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Minority Engineering Program Pipeline: A Proposal to Increase Minority Student Enrollment and Retention in Engineering

The Cleveland State University Minority Engineering Program Pipeline consist of programs which foster engineering career awareness, academic enrichment, and professional development for historically underrepresented minority studies. The programs involved are the Access to Careers in Engineering (ACE) Program for high school pre-engineering students: the LINK Program for undergraduate students pursuing degree which include engineering; and the PEP (Pre-calculus Enrichment Program) and EPIC (Enrichment Program in Calculus) mathematics programs for undergraduate academic enrichment. The pipeline is such that high school graduates from the ACE Program who enroll at Cleveland State University in pursuit of engineering degrees are admitted to the LINK Program for undergraduate level support. LINK Program students are among the minority participants who receive mathematics enrichment through the PEP and EPIC Programs for successful completion of their engineering required math courses. THese programs are interdependent and share the goal of preparing minority students for engineering careers by enabling them to achieve academically and obtain college degree and career related experience.

Charity, Pamela C.

Improving Student Achievement in Math and Science

As the new millennium approaches, a long anticipated reckoning for the education system of the United States is forthcoming, Years of school reform initiatives have not yielded the anticipated results. A particularly perplexing problem involves the lack of significant improvement of student achievement in math and science. Three "Partnership" projects represent collaborative efforts between Xavier University (XU) of Louisiana, Southern University of New Orleans (SUNO), Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Stennis Space Center (SSC), to enhance student achievement in math and science. These "Partnerships" are focused on students and teachers in federally designated rural and urban empowerment zones and enterprise communities. The major goals of the "Partnerships" include: (1) The identification and dissemination of key indices of success that account for high performance in math and science; (2) The education of pre-service and in-service secondary teachers in knowledge, skills, and competencies that enhance the instruction of high school math and science; (3) The development of faculty to enhance the quality of math and science courses in institutions of higher education; and (4) The incorporation of technology-based instruction in institutions of higher education. These goals will be achieved by the accomplishment of the following objectives: (1) Delineate significant ?best practices? that are responsible for enhancing student outcomes in math and science; (2) Recruit and retain pre-service teachers with undergraduate degrees in Biology, Math, Chemistry, or Physics in a graduate program, culminating with a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction; (3) Provide faculty workshops and opportunities for travel to professional meetings for dissemination of NASA resources information; (4) Implement methodologies and assessment procedures utilizing performance-based applications of higher order thinking via the incorporation of Global Learning Observations To Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), Mission to Planet Earth and the use of Geographic Imaging Systems into the K-12th grade curriculum.

Sullivan, Nancy G.

Using the Process and Excitement of Science and Technology to Empower Teachers and Engage their Students

Students United with NASA Becoming Enthusiastic About Math and Science (SUNBEAMS) is a Partnership between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). It empowers teachers and inspires students with the process and excitement of science and technology. SUNBEAMS is being developed as a model urban intervention program for sixth grade teachers and their students. The teachers come to Goddard for five weeks during the summer. They partner with Goddard mentors and work much the same way that summer students do. In addition, the teachers are responsible for developing lesson plans that they pilot at their schools and post on the SUNBEAMS web site. During the school year, each teacher brings one class to Goddard for a full week of total immersion in math and science.

Crannell, Carol Jo

Inspiring the Next Generation: Student Experiments and Educational Activities on the International Space Station, 2000-2006

One important objective of NASA has always been to inspire the next generation. NASA and human space flight have a unique ability to capture the imaginations of both students and teachers. The presence of humans onboard the International Space Station (ISS) for more than five years now has provided a foundation for numerous educational activities aimed at capturing the interest and motivating study in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Yet even before the Expedition 1 crew arrived at station in November 2000, experiments with student participation were being conducted onboard ISS in support of NASA missions. One of NASA's protein crystal growth experiments had been delivered to station by the shuttle Atlantis during STS-106 in September 2000 and was returned to Earth six weeks later aboard the shuttle Discovery during the STS-92 mission. From very early on it was recognized that students would have a strong interest in the ISS, and that this would provide a unique opportunity for them to get involved and participate in science and engineering projects on ISS. It should be noted that participation is not limited to U.S. students but involves the 16 International Partner countries and various other countries under special commercial agree

Thomas, Donald A.

Surface Ozone Measured at GLOBE Schools in the Czech Republic: A Demonstration of the Importance of Student Contribution to the Larger Science Picture

GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) is a worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based education and science program, developed to give students a chance to perform real science by making measurements, analyzing data, and participating in research in collaboration with scientists. As part of the GLOBE Surface Ozone Protocol and with the assistance of the TEREZA Association in the Czech Republic, schools in the Czech Republic have been making and reporting daily measurements of surface ozone and surface meteorological data since 2001. Using a hand-held ozone monitor developed for GLOBE, students at several Czech schools have generated multiyear data records of surface ozone from 2001 to 2005. Analysis of the data shows surface ozone levels were anomalously high during the summer of 2003 relative to other summers. These findings are consistent with measurements by the European Environment Agency that highlights the summer of 2003 as having exceptionally long-lasting and spatially extensive episodes of high surface ozone, especially during the first half of August. Further analysis of the summer s prevailing meteorology shows not only that it was one of the hottest on record, a finding also seen in the student data, but the conditions for production of ozone were ideal. Findings such as these increase student, teacher, and scientist confidence in the utility of the GLOBE data for engaging budding scientists in the collection, analysis, and eventual interpretation of the data for inquiry-based education.

Pippin, Margaret R.

X-Hab Challenge: Students in the Critical Path

The eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge follows a non-typical format for university student competitions. Rather than provide a realistic simulated mission for the students to perform, the X-Hab Challenge puts the student teams in the critical path of NASA's human space flight Exploration systems research and development, and expects them to deliver a product that will likely become heritage for eventual flight systems in the years to come. The added responsibility has two major benefits: the university teams are given real ownership in the NASA vision; students are given Principal Investigator (PI) status for their contribution and are looked upon as peers in the development process. This paper introduces the X-Hab Challenge and discusses the successes behind the program.

X-Loft

Thinking Inside the Box: A Hands-On Student Activity for Building a Contamination Containment Glovebox to Encourage Problem Solving in a Collaborative Environment

Contamination containment gloveboxes are sealed containers where operators outside the glovebox can safely manipulate hazardous or contamination-sensitive materials inside the glovebox through glove ports on the container. Containment gloveboxes are used in the space industry to study sample materials returned from space such as lunar, asteroid, and comet materials, to manufacture sensitive instruments and space ight hardware, and to perform contamination-sensitive experiments. A hands-on activity has been developed by contamination control engineer and STEM education experts as part of the Virginia Earth System Science Scholars (VESSS) summer academy program to teach high school students about gloveboxes and about problem solving in a collaborative environment. In this activity, student teams are given a list of common household materials (e.g. plastic bags, plastic straws, aluminum foil, tape, disposable gloves, etc.) for building their own glovebox. Students work together to sketch and design their glovebox before being provided a kit of materials, which they must purchase along with any extra materials with a mock team budget. They are given 30 minutes to build their glovebox, however, they do not know what will be placed inside the glovebox or what operations they will need to perform within the glovebox. At the end of the build time, teams are given a small, sealed paper envelope which they place in the glovebox. Each team selects a team member to be designated as the operator, and the operator places their hands in the gloves of the glovebox. The operator uses their gloves to open the envelope in the glovebox, and they discover they have 20 minutes to assemble a jigsaw puzzle. However, the puzzle is \contaminated" with talcum powder. After the 20 minute time period, teams are judged on how well they completed and cleaned the contaminated puzzle. In a post-activity debrief, teams discuss lessons learned such as how the actual built box di ered from the sketched design, the challenge of managing a budget for materials, how the team dealt with surprises, and if their glovebox allowed enough room for the operator to perform the task. This activity has been part of the VESSS summer academy since 2016, and teaches students teamwork, creativity, hands-on experimentation, communication, and reasoning skills. In a demonstration at IAC, a volunteer from the audience will be chosen to assemble a glovebox during the presentation using the same kit of materials and will demonstrate handling puzzle pieces in the completed glovebox.

Elaine Seasly

GL4U: Using Space Biology Omics Data to Provide Bioinformatics Training for Students and Educators

NASA’s GeneLab project provides researchers open access to space-relevant multi-omics data via the Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) that can be mined to understand the effects of spaceflight on biological systems. To maximize the number of scientists who understand and utilize GeneLab data and data processing pipelines, GeneLab created GeneLab for Colleges and Universities (GL4U). GL4U provides space biology-relevant training in bioinformatics to the next generation of scientists through direct (training students) and indirect (training educators) approaches. The GL4U pilot programs were conducted in June 2021 (direct training) and 2022 (indirect training). During the pilots, students and educators at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) participated in a week-long (direct training) or two-week-long (indirect training) bootcamp consisting of space biology-specific lectures and hands-on instruction using Jupyter Notebooks to analyze space biology RNA sequencing data from OSDR. During the educator pilot, participants received materials, training, and the necessary compute resources to enable them to run the bootcamp at their home institutions, thereby extending the reach of this initiative. In July 2023, GeneLab is partnering with JPL to expand GL4U to include amplicon sequencing (Amp-Seq) analysis training. During the GL4U Amp-Seq bootcamp, student and educator participants will receive training on how to analyze and interpret Amp-Seq data using the NASA GeneLab data processing pipeline. All bootcamp material, including instructions for requesting compute resources, will be made publicly available on GitHub for educators to teach the GL4U content in subsequent semesters. GL4U provides undergraduate students from underrepresented groups the opportunity to learn about NASA and Space Biology, and to enhance their career prospects by gaining hands-on experience analyzing omics data, a skillset that is highly applicable and marketable in the life sciences. We present results from pre- and post-training surveys completed by all participants of the Amp-Seq bootcamp.

Amanda M Saravia-Butler

Work In Progress: Using Internships as Means for Indirect Assessment of ABET Criteria 3 “1-7” Student Outcomes

The Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Portland State University (PSU) has developed a Power Engineering Internship (PEI) program that provides engineering career development pathways within the electric utility industry. The PEI is supported by several U.S. Department of Energy grants that aim to develop quality career opportunities and develop a future electric utility workforce that represents the nation’s diverse populations. The PSU ECE Department intends to use surveys of internship participants as assessment tools for its ABET accreditation process, in particular, the ABET Criteria 3 Student Outcomes (SOs). SOs relate to the knowledge, skills, and behaviors that students acquire as they progress through an engineering program [1]. They describe what engineering students are expected to know and should be able to do by the time they graduate. Engineering education literature presents multiple methods for using internships as means for assessing SOs. Methods include using self-assessments that derive from internship experiences as well as mapping survey responses from employers and interns to SOs. Such methods gain value as they are assessed over multiple years. However, the majority of this literature discusses assessment tools that were developed for the ABET 2000 Criteria 3 “a through k” SOs. One of our motivations is to provide assessment tools that can be used to assess modern Criteria 3 SOs based on students’ internship experiences.

Bass, Robert [Portland State University]

Work In Progress: Using Internships as Means for Indirect Assessment of ABET Criteria 3 "1-7" Student Outcomes

PSU operates the Power Engineering Internship program with funding from two U.S. Department of Energy grants. The program is operated in partnership with the lead organizations of these grants, an investor-owned utility, Portland General Electric (PGE), and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs (CTWS). One of the programmatic goals of the PEI is to create and sustain a clean energy engineering workforce pipeline on behalf of these lead organizations. Both grants support internships at PGE, which is also a partner on the CTWS grant. The PEI provides engineering students with year-long internships, spanning both the academic year and the summer. The interns work at PGE facilities located throughout the Portland metropolitan area. Interns are employed full-time during summers and part-time during the academic year. Proximity of the worksites to the PSU campus enables the interns to participate in the program while attending school full-time. During the academic year, students average fifteen hours per week, adjusting their work schedule according to their academic workload. The interns are allocated 930 hours per year, 480 in the summer and 450 during the academic year, which they can plan as they see fit. The internships provide meaningful financial support for the students, who can earn up to $21k if they use all of their allocated hours. Such funding is particularly important for the typical student who attends a minority serving institutions,

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS

ISS Robotic Student Programming

The SPHERES facility is a set of three free-flying satellites launched in 2006. In addition to scientists and engineering, middle- and high-school students program the SPHERES during the annual Zero Robotics programming competition. Zero Robotics conducts virtual competitions via simulator and on SPHERES aboard the ISS, with students doing the programming. A web interface allows teams to submit code, receive results, collaborate, and compete in simulator-based initial rounds and semi-final rounds. The final round of each competition is conducted with SPHERES aboard the ISS. At the end of 2017 a new robotic platform called Astrobee will launch, providing new game elements and new ground support for even more student interaction.

competition

ISS Robotic Student Programming

The SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellite) facility is a set of three free-flying satellites launched in 2006. In addition to scientists and engineers, middle- and high-school students program the SPHERES during the annual Zero Robotics programming competition. Zero Robotics conducts virtual competitions via simulator and on SPHERES aboard the ISS (International Space Station), with students doing the programming. A web interface allows teams to submit code, receive results, collaborate, and compete in simulator-based initial rounds and semi-final rounds. The final round of each competition is conducted with SPHERES aboard the ISS. At the end of 2017 a new robotic platform called Astrobee will launch, providing new game elements and new ground support for even more student interaction.

competition

Activities at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to Advance Nuclear Radiation Science among Underrepresented STEM Students

The Partnership for Radiation Studies (PaRS) consortium is a collaboration between two minority-serving institutions and two U.S. national laboratories. The five-year consortium is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and it aims enhance workforce of underrepresented students in STEM disciplines. PaRS’ long-term goal is to train students for their prospective hiring in DOE laboratories and sites. As one of the two integral national laboratory partners, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is playing an integral role in achieving this goal via pertinent lectures, seminars, hands-on trainings, and outreach activities. This paper summarizes PNNL’s key activities and initiatives to train the next generation of underrepresented students in STEM disciplines.

Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program,

“When I talk about it, my eyes light up!” Impacts of a national laboratory internship on community college student success

Participation in technical/research internships may improve undergraduate graduation rates and persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), yet little is known about the benefits of these activities a) for community college students, b) when hosted by national laboratories, and c) beyond the first few years after the internship. We applied Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to investigate alumni perspectives about how CCI at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) impacted their academic/career activities. We learned that alumni had low confidence and expectations of success in STEM as community college students. Participation in CCI increased their professional networks, expectations of success, and STEM skills, identity, and self-efficacy/confidence. Hispanic/Latinx alumni recalled the positive impact of mentors who prioritized personal connections, and women valued "warm" social environments. We propose several additions to the SCCT model, to better reflect the supports and barriers to STEM persistence for community college students.

careers

Skylab student project.

Review of the Skylab student project conceived to stimulate interest in science and technology by directly involving students in a major research program. Under this project, over 4000 students, ranging in age from 11 to 19 years, submitted proposals from which 301 regional winners and, then, 25 national winners were selected on the basis of their scientific and technical merits. Descriptions are presented of the proposal of these 25 national winners.

Kleinknecht, K. S.

The Skylab Student Project

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Teachers' Association (NSTA) undertook in 1971 a cooperative effort which brought high school students of the Nation into the mainstream of Skylab research through the Skylab Student Project. This paper presents the background, objectives and scope of the project, experiment selection procedures, as well as experiment descriptions and status. The paper includes observations on student caliber and inclinations and implications of some developments for the benefit of future researchers.

Floyd, H. B.

Operational aspects of Skylab Student Project experiments

The activities associated with the operational aspects ot the Skylab Student Project experiments began with the participation of flight operations personnel on the National Science Teachers Association Selection Board and ended with the performance of the student experiments by the Skylab flightcrews. The operational criteria used during the compatibility analysis to determine which of the 25 national winners could be flown on board the Skylab vehicle are reviewed, the factors involved in the assignment of the experiments to Skylab missions are discussed, the activities associated with training the flightcrews in the operation of the student experiments are described, and the actual performance of the experiments during the mission and the associated ground operations in the Mission Control Center are detailed.

Macleod, J. B.

Student experiments on Skylab

Review of the background and experimental results of the Skylab student project, and assessment of its overall benefits. Virtually all of the objectives of the experiments adopted from student proposals were met. NASA benefited from the program by learning that meaningful experiments could be incorporated into a carry-on or suitcase concept at low cost and within very short time periods. The students benefited greatly from their association with the Skylab program by being afforded a learning opportunity and contact with the real world of research, normally beyond their reach. In addition, hometowns, states, and regions developed a close identification with space exploration.

Floyd, H. B.