Category: News

Chadde presented at North American Association for Environmental Education Conference

Joan ChaddeJoan Chadde, director of the Michigan Tech Center for Science and Environmental Outreach, presented “Promoting High School Students’ Interest in Natural Resource and Environmental Career Paths” at the North American Association for Environmental Education Conference in Madison last week.

The session described the program that provides 20 Detroit high school youth with a free opportunity to experience Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the campus of a natural resource university. Students complete pre/post surveys to measure changes in their interest in natural resource career paths.

Many at Michigan Tech supported the program, including Housing and Residential Life, School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, College of Engineering, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering and many others.

Dr. Jeon and Graduate Students Attend AutomotiveUI Conference

Philart and StudentsThis past week, Dr. Myoung “Philart” Jeon and seven of his students from CLS and CS attended the International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Jeon and his team received a tremendously positive response to the tutorial they hosted titled “In-Vehicle Auditory Interactions: Design and Application of Auditory Displays, Speech, Sonification, & Music”.

 

Brimley Students Visit Michigan Tech and Keweenaw

image56417-persJoan ChaddeTed Bornhorst, executive director, A. E. Seaman Minera Museum land Joan Chadde, director of the Center for Science and Environmental Outreach, hosted a group of 30 middle-school students, two science teachers and two chaperones from Brimley Area Schools Sept. 28-30.

The Brimley Area Schools student population is 54 percent Native American and 51 percent low income. The special field trip was organized by Bornhorst with Brimley teacher Mary-Beth Andrews who was accompanied by teacher Chris Wheatly.

Andrews attended the Keweenaw Mineral Days mineral collecting event held by the museum during the summer which initiated the idea of bringing a group of her students to the Keweenaw Peninsula. She gained permission from the superintendent and school board, and raised all necessary funds, to provide her students with a unique and motivating Earth science and STEM-focused field trip.

“We were pleased to provide this unique opportunity for the Brimley students that may spark their interest to pursue a STEM degree at Michigan Tech,” explained Bornhorst.

“This was a great group of students,” observed Chadde. “We plan to work with them to make this an annual visit.”

by A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum

Teacher Professional Development Course Introduces Kids to Engineering

Eng-5100-3Over the summer, Michigan Tech presented the increasingly popular teacher professional development course, The Engineering Process. The course was developed by Professor Emerita Sheryl Sorby, and has been taught since 2001. The Engineering Process has grown more successful with the rise of the new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which aims to transform how K-12 teachers introduce basic engineering concepts to their students. The teachers participated in the rigorous two-week course, which assisted in the development of curriculum to bring back to their classrooms this year. Aside from the fundamentals of engineering, the course also covered issues such as energy, infrastructure, and transportation.

The Engineering Process was generously funded through the Michigan Science Teaching and Assessment Reform (Mi-STAR) project, which is developing and testing a new integrated science curriculum that are aligned with the NGSS. “Mi-STAR is a perfect fit with what we’re doing,” said Professor John Irwin, “We’ve known all along the importance of getting kids interested in engineering before they get to college.” The summer institute was coordinated through the Department of Cognitive and Learning Science’s Teacher Professional Development program.

From the Mi-STAR blog, by Marcia Goodrich- Read full article here

 

 

Graduate Student Receives Prestigious Scholarship

Lavanya Rajesh Kumar, a first-year graduate student in the Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences, was selected for the prestigious J.N. Tata Endowment Scholarship. The J.N. Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians awards scholars who have distinguished themselves and have had outstanding achievments.  Lavanya is advised by Dr. Kevin Trewartha and works in the Aging, Cognition, and Action lab.

NSF Teachers Present their Research

IMG_20160818_145231Six Michigan teachers mentored by Michigan Tech graduate students during a 6-week Summer Institute on Computational Tools and the Environment presented their research in a poster session yesterday in the atrium of the Great Lakes Research Center. Research topics included water quality, forestry management, and life cycle analysis. The results of their research have been translated into curricula for science and mathematics classes. The course was instructed by Dr. Alex Mayer (CEE), Dr. Emily Dare (CLS), Dr. Noel Urban (CEE), and Shawn Oppliger (CCISD). The institute was coordinated through the Department of Cognitive and Learning Science’s Teacher Professional Development program.

The institute was sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Teachers program.

From Tech Today

 

Flint Teachers Visit Michigan Tech

Flint teachers recently participated in a four day Teacher Professional Development summer institute at the Great Lakes Research Center. The program, which was funded by General Motors, focused on the Flint River Watershed, drinking water treatment, and wastewater treatment.

“These are the people that are going to change the lives that need to get this work done over the next several decades. If we can reach these teachers, then we can stimulate a process that’s going to engage the young people and that’s where the future is,” said Martin Auer, a Professor in Michigan Tech’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

From abc 10 news. Read full article

Congratulations, Assistant Professor Jeon and Graduate Students!

Myounghoon "Philart" JeonMyounghoon “Philart” Jeon (CLS/CS) and his graduate students Jason Sterkenburg (CLS), Steven Landry (CLS) and Ridwan Khan (CS) presented five papers at the International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD) which was held at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia July 3 through July 7.

The graduate students earned the Best Student Paper Award at the conference. Sterkenburg and Khan’s research proposals were selected for the doctoral colloquium at the conference and their travel was partly supported by NSF.

The papers presented were “Tempo-fit heart rate app: Using heart rate sonification as exercise performance feedback”, “Musical robots for children with ASD using a client-server architecture”, “Listen to your drive: Sonification architecture and strategies for driver state performance”, “LifeMusic: Reflection of life memories by data sonification” and “Towards an in-vehicle sonically-enhanced gesture control interface: A pilot study.”