Psychology and Human Factors News

As part of the 2015 Green Film Series, there will be a showing of “The Human Scale” on Thursday, Jan. 15, at 7:00 p.m. in G002 Hesterberg Hall (Forestry building).

Based on the work of famed architect and urban planner Jan Gehl, the film highlights real solutions that promise a more humanistic dimension to cities where people are not displaced by congested streets, skyscrapers and the car-centric urbanism of the 1960s and ’70s. There will be a discussion following the film facilitated by Nathan Miller of the Keweenaw Land Trust.

The event is cosponsored by the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative, Michigan Tech Center for Water and Society and the Keweenaw Land Trust. Coffee, tea and refreshments will be provided by the Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. The event is free and open to the public.

For information about upcoming events, view the complete Green Film Series schedule.

From Tech Today.

PI Terry Sharik (SFRES) and Co-PIs Joan Chadde (CEE), Amy Lark (CLS), Amy Schrank (SFRES) and Amber Roth (SFRES), “Strategies: Sentries: STEM Engagement Through Natural Resources and Environmental Science,” NSF

Read more at Tech Today.

July 31, 2015 through August 8, 2015
Deadline: May 1, 2015

MooseWatch for Educators is a unique field experience in support of the ecological study of wolves and moose at Isle Royale National Park.

The field component of the course will be nine days in length. Travel to Isle Royale will be by NPS ferry Ranger III to/from Houghton, MI. On the island, orientation and training will take place at the Bangsund Cabin (home of the wolf-moose study) prior to the backcountry expedition.

Learn more about current institutes for teacher professional development.

What can you do with your family to celebrate winter and nature? K-6 students and their parents are invited to turn off their electronics and enjoy a fun evening together making nature crafts and taking a snowshoe night hike at the Nara Nature Center and Park. The event will take place from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 15.

The nature crafts and snowshoe night hike activities will each be offered from 6:05 to 6:45 p.m. and from 6:50 to 7:30 p.m. Families may participate in one or both indoor and outdoor activities. The event is free, but donations are welcome. Craft supplies, hot chocolate and tea, as well as child and adult snowshoes will be provided while supplies last.

For the outdoor activity, families can take a hike in the woods, on foot or on snowshoes, listening and looking for signs of wildlife and viewing the night sky, as part of a naturalist-led hike at Nara Nature Park. IIf your have your own pair of snowshoes, please bring them. Dress warmly.

For the indoor activity, families can make several types of nature crafts to take home while enjoying the cozy warmth of the Nara Nature Center Chalet, including birchbark cutout ornaments.

The Winter Family Fun Night is coordinated by the Western UP Math and Science Center and the Michigan Tech Center for Science and Environmental Outreach. Use of the Nara Center is provided by the City of Houghton, and Bob and Ruth Nara.

This is the first in a monthly series of outdoor family fun nights and monthly family outings to be held on Saturday afternoons at the Nara Nature Center and the Maasto Hiihto Chalet over the coming year. These programs are funded by the Michigan Alliance of Environmental Professionals.

From Tech Today.

The Center for Science and Environmental Outreach, along with the Michigan Tech Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers student chapter, conducted a Family Engineering Night at Escuela Avancemos Academy in Southwest Detroit (Mexicantown) on Nov. 24. John Deere provided support for the event, which featured activities in both English and Spanish and offered a free dinner in the school’s cafeteria. Approximately 180 participated, including students in grades K-5 and their family members.

The following members of the Michigan Tech community presented at the event:

• Uzi Mendez ’13 (Bio Med)
• Michael Briseno (Bio Med/ECE), undergraduate student
• Zoe Miller (CEE), master’s student
• Gabriella Shirkey ’13 (HU)
• Joan Chadde, director of the Center for Science and Environmental Outreach

From Tech Today.

PI Joan Schumaker Chadde and Co-PI Lloyd Wescoat (CEE), “FACTs&Careers: Scalable v. Intensive Educational Programs at a Public Aquarium to Increase STEM Career Choices,” Wayne State University

Read more at Tech Today.