Psychology and Human Factors News

$1.45 Million Study to Address the Northbound Flow of Airborne Toxins

Pollutants like these find their way north via a complex web of human and natural systems. Now, a team led by Michigan Technological University’s Judith Perlinger is working on a three-year project to better understand how those systems interact and find ways to address the problem.

The project also has an educational component. The team is teaching a web-based course this spring called Communicating Wicked Environmental Problems. “’Wicked’ has a special meaning,” Perlinger said. “It refers to very complex problems that have a high degree of scientific uncertainty, can be very contentious, and lack a set of solutions that will not be harmful or disadvantageous to someone in some relevant way.”

In addition to Perlinger, scientists collaborating on the project are Noel Urban of Michigan Tech’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Shiliang Wu, who has dual appointments in Michigan Tech’s Departments of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences/Civil and Environmental Engineering; Emma Norman of Michigan Tech’s Department of Social Sciences and Great Lakes Research Center; Hugh Gorman, Michigan Tech’s Department of Social Sciences; Joan Chadde-Schumaker, Michigan Tech’s Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences and the Western UP Center for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education; Noelle Eckley Selin of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Engineering Systems Division and Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Daniel Obrist of the Desert Research Institute’s Division of Atmospheric Sciences; Henrik Selin of International Relations at Boston University; and Juanita Urban-Rich, University of Massachusetts-Boston, Department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences.

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Marcia Goodrich.

Joan Chadde and Lloyd Wescoat (Center for Science & Environmental Outreach) attended the 3rd annual Great Lakes Place-based Education Conference on Nov. 8-9 in Grand Rapids, sponsored by the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. Wescoat presented on “Professional Book Clubs” and Chadde co-presented on “Environmental Service Learning Project” with funder/director Jan Sneddon, Earth Force.

From Tech Today.

The Copper Country Intermediate School held a special legislative luncheon Friday afternoon, inviting State Representative Scott Dianda and Senator Tom Casperson to address a group of representatives from local school districts. The legislators answered questions from attendees but also looked to the local school leaders for insight into how issues are specifically affecting the Upper Peninsula. The program was moderated by Brad Baltensperger, member of the Michigan Association of School Boards Executive Board and Houghton-Portage Township School Board.

Read more at the Mining Gazette, by Meagan Stilp.

Starting next Monday and continuing each Monday through Dec. 16, local 4th through 7th grade students will learn about digital design at the GLRC, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Topics to be covered include 3D printing, video game design, microcontrollers and high-tech gadgetry. Students will create key chains, video game controllers, toys, and more while learning programming, vector graphics, robotics and Bluetooth/smartphone technologies.

Chad Norman, science and technology specialist for the Center for Science and Environmental Outreach will teach the class with assistance from third-year civil engineering student Lacy Kaare and mechanical engineering graduate student Anza Mitchell. Also, members of the Husky Game Enterprise will pitch in.

For more information on future programs, contact Joan Chadde, Center for Science and Environmental Outreach, at jchadde@mtu.edu, 7-3341.

From Tech Today.

Science is Spelled Excitement during STEM Awareness Month

October is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Awareness month in Michigan. All month long, events have been held across the state, and right here in the Copper Country, to help youth become more interested in STEM subjects.

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Erika Vichcales.

Noyce Scholarships Turn STEM Majors into Science & Math Teachers

Bradley Baltensperger, chair of the Department of Cognitive and Learning Sciences at Michigan Tech, explains: “If we can identify the best and brightest science, math and engineering students who would make good teachers, then prepare them for their own classrooms, it leads more top-notch students into STEM majors and scientific and technical careers.”

Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Monica Lester.

October is Michigan STEM Awareness Month

The Western U.P. Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education is a member of the Michigan STEM Partnership, a statewide, public-private collaborative that includes educators, employers, legislators and others who are concerned about creating the new Michigan economy and addressing the current lack of STEM skills in graduates and job applicants.

Read more at the WUP Center.

View the Photo Gallery for Family Physics Night – Barkell Elementary – 10/15/13 courtesy of Joe Charnawskas.

One of our graduates and current grad student in the MS in Applied Science Education program, Matt Zimmer, was recently honored by the Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) with one of the Michigan’s Best Awards for Education Excellence. Matt graduated from Michigan Tech in 1999 with a BS in Civil Engineering. He returned to Tech to get his teaching certification in science, mathematics, and technology & design in 2003.

Matt Zimmer and co-Coordinator William Rivest were recognized for their program “Student Organization of Aquatic Robotics (SOAR),” which was selected for an award in the Community Engagement category of the 2013 Education Excellence Award. The program was introduced to the Dollar Bay High School and Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Schools. SOAR designed, built and programmed two remotely operated vehicles to be used by Isle Royale National Park rangers to gather data on invasive zebra mussels. The project provided students with real world applications of math, science and engineering.

In addition to being honored as an Education Excellence winner in the spring, each winner received the coveted “Eddy” statue and a check for $2,500 from SET SEG School Insurance Specialists, exclusive sponsor of MASB’s Education Excellence awards program.

SOAR also earned the national George & Helen Hartzog Award for Outstanding Volunteer Youth Group in 2012. They were interviewed by WTIP 90.7 FM and Upper Michigan’s Source.

Learn more about SOAR and other award winning educational projects at the MASB website.

Students win national award for volunteering

Twenty-five students make up the Student Organization of Aquatic Robotics, or SOAR, and have been awarded the national Hartzog Award for volunteer service.

Read more at Upper Michigan’s Soruce, by Sarah Blakely.

Students win award for underwater robot

“I think it’s absolutely phenomenal, and then the fact that they’re designing these things, not just to win a competition, but they’re designing them to help other people, is truly a testament to their will and drive to improve and make the community that they live in better,” said Matt Zimmer, teacher.

Read more at Upper Michigan’s Source, by Gabrielle Mays.

2013 Lake Superior Water Festival at Great Lakes Research Center
Thursday, October 17

Come to the Great  Lakes Research Center(GLRC) on MTU’s waterfront campus for an exciting day of activities that will increase your student’s knowledge of Great Lakes science and engineering! During each half-day session, students will attend four 35-minute activities.

2013 Water Festival made possible with funding from Michigan Space Grant Consortium, MTU Center for Water & Society and Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. Coordinated by the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative and Michigan Tech University.

Learn more at the Western UP Center for Science, Mathematics and Environmental Education.

Water Festival at GLRC Draws High School Students Today

The goals of the Water Festival are to motivate high school students to study STEM fields in college, to introduce them to a variety of STEM and Great Lakes-related careers, to encourage Great Lakes stewardship and to showcase Michigan Tech’s new Great Lakes Research Center.

Read more at Tech Today.

Lake Superior Water Festival Shows Students Careers in STEM

More than a dozen scientists, students and representatives of groups involved in Great Lakes conservation will make presentations to the high schoolers.

View photos at the College of Engineering Blog.