2008 Outreach and Engagement Funded Grant Proposals

Science at the Polar Frontier: BPRC, the Zoo, and Metro School

With support from the OSU Office of Outreach and Engagement and the Battelle Memorial Institute, the Byrd Polar Research Center (BPRC) at Ohio State collaborated with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium to develop a set of presentations about Arctic research in support of the Zoos new Polar Frontier exhibit. Additional information is also made available on the BPRC website. The most timeless product from this collaboration is a series of computer graphics that are generated from the Polar Weather Research and Forecast model showing real-time temperature and pressure conditions and a 48-hour forecast for the entire Arctic region. Output from the model was adapted to generate color-coded maps specifically for the Zoo, requiring more than a year of effort. The maps are being archived at BPRC for future use by Metro High School and other students who are interested in changing conditions in the polar environment. The model output will also be shared with other members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums with polar exhibits. Visitors to the Polar Frontier are also introduced to the science of understanding past Arctic climate through studies of ice cores and seafloor sediments, two other important research areas at BPRC.

Partners:

Carol Landis, Education and Outreach Specialist, Byrd Polar Research Center
Nancy Hampson, Director of Conservation Education, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
Marcy Raymond, Principal, Metro High School

Mansfield Young Peoples Project

The Mansfield Young Peoples Project (MYPP) is an after-school program and annual summer institute which trains lowest-quartile high school students to be peer mentors, leaders, and advocates for quality education. In conjunction with the national YPP, high school students train along with college students to become math literacy workers (MLWs) in order to build a powerful network of young people from marginalized and under-resourced communities. Organized around entry-level knowledge work, students mentor elementary and middle school kids in an after-school program of math games and activities. They simultaneously learn to take responsibility for the program, creating a virtuous circle of older peers modeling successful academic and leadership skills to younger students, who will develop into similar roles as they grow up.

In 2008, MYPP began developing its first cohort of 9 eighth graders from the lowest academic quartile, with four college team leaders. In 2009, the cohort grew to 19 students, and MYPP served as a bridge to the establishment of the Mansfield Algebra Project (MAP), funded by a five year National Science Foundation grant. MAP currently serves 19 tenth graders, MYPP serves 25 high school students, and more than eight college students have trained as team leaders. The number of outreach schools where MLWs work has doubled from one to two, and seeks to double again in 2010-2011. A short video documenting the summer program can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/14219555

Partners:

Lee McEwan, Associate Professor, Mathematics, OSU Mansfield
Heather Tanner, Associate Professor, History, OSU Mansfield
Young Peoples Project
Algebra Project

Ohio House of Science and Engineering

Ohio State University has numerous well-established science/engineering outreach and public science literacy programs that seek to improve grades K-20 science education (Wonders of Our World, W.O.W., GK-12 Program, Future Engineers Summer Camp, and the DNA Fingerprinting Workshop). Operating as a consortium of these highly effective programs, the Ohio House of Science and Engineering will foster and promote STEM outreach and education activities from kindergarten through the PhD. It intends to serve all of the following roles in the university community: a primary point of contact for external constituencies to find STEM outreach programs at the university; a stable administrative structure for programs and physical base for operations; a laboratory or think tank for testing and developing new outreach ideas; and a curriculum development resource for STEM elements in higher education. The proposed Excellence and Engagement project will expand the efforts of a number of current outreach efforts to include inquiry-based teaching in K-12 classrooms. This will be the pilot for demonstrating the OHSE operation. At full strength, the OHSE expects to serve approximately 10,000 K-12 students per year with 1,000-1,500 contributing scientists and engineers.

Partners:

Susan Olesik, Professor, Department of Chemistry, College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
David Tomasko, Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, College of Engineering
Amanda Simcox, Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, College of Biological Sciences
Linda Weavers, John C. Geupel Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science and Associate Professor, College of Engineering

Engineering to the High Schools

The United States is facing a shortage of engineers. To address this shortage, the key is to educate school teachers, and through them their students, about what engineering is. The teachers are eager to learn, and the schools are creating STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) clubs and engineering clubs to reach the students, but the teachers and clubs need content. Ohio State's Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) students, as part of the ECE senior capstone design course, have developed a series of hands-on engineering activities to increase awareness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) among high school students and their teachers. ECE seniors and faculty visited 15 Columbus area high schools, engaging students and their teachers in building speakers, audio equalizers, LED displays, touch-screen sensors, electric motors, a Jeopardy! style quiz game with buzzers and timers, and more. The ultimate goal of the ECE STEM initiative is to teach engineering concepts to high school teachers directly, to encourage and support independent teaching of these concepts in the high schools. Thorough documentation including parts lists and detailed directions has been developed. These lists will be posted on websites at STEM Columbus, Ohio House of Science and Engineering, and the College of Engineering. Battelle will help purchase and make available parts kits for these projects to share across school districts in the state. With the projects in place, ECE, with Battelles support, is organizing build parties at which teachers can come and build the projects themselves before taking them back to their schools.

Partners:

Betty Lise Anderson, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering
Marcy Raymond, Principal, Metro High School
David B. L. Gould, Director, Upper School, Columbus School for Girls
Susie Carr, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Whitehall City Schools
Chris Brandon, Project Director, Battelle Engineering Experience
Glenda LaRue, Director, Women in Engineering Program, College of Engineering