Category Archives: sscience education

X-Polli:Nation: citizen science project for monitoring pollinators including butterflies, bumblebees and beetles

The X-Polli:Nation citizen science cycle (middle) with illustrative photographs taken in a participating school. [downloaded from https://theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/10.5334/cstp.567]

A July 7, 2023 news item on phys.org announces a paper about the X-Polli:Nation, citizen science project for tracking pollinators,

Researchers from Imperial College London and schools in the UK and Italy have co-developed a set of citizen science tools for school pupils to monitor pollinators including butterflies, bumblebees and beetles.

..

A July 7, 2023 Imperial College London (ICL) press release by Bry Ravate (it’s part of a ‘press pack’, so, scroll down to “Tools for Schools” to find the release), which originated the news item, provides more detail, Note: Links have been removed,

The project – X-POLLI:NATION – saw students and teachers in the UK and Italy share insights so that researchers could adapt citizen science tasks to suit a younger audience.

This empowered students to be able to collect vital data about pollinators, including their feeding preferences, with the help of field guides and forms developed for a younger audience.

Dr Poppy Lakeman Fraser, Senior Project Coordinator in the Centre for Environmental Policy, said: “There is a lack of information in the curriculum and opportunities for young people to contribute at a local level to global UN targets, so it is incredibly important for projects like this to be embedded into the curriculum, both across the UK and internationally. This can empower the next generation of scientists to take action and address global challenges in an engaging and impactful way.

“This tool ensures no one is left behind as it can be developed to suit students of all abilities, skillsets and ages. The next steps would be to see this implemented nationwide.”

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

X-Polli:Nation: Contributing Towards Sustainable Development GoalsThrough School-Baased Pollinator Citizen Science by Poppy Lakeman Fraser, Laura Colucci-Gray, Annie Robinson, Andrea Sforzi, Ruth Staples-Rolfe, Julie Newman, Richard Gill, Nirwan Sharma, Stefan Rueger, Advaith Siddharthan. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2023). DOI: 10.5334/cstp.567

This paper is open access.

You can find the X-Polli:Nation website here in English or Italian.

June 23, 2023 is International Women in Engineering Day

Thanks to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) for a notice (received via email on June 16, 2023) about their upcoming International Women in Engineering Day on Friday, June 23, 2023, Note: I have information about more events and links to relevant organizations at the end of this post,

Are education policies doing enough to enhance career paths of women in STEM and nuclear science?

23 June, 2023

12h30 (Paris) [3:30 am PDT]

Female scientists and engineers pioneered the nuclear and radiological fields, with leaders and innovators such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Lise Meitner, among many others, establishing the foundation of modern nuclear science and technology. 
 
However, reports like The Persistence of Gender Gaps in Education and Skills still show the lack of girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers. It also highlights the importance of enhancing the educational pipeline to attract, retain and maintain more women in the sectors. 
 
Join us on International Women in Engineering Day, where the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) will host an expert panel to look at the latest education initiatives contributing towards attracting more women in STEM and asking the question, “Are policymakers doing enough? 
 
Speakers include:  
– Marta Encinas-Martin, Senior Advisor Global Relations and OECD Education Gender Ambassador 
– Fiona Rayment, Chief Science and Technology Officer, National Nuclear Laboratory (United Kingdom) 
– Tatiana Ivanova, Head of Division, Nuclear Science and Education, Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) 
 Moderated by William D. Magwood, IV, Director-General, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) 

The June 23, 2023 OECD Education and Skills Today webinar registration page can be found here. For anyone not inclined to participate in a webinar at 3:30 am, the OECD does make them available afterwards. You can find out more about upcoming and previous webinars here on this OECD Education and Skills Today webpage. I clicked on a few of the previous webinars and they seem to run for approximately one hour.

The report mentioned in the press release, “Gender, Education and Skills; The Persistence of Gender Gaps in Education and Skills” can be found here. Reading the HTML version online is free but getting a copy will cost you money. (The report was published on March 2, 2023.)

The OECD’s “Recommendation of the Council on Improving the Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector” can be found here. After the recommendation was adopted on June 7, 2023, the OECD-Nuclear Energy Agency issued a June 8, 2023 press release about the new policy,

The 38 countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have agreed upon a new, focused approach to improve the gender balance in the nuclear sector. They call on national authorities and the industry to take action to increase the representation of women in the sector and enhance their contributions –especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) roles and leadership positions.

Currently, women make up just 20% of the nuclear science and engineering workforce in NEA [Nuclear Energy Agency] member countries and represent a very small fraction of upper management. They often experience hostility in their nuclear workplaces and negative career impacts due to pregnancy and family responsibilities. This absence of diversity and barriers to women’s full participation in the sector represents a loss of potential innovation and growth and a critical threat to the viability of the field.

William D. Magwood, IV, NEA Director-General, said:

“The persistent gender gap in the nuclear sector impacts the future viability of nuclear energy around the world. The NEA made it a priority to move beyond simply discussing the issue and to work with its member countries to develop a focused and specific policy framework to make a real difference to improve the gender balance in the nuclear sector. We expect to see that a broad range of organisations stand ready to work with governments to implement these policy recommendations.”

Governments are highly influential in the nuclear sector due to their extensive involvement in nuclear technology activities. The recommendations agreed by OECD countries will help attract more women to nuclear science and technology careers and remove barriers to their advancement in nuclear organisations.

NEA analyses highlight that total nuclear energy production needs to triple by 2050 for governments around the world to achieve net zero emissions. To achieve this, the nuclear sector must grow and diversify its workforce, but this will be extremely difficult unless it attracts more women.

The OECD Recommendation follows the recent NEA report Gender Balance in the Nuclear Sector which included the first publicly available international data on the topic.

Dr Fiona Rayment OBE, Chief Science and Technology Officer of the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory and who chaired the NEA Task Group that oversaw the work, said:

“Nuclear power is primed to enable our energy security and net zero commitments to be realised, however, this requires recruitment and retention of a highly diverse workforce. As such, I am absolutely delighted to see the policy instrument on gender balance has been adopted by the OECD. This builds on the hard work and dedication of the NEA Gender Balance Task Group members, which will have a real impact on improving wider diversity ambitions across the nuclear sector internationally as we look ahead to the future.”

Plus they included this video,

Moving on …

More for International Women in Engineering Day 2023

The big deal is here at the international Women in Engineering Day website. Here’s more from their About page,

International Women in Engineering Day [INWED], brought to you by Women’s Engineering Society (WES) will celebrate its 10th year in 2023 and we’ll once again be promoting the amazing work that women engineers across the globe are doing. This year’s theme is #MakeSafetySeen. INWED gives women engineers around the world a profile when they are still hugely under-represented, with 2021 figures indicating that in the UK only 16.5% of engineers are women. As the only platform of its kind, it plays a vital role in encouraging more young women and girls to take up engineering careers.

You can find a listing of the 2023 INWED events from around the world here. It’s impressive. Sadly, I have to note that Canadian organizations do not seem to be participating this year.

I looked at a few local (to me) organizations, the Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WWEST) and Society for Women in Canadian Science and Technology (SCWIST) and, while both have active STEM programmes, found no mention of INWED 2023.

Music of the chemical elements

It’s a little late since this work was presented at the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Spring 2023 meeting but it’s a fascinating approach to the periodic table of elements that features a longstanding interest of mine, data sonification.

A March 26, 2023 news item on phys.org announces the then upcoming presentation abut a musical version of the periodic table of elements,

In chemistry, we have He [helium], Fe [iron] and Ca [calcium]—but what about do, re and mi? Hauntingly beautiful melodies aren’t the first things that come to mind when looking at the periodic table of the elements. However, using a technique called data sonification, a recent college graduate has converted the visible light given off by the elements into audio, creating unique, complex sounds for each one. Today [March 26, 2023], the researcher reports the first step toward an interactive, musical periodic table.

A March 26, 2023 ACS news release on EurekAlert, which originated the news item, provides more detail (the presentation abstract is included),

The researcher will present his results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2023 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person March 26–30 [2023], and features more than 10,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

Previously, W. Walker Smith, the project’s sole investigator, took his combined passions of music and chemistry and converted the natural vibrations of molecules into a musical composition. “Then I saw visual representations of the discrete wavelengths of light released by the elements, such as scandium,” says Smith. “They were gorgeous and complex, and I thought, ‘Wow, I really want to turn these into music, too.’”

Elements emit visible light when they are energized. This light is made up of multiple individual wavelengths, or particular colors, with brightness levels that are unique for each element. But on paper, the collections of wavelengths for different elements are hard to tell apart visually, especially for the transition metals, which can have thousands of individual colors, says Smith. Converting the light into sound frequencies could be another way for people to detect the differences between elements.

However, creating sounds for the elements on the periodic table has been done before. For instance, other scientists have assigned the brightest wavelengths to single notes played by the keys on a traditional piano. But this approach reduced the rich variety of wavelengths released by some elements into just a few sounds, explains Smith, who is currently a researcher at Indiana University.

To retain as much of the complexity and nuance of the element spectra as possible, Smith consulted faculty mentors at Indiana University, including David Clemmer, Ph.D., a professor in the chemistry department, and Chi Wang, D.M.A., a professor in the Jacobs School of Music. With their assistance, Smith built a computer code for real-time audio that converted each element’s light data into mixtures of notes. The discrete color wavelengths became individual sine waves whose frequency corresponded to that of the light, and their amplitude matched the brightness of the light.

Early in the research process, Clemmer and Smith discussed the pattern similarities between light and sound vibrations. For instance, within the colors of visible light, violet has almost double the frequency of red, and in music, one doubling of frequency corresponds to an octave. Therefore, visible light can be thought of as an “octave of light.” But this octave of light is at a much higher frequency than the audible range. So, Smith scaled the sine waves’ frequencies down by approximately 10-12, fitting the audio output into a range where human ears are most sensitive to differences in pitch.

Because some elements had hundreds or thousands of frequencies, the code allowed these notes to be generated in real time, forming harmonies and beating patterns as they mixed together. “The result is that the simpler elements, such as hydrogen and helium, sound vaguely like musical chords, but the rest have a more complex collection of sounds,” says Smith. For example, calcium sounds like bells chiming together with a rhythm resulting from how the frequencies interact with each other. Listening to the notes from some other elements reminded Smith of a spooky background noise, similar to music used in cheesy horror movies. He was especially surprised by the element zinc, which despite having a large number of colors, sounded like “an angelic choir singing a major chord with vibrato.”

“Some of the notes sound out of tune, but Smith has kept true to that in this translation of the elements into music,” says Clemmer. These off-key tones — known musically as microtones — come from frequencies that are found between the keys of a traditional piano. Agreeing, Wang says, “The decisions as to what’s vital to preserve when doing data sonification are both challenging and rewarding. And Smith did a great job making such decisions from a musical standpoint.”

The next step is to turn this technology into a new musical instrument with an exhibit at the WonderLab Museum of Science, Health, and Technology in Bloomington, Indiana. “I want to create an interactive, real-time musical periodic table, which allows both children and adults to select an element and see a display of its visible light spectrum and hear it at the same time,” says Smith. He adds that this sound-based approach has potential value as an alternative teaching method in chemistry classrooms, because it’s inclusive to people with visual impairments and different learning styles.

Smith acknowledges support and funding from Indiana University’s Department of Chemistry, Center for Electronic and Computer Music, and Center for Rural Engagement; an Indiana University Undergraduate Research grant; the 2022 Annual Project Jumpstart Innovation Competition; and the Indiana University Hutton Honors College Grant Program.

A recorded media briefing on this topic will be posted Monday, March 27 [2023], by 10 a.m. Eastern time at www.acs.org/acsspring2023briefings. Reporters can request access to media briefings during the embargo period by contacting newsroom@acs.org. [The ACS 2023 Spring Meeting media briefings are freely available as of June 12, 2023. The “What do the elements sound like? Media Briefing” runs approximately 11 mins.]

If you keep going past the news release, you’ll find this presentation abstract,

Title
Designing an interactive musical periodic table: sonification of visible element emission spectra

Abstract
What does the element helium sound like? What about hydrogen? While these may seem like absurd questions, the process of data sonification can be used to convert the visible spectra of chemical elements into sounds. When stimulated by electricity or heat, elements release distinct wavelengths of light depending on their electron energy levels—a sort of “chemical footprint” unique to every element. These frequencies of light, which we perceive as different colors, can be scaled into the audio range to yield different sonic frequencies, allowing one to hear the different sounds of chemical elements. This research project involved the construction of an interactive musical periodic table, combining musical and visual representations of elemental spectra from high-resolution spectral datasets.

The interactive periodic table was designed using Max/MSP, a programming language that uses digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms to generate real-time audio and visual outputs. This allows all spectral lines of an element to be played simultaneously (as a “chord”) or for individual lines to be played in succession (as a “melody”). This highly interdisciplinary project has applications spanning data analysis, STEAM (STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] + Arts) education, and public science outreach. Sonification of scientific data provides alternative methods of analysis that can expand access of such data to blind and visually impaired people. Sonification can even enhance data analysis via traditional data visualization by providing a supplementary layer of auditory information, and sonification-based learning models have been shown to improve student engagement and understanding of scientific concepts like protein folding.

This program is currently being implemented in several middle and high school music and science classes, as well as a public music/science show titled “The Sound of Molecules” at WonderLab Museum of Science. Future work will focus on designing a free and open-source version of the program that does not require specialized DSP software.

Second Nobel Collection of science stories for children

The first collection of science stories for children by Nobel laureates was published in September 2021 (featured in my February 22, 2022 posting). This time I’m getting the news out a little later. From a January 31, 2023 Frontiers (publisher) news release (also on EurekAlert),

Frontiers for Young Minds, a unique, completely free kids’ science journal launched its second Nobel Collection today. It features five new articles in which top scientists connected directly with young reviewers to ensure their articles are clear, educational, and fascinating to read for young people before they were published in the journal. 

This is the second volume within the Nobel Collection, with articles written by Nobel Laureates and reviewed by children aged 8 to 15. It promises to be an exciting and educational experience for both kids and adults alike. Volume 1, which is complete, already showcases 10 amazing Nobel Prize-winning authors, writing about their world-changing discoveries in fields from neuroscience to crystallography, from computer simulations to behavioral economics.  

This time, highly valued Nobelists provide insights and inspiration from their amazing work on the following topics: 

  • The Olfactory System: It Smells Good to Be Alive, written by Richard Axel, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2004. How many odors (smells) in the world around you do you think you can recognize? In this article, find out how your brain recognizes different odors and why they cause different reactions in different animals and people. 
  • Telomere Power: How to live longer and heathier, written by Elizabeth Blackburn, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009. Did you know that things you do daily – exercise, eating, even how you think – can change the very basic units within your cells? Dive into the fascinating world of telomeres, the protectors of DNA, and telomerase which maintains them, and be amazed by how environmental and social factors can affect your biology! 
  • Resolution Revolution – Seeing the Molecules of Life with Electron Cryomicroscopy, written by Richard Henderson (with Noa Segev), awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017. Did you know how powerful imaging techniques must be in order to show structural biologists the basic building blocks of life? Find out how the search for molecular structure (in humans, animals, plants and tiny microorganisms) was revolutionized by a new technique in electron cryomicroscopy, where electrons go through cooled microscope specimens. 
  • Defying Gravity? On The Magic Tricks of Superfluids, written by Michael Kosterlitz, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2016. Did you know that physics can solve puzzles in our world, from how the wind blows to rare and mysterious phenomena? Join a Nobel-winning journey to discover how a normal fluid is cooled down and becomes a superfluid – and the cool things it can then do! 
  • Neutrinos: The Ghost Particles that Make Up Our Universe – written by Arthur B. McDonald, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2015. Want to know more about how the universe started and how it works? Then you’ll need this article, featuring a breakthrough in measuring neutrino particles, a fundamental building block of the universe, and what this can tell us about how the universe has evolved since the Big Bang. 

The Volume 2 series of Laureate authors will continue to grow later this year, giving young people more opportunities to understand – and ignite interest in – the biggest discoveries of our times.  

Commenting on the new volume, spokesperson for Frontiers for Young Minds Laura Henderson says, “It’s amazing to see this incredible initiative continue to grow and grow. With over 100 million people seeing Volume 1 on social media, we can’t wait to see what Volume 2 will achieve. The generosity and support of our Nobelist authors mean that their extraordinary work can now be read by all young people, anywhere in the world.” 

Frontiers for Young Minds journal makes science accessible to children around the world and is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about science and research. With articles written by Nobel laureates and reviewed by kids, it provides a unique perspective on science and how it affects our daily lives. Whether you are a child or an adult, the Collection offers a valuable and enjoyable way to explore the wonders of science. 

To find out more, watch this video.   [see below news release]

To explore the Nobel Collection Volume 2 articles, click here.  

For Volume 1, click here

About Frontiers for Young Minds    

Frontiers for Young Minds (FYM) is a unique, completely free, open access kids’ science journal that publishes articles written by top researchers and peer reviewed by children aged 8-15. The journal features over 1,100 articles with over 32 million views and downloads, produced by 3,250 authors, mentored by 800+ scientists and reviewed by 6,100+ youngsters from 64 countries worldwide. FYM now publishes in seven subject areas (Astronomy and Physics, Biodiversity, Chemistry and Materials, Earth & its Resources, Human Health, Mathematics, Neuroscience & Psychology – with Engineering and Technology to come soon) with materials available in English, Hebrew and Arabic, and with Mandarin Chinese and French to come in 2023. FYM was featured as a Winner of the Falling Walls Science Engagement category in 2022 – watch the pitch here. The Nobel initiative is part of Frontiers’ commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Goal 4 – Quality Education in particular.  

About Frontiers     

Frontiers is the 3rd most-cited and 6th largest research publisher. We publish groundbreaking discoveries by the world’s top experts. Scientists empower society and our mission is to accelerate scientific discovery by making science open. We place the researcher at the center of everything we do and enable the research community to develop the solutions we need to live healthy lives on a healthy planet. Featuring custom-built technology, artificial intelligence, and rigorous quality standards, our research articles have been viewed more than 2.3 billion times, reflecting the power of research that is open for all.    

Students from Nakoda Oyade Education Centre and scientists at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) use science to help bison

It’s known as Paskwâwimostos – ᐸᐢᑳᐧᐃᐧᒧᐢᑐᐢ – The Bison Project and is being conducted at Canada’s only synchrotron, the Canadian Light Source (CLS) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Here’s more from a November 24, 2022 CLS news release (also received via email), Note: Links have been removed,

Bison have long held a prominent place in the culture of the Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation, located about 100 kms east of Regina. The once-abundant animals were a vital source of food and furs for the ancestors of today’s Carry the Kettle people.

Now, high school students from Nakoda Oyade Education Centre at Carry the Kettle are using synchrotron imaging to study the health of a local bison herd, with an eye to protecting and growing their numbers.

Armin Eashappie, a student involved in the Bison Project, says the work she and her classmates are doing is a chance to give back to an animal that was once integral to the very existence of her community. “We don’t want them to go extinct, says Eashappie. “They helped us with everything. We got our tools, our clothes, our food from them. We used every single part of the buffalo, nothing was left behind…they
even helped us make our homes – the teepees – we used the hides to cover them up.”

Eashappie’s classmate, Leslie Kaysaywaysemat, says that if their team can identify items the bison are eating that are not good for their health, these could potentially be replaced by other, healthier items. “We want to preserve them and make sure all generations can see how magnificent these creatures are,” he says.

The students, who are participating in the CLS’s Bison Project, gathered samples of bison hair, soil from where the animals graze, and plants they feed on, then analyzed them using the IDEAS beamline at the CLS. The Bison Project, coordinated by the Education group of the CLS, integrates Traditional Knowledge and mainstream science in a transformative research experience for First Nation, Métis, and Inuit
students.

Timothy Eashappie, Elder for the Bison Project, says it’s “awesome” that the students can use the Canadian Light Source machine to learn more about an animal that his people have long taken care of on the prairies. “That’s how we define ourselves – as
Buffalo People,” says Eashappie. “Since the beginning of time, they gave themselves to us, and now these young people are finding out how important these buffalo are to them, because it preserves their language, their culture, and their way of life. And now it’s our turn to take care of the bison.”

Once they’ve completed their analysis, the students will share their findings with the Chief and Council for Carry the Kettle.

The Canadian Light Source (CLS) is a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan and one of the largest science projects in Canada’s history. More than 1,000 academic, government and industry scientists from around the world use the CLS every year in innovative health, agriculture, environment, and advanced materials research.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation [CFI], Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council [NSERC], Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CIHR], the Government of Saskatchewan, and the University of Saskatchewan fund CLS operations.

You can find more about the CLS Bison Project here,

The Bison Project integrates Traditional Knowledge (TK) and mainstream Science in an experience that engages First Nation, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) teachers, students, and communities. The Bison Project creates a unique opportunity to incorporate land-based hunting and herd management, synchrotron science, mainstream science principles and TK.

I found a bit more information about bison and their return in a November 23, 2020 article by Mark A. Bonta for The Daylighter,

For ecologists and environmentalists, it’s more than just a story about the return of a keystone species. 

The bison, it turns out, is an animal that maintains and restores the prairie.

Ecological restoration

Unlike cattle, bison are wallowers, so these powerful animals’ efforts to rid themselves of insect parasites, by rubbing their hide and rolling around on the ground, actually create permanent depressions, called bison wallows, in the landscape. 

These create fertile ground for diverse plant species — and the animals that rely on them. 

Bison also rub against woody plants and kill them off, keeping the prairies open, while their dung fertilizes the soil.

Iconic species like the greater prairie-chicken and the prairie dog all benefit from the restoration of bison. 

Bison herds have also proved highly adaptive to the “new,” post-colonial ecology of the Great Plains.

They are adapting to hunting season, for example, by delaying their migration. This keeps them out of harm’s way — but also increases the risk of human-bison conflicts.

Bonta’s article provides a little more detail about the mixed feelings that the return of the bison have engendered.

Hexbug Nanos (TM), robotic insect toys, engage students in scientific research

Caption: Hexbug Nanos used in online lab course to teach undergraduate research skills in physics. Credit: Kristopher Vargas, Pomona College

An October 21, 2022 news item on phys.org features a new approach to teaching undergraduate physics (Note: Links have been removed),

Although the sudden switch to remote and hybrid learning was seen as an enormous challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic, academic and commercial interest in creative online lab class development has since skyrocketed.

In the American Journal of Physics, researchers from Pomona College in California developed an online undergraduate physics lab course using small robotic bugs called Hexbug Nanos (TM) to engage students in scientific research from their homes.

An October 21, 2022 American Institute of Physics (AIP) news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, fills in more details,

Hexbug Nanos look like bright-colored beetles with 12 flexible legs that move rapidly in a semi-random manner. This makes collections of Hexbugs ideal models for exploring particle behavior that can be difficult for students to visualize. For the lab course, students used the Hexbugs that were mailed to them, along with a smartphone and common household items.

“We found that the pandemic-inspired reliance on simple, home-built experiments, while de-emphasizing the use of sophisticated equipment, enabled students to more effectively achieve laboratory learning objectives such as designing, implementing, and troubleshooting an experimental apparatus,” co-author Janice Hudgings said.

Students first completed a short experiment to investigate the ideal gas law, which describes how pressure, volume, and temperature of a gas are related. They used a rectangular cardboard box divided by a movable wall, made from cardboard and bamboo skewers, that slid along the length of the box.

Varying numbers of Hexbugs were placed on either side of the moving wall to model two gases of different pressures. Students used their smartphones to record the “gas molecules” colliding into the moving wall. Video tracking software was used to obtain the position of the wall as a function of time while it moved until the pressure in the two chambers equalized.

Students then proposed semesterlong research projects of their choice, designing experiments using Hexbugs to investigate concepts in statistical mechanics and electrical conduction. One project focused on the Drude model, which uses classical physics to describe the movement of electrons in a metal.

The at-home setup included a long rectangular cardboard box, with 2-inch cardboard rings at fixed locations used to model defects in the metal. Gravity is applied by raising one end of the box relative to the other end. The Hexbug “electrons” are released near the top of the box, randomly scattering from the defects as they are gradually “conducted” down the box due to the gravitational field.

“The Hexbug experiment provides a clearly visible, macroscale model of carrier transport in a wire that is consistent with the Drude model,” Hudgings said.

Similar Hexbug experiments could also be useful as online or in-person lab or lecture demonstrations in statistical mechanics, physical chemistry, biophysics, or introductory electromagnetism.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Using Hexbugs™ to model gas pressure and electrical conduction: A pandemic-inspired distance lab by Genevieve DiBaria, Liliana Valle, Refilwe Tanah Buac, Lucas Cunningham, Eleanor Hort, Taylor Venenciano, and Janice Hudgings. American Journal of Physics 90, 817 (2022) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0087142 Published online: October 21, 2022

This paper is open access.

After pretending to be Marie Curie girls stick with science

Researchers have found that pretending to be Marie Curie in a science game can lead to greater persistence when playing. From a September 27, 2022 Duke University news release (also on EurekAlert but published on September 29, 2022) by Dan Vahaba,

Fake it ‘til you make is true for children too, it turns out: Young girls embracing the role of a successful female scientist, like Marie Curie, persist longer at a challenging science game.

A new study, appearing Sept. 28 [2022] in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that science role-playing may help tighten the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and careers for women simply by improving their identity as scientists.

Frustrated by the gender gap in STEM, in which some fields employ at least three times more men than women, Cornell graduate student Reut Shachnai wanted to do something about it. Shachnai, who is now continuing her studies at Yale, said the idea to help foster young girls’ interest in science came to her during a lecture in a class she was taking on “Psychology of Imagination.”

“We read a paper on how children pretending to be a superhero did better at self-control tasks (the so-called ‘Batman effect’),” said Tamar Kushnir, Ph.D., who taught the class and is now a Duke professor of psychology & neuroscience as well as a fellow author on the new paper. “Reut wondered if this would also work to encourage girls to persist in science.”

Along with Lin Bian, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Chicago, Shachnai and Kushnir devised an experiment to test if assuming the role of a successful scientist would improve girls’ persistence in a “sink or float” science game.

The game itself was simple yet challenging: a computer screen projected a slide with an object in the center hovering above a pool of water. Kids then had to predict whether that object — be it an anchor, basketball, balloon, or others — would sink or float. After making their choice, they learned if they made the right choice as they watched the object either plunge or stay afloat.

The researchers recruited 240 four- to seven-year-olds for the experiment, because this is around the time kids first develop their sense of identity and capabilities.

“Children as early as age 6 start to think boys are smarter and better at science than girls,” said Bian, whose previous work identified this critical period.

Boys and girls were assigned to three different groups: the baseline group were told they would be scientists for the day and then got to play the game.

Children in the “story” group received the same information, but also learned about the successes and struggles of a gender-matched scientist before playing the game. Boys heard about Isaac Newton, and girls were told about Marie Curie. They also had to take a two-question pop quiz after the story to make sure they were paying attention (they were).

Finally, children in the “pretend” group did all the same things as the “story” group, with one important twist: these children were told to assume the identity of the scientist they just learned about, and were referred to as such during the game (“What’s your prediction, Dr. Marie?”).

All kids played at least one round of the game, after which they were asked if they wanted to play more or do something else. Once the kids tapped out, they were asked to rate how good they thought they were at the game and as a scientist.

No matter what group they were in, girls got the answers right just as often as boys — nearly 70% of the time. Boys, however didn’t really benefit from the stories or make-believe.

“Boys were kind of maxed out,” Kushnir said. “They were about at ceiling performance no matter what we did.”

Girls, on the other hand, benefited immensely from playing pretend.

Without being exposed to Marie Curie, girls called it quits after six trials. However, girls pretending to be Dr. Marie persisted twice as long at the sink-or-float game, playing just as much as the boys did (about 12 trials on average).

While there wasn’t much benefit to just hearing a story about Marie Curie for extending game play, it did boost girls’ ratings of themselves as science gamers.

Kushnir and her colleagues’ work poses many new questions for researchers, such as if children assuming the role of successful scientists matched by race and ethnicity might also benefit (the participants were mostly white in this study).

“Our findings suggest that we may want to take representation one step further,” Shachnai said. “Rather than merely hearing about role models, children may benefit from actively performing the type of actions they see role models perform. In other words, taking a few steps in the role model’s shoes, instead of merely observing her walk.”

A screen grab from the game,

Caption: Participants played a sink-or-float game on the computer during the study.. Credit:: Reut Shachnai, Tamar Kushnir, and Lin Bian https://osf.io/qfjk9

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Walking In Her Shoes: Pretending To Be a Female Role Model Increases Young Girls’ Persistence in Science by Shachnai, Reut, Kushnir, Tamar, Bian, Lin. Psychological Science DOI: 10.1177/09567976221119393 First published online: Sept. 28, 2022

This paper is behind a paywall.

For better science literacy change science education

Zahilyn D. Roche Allred’s July 12, 2022 essay for The Conversation (h/t July 13, 2022 news item on phys.org) suggests that even people with undergraduate science degrees have some issues with science literacy (Note: Links have been removed),

To graduate with a science major, college students must complete between 40 and 60 credit hours of science coursework. That means spending around 2,500 hours in the classroom throughout their undergraduate career.

However, research has shown that despite all that effort, most college science courses give students only a fragmented understanding of fundamental scientific concepts. The teaching method reinforces memorization of isolated facts, proceeding from one textbook chapter to the next without necessarily making connections between them, instead of learning how to use the information and connect those facts meaningfully.

The ability to make these connections is important beyond the classroom as well, because it’s the basis of science literacy: the ability to use scientific knowledge to accurately evaluate information and make decisions based on evidence.

As a chemistry education researcher, I have been working since 2019 with my colleague Sonia Underwood to learn more about how chemistry students integrate and apply their knowledge to other scientific disciplines.

A large body of research shows that traditional science education, for both science majors and non-majors, doesn’t do a good job of teaching science students how to apply their scientific knowledge and explain things that they may not have learned about directly.

With that in mind, we developed a series of cross-disciplinary activities guided by a framework called “three-dimensional learning.”

In short, three-dimensional learning, known as 3DL, emphasizes that the teaching, learning and assessing of college students should involve the use of fundamental ideas within a discipline. It should also involve tools and rules that support students in making connections within and between disciplines. Finally, it should engage students in the use of their knowledge. The framework was developed on the basis of how people learn as a way to help all students gain a deep understanding of science.

Allred goes on to describe a piece of previously published research. Here’s a link to and citation for that work

Students’ use of chemistry core ideas to explain the structure and stability of DNA by Zahilyn D. Roche Allred, Anthony J. Farias, Alex T. Kararo, Kristin N. Parent, Rebecca L. Matz, Sonia M. Underwood. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education Volume 49, Issue 1 (January/February 2021) Pages 55-68 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.21391 First published: 09 September 2020

This paper is behind a paywall.