Interactive learning is beneficial to students in that it allows the continual development and testing of many skills. An interactive approach enables students to improve their technical capabilities, as well as developing both verbal and written communicative ability. Problem solving and communication skills are vital for engineering students; in…

The new "Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas" is a big, comprehensive volume, carefully organized and heavily documented. It is the long-awaited product of the Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards. As noted, it is a weighty document (more than 300…

Digital curation refers to the actions people take to maintain and add value to digital information over its lifecycle, including the processes used when creating digital content. Digital preservation focuses on the "series of managed activities necessary to ensure continued access to digital materials for as long as necessary." In this…

This study investigated the mental representations of student and professional engineers while they solved an engineering design problem. The intent was to gain a deeper insight into the differences that exist in the cognitive processes of engineering students and professional engineers as they use mental representations (i.e., propositions,…

The separation of content between science, math, engineering, and technology education should not exist. Working with the relationship between these content areas enhances students' efforts to learn about the physical world--and the Bungee Jump offers one great way to go about it. This article describes an activity called the Egg Bungee Jump which…

The pitcher throws the ball and the batter takes a mighty swing. Crack! The ball is hit on the sweet spot and soars to the outfield. Or, you hear a thud! This time, the ball dribbles along the infield ground and the batter's hands sting. Everyone who has played baseball or softball has probably experienced both of these outcomes. This may not seem…

This research shows that the motivation to posses a desired characteristic (or to avoid an undesired one) results in self-perceptions that guide people's use of base rate in the Lawyer-Engineer problem (Kahneman & Tversky, 1973). In four studies, participants induced to believe (or recall, Exp. 2) that a rational cognitive style is…

Building hovercraft has proven very popular with the author's engineering students at Knightstown Community High School. The activity uses inexpensive, readily available materials: foam board, a pop-up water bottle cap, a balloon, and hot glue. In this article, the author describes the hovercraft project and how the project provides excellent…

This paper presents an introductory signal processing laboratory and examines this laboratory exercise in the context of problem-based learning (PBL). Centered in a real-world application, a cochlear implant, the exercise challenged students to demonstrate a working software-based signal processor. Partnering in groups of two or three, second-year…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project "Mathematics, Science, and Technology Partnership" (MSTP) developed a multidisciplinary instructional model for connecting mathematics to science, technology and engineering content areas at the middle school level. Specifically, the model infused mathematics into middle school curriculum…

This paper presents the use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in educational research as a platform for enhanced pedagogical learning. The aim here with the use of a WSN platform was to go beyond the implementation stage to the real-life application stage, i.e., linking the implementation to real-life applications, where abstract theory and…

A management framework has been successfully utilized at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom to improve the process for developing and managing university-industry research collaborations. The framework has been part of a systematic approach to increase the level of research contracts from industrial sources, to strengthen the…

This article describes how a team comprised largely of high school students builds and races an E85-fueled car and takes first place at the Bowling Green (Ohio) State University (BGSU) Grand Prix. Free and open to the public, the event features student drivers and crews, racing go-karts powered by renewable, ethanol-based E85 fuel. The track is a…

In this article, the author presents an activity that uses simple paperboard from the back of a pad of paper to illustrate some basic construction principles as students experiment with conducting load tests. The author describes the steps in conducting a load test as well as adding a strut support system. The important lesson here is that…

Senior year chemical engineering students designed a process to produce 10 000 tonnes per annum of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) and also conducted bench-top experiments to synthesize SWNTs via fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition techniques. This was an excellent pedagogical experience because it related to the type of real world design…