Using Experiential and Collaborative Learning to Promote Careers in Engineering

This paper discusses the design of the Girls Accelerating and Learning STEM (G.A.L.S.) one-week residential summer camp designed to encourage young girls to pursue engineering careers. Specifically, the camp exposed participants to the fields of computer science and engineering using experiential learning to develop participant interest and skills. At the end of the program, students participated in team competitions and presented their work. The end-of-program survey data showed that the G.A.L.S. camp had an impact on the enhancement of student interest in engineering as a potential career. The paper will provide details on the program components, and further discuss the impacts of the program and how it can be used as a model for future programs.Cockrell School of Engineerin

Climate Science Literacy: A Study of Climate Programs\u27 Usability

Literacy is an important facet of understanding how undergraduate college students comprehend climate science. This research, conducted at West Virginia University, examines the usability of climate data in three commonly used climate programs to reduce the prominent knowledge gap in climate science literacy about college students. The objective of this research is to investigate the knowledge gap in climate science literacy by conducting focus group surveys to examine the usability of programs that use climate datasets. The three programs used in this research were the NOAA online tool, NASA’s Panoply data viewer, and GrADS programmable tool. The NOAA tool is based online with built in datasets. Panoply and GrADS are software programs that require external datasets. Each program was tested for usability. This research employed a mixed methods explanatory design to address research questions. To evaluate programs’ usability, the data from face-to-face interview and paper-based survey were quantitatively analyzed. To evaluate attitude toward three climate programs, the data from semi-structured interviews were qualitatively analyzed. My initial expectation was that participants would have difficulty with some of the programs used by climate scientists, and this would negatively impact their attitude towards the programs after attempting to use them. Identifying these difficulties would provide a possible way to address climate science literacy for undergraduate college students. The research encountered a major limitation of volunteer recruitment for participation in both surveys and interviews. As an artifact of this limitation, the quantitative and qualitative analysis contained a small sample size of eight participants. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed that participants found NOAA and Panoply relatively easier to work with than GrADS programmable tool, which was found to be the most challenging program to use by participants. Participants chose the NOAA online tool as having the highest usability among the three programs. Although the NOAA online tool was determined to be the easiest to use, qualitative results revealed Panoply data viewer was the most preferred program due to a better map output. The overall attitudes towards each program were: NOAA is easy to use, Panoply is somewhat easy to use, and is preferred, and GrADS is challenging to use and requires training to use successfully. This assessment of the usability of these three commonly used climate programs in teaching and research of climatology can aid in the advancement of climate science literacy. Panoply should be used as an introductory program to give students a good representation of climate programs. Results indicate that when students find the climate programs accessible they pay more attention in climate data analysis. Panoply can capture attention by creating aesthetically pleasing maps. The NOAA online tool, which had the highest usability among all the three programs, should be used as an introductory teaching tool for climate science. GrADS programmable tool can be used as an advanced statistical climate-based program. These recommendations support the advancement of climate science literacy, and address misconceptions and mistrust of climate science by providing students with a way to do analysis for themselves

Welfare-maximizing monetary policy under parameter uncertainty

This paper examines welfare-maximizing monetary policy in an estimated micro-founded general equilibrium model of the U.S. economy where the policymaker faces uncertainty about model parameters. Uncertainty about parameters describing preferences and technology implies not only uncertainty about the dynamics of the economy. It also implies uncertainty about the model's utility-based welfare criterion and about the economy's natural rate measures of interest and output. We analyze the characteristics and performance of alternative monetary policy rules given the estimated uncertainty regarding parameter estimates. We find that the natural rates of interest and output are imprecisely estimated. We then show that, relative to the case of known parameters, optimal policy under parameter uncertainty responds less to natural-rate terms and more to other variables, such as price and wage inflation and measures of tightness or slack that do not depend on natural rates.Monetary policy

TPS design for aerobraking at Earth and Mars

An investigation was made to determine the feasibility of using an aerobrake system for manned and unmanned missions to Mars, and to Earth from Mars and lunar orbits. A preliminary thermal protection system (TPS) was examined for five unmanned small nose radius, straight bi-conic vehicles and a scaled up Aeroassist Flight Experiment (AFE) vehicle aerocapturing at Mars. Analyses were also conducted for the scaled up AFE and an unmanned Sample Return Cannister (SRC) returning from Mars and aerocapturing into Earth orbit. Also analyzed were three different classes of lunar transfer vehicles (LTV's): an expendable scaled up modified Apollo Command Module (CM), a raked cone (modified AFT), and three large nose radius domed cylinders. The LTV's would be used to transport personnel and supplies between Earth and the moon in order to establish a manned base on the lunar surface. The TPS for all vehicles analyzed is shown to have an advantage over an all-propulsive velocity reduction for orbit insertion. Results indicate that TPS weight penalties of less than 28 percent can be achieved using current material technology, and slightly less than the most favorable LTV using advanced material technology

Outcomes of Advancing Women Faculty in Engineering and Technology at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A Retrospective Analysis of ADVANCE-PAID Participants

Keeping up with their historic missions, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have selected and granted progressively more number of degrees to women over the past few decades. From 1993 to 2006, the number of black women undergrads receiving degrees at HBCUs increased by 24%. For example, in 2002, 75% of black women awarded doctorates in Biology had baccalaureate origins from HBCUs. In 2006, data revealed that there were 900 black women faculty in STEM disciplines at HBCUs and 2,810 black women faculty at non-HBCUs. They accounted for 22% and 2% of the faculty at HBCUs and non-HBCUs. The ADVANCE-PAID project, Advancing Women Faculty in Engineering and Technology at HBCUs, was a collaboration between Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University that received National Science Foundation funding from September 2009 through August 2014. The project implemented four key activities: (1) annual workshops; (2) seed grants to support research efforts; (3) professional career coaching; and (4) weekly writing groups. Forty-seven women faculty from 14 HBCUs attended at least one annual workshop, 13 from 9 HBCUs received seed grants,11 from 9 HBCUs participated in career coaching, and between 4 and 6 women attended weekly writing groups. A retrospective analysis was conducted to determine the long-term impacts of the four activities. One-on-one, semi-structured interviews were conducted with past participants to determine the impact activities had on their careers. Current faculty rank and position of each participant were compared to the rank and position held when they initially participated in ADVANCE-PAID activities. Surveys were sent to participants to assess how this project impacted their success, informed their decision or interest in pursuing administration, and how the various activities helped them overall. Group averages were compared by activity or combination of activities

BELEID VIR MIDDELMISBRUIK IN HOËRSKOLE

Substance abuse amongst the youth is a growing concern in South Africa. There is also a need for schools to formulate a policy and to design programmes to deal with substance abuse in schools. The aim of this paper is to present some of the perceptions of learners on the relevance of formulating a policy for substance abuse in a school. The rest of the paper is devoted to a problem-solving model which can be used in the process of policy formulation. Recommendations are made that can be used by schools when formulating a policy for substance abus

Feeding Memories: A Conversation with Writers who Write About Food

Rochelle Spencer interviews Tara Christina, a writer and educator with degrees in holistic nutrition and is the founder and CEO of Tara’s Teas, an artisanal line of organic, loose leaf tea blends; Dera R. Williams whose work appears in several anthologies and you can find her food-related writing on her blog; and Shannon Holbrook, a writer and wine and food consultant who has organized prominent food-writing events throughout the Bay Area

External review of the storage plan for the Peterhead Carbon Capture and Storage Project

This document summarises the findings of an external independent review of the storage plan for the proposed Peterhead Carbon Capture and Storage project which aims to store up to 20 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 within the framework of the European Directive on the geological storage of CO2. The Peterhead Carbon Capture and Storage Project proposes to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from an existing gas-fired power-station at Peterhead and to store this in geological strata at a depth of around 2600 m beneath the outer Moray Firth. The plan is to store 10 - 15 Mt of CO2 over a ten to fifteen-year period commencing around 2020, but the site is being qualified for 20 Mt to allow for potential extension of the injection period. Storage will utilise the depleted Goldeneye gas condensate field with the Captain Sandstone reservoir as the primary storage container. The Storage Site covers some 70 km2, and comprises the Captain Sandstone and underlying strata of the Cromer Knoll Group, bounded by a polygon some 2 to 3 km outside of the original Goldeneye oil-water contact. The Storage Complex is larger, around 154 km2, bounded some 2 to 7 km outside of the original oil-water contact, and extending upwards to the top of the Dornoch Mudstone at a depth of more than 800 m. The top-seal of the primary container is a proven caprock for natural gas and is formed by the mudstones of the Upper Cromer Knoll Group, the overlying Rødby and Hidra formations and the Plenus Marl. A number of additional seals are present in the overburden within the Storage Complex, as are a number of potential secondary containers which could also serve as monitoring horizons. The geological interpretation of the storage site is based on the comprehensive datasets acquired during the discovery, appraisal and development of the Goldeneye field, and also data from other wells, fields and seismic surveys in the surrounding area. The static geological model of the storage site and adjacent aquifer has been stress tested for the key uncertainties, and it is considered to be robust. The storage capacity of the Goldeneye structure has been calculated using both static (volumetric) methods and dynamic flow modelling together with uncertainty analysis. Total estimated capacity of the structural closure is in the range 25 to 47 Mt and so robustly exceeds the proposed injected amount