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CEMS by the NUMBERS 1:10 The scale at which model bridges for the Steel Bridge Competition are constructed. The national competition brings together engineering students from across the country, with college teams vying to create model bridges that will impress judges with their structural efficiency, strength, and aesthetics. CEMS’ American Society of Civil Engineers club qualified for the national competition in May, and placed 32nd out of more than 200 teams. 6,000 degrees Celsius The temperature inside the center of a cylindrical chamber at UVM’s Plasma Test and Diagnostics Lab, built by mechanical engineering professor Doug Fletcher. The high heat can be used to create a form of matter called plasma, simulating the behavior of various materials in hostile environments, such as when spacecraft travel through different atmospheres. 16 hours The length of the hackathon held this year in Votey Hall, where 70 students split into eight teams worked to develop apps to improve student life at UVM. Apps ranged from one for students to post reviews of UVM classes to another that tracks the availability of athletic equipment at the fitness center. 4 % and 0.4 % The share of the U.S. electricity supply that comes from wind and solar energy, respectively. Scientists at CEMS, through its Smart Grid IGERT program, are undertaking a 5-year, $3 million program to train two dozen doctoral students with the goal of making the smart grid even smarter. Research, with funding from the National Science Foundation, includes designing better control algorithms for managing wind farms. 4
www.uvm.edu/cems | FALL ISSUE 2015 Engineering the NEXT GEN CLASSROOM High-school science teachers are upgrading their skills at CEMS’ new Vermont Engineering Initiative By Aimee Picchi This past summer, high school science teachers at the Vermont Engineering Initiative brainstormed solutions to several engineering problems, including how to design and build the longest possible cantilevered bridge using Popsicle sticks. More importantly, how might the design task – and the principles behind it – be added to their science curriculums? “We were thinking about what steps were involved and how to incorporate a whole project during the school year,” says Allison Stafford, a high school physics teacher in Redwood City, California who attended the inaugural VEI, which was held this summer at the University of Vermont’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. Learning the concepts of engineering design “is an awesome part of scientific literacy and students being successful in their lives,” she adds. While the Popsicle-stick bridge problem was just one of several engineering tasks the teachers took on during the week, they all tie back to a major undertaking taking place in 13 states (including Vermont) and the District of Columbia: meeting the Next Generation Science Standards, a new set of statedeveloped learning standards that emphasize scientific inquiry as well as engineering design, with the latter being a new addition to the guidelines. Why do some states think it’s time to refresh the science curriculum for America’s K-12 graders? The previous state science standards were developed almost 20 years ago, and the standards aim to reflect the changes that have taken place in science since then. One of the core principles is that students should demonstrate a solid understanding of how engineers approach and solve a design problem. “Most of the teachers have not had the engineering background to learn how to incorporate engineering design into the Photo: LONDONMiddlebury classroom,” notes Andrea Pearce, a research associate at CEMS and who worked on this summer’s VEI. “Engineering design starts with a problem. You need to use your knowledge of math and science to come up with a prototype and then improve it based on objective criteria.” She adds, “We’re hoping we can deliver this to more teachers.” The program was inspired by the Vermont Mathematics Initiative, created in 1999 by Ken Gross, the University of Vermont Azarius Williams professor of mathematics, and the late Vermont education commissioner Marc Hull. The VMI had the goal of helping 19 elementary schools that were underperforming in mathematics, and within two years, all those schools were off the list of underperformers. Over the years, the program has helped more than 400 K-12 teachers develop their skills and confidence in teaching math. This summer, the Vermont Engineering Initiative came together through a collaboration between CEMS and the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, whose mission is to improve how science, technology, engineering and mathematics are taught in the U.S. For Stafford, a Knowles fellow, that mission echoes her own beliefs about the importance of science education in American schools. “As an undergrad, we saw tons of solutions to worldwide problems like climate change and feeding the world,” she notes. “The biggest barrier isn’t about technology and science, but is about political will and making sure everyone has a basic understanding of scientific literacy.” The teachers tested their new skills by working with high school students enrolled in the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont’s Engineering program, which Stafford says was a highlight of the weeklong program. Engineering design, she notes, “is trying and learning from things that didn’t work and getting better. That kind of a mindset, a growth mindset, says that maybe you aren’t good at something yet, but you can do better.” 5
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