Tools for Outreach Presentations

We present resources we have constructed and culled from the internet that can be used in computing outreach visits in K–12 classrooms, especially high schools. We have used such tools at about 100 schools, reaching several thousand students, and achieving positive attitudinal responses in surveys of several hundred of these students

Genetic analysis of lice supports direct contact between modern and archaic humans

Journal ArticleParasites can be used as unique markers to investigate host evolutionary history, independent of host data. Here we show that modern human head lice, Pediculus humanus, are composed of two ancient lineages, whose origin predates modern Homo sapiens by an order of magnitude (ca. 1.18 million years)

Using Magic in Computing Education and Outreach

This special session explores the use of magic tricks based on computer science ideas; magic tricks help grab students\u27 attention and can motivate them to invest more deeply in underlying CS concepts. Error detection ideas long used by computer scientists provide a particularly rich basis for working such magic\u27\u27, with a CS Unplugged parity check activity being a notable example. Prior work has shown that one can perform much more sophisticated tricks than the relatively well-known CS Unplugged activity, and these tricks can motivate analyses across a wide variety of computer science concepts and are relevant to learning objectives across grade levels from 2nd grade through graduate school. These tricks have piqued the interest of past audiences and have been performed with the aid of online implementations; this conference session will demonstrate enhanced implementations used to illuminate the underlying concepts rather than just to perform the tricks. The audience will participate in puzzling out how to apply relevant concepts as we work through a scaffolded series of tricks centering on error detection and correction. The implementations also provide a useful model for incorporating greater interaction than is typically found in current innovative online interactive textbooks. In addition, they are samples for possible programming assignments that can motivate students using CS Unplugged activities to actively pursue deep programming experiences

Science requirements and feasibility/design studies of a very-high-altitude aircraft for atmospheric research

The advantages and shortcomings of currently available aircraft for use in very high altitude missions to study such problems as polar ozone or stratosphere-troposphere exchange pose the question of whether to develop advanced aircraft for atmospheric research. To answer this question, NASA conducted a workshop to determine science needs and feasibility/design studies to assess whether and how those needs could be met. It was determined that there was a need for an aircraft that could cruise at an altitude of 30 km with a range of 6,000 miles with vertical profiling down to 10 km and back at remote points and carry a payload of 3,000 lbs

Process, Ideology, and Willingness to Pay for Reducing Childhood Poverty

We investigated the perceived value of government programs on early-childhood development as a means of reducing childhood poverty. We incorporated preferences for the process as well as the outcome by developing two stated-preference survey instruments. One survey directly elicited respondents’ willingness to pay specifically for high-quality, intensive, early-childhood development programs at federal and state levels. A second survey elicited respondents’ preferences for increasing or decreasing taxes and reallocating expenditures between other government programs and early-childhood programs. We found that respondents cared greatly about how childhood poverty was reduced, not just reducing poverty per se. The perceived effectiveness of a program and ideological perspective were found to be important determinants of preferences for a poverty-reduction program. Respondents across all groups, including conservatives and respondents who perceived the effectiveness of early-childhood programs to be low, were not in favor of reducing the early-childhood program.</jats:p

A comparison of entering vs. exiting visual acuities of a humanitarian eye glass mission to Mexico

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the amount of improvement in visual acuity (VA) of persons helped through humanitarian optometry. Methods: A humanitarian clinic was established for 3 days in San Bias, Nayarit, Mexico. During the 3 days, 890 people were evaluated for refractive error, binocularity, and ocular health. Visual acuity was taken at the beginning of the evaluation and at the end when spectacle correction was dispensed. Results: Significant improvement was seen in visual acuities at both distance and nearing the vast majority of patients seen. Data showed that of 731 people who received glasses for near (either as single vision or bifocal), the average exiting VA was between 20/20 and 20/3 0. The data also showed that of 413 people that received glasses for distance (single vision or bifocal), the average exiting VA was 20/32. An improvement in near acuity for cataract patients was evident, while improvement in distance acuity for these patients was minimal. Conclusion: The people of third world countries are at a significant disadvantage in the realm of eye care. By simply providing spectacle corrections, a large portion of the population seen was able to improve their acuity status and be removed from the categories of visually impaired or legally blind

Wingless Flight: The Lifting Body Story

Wingless Flight tells the story of the most unusual flying machines ever flown, the lifting bodies. It is my story about my friends and colleagues who committed a significant part of their lives in the 1960s and 1970s to prove that the concept was a viable one for use in spacecraft of the future. This story, filled with drama and adventure, is about the twelve-year period from 1963 to 1975 in which eight different lifting-body configurations flew. It is appropriate for me to write the story, since I was the engineer who first presented the idea of flight-testing the concept to others at the NASA Flight Research Center. Over those twelve years, I experienced the story as it unfolded day by day at that remote NASA facility northeast of los Angeles in the bleak Mojave Desert. Benefits from this effort immediately influenced the design and operational concepts of the winged NASA Shuttle Orbiter. However, the full benefits would not be realized until the 1990s when new spacecraft such as the X-33 and X-38 would fully employ the lifting-body concept. A lifting body is basically a wingless vehicle that flies due to the lift generated by the shape of its fuselage. Although both a lifting reentry vehicle and a ballistic capsule had been considered as options during the early stages of NASA's space program, NASA initially opted to go with the capsule. A number of individuals were not content to close the book on the lifting-body concept. Researchers including Alfred Eggers at the NASA Ames Research Center conducted early wind-tunnel experiments, finding that half of a rounded nose-cone shape that was flat on top and rounded on the bottom could generate a lift-to-drag ratio of about 1.5 to 1. Eggers' preliminary design sketch later resembled the basic M2 lifting-body design. At the NASA Langley Research Center, other researchers toyed with their own lifting-body shapes. Meanwhile, some of us aircraft-oriented researchers at the, NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California were experiencing our own fascination with the lifting-body concept. A model-aircraft builder and private pilot on my own time, I found the lifting-body idea intriguing. I built a model based on Eggers' design, tested it repeatedly, made modifications in its control and balance characteristics along the way, then eventually presented the concept to others at the Center, using a film of its flights that my wife, Donna and I had made with our 8-mm home camera

Stratigraphy, Distribution, and Structural Geology of Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian Sandstones in Adjacent Portions of Okfuskee and Seminole Counties, Oklahoma

This thesis is primarily a study of the local subsurface geology of Lower and Middle Pennsylvanian sandstones in a portion of east-central Oklahoma. In ascending order, these sandstones are known in the subsurface as the Cromwell, Gilcrease, Booch, Bartlesville, Red Fork, Lower Skinner, Upper Skinner, and Prue. Structural contour maps, logsignature maps, net-sandstone isopach maps, sandstone distribution maps, and correlation sections were prepared in this study. Data for this study were obtained from the Oklahoma City Geological Society, Oklahoma Well Log Library, Oklahoma Geological Survey, and Oklahoma State University.Geolog