Posts Tagged ‘science technology engineering mathematics’

Hurry! STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) story competition for Public Radio Exchange

Friday, April 19th, 2013

The deadline is Monday, Apr. 22, 2013 at 11:59 pm EDT (or 8:59 pm PDT). Now that’s out of the way, here are some of the competition details:

PRX [Public Radio Exchange] is looking for proposals to create short-form audio works about compelling stories, controversies, explanations, people, events, and insights about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).  We have a total pool of $40,000 made possible by a grant from the Sloan Foundation.

Here’s what they are looking for:

  • Highly creative, original works (we love Radiolab, SciFri, 99% Invisible, etc., but we want to hear YOUR style… don’t try to sound like them!).
  • Story-driven but not necessarily narrative pieces. We want solid science reporting, but not presented in a standard newsy style. If you can make something that keeps a listener enthralled, that’s what we want.
  • Proposals that address under-covered topics.  We are looking at all STEM topics, but we’re especially interested in creative approaches to engineering and math, which don’t get enough radio attention.
  • We will consider works that are already commissioned by another local or national program, but prefer original works. A commissioned work must be at pre-production stage, and must include PRX and Sloan Foundation credits in the body of the program, for all broadcast and digital versions.  The final broadcast version of the piece or segment must be posted to PRX and open to all licensing and opt-in usage by stations and other purchasers.
  • We prefer to work with one point of contact: a single producer OR a single lead producer of a small team. That producer must have final and complete say over story production, edits and the final product and is responsible for delivery of the agreed segment on time and on budget. The audio sample(s) submitted for this application must be by the lead or sole producer.
  • The preferred production length is between 4 and 7 minutes. We will accept limited series as long as the segments are able to stand alone.

While the entries must be English language, anyone from anywhere in the world can submit a proposal. Producers also need need to have or set up an account with PRX. More specifically,

  • PRX will be the exclusive broadcast distributor of the content for two years (or 24 months) after the work is posted to PRX and will retain a nonexclusive perpetual license for digital distribution.  The producer owns the work and can post it on his/her own website, SoundCloud, and other open streaming sites with the proper crediting.  Exclusive means that PRX will be involved in all discussions with broadcast outlets and have final say on all broadcast placement of the piece.
  • All final productions must be in English for U.S. audiences and conform to U.S. professional broadcast standards (technical, legal, and appropriate language).
  • Producers do not need to be a PRX account holders to apply.  However, producers of the selected and funded productions must set up PRX accounts.
  • If selected and funded, producers must upload their completed work to PRX.org to be made available to broadcast stations no later than July 15, 2013.
  • The selected and funded productions must comply with the PRX Terms of Use.
  • There is no implication or agreement to hire, contract, or otherwise engage with the producers outside this competitive process.
  • Producers must include required funding credits (to be provided by PRX) within the body of longer works or as adjacent credits with shorter material.  Credits must also be included on any digital platform.
  • All support funds will be paid in U.S. dollars.
  • The producer is responsible for all rights clearances for any content included in the work.
  • Producers can submit more than one proposal.  Please submit a separate application for each proposed project.
  • Producers outside the U.S. are welcome to apply.  International story proposals are also welcome.

Here’s a partial list of what you need for your submission:

  • A title for your proposed project.
  • A short bio.  If you also have past experience with STEM topics, let us know!  It is NOT required, however.
  • Two links to examples of your previous work with audio (or mp3 files if you do not have links).  You do not need to create files that are specific to your proposal.
  • Contact info for three references (not reference letters).
  • Production budget and breakdown.
  • Summary of the editorial and fact-checking plans; in particular for the STEM information at the core of the work.
  • A Word doc, PDF, or txt file of your project description in 250 words or less.
  • Your Twitter handle and a Twitter-length summary of your proposal (140 characters or less). PRX may choose to share these summaries publicly during the application process (you may opt out).
  • ….

Go here to apply.

For anyone who’s curious about PRX, here’s some information from their home page,

Public Radio Exchange is an online marketplace for distribution, review, and licensing of public radio programming. PRX is also a growing social network and community of listeners, producers, and stations collaborating to reshape public radio.

Good luck!

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Engineering toys for girls

Thursday, December 6th, 2012

Ariel Schwartz in her Dec. 6, 2012 article for Fast Company’s Co-Design website describes three engineering toys, two of which are explicitly designed for girls while the other one is of interest to any child who might want to build a robot. From the article (Note: I have removed links),

Devised by Debbie Sterling, a Stanford-educated engineer, GoldieBlox is a brand new series of construction toys and books for girls that focuses on a young blond girl named Goldie who lives in what Sterling described to us as a “crazy engineering house,” chock full of moving parts and gears.

…

A triad of women who studied mechanical engineering, neuroscience, and electrical engineering created Roominate, a modular hacker dollhouse that comes with connectable circuits. Alice Brooks, one of the designers, told Co.Design: “We started with a toy that girls already love, and added educational components that make the toy even more engaging.”

…

Slightly older girls (11 and up) might enjoy the $199 Hummingbird robotics kit, created by BirdBrain Technologies (a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon University). The kit comes with four sub-kits: a light and vibration set with 10 multi-colored LEDs and two vibration motors; a control set that comes with an auxiliary motor power supply, a USB cable, and a screwdriver; a motion that includes DC motors and servos; and a sensing kit that contains sound, temperature, distance, light sensors along with a rotary knob; basically, anything you would need to build the robot of your dreams. [emphases mine]

You won’t be able to get GoldieBlox in time for Christmas as it doesn’t ship until April 2013. By the way, GoldieBlox was a successful Kickstarter project raising over $285,000 when the goal was $150,000. Here’s an image from their campaign,

GoldieBlox (image from http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/16029337/goldieblox-the-engineering-toy-for-girls)

You can find GoldieBlox here and you will find that a little more culture diversity is being introduced.

Roominate looks like great fun and you can get that kit in time for Christmas, assuming they don’t run out of stock,

“A cooling fan that I wired myself!”

And then there’s this,

“A spinning dog for my pet shop!”

There’s one more picture from the home page and I must say I heartily agree with the sentiments,

“Every airport needs a cupcake shop and an aquarium!”

Personally, I’m particularly interested in the robotics kit from BirdBrain Technologies. Schwartz notes in her article that a group of eighth graders used the kit to build a scene from Carl Sandberg’s poem Sand. Here’s a video from inventor (it’s geeky),

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Encouraging STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers while opportunities decline in Canada

Friday, August 31st, 2012

The problem never seems to get solved. One end of the organization or institution makes a decision without considering the impact on those affected. Take for example the current drive to encourage more students to undertake STEM (science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics) careers when there are few job opportunities (except for engineers).

The University of British Columbia has just announced a science outreach toolkit, from the Aug. 30, 2012 news release on EurekAlert,

Outreach programs that offer a taste of real-world science and pair secondary students with enthusiastic young researchers are key to promoting careers in science and technology, according to University of British Columbia researchers.

In a paper published this week in PLoS Computational Biology, UBC researchers document their work on the Genomics Field Trip Program hosted at the Michael Smith Laboratories (MSL). Joanne Fox, Jennifer McQueen and Jody Wright outline the benefits of research-based field trips, offering a blueprint for designing science outreach programs.

…

The Genomics Field Trip program encourages exploration of the sciences through a full day genomics experience which takes place at the MSL laboratories. Program instructors are typically UBC graduate students who benefit from the experience by developing their ability to communicate scientific ideas to the general public. They also develop skills in lesson design and delivery, allowing them to enhance their instructional skills, something that does not always occur in teaching assistantship positions.

Fox hopes the success of the Genomics Field Trip Program will inspire other institutions to develop similar programs. The recommendations included in her paper can be used as a blueprint for science programs and an online genomics toolkit provides valuable information for lesson plans.

“This type of program helps graduate students remember why science is so exciting, and in turn inspires the next generation of scientists,” Fox explains.

The toolkit available here is designed for grade nine classes and it looks to be quite engaging. However, it is a disconcerting effort in light of the current situation for many STEM graduates. Nassif Ghoussoub (a mathematician at the University of British Columbia) in an Aug. 20, 2012 posting on his Piece of Mind blog writes about the diminishing opportunities for postgraduate science work (Note: I have removed links),

Canada’s “Natural Science and Engineering Research Council” has grown uncomfortable with the rapidly dwindling success rate in its postdoctoral fellowship programme, the latest having clocked in at 7.8%. So, it has decided to artificially inflate these rates by limiting the number of times young Canadian scholars can apply for such awards to … once. Never mind that the pathetic $40,000 salary (see comments below for corrections) for a highly trained Canadian post-doc hasn’t changed in more than 25 years, young Canadian scientists will now be fighting tooth and nail for the privilege of living on the fringe of the poverty line while trying to jumpstart their research careers. Welcome to Canada’s new lottery system for deciding the future of the nation’s capacity for advanced study and research.

I guess something needed to be done to cover up the fact that NSERC is now awarding 66% fewer fellowships than it did 5 years ago. Last year, we wondered whether the following numbers reflected a policy shift at NSERC or just collateral damage.

  • (2008) 250 awards/ 1169 applicants
  • (2009) 254 awards/ 1220 applicants
  • (2010) 286 awards/ 1341 applicants
  • (2011) 133 awards/ 1431 applicants
  • (2012) 98 awards/ 1254 applicants

These 98 fellowships are to be shared by 20 scientific disciplines and to be split among the 59 PhD-granting Canadian universities.

This theme is also addressed in an Aug. 24, 2012 posting by Jonathan Thon on the Black Hole blog which is now being hosted by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), Note: I have removed a link,

It should come as no surprise that by increasing the supply of graduate students (and in turn post-doctoral fellows), we have arranged to produce more knowledge workers than we can employ, creating a labor-excess economy that keeps labor costs down and productivity high (How much is a scientist worth?) – but is this what we want? While advantageous in the short-term, there is little room for additional gains and a more efficient and productive system will need to be created if we wish to actualize research-based economic growth.

As for opportunities in the industrial sector, Canada has a longstanding reputation for exceptionally low rates of industrial R&D (research and development).

I’ve yet to see the programme for the 2012 Canadian Science Policy Conference taking place in Calagary (Alberta) from Nov. 5 – 7, 2012 but I’m hoping this will be on the agenda.

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Science attitude kicks in by 10 years old

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

There’s a lot of talk these days about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in the field of education. It seems that every country that has produced materials about innovation, economic well being, etc.  in English and I’m guessing all the other countries too (I just can’t read their materia]s) want more children/young people studying STEM subjects.

One of the research efforts in the UK is the ASPIRES research project at King’s College London (KCL), which is examining children’s attitudes to science and future careers. Their latest report, Ten Science Facts and Fictions: the case for early education about STEM careers (PDF), is profiled in a Jan. 11, 2012 news item on physorg.com (from the news item),

Professor Archer [Louise Archer, Professor of Sociology of Education at King’s] said: “Children and their parents hold quite complex views of science and scientists and at age 10 or 11 these views are largely positive. The vast majority of children at this age enjoy science at school, have parents who are supportive of them studying science and even undertake science-related activities in their spare time. They associate scientists with important work, such as finding medical cures, and with work that is well paid.

“Nevertheless, less than 17 per cent aspire to a career in science. These positive impressions seem to lead to the perception that science offers only a very limited range of careers, for example doctor, scientist or science teacher. It appears that this positive stereotype is also problematic in that it can lead people to view science as out of reach for many, only for exceptional or clever people, and ‘not for me’.

Professor Archer says the findings indicate that engaging young people in science is not therefore simply a case of making it more interesting or more fun. She said: “There is a disconnect between interest and aspirations. Our research shows that young people’s ambitions are strongly influenced by their social backgrounds – ethnicity, social class and gender – and by family contexts. [emphases mine]

I was particularly struck by the fact that attitudes are positive but, by age 10, researchers are already observing that children are concluding ‘it’s not for me’.

Here’s a little more about the ASPIRES project,

The ASPIRES research team, led by Louise Archer, Professor of Sociology of Education at King’s, is tracking children’s science and career aspirations over five years, from ages 10 to 14. To date they have surveyed over 9000 primary school children and carried out more than 170 interviews of parents and children. After the age of 10 or 11 children’s attitudes towards science often start to decline, suggesting that there is a critical period in which schools and parents can do much to educate the next generation of the options available to them. [emphasis mine]

As for the report ‘Ten Science Facts and Fictions’, you may be in for a surprise if you’re expecting a standard academic study. It’s very colourful and illustrated with cartoons; each fact/fiction has its own page and only one; it summarizes and aggregates other research; and the whole report is 16 pp.  It’s easy reading and the reference notes mean you can follow up and read the research studies yourself.

On a note related to the conclusions made the ASPIRES researchers, I came across a Jan. 27, 2012 news item on Medical Xpress about a US study where researchers attempted an intervention designed to encourage more teens to study science,

In a different intervention study aimed at changing teen behavior in math and science, researchers did not target the students themselves but rather their parents. The goal was to increase students’ interest in taking courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). “We focus on the potential role of parents in motivating their teens to take more STEM courses, because we feel that they have been an untapped resource,” says Judith Harackiewicz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. [emphasis mine]

The participants consisted of 188 U.S. high school students and their parents from the longitudinal Wisconsin Study of Families and Work. Harackiewicz and her colleague Janet Hyde found that a relatively simple intervention aimed at parents – two brochures mailed to parents and a website that all highlight the usefulness of STEM courses – led their children to take on average nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last two years of high school, compared with the control group. “Our indirect intervention,” funded by the National Science Foundation, “changed the way that parents interacted with their teens, leading to a significant and important change in their teens’ course-taking behavior,” Harackiewicz says.

Given Dr. David Kent’s panel at the 2011 Canadian Science Policy Conference (David’s interview about the panel is in my Oct. 24, 2011 posting) where he noted we have too many science graduates and not enough jobs, I’m wondering if we’re going to see a Canadian effort to encourage more study in STEM subjects. It wouldn’t surprise me; I have seen policy disconnects before. For example, there’s a big effort to get more children and teens to study science while graduate students from the universities have difficulty finding employment because the policy didn’t take the end result (the sector [e.g. universities] that needed people [science professors] when the policy was instituted had already started to shrink and 10 years later no one needs these graduates) into account.

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Schulich Leader Scholarship is Canada’s Rhodes scholarship?

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

Touting the new Schulich Leader Scholarships as the Canadian version of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships, as you can see in some of the newspaper headlines, seems a little precipitate. Personally, I’m thrilled to see this initiative and I think it has great potential. But there are some significant differences between the Rhodes Scholarships (as per this Wikipedia essay) and the Schulich Leader Scholarships. For one thing, the Schulich scholarships are intended for undergraduates (Rhodes scholarships are for graduate work); the Schulich scholarships are to be awarded to Canadian and Israeli students  (Rhodes scholarships are offered to students in many more countries); and the Schulich scholarships can be used in any approved Canadian or Israeli university while the Rhodes scholar must study at Oxford.

Here’s a little more about the Schulich Leader Scholarships from the Oct. 14, 2011 news article by Tristin Hopper for the National Post,

With $100-million — the second-largest endowment to Canadian academia in history — mining magnate Seymour Schulich is inaugurating what he hopes will be the Canadian equivalent to the Rhodes Scholarship.

“It’s about trying to create leaders,” said Mr. Schulich, 71. “If you call people leaders and give them 60 grand, some of them are going to turn into leaders.”

Dubbed the Schulich Leader Scholarships, when fully implemented by 2014 the award will grant $60,000 over four years to students enrolling in science, technology, engineering or mathematics programs.

…

The award will work by a complex nomination process wherein each of Canada’s 1,300 high schools selects a single Schulich nominee. Of those, 25 universities will peg 75 students (60 Canadian, 15 Israeli) for the award.

I’ve been desultorily searching for the Schulich Leader Scholarship website and finally found it today. From the home page,

Canadian business leader and philanthropist Seymour Schulich has created a $100 million scholarship initiative to secure the future economic competitiveness of Canada and Israel. The scholarships are designed to ensure that future Canadian and Israeli leaders are among the next pioneers of global scientific research and innovation.

Graduating students planning to study STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) at designated universities are eligible to become a Schulich Leader. The four-year Schulich Leader Scholarship is valued at $60,000. Twenty Canadian and five Israeli recipients will be chosen in 2012 to study STEM subjects in their respective countries.

You will find more about which Canadian and Israeli universities have been designated as participants in this programme and other relevant details on the Schulich Leader Scholarship website.

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Nano, the Memphis Zoo, and connecting with kids

Friday, April 1st, 2011

Who would have thought that the US Dept. of Agriculture would be awarding the Memphis Zoo $500,000.00 for a project to connect rural schools online for a NanoZoo? Kudos to Dr. Helen Beady, Director of Education, and the staff at the Memphis Zoo for a truly imaginative approach to science education.  From the March 9, 2011 news release,

Dr. Helen Beady, Memphis Zoo Director of Education, applied for this grant [Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program] to help fund the Education Department’s ventures in nanotechnology through a program called “NanoZoo Connects.” This program will initially reach 14 schools in rural Tennessee through distance learning technology.

The Memphis Zoo’s “Discovery Center” will be renovated to become a state-of-the-art studio in which Zoo educators will be able to communicate through a video-bridge with some 7000 students in rural classrooms.

“This is just the beginning,” said Dr. Beady. “This grant will give us the ability to begin a program that will be improved and expanded for years to come. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for distance learning through this new technology.”

It was a story about a lotus leaf at a conference presentation that fired Helen Beady’s imagination three years ago. Scientists working at the nanoscale talk a lot about biomimcry. The lotus leaf is an excellent example of a material that is naturally water-resistant and finding out how the leaf achieves its water-resistant state and using that knowledge to create new textiles is an example of biomimicry.

The notion of biomimicry that helped Dr. Beady to tie together her interest in nanotechnology with exciting children’s interest in the zoo and the animals and integrating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education objectives in a single programme,  NanoZoo.  That project designed for students from kindergarten to high school was launched in August 2010. From the news release,

The concept of nanotechnology as it is taught through “NanoZoo” explores the ways animals and plants can help science improve the way we live and work. For example, students are taught how the Lotus leaf has inspired the development of fabrics that can remain under water for days and not get wet, and how the stick-ability of a Gecko’s foot has motivated the production of tape that allows a robot to walk vertically up a wall.

This new project which is being funded through the Dept. of Agriculture is the NanoZoo Connects distance education project.  From the news release,

“NanoZoo and distance learning bring the Memphis Zoo on the cutting edge of technology,” said Zoo President and CEO, Chuck Brady. “What we learn in the early stages of these initiatives will revolutionize the way we are able to help educate students in Tennessee and, one day, across the globe.

The $500,000. will purchase equipment necessary to make the distance education experience successful. (If you’ve ever struggled with connections and bug-ridden software while trying to pursuing any kind of distance education programme, you can appreciate how important good equipment and software are.) From the news release,

The Memphis Zoo’s “Discovery Center” will be renovated to become a state-of-the-art studio in which Zoo educators will be able to communicate through a video-bridge with some 7000 students in rural classrooms.

What’s striking in this project is the multidisciplinary approach from inception to execution with all of it grounded in the zoo’s basic mission statement: “The Memphis Zoo preserves wildlife through education, conservation and research.” I’ll restate this to say, it’s about discovering and healing the relationship between people, animals, and nature. So by that token, teaching and discussing biomimicry and nanotechnology are not such a far reach as some may believe.

Here’s one last item to illustrate the point. I asked Tiffany Langston, a member of the Memphis Zoo’s marketing and communications department, for something either she or the children have found particularly interesting in the NanoZoo.  Tiffany informed me that the Memphis Zoo is one of only four in the US that have pandas and the only food they will eat is bamboo (40 lbs. per day!). Students at the NanoZoo find out that the fibre within the bamboo stalks features a hexagonal structure at the nanoscale which makes the fibre (at the nanoscale) stronger than steel. Today, scientists are trying to mimic those structures to create strong materials that are produced in a more environmentally friendly fashion than steel.

Meanwhile, Dr. Beady has more projects up her sleeve (from the news release),

The Zoo’s Education Department has recently received a $25,000 environmental grant from the City of Memphis Office of Youth Services and Community Affairs to develop a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) field program that focuses on the emerging science nanotechnology. This program will help inner city students draw connections between technology, plants, animals and those things that exist in the “big” world through our “NanoZoo.”

The NanoZoo initiative was celebrated at the Memphis Zoo’s Nano Days event on March 28, 2011 (from the news release),

On March 28, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. the Memphis Zoo invites you to join us for NanoDays and our One Bazillion Nano Meter Walk (leisurely 1 mile stroll). This event will include hands-on demonstrations which explore how scientists mimic traits of plants and animals to inspire innovations in technology and engineering.

The event attracted US Senator Steve Cohen who had this to say in a recent news release to the Memphis Business Journal (http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2011/03/28/memphis-zoo-gets-500000-nano-grant.html),

The initiative, NanoZoo Connects!, will help demonstrate how scientists use nanotechnology to mimic particular traits of animals and plants to solve engineering and technological problems, according to a release issued by U.S. Sen. Steve Cohen’s office.

“If we are going to successfully compete in a rapidly changing 21st century global economy, our children must have the necessary tools to get ahead,” Cohen said. “The NanoZoo Connects! program will help us accomplish such a goal.”

Dr. Helen Beady told me that she drew on her experience as a former business owner, where she was in the position of trying to hire people who didn’t have the necessary skills or education, to develop the NanoZoo programme. Multidisciplinary in nature. Dr. Beady has hired an engineer and a PhD. in biochemistry to assist with further developing the NanoZoo.

All of this may or may not lead to ‘successful competition in the 21st century global economy’ but it certainly will lead to children learning more about animals and nature and how we might all better co-exist on this planet.

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Posted in education, interviews, nanotechnology, science communication | 6 Comments »