes the ways students describe themselves as problem-solvers and make decisions about procedures and techniques to solve engineering problems

Herschel observations of EXtraordinary Sources: Analysis of the full Herschel/HIFI molecular line survey of Sagittarius B2(N)

A sensitive broadband molecular line survey of the Sagittarius B2(N) star-forming region has been obtained with the HIFI instrument on the Herschel Space Observatory, offering the first high-spectral resolution look at this well-studied source in a wavelength region largely inaccessible from the ground (625-157 um). From the roughly 8,000 spectral features in the survey, a total of 72 isotopologues arising from 44 different molecules have been identified, ranging from light hydrides to complex organics, and arising from a variety of environments from cold and diffuse to hot and dense gas. We present an LTE model to the spectral signatures of each molecule, constraining the source sizes for hot core species with complementary SMA interferometric observations, and assuming that molecules with related functional group composition are cospatial. For each molecule, a single model is given to fit all of the emission and absorption features of that species across the entire 480-1910 GHz spectral range, accounting for multiple temperature and velocity components when needed to describe the spectrum. As with other HIFI surveys toward massive star forming regions, methanol is found to contribute more integrated line intensity to the spectrum than any other species. We discuss the molecular abundances derived for the hot core, where the local thermodynamic equilibrium approximation is generally found to describe the spectrum well, in comparison to abundances derived for the same molecules in the Orion KL region from a similar HIFI survey.Comment: Accepted to ApJ. 64 pages, 14 figures. Truncated abstrac

Impact of standardised packaging in the UK on warning salience, appeal, harm perceptions and cessation-related behaviours: A longitudinal online survey

Introduction In the UK, since 20 May 2017, tobacco companies must sell cigarettes and rolling tobacco in standardised packs. Methods Three waves of a longitudinal online survey with smokers (≥16) before standardised packaging (wave 1 (W1): April to May 2016) and after standardised packaging (wave 2 (W2): September to November 2017; wave 3 (W3): May to July 2019). Of the 6233 smokers at W1, 4293 responded at W2 and 3175 at W3. We explored smokers’ response to warning salience, appeal (appeal, quality, value, satisfaction and taste compared with a year ago), harm (harmfulness compared with a year ago, harm compared with other brands and whether some brands have more harmful substances), and quit plans, attempts and quitting. Results Compared with W1, the proportions noticing warnings first on packs, and rating cigarettes/rolling tobacco less appealing and worse value than a year ago, were higher at W2 and W3. Disagreeing that some brands contain more harmful substances was higher at W2. Interactions between social grade and survey wave for warning salience, and each appeal and harm outcome, were non-significant. Smokers switching from not noticing warnings first at W1 to noticing warnings first at W2, or who had a lower composite appeal score at W2, were more likely to plan to quit and to have made a quit attempt at W2. Smokers who switched to disagreeing that some brands contain more harmful substances at W2, after giving a different response at W1, were more likely to quit at W3. Conclusions Standardised packaging appears to be having the intended impacts.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

The response of smokers to health warnings on packs in the United Kingdom and Norway following the introduction of standardized packaging

Introduction Standardised packaging was phased in between May 2016 and May 2017 in the UK and July 2017 and July 2018 in Norway. In both countries the health warnings on packs prior to standardised packaging being implemented were from the former Tobacco Products Directive library of warnings (text warnings covering 43% of the pack front and pictorial warnings covering 53% of the pack reverse). The warnings on packs, post-implementation, were from the current Tobacco Products Directive library of warnings (novel pictorial warnings covering 65% of the pack front and reverse) for the UK but unchanged in Norway. Methods Longitudinal online surveys were conducted prior to standardised packaging (UK: April-May 2016; Norway: May-June 2017) and post-implementation (UK: October-November 2017; Norway: August-September 2018). We explored smokers’ response to the on-pack warnings (salience, cognitive reactions, behavioural reactions). Results In the UK, noticing warnings on packs, reading or looking closely at them, thinking about them, thinking about the health risks, avoidant behaviours, forgoing cigarettes and being more likely to quit due to the warnings significantly increased from waves 1 to 2, and then decreased from waves 2 to 3, but remained higher than at wave 1. In Norway, noticing warnings, reading or looking closely at them, thinking about them, thinking about the health risks, and being more likely to quit due to the warnings significantly decreased from waves 1 to 2; avoidant behaviours and forgoing cigarettes remained unchanged. Conclusions The inclusion of large novel pictorial warnings on standardised packs increases warning salience and effectiveness. Implications Two longitudinal online surveys in the UK and Norway explored the impact of standardised packaging on warning salience and effectiveness. That warning salience and effectiveness only increased in the UK post-implementation, where standardised packaging was implemented alongside new larger pictorial warnings on the pack front and reverse, and not in Norway, where standardised packaging was introduced but older smaller text warnings (pack front) and pictorial warnings (pack reverse) were retained, highlights the importance of removing full branding and introducing stronger warnings simultaneousl