This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award supports the establishment of an interdisciplinary graduate training program in Cognitive, Computational, and Systems Neuroscience at Washington University in Saint Louis. Understanding how the brain works under normal circumstances and how it fails are among the most important problems in science. The purpose of this program is to train a new generation of systems-level neuroscientists who will combine experimental and computational approaches from the fields of psychology, neurobiology, and engineering to study brain function in unique ways. Students will participate in a five-course core curriculum that provides a broad base of knowledge in each of the core disciplines, and culminates in a pair of highly integrative and interactive courses that emphasize critical thinking and analysis skills, as well as practical skills for developing interdisciplinary research projects. This program also includes workshops aimed at developing the personal and professional skills that students need to become successful independent investigators and educators, as well as outreach programs aimed at communicating the goals and promise of integrative neuroscience to the general public. This training program will be tightly coupled to a new research focus involving neuro-imaging in nonhuman primates. By building upon existing strengths at Washington University, this research and training initiative will provide critical new insights into how the non-invasive measurements of brain function that are available in humans (e.g. from functional MRI) are related to the underlying activity patterns in neuronal circuits of the brain. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kurt ThoroughmanGregory DeAngelisRandy BucknerSteven PetersenDora Angelaki
"Local Investigations of Natural Science (LIONS)" engages grade 5-8 students from University City schools, Missouri in structured out-of-school programs that provide depth and context for their regular classroom studies. The programs are led by district teachers. A balanced set of investigations engage students in environmental research, computer modeling, and advanced applications of mathematics. Throughout, the artificial boundary between classroom and community is bridged as students use the community for their studies and resources from local organizations are brought into school. Through these projects, students build interest and awareness of STEM-related career opportunities and the academic preparation needed for success.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Robert CoulterEric KlopferJere Confrey
The University of Massachusetts Lowell and Machine Science Inc. propose to develop and to design an on-line learning system that enables schools and community centers to support IT-intensive engineering design programs for students in grades 7 to 12. The Internet Community of Design Engineers (iCODE) incorporates step-by-step design plans for IT-intensive, computer-controlled projects, on-line tools for programming microcontrollers, resources to facilitate on-line mentoring by university students and IT professionals, forums for sharing project ideas and engaging in collaborative troubleshooting, and tools for creating web-based project portfolios. The iCODE system will serve more than 175 students from Boston and Lowell over a three-year period. Each participating student attends 25 weekly after-school sessions, two career events, two design exhibitions/competitions, and a week-long summer camp on a University of Massachusetts campus in Boston or Lowell. Throughout the year, students have opportunities to engage in IT-intensive, hands-on activities, using microcontroller kits that have been developed and classroom-tested by University of Massachusetts-Lowell and Machine Science, Inc. About one-third of the participants stay involved for two years, with a small group returning for all three years. One main component for this project is the Handy Cricket which is a microcontroller kit that can be used for sensing, control, data collection, and automation. Programmed in Logo, the Handy Cricket provides an introduction to microcontroller-based projects, suitable for students in grades 7 to 9. Machine Science offers more advanced kits, where students build electronic circuits from their basic components and then write microcontroller code in the C programming language. Machine Science offers more advanced kits, which challenge students to build electronic circuits from their basic components and then write microcontroller code in the C programming language. Machine Science's kits are intended for students in grades 9 to 12. Microcontroller technology is an unseen but pervasive part of everyday life, integrated into virtually all automobiles, home appliances, and electronic devices. Since microcontroller projects result in physical creations, they provide an engaging context for students to develop design and programming skills. Moreover, these projects foster abilities that are critical for success in IT careers, requiring creativity, analytical thinking, and teamwork-not just basic IT skills.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Fred MartinDouglas PrimeMichelle Scribner-MacLeanSamuel Christy
The "Mentored Youth Building Employable Skills in Technology (MyBEST)" project, a collaboration of the Youth Science Center (YSC) and Learning Technology Center (LTC) at the Science Museum of Minnesota, is a three-year, youth-based proposal that seeks to engage 200 inner-city youngsters in learning experiences involving information and design technologies. The goal of the project is to develop participants' IT fluency coupled with work- and academic-related skills. The program will serve students in grades 7 through 12 with special emphasis on three underrepresented groups: girls, youngsters of color, and the economically disadvantaged. Project participants will receive 130 contact hours and 70% will receive at least 160 hours. Each project year, including summers, students participate in three seasons consisting of five two-week cycles. Project activities will center on an annual technology theme: design, engineering and invention; social and environmental systems; and networks and communication. The activities that constitute project seasons include guest presenter workshops; open labs facilitated by guest presenters, mentors and adult staff; presentations of student projects; career workshops and field trips. The project cycles feature programming (e.g., Logo computer language; Cricketalk), engineering and multi-media production (e.g., digital video; non-linear editing software). Each cycle will interface with an existing museum-related program (e.g., the NSF-funded traveling Cyborg exhibit). Mentors will work alongside participants in all technology-based activities. These mentors will be recruited from university, business, community partners and participant families. Leadership development is addressed through teamwork and in the form of internships and externships. Participants obtain work experience related to technology in the internship and externship component. The "MyBEST" project will serve as a prototype for the Museum to test the introduction of technology as central to the design and learning outcomes of its youth-based programs. An advisory board reflecting expertise in youth development, technology and informal science education will guide the program's development and plans for sustainability. Core elements of the "MyBEST" program will be integrated into the Museum's youth-based projects sponsored by the YSC and LTC departments. The Museum has a strong record of integrating prototype initiatives into long-standing programs.
Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is an emerging branch of the learning sciences concerned with studying how people can learn together with the help of computers. As we will see in this essay, such a simple statement conceals considerable complexity. The interplay of learning with technology turns out to be quite intricate. The inclusion of collaboration, computer mediation, and distance education has problematized the very notion of learning and called into question prevailing assumptions about how to study it.
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Gerry StahlTimothy KoschmannDan Suthers
Gender differences in the pursuit of technology careers are a current issue of concern. We report on two studies that use surveys, drawings and interviews to examine sixth- and eighth-grade students' perceptions of knowledgeable computer users and their self-perception as a computer-type person. In Study 1, participants were asked to generate representations of computer users in pictures or words. The results indicate that the majority of representations were of male users and they frequently wore glasses. Students of both genders were more likely to draw males. Eighth-grade students'
Adolescents often pursue learning opportunities both in and outside school once they become interested in a topic. In this paper, a learning ecology framework and an associated empirical research agenda are described. This framework highlights the need to better understand how learning outside school relates to learning within schools or other formal organizations, and how learning in school can lead to learning activities outside school. Three portraits of adolescent learners are shared to illustrate different pathways to interest development. Five types of self-initiated learning processes
This Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) is a collaboration among Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California—Santa Barbara, and the Museum of Science—Boston with participation by Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), the University of Basel (Switzerland), the University of Tokyo (Japan), and the Brookhaven, Oak Ridge, and the Sandia National Laboratories. The NSEC combines "top down" and "bottom up" approaches to construct novel electronic and magnetic devices with nanoscale sizes and understand their behavior, including quantum phenomena. Through a close integration of research, education, and public outreach, the Center encourages and promotes the training of a diverse group of people to be leaders in this new interdisciplinary field.
The Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center entitled New England Nanomanufacturing Center for Enabling Tools is a partnership between Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, the University of New Hampshire, and Michigan State University. The NSEC unites 34 investigators from 9 departments. The NSEC is likely to impact solutions to three critical and fundamental technical problems in nanomanufacturing: (1) Control of the assembly of 3D heterogeneous systems, including the alignment, registration, and interconnection at three dimensions and with multiple functionalities, (2) Processing of nanoscale structures in a high-rate/high-volume manner, without compromising the beneficial nanoscale properties, (3) Testing the long-term reliability of nano components, and detect, remove, or prevent defects and contamination. Novel tools and processes will enable high-rate/high-volume bottom-up, precise, parallel assembly of nanoelements (such as carbon nanotubes, nanorods, and proteins) and polymer nanostructures. This Center will contribute a fundamental understanding of the interfacial behavior and forces required to assemble, detach, and transfer nanoelements, required for guided self-assembly at high rates and over large areas. The Center is expected to have broader impacts by bridging the gap between scientific research and the creation of commercial products by established and emerging industries, such as electronic, medical, and automotive. Long-standing ties with industry will also facilitate technology transfer. The Center builds on an already existing network of partnerships among industry, universities, and K-12 teachers and students to deliver the much-needed education in nanomanufacturing, including its environmental, economic, and societal implications, to the current and emerging workforce. The collaboration of a private and two public universities from two states, all within a one hour commute, will lead to a new center model, with extensive interaction and education for students, faculty, and outreach partners. The proposed partnership between NENCET and the Museum of Science (Boston) will foster in the general public the understanding that is required for the acceptance and growth of nanomanufacturing. The Center will study the societal implications of nanotechnology, including conducting environmental assessments of the impact of nanomanufacturing during process development. In addition, the Center will evaluate the economic viability in light of environmental and public health findings, and the ethical and regulatory policy issues related to developmental technology.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Ahmed BusnainaNicol McGruerGlen MillerCarol BarryJoey Mead
This collaborative project aims to establish a national computational resource to move the research community much closer to the realization of the goal of the Tree of Life initiative, namely, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of all organisms. This goal is the computational Grand Challenge of evolutionary biology. Current methods are limited to problems several orders of magnitude smaller, and they fail to provide sufficient accuracy at the high end of their range. The planned resource will be designed as an incubator to promote the development of new ideas for this enormously challenging computational task; it will create a forum for experimentalists, computational biologists, and computer scientists to share data, compare methods, and analyze results, thereby speeding up tool development while also sustaining current biological research projects. The resource will be composed of a large computational platform, a collection of interoperable high-performance software for phylogenetic analysis, and a large database of datasets, both real and simulated, and their analyses; it will be accessible through any Web browser by developers, researchers, and educators. The software, freely available in source form, will be usable on scales varying from laptops to high-performance, Grid-enabled, compute engines such as this project's platform, and will be packaged to be compatible with current popular tools. In order to build this resource, this collaborative project will support research programs in phyloinformatics (databases to store multilevel data with detailed annotations and to support complex, tree-oriented queries), in optimization algorithms, Bayesian inference, and symbolic manipulation for phylogeny reconstruction, and in simulation of branching evolution at the genomic level, all within the context of a virtual collaborative center. Biology, and phylogeny in particular, have been almost completely redefined by modern information technology, both in terms of data acquisition and in terms of analysis. Phylogeneticists have formulated specific models and questions that can now be addressed using recent advances in database technology and optimization algorithms. The time is thus exactly right for a close collaboration of biologists and computer scientists to address the IT issues in phylogenetics, many of which call for novel approaches, due to a combination of combinatorial difficulty and overall scale. The project research team includes computer scientists working in databases, algorithm design, algorithm engineering, and high-performance computing, evolutionary biologists and systematists, bioinformaticians, and biostatisticians, with a history of successful collaboration and a record of fundamental contributions, to provide the required breadth and depth. This project will bring together researchers from many areas and foster new types of collaborations and new styles of research in computational biology; moreover, the interaction of algorithms, databases, modeling, and biology will give new impetus and new directions in each area. It will help create the computational infrastructure that the research community will use over the next decades, as more whole genomes are sequenced and enough data are collected to attempt the inference of the Tree of Life. The project will help evolutionary biologists understand the mechanisms of evolution, the relationships among evolution, structure, and function of biomolecules, and a host of other research problems in biology, eventually leading to major progress in ecology, pharmaceutics, forensics, and security. The project will publicize evolution, genomics, and bioinformatics through informal education programs at museum partners of the collaborating institutions. It also will motivate high-school students and college undergraduates to pursue careers in bioinformatics. The project provides an extraordinary opportunity to train students, both undergraduate and graduate, as well as postdoctoral researchers, in one of the most exciting interdisciplinary areas in science. The collaborating institutions serve a large number of underrepresented groups and are committed to increasing their participation in research.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Tandy WarnowDavid HillisLauren MeyersDaniel MirankerWarren Hunt, Jr.
The "Salmon Research Team: A Native American Technology, Research and Science Career Exposure Program" is a three-year, youth-based ITEST project submitted by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The project seeks to provide advanced information technology and natural science career exposure and training to 180 middle level and high school students. Mostly first-generation college-bound students, the target audience represents the Native American community and those with Native American affiliations in reservation, rural and urban areas. Students will investigate computer modeling of complex ecological, hydrological and geological problems associated with salmon recovery efforts. Field experiences will be provided in three states: Oregon, Washington and northern California. The participation of elders and tribal researchers will serve as a bridge between advanced scientific technology and traditional ecological knowledge to explore sustainable land management strategies. Students will work closely with Native American and other scientists and resource managers throughout the Northwest who use advanced technologies in salmon recovery efforts. Student participation in IT-dependent science enrichment and research activities involving natural science fields of investigation will occur year round. Middle school students are expected to receive at least 330 contact hours including a one-week summer research experience, a one-week spring break program, and seven weekends of residential programs during the school year. The high school component consists of 460 contact hours reflecting one additional week for the summer research experience. In addition to watershed and salmon recovery related research, students will be involved in other ancillary research projects. A vast array of partners are positioned to support the field research experience including, for example, the U.S. Department of the Interior, Redwood National State Park, College of Natural Resources and Sciences at Humboldt State University, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, University of Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, University of Washington Columbia Basin Research project, the Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources at Chemeketa Community College and the Integrated Natural Resource Technology program at Mt. Hood Community College. The project is intended to serve as a model for IT-based youth science programs that address national and state education standards and are relevant to the cultural experience of Native American students. Two mentors will provide continued support to students: an academic mentor at the student's schools and a professional mentor from a local university or natural resource agency. Incentives will be provided for student participation including stipends and internships. Career exposure and work-related skills are integrated throughout the project activities and every program component. Creative strategies are used to encourage family involvement including, for example, salmon bakes and museum discounts.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Travis Southworth-NeumeyerDaniel Calvert
The X-Tech program will bring together the Exploratorium and staff at five Beacon Centers to create an innovative technology program using STEM and IT activities previously tested at the Exploratorium. At each X-Tech Club, two Beacon Center staff and two Exploratorium Youth Facilitators will work with 20 middle school students each year for a total of 300 participants. Youth Facilitators are alumni of the Exploratorium's successful Explainer program and will receive 120 hours of training in preparation for peer mentoring. Each site will use the X-Tech hands-on curriculum that will focus on small technological devices to explore natural phenomenon, in addition to digital imaging, visual perception and the physiology of eyes. Parental involvement will be fostered through opportunities to participate in lectures, field trips and open houses, while staff at Beacon Centers will participate in 20 hours of professional development each year.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Vivian AltmannDarlene LibreroVirginia WittMichael Funk