Satellite Remote Sensing in Seismology. A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andrew A. Tronin

2009-12-01

Full Text Available A wide range of satellite methods is applied now in seismology. The first applications of satellite data for earthquake exploration were initiated in the ‘70s, when active faults were mapped on satellite images. It was a pure and simple extrapolation of airphoto geological interpretation methods into space. The modern embodiment of this method is alignment analysis. Time series of alignments on the Earth's surface are investigated before and after the earthquake. A further application of satellite data in seismology is related with geophysical methods. Electromagnetic methods have about the same long history of application for seismology. Stable statistical estimations of ionosphere-lithosphere relation were obtained based on satellite ionozonds. The most successful current project "DEMETER" shows impressive results. Satellite thermal infra-red data were applied for earthquake research in the next step. Numerous results have confirmed previous observations of thermal anomalies on the Earth's surface prior to earthquakes. A modern trend is the application of the outgoing long-wave radiation for earthquake research. In ‘80s a new technology—satellite radar interferometry—opened a new page. Spectacular pictures of co-seismic deformations were presented. Current researches are moving in the direction of pre-earthquake deformation detection. GPS technology is also widely used in seismology both for ionosphere sounding and for ground movement detection. Satellite gravimetry has demonstrated its first very impressive results on the example of the catastrophic Indonesian earthquake in 2004. Relatively new applications of remote sensing for seismology as atmospheric sounding, gas observations, and cloud analysis are considered as possible candidates for applications.

State-of-the-art of the historical seismology in Colombia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. J. Salcedo Hurtado

2004-06-01

Full Text Available In Colombia are available a discreet number of historical seismology investigations, dating back 50 years. This paper reviews basic information about earthquakes studies in Colombia, such as primary sources, compilation of descriptive catalogues and parametric catalogues. Father Jesús Emilio Ramírez made the main systematic study before 1975. During the last 20 years, great earthquakes hit Colombia and, as consequence, historical seismology investigation was developed in the frame of seismic hazard projects.

Bringing Seismology's Grand Challenges to the Undergraduate Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Benoit, M. H.; Taber, J.; Hubenthal, M.

2011-12-01

The "Seismological Grand Challenges in Understanding Earth's Dynamic Systems," a community-written long-range science plan for the next decade, poses 10 questions to guide fundamental seismological research. Written in an approachable fashion suitable for policymakers, the broad questions and supporting discussion contained in this document offer an ideal framework for the development of undergraduate curricular materials. Leveraging this document, we have created a collection of inquiry-based classroom modules that utilize authentic data to modernize seismological instruction in 100 and 200 level undergraduate courses. The modules not only introduce undergraduates to the broad questions that the seismological community seeks to answer in the future but also showcase the numerous areas where modern seismological research is actively contributing to our understanding of fundamental Earth processes. To date 6 in-depth explorations that correspond to the Grand Challenges document have been developed. The specific topics for each exploration were selected to showcase modern seismological research while also covering topics commonly included in the curriculum of these introductory classes. Examples of activities that have been created and their corresponding Grand Challenge include: -A guided inquiry that introduces students to episodic tremor and slip and compares the GPS and seismic signatures of ETS with those produced from standard tectonic earthquakes (Grand Challenge "How do faults slip?"). - A laboratory exercise where students engage in b-value mapping of volcanic earthquakes to assess potential eruption hazards (How do magmas ascend and erupt?). - A module that introduce students to glacial earthquakes in Greenland and compares their frequency and spatial distribution to tectonic earthquakes (How do processes in the ocean and atmosphere interact with the solid Earth?). What is the relationship between stress and strain in the lithosphere? - An activity that

Rotational seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, William H K.

2016-01-01

Rotational seismology is an emerging study of all aspects of rotational motions induced by earthquakes, explosions, and ambient vibrations. It is of interest to several disciplines, including seismology, earthquake engineering, geodesy, and earth-based detection of Einstein’s gravitation waves.Rotational effects of seismic waves, together with rotations caused by soil–structure interaction, have been observed for centuries (e.g., rotated chimneys, monuments, and tombstones). Figure 1a shows the rotated monument to George Inglis observed after the 1897 Great Shillong earthquake. This monument had the form of an obelisk rising over 19 metres high from a 4 metre base. During the earthquake, the top part broke off and the remnant of some 6 metres rotated about 15° relative to the base. The study of rotational seismology began only recently when sensitive rotational sensors became available due to advances in aeronautical and astronomical instrumentations.

Seismology, 1983, nuclear test ban verification earthquake and earth resource investigation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1984-03-01

This progress report for 1983 is the fourth yearly report summarizing the activities of the Division of Applied Seismology of the National Defence Research Institute (FOA) in Sweden. This division of the Institute is mainly involved in seismic discrimination and nuclear explosion monitoring. Special attention is paid in this report to the development of International Data Centers as a component of a global monitoring system. The division is also conducting a project on seismic risk estimation at nuclear power plants in Sweden. This project includes operating a network of local seismic stations in Sweden. Two seismic exploration projects are also currently being conducted. One project involves the further development of seismic methods for oil exploration, and the other the investigation of crystalline rock using seismic cross hole measurement. Finally the Division of Applied Seismology is conducting a project where seismic sensor in military applications are studied.

Eagle Pass Jr. High Seismology Team: Strategies for Engaging Middle School "At-Risk" Students in Authentic Research

Science.gov (United States)

Brunt, M. R.; Ellins, K. K.; Frohlich, C. A.

2011-12-01

In 2008, during my participation in the NSF-sponsored Texas Earth & Space Science (TXESS) Revolution professional development program, I was awarded an AS-1 seismograph through IRIS's Seismographs in Schools Program. This program serves to create an international educational seismic network that allows teachers across the country and around the world to share seismic data in real-time using online tools, classroom activities, and technical support documents for seismic instruments. Soon after receiving my AS-1, I founded and began sponsoring the Eagle Pass Jr. High Seismology Team which consists of selected 7th and 8th grade students. Eagle Pass Jr. High is a Title 1 school that serves a predominantly "at-risk" Hispanic population. We meet after school once a week to learn about earthquakes, seismic waves, analyze recorded seismic event data using computer software programming, and correspond with other students from schools around the country. This team approach has been well received by fellow TXESS Revolution teachers with AS-1 seismographs and will be implemented by David Boyd, STEM coordinator for Williams Preparatory Academy in Dallas, Texas this fall 2011. All earthquakes recorded by our seismograph station (EPTX), which has remained online and actively recording seismic data since 2008, are catalogued and then plotted on a large world map displayed on my classroom wall. A real-time seismogram image updates every five minutes and along with all earthquakes recorded since installation can be viewed on our webpage http://www.iris.edu/hq/ssn/schools/view/eptx. During the 2010-2011 school year, my seismology team and I participated in an earthquake research study led by Dr. Cliff Frohlich at the Institute for Geophysics. The study examined seismograms and felt reports for the 25 April 2010 Alice, Texas, earthquake, in order to investigate its possible connection to oil and gas production in the Stratton oil and gas field. A research paper detailing our findings

Global teaching of global seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Stein, S.; Wysession, M.

2005-12-01

Our recent textbook, Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, & Earth Structure (Blackwell, 2003) is used in many countries. Part of the reason for this may be our deliberate attempt to write the book for an international audience. This effort appears in several ways. We stress seismology's long tradition of global data interchange. Our brief discussions of the science's history illustrate the contributions of scientists around the world. Perhaps most importantly, our discussions of earthquakes, tectonics, and seismic hazards take a global view. Many examples are from North America, whereas others are from other areas. Our view is that non-North American students should be exposed to North American examples that are type examples, and that North American students should be similarly exposed to examples elsewhere. For example, we illustrate how the Euler vector geometry changes a plate boundary from spreading, to strike-slip, to convergence using both the Pacific-North America boundary from the Gulf of California to Alaska and the Eurasia-Africa boundary from the Azores to the Mediterranean. We illustrate diffuse plate boundary zones using western North America, the Andes, the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and the East Africa Rift. The subduction zone discussions examine Japan, Tonga, and Chile. We discuss significant earthquakes both in the U.S. and elsewhere, and explore hazard mitigation issues in different contexts. Both comments from foreign colleagues and our experience lecturing overseas indicate that this approach works well. Beyond the specifics of our text, we believe that such a global approach is facilitated by the international traditions of the earth sciences and the world youth culture that gives students worldwide common culture. For example, a video of the scene in New Madrid, Missouri that arose from a nonsensical earthquake prediction in 1990 elicits similar responses from American and European students.

High-performance computing in seismology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-09-01

The scientific, technical, and economic importance of the issues discussed here presents a clear agenda for future research in computational seismology. In this way these problems will drive advances in high-performance computing in the field of seismology. There is a broad community that will benefit from this work, including the petroleum industry, research geophysicists, engineers concerned with seismic hazard mitigation, and governments charged with enforcing a comprehensive test ban treaty. These advances may also lead to new applications for seismological research. The recent application of high-resolution seismic imaging of the shallow subsurface for the environmental remediation industry is an example of this activity. This report makes the following recommendations: (1) focused efforts to develop validated documented software for seismological computations should be supported, with special emphasis on scalable algorithms for parallel processors; (2) the education of seismologists in high-performance computing technologies and methodologies should be improved; (3) collaborations between seismologists and computational scientists and engineers should be increased; (4) the infrastructure for archiving, disseminating, and processing large volumes of seismological data should be improved.

ObsPy: A Python Toolbox for Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Krischer, Lion; Megies, Tobias; Sales de Andrade, Elliott; Barsch, Robert; MacCarthy, Jonathan

2017-04-01

In recent years the Python ecosystem evolved into one of the most powerful and productive scientific environments across disciplines. ObsPy (https://www.obspy.org) is a fully community-driven, open-source project dedicated to providing a bridge for seismology into that ecosystem. It does so by offering Read and write support for essentially every commonly used data format in seismology with a unified interface and automatic format detection. This includes waveform data (MiniSEED, SAC, SEG-Y, Reftek, …) as well as station (SEED, StationXML, …) and event meta information (QuakeML, ZMAP, …). Integrated access to the largest data centers, web services, and real-time data streams (FDSNWS, ArcLink, SeedLink, ...). A powerful signal processing toolbox tuned to the specific needs of seismologists. Utility functionality like travel time calculations with the TauP method, geodetic functions, and data visualizations. ObsPy has been in constant development for more than seven years and is developed and used by scientists around the world with successful applications in all branches of seismology. Additionally it nowadays serves as the foundation for a large number of more specialized packages. This presentation will give a short overview of the capabilities of ObsPy and point out several representative or new use cases. Additionally we will discuss the road ahead as well as the long-term sustainability of open-source scientific software.

Seismology and space-based geodesy

Science.gov (United States)

Tralli, David M.; Tajima, Fumiko

1993-01-01

The potential of space-based geodetic measurement of crustal deformation in the context of seismology is explored. The achievements of seismological source theory and data analyses, mechanical modeling of fault zone behavior, and advances in space-based geodesy are reviewed, with emphasis on realizable contributions of space-based geodetic measurements specifically to seismology. The fundamental relationships between crustal deformation associated with an earthquake and the geodetically observable data are summarized. The response and spatial and temporal resolution of the geodetic data necessary to understand deformation at various phases of the earthquake cycle is stressed. The use of VLBI, SLR, and GPS measurements for studying global geodynamics properties that can be investigated to some extent with seismic data is discussed. The potential contributions of continuously operating strain monitoring networks and globally distributed geodetic observatories to existing worldwide modern digital seismographic networks are evaluated in reference to mutually addressable problems in seismology, geophysics, and tectonics.

Seismology of the Jupiter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vorontsov, S.V.; Gudkova, T.V.; Zharkov, V.N.

1989-01-01

The structure and diagnostic properties of the spectrum of free oscillations of the models of the Jupiter are discussed. The spectrum is very sensitive to the properties of the inner core and density discontinuities in the interior of the planet. It is shown that in seismology of the Jupiter unlike to solar seismology, it is not possible to use the asymptotic theory for investigation of the high-frequency part of the acoustic spectrum

Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES)—Web Portal Developments for Interactive Access to Earthquake Data on a European Scale

OpenAIRE

A. Spinuso; L. Trani; S. Rives; P. Thomy; F. Euchner; Danijel Schorlemmer; Joachim Saul; Andres Heinloo; R. Bossu; T. van Eck

2009-01-01

The Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES) is European Commission (EC) project whose focus is networking together seismological observatories and research institutes into one integrated European infrastructure that provides access to data and data products for research. Seismological institutes and organizations in European and Mediterranean countries maintain large, geographically distributed data archives, therefore this scenario suggested a design approach bas...

Data Logging and Data Modelling: Using seismology and seismic data to create challenge in the academic classroom.

Science.gov (United States)

Neighbour, Gordon

2013-04-01

In 2012 Computing and Information Technology was disapplied from the English National Curriculum and therefore no longer has a compulsory programme of study. Data logging and data modelling are still essential components of the curriculum in the Computing and Information Technology classroom. Once the students have mastered the basics of both spreadsheet and information handling software they need to be further challenged. All too often the data used with relation to data-logging and data-handling is not realistic enough to really challenge very able students. However, using data from seismology allows students to manipulate "real" data and enhances their experience of geo-science, developing their skills and then allowing them to build on this work in both the science and geography classroom. This new scheme of work "Seismology at School" has allowed the students to work and develop skills beyond those normally expected for their age group and has allowed them to better appreciate their learning experience of "Natural Hazards" in the science and geography classroom in later years. The students undertake research to help them develop their understanding of earthquakes. This includes using materials from other nations within the European Economic Area, to also develop and challenge their use of Modern Foreign Languages. They are then challenged to create their own seismometers using simple kits and 'free' software - this "problem-solving" approach to their work is designed to enhance team-work and to extend the challenge they experience in the classroom. The students are then are asked to manipulate a "real" set of data using international earthquake data from the most recent whole year. This allows the students to make use of many of the analytical and statistical functions of both spreadsheet software and information handling software in a meaningful way. The students will need to have developed a hypothesis which their work should have provided either validation

Large earthquake rates from geologic, geodetic, and seismological perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, D. D.

2017-12-01

Earthquake rate and recurrence information comes primarily from geology, geodesy, and seismology. Geology gives the longest temporal perspective, but it reveals only surface deformation, relatable to earthquakes only with many assumptions. Geodesy is also limited to surface observations, but it detects evidence of the processes leading to earthquakes, again subject to important assumptions. Seismology reveals actual earthquakes, but its history is too short to capture important properties of very large ones. Unfortunately, the ranges of these observation types barely overlap, so that integrating them into a consistent picture adequate to infer future prospects requires a great deal of trust. Perhaps the most important boundary is the temporal one at the beginning of the instrumental seismic era, about a century ago. We have virtually no seismological or geodetic information on large earthquakes before then, and little geological information after. Virtually all-modern forecasts of large earthquakes assume some form of equivalence between tectonic- and seismic moment rates as functions of location, time, and magnitude threshold. That assumption links geology, geodesy, and seismology, but it invokes a host of other assumptions and incurs very significant uncertainties. Questions include temporal behavior of seismic and tectonic moment rates; shape of the earthquake magnitude distribution; upper magnitude limit; scaling between rupture length, width, and displacement; depth dependence of stress coupling; value of crustal rigidity; and relation between faults at depth and their surface fault traces, to name just a few. In this report I'll estimate the quantitative implications for estimating large earthquake rate. Global studies like the GEAR1 project suggest that surface deformation from geology and geodesy best show the geography of very large, rare earthquakes in the long term, while seismological observations of small earthquakes best forecasts moderate earthquakes

ObsPy: A Python toolbox for seismology - Sustainability, New Features, and Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Krischer, L.; Megies, T.; Sales de Andrade, E.; Barsch, R.; MacCarthy, J.

2016-12-01

ObsPy (https://www.obspy.org) is a community-driven, open-source project dedicated to offer a bridge for seismology into the scientific Python ecosystem. Amongst other things, it provides Read and write support for essentially every commonly used data format in seismology with a unified interface. This includes waveform data as well as station and event meta information. A signal processing toolbox tuned to the specific needs of seismologists. Integrated access to the largest data centers, web services, and databases. Wrappers around third party codes like libmseed and evalresp. Using ObsPy enables users to take advantage of the vast scientific ecosystem that has developed around Python. In contrast to many other programming languages and tools, Python is simple enough to enable an exploratory and interactive coding style desired by many scientists. At the same time it is a full-fledged programming language usable by software engineers to build complex and large programs. This combination makes it very suitable for use in seismology where research code often must be translated to stable and production ready environments, especially in the age of big data. ObsPy has seen constant development for more than six years and enjoys a large rate of adoption in the seismological community with thousands of users. Successful applications include time-dependent and rotational seismology, big data processing, event relocations, and synthetic studies about attenuation kernels and full-waveform inversions to name a few examples. Additionally it sparked the development of several more specialized packages slowly building a modern seismological ecosystem around it. We will present a short overview of the capabilities of ObsPy and point out several representative use cases and more specialized software built around ObsPy. Additionally we will discuss new and upcoming features, as well as the sustainability of open-source scientific software.

Seismology and Research in Schools: One School's Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Tedd, Joe; Tedd, Bernie

2018-01-01

The UK School Seismology Project started in 2007. King Edward VI High School for Girls was one of the fortunate schools to obtain a school seismometer system, free of charge, as an early adopter of the resource. This report outlines our experiences with the system over the past 10 years and describes our recent research on the relationship between…

Bucharest urban seismology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balan, Stefan Florin; Ritter, Joachim R.R.

2005-01-01

An important project was carried out in Bucharest area by the National Institute of Research-Development for Earth Physics and Collaborative Research Center 461 (CRC 461) Geophysical Institute from the University of Karlsruhe (Germany) in the period October 2003 - August 2004. The project consists of an array of 33 stations, uniformly arranged in the city of Bucharest and in the outskirts (Magurele, Voluntari, Otopeni, Buftea, etc). The station functioned 24 h/day for a period of 10 months. The number of functioning stations had a little variation in time, some of them had to be moved because some sites became improper in time. The sensors used by the stations were of the type: STS - 2, LE - 3D, 4OT, 3ESP and KS2000. The performance of continuous recording was possible by using on each station a hard disk drive of 120 Gb, which gives independence of 3 month. For preventing some accidental electric power stops a rechargeable battery on each station was used . A service was performed for each station every month to avoid accidental stops, which consisted usually of mechanical bumps. All the recorded data by the stations was saved on DVSs, the final number being around 140. This project helped gathering a large number of seismological data for the city of Bucharest and outskirts from seismic events of magnitude of 4, 3, 2 and ambient noise. (authors)

Recent activities of the Seismology Division Early Career Representative(s)

Science.gov (United States)

Agius, Matthew; Van Noten, Koen; Ermert, Laura; Mai, P. Martin; Krawczyk, CharLotte

2016-04-01

The European Geosciences Union is a bottom-up-organisation, in which its members are represented by their respective scientific divisions, committees and council. In recent years, EGU has embarked on a mission to reach out for its numerous 'younger' members by giving awards to outstanding young scientists and the setting up of Early Career Scientists (ECS) representatives. The division representative's role is to engage in discussions that concern students and early career scientists. Several meetings between all the division representatives are held throughout the year to discuss ideas and Union-wide issues. One important impact ECS representatives have had on EGU is the increased number of short courses and workshops run by ECS during the annual General Assembly. Another important contribution of ECS representatives was redefining 'Young Scientist' to 'Early Career Scientist', which avoids discrimination due to age. Since 2014, the Seismology Division has its own ECS representative. In an effort to more effectively reach out for young seismologists, a blog and a social media page dedicated to seismology have been set up online. With this dedicated blog, we'd like to give more depth to the average browsing experience by enabling young researchers to explore various seismology topics in one place while making the field more exciting and accessible to the broader community. These pages are used to promote the latest research especially of young seismologists and to share interesting seismo-news. Over the months the pages proved to be popular, with hundreds of views every week and an increased number of followers. An online survey was conducted to learn more about the activities and needs of early career seismologists. We present the results from this survey, and the work that has been carried out over the last two years, including detail of what has been achieved so far, and what we would like the ECS representation for Seismology to achieve. Young seismologists are

Trends and opportunities in seismology. [Asilomar, California, January 3--9, 1976

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

1977-01-01

Thirty-five experts in the fields of geology, geophysics, and engineering, from academia, government, and industry, were invited to participate in a workshop and address the many problems of national and global concern that require seismological expertise for their solutions. This report reviews the history, accomplishments, and status of seismology; assesses changing trends in seismological research and applications; and recommends future directions in the light of these changes and of the growing needs of society in areas in which seismology can make significant contributions. The first part of the volume discusses areas of opportunity (understanding earthquakes and reducing their hazards; exploration, energy, and resources; understanding the earth and planets) and realizing the benefits (the roles of Federal, state, and local governments, industry, and universities). The second part, Background and Progress, briefly considers each of the following topics: the birth and early growth of seismology, nuclear test monitoring and its scientific ramifications, instrumentation and data processing, geodynamics and plate tectonics, theoretical seismology, structure and composition of the earth, exploration seismology, seismic exploration for minerals, earthquake source mechanism studies, engineering seismology, strong ground motion and related earthquake hazards, volcanoes, tsunamis, planetary seismology, and international aspects of seismology. 26 figures. (RWR)

Towards a single seismological service infrastructure in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Spinuso, A.; Trani, L.; Frobert, L.; Van Eck, T.

2012-04-01

In the last five year services and data providers, within the seismological community in Europe, focused their efforts in migrating the way of opening their archives towards a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). This process tries to follow pragmatically the technological trends and available solutions aiming at effectively improving all the data stewardship activities. These advancements are possible thanks to the cooperation and the follow-ups of several EC infrastructural projects that, by looking at general purpose techniques, combine their developments envisioning a multidisciplinary platform for the earth observation as the final common objective (EPOS, Earth Plate Observation System) One of the first results of this effort is the Earthquake Data Portal (http://www.seismicportal.eu), which provides a collection of tools to discover, visualize and access a variety of seismological data sets like seismic waveform, accelerometric data, earthquake catalogs and parameters. The Portal offers a cohesive distributed search environment, linking data search and access across multiple data providers through interactive web-services, map-based tools and diverse command-line clients. Our work continues under other EU FP7 projects. Here we will address initiatives in two of those projects. The NERA, (Network of European Research Infrastructures for Earthquake Risk Assessment and Mitigation) project will implement a Common Services Architecture based on OGC services APIs, in order to provide Resource-Oriented common interfaces across the data access and processing services. This will improve interoperability between tools and across projects, enabling the development of higher-level applications that can uniformly access the data and processing services of all participants. This effort will be conducted jointly with the VERCE project (Virtual Earthquake and Seismology Research Community for Europe). VERCE aims to enable seismologists to exploit the wealth of seismic data

The EGU Seismology Division Early Career Scientist Representative team and its initiatives

Science.gov (United States)

Parisi, Laura; Ermert, Laura; Gualtieri, Lucia; Spieker, Kathrin; Van Noten, Koen; Agius, Matthew R.; Mai, P. Martin

2017-04-01

Since 2014, the Seismology Division (SM) of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) has its Early Career Scientist (ECS) representative to reach out to its numerous 'younger' members. In April 2016, a new team of representatives joined the Division. We are a vivid team of early career scientists, representing both (either) PhD students and post-doctoral researchers working in different seismological disciplines and different countries. The initiatives of the SM ECS-rep team have various aims: (1) to motivate the ECSs to get involved in activities and initiatives of the EGU and the Seismology Division, (2) to promote the research of ECSs, (3) to discuss issues concerning seismologists during this particular stage of their career, (4) to share ideas on how to promote equality between scientists and (5) to improve on the public dissemination of scientific knowledge. In an effort to reach out to experienced and ECS seismologists more effectively and to continuously encourage to voice their ideas by contributing and following our initiatives, a blog and social media pages dedicated to seismology and earthquake trivia are run by the team. Weekly posts are published on the blog and shared on the social media regarding scientific and social aspects of seismology. One of the major contributions recently introduced to the blog is the "Paper of the Month" series where experienced seismologists write about recent or classical - must read - seismology articles. We also aim to organise and promote social and scientific events. During the EGU General Assembly 2016 a social event was held in Vienna allowing ECS to network with peers in an informal environment. Given the success of this event, a similar event will be organized during the General Assembly 2017. Also, similar to previous years, a short course on basic seismology for non seismologists will be requested and offered to all ECSs attending the General Assembly. Finally, a workshop dedicated entirely to ECSs seismologists

Citizen Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Bossu, Rémy; Gilles, Sébastien; Mazet-Roux, Gilles; Kamb, Linus; Frobert, Laurent

2010-05-01

In science, projects which involve volunteers for observations, measurements, computation are grouped under the term, Citizen Science. They range from bird or planet census to distributing computing on volonteers's computer. Over the last five years, the EMSC has been developing tools and strategy to collect information on earthquake's impact from the first persons to be informed, i.e. the witnesses. By extension, it is named Citizen Seismology. The European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), a scientific not-for-profit NGO, benefits from the high visibility of its rapid earthquake information services (www.emsc-csem.org) which attract an average of more than half a million visits a month from 160 countries. Witnesses converge to its site within a couple of minutes of earthquake's occurrence to find out information about the cause of the shaking they have just been through. The convergence generates brutal increases of hit rate which can be automatically detected. They are often the first indication about the occurrence of a felt event. Witnesses' locations are determined from their IP addresses. Localities exhibiting statistically significant increase of traffic are mapped to produce the "felt map". This map available within 5 to 8 minutes of the earthquake's occurrence represents the area where the event was felt. It is the fastest way to collect in-situ information on the consequences of an earthquake. Widespread damage region are expected to be mapped through a significant lack or absence of visitors. A second tool involving the visitors is an online macroseismic questionnaire available in 21 languages. It complements the felt maps as it can describes the level of shaking or damage, but is only available in 90 to 120 minutes. Witnesses can also share their pictures of damage. They used it also to provide us exceptional pictures of transient phenomena. With the University of Edinburgh, we are finalising a prototype named ShakemApple, linking Apple

Introduction: seismology and earthquake engineering in Central and South America.

Science.gov (United States)

Espinosa, A.F.

1983-01-01

Reports the state-of-the-art in seismology and earthquake engineering that is being advanced in Central and South America. Provides basic information on seismological station locations in Latin America and some of the programmes in strong-motion seismology, as well as some of the organizations involved in these activities.-from Author

seismo-live: Training in Seismology using Jupyter Notebooks

Science.gov (United States)

Igel, Heiner; Krischer, Lion; van Driel, Martin; Tape, Carl

2017-04-01

Practical training in computational methodologies is still underrepresented in Earth science curriculae despite the increasing use of sometimes highly sophisticated simulation and data processing technologies in research projects. At the same time well-engineered community codes make it easy to return results yet with the danger that the inherent traps of black-box solutions are not well understood. For this purpose we have initiated a community platform (www.seismo-live.org) where Python-based Jupyter notebooks can be accessed and run without necessary downloads or local software installations. The increasingly popular Jupyter notebooks allow combining markup language, graphics, equations, with interactive, executable python codes. The platform already includes general Python training, introduction to the ObsPy library for seismology as well as seismic data processing, noise analysis, and a variety of forward solvers for seismic wave propagation. In addition, an example is shown how Jupyter notebooks can be used to increase reproducibility of published results. Submission of Jupyter notebooks for general seismology are encouraged. The platform can be used for complementary teaching in Earth Science courses on compute-intensive research areas. We present recent developments and new features.

ObsPy - A Python Toolbox for Seismology - and Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Krischer, L.; Megies, T.; Barsch, R.; MacCarthy, J.; Lecocq, T.; Koymans, M. R.; Carothers, L.; Eulenfeld, T.; Reyes, C. G.; Falco, N.; Sales de Andrade, E.

2017-12-01

Recent years witnessed the evolution of Python's ecosystem into one of the most powerful and productive scientific environments across disciplines. ObsPy (https://www.obspy.org) is a fully community driven, open-source project dedicated to provide a bridge for seismology into that ecosystem. It is a Python toolbox offering: Read and write support for essentially every commonly used data format in seismology with a unified interface and automatic format detection. This includes waveform data (MiniSEED, SAC, SEG-Y, Reftek, …) as well as station (SEED, StationXML, SC3ML, …) and event meta information (QuakeML, ZMAP, …). Integrated access to the largest data centers, web services, and real-time data streams (FDSNWS, ArcLink, SeedLink, ...). A powerful signal processing toolbox tuned to the specific needs of seismologists. Utility functionality like travel time calculations with the TauP method, geodetic functions, and data visualizations. ObsPy has been in constant development for more than eight years and is developed and used by scientists around the world with successful applications in all branches of seismology. Additionally it nowadays serves as the foundation for a large number of more specialized packages. Newest features include: Full interoperability of SEED and StationXML/Inventory objects Access to the Nominal Response Library (NRL) for easy and quick creation of station metadata from scratch Support for the IRIS Federated Catalog Service Improved performance of the EarthWorm client Several improvements to MiniSEED read/write module Improved plotting capabilities for PPSD (spectrograms, PSD of discrete frequencies over time, ..) Support for.. Reading ArcLink Inventory XML Reading Reftek data format Writing SeisComp3 ML (SC3ML) Writing StationTXT format This presentation will give a short overview of the capabilities of ObsPy and point out several representative or new use cases and show-case some projects that are based on ObsPy, e.g.: seismo

New tools for scientific learning in the EduSeis project: the e-learning experiment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Zollo

2007-06-01

Full Text Available The Educational Seismological Project (EduSeis is a scientific and educational project, the main aim of which is the development and implementation of new teaching methodologies in Earth Sciences, using seismology as a vehicle for scientific learning and awareness of earthquake risk. Within this framework, we have recently been experimenting with new learning and information approaches that are mainly aimed at a high school audience. In particular, we have designed, implemented and tested a model of an e-learning environment in a high school located in the surroundings of the Mt. Vesuvius volcano. The proposed e-learning model is built on the EduSeis concepts and educational materials (web-oriented, and is based on computer-supported collaborative learning. Ten teachers from different disciplines and fifty students at the I.T.I.S. “Majorana” technical high school (Naples have been taking part in a cooperative e-learning experiment in which the students have been working in small groups (communities. The learning process is assisted and supervised by the teachers. The evaluation of the results from this cooperative e-learning experiment has provided useful insights into the content and didactic value of the EduSeis modules and activities. The use of network utilities and the “Learning Community” approach promoted the exchange of ideas and expertises between students and teachers and allowed a new approach to the seismology teaching through a multidisciplinary study.

The art of communicating seismology to broad audiences: the exhibition which changed the perception

Science.gov (United States)

Toma-Danila, Dragos; Tataru, Dragos; Nastase, Eduard; Muntean, Alexandra; Partheniu, Raluca

2017-04-01

Seismology is a geoscience often perceived by uninstructed broad audiences as unreliable or inconsistent, since it cannot predict future earthquakes or warn about them effectively; this criticism disregards important achievements that seismology has offered during its more than 100 years of history - such as evidence of Earth's inner structure, knowledge regarding plate tectonics, mineral resource identification, contributions to risk mitigation, monitoring of explosions etc. Moreover, seismology is a field of study with significant advances, which make (or could make) living much safer, in areas with high seismic hazard. We mentioned "could make" since people often fail to understand an important aspect: seismology offers consistent knowledge regarding how to prepare, construct or behave - but it's up to people and authorities to implement the effective measures. In all this story, the effective communication between scientists and the general public plays a major role, making the leap from misconception to relevant impact. As scientists, we wanted to show the true meaning and purpose of seismology to all categories of people. We are in the final stage of the MOBEE (MOBile Earthquake Exhibition) Project implementation, an innovative initiative in a highly seismic country (Romania), where major Vrancea intermediate-depth earthquakes source have the potential to generate a significant amount of damage over large areas; however, unlike countries like Japan, the medium to long period between felt or significant events (20-40 years) is long enough to make the newer generation in Romania disregardful of the hazard, and older generations skeptical about the role of seismology. MOBEE intended to freshen up things, raise awareness and change the overall perception - through new approaches involving a blend of digital content (interactive apps, responsive and continuously updated website), 3D models achieved through new technologies (3D printing, fiber optics), non

The Colombia Seismological Network

Science.gov (United States)

Blanco Chia, J. F.; Poveda, E.; Pedraza, P.

2013-05-01

The latest seismological equipment and data processing instrumentation installed at the Colombia Seismological Network (RSNC) are described. System configuration, network operation, and data management are discussed. The data quality and the new seismological products are analyzed. The main purpose of the network is to monitor local seismicity with a special emphasis on seismic activity surrounding the Colombian Pacific and Caribbean oceans, for early warning in case a Tsunami is produced by an earthquake. The Colombian territory is located at the South America northwestern corner, here three tectonic plates converge: Nazca, Caribbean and the South American. The dynamics of these plates, when resulting in earthquakes, is continuously monitored by the network. In 2012, the RSNC registered in 2012 an average of 67 events per day; from this number, a mean of 36 earthquakes were possible to be located well. In 2010 the network was also able to register an average of 67 events, but it was only possible to locate a mean of 28 earthquakes daily. This difference is due to the expansion of the network. The network is made up of 84 stations equipped with different kind of broadband 40s, 120s seismometers, accelerometers and short period 1s sensors. The signal is transmitted continuously in real-time to the Central Recording Center located at Bogotá, using satellite, telemetry, and Internet. Moreover, there are some other stations which are required to collect the information in situ. Data is recorded and processed digitally using two different systems, EARTHWORM and SEISAN, which are able to process and share the information between them. The RSNC has designed and implemented a web system to share the seismological data. This innovative system uses tools like Java Script, Oracle and programming languages like PHP to allow the users to access the seismicity registered by the network almost in real time as well as to download the waveform and technical details. The coverage

Introduction: seismology and earthquake engineering in Mexico and Central and South America.

Science.gov (United States)

Espinosa, A.F.

1982-01-01

The results from seismological studies that are used by the engineering community are just one of the benefits obtained from research aimed at mitigating the earthquake hazard. In this issue of Earthquake Information Bulletin current programs in seismology and earthquake engineering, seismic networks, future plans and some of the cooperative programs with different internation organizations are described by Latin-American seismologists. The article describes the development of seismology in Latin America and the seismological interest of the OAS. -P.N.Chroston

Seismological and Geodynamic Monitoring Network in the "javakheti" Test Zone in the Southern Caucasus

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Arakelyan, A.; Babayan, H.; Karakhanyan, A.; Durgaryan, R.; Basilaia, G.; Sokhadze, G.; Bidzinashvili, G.

2012-12-01

The Javakheti Highland located in the border region between Armenia and Georgia (sharing a border with Turkey) is an area in the Southern Caucasus of young Holocene-Quaternary volcanism and a region with convergence of a number of active faults. Issues related to the geometry, kinematics and slip-rate of these faults and assessment of their seismic hazard remain unclear in part due to the fragmentary nature of the studies carried out soley within the borders of each of the countries as opposed to region wide. In the frame of the ISTC A-1418 Project "Open network of scientific Centers for mitigation risk of natural hazards in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia" the Javakheti Highland was selected as a trans-border test-zone. This designation allowed for the expansion and upgrading of the seismological and geodynamic monitoring networks under the auspices of several international projects (ISTC CSP-053 Project "Development of Communication System for seismic hazard situations in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia", NATO SfP- 983284 Project "Caucasus Seismic Emergency Response") as well as through joint research programs with the National Taiwan University and Institute of Earth Sciences (IES, Taiwan), Universite Montpellier II (France) and Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre-Université de Strasbourg (France). Studies of geodynamic processes, and seismicity of the region and their interaction have been carried out utilizing the newly established seismological and geodynamic monitoring networks and have served as a basis for the study of the geologic and tectonic structure . Upgrading and expansion of seismological and geodynamic networks required urgent solutions to the following tasks: Introduction of efficient online systems for information acquisition, accumulation and transmission (including sattelite systems) from permanent and temporary installed stations, Adoption of international standards for organization and management of databases in GIS

Solving seismological problems using sgraph program: II-waveform modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdelwahed, Mohamed F.

2012-01-01

One of the seismological programs to manipulate seismic data is SGRAPH program. It consists of integrated tools to perform advanced seismological techniques. SGRAPH is considered a new system for maintaining and analyze seismic waveform data in a stand-alone Windows-based application that manipulate a wide range of data formats. SGRAPH was described in detail in the first part of this paper. In this part, I discuss the advanced techniques including in the program and its applications in seismology. Because of the numerous tools included in the program, only SGRAPH is sufficient to perform the basic waveform analysis and to solve advanced seismological problems. In the first part of this paper, the application of the source parameters estimation and hypocentral location was given. Here, I discuss SGRAPH waveform modeling tools. This paper exhibits examples of how to apply the SGRAPH tools to perform waveform modeling for estimating the focal mechanism and crustal structure of local earthquakes.

Recent achievements in real-time computational seismology in Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, S.; Liang, W.; Huang, B.

2012-12-01

Real-time computational seismology is currently possible to be achieved which needs highly connection between seismic database and high performance computing. We have developed a real-time moment tensor monitoring system (RMT) by using continuous BATS records and moment tensor inversion (CMT) technique. The real-time online earthquake simulation service is also ready to open for researchers and public earthquake science education (ROS). Combine RMT with ROS, the earthquake report based on computational seismology can provide within 5 minutes after an earthquake occurred (RMT obtains point source information ROS completes a 3D simulation real-time now. For more information, welcome to visit real-time computational seismology earthquake report webpage (RCS).

Web Based Seismological Monitoring (wbsm)

Science.gov (United States)

Giudicepietro, F.; Meglio, V.; Romano, S. P.; de Cesare, W.; Ventre, G.; Martini, M.

Over the last few decades the seismological monitoring systems have dramatically improved tanks to the technological advancements and to the scientific progresses of the seismological studies. The most modern processing systems use the network tech- nologies to realize high quality performances in data transmission and remote controls. Their architecture is designed to favor the real-time signals analysis. This is, usually, realized by adopting a modular structure that allow to easy integrate any new cal- culation algorithm, without affecting the other system functionalities. A further step in the seismic processing systems evolution is the large use of the web based appli- cations. The web technologies can be an useful support for the monitoring activities allowing to automatically publishing the results of signals processing and favoring the remote access to data, software systems and instrumentation. An application of the web technologies to the seismological monitoring has been developed at the "Os- servatorio Vesuviano" monitoring center (INGV) in collaboration with the "Diparti- mento di Informatica e Sistemistica" of the Naples University. A system named Web Based Seismological Monitoring (WBSM) has been developed. Its main objective is to automatically publish the seismic events processing results and to allow displaying, analyzing and downloading seismic data via Internet. WBSM uses the XML tech- nology for hypocentral and picking parameters representation and creates a seismic events data base containing parametric data and wave-forms. In order to give tools for the evaluation of the quality and reliability of the published locations, WBSM also supplies all the quality parameters calculated by the locating program and allow to interactively display the wave-forms and the related parameters. WBSM is a modular system in which the interface function to the data sources is performed by two spe- cific modules so that to make it working in conjunction with a

Rotational Seismology Workshop of February 2006

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, John R.; Cochard, A.; Graizer, Vladimir; Huang, Bor-Shouh; Hudnut, Kenneth W.; Hutt, Charles R.; Igel, H.; Lee, William H.K.; Liu, Chun-Chi; Majewski, Eugeniusz; Nigbor, Robert; Safak, Erdal; Savage, William U.; Schreiber, U.; Teisseyre, Roman; Trifunac, Mihailo; Wassermann, J.; Wu, Chien-Fu

2007-01-01

Introduction A successful workshop titled 'Measuring the Rotation Effects of Strong Ground Motion' was held simultaneously in Menlo Park and Pasadena via video conference on 16 February 2006. The purpose of the Workshop and this Report are to summarize existing data and theory and to explore future challenges for rotational seismology, including free-field strong motion, structural strong motion, and teleseismic motions. We also forged a consensus on the plan of work to be pursued by this international group in the near term. At this first workshop were 16 participants in Menlo Park, 13 in Pasadena, and a few on the telephone. It was organized by William H. K. Lee and John R. Evans and chaired by William U. Savage in Menlo Park and by Kenneth W. Hudnut in Pasadena. Its agenda is given in the Appendix. This workshop and efforts in Europe led to the creation of the International Working Group on Rotational Seismology (IWGoRS), an international volunteer group providing forums for exchange of ideas and data as well as hosting a series of Workshops and Special Sessions. IWGoRS created a Web site, backed by an FTP site, for distribution of materials related to rotational seismology. At present, the FTP site contains the 2006 Workshop agenda (also given in the Appendix below) and its PowerPoint presentations, as well as many papers (reasonable-only basis with permission of their authors), a comprehensive citations list, and related information. Eventually, the Web site will become the sole authoritative source for IWGoRS and shared information: http://www.rotational-seismology.org ftp://ehzftp.wr.usgs.gov/jrevans/IWGoRS_FTPsite/ With contributions from various authors during and after the 2006 Workshop, this Report proceeds from the theoretical bases for making rotational measurements (Graizer, Safak, Trifunac) through the available observations (Huang, Lee, Liu, Nigbor), proposed suites of measurements (Hudnut), a discussion of broadband teleseismic rotational

A Look at the Future of Controlled-Source Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Keller, G. R.; Klemperer, S.; Hole, J.; Snelson, C.

2008-12-01

Facilities like EarthScope and IRIS/PASSCAL offer a framework in which to re-assess the role of our highest- resolution geophysical tool, controlled-source seismology. This tool is effective in near surface studies that focus on the upper 100 m of the crust to studies that focus on Moho structure and the lithospheric mantle. IRIS has now existed for over two decades and has transformed the way in which passive-source seismology in particular is carried out. Progress over these two decades has led to major discoveries about continental architecture and evolution through the development of three-dimensional images of the upper mantle and lithosphere. Simultaneously the hydrocarbon exploration industry has mapped increasingly large fractions of our sedimentary basins in three-dimensions and at unprecedented resolution and fidelity. Thanks to the additional instruments in the EarthScope facility, a clear scientific need and opportunity exists to map, at similar resolution, all of the crust - the igneous/metamorphic basement, the non-petroliferous basins that contain the record of continental evolution, and the seismogenic faults and active volcanoes that are the principal natural hazards we face. Controlled-source seismology remains the fundamental technology behind exploration for all fossil fuels and many water resources, and as such is a multi-billion-dollar industry centered in the USA. Academic scientists are leaders in developing the algorithms to process the most advanced industry data, but lack the academic data sets to which to apply this technology. University and government controlled-source seismologists, and their students who will populate the exploration industry, are increasingly divorced from that industry by their reliance on sparse spatial recording of usually only a single-component of the wavefield, generated by even sparser seismic sources. However, if we can find the resources, the technology now exists to provide seismic images of immense

Jesuits in seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Linehan, D.

1984-01-01

Jesuits have been involved with scientific endeavors since the 16th century, although their association with seismology is more recent. What impelled Jesuit priests to also become seismologists is am matter of conjecture. Certainly the migration of missionaries to various parts of the world must have resulted in queries to their fellow Jesuits in Europe. What caused earthquakes? Could they be predicted? Were they connected with the weather?

A Comparative Analysis of Seismological and Gravimetric Crustal Thicknesses below the Andean Region with Flat Subduction of the Nazca Plate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario E. Gimenez

2009-01-01

Full Text Available A gravimetric study was carried out in a region of the Central Andean Range between 28∘ and 32∘ south latitudes and from 72∘ and 66∘ west longitudes. The seismological and gravimetrical Moho models were compared in a sector which coincides with the seismological stations of the CHARGE project. The comparison reveals discrepancies between the gravity Moho depths and those obtained from seismological investigations (CHARGE project, the latter giving deeper values than those resulting from the gravimetric inversion. These discrepancies are attenuated when the positive gravimetric effect of the Nazca plate is considered. Nonetheless, a small residuum of about 5 km remains beneath the Cuyania terrane region, to the east of the main Andean chain. This residuum could be gravimetrically justified if the existence of a high density or eclogitized portion of the lower crust is considered. This result differed from the interpretations from Project “CHARGE” which revealed that the entire inferior crust extending from the Precordillera to the occidental “Sierras Pampeanas” could be “eclogitized”. In this same sector, we calculated the effective elastic thickness (Te of the crust. These results indicated an anomalous value of Te = 30 km below the Cuyania terrane. This is further conclusive evidence of the fact that the Cuyania terrane is allochthonous, for which also geological evidences exist.

Mathematical treatment of seismologic data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gama, C.A.J.V.D. da

The principle methods of seismologic data treatment with application in engineering design, emphasizing the need for the utilization of reliable data, appropriate algorithims and rigorous calculations so that correct results and valid conclusions be achieved, are examined. (E.G.) [pt

Students enabling students in a Student Partnership Project: A case study emerging from the OLT Transforming Practice Project on Student Partnerships

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Megan Kek

2017-07-01

Full Text Available This emerging initiative stemmed from an Office for Learning and Teaching Project (OLT project, Transforming Practice Programme 2016: Student Engagement: Students as Partners in Teaching and Learning. The initiative, trialed in semester two, 2016, involved the selection and training of two experienced students to be leaders of a Closed Facebook ‘students-only’ community which provided advice and triaged queries to appropriate channels. The evaluative processes comprised a participatory action research methodology. Two student leaders who facilitated the Closed Facebook and four academic staff of the project were the participants. The findings demonstrate that the Closed Facebook students-only site provided a safe space, outside the formal learning/classroom environment, where student participants were able to ask and share knowledge. The informal student-for-student learning community complemented the formal structure by facilitating the opportunity for students to become ‘experts’ as university students as they move-through their learning journey.

The Virtual Earthquake and Seismology Research Community e-science environment in Europe (VERCE) FP7-INFRA-2011-2 project

Science.gov (United States)

Vilotte, J.-P.; Atkinson, M.; Michelini, A.; Igel, H.; van Eck, T.

2012-04-01

Increasingly dense seismic and geodetic networks are continuously transmitting a growing wealth of data from around the world. The multi-use of these data leaded the seismological community to pioneer globally distributed open-access data infrastructures, standard services and formats, e.g., the Federation of Digital Seismic Networks (FDSN) and the European Integrated Data Archives (EIDA). Our ability to acquire observational data outpaces our ability to manage, analyze and model them. Research in seismology is today facing a fundamental paradigm shift. Enabling advanced data-intensive analysis and modeling applications challenges conventional storage, computation and communication models and requires a new holistic approach. It is instrumental to exploit the cornucopia of data, and to guarantee optimal operation and design of the high-cost monitoring facilities. The strategy of VERCE is driven by the needs of the seismological data-intensive applications in data analysis and modeling. It aims to provide a comprehensive architecture and framework adapted to the scale and the diversity of those applications, and integrating the data infrastructures with Grid, Cloud and HPC infrastructures. It will allow prototyping solutions for new use cases as they emerge within the European Plate Observatory Systems (EPOS), the ESFRI initiative of the solid Earth community. Computational seismology, and information management, is increasingly revolving around massive amounts of data that stem from: (1) the flood of data from the observational systems; (2) the flood of data from large-scale simulations and inversions; (3) the ability to economically store petabytes of data online; (4) the evolving Internet and Data-aware computing capabilities. As data-intensive applications are rapidly increasing in scale and complexity, they require additional services-oriented architectures offering a virtualization-based flexibility for complex and re-usable workflows. Scientific information

Crustal Models Assessment in Western Part of Romania Employing Active Seismic and Seismologic Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Bala, Andrei; Toma-Danila, Dragos; Tataru, Dragos; Grecu, Bogdan

2017-12-01

In the years 1999 - 2000 two regional seismic refraction lines were performed within a close cooperation with German partners from University of Karlsruhe. One of these lines is Vrancea 2001, with 420 km in length, almost half of them recorded in Transylvanian Basin. The structure of the crust along the seismic line revealed a very complicated crustal structure beginning with Eastern Carpathians and continuing in the Transylvanian Basin until Medias. As a result of the development of the National Seismic Network in the last ten years, more than 100 permanent broadband stations are now continuously operating in Romania. Complementary to this national dataset, maintained and developed in the National Institute for Earth Physics, new data emerged from the temporary seismologic networks established during the joint projects with European partners in the last decades. The data gathered so far is valuable both for seismology purposes and crustal structure studies, especially for the western part of the country, where this kind of data were sparse until now. Between 2009 and 2011, a new reference model for the Earth’s crust and mantle of the European Plate was defined through the NERIES project from existing data and models. The database gathered from different kind of measurements in Transylvanian Basin and eastern Pannonian Basin were included in this NERIES model and an improved and upgraded model of the Earth crust emerged for western part of Romania. Although the dataset has its origins in several periods over the last 50 years, the results are homogeneous and they improve and strengthen our image about the depth of the principal boundaries in the crust. In the last chapter two maps regarding these boundaries are constructed, one for mid-crustal boundary and one for Moho. They were build considering all the punctual information available from different sources in active seismic and seismology which are introduced in the general maps from the NERIES project for

Benefits of rotational ground motions for planetary seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Donner, S.; Joshi, R.; Hadziioannou, C.; Nunn, C.; van Driel, M.; Schmelzbach, C.; Wassermann, J. M.; Igel, H.

2017-12-01

Exploring the internal structure of planetary objects is fundamental to understand the evolution of our solar system. In contrast to Earth, planetary seismology is hampered by the limited number of stations available, often just a single one. Classic seismology is based on the measurement of three components of translational ground motion. Its methods are mainly developed for a larger number of available stations. Therefore, the application of classical seismological methods to other planets is very limited. Here, we show that the additional measurement of three components of rotational ground motion could substantially improve the situation. From sparse or single station networks measuring translational and rotational ground motions it is possible to obtain additional information on structure and source. This includes direct information on local subsurface seismic velocities, separation of seismic phases, propagation direction of seismic energy, crustal scattering properties, as well as moment tensor source parameters for regional sources. The potential of this methodology will be highlighted through synthetic forward and inverse modeling experiments.

Seismological programs in Costa Rica

Science.gov (United States)

Montero, W.; Spall, Henry

1983-01-01

At the beginning of the 1970's, a series of programs in seismology were initiated by different Costa Rican institutions, and some of these programs are still in the process of development. The institutions are Insituto Costaricense de Electricidad (ICE)- The Costa Rica Institute of Electricity

seismo-live: Training in Computational Seismology using Jupyter Notebooks

Science.gov (United States)

Igel, H.; Krischer, L.; van Driel, M.; Tape, C.

2016-12-01

Practical training in computational methodologies is still underrepresented in Earth science curriculae despite the increasing use of sometimes highly sophisticated simulation technologies in research projects. At the same time well-engineered community codes make it easy to return simulation-based results yet with the danger that the inherent traps of numerical solutions are not well understood. It is our belief that training with highly simplified numerical solutions (here to the equations describing elastic wave propagation) with carefully chosen elementary ingredients of simulation technologies (e.g., finite-differencing, function interpolation, spectral derivatives, numerical integration) could substantially improve this situation. For this purpose we have initiated a community platform (www.seismo-live.org) where Python-based Jupyter notebooks can be accessed and run without and necessary downloads or local software installations. The increasingly popular Jupyter notebooks allow combining markup language, graphics, equations with interactive, executable python codes. We demonstrate the potential with training notebooks for the finite-difference method, pseudospectral methods, finite/spectral element methods, the finite-volume and the discontinuous Galerkin method. The platform already includes general Python training, introduction to the ObsPy library for seismology as well as seismic data processing and noise analysis. Submission of Jupyter notebooks for general seismology are encouraged. The platform can be used for complementary teaching in Earth Science courses on compute-intensive research areas.

Lights! Camera! Action Projects! Engaging Psychopharmacology Students in Service-based Action Projects Focusing on Student Alcohol Abuse.

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, Susan

2016-01-01

Alcohol abuse continues to be an issue of major concern for the health and well-being of college students. Estimates are that over 80% of college students are involved in the campus "alcohol culture." Annually, close to 2000 students die in the United States due to alcohol-related accidents, with another 600,000 sustaining injury due to alcohol-related incidents (NIAAA, 2013). Students enrolled in a Psychopharmacology course engaged in action projects (community outreach) focused on alcohol abuse on our campus. Research has indicated that these types of projects can increase student engagement in course material and foster important skills, including working with peers and developing involvement in one's community. This paper describes the structure and requirements of five student outreach projects and the final projects designed by the students, summarizes the grading and assessment of the projects, and discusses the rewards and challenges of incorporating such projects into a course.

Rotational Seismology: AGU Session, Working Group, and Website

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, William H.K.; Igel, Heiner; Todorovska, Maria I.; Evans, John R.

2007-01-01

Introduction Although effects of rotational motions due to earthquakes have long been observed (e. g., Mallet, 1862), nevertheless Richter (1958, p. 213) stated that: 'Perfectly general motion would also involve rotations about three perpendicular axes, and three more instruments for these. Theory indicates, and observation confirms, that such rotations are negligible.' However, Richter provided no references for this claim. Seismology is based primarily on the observation and modeling of three-component translational ground motions. Nevertheless, theoretical seismologists (e.g., Aki and Richards, 1980, 2002) have argued for decades that the rotational part of ground motions should also be recorded. It is well known that standard seismometers are quite sensitive to rotations and therefore subject to rotation-induced errors. The paucity of observations of rotational motions is mainly the result of a lack, until recently, of affordable rotational sensors of sufficient resolution. Nevertheless, in the past decade, a number of authors have reported direct observations of rotational motions and rotations inferred from rigid-body rotations in short baseline accelerometer arrays, creating a burgeoning library of rotational data. For example, ring laser gyros in Germany and New Zealand have led to the first significant and consistent observations of rotational motions from distant earthquakes (Igel et al., 2005, 2007). A monograph on Earthquake Source Asymmetry, Structural Media and Rotation Effects was published recently as well by Teisseyre et al. (2006). Measurement of rotational motions has implications for: (1) recovering the complete ground-displacement history from seismometer recordings; (2) further constraining earthquake rupture properties; (3) extracting information about subsurface properties; and (4) providing additional ground motion information to earthquake engineers for seismic design. A special session on Rotational Motions in Seismology was convened by H

Seismo-Live: Training in Seismology with Jupyter Notebooks

Science.gov (United States)

Krischer, Lion; Tape, Carl; Igel, Heiner

2016-04-01

Seismological training tends to occur within the isolation of a particular institution with a limited set of tools (codes, libraries) that are often not transferrable outside. Here, we propose to overcome these limitations with a community-driven library of Jupyter notebooks dedicated to training on any aspect of seismology for purposes of education and outreach, on-site or archived tutorials for codes, classroom instruction, and research. A Jupyter notebook (jupyter.org) is an open-source interactive computational environment that allows combining code execution, rich text, mathematics, and plotting. It can be considered a platform that supports reproducible research, as all inputs and outputs may be stored. Text, external graphics, equations can be handled using Markdown (incl. LaTeX) format. Jupyter notebooks are driven by standard web browsers, can be easily exchanged in text format, or converted to other documents (e.g. PDF, slide shows). They provide an ideal format for practical training in seismology. A pilot-platform was setup with a dedicated server such that the Jupyter notebooks can be run in any browser (PC, notepad, smartphone). We show the functionalities of the Seismo-Live platform with examples from computational seismology, seismic data access and processing using the ObsPy library, seismic inverse problems, and others. The current examples are all using the Python programming language but any free language can be used. Potentially, such community platforms could be integrated with the EPOS-IT infrastructure and extended to other fields of Earth sciences.

VERCE: a productive e-Infrastructure and e-Science environment for data-intensive seismology research

Science.gov (United States)

Vilotte, J. P.; Atkinson, M.; Spinuso, A.; Rietbrock, A.; Michelini, A.; Igel, H.; Frank, A.; Carpené, M.; Schwichtenberg, H.; Casarotti, E.; Filgueira, R.; Garth, T.; Germünd, A.; Klampanos, I.; Krause, A.; Krischer, L.; Leong, S. H.; Magnoni, F.; Matser, J.; Moguilny, G.

2015-12-01

Seismology addresses both fundamental problems in understanding the Earth's internal wave sources and structures and augmented societal applications, like earthquake and tsunami hazard assessment and risk mitigation; and puts a premium on open-data accessible by the Federated Digital Seismological Networks. The VERCE project, "Virtual Earthquake and seismology Research Community e-science environment in Europe", has initiated a virtual research environment to support complex orchestrated workflows combining state-of-art wave simulation codes and data analysis tools on distributed computing and data infrastructures (DCIs) along with multiple sources of observational data and new capabilities to combine simulation results with observational data. The VERCE Science Gateway provides a view of all the available resources, supporting collaboration with shared data and methods, with data access controls. The mapping to DCIs handles identity management, authority controls, transformations between representations and controls, and access to resources. The framework for computational science that provides simulation codes, like SPECFEM3D, democratizes their use by getting data from multiple sources, managing Earth models and meshes, distilling them as input data, and capturing results with meta-data. The dispel4py data-intensive framework allows for developing data-analysis applications using Python and the ObsPy library, which can be executed on different DCIs. A set of tools allows coupling with seismology and external data services. Provenance driven tools validate results and show relationships between data to facilitate method improvement. Lessons learned from VERCE training lead us to conclude that solid-Earth scientists could make significant progress by using VERCE e-science environment. VERCE has already contributed to the European Plate Observation System (EPOS), and is part of the EPOS implementation phase. Its cross-disciplinary capabilities are being extended

Controlled Noise Seismology

KAUST Repository

Hanafy, Sherif M.

2015-08-19

We use controlled noise seismology (CNS) to generate surface waves, where we continuously record seismic data while generating artificial noise along the profile line. To generate the CNS data we drove a vehicle around the geophone line and continuously recorded the generated noise. The recorded data set is then correlated over different time windows and the correlograms are stacked together to generate the surface waves. The virtual shot gathers reveal surface waves with moveout velocities that closely approximate those from active source shot gathers.

Controlled Noise Seismology

KAUST Repository

Hanafy, Sherif M.; AlTheyab, Abdullah; Schuster, Gerard T.

2015-01-01

We use controlled noise seismology (CNS) to generate surface waves, where we continuously record seismic data while generating artificial noise along the profile line. To generate the CNS data we drove a vehicle around the geophone line and continuously recorded the generated noise. The recorded data set is then correlated over different time windows and the correlograms are stacked together to generate the surface waves. The virtual shot gathers reveal surface waves with moveout velocities that closely approximate those from active source shot gathers.

Seismology software: state of the practice

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, W. Spencer; Zeng, Zheng; Carette, Jacques

2018-05-01

We analyzed the state of practice for software development in the seismology domain by comparing 30 software packages on four aspects: product, implementation, design, and process. We found room for improvement in most seismology software packages. The principal areas of concern include a lack of adequate requirements and design specification documents, a lack of test data to assess reliability, a lack of examples to get new users started, and a lack of technological tools to assist with managing the development process. To assist going forward, we provide recommendations for a document-driven development process that includes a problem statement, development plan, requirement specification, verification and validation (V&V) plan, design specification, code, V&V report, and a user manual. We also provide advice on tool use, including issue tracking, version control, code documentation, and testing tools.

Seismology software: state of the practice

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, W. Spencer; Zeng, Zheng; Carette, Jacques

2018-02-01

We analyzed the state of practice for software development in the seismology domain by comparing 30 software packages on four aspects: product, implementation, design, and process. We found room for improvement in most seismology software packages. The principal areas of concern include a lack of adequate requirements and design specification documents, a lack of test data to assess reliability, a lack of examples to get new users started, and a lack of technological tools to assist with managing the development process. To assist going forward, we provide recommendations for a document-driven development process that includes a problem statement, development plan, requirement specification, verification and validation (V&V) plan, design specification, code, V&V report, and a user manual. We also provide advice on tool use, including issue tracking, version control, code documentation, and testing tools.

Student design projects in applied acoustics.

Science.gov (United States)

Bös, Joachim; Moritz, Karsten; Skowronek, Adam; Thyes, Christian; Tschesche, Johannes; Hanselka, Holger

2012-03-01

This paper describes a series of student projects which are intended to complement theoretical education in acoustics and engineering noise control with practical experience. The projects are also intended to enhance the students' ability to work in a team, to manage a project, and to present their results. The projects are carried out in close cooperation with industrial partners so that the students can get a taste of the professional life of noise control engineers. The organization of such a project, its execution, and some of the results from the most recent student project are presented as a demonstrative example. This latest project involved the creation of noise maps of a production hall, the acoustic analysis of a packaging machine, and the acoustic analysis of a spiral vibratory conveyor. Upon completion of the analysis, students then designed, applied, and verified some simple preliminary noise reduction measures to demonstrate the potential of these techniques. © 2012 Acoustical Society of America

QuakeML - An XML Schema for Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Wyss, A.; Schorlemmer, D.; Maraini, S.; Baer, M.; Wiemer, S.

2004-12-01

We propose an extensible format-definition for seismic data (QuakeML). Sharing data and seismic information efficiently is one of the most important issues for research and observational seismology in the future. The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a variety of data. Due to its extensible definition capabilities, its wide acceptance and the existing large number of utilities and libraries for XML, a structured representation of various types of seismological data should in our opinion be developed by defining a 'QuakeML' standard. Here we present the QuakeML definitions for parameter databases and further efforts, e.g. a central QuakeML catalog database and a web portal for exchanging codes and stylesheets.

Using a Web Site to Support a Seismology Course Textbook

Science.gov (United States)

Wysession, M. E.; Stein, S.

2004-12-01

We present a course in seismology that consists of a textbook with an accompanying web site (http://epscx.wustl.edu/seismology/book). The web site serves many different functions, and is of great importance as a companion to the curriculum in several different ways: (1) All of the more than 600 figures from the book are available on the web site. Geophysics is a very visually-oriented discipline, and many concepts are more easily taught with appropriate visual tools. In addition, many instructors are now using computer-based lecture programs such as PowerPoint. To aid in this, all of the figures are displayed in a common JPG format, both with and without titles. They are available to be used in a seismology course, or any kind of Earth Science course. This way, an instructor can easily grab a figure from the web site and drop it into a PowerPoint format. The figures are listed by number, but are also obtainable from menus of thumbnail sketches. If an instructor would like all of the figures, they can be obtained as large zip files, which can be unzipped after downloading. In addition, sample PowerPoint lectures using the figures as well the equations from the text will be available on the course web site. (2) Solutions to all of the homework problems are available in PDF format on the course website. Homework is a vital component of any quantitative course, but it is often a significant time commitment for instructors to derive all of the homework problems. In addition, it is much easier to select which homework problems are desired to be assigned if the solutions can be seen. The 64 pages of homework solutions are on a secure web site that requires a user ID and password that can be obtained from the authors. (3) Any errors found in the textbook are immediately posted on an "Errata" web page. Many of these errors are found by instructors who are using the curriculum (and they are given credit for finding the errors!). The text becomes an interactive process

New developments in high resolution borehole seismology and their applications to reservoir development and management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paulsson, B.N.P. [Chevron Petroleum Technology Company, La Habra, CA (United States)

1997-08-01

Single-well seismology, Reverse Vertical Seismic Profiles (VSP`s) and Crosswell seismology are three new seismic techniques that we jointly refer to as borehole seismology. Borehole seismic techniques are of great interest because they can obtain much higher resolution images of oil and gas reservoirs than what is obtainable with currently used seismic techniques. The quality of oil and gas reservoir management decisions depend on the knowledge of both the large and the fine scale features in the reservoirs. Borehole seismology is capable of mapping reservoirs with an order of magnitude improvement in resolution compared with currently used technology. In borehole seismology we use a high frequency seismic source in an oil or gas well and record the signal in the same well, in other wells, or on the surface of the earth.

a Collaborative Cyberinfrastructure for Earthquake Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Bossu, R.; Roussel, F.; Mazet-Roux, G.; Lefebvre, S.; Steed, R.

2013-12-01

One of the challenges in real time seismology is the prediction of earthquake's impact. It is particularly true for moderate earthquake (around magnitude 6) located close to urbanised areas, where the slightest uncertainty in event location, depth, magnitude estimates, and/or misevaluation of propagation characteristics, site effects and buildings vulnerability can dramatically change impact scenario. The Euro-Med Seismological Centre (EMSC) has developed a cyberinfrastructure to collect observations from eyewitnesses in order to provide in-situ constraints on actual damages. This cyberinfrastructure takes benefit of the natural convergence of earthquake's eyewitnesses on EMSC website (www.emsc-csem.org), the second global earthquake information website within tens of seconds of the occurrence of a felt event. It includes classical crowdsourcing tools such as online questionnaires available in 39 languages, and tools to collect geolocated pics. It also comprises information derived from the real time analysis of the traffic on EMSC website, a method named flashsourcing; In case of a felt earthquake, eyewitnesses reach EMSC website within tens of seconds to find out the cause of the shaking they have just been through. By analysing their geographical origin through their IP address, we automatically detect felt earthquakes and in some cases map the damaged areas through the loss of Internet visitors. We recently implemented a Quake Catcher Network (QCN) server in collaboration with Stanford University and the USGS, to collect ground motion records performed by volunteers and are also involved in a project to detect earthquakes from ground motions sensors from smartphones. Strategies have been developed for several social media (Facebook, Twitter...) not only to distribute earthquake information, but also to engage with the Citizens and optimise data collection. A smartphone application is currently under development. We will present an overview of this

Romanian Educational Seismic Network Project

Science.gov (United States)

Tataru, Dragos; Ionescu, Constantin; Zaharia, Bogdan; Grecu, Bogdan; Tibu, Speranta; Popa, Mihaela; Borleanu, Felix; Toma, Dragos; Brisan, Nicoleta; Georgescu, Emil-Sever; Dobre, Daniela; Dragomir, Claudiu-Sorin

2013-04-01

Romania is one of the most active seismic countries in Europe, with more than 500 earthquakes occurring every year. The seismic hazard of Romania is relatively high and thus understanding the earthquake phenomena and their effects at the earth surface represents an important step toward the education of population in earthquake affected regions of the country and aims to raise the awareness about the earthquake risk and possible mitigation actions. In this direction, the first national educational project in the field of seismology has recently started in Romania: the ROmanian EDUcational SEISmic NETwork (ROEDUSEIS-NET) project. It involves four partners: the National Institute for Earth Physics as coordinator, the National Institute for Research and Development in Construction, Urban Planning and Sustainable Spatial Development " URBAN - INCERC" Bucharest, the Babeş-Bolyai University (Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Engineering) and the software firm "BETA Software". The project has many educational, scientific and social goals. The main educational objectives are: training students and teachers in the analysis and interpretation of seismological data, preparing of several comprehensive educational materials, designing and testing didactic activities using informatics and web-oriented tools. The scientific objective is to introduce into schools the use of advanced instruments and experimental methods that are usually restricted to research laboratories, with the main product being the creation of an earthquake waveform archive. Thus a large amount of such data will be used by students and teachers for educational purposes. For the social objectives, the project represents an effective instrument for informing and creating an awareness of the seismic risk, for experimentation into the efficacy of scientific communication, and for an increase in the direct involvement of schools and the general public. A network of nine seismic stations with SEP seismometers

Student Learning Projects in Electric Vehicle Engineering

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ritchie, Ewen; Leban, Krisztina Monika

2012-01-01

This paper presents the didactic problem based learning method in general use at Aalborg University as applied to Electric Mobility. Advantage is taken of this method to link student learning to current research projects. This offers advantages to the students and the researchers. The paper...... introduces the subject, presents the research of the Department of Energy Technology and describes the relevant syllabus. It continues to present a range of titles of previous research linked student project projects, and to fill in some of the detail, an example of such a student project. The paper...

Montessus de Ballore, a pioneer of seismology: The man and his work

Science.gov (United States)

Cisternas, Armando

2009-06-01

Ferdinand de Montessus de Ballore was one of the founders of scientific seismology. He was a pioneer in seismology at the same level as Perrey, Mallet, Milne and Omori. He became familiar with earthquakes and volcanoes in Central America (1881-1885). After his experience in El Salvador his interest for understanding earthquakes and volcanoes oriented all of his life. Back in France he worked out a most complete world catalogue of earthquakes with 170.000 events (1885-1907), and completed his career being the head of the Chilean Seismological Service (1907-1923). Many of his ideas were in advance of later discoveries. He was an exceptional writer and published more than 30 books and hundreds of papers.

Research and development activities of the seismology section for the period January 1986 to December 1987

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Basu, T.K.; Murty, G.S.

1988-01-01

This report sumarises the R and D in Seismology during the period from January 1986 to December 1987. Major topics of current study are (1) Forensic Seismology, (2) Seismicity and Seismic Risk estimates, (3) Reservoir induced seismicity and (4) Rockburst monitoring. Considerable effort is devoted to development of seismic data acquisition systems and theoretical aspects of seismology. (author)

Urban Seismology: on the origin of earth vibrations within a city

OpenAIRE

Díaz, Jordi; Ruiz, Mario; Sánchez-Pastor, Pilar S.; Romero, Paula

2017-01-01

Urban seismology has become an active research field in the recent years, both with seismological objectives, as obtaining better microzonation maps in highly populated areas, and with engineering objectives, as the monitoring of traffic or the surveying of historical buildings. We analyze here the seismic records obtained by a broad-band seismic station installed in the ICTJA-CSIC institute, located near the center of Barcelona city. Although this station was installed to introdu...

Solving seismological problems using SGRAPH program: I-source parameters and hypocentral location

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdelwahed, Mohamed F.

2012-01-01

SGRAPH program is considered one of the seismological programs that maintain seismic data. SGRAPH is considered unique for being able to read a wide range of data formats and manipulate complementary tools in different seismological subjects in a stand-alone Windows-based application. SGRAPH efficiently performs the basic waveform analysis and solves advanced seismological problems. The graphical user interface (GUI) utilities and the Windows facilities such as, dialog boxes, menus, and toolbars simplified the user interaction with data. SGRAPH supported the common data formats like, SAC, SEED, GSE, ASCII, and Nanometrics Y-format, and others. It provides the facilities to solve many seismological problems with the built-in inversion and modeling tools. In this paper, I discuss some of the inversion tools built-in SGRAPH related to source parameters and hypocentral location estimation. Firstly, a description of the SGRAPH program is given discussing some of its features. Secondly, the inversion tools are applied to some selected events of the Dahshour earthquakes as an example of estimating the spectral and source parameters of local earthquakes. In addition, the hypocentral location of these events are estimated using the Hypoinverse 2000 program operated by SGRAPH.

QuakeML: status of the XML-based seismological data exchange format

OpenAIRE

Joachim Saul; Philipp Kästli; Fabian Euchner; Danijel Schorlemmer

2011-01-01

QuakeML is an XML-based data exchange standard for seismology that is in its fourth year of active community-driven development. Its development was motivated by the need to consolidate existing data formats for applications in statistical seismology, as well as setting a cutting-edge, community-agreed standard to foster interoperability of distributed infrastructures. The current release (version 1.2) is based on a public Request for Comments process and accounts for suggestions and comments...

SGRAPH (SeismoGRAPHer): Seismic waveform analysis and integrated tools in seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Abdelwahed, Mohamed F.

2012-03-01

Although numerous seismological programs are currently available, most of them suffer from the inability to manipulate different data formats and the lack of embedded seismological tools. SeismoGRAPHer, or simply SGRAPH, is a new system for maintaining and analyzing seismic waveform data in a stand-alone, Windows-based application that manipulates a wide range of data formats. SGRAPH was intended to be a tool sufficient for performing basic waveform analysis and solving advanced seismological problems. The graphical user interface (GUI) utilities and the Windows functionalities, such as dialog boxes, menus, and toolbars, simplify the user interaction with the data. SGRAPH supports common data formats, such as SAC, SEED, GSE, ASCII, and Nanometrics Y-format, and provides the ability to solve many seismological problems with built-in inversion tools. Loaded traces are maintained, processed, plotted, and saved as SAC, ASCII, or PS (post script) file formats. SGRAPH includes Generalized Ray Theory (GRT), genetic algorithm (GA), least-square fitting, auto-picking, fast Fourier transforms (FFT), and many additional tools. This program provides rapid estimation of earthquake source parameters, location, attenuation, and focal mechanisms. Advanced waveform modeling techniques are provided for crustal structure and focal mechanism estimation. SGRAPH has been employed in the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN) as a tool assisting with routine work and data analysis. More than 30 users have been using previous versions of SGRAPH in their research for more than 3 years. The main features of this application are ease of use, speed, small disk space requirements, and the absence of third-party developed components. Because of its architectural structure, SGRAPH can be interfaced with newly developed methods or applications in seismology. A complete setup file, including the SGRAPH package with the online user guide, is available.

EPOS Seismology services and their users

Science.gov (United States)

Haslinger, Florian; Dupont, Aurelien; Michelini, Alberto; Rietbrock, Andreas; Sleeman, Reinoud; Wiemer, Stefan; Basili, Roberto; Bossu, Rémy; Cakti, Eser; Cotton, Fabrice; Crawford, Wayne; Crowley, Helen; Danciu, Laurentiu; Diaz, Jordi; Garth, Tom; Locati, Mario; Luzi, Lucia; Pitilakis, Kyriazis; Roumelioti, Zafeiria; Strollo, Angelo

2017-04-01

The construction of seismological community services for the European Plate Observing System Research Infrastructure (EPOS) is by now well under way. A significant number of services are already operational, largely based on those existing at established institutions or collaborations like ORFEUS, EMSC, AHEAD and EFEHR, and more are being added to be ready for internal validation by late 2017. In this presentation we focus on a number of issues related to the interaction of the community of users with the services provided by the seismological part of the EPOS research infrastructure. How users interact with a service (and how satisfied they are with this interaction) is viewed as one important component of the validation of a service within EPOS, and certainly is key to the uptake of a service and from that also it's attributed value. Within EPOS Seismology, the following aspects of user interaction have already surfaced: - user identification (and potential tracking) versus ease-of-access and openness Requesting users to identify themselves when accessing a service provides various advantages to providers and users (e.g. quantifying & qualifying the service use, customization of services and interfaces, handling access rights and quotas), but may impact the ease of access and also shy away users who don't wish to be identified for whatever reason. - service availability versus cost There is a clear and prominent connection between the availability of a service, both regarding uptime and capacity, and its operational cost (IT systems and personnel), and it is often not clear where to draw the line (and based on which considerations). In connection to that, how to best utilize third-party IT infrastructures (either commercial or public), and what the long-term cost implications of that might be, is equally open. - licensing and attribution The issue of intellectual property and associated licensing policies for data, products and services is only recently gaining

Examining Thai high school students' developing STEM projects

Science.gov (United States)

Teenoi, Kultida; Siripun, Kulpatsorn; Yuenyong, Chokchai

2018-01-01

Like others, Thailand education strongly focused on STEM education. This paper aimed to examine existing Thai high school students' integrated knowledge about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in their developing science project. The participants included 49 high school students were studying the subject of individual study (IS) in Khon Kaen wittayayon school, Khon Kaen, Thailand. The IS was provided to gradually enhance students to know how to do science project starting from getting start to do science projects, They enrolled to study the individual study of science project for three year in roll. Methodology was qualitative research. Views of students' integrated knowledge about STEM were interpreted through participant observation, interview, and students' science projects. The first author as participant observation has taught this group of students for 3 years. It found that 16 science projects were developed. Views of students' integrated knowledge about STEM could be categorized into three categories. These included (1) completely indicated integration of knowledge about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, (2) partial indicated integration of knowledge about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and (3) no integration. The findings revealed that majority of science projects could be categorized as completely indicated integration of knowledge about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The paper suggested some ideas of enhancing students to applying STEM for developing science projects.

Student Attitudes Towards and Impressions of Project Citizen

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara Winstead FRY

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Project Citizen is a civic education curriculum used across the United States and internationally, yet research about its impact on students is lacking in the literature. This article reports the results of a preliminary study designed to answer the following questions: What are students’ attitudes toward and perceptions of Project Citizen? How do their attitudes and perceptions compare to those of students who completed senior projects? Tenhigh school students and 23 first-year college students completed a questionnaire designed for this study. Our findings indicate that the high school students had positive perceptions of Project Citizen, and they self-reported anunderstanding and high levels of efficacy regarding civic responsibility. In contrast, the first-year college students had lower levels of efficacy regarding civic responsibility. Our findings suggest the importance of specific learning experiences to help students develop civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions, and indicate the need for further research into civic programs such as Project Citizen

Expanding Horizons in Mitigating Earthquake Related Disasters in Urban Areas: Global Development of Real-Time Seismology

OpenAIRE

Utkucu, Murat; Küyük, Hüseyin Serdar; Demir, İsmail Hakkı

2016-01-01

Abstract Real-time seismology is a newly developing alternative approach in seismology to mitigate earthquake hazard. It exploits up-to-date advances in seismic instrument technology, data acquisition, digital communications and computer systems for quickly transforming data into earthquake information in real-time to reduce earthquake losses and its impact on social and economic life in the earthquake prone densely populated urban and industrial areas.  Real-time seismology systems are not o...

Student and Faculty Outcomes of Undergraduate Science Research Projects by Geographically Dispersed Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lawton Shaw

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Senior undergraduate research projects are important components of most undergraduate science degrees. The delivery of such projects in a distance education format is challenging. Athabasca University (AU science project courses allow distance education students to complete research project courses by working with research supervisors in their local area, coordinated at a distance by AU faculty. This paper presents demographics and course performance for 155 students over five years. Pass rates were similar to other distance education courses. Research students were surveyed by questionnaire, and external supervisors and AU faculty were interviewed, to examine the outcomes of these project courses for each group. Students reported high levels of satisfaction with the course, local supervisors, and faculty coordinators. Students also reported that the experience increased their interest in research, and the probability that they would pursue graduate or additional certification. Local supervisors and faculty affirmed that the purposes of project courses are to introduce the student to research, provide opportunity for students to use their cumulative knowledge, develop cognitive abilities, and independent thinking. The advantages and challenges associated with this course model are discussed.

10 CFR 72.102 - Geological and seismological characteristics for applications before October 16, 2003 and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Geological and seismological characteristics for... WASTE Siting Evaluation Factors § 72.102 Geological and seismological characteristics for applications..., sites will be acceptable if the results from onsite foundation and geological investigation, literature...

Engaging High School Science Teachers in Field-Based Seismology Research: Opportunities and Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Long, M. D.

2015-12-01

Research experiences for secondary school science teachers have been shown to improve their students' test scores, and there is a substantial body of literature about the effectiveness of RET (Research Experience for Teachers) or SWEPT (Scientific Work Experience Programs for Teachers) programs. RET programs enjoy substantial support, and several opportunities for science teachers to engage in research currently exist. However, there are barriers to teacher participation in research projects; for example, laboratory-based projects can be time consuming and require extensive training before a participant can meaningfully engage in scientific inquiry. Field-based projects can be an effective avenue for involving teachers in research; at its best, earth science field work is a fun, highly immersive experience that meaningfully contributes to scientific research projects, and can provide a payoff that is out of proportion to a relatively small time commitment. In particular, broadband seismology deployments provide an excellent opportunity to provide teachers with field-based research experience. Such deployments are labor-intensive and require large teams, with field tasks that vary from digging holes and pouring concrete to constructing and configuring electronics systems and leveling and orienting seismometers. A recently established pilot program, known as FEST (Field Experiences for Science Teachers) is experimenting with providing one week of summer field experience for high school earth science teachers in Connecticut. Here I report on results and challenges from the first year of the program, which is funded by the NSF-CAREER program and is being run in conjunction with a temporary deployment of 15 seismometers in Connecticut, known as SEISConn (Seismic Experiment for Imaging Structure beneath Connecticut). A small group of teachers participated in a week of field work in August 2015 to deploy seismometers in northern CT; this experience followed a visit of the

The Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP) - building the STEM workforce by providing exciting, multi-disciplinary, student-led suborbital flight projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Dingwall, B. J.

2015-12-01

NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) recognizes that suborbital carriers play a vital role in training our country's future science and technology leaders. SMD created the Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP) to offer students the opportunity to design, build, and fly instruments on NASA's unique suborbital research platforms. This paper explores the projects, the impact, and the lessons learned of USIP. USIP required undergraduate teams to design, build, and fly a scientific instrument in 18 months or less. Students were required to form collaborative multidisciplinary teams to design, develop and build their instrument. Teams quickly learned that success required skills often overlooked in an academic environment. Teams quickly learned to share technical information in a clear and concise manner that could be understood by other disciplines. The aggressive schedule required team members to hold each other accountable for progress while maintaining team unity. Unanticipated problems and technical issues led students to a deeper understanding of the need for schedule and cost reserves. Students exited the program with a far deeper understanding of project management and team dynamics. Through the process of designing and building an instrument that will enable new research transforms students from textbook learners to developers of new knowledge. The initial USIP project funded 10 undergraduate teams that flew a broad range of scientific instruments on scientific balloons, sounding rockets, commercial rockets and aircraft. Students were required to prepare for and conduct the major reviews that are an integral part of systems development. Each project conducted a Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review and Mission Readiness review for NASA officials and flight platform providers. By preparing and presenting their designs to technical experts, the students developed a deeper understanding of the technical and programmatic project pieces that

SEIS-PROV: Practical Provenance for Seismological Data

Science.gov (United States)

Krischer, L.; Smith, J. A.; Tromp, J.

2015-12-01

It is widely recognized that reproducibility is crucial to advance science, but at the same time it is very hard to actually achieve. This results in it being recognized but also mostly ignored by a large fraction of the community. A key ingredient towards full reproducibility is to capture and describe the history of data, an issue known as provenance. We present SEIS-PROV, a practical format and data model to store provenance information for seismological data. In a seismological context, provenance can be seen as information about the processes that generated and modified a particular piece of data. For synthetic waveforms the provenance information describes which solver and settings therein were used to generate it. When looking at processed seismograms, the provenance conveys information about the different time series analysis steps that led to it. Additional uses include the description of derived data types, such as cross-correlations and adjoint sources, enabling their proper storage and exchange. SEIS-PROV is based on W3C PROV (http://www.w3.org/TR/prov-overview/), a standard for generic provenance information. It then applies an additional set of constraints to make it suitable for seismology. We present a definition of the SEIS-PROV format, a way to check if any given file is a valid SEIS-PROV document, and two sample implementations: One in SPECFEM3D GLOBE (https://geodynamics.org/cig/software/specfem3d_globe/) to store the provenance information of synthetic seismograms and another one as part of the ObsPy (http://obspy.org) framework enabling automatic tracking of provenance information during a series of analysis and transformation stages. This, along with tools to visualize and interpret provenance graphs, offers a description of data history that can be readily tracked, stored, and exchanged.

Student Research Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Yeske, Lanny A.

1998-01-01

Numerous FY1998 student research projects were sponsored by the Mississippi State University Center for Air Sea Technology. This technical note describes these projects which include research on: (1) Graphical User Interfaces, (2) Master Environmental Library, (3) Database Management Systems, (4) Naval Interactive Data Analysis System, (5) Relocatable Modeling Environment, (6) Tidal Models, (7) Book Inventories, (8) System Analysis, (9) World Wide Web Development, (10) Virtual Data Warehouse, (11) Enterprise Information Explorer, (12) Equipment Inventories, (13) COADS, and (14) JavaScript Technology.

Rebuild of the Bulletin of the International Seismological Centre (ISC), part 1: 1964-1979

Science.gov (United States)

Storchak, Dmitry A.; Harris, James; Brown, Lonn; Lieser, Kathrin; Shumba, Blessing; Verney, Rebecca; Di Giacomo, Domenico; Korger, Edith I. M.

2017-12-01

The data from the Bulletin of the International Seismological Centre (ISC) have always been and still remain in demand for a wide range of studies in Geosciences. The unique features of the Bulletin include long-term coverage (1904-present), the most comprehensive set of included seismic data from the majority of permanent seismic networks at any given time in the history of instrumental recording (currently 150) and homogeneity of the data and their representation. In order to preserve this homogeneity, the ISC has followed its own standard seismic event processing procedures that have not substantially changed until the early 2000s. Several considerable and necessary advancements in the ISC data collection and seismic event location procedures have created a need to rebuild the data for preceding years in line with the new procedures. Thus was set up a project to rebuild the ISC Bulletin for the period from the beginning of the ISC data till the end of data year 2010. The project is known as the Rebuild of the ISC Bulletin. From data month of January 2011, the ISC data have already been processed with the fully tested and established new procedures and do not require an alteration. It was inconceivable even to think about such a project for many tens of years, but great advances in computer power and increased support by the ISC Member-Institutions and Sponsors have given us a chance to perform this project. Having obtained a lot of experience on the way, we believe that within a few years the entire period of the ISC data will be reprocessed and extended for the entire period of instrumental seismological recordings from 1904 till present. The purpose of this article is to describe the work on reprocessing the ISC Bulletin data under the Rebuild project. We also announce the release of the rebuilt ISC Bulletin for the period 1964-1979 with all seismic events reprocessed and relocated in line with the modern ISC procedures, 68,000 new events, 255 new stations

Project-based fieldwork: perspectives of graduate entry students and project sponsors.

Science.gov (United States)

Fortune, Tracy; McKinstry, Carol

2012-08-01

This article builds on an earlier viewpoint regarding the need for project-focussed fieldwork. It presents the findings of an evaluative study into the value of project placements undertaken by final year graduate entry master's students as part of a capstone subject. The authors argue that provision of project placements enable impending graduates to develop and implement macro level strategies to develop prevention, resource and service development skills often required of contemporary occupational therapy practitioners. A qualitative approach is adopted. Student cohorts from 2005 and 2006 completed open-ended, written questionnaires, and agency project sponsors were interviewed to obtain their perspectives of the project placement experience. Despite some concern that project placements might be undertaken at the expense of 'clinical' placements these findings reveal that projects managed by students were perceived by services to add great value enabling them to advance important priorities. Students and sponsors highlighted a range of positive learning outcomes, including the ability to work collaboratively with supervisors and develop advanced communication skills and political acumen. The success of such placements depends on supportive supervision from academic staff. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: The findings promote project placements as a highly authentic aspect of work integrated learning enabling learners to draw together a range of attributes that support the ability to manage complex issues that have occupational relevance at a macro level. In addition, such experiences help learners to develop agency and political acumen both increasingly important capabilities for the contemporary workplace. © 2012 The Authors Australian Occupational Therapy Journal © 2012 Occupational Therapy Australia.

Volcano seismology

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Chouet, B.

2003-01-01

A fundamental goal of volcano seismology is to understand active magmatic systems, to characterize the configuration of such systems, and to determine the extent and evolution of source regions of magmatic energy. Such understanding is critical to our assessment of eruptive behavior and its hazardous impacts. With the emergence of portable broadband seismic instrumentation, availability of digital networks with wide dynamic range, and development of new powerful analysis techniques, rapid progress is being made toward a synthesis of high-quality seismic data to develop a coherent model of eruption mechanics. Examples of recent advances are: (1) high-resolution tomography to image subsurface volcanic structures at scales of a few hundred meters; (2) use of small-aperture seismic antennas to map the spatio-temporal properties of long-period (LP) seismicity; (3) moment tensor inversions of very-long-period (VLP) data to derive the source geometry and mass-transport budget of magmatic fluids; (4) spectral analyses of LP events to determine the acoustic properties of magmatic and associated hydrothermal fluids; and (5) experimental modeling of the source dynamics of volcanic tremor. These promising advances provide new insights into the mechanical properties of volcanic fluids and subvolcanic mass-transport dynamics. As new seismic methods refine our understanding of seismic sources, and geochemical methods better constrain mass balance and magma behavior, we face new challenges in elucidating the physico-chemical processes that cause volcanic unrest and its seismic and gas-discharge manifestations. Much work remains to be done toward a synthesis of seismological, geochemical, and petrological observations into an integrated model of volcanic behavior. Future important goals must include: (1) interpreting the key types of magma movement, degassing and boiling events that produce characteristic seismic phenomena; (2) characterizing multiphase fluids in subvolcanic

The CTBTO Link to the database of the International Seismological Centre (ISC)

Science.gov (United States)

Bondar, I.; Storchak, D. A.; Dando, B.; Harris, J.; Di Giacomo, D.

2011-12-01

The CTBTO Link to the database of the International Seismological Centre (ISC) is a project to provide access to seismological data sets maintained by the ISC using specially designed interactive tools. The Link is open to National Data Centres and to the CTBTO. By means of graphical interfaces and database queries tailored to the needs of the monitoring community, the users are given access to a multitude of products. These include the ISC and ISS bulletins, covering the seismicity of the Earth since 1904; nuclear and chemical explosions; the EHB bulletin; the IASPEI Reference Event list (ground truth database); and the IDC Reviewed Event Bulletin. The searches are divided into three main categories: The Area Based Search (a spatio-temporal search based on the ISC Bulletin), the REB search (a spatio-temporal search based on specific events in the REB) and the IMS Station Based Search (a search for historical patterns in the reports of seismic stations close to a particular IMS seismic station). The outputs are HTML based web-pages with a simplified version of the ISC Bulletin showing the most relevant parameters with access to ISC, GT, EHB and REB Bulletins in IMS1.0 format for single or multiple events. The CTBTO Link offers a tool to view REB events in context within the historical seismicity, look at observations reported by non-IMS networks, and investigate station histories and residual patterns for stations registered in the International Seismographic Station Registry.

A Serviced-based Approach to Connect Seismological Infrastructures: Current Efforts at the IRIS DMC

Science.gov (United States)

Ahern, Tim; Trabant, Chad

2014-05-01

As part of the COOPEUS initiative to build infrastructure that connects European and US research infrastructures, IRIS has advocated for the development of Federated services based upon internationally recognized standards using web services. By deploying International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks (FDSN) endorsed web services at multiple data centers in the US and Europe, we have shown that integration within seismological domain can be realized. By deploying identical methods to invoke the web services at multiple centers this approach can significantly ease the methods through which a scientist can access seismic data (time series, metadata, and earthquake catalogs) from distributed federated centers. IRIS has developed an IRIS federator that helps a user identify where seismic data from global seismic networks can be accessed. The web services based federator can build the appropriate URLs and return them to client software running on the scientists own computer. These URLs are then used to directly pull data from the distributed center in a very peer-based fashion. IRIS is also involved in deploying web services across horizontal domains. As part of the US National Science Foundation's (NSF) EarthCube effort, an IRIS led EarthCube Building Block's project is underway. When completed this project will aid in the discovery, access, and usability of data across multiple geoscienece domains. This presentation will summarize current IRIS efforts in building vertical integration infrastructure within seismology working closely with 5 centers in Europe and 2 centers in the US, as well as how we are taking first steps toward horizontal integration of data from 14 different domains in the US, in Europe, and around the world.

Jovian seismology: preliminary results of the SYMPA instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Gaulme, P.; Schmider, F. X.; Gay, J.; Jacob, C.; Jeanneaux, F.; Alvarez, M.; Reyes, M.; Valtier, J. C.; Fossat, E.; Palle, P. L.; Belmonte, J. C.; Gelly, B.

2006-06-01

Jupiter's internal structure is poorly known (Guillot et al. 2004). Seismology is a powerful tool to investigate the internal structure of planets and stars, by analyzing how acoustic waves propagate. Mosser (1997) and Gudkova & Zarkhov (1999) showed that the detection and the identification of non-radial modes up to degree ℓ=25 can constrain strongly the internal structure. SYMPA is a ground-based network project dedicated to the Jovian oscillations (Schmider et al. 2002). The instrument is composed of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer producing four interferograms of the planetary spectrum. The combination of the four images in phase quadrature allows the reconstruction of the incident light phase, which is related to the Doppler shift generated by the oscillations. Two SYMPA instruments were built at the Nice university and were used simultaneously during two observation campaigns, in 2004 and 2005, at the San Pedro Martir observatory (Mexico) and the Teide observatory (Las Canarias). We will present for the first time the data processing and the preliminary results of the experiment.

The nuclear weapons inheritance project: student-to-student dialogues and interactive peer education in disarmament activism.

Science.gov (United States)

Buhmann, Caecilie Böck

2007-01-01

The Nuclear Weapons Inheritance Project is a student run and student initiated project founded in 2001 with the purpose of increasing awareness of health effects of nuclear policies and empowering university students to take action in a local and international context. The project uses dialogues to discuss nuclear disarmament with university students and a method of interactive peer education to train new trainers. The project has met more than 1500 students in nuclear weapon states in dialogue and trained about 400 students from all over the world. This article describes the methods and results of the project and discuss how the experience of the project can be used in other projects seeking to increase awareness of a topic and to initiate action on social injustice.

Summer Student Report - Project Kryolize

CERN Document Server

Drozdowski, Pawel

2016-01-01

The purpose of this document is to describe the work and results obtained by the author during his summer student internship at CERN. The author of this document was attached to the project Kryolize as a software developer, overtaking the job from a recently departed technical student.

Creating Student Engagement: The Kickstarter Active Learning Project

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Manzon, Elliott

2017-01-01

Students can become disengaged from marketing material if they cannot see the direct application. Marketing material needs to be applied to a meaningful business task to engage and motivate students. This article introduces the Kickstarter Active Learning Project--an innovative semester-long project in which students create a Kickstarter…

Inge Lehmann’s work materials and seismological epistolary archive

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erik Hjortenberg

2009-06-01

Full Text Available

The Inge Lehmann archive contains thousands of seismological work documents from Inge Lehmann’s private home. For a long time the author thought that the main concern was to keep the documents for posterity. There is now a renewed interest in Inge Lehmann, and some documents were presented in a poster at ESC Potsdam 2004, and the collection of documents were scanned and catalogued 2005-2006 at Storia Geofisica Ambiente in Bologna. Inge Lehmann (1888-1993 is famous for her discovery in 1936 of the earth’s inner core and for work on the upper mantle. A short biography is given. After her retirement in 1953 she worked at home in Denmark, and abroad in USA and in Canada. She took part in the creation of the European Seismological Commission in 1951, and in the creation of the International Seismological Centre in 1964. Inge Lehmann received many awards. Some letters from her early correspondence with Harold Jeffreys are discussed, they show how the inner core was discussed already in 1932. A few of the author’s reminiscences of Inge Lehmann are given.

Facilitating open global data use in earthquake source modelling to improve geodetic and seismological approaches

Science.gov (United States)

Sudhaus, Henriette; Heimann, Sebastian; Steinberg, Andreas; Isken, Marius; Vasyura-Bathke, Hannes

2017-04-01

rupture models. 1d-layered medium models are implemented for both near- and far-field data predictions. A highlight of our approach is a weak dependence on earthquake bulletin information: hypocenter locations and source origin times are relatively free source model parameters. We present this harmonized source modelling environment based on example earthquake studies, e.g. the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake and others. We discuss the benefit of combined-data non-linear modelling on the resolution of first-order rupture parameters, e.g. location, size, orientation, mechanism, moment/slip and rupture propagation. The presented studies apply our newly developed software tools which build up on the open-source seismological software toolbox pyrocko (www.pyrocko.org) in the form of modules. We aim to facilitate a better exploitation of open global data sets for a wide community studying tectonics, but the tools are applicable also for a large range of regional to local earthquake studies. Our developments therefore ensure a large flexibility in the parametrization of medium models (e.g. 1d to 3d medium models), source models (e.g. explosion sources, full moment tensor sources, heterogeneous slip models, etc) and of the predicted data (e.g. (high-rate) GPS, strong motion, tilt). This work is conducted within the project "Bridging Geodesy and Seismology" (www.bridges.uni-kiel.de) funded by the German Research Foundation DFG through an Emmy-Noether grant.

Reflections from the interface between seismological research and earthquake risk reduction

Science.gov (United States)

Sargeant, S.

2012-04-01

Scientific understanding of earthquakes and their attendant hazards is vital for the development of effective earthquake risk reduction strategies. Within the global disaster reduction policy framework (the Hyogo Framework for Action, overseen by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction), the anticipated role of science and scientists is clear, with respect to risk assessment, loss estimation, space-based observation, early warning and forecasting. The importance of information sharing and cooperation, cross-disciplinary networks and developing technical and institutional capacity for effective disaster management is also highlighted. In practice, the degree to which seismological information is successfully delivered to and applied by individuals, groups or organisations working to manage or reduce the risk from earthquakes is variable. The challenge for scientists is to provide fit-for-purpose information that can be integrated simply into decision-making and risk reduction activities at all levels of governance and at different geographic scales, often by a non-technical audience (i.e. people without any seismological/earthquake engineering training). The interface between seismological research and earthquake risk reduction (defined here in terms of both the relationship between the science and its application, and the scientist and other risk stakeholders) is complex. This complexity is a function of a range issues that arise relating to communication, multidisciplinary working, politics, organisational practices, inter-organisational collaboration, working practices, sectoral cultures, individual and organisational values, worldviews and expectations. These factors can present significant obstacles to scientific information being incorporated into the decision-making process. The purpose of this paper is to present some personal reflections on the nature of the interface between the worlds of seismological research and risk reduction, and the

Understanding and Observing Subglacial Friction Using Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Tsai, V. C.

2017-12-01

Glaciology began with a focus on understanding basic mechanical processes and producing physical models that could explain the principal observations. Recently, however, more attention has been paid to the wealth of recent observations, with many modeling efforts relying on data assimilation and empirical scalings, rather than being based on first-principles physics. Notably, ice sheet models commonly assume that subglacial friction is characterized by a "slipperiness" coefficient that is determined by inverting surface velocity observations. Predictions are usually then made by assuming these slipperiness coefficients are spatially and temporally fixed. However, this is only valid if slipperiness is an unchanging material property of the bed and, despite decades of work on subglacial friction, it has remained unclear how to best account for such subglacial physics in ice sheet models. Here, we describe how basic seismological concepts and observations can be used to improve our understanding and determination of subglacial friction. First, we discuss how standard models of granular friction can and should be used in basal friction laws for marine ice sheets, where very low effective pressures exist. We show that under realistic West Antarctic Ice Sheet conditions, standard Coulomb friction should apply in a relatively narrow zone near the grounding line and that this should transition abruptly as one moves inland to a different, perhaps Weertman-style, dependence of subglacial stress on velocity. We show that this subglacial friction law predicts significantly different ice sheet behavior even as compared with other friction laws that include effective pressure. Secondly, we explain how seismological observations of water flow noise and basal icequakes constrain subglacial physics in important ways. Seismically observed water flow noise can provide constraints on water pressures and channel sizes and geometry, leading to important data on subglacial friction

Forensic seismology revisited

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, A.

2007-01-01

contrast simple, comprising one or two cycles of large amplitude followed by a low-amplitude coda. Earthquake signals on the other hand were often complex with numerous arrivals of similar amplitude spread over 35 s or more. It therefore appeared that earthquakes could be recognised on complexity. Later however, complex explosion signals were observed which reduced the apparent effectiveness of complexity as a criterion for identifying earthquakes. Nevertheless, the AWE Group concluded that for many paths to teleseismic distances, Earth is transparent for P signals and this provides a window through which source differences will be most clearly seen. Much of the research by the Group has focused on understanding the influence of source type on P seismograms recorded at teleseismic distances. Consequently the paper concentrates on teleseismic methods of distinguishing between explosions and earthquakes. One of the most robust criteria for discriminating between earthquakes and explosions is the m b : M s criterion which compares the amplitudes of the SP P waves as measured by the body-wave magnitude m b, and the long-period (LP: ˜0.05 Hz) Rayleigh-wave amplitude as measured by the surface-wave magnitude M s; the P and Rayleigh waves being the main wave types used in forensic seismology. For a given M s, the m b for explosions is larger than for most earthquakes. The criterion is difficult to apply however, at low magnitude (say m b fail. Consequently the AWE Group in cooperation with the University of Cambridge used seismogram modelling to try and understand what controls complexity of SP P seismograms, and to put the m b : M s criterion on a theoretical basis. The results of this work show that the m b : M s criterion is robust because several factors contribute to the separation of earthquakes and explosions. The principal reason for the separation however, is that for many orientations of the earthquake source there is at least one P nodal plane in the teleseismic

The GINGERino ring laser gyroscope, seismological observations at one year from the first light

Science.gov (United States)

Simonelli, Andreino; Belfi, Jacopo; Beverini, Nicolò; Di Virgilio, Angela; Carelli, Giorgio; Maccioni, Enrico; De Luca, Gaetano; Saccorotti, Gilberto

2016-04-01

The GINGERino ring laser gyroscope (RLG) is a new large observatory-class RLG located in Gran Sasso underground laboratory (LNGS), one national laboratory of the INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare). The GINGERino apparatus funded by INFN in the context of a larger project of fundamental physics is intended as a pathfinder instrument to reach the high sensitivity needed to observe general relativity effects; more details are found at the URL (https://web2.infn.it/GINGER/index.php/it/). The sensitivity reached by our instrument in the first year after the set up permitted us to acquire important seismological data of ground rotations during the transit of seismic waves generated by seisms at different epicentral distances. RLGs are in fact the best sensors for capturing the rotational motions associated with the transit of seismic waves, thanks to the optical measurement principle, these instruments are in fact insensitive to translations. Ground translations are recorded by two seismometers: a Nanometrics Trillium 240 s and Guralp CMG 3T 360 s, the first instrument is part of the national earthquake monitoring program of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and provides the ground translation data to be compared to the RLG rotational data. We report the waveforms and the seismological analysis of some seismic events recorded during our first year of activity inside the LNGS laboratory.

Vital Signs: Seismology of Icy Ocean Worlds.

Science.gov (United States)

Vance, Steven D; Kedar, Sharon; Panning, Mark P; Stähler, Simon C; Bills, Bruce G; Lorenz, Ralph D; Huang, Hsin-Hua; Pike, W T; Castillo, Julie C; Lognonné, Philippe; Tsai, Victor C; Rhoden, Alyssa R

2018-01-01

Ice-covered ocean worlds possess diverse energy sources and associated mechanisms that are capable of driving significant seismic activity, but to date no measurements of their seismic activity have been obtained. Such investigations could reveal the transport properties and radial structures, with possibilities for locating and characterizing trapped liquids that may host life and yielding critical constraints on redox fluxes and thus on habitability. Modeling efforts have examined seismic sources from tectonic fracturing and impacts. Here, we describe other possible seismic sources, their associations with science questions constraining habitability, and the feasibility of implementing such investigations. We argue, by analogy with the Moon, that detectable seismic activity should occur frequently on tidally flexed ocean worlds. Their ices fracture more easily than rocks and dissipate more tidal energy than the worlds also should create less thermal noise due to their greater distance and consequently smaller diurnal temperature variations. They also lack substantial atmospheres (except in the case of Titan) that would create additional noise. Thus, seismic experiments could be less complex and less susceptible to noise than prior or planned planetary seismology investigations of the Moon or Mars. Key Words: Seismology-Redox-Ocean worlds-Europa-Ice-Hydrothermal. Astrobiology 18, 37-53.

WFCatalog: A catalogue for seismological waveform data

Science.gov (United States)

Trani, Luca; Koymans, Mathijs; Atkinson, Malcolm; Sleeman, Reinoud; Filgueira, Rosa

2017-09-01

This paper reports advances in seismic waveform description and discovery leading to a new seismological service and presents the key steps in its design, implementation and adoption. This service, named WFCatalog, which stands for waveform catalogue, accommodates features of seismological waveform data. Therefore, it meets the need for seismologists to be able to select waveform data based on seismic waveform features as well as sensor geolocations and temporal specifications. We describe the collaborative design methods and the technical solution showing the central role of seismic feature catalogues in framing the technical and operational delivery of the new service. Also, we provide an overview of the complex environment wherein this endeavour is scoped and the related challenges discussed. As multi-disciplinary, multi-organisational and global collaboration is necessary to address today's challenges, canonical representations can provide a focus for collaboration and conceptual tools for agreeing directions. Such collaborations can be fostered and formalised by rallying intellectual effort into the design of novel scientific catalogues and the services that support them. This work offers an example of the benefits generated by involving cross-disciplinary skills (e.g. data and domain expertise) from the early stages of design, and by sustaining the engagement with the target community throughout the delivery and deployment process.

The Impact of Student-Directed Projects in Introductory Statistics

Science.gov (United States)

Spence, Dianna J.; Bailey, Brad; Sharp, Julia L.

2017-01-01

A multi-year study investigated the impact of incorporating student-directed discovery projects into introductory statistics courses. Pilot instructors at institutions across the United States taught statistics implementing student-directed projects with the help of a common set of instructional materials designed to facilitate such projects.…

Student Research Projects Inhibiting Factors from the Students Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laila Nikrooz

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Background & Objective: Identifying the research barriers and assess the ability of students to use the university services and facilities is crucial to promote research activities. Present study was carried out to determine the inhibiting factors influencing the student's research projects from the view point of Yasuj University of Medical Sciences students in 2008. Materials & Methods: In this cross sectional study 96 students of Yasuj Medical University were selected by stratified random sampling. The data were collected by validate & reliable questionnaire, containing demographic information, inhibiting factors related to students (personal and organization. The data were analyzed by SPSS software. Results: The mean scores against the personal barriers and the organizational barriers questions were 43.23±12.96 and 62.58±12.08 respectively. There was a significant difference between personal and organizational barriers (P<0.001 and personal barriers were more important. According to the results, the student's inadequate skills & knowledge of research methodology and lack of awareness of research topics were the most prevalent personal barriers. The most prevalent organizational barriers were unavailability of research consulters, inadequate research skills of consulter, insufficient facilities & equipment and lack of motivating staff & faculties. Other variables such as gender, subject of study and research experience are mentioned in the full text. Conclusion: This study showed that the personal barriers were more important than organizational barriers which interfere with the student's research projects. This can be corrected and controlled by teachers, faculty members, university officials and students, themselves.

Teacher and Student Intrinsic Motivation in Project-Based Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Lam, Shui-fong; Cheng, Rebecca Wing-yi; Ma, William Y. K.

2009-01-01

In this study we examined the relationship between teacher and student intrinsic motivation in project-based learning. The participants were 126 Hong Kong secondary school teachers and their 631 students who completed evaluation questionnaires after a semester-long project-based learning program. Both teachers and students were asked to indicate…

Improving Technological Competency in Nursing Students: The Passport Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julie Edwards

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Integration of informatics competency into a nursing curriculum is important to ensure success throughout the education and career of contemporary nursing students. As enrollment in nursing programs increases, the diverse population of students from many different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds presents a challenge for faculty in addressing unique learning needs. Competency in informatics will allow the beginning nursing student to navigate the on-line teaching software used by colleges. With rigorous expectations in nursing programs, students may feel overwhelmed with assignments, organization, and time management. Frustration may build when students struggle with basic informatics competency, often leaving them unable to navigate instructional websites or work with necessary on-line learning content. The purpose of this project, Passport Project for Nursing Success, was to assess the skills, knowledge, and informatics comfort level of students, while providing computer training and teaching for beginning nursing students in an undergraduate nursing program in Central Illinois. The community college encompassed students from a ten county area, with 20 percent of the student population enrolled in the Applied Science curriculum. Initial implementation occurred prior to the students' first nursing course and emphasized basic skills necessary to navigate on-line learning software, library search engines, and electronic communication. The greatest barrier to successful implementation was faculty resistance and academic support during completion of the initial implementation of the Passport Project. Post- project surveys indicated overwhelming student support for the education received and improved retention rates of first semester nursing students.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS FOR SECOND YEAR CHEMICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MARWAN M. SHAMEL

2013-04-01

Full Text Available In the second semester of the second year of a Mechanical Engineering course, students are supposed to take a Module Outside the Main Discipline (MOMD. This module is chosen to be “Product Design Exercise” a module that is offered to Chemical Engineering students at the same stage. The aim was to expose students from both disciplines to an environment in which they are encouraged to interact with and engage team members with a relatively different background. The students were divided into eight groups all comprised of Chemical and Mechanical Engineering students, and they were offered different open-ended projects that were selected to exploit the knowledge developed by the students thus far and they were slightly skewed towards Chemical Engineering. The students demonstrated a high level of cooperation and motivation throughout the period of the project. Effective communication and closing of knowledge gaps were prevalent. At the end of the project period, students produced a journal paper in lieu of the project report.

Evaluation results after seven years of operation for the permanent Hellenic Seismological Network of Crete (HSNC).

Science.gov (United States)

Vallianatos, F.; Hloupis, G.; Papadopoulos, I.

2012-04-01

The Hellenic arc and the adjacent areas of the Greek mainland are the most active in western Eurasia and some of the most seismically active zones of the world. The seismicity of South Aegean is extremely high and is characterised by the frequent occurrence of large shallow and intermediate depth earthquakes. Until 2004, the installed seismological stations from several providers (NOA, GEOFON, MEDNET) provide average interstation distance around 130km resulting to catalogues with minimum magnitude of completeness (Mc) equals to 3.7. Towards to the direction of providing dense and state of the art instrumental coverage of seismicity in the South Aegean, HSNC begun its operation in 2004. Today it consists of (12) permanent seismological stations equipped with short period and broadband seismographs coupled with 3rd generation 24bit data loggers as well as from (2) accelerographs . The addition of HSNC along with combined use of all the active networks in South Aegean area (NOA, GEOFON, AUTH) decrease the average interstation distance to 60km and provide catalogues with Mc≥3.2. Data transmission and telemetry is implemented by a hybrid network consisting of dedicated wired ADSL links as well as VSAT links by using a unique private satellite hub. Real time data spread over collaborating networks (AUTH) and laboratories (Department of Earth Science - UCL) while at the same time, events are appended automatically and manually to EMSC database. Additional value to the network is provided by means of prototype systems which deployed in-situ for the purposes of: a) Acquiring aftershock data in the minimum time after main event. This is a mobile seismological network called RaDeSeis (Rapid Deployment Seismological network) which consists of a central station acting also as the central communication hub and wifi coupled mobile stations. b) The development of dedicated hardware and software solutions for rapid installation times (around 1 hour for each station) leading to

10 CFR 72.103 - Geological and seismological characteristics for applications for dry cask modes of storage on or...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Geological and seismological characteristics for... § 72.103 Geological and seismological characteristics for applications for dry cask modes of storage on... foundation and geological investigation, literature review, and regional geological reconnaissance show no...

Mobile and modular. BGR develops seismological monitoring stations for universal applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hinz, Erwin; Hanneken, Mark

2016-01-01

BGR seismologists often set up monitoring stations for testing purposes. The engineers from the Central Seismological Observatory have now developed a new type of mobile monitoring station which can be remotely controlled.

ObsPy: A Python Toolbox for Seismology - Recent Developments and Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Megies, T.; Krischer, L.; Barsch, R.; Sales de Andrade, E.; Beyreuther, M.

2014-12-01

ObsPy (http://www.obspy.org) is a community-driven, open-source project dedicated to building a bridge for seismology into the scientific Python ecosystem. It offersa) read and write support for essentially all commonly used waveform, station, and event metadata file formats with a unified interface,b) a comprehensive signal processing toolbox tuned to the needs of seismologists,c) integrated access to all large data centers, web services and databases, andd) convenient wrappers to legacy codes like libtau and evalresp.Python, currently the most popular language for teaching introductory computer science courses at top-ranked U.S. departments, is a full-blown programming language with the flexibility of an interactive scripting language. Its extensive standard library and large variety of freely available high quality scientific modules cover most needs in developing scientific processing workflows. Together with packages like NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, IPython, Pandas, lxml, and PyQt, ObsPy enables the construction of complete workflows in Python. These vary from reading locally stored data or requesting data from one or more different data centers through to signal analysis and data processing and on to visualizations in GUI and web applications, output of modified/derived data and the creation of publication-quality figures.ObsPy enjoys a large world-wide rate of adoption in the community. Applications successfully using it include time-dependent and rotational seismology, big data processing, event relocations, and synthetic studies about attenuation kernels and full-waveform inversions to name a few examples. All functionality is extensively documented and the ObsPy tutorial and gallery give a good impression of the wide range of possible use cases.We will present the basic features of ObsPy, new developments and applications, and a roadmap for the near future and discuss the sustainability of our open-source development model.

Developing Critical Thinking through Student Consulting Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Canziani, Bonnie; Tullar, William L.

2017-01-01

The authors present survey results from faculty at 44 universities on the role of student consulting projects in developing business students' critical thinking. They conclude that students can improve critical thinking by engaging in guided primary and secondary research to inform their business assumptions that underpin business planning and…

Student perceptions of writing projects in a university differential-equations course

Science.gov (United States)

Latulippe, Christine; Latulippe, Joe

2014-01-01

This qualitative study surveyed 102 differential-equations students in order to investigate how students participating in writing projects in university-level mathematics courses perceive the benefits of writing in the mathematics classroom. Based on previous literature on writing in mathematics, students were asked specifically about the benefits of writing projects as a means to explore practical uses of mathematics, deepen content knowledge, and strengthen communication. Student responses indicated an awareness of these benefits, supporting justifications commonly cited by instructors assigning writing projects. Open-ended survey responses highlighted additional themes which students associated with writing in mathematics, including using software programs and technology, working in groups, and stimulating interest in mathematics. This study provides student feedback to support the use of writing projects in mathematics, as well as student input, which can be utilized to strengthen the impact of writing projects in mathematics.

Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES)-Web Portal Developments for Interactive Access to Earthquake Data on a European Scale

Science.gov (United States)

Spinuso, A.; Trani, L.; Rives, S.; Thomy, P.; Euchner, F.; Schorlemmer, D.; Saul, J.; Heinloo, A.; Bossu, R.; van Eck, T.

2009-04-01

The Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES) is European Commission (EC) project whose focus is networking together seismological observatories and research institutes into one integrated European infrastructure that provides access to data and data products for research. Seismological institutes and organizations in European and Mediterranean countries maintain large, geographically distributed data archives, therefore this scenario suggested a design approach based on the concept of an internet service oriented architecture (SOA) to establish a cyberinfrastructure for distributed and heterogeneous data streams and services. Moreover, one of the goals of NERIES is to design and develop a Web portal that acts as the uppermost layer of the infrastructure and provides rendering capabilities for the underlying sets of data The Web services that are currently being designed and implemented will deliver data that has been adopted to appropriate formats. The parametric information about a seismic event is delivered using a seismology-specific Extensible mark-up Language(XML) format called QuakeML (https://quake.ethz.ch/quakeml), which has been formalized and implemented in coordination with global earthquake-information agencies. Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) are used to assign identifiers to (1) seismic-event parameters described by QuakeML, and (2) generic resources, for example, authorities, locations providers, location methods, software adopted, and so on, described by use of a data model constructed with the resource description framework (RDF) and accessible as a service. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) has implemented a unique event identifier (UNID) that will create the seismic event URI used by the QuakeML data model. Access to data such as broadband waveform, accelerometric data and stations inventories will be also provided through a set of Web services that will wrap the middleware used by the

Research and development activities of the Seismology Section for the period January 1988-December 1989

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, Vijay; Murty, G.S.

1990-01-01

This report summarises the research and development activities of the Seismology Section during the periods from January 1988 to December 1989. Apart from the ongoing work on forensic seismology, seismicity studies, rock burst monitoring, elastic wave propagation, a new field system became operational at Bhatsa, located about 100 km from Bombay, comprising 11 station radio-telemetered seismic network with a central recording laboratory to study the reservoir induced seismicity. (author). figs., tabs

Interdisciplinary project-based learning: technology for improving student cognition

OpenAIRE

Natalia Stozhko; Boris Bortnik; Ludmila Mironova; Albina Tchernysheva; Ekaterina Podshivalova

2015-01-01

The article studies a way of enhancing student cognition by using interdisciplinary project-based learning (IPBL) in a higher education institution. IPBL is a creative pedagogic approach allowing students of one area of specialisation to develop projects for students with different academic profiles. The application of this approach in the Ural State University of Economics resulted in a computer-assisted learning system (CALS) designed by IT students. The CALS was used in an analytical chemi...

Student Projects as a Funding Source

Science.gov (United States)

Henson, Kerry L.

2010-01-01

Prompted by restricted funding for a lab which supported student software development work on real-world projects, a contribution program was established to facilitate monetary support from the external clients. The paper explores the relationships between instructor, students and client and how a funding component can affect these ties.…

Student-Designed Service-Learning Projects in an Undergraduate Neurobiology Course

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katharine V. Northcutt

2015-12-01

Full Text Available One of the challenges in teaching a service-learning course is obtaining student buy-in from all students in the course. To circumvent this problem, I have let students in my undergraduate Neurobiology course design their own service-learning projects at the beginning of the semester. Although this can be chaotic because it requires last-minute planning, I have made it successful through facilitating student communication in the classroom, requiring thorough project proposals, meeting with students regularly, and monitoring group progress through written reflection papers. Most of my students have strong opinions about the types of projects that they want to carry out, and many students have used connections that they have already made with local organizations. Almost all projects that students have designed to this point involve teaching basic concepts of neurobiology to children of various ages while simultaneously sparking their interest in science. Through taking ownership of the project and designing it such that it works well with their strengths, interests, and weekly schedule, students have become more engaged in service learning and view it as a valuable experience. Despite some class time being shifted away from more traditional assignments, students have performed equally well in the course, and they are more eager to talk with others about course concepts. Furthermore, the feedback that I have received from community partners has been excellent, and some students have maintained their work with the organizations.

Thirty Years of Innovation in Seismology with the IRIS Consortium

Science.gov (United States)

Sumy, D. F.; Woodward, R.; Aderhold, K.; Ahern, T. K.; Anderson, K. R.; Busby, R.; Detrick, R. S.; Evers, B.; Frassetto, A.; Hafner, K.; Simpson, D. W.; Sweet, J. R.; Taber, J.

2015-12-01

The United States academic seismology community, through the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Consortium, has promoted and encouraged a rich environment of innovation and experimentation in areas such as seismic instrumentation, data processing and analysis, teaching and curriculum development, and academic science. As the science continually evolves, IRIS helps drive the market for new research tools that enable science by establishing a variety of standards and goals. This has often involved working directly with manufacturers to better define the technology required, co-funding key development work or early production prototypes, and purchasing initial production runs. IRIS activities have helped establish de-facto international standards and impacted the commercial sector in areas such as seismic instrumentation, open-access data management, and professional development. Key institutional practices, conducted and refined over IRIS' thirty-year history of operations, have focused on open-access data availability, full retention of maximum-bandwidth, continuous data, and direct community access to state-of-the-art seismological instrumentation and software. These practices have helped to cultivate and support a thriving commercial ecosystem, and have been a key element in the professional development of multiple generations of seismologists who now work in both industry and academia. Looking toward the future, IRIS is increasing its engagement with industry to better enable bi-directional exchange of techniques and technology, and enhancing the development of tomorrow's workforce. In this presentation, we will illustrate how IRIS has promoted innovations grown out of the academic community and spurred technological advances in both academia and industry.

Project PEACH at UCLH: Student Projects in Healthcare Computing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramachandran, Navin; Mohamedally, Dean; Taylor, Paul

2017-01-01

A collaboration between clinicians at UCLH and the Dept of Computer Science at UCL is giving students of computer science the opportunity to undertake real healthcare computing projects as part of their education. This is enabling the creation of a significant research computing platform within the Trust, based on open source components and hosted in the cloud, while providing a large group of students with experience of the specific challenges of health IT.

Graduate Student Project: Operations Management Product Plan

Science.gov (United States)

Fish, Lynn

2007-01-01

An operations management product project is an effective instructional technique that fills a void in current operations management literature in product planning. More than 94.1% of 286 graduates favored the project as a learning tool, and results demonstrate the significant impact the project had in predicting student performance. The author…

An Innovative, Experiential-Learning Project for Sales Management and Professional Selling Students

Science.gov (United States)

Chapman, Joseph; Schetzsle, Stacey; Wahlers, Russell

2016-01-01

This article presents an innovative, experiential-learning project that incorporates students from two different courses: sales management and professional selling. Sales management students actually manage sales students on an outside sales project. Students apply classroom knowledge to a real-life sales project for a local community…

CERN Summer Student Project Report

CERN Document Server

Parton, Thomas

2015-01-01

My Summer Student project was divided between two areas: work on Thin Gap Chamber (TGC) Level-1 muon triggers for the ATLAS experiment, and data acquisition (DAQ) for an RPC muon detector at the Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++)

Seismologically determined bedload flux during the typhoon season.

Science.gov (United States)

Chao, Wei-An; Wu, Yih-Min; Zhao, Li; Tsai, Victor C; Chen, Chi-Hsuan

2015-02-05

Continuous seismic records near river channels can be used to quantify the energy induced by river sediment transport. During the 2011 typhoon season, we deployed a seismic array along the Chishan River in the mountain area of southern Taiwan, where there is strong variability in water discharge and high sedimentation rates. We observe hysteresis in the high-frequency (5-15 Hz) seismic noise level relative to the associated hydrological parameters. In addition, our seismic noise analysis reveals an asymmetry and a high coherence in noise cross-correlation functions for several station pairs during the typhoon passage, which corresponds to sediment particles and turbulent flows impacting along the riverbed where the river bends sharply. Based on spectral characteristics of the seismic records, we also detected 20 landslide/debris flow events, which we use to estimate the sediment supply. Comparison of sediment flux between seismologically determined bedload and derived suspended load indicates temporal changes in the sediment flux ratio, which imply a complex transition process from the bedload regime to the suspension regime between typhoon passage and off-typhoon periods. Our study demonstrates the possibility of seismologically monitoring river bedload transport, thus providing valuable additional information for studying fluvial bedrock erosion and mountain landscape evolution.

Student and Faculty Outcomes of Undergraduate Science Research Projects by Geographically Dispersed Students

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Lawton; Kennepohl, Dietmar

2013-01-01

Senior undergraduate research projects are important components of most undergraduate science degrees. The delivery of such projects in a distance education format is challenging. Athabasca University (AU) science project courses allow distance education students to complete research project courses by working with research supervisors in their…

TERRAscope and CUBE project at Caltech

Science.gov (United States)

Kanamori, Hiroo; Hauksson, , Egill; Heaton, Tom

The TERRAscope project of the California Institute of Technology began in 1988 and now has six very broadband seismic stations (PAS, GSC, PFO, SBC, ISA, and SVD) in southern California (Figure 1). The goal of TERRAscope is to provide high-quality broadband data needed for significant advances in both regional and global seismology. TERRAscope will replace the old Caltech seismographic network in southern California, which dates back to the 1920s. In many cases, new stations are deployed in cooperation with local institutions. The goal is to encourage involvement of both students and researchers in the operation of the stations and analysis of new data. The station PAS is a joint project between Caltech, the University of Southern California, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). The station SBC was deployed in cooperation with the University of California at Santa Barbara. The station PFO is operated jointly with the University of California at San Diego, and the station SVD was installed and is operated by the USGS. Except for SVD, all of the stations are equipped with a broadband Streckeisen STS-1 seismometer and Quanterra data logger with a 24-bit digitizer and a Kinemetrics FBA-23 strong-motion sensor. The station SVD has a Streckeisen STS-2 seismometer and a Guralp CMG-5 accelerograph. The project is funded mainly by grants from the L. K. Whittier Foundation and the Arco Foundation. In addition to the automatic dial-up data retrieving system called Caltech Gopher (adapted from the IRIS Gopher system) has been implemented. The Caltech Gopher receives mail from NEIC for teleseisms and the SCSN with origin time, location, and magnitude for regional events. The Gopher retrieves data from all six TERRAscope stations for these events. The TERRAscope data reside in an FTP anonymous account (seismo.gps.caltech.edu; password: “your e-mail address”) at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory, and are

Project Magnify: Increasing Reading Skills in Students with Low Vision

Science.gov (United States)

Farmer, Jeanie; Morse, Stephen E.

2007-01-01

Modeled after Project PAVE (Corn et al., 2003) in Tennessee, Project Magnify is designed to test the idea that students with low vision who use individually prescribed magnification devices for reading will perform as well as or better than students with low vision who use large-print reading materials. Sixteen students with low vision were…

Can mobile phones used in strong motion seismology?

Science.gov (United States)

D'Alessandro, Antonino; D'Anna, Giuseppe

2013-04-01

Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers are electromechanical devices able to measure static or dynamic accelerations. In the 1990s MEMS accelerometers revolutionized the automotive-airbag system industry and are currently widely used in laptops, game controllers and mobile phones. Nowadays MEMS accelerometers seems provide adequate sensitivity, noise level and dynamic range to be applicable to earthquake strong motion acquisition. The current use of 3 axes MEMS accelerometers in mobile phone maybe provide a new means to easy increase the number of observations when a strong earthquake occurs. However, before utilize the signals recorded by a mobile phone equipped with a 3 axes MEMS accelerometer for any scientific porpoise, it is fundamental to verify that the signal collected provide reliable records of ground motion. For this reason we have investigated the suitability of the iPhone 5 mobile phone (one of the most popular mobile phone in the world) for strong motion acquisition. It is provided by several MEMS devise like a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis electronic compass and a the LIS331DLH three-axis accelerometer. The LIS331DLH sensor is a low-cost high performance three axes linear accelerometer, with 16 bit digital output, produced by STMicroelectronics Inc. We have tested the LIS331DLH MEMS accelerometer using a vibrating table and the EpiSensor FBA ES-T as reference sensor. In our experiments the reference sensor was rigidly co-mounted with the LIS331DHL MEMS sensor on the vibrating table. We assessment the MEMS accelerometer in the frequency range 0.2-20 Hz, typical range of interesting in strong motion seismology and earthquake engineering. We generate both constant and damped sine waves with central frequency starting from 0.2 Hz until 20 Hz with step of 0.2 Hz. For each frequency analyzed we generate sine waves with mean amplitude 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 mg0. For damped sine waves we generate waveforms with initial amplitude

A Large Scale Problem Based Learning inter-European Student Satellite Construction Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jens Frederik Dalsgaard; Alminde, Lars; Bisgaard, Morten

2006-01-01

that electronic communication technology was vital within the project. Additionally the SSETI EXPRESS project implied the following problems it didn’t fit to a standard semester - 18 months for the satellite project compared to 5/6 months for a “normal” semester project. difficulties in integrating the tasks......A LARGE SCALE PROBLEM BASED LEARNING INTER-EUROPEAN STUDENT SATELLITE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT This paper describes the pedagogical outcome of a large scale PBL experiment. ESA (European Space Agency) Education Office launched January 2004 an ambitious project: Let students from all over Europe build....... The satellite was successfully launched on October 27th 2005 (http://www.express.space.aau.dk). The project was a student driven project with student project responsibility adding at lot of international experiences and project management skills to the outcome of more traditional one semester, single group...

Engaging students in astronomy and spectroscopy through Project SPECTRA!

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, E. L.

2011-12-01

Computer simulations for minds-on learning with "Project Spectra!" How do we gain information about the Sun? How do we know Mars has CO2 or that Enceladus has H2O geysers? How do we use light in astronomy? These concepts are something students and educators struggle with because they are abstract. Using simulations and computer interactives (games) where students experience and manipulate the information makes concepts accessible. Visualizing lessons with multi-media solidifies understanding and retention of knowledge and is completely unlike its paper-and-pencil counterpart. Visualizations also enable teachers to forgo purchasing expensive laboratory equipment. "Project Spectra!" is a science and engineering program that uses computer-based Flash interactives to expose students to astronomical spectroscopy and actual data in a way that is not possible with traditional in-class activities. To engage students in "Project Spectra!", students are given a mission, which connects them with the research at hand. Missions range from exploring remote planetary atmospheres and surfaces, experimenting with the Sun using different filters, or analyzing the soil of a remote planet. Additionally, students have an opportunity to learn about NASA missions, view movies, and see images connected with their mission, which is something that is not practical to do during a typical paper-and-pencil activity. Since students can choose what to watch and explore, the interactives accommodate a broad range of learning styles. Students can go back and forth through the interactives if they've missed a concept or wish to view something again. In the end, students are asked critical thinking questions and conduct web-based research. These interactives complement in-class Project SPECTRA! activities exploring applications of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Supporting research projects via student workshops

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marschall, Max; Schmeck, Michel; Gengnagel, Christoph

2016-01-01

As part of a joint research project between the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) and te Department for Structural Design and Technology (KET), a one week student workshop was organised at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) in Copenhagen. This paper outlines...... the teaching methods applied to reach maximum insight from student interaction, despite the unfamiliarity the students had with the research matter: physical and numeric form-finding for lightweight hybrid structures. Hybrid structures are defined here as combining different components of low stiffness...

QuakeML: status of the XML-based seismological data exchange format

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joachim Saul

2011-04-01

Full Text Available QuakeML is an XML-based data exchange standard for seismology that is in its fourth year of active community-driven development. Its development was motivated by the need to consolidate existing data formats for applications in statistical seismology, as well as setting a cutting-edge, community-agreed standard to foster interoperability of distributed infrastructures. The current release (version 1.2 is based on a public Request for Comments process and accounts for suggestions and comments provided by a broad international user community. QuakeML is designed as an umbrella schema under which several sub-packages are collected. The present scope of QuakeML 1.2 covers a basic description of seismic events including picks, arrivals, amplitudes, magnitudes, origins, focal mechanisms, and moment tensors. Work on additional packages (macroseismic information, ground motion, seismic inventory, and resource metadata has been started, but is at an early stage. Several applications based on the QuakeML data model have been created so far. Among these are earthquake catalog web services at the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC, GNS Science, and the Southern California Earthquake Data Center (SCEDC, and QuakePy, an open-source Python-based seismicity analysis toolkit. Furthermore, QuakeML is being used in the SeisComP3 system from GFZ Potsdam, and in the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP testing center installations, developed by Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC. QuakeML is still under active and dynamic development. Further contributions from the community are crucial to its success and are highly welcome.

Student-to-Scientist (S2S) via the PACA Project: Connecting Astronomers, Educators and Students

Science.gov (United States)

Yanamandra-Fisher, P. A.

2015-12-01

Student to Scientist (S2S), provides pathways for observational and research tools for K-12 and undergraduate students to improve science proficiency through conducting real scientific observations. Our approach lies in the integration of professional and amateur astronomers, educators, students, and communicators to identify multiple paths for the student to become a scientist. I report on the ensuing project, also known as the PACA Project, which is an ecosystem of various activities that take advantage of the social media and immediate connectivity amongst amateur astronomers worldwide and that can be galvanized to participate in a given observing campaign. The PACA Project has participated in organized campaigns such as NASA Comet ISON Observing Campaign in 2013; NASA Comet Integrated Observations Campaign to observe Comet Siding Spring as it flew by very close to Mars on 19 October 2014. Currently the PACA Project is involved in the Ground-based Amateur campaign to observer ESA/Rosetta mission's target, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (CG) that is en route to its perihelion on 13 August 2015 (at the time of abstract submission). The PACA Project provides access to the professional community and the student/educator and informal/public communities via various social media like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Pinterest, Vimeo, Google+. With the popularity of mobile platforms and instant connections with other peers globally, the multi-faceted social universe has become a vital part of engagement of multiple communities. The PACA project currently has initiated a Comet Tails and Disconnection Events campaign to relate to the changing solar wind conditions. Other PACA projects include Saturn Solstice 2017 and outreach projects with Astroproject (India). These and other citizen-science enabled activities and their integration with S2S project will be discussed.

Project-Based Learning and Design-Focused Projects to Motivate Secondary Mathematics Students

Science.gov (United States)

Remijan, Kelly W.

2017-01-01

This article illustrates how mathematics teachers can develop design-focused projects, related to project-based learning, to motivate secondary mathematics students. With first-hand experience as a secondary mathematics teacher, I provide a series of steps related to the engineering design process, which are helpful to teachers in developing…

Creating a Project-Based Learning Environment to Improve Project Management Skills of Graduate Students

Science.gov (United States)

Arantes do Amaral, Joao Alberto; Gonçalves, Paulo; Hess, Aurélio

2015-01-01

This article describes the project-based learning environment created to support project management graduate courses. The paper will focus on the learning context and procedures followed for 13 years, in 47 project-based learning MBA courses, involving approximately 1,400 students and 34 community partners.

Coronal seismology waves and oscillations in stellar coronae

CERN Document Server

Stepanov, Alexander; Nakariakov, Valery M

2012-01-01

This concise and systematic account of the current state of this new branch of astrophysics presents the theoretical foundations of plasma astrophysics, magneto-hydrodynamics and coronal magnetic structures, taking into account the full range of available observation techniques -- from radio to gamma. The book discusses stellar loops during flare energy releases, MHD waves and oscillations, plasma instabilities and heating and charged particle acceleration. Current trends and developments in MHD seismology of solar and stellar coronal plasma systems are also covered, while recent p

Graduate Student Project: Employer Operations Management Analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Fish, Lynn A.

2008-01-01

Part-time graduate students at an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business-accredited college complete a unique project by applying operations management concepts to their current employer. More than 92% of 368 graduates indicated that this experiential project was a positive learning experience, and results show a positive impact on…

Debunking Myths: The B.C. Student Transitions Project

Science.gov (United States)

Gaber, Devron; Heslop, Joanne

2009-01-01

British Colombia's Student Transitions Project (STP) is challenging long-held myths about the movement of students through the education system in that province and may become a catalyst for re-examining commonly held ideas about students' transition to post-secondary education across the country. The STP is a collaborative effort among B.C.'s…

QuakeML: XML for Seismological Data Exchange and Resource Metadata Description

Science.gov (United States)

Euchner, F.; Schorlemmer, D.; Becker, J.; Heinloo, A.; Kästli, P.; Saul, J.; Weber, B.; QuakeML Working Group

2007-12-01

QuakeML is an XML-based data exchange format for seismology that is under development. Current collaborators are from ETH, GFZ, USC, USGS, IRIS DMC, EMSC, ORFEUS, and ISTI. QuakeML development was motivated by the lack of a widely accepted and well-documented data format that is applicable to a broad range of fields in seismology. The development team brings together expertise from communities dealing with analysis and creation of earthquake catalogs, distribution of seismic bulletins, and real-time processing of seismic data. Efforts to merge QuakeML with existing XML dialects are under way. The first release of QuakeML will cover a basic description of seismic events including picks, arrivals, amplitudes, magnitudes, origins, focal mechanisms, and moment tensors. Further extensions are in progress or planned, e.g., for macroseismic information, location probability density functions, slip distributions, and ground motion information. The QuakeML language definition is supplemented by a concept to provide resource metadata and facilitate metadata exchange between distributed data providers. For that purpose, we introduce unique, location-independent identifiers of seismological resources. As an application of QuakeML, ETH Zurich currently develops a Python-based seismicity analysis toolkit as a contribution to CSEP (Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability). We follow a collaborative and transparent development approach along the lines of the procedures of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). QuakeML currently is in working draft status. The standard description will be subjected to a public Request for Comments (RFC) process and eventually reach the status of a recommendation. QuakeML can be found at http://www.quakeml.org.

20 year IRIS: impact on seismological research at home and abroad

Science.gov (United States)

van der Hilst, R. D.

2004-12-01

: The positive impact of IRIS, through its programs (GSN, PASSCAL, DMS, EO) and its workshops, on seismological research and community building can hardly be overestimated. The Data Management System has been very successful in bringing data to users for research and education anywhere in the world; it enables routine, and in many cases real time, analysis of massive amounts of waveform data for a spectacularly diverse range of studies. (I will give examples of surface wave tomography and inverse scattering studies of the core mantle boundary.) The support that PASSCAL provides for the planning and execution of field campaigns allows seismologists to shift attention from operational issues to exciting science, and the required data dissemination through DMS does not only result in tremendously valuable data sets but also contributes to community building through (international) collaboration. Europe, Australia, and Asia also have rich histories of network and portable array seismometry, and in many areas the cumulative station density exceeds that of North America (even, perhaps, with USArray). Moreover, in some cases, such as the use of temporary, roving arrays of broad band seismometers, activities overseas may have preceded and inspired developments in the US. However, the absence of effective central systems for management and dissemination of quality-controlled data has left many unique historical and regional data sets underutilized. This situation is changing, however. As an example I will mention the NERIES initiative to build a better infrastructure for seismological research and education in Europe. Apart from providing an example, through international collaboration IRIS can continue to play an important role in the improvement of the global seismological infrastructure.

Cinemeducation: A pilot student project using movies to help students learn medical professionalism.

Science.gov (United States)

Lumlertgul, Nuttha; Kijpaisalratana, Naruchorn; Pityaratstian, Nuttorn; Wangsaturaka, Danai

2009-07-01

Using movies has been accepted worldwide as a tool to help students learn medical professionalism. In the second year, a group of medical students conducted the "Cinemeducation" project to promote professionalism in the "Medical Ethics and Critical Thinking" course. Five movies with professionalism issues were screened with 20-30 students attending each session. After the show, participants then were asked to reflect on what they had learned in terms of professionalism. Two students led group discussion emphasizing questioning and argumentation for 60 min. Additional learning issues emerging from each session were also explored in more depth and arranged into a report. In the Cinemeducation Project, medical students have learned five main ethical issues in each film, which were the doctor-patient relationship, informed consent and clinical trials in patients, management of genetic disorders, patient management, and brain death and organ transplantation. In addition to issues of professionalism, they also developed critical thinking and moral reasoning skills. Using a case-based scenario in movies has proven to be an effective and entertaining method of facilitating students with learning on professionalism.

Students' Perceptions of Life Skill Development in Project-Based Learning Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Kimberly; Wurdinger, Scott

2016-01-01

This research aimed to examine students' perceptions of their life skills while attending project-based learning (PBL) schools. The study focused on three questions including: (1) What are students' perceptions of their development of life skills in project-based learning schools?; (2) In what ways, if any, do students perceive an increase in…

Urban High School Student Engagement through CincySTEM iTEST Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Beckett, Gulbahar H.; Hemmings, Annette; Maltbie, Catherine; Wright, Kathy; Sherman, Melissa; Sersion, Brian

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on the notable heightening of underrepresented students' engagement in STEM education through project-based learning CincySTEM iTEST projects. The projects, funded by an iTEST NSF grant, were designed and facilitated by teachers at a new STEM urban public high school serving low-income African-American students. Student…

Seismology of Giant Planets: General Overview and Results from the Kepler K2 Observations of Neptune

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gaulme Patrick

2017-01-01

Full Text Available For this invited contribution, I was asked to give an overview about the application of helio and aster-oseismic techniques to study the interior of giant planets, and to specifically present the recent observations of Neptune by Kepler K2. Seismology applied to giant planets could drastically change our understanding of their deep interiors, as it has happened with the Earth, the Sun, and many main-sequence and evolved stars. The study of giant planets' composition is important for understanding both the mechanisms enabling their formation and the origins of planetary systems, in particular our own. Unfortunately, its determination is complicated by the fact that their interior is thought not to be homogeneous, so that spectroscopic determinations of atmospheric abundances are probably not representative of the planet as a whole. Instead, the determination of their composition and structure must rely on indirect measurements and interior models. Giant planets are mostly fluid and convective, which makes their seismology much closer to that of solar-like stars than that of terrestrial planets. Hence, helioseismology techniques naturally transfer to giant planets. In addition, two alternative methods can be used: photometry of the solar light reflected by planetary atmospheres, and ring seismology in the specific case of Saturn. The current decade has been promising thanks to the detection of Jupiter's acoustic oscillations with the ground-based imaging-spectrometer SYMPA and indirect detection of Saturn's f-modes in its rings by the NASA Cassini orbiter. This has motivated new projects of ground-based and space-borne instruments that are under development. The K2 observations represented the first opportunity to search for planetary oscillations with visible photometry. Despite the excellent quality of K2 data, the noise level of the power spectrum of the light curve was not low enough to detect Neptune's oscillations. The main results from the

Seismology of Giant Planets: General Overview and Results from the Kepler K2 Observations of Neptune

Science.gov (United States)

Gaulme, Patrick

2017-10-01

For this invited contribution, I was asked to give an overview about the application of helio and aster-oseismic techniques to study the interior of giant planets, and to specifically present the recent observations of Neptune by Kepler K2. Seismology applied to giant planets could drastically change our understanding of their deep interiors, as it has happened with the Earth, the Sun, and many main-sequence and evolved stars. The study of giant planets' composition is important for understanding both the mechanisms enabling their formation and the origins of planetary systems, in particular our own. Unfortunately, its determination is complicated by the fact that their interior is thought not to be homogeneous, so that spectroscopic determinations of atmospheric abundances are probably not representative of the planet as a whole. Instead, the determination of their composition and structure must rely on indirect measurements and interior models. Giant planets are mostly fluid and convective, which makes their seismology much closer to that of solar-like stars than that of terrestrial planets. Hence, helioseismology techniques naturally transfer to giant planets. In addition, two alternative methods can be used: photometry of the solar light reflected by planetary atmospheres, and ring seismology in the specific case of Saturn. The current decade has been promising thanks to the detection of Jupiter's acoustic oscillations with the ground-based imaging-spectrometer SYMPA and indirect detection of Saturn's f-modes in its rings by the NASA Cassini orbiter. This has motivated new projects of ground-based and space-borne instruments that are under development. The K2 observations represented the first opportunity to search for planetary oscillations with visible photometry. Despite the excellent quality of K2 data, the noise level of the power spectrum of the light curve was not low enough to detect Neptune's oscillations. The main results from the K2 observations are

University-Level Research Projects for High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

McConnell, Mark L.

2000-01-01

The goal of this project was to provide an opportunity for high school students to participate in university-level research projects. In this case, students from Pinkerton Academy (Derry, New Hampshire) were invited to participate in efforts to catalog data from the COMPTEL experiment on NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO). These activities were part of a senior level honors course at Pinkerton. Although the success of this particular program was rather limited, we feel that the general concept is a sound one. In principle, the concept of partnerships between local schools and university researchers is one that could be especially attractive to soft money researchers. Programs can be carefully designed to benefit both the students and the research program.

COST Action ES1401 TIDES: a European network on TIme DEpendent Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Morelli, Andrea

2016-04-01

Using the full-length records of seismic events and background ambient noise, today seismology is going beyond still-life snapshots of the interior of the Earth, and look into time-dependent changes of its properties. Data availability has grown dramatically with the expansion of seismographic networks and data centers, so as to enable much more detailed and accurate analyses. COST Action ES1401 TIDES (TIme DEpendent Seismology; http://tides-cost.eu) aims at structuring the EU seismological community to enable development of data-intensive, time-dependent techniques for monitoring Earth active processes (e.g., earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, glacial earthquakes) as well as oil/gas reservoirs. The main structure of TIDES is organised around working groups on: Workflow integration of data and computing resources; Seismic interferometry and ambient noise; Forward problems and High-performance computing applications; Seismic tomography, full waveform inversion and uncertainties; Applications in the natural environment and industry. TIDES is an open network of European laboratories with complementary skills, and is organising a series of events - workshops and advanced training schools - as well as supporting short-duration scientific stays. The first advanced training school was held in Bertinoro (Italy) on June 2015, with attendance of about 100 participants from 20 European countries, was devoted to how to manage and model seismic data with modern tools. The next school, devoted to ambient noise, will be held in 2016 Portugal: the program will be announced at the time of this conference. TIDES will strengthen Europe's role in a critical field for natural hazards and natural resource management.

Student experiences with an international public health exchange project.

Science.gov (United States)

Critchley, Kim A; Richardson, Eileen; Aarts, Clara; Campbell, Barbara; Hemmingway, Ann; Koskinen, Liisa; Mitchell, Maureen P; Nordstrom, Pam

2009-01-01

With growing interconnectivity of healthcare systems worldwide and increased immigration, inappropriate cultural and role assumptions are often seen when cultures clash within a country or when there is practice across country boundaries in times of disaster and during international travel. To increase students' multicultural awareness and work experiences abroad, the authors describe a 7-school, 5-country international student exchange project. The authors also share the students' evaluations of their experiences as they are challenged to erase boundaries and embrace nursing across countries. Participating faculty describe the process, challenges, and keys to success found in creating and living this international project. Students involved in the exchange process evaluate the learning opportunities and challenges and the joy of coming together as newfound colleagues and friends.

VERCE: a productive e-Infrastructure and e-Science environment for data-intensive seismology research

Science.gov (United States)

Vilotte, Jean-Pierre; Atkinson, Malcolm; Carpené, Michele; Casarotti, Emanuele; Frank, Anton; Igel, Heiner; Rietbrock, Andreas; Schwichtenberg, Horst; Spinuso, Alessandro

2016-04-01

Seismology pioneers global and open-data access -- with internationally approved data, metadata and exchange standards facilitated worldwide by the Federation of Digital Seismic Networks (FDSN) and in Europe the European Integrated Data Archives (EIDA). The growing wealth of data generated by dense observation and monitoring systems and recent advances in seismic wave simulation capabilities induces a change in paradigm. Data-intensive seismology research requires a new holistic approach combining scalable high-performance wave simulation codes and statistical data analysis methods, and integrating distributed data and computing resources. The European E-Infrastructure project "Virtual Earthquake and seismology Research Community e-science environment in Europe" (VERCE) pioneers the federation of autonomous organisations providing data and computing resources, together with a comprehensive, integrated and operational virtual research environment (VRE) and E-infrastructure devoted to the full path of data use in a research-driven context. VERCE delivers to a broad base of seismology researchers in Europe easily used high-performance full waveform simulations and misfit calculations, together with a data-intensive framework for the collaborative development of innovative statistical data analysis methods, all of which were previously only accessible to a small number of well-resourced groups. It balances flexibility with new integrated capabilities to provide a fluent path from research innovation to production. As such, VERCE is a major contribution to the implementation phase of the ``European Plate Observatory System'' (EPOS), the ESFRI initiative of the solid-Earth community. The VRE meets a range of seismic research needs by eliminating chores and technical difficulties to allow users to focus on their research questions. It empowers researchers to harvest the new opportunities provided by well-established and mature high-performance wave simulation codes of the

Using UAVs to Conduct Student-led Research Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Olds, S. E.; Lewis, P. M., Jr.

2016-12-01

Recreational drones can inspire students to initiate research projects. These "toys" have a low cost (Arduino board, SABEL collects temperature, humidity, and GPS position. This presentation will provide examples of student-led investigations, instructions for building the SABEL sensor package, and the status of the new e-book compilation of student-focused activities using recreational drones to pursue science, math, engineering, and technology research investigations.

Summary of student scenarios: 2020 Vision project, fiscal year 1997

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gordon, K.W.; Munoz, A.; Scott, K.P.; Rinne, R.

1997-11-01

The Strategic Issues Thinking: 2020 Vision project introduces students and teaches to national security issues through the techniques of scenario building, and engages them in an interactive process of creating scenarios relevant to the Department of Energy, Defense Programs (DOE/DP). Starting with the world as it is today, teams of students develop a series of scenarios on international developments over the next 25 years under various circumstances. This report identifies recurrent themes in the student`s scenarios, lists creative ways the students presented their scenarios, compares and contrasts the program`s FY97 results with FY96 results, identifies the benefits of the program, and offers a glimpse of Sandia`s future plans for the 2020 Vision project.

Gender and legitimacy in student project groups

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Gerd

also found that some of the positive and negative characteristics were linked to the students due to their gender. Through the argument that female students talk too much or are having difficulty in coping with criticism, male students refused to cooperate with the female students. Conversely, the male...... students, who were few in the educations I studied, were quite in demand. For me it was very surprising to find these stereotypical perceptions and reasoning among young people in contemporary (and quite progressive) Danish educations. And the question is what it means for the students’ possibilities...... of completing their education. In my presentation I will unfold and discuss the ways in which the students attributed and disclaimed legitimacy to each other qua gender and thus how gender was linked to the relationship between inclusion and exclusion in the student project groups....

An Interdisciplinary Team Project: Psychology and Computer Science Students Create Online Cognitive Tasks

Science.gov (United States)

Flannery, Kathleen A.; Malita, Mihaela

2014-01-01

We present our case study of an interdisciplinary team project for students taking either a psychology or computer science (CS) course. The project required psychology and CS students to combine their knowledge and skills to create an online cognitive task. Each interdisciplinary project team included two psychology students who conducted library…

A short history of Japanese historical seismology: past and the present

Science.gov (United States)

Matsu'ura, Ritsuko S.

2017-12-01

Since seismicity in Japan is fairly high, Japanese interest in historical seismicity can be traced back to the nineth century, only a few centuries after the formation of the ancient ruling state. A 1000 years later, 2 years earlier than the modern seismological society was founded, the research on historical seismology started in Japan in 1878. By the accumulation for the recent 140 years, the present Japanese seismologists can read many historical materials without reading cursive scripts. We have a convenient access to the historical information related to earthquakes, in the modern characters of 27,759 pages. We now have 214 epicenters of historical earthquakes from 599 ad to 1872. Among them, 134 events in the early modern period were assigned hypocentral depths and proper magnitudes. The intensity data of 8700 places by those events were estimated. These precise intensity data enabled us to compare the detailed source areas of pairs of repeated historical earthquakes, such as the 1703 Genroku earthquake with the 1923 Kanto earthquake, and the 1707 Hoei earthquake with the summation of the 1854 Ansei Tokai and Ansei Nankai earthquakes. It is revealed that the focal area of the former larger event cannot completely include those of the latter smaller earthquakes, although those were believed to be typical sets of characteristic interplate earthquakes at the Sagami trough and at the Nankai trough. Research on historical earthquakes is very important to assess the seismic hazard in the future. We still have one-fifth events of the early modern period to be analyzed in detail. The compilation of places experienced high intensities in the modern events is also necessary. For the ancient and medieval periods, many equivocal events are still left. The further advance of the interdisciplinary research on historical seismology is necessary.

Student Perceptions on Live-Case Projects: Undergraduate Marketing Research

Science.gov (United States)

Gundala, Raghava Rao; Singh, Mandeep; Baldwin, Andrew

2014-01-01

This paper is an investigation into undergraduate students' perceptions on use of live projects as a teaching pedagogy in marketing research courses. Students in undergraduate marketing research courses from fall 2009 to spring 2013 completed an online questionnaire consisting of 17 items. The results suggested that student understanding of…

Super-large optical gyroscopes for applications in geodesy and seismology: state-of-the-art and development prospects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Velikoseltsev, A A; Luk'yanov, D P; Vinogradov, V I; Shreiber, K U

2014-01-01

A brief survey of the history of the invention and development of super-large laser gyroscopes (SLLGs) is presented. The basic results achieved using SLLGs in geodesy, seismology, fundamental physics and other fields are summarised. The concept of SLLG design, specific features of construction and implementation are considered, as well as the prospects of applying the present-day optical technologies to laser gyroscope engineering. The possibilities of using fibre-optical gyroscopes in seismologic studies are analysed and the results of preliminary experimental studies are presented. (laser gyroscopes)

Super-large optical gyroscopes for applications in geodesy and seismology: state-of-the-art and development prospects

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Velikoseltsev, A A; Luk' yanov, D P [St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University ' ' LETI' ' , St. Petersburg (Russian Federation); Vinogradov, V I [OJSC Tambov factory Elektropribor (Russian Federation); Shreiber, K U [Forschungseinrichtung Satellitengeodaesie, Technosche Universitaet Muenchen, Geodaetisches Observatorium Wettzell, Sackenrieder str. 25, 93444 Bad Koetzting (Germany)

2014-12-31

A brief survey of the history of the invention and development of super-large laser gyroscopes (SLLGs) is presented. The basic results achieved using SLLGs in geodesy, seismology, fundamental physics and other fields are summarised. The concept of SLLG design, specific features of construction and implementation are considered, as well as the prospects of applying the present-day optical technologies to laser gyroscope engineering. The possibilities of using fibre-optical gyroscopes in seismologic studies are analysed and the results of preliminary experimental studies are presented. (laser gyroscopes)

Introducing an Innovative Project Management Framework for First Year Students – Project Work in a PBL Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kofoed, Lise B.; Møller, Michael Labovic

2010-01-01

Students at Aalborg University (AAU) in Denmark are educated according to the Aalborg Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach which entails working in groups and completing a project each semester. In accordance with this approach students are offered a course – Co-operation, Learning and Project...... in general acknowledge the benefits of thorough project plans and schedules, they often experience difficulties developing them and abiding by them. These experienced difficulties are caused by lack of motivation and competence within this particular area of project management. This paper describes how a new...

A series of student design projects for improving and modernizing safety helmets

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beurden, van K.M.M. (Karin); Boer, de J. (Johannes); Stilma, M. (Margot); Teeuw, W.B. (Wouter)

2014-01-01

The Saxion Research Centre for Design and Technology employs many students during research projects. This paper discusses a series of student design projects on safety helmets in the Safety@Work project. At construction sites workers are required to wear personal protective equipment during their

NASA's Student Launch Projects: A Government Education Program for Science and Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Shepherd, Christena C.

2009-01-01

Among the many NASA education activities, the Student Launch projects are examples of how one agency has been working with students to inspire math, science and engineering interest. There are two Student Launch projects: Student Launch Initiative (SLI) for middle and high school students and the University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) for college students. The programs are described and website links are provided for further information. This document presents an example of how an agency can work with its unique resources in partnership with schools and communities to bring excitement to the classroom.

Project Career: A qualitative examination of five college students with traumatic brain injuries.

Science.gov (United States)

Nardone, Amanda; Sampson, Elaine; Stauffer, Callista; Leopold, Anne; Jacobs, Karen; Hendricks, Deborah J; Elias, Eileen; Chen, Hui; Rumrill, Phillip

2015-01-01

Project Career is an interprofessional five-year development project designed to improve the employment success of undergraduate college and university students with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The case study information was collected and synthesized by the project's Technology and Employment Coordinators (TECs) at each of the project's three university sites. The project's evaluation is occurring independently through JBS International, Inc. Five case studies are presented to provide an understanding of student participants' experiences within Project Career. Each case study includes background on the student, engagement with technology, vocational supports, and interactions with his/her respective TEC. A qualitative analysis from the student's case notes is provided within each case study, along with a discussion of the overall qualitative analysis. Across all five students, the theme Positive Outcomes was mentioned most often in the case notes. Of all the different type of challenges, Cognitive Challenges were most often mentioned during meetings with the TECs, followed by Psychological Challenges, Physical Challenges, Other Challenges, and Academic Challenges, respectively. Project Career is providing academic enrichment and career enhancement that may substantially improve the unsatisfactory employment outcomes that presently await students with TBI following graduation.

Online Lab Books for Supervision of Project Students

Science.gov (United States)

Badge, J. L.; Badge, R. M.

2009-01-01

In this article, the authors report a case study where Blackboard's wiki function was used to create electronic lab books for the supervision of undergraduate students completing laboratory based research projects. This successful experiment in supervision using electronic notebooks provided a searchable record of student work and a permanent…

Mathematics authentic assessment on statistics learning: the case for student mini projects

Science.gov (United States)

Fauziah, D.; Mardiyana; Saputro, D. R. S.

2018-03-01

Mathematics authentic assessment is a form of meaningful measurement of student learning outcomes for the sphere of attitude, skill and knowledge in mathematics. The construction of attitude, skill and knowledge achieved through the fulfilment of tasks which involve active and creative role of the students. One type of authentic assessment is student mini projects, started from planning, data collecting, organizing, processing, analysing and presenting the data. The purpose of this research is to learn the process of using authentic assessments on statistics learning which is conducted by teachers and to discuss specifically the use of mini projects to improving students’ learning in the school of Surakarta. This research is an action research, where the data collected through the results of the assessments rubric of student mini projects. The result of data analysis shows that the average score of rubric of student mini projects result is 82 with 96% classical completeness. This study shows that the application of authentic assessment can improve students’ mathematics learning outcomes. Findings showed that teachers and students participate actively during teaching and learning process, both inside and outside of the school. Student mini projects also provide opportunities to interact with other people in the real context while collecting information and giving presentation to the community. Additionally, students are able to exceed more on the process of statistics learning using authentic assessment.

Educational Benefits From the AAU-cubesat Student Satellite Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alminde, Lars

2003-01-01

In September 2001 Aalborg university started the AAU-cubesat project that reached it climax when the student built satellite was launched into space on the 30th of June 2003 on top of a former Russian ICBM. AAU-cubesat was among the first five satellites to be launched that are built within the c......-satellite designs will be given. In addition as the project has been carried through by students then the educational value will be addressed as well....

The Hellenic Seismological Network Of Crete (HSNC): Validation and results of the 2013 aftershock sequences

Science.gov (United States)

Chatzopoulos, Georgios; Papadopoulos, Ilias; Vallianatos, Filippos

2015-04-01

The number and quality of seismological networks in Europe has increased in the past decades. Nevertheless, the need for localized networks monitoring areas of great seismic and scientific interest is constant. Hellenic Seismological Network of Crete (HSNC) covers this need for the vicinity of the South Aegean Sea and Crete Island. In the present work with the use of Z-map software (www.seismo.ethz.ch) the spatial variability of Magnitude of Completeness (Mc) is calculated from HSNC's manual analysis catalogue of events for the period 2011 until today, proving the good coverage of HSNC in the areas. Furthermore the 2013, South Aegean seismicity where two large shallow earthquakes occurred in the vicinity of Crete Island, is discussed. The first event takes place on 15th June 2013 in the front of the Hellenic Arc, south from central Crete, while the second one on 12th October, 2013 on the western part of Crete. The two main shocks and their aftershock sequences have been relocated with the use of hypoinverse earthquake location software and an appropriate crust model. The HSNC identified more than 500 and 300 aftershocks respectively followed after the main events. The detailed construction of aftershocks catalogue permits the applicability of modern theories based on complexity sciences as described recently in the frame of non extensive statistical physics. In addition site effects in the stations locations are presented using event and noise recordings. This work was implemented through the project IMPACT-ARC in the framework of action "ARCHIMEDES III-Support of Research Teams at TEI of Crete" (MIS380353) of the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" and is co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund) and Greek national funds References A. Tzanis and F. Vallianatos, "Distributed power-law seismicity changes and crustal deformation in the EW Hellenic Arc", Natural Hazards and Earth Systems Sciences, 3, 179-195, 2003 F. Vallianatos, G

Implementing a Student-Designed Green Chemistry Laboratory Project in Organic Chemistry

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, Kate J.; Jones, T. Nicholas; Schaller, Chris P.; McIntee, Edward J.

2014-01-01

A multiweek organic chemistry laboratory project is described that emphasizes sustainable practices in experimental design. An emphasis on student-driven development of the project is meant to mirror the independent nature of research. Students propose environmentally friendly modifications of several reactions. With instructor feedback, students…

EDITORIAL: Student undergraduate laboratory and project work

Science.gov (United States)

Schumacher, Dieter

2007-05-01

During the last decade 'labwork' courses at university level have changed significantly. The beginning of this development was indicated and partly initiated by the EU-project 'Labwork in Science Education' funded by the European Community (1999-2001). The present special issue of the European Journal of Physics focuses on a multitude of different aspects of this process. The aim of this publication is to improve the exchange of experience and to promote this important trend. In physics research labs a silent revolution has taken place. Today the personal computer is omnipresent. It controls the experiment via stepping motors, piezo-microdrives etc, it monitors all parameters and collects the experimental data with the help of smart sensors. In particular, computer-based modern scanning and imaging techniques open the possibility of creating really new types of experiments. The computer allows data storage and processing on the one hand and simulation and modelling on the other. These processes occur in parallel or may even be interwoven. The web plays an important role in modern science for inquiry, communication, cooperation and publication. Traditional labwork courses do not prepare students for the many resulting demands. Therefore it is necessary to redefine the learning targets and to reconsider the learning methods. Two contributions show exemplarily how modern experimental devices could find their way into students' labs. In the article 'Infrared thermal imaging as a tool in university physics education' by Klaus-Peter Möllmann and Michael Vollmer we can see that infrared thermal imaging is a valuable tool in physics education at university level. It can help to visualize and thereby enhance understanding of physical phenomena of mechanics, thermal physics, electromagnetism, optics and radiation physics. The contribution 'Using Peltier cells to study solid-liquid-vapor transitions and supercooling' by Giacomo Torzo, Isabella Soletta and Mario Branca proves

Project-Based Learning and Student Knowledge Construction during Asynchronous Online Discussion

Science.gov (United States)

Koh, Joyce Hwee Ling; Herring, Susan C.; Hew, Khe Foon

2010-01-01

Project-based learning engages students in problem solving through artefact design. However, previous studies of online project-based learning have focused primarily on the dynamics of online collaboration; students' knowledge construction throughout this process has not been examined thoroughly. This case study analyzed the relationship between…

The Lifestyle Project: Challenging Students to Redefine their Approach to Resource Use (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Kirk, K.

2009-12-01

The Lifestyle Project is a way for students to learn about environmental impacts by changing their own lifestyles. It is a three-week exercise during which students reduce their energy use, waste output and water use by changing the way they live from day to day. The project has fairly rigid parameters, allowing students to achieve a gradual but definitive change in their everyday habits. Students begin by taking baseline measurements of their resource use, and then they select three different areas in which they are interested in reducing their environmental impact. Within each area there are clearly defined rules that provide a structured means for achieving significant changes. Each week the project becomes more rigorous, because students will have to meet the requirements more frequently. They write about their experiences in journals, which are incredibly insightful and illustrate just how profoundly the project affects them. The Lifestyle Project has been used across several campuses and in many educational settings such as traditional courses, online courses and in informal settings. Its strength lies in allowing students to quantify and modify their own use of resources, then compare their personal reductions to what could be applied in a larger population. This helps them apply and personalize many of the concepts addressed in courses about environmental geology, climate change, or energy resources. The incremental nature of the project allows students several opportunities to practice new behaviors, so that they become adept at using far fewer resources than they thought would be possible. Results from the Lifestyle Project indicate that students save significant amounts of energy, on the order of 1 to 2 million BTUs per day. Journal reflections illustrate a corresponding shift in students’ personal awareness of their use of resources and the repercussions of their daily decisions. Although many students find the project frustrating at first, after

Educational Benefits from the AAU-Cubesat Student Satellite Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alminde, Lars

2003-01-01

In September 2001 Aalborg university started the AAU-cubesat project that reached it climax when the student built satellite was launched into space on the 30th of June 2003 on top of a former Russian ICBM. AAU-cubesat was among the first five satellites to be launched that are built within the c...... on pico-satellite designs will be given. In addition as the project has been carried through by students then the educational value will be addressed as well....

Master's Thesis Projects: Student Perceptions of Supervisor Feedback

Science.gov (United States)

de Kleijn, Renske A. M.; Mainhard, M. Tim; Meijer, Paulien C.; Brekelmans, Mieke; Pilot, Albert

2013-01-01

A growing body of research has investigated student perceptions of written feedback in higher education coursework, but few studies have considered feedback perceptions in one-on-one and face-to-face contexts such as master's thesis projects. In this article, student perceptions of feedback are explored in the context of the supervision of…

Enhancing College Students' Life Skills through Project Based Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Wurdinger, Scott; Qureshi, Mariam

2015-01-01

This study examined whether life skills could be developed in a Project Based Learning (PBL) course. The participants were students enrolled in a graduate level PBL course. The same 35-question survey was given to students at the beginning and end of the course, and students were asked to rank their life skills using a Likert scale. Additionally,…

Using Contests to Provide Business Students Project-Based Learning in Humanitarian Logistics: PSAid Example

Science.gov (United States)

Özpolat, Koray; Chen, Yuwen; Hales, Doug; Yu, Degan; Yalcin, Mehmet G.

2014-01-01

Business students appreciate working on classroom projects that are both enjoyable and useful in preparing them for future careers. Promoting competition among project teams is also used as a method to motivate students. The Humanitarian Logistics Project (HLP) teaches undergraduate students the logistical implications of unsolicited material…

Cross-disciplinary, authentic student research projects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heck, A.; Uylings, P.; Kędzierska, E.; Ellermeijer, T.

2010-01-01

In the Dutch secondary education system, students must carry out at the end of their school career a rather large research or design project to demonstrate their ability to apply acquired knowledge and skills while pursuing a research question or design goal in some depth. They are encouraged to

International Group Heterogeneity and Students' Business Project Achievement

Science.gov (United States)

Ding, Ning; Bosker, Roel J.; Xu, Xiaoyan; Rugers, Lucie; van Heugten, Petra PAM

2015-01-01

In business higher education, group project work plays an essential role. The purpose of the present study is to explore the relationship between the group heterogeneity of students' business project groups and their academic achievements at both group and individual levels. The sample consists of 536 freshmen from an International Business School…

Teaching accuracy and reliability for student projects

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Nick

2002-09-01

Physics students at Rugby School follow the Salters Horners A-level course, which involves working on a two-week practical project of their own choosing. Pupils often misunderstand the concepts of accuracy and reliability, believing, for example, that repeating readings makes them more accurate and more reliable, whereas all it does is help to check repeatability. The course emphasizes the ideas of checking anomalous points, improving accuracy and making readings more sensitive. This article describes how we teach pupils in preparation for their projects. Based on many years of running such projects, much of this material is from a short booklet that we give out to pupils, when we train them in practical project skills.

The Willed Body Donor Interview Project: Medical Student and Donor Expectations

Science.gov (United States)

Bohl, Michael; Holman, Alexis; Mueller, Dean A.; Gruppen, Larry D.; Hildebrandt, Sabine

2013-01-01

The Anatomical Donations Program at the University of Michigan Medical School (UMMS) has begun a multiphase project wherein interviews of donors will be recorded and later shown to medical students who participate in the anatomical dissection course. The first phase of this project included surveys of both current UMMS medical students and donors…

Which Type of Inquiry Project Do High School Biology Students Prefer: Open or Guided?

Science.gov (United States)

Sadeh, Irit; Zion, Michal

2012-10-01

In teaching inquiry to high school students, educators differ on which method of teaching inquiry is more effective: Guided or open inquiry? This paper examines the influence of these two different inquiry learning approaches on the attitudes of Israeli high school biology students toward their inquiry project. The results showed significant differences between the two groups: Open inquiry students were more satisfied and felt they gained benefits from implementing the project to a greater extent than guided inquiry students. On the other hand, regarding documentation throughout the project, guided inquiry students believed that they conducted more documentation, as compared to their open inquiry peers. No significant differences were found regarding `the investment of time', but significant differences were found in the time invested and difficulties which arose concerning the different stages of the inquiry process: Open inquiry students believed they spent more time in the first stages of the project, while guided inquiry students believed they spent more time in writing the final paper. In addition, other differences were found: Open inquiry students felt more involved in their project, and felt a greater sense of cooperation with others, in comparison to guided inquiry students. These findings may help teachers who hesitate to teach open inquiry to implement this method of inquiry; or at least provide their students with the opportunity to be more involved in inquiry projects, and ultimately provide their students with more autonomy, high-order thinking, and a deeper understanding in performing science.

Science and students: Yucca Mountain project's education outreach program

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gil, A.V.; Larkin, E.L.; Reilly, B.; Austin, P.

1992-01-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is very concerned about the lack of understanding of basic science. Increasingly, critical decisions regarding the use of energy, technology, and the environment are being made. A well-educated and science-literate public is vital to the success of these decisions. Science education and school instruction are integral parts of the DOE's public outreach program on the Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project (YMP). Project staff and scientists speak to elementary, junior high, high school, and university students, accepting all speaking invitations. The objectives of this outreach program include the following: (1) educating Nevada students about the concept of a high-level nuclear waste repository; (2) increasing awareness of energy and environmental issues; (3) helping students understand basic concepts of earth science and geology in relation to siting a potential repository; and (4) giving students information about careers in science and engineering

Urban Seismology: on the origin of earth vibrations within a city.

Science.gov (United States)

Díaz, Jordi; Ruiz, Mario; Sánchez-Pastor, Pilar S; Romero, Paula

2017-11-10

Urban seismology has become an active research field in the recent years, both with seismological objectives, as obtaining better microzonation maps in highly populated areas, and with engineering objectives, as the monitoring of traffic or the surveying of historical buildings. We analyze here the seismic records obtained by a broad-band seismic station installed in the ICTJA-CSIC institute, located near the center of Barcelona city. Although this station was installed to introduce visitors to earth science during science fairs and other dissemination events, the analysis of the data has allowed to infer results of interest for the scientific community. The main results include the evidence that urban seismometers can be used as a easy-to-use, robust monitoring tool for road traffic and subway activity inside the city. Seismic signals generated by different cultural activities, including rock concerts, fireworks or football games, can be detected and discriminated from its seismic properties. Beside the interest to understand the propagation of seismic waves generated by those rather particular sources, those earth shaking records provide a powerful tool to gain visibility in the mass media and hence have the opportunity to present earth sciences to a wider audience.

Study of seismological evasion. Part III. Evaluation of evasion possibilities using codas of large earthquakes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Evernden, J.F.

1976-01-01

The seismological aspects of various proposed means of obscuring or hiding the seismic signatures of explosions from a surveillance network are discussed. These so-called evasion schemes are discussed from the points of view of both the evader and the monitor. The analysis will be conducted in terms of the USSR solely because that country is so vast and the geological/geophysical complexities of the country are so great that the complete spectrum of hypothesized evasion schemes requires discussion. Techniques appropriate for use when the seismic noise problem is interference due to codas of P and surface waves from earthquakes are described, and the capabilities of several seismological networks to restrain use of such codas for effective evasion are analyzed

Writing throughout the biochemistry curriculum: Synergistic inquiry-based writing projects for biochemistry students.

Science.gov (United States)

Mertz, Pamela; Streu, Craig

2015-01-01

This article describes a synergistic two-semester writing sequence for biochemistry courses. In the first semester, students select a putative protein and are tasked with researching their protein largely through bioinformatics resources. In the second semester, students develop original ideas and present them in the form of a research grant proposal. Both projects involve multiple drafts and peer review. The complementarity of the projects increases student exposure to bioinformatics and literature resources, fosters higher-order thinking skills, and develops teamwork and communication skills. Student feedback and responses on perception surveys demonstrated that the students viewed both projects as favorable learning experiences. © 2015 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Preparing Hispanic Students for the Real World: Benefits of Problem-Based Service Learning Projects

Science.gov (United States)

West, Jean Jaymes; Simmons, Donna

2012-01-01

Student learning is enriched by problem-based service learning (PBSL) projects. For Hispanic students, the learning that takes place in PBSL projects may be even more significant, although the research published in academic journals about client-based projects for Hispanic students is limited. This article begins to advance an understanding of how…

A Service-Learning Project Using Crowdfunding Strategy: Students' Experience and Reflection

Science.gov (United States)

Mat-jizat, Jessnor Elmy; Khalid, Khalizul

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to explore students' experience and reflection in doing a Service Learning project as part of their course work. The Service Learning project allows the students to practice their knowledge of raising capital through crowdfunding, and at the same time situates them in an environment where they could learn from the…

Building Bridges: Using the Office Consultation Project to Connect Students to Theory and Practice

Science.gov (United States)

Wawrzynski, Korine Steinke; Jessup-Anger, Jody E.

2014-01-01

The Office Consultation Project is an innovative capstone project that partners graduate students in student affairs preparation programs with academic and student affairs practitioners. It provides an opportunity for students to apply research and scholarship to practical settings, while giving practitioners new insight into their units,…

Project families: A new concept for student thesis activities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Goltermann, Per; Ottosen, Lisbeth M.; Schmidt, Jacob Wittrup

2017-01-01

The students’ activities during their final thesis work have been organised in project families, i.e. a group of individual student project organized in a shared learning environment. The aim is more efficient supervision and support, simultaneously to improved learning. DTU Byg have now tested...

STEM-related, Student-led Service Learning / Community Engagement Projects: Examples and Benefits

Science.gov (United States)

Swap, R. J.; Wayland, K.

2015-12-01

Field-based, STEM-related service learning / community engagement projects present an opportunity for undergraduate students to demonstrate proficiencies related to the process of inquiry. These proficiencies include: appreciation of the larger project context, articulation of an informed question/hypothesis, project proposal development, interdisciplinary collaboration, project management (including planning, implementation reconfiguration and synthesis) and lastly the generation and handing off of acquired knowledge. Calls for these types of proficiencies have been expressed by governmental, non-governmental as well as the private sector. Accordingly, institutions of higher learning have viewed such activities as opportunities for enriching the learning experience for undergraduate students and for making such students more marketable, especially those from STEM-related fields. This institutional interest has provided an opportunity to support and expand field-based learning. Here we present examples of student-led/faculty-mentored international service learning and community engagement projects along the arc of preparation, implementation and post-field process. Representative examples that draw upon environmental science and engineering knowledge have been selected from more than 20 international undergraduate student projects over past decade and include: slow-sand water filtration, rainwater harvesting, methane biodigesters, water reticulation schemes and development and implementation of rocket stoves for communal cooking. We discuss these efforts in terms of the development of the aforementioned proficiencies, the utility of such proficiencies to the larger enterprise of STEM and the potential for transformative student learning outcomes. We share these experiences and lessons learned with the hope that others may intelligently borrow from our approach in a manner appropriate for their particular context.

Speeding up development activities in student projects with time boxing and scrum

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ovesen, Nis; Eriksen, Kaare; Tollestrup, Christian

2011-01-01

This research project investigates how procedures from agile software development can be of benefit to development activities in projects of design engineering students. The agile methods Scrum and Time boxing are evaluated through a student workshop focusing on near-future concepts for design...... competitions. Scrum meetings within the student design teams are conducted and video documented each hour throughout the workshop activities as a structured process evaluation tool. Based on a subsequent student survey it is argued that scrum and time boxing are strengthening the focus, communication...

Teaching Cell Biology to Dental Students with a Project-Based Learning Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Costa-Silva, Daniela; Côrtes, Juliana A; Bachinski, Rober F; Spiegel, Carolina N; Alves, Gutemberg G

2018-03-01

Although the discipline of cell biology (CB) is part of the curricula of predoctoral dental schools, students often fail to recognize its practical relevance. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a practical-theoretical project-based course in closing the gaps among CB, scientific research, and dentistry for dental students. A project-based learning course was developed with nine sequential lessons to evaluate 108 undergraduate dental students enrolled in CB classes of a Brazilian school of dentistry during 2013-16. To highlight the relevance of in vitro studies in the preclinical evaluation of dental materials at the cellular level, the students were challenged to complete the process of drafting a protocol and performing a cytocompatibility assay for a bone substitute used in dentistry. Class activities included small group discussions, scientific database search and article presentations, protocol development, lab experimentation, and writing of a final scientific report. A control group of 31 students attended only one laboratory class on the same theme, and the final reports were compared between the two groups. The results showed that the project-based learning students had superior outcomes in acknowledging the relevance of in vitro methods during biocompatibility testing. Moreover, they produced scientifically sound reports with more content on methodological issues, the relationship with dentistry, and the scientific literature than the control group (p<0.05). The project-based learning students also recognized a higher relevance of scientific research and CB to dental practice. These results suggest that a project-based approach can help contextualize scientific research in dental curricula.

Student and Staff Perceptions of Key Aspects of Computer Science Engineering Capstone Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Olarte, Juan José; Dominguez, César; Jaime, Arturo; Garcia-Izquierdo, Francisco José

2016-01-01

In carrying out their capstone projects, students use knowledge and skills acquired throughout their degree program to create a product or provide a technical service. An assigned advisor guides the students and supervises the work, and a committee assesses the projects. This study compares student and staff perceptions of key aspects of…

Project SAIL: A Summer Program Brings History Alive for Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Hollingsworth, Patricia

2001-01-01

This project describes Project SAIL (Schools for Active Interdisciplinary Learning), a federally funded project providing in-depth staff development during a 3-week summer program for teachers, parents, and their gifted/talented economically disadvantaged students. The program theme, "Searching for Patterns in History," has been used with students…

Student projects in medicine: a lesson in science and ethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Sarah J L

2009-11-01

Regulation of biomedical research is the subject of considerable debate in the bioethics and health policy worlds. The ethics and governance of medical student projects is becoming an increasingly important topic in its own right, especially in the U.K., where there are periodic calls to change it. My main claim is that there seems to be no good reason for treating student projects differently from projects led by qualified and more experienced scientists and hence no good grounds for changing the current system of ethics review. I first suggest that the educational objectives cannot be met without laying down standards of good science, whatever they may be. Weak science is unnecessary for educational purposes, and it is, in any case, unlikely to produce good researchers in the future. Furthermore, it is curious to want to change the system of ethics review specifically for students when it is the science that is at stake, and when the science now falls largely outside the ethics remit. I further show that ethics review is nevertheless important since students carry a new potential conflict of interests that warrants independent oversight which supervisory support does not offer. This potential conflict may become more morally troublesome the greater the risks to the subjects of the research, and students may impose greater risks on their subjects (relative to professional researchers) by virtue of being inexperienced, whatever the nature of the project. Pragmatic concerns may finally be allayed by organizing the current system more efficiently at critical times of the university calendar.

The Empty Shops Project: Developing Rural Students' Sociological Insight

Science.gov (United States)

Willis, Evan; Burns, Edgar

2011-01-01

An informal research project with high local relevance was developed for a first-year sociology course at an Australian rural university campus. The project developed students' sociological insight by challenging them to investigate "truths" about their own region, rather than immediately pushing them to comprehend new and different…

ASDF - A Modern Data Format for Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Krischer, Lion; Smith, James; Lei, Wenjie; Lefebvre, Matthieu; Ruan, Youyi; Sales de Andrade, Elliot; Podhorszki, Norbert; Bozdag, Ebru; Tromp, Jeroen

2017-04-01

Seismology as a science is driven by observing and understanding data and it is thus vital to make this as easy and accessible as possible. The growing volume of freely available data coupled with ever expanding computational power enables scientists to take on new and bigger problems. This evolution is to some part hindered as existing data formats have not been designed with it in mind. We present ASDF (http://seismic-data.org), the Adaptable Seismic Data Format, a novel, modern, and especially practical data format for all branches of seismology with particular focus on how it is incorporated into seismic full waveform inversion workflows. The format aims to solve five key issues: Efficiency: Fast I/O operations especially in high performance computing environments, especially limiting the total number of files. Data organization: Different types of data are needed for a variety of tasks. This results in ad hoc data organization and formats that are hard to maintain, integrate, reproduce, and exchange. Data exchange: We want to exchange complex and complete data sets. Reproducibility: Oftentimes just not existing but crucial to advance our science. Mining, visualization, and understanding of data: As data volumes grow, more complex, new techniques to query and visualize large datasets are needed. ASDF tackles these by defining a structure on top of HDF5 reusing as many existing standards (QuakeML, StationXML, PROV) as possible. An essential trait of ASDF is that it empowers the construction of completely self-describing data sets including waveform, station, and event data together with non-waveform data and a provenance description of everything. This for example for the first time enables the proper archival and exchange of processed or synthetic waveforms. To aid community adoption we developed mature tools in Python as well as in C and Fortran. Additionally we provide a formal definition of the format, a validation tool, and integration into widely used

Teaching American Politics through Student Projects: Electoral Reform Issues and Political Change.

Science.gov (United States)

Alper, Donald K.; Hogan, Eugene

1979-01-01

Describes two projects which involve college students in political science courses on American politics in doing research and giving class reports on proposals for reforming the electoral college and the electoral process. Findings indicate that students participating in the projects become more aware of political realities and learn how to use…

The Critical Purchase of Genealogy: Critiquing Student Participation Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Anna

2015-01-01

Until recently the dominant critique of "student participation" projects was one based on the theoretical assumptions of critical theory in the form of critical pedagogy. Over the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of a critical education discourse that theorises and critically analyses such projects using Foucault's notion of…

Safe-Taipei a Program Project for Strong Motions, Active Faults, and Earthquakes in the Taipei Metropolitan Area

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jeen-Hwa

Strong collision between the Eurasian and Philippine Sea Plates causes high seismicity in the Taiwan region, which is often attacked by large earthquakes. Several cities, including three mega-cities, i.e., Taipei, Taichung, and Kaoshung, have been constructed on western Taiwan, where is lying on thick sediments. These cities, with a high-population density, are usually a regional center of culture, economics, and politics. Historically, larger-sized earthquakes, e.g. the 1935 Hsingchu—Taichung earthquake and the 1999 Chi—Chi earthquake, often caused serious damage on the cities. Hence, urban seismology must be one of the main subjects of Taiwan's seismological community. Since 2005, a program project, sponsored by Academia Sinica, has been launched to investigate seismological problems in the Taipei Metropolitan Area. This program project is performed during the 2005—2007 period. The core research subjects are: (1) the deployment of the Taipei Down-hole Seismic Array; (2) the properties of earthquakes and active faults in the area; (3) the seismogenic-zone structures, including the 3-D velocity and Q structures, of the area; (4) the characteristics of strong-motions and sites affects; and (5) strong-motion prediction. In addition to academic goals, the results obtained from the program project will be useful for seismic hazard mitigation not only for the area but also for others.

Cultivation of students' engineering designing ability based on optoelectronic system course project

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Danhua; Wu, Yubin; Li, Jingping

2017-08-01

We carry out teaching based on optoelectronic related course group, aiming at junior students majored in Optoelectronic Information Science and Engineering. " Optoelectronic System Course Project " is product-designing-oriented and lasts for a whole semester. It provides a chance for students to experience the whole process of product designing, and improve their abilities to search literature, proof schemes, design and implement their schemes. In teaching process, each project topic is carefully selected and repeatedly refined to guarantee the projects with the knowledge integrity, engineering meanings and enjoyment. Moreover, we set up a top team with professional and experienced teachers, and build up learning community. Meanwhile, the communication between students and teachers as well as the interaction among students are taken seriously in order to improve their team-work ability and communicational skills. Therefore, students are not only able to have a chance to review the knowledge hierarchy of optics, electronics, and computer sciences, but also are able to improve their engineering mindset and innovation consciousness.

Campus Eco Tours: An Integrative & Interactive Field Project for Undergraduate Biology Students

Science.gov (United States)

Boes, Katie E.

2013-01-01

Outdoor areas within or near college campuses offer an opportunity for biology students to observe the natural world and apply concepts from class. Here, I describe an engaging and integrative project where undergraduate non-major biology students work in teams to develop and present professional "eco tours." This project takes place over multiple…

Undergraduate Research Involving Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students in Interdisciplinary Science Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Todd Pagano

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Scientific undergraduate research in higher education often yields positive outcomes for student and faculty member participants alike, with underrepresented students often showing even more substantial gains (academic, professional, and personal as a result of the experience. Significant success can be realized when involving deaf and hard-of-hearing (d/hh undergraduate students, who are also vastly underrepresented in the sciences, in interdisciplinary research projects. Even d/hh Associate degree level students and those in the first two years of their postsecondary careers can contribute to, and benefit from, the research process when faculty mentors properly plan/design projects. We discuss strategies, including the dissemination/communication of research results, for involving these students in research groups with different communication dynamics and share both findings of our research program and examples of successful chemical and biological research projects that have involved d/hh undergraduate students. We hope to stimulate a renewed interest in encouraging diversity and involving students with disabilities into higher education research experiences globally and across multiple scientific disciplines, thus strengthening the education and career pipeline of these students.

Measuring Student Career Interest within the Context of Technology-Enhanced STEM Projects: A Cross-Project Comparison Study Based on the Career Interest Questionnaire

Science.gov (United States)

Peterman, Karen; Kermish-Allen, Ruth; Knezek, Gerald; Christensen, Rhonda; Tyler-Wood, Tandra

2016-12-01

This article describes Energy for ME and Going Green! Middle Schoolers Out to Save the World, two Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education programs with the common goal of improving students' attitudes about scientific careers. The authors represent two project teams, each with funding from the National Science Foundation's ITEST program. Using different approaches and technology, both projects challenged students to use electricity monitoring system data to create action plans for conserving energy in their homes and communities. The impact of each project on students' career interests was assessed via a multi-method evaluation that included the Career Interest Questionnaire (CIQ), a measure that was validated within the context of ITEST projects and has since become one of the instruments used most commonly across the ITEST community. This article explores the extent to which the CIQ can be used to document the effects of technology-enhanced STEM educational experiences on students' career attitudes and intentions in different environments. The results indicate that the CIQ, and the Intent subscale in particular, served as significant predictors of students' self-reported STEM career aspirations across project context. Results from each project also demonstrated content gains by students and demonstrated the impact of project participation and gender on student outcomes. The authors conclude that the CIQ is a useful tool for providing empirical evidence to document the impact of technology-enhanced science education programs, particularly with regard to Intent to purse a STEM career. The need for additional cross-project comparison studies is also discussed.

Research and development activities of the Seismology Section for the period January 1984 - December 1985

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Krishnan, C.A.; Murty, G.S.

1987-01-01

The Research and Development (R and D) activities during 1984-1985 of the Seismology Section of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay are reported in the form of individual summaries. The R and D activities of the Section are directed towards development of seismological instruments and methods of analysis of the seismic field data with the main objective of detecting underground nuclear explosions and assessing seismicity and seismic risk of sites considered for nuclear power stations. The Section has two field stations - one at Gauribidanur in the Southern part of the country and another at Delhi i.e. in the northern part of the country. During the report period, a total of 62 events out of the detected ones were identified as underground explosions. The expertise of the Section is also made available for outside organisations. (M.G.B.)

Citizen seismology in Taiwan: what went wrong and what is the future?

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, K. H.; Liang, W. T.; Wu, Y. F.

2017-12-01

Citizen seismology encourages the public involvement to data collection, analysis, and reporting, and has the potential to greatly improve the emergency response to seismic hazard. This of course, is important for scientific achievement due to the dense network. We believed the value of citizen seismology and started with distributing Quake-Catcher-Network (QCN) sensor at schools in Taiwan. While working with teachers, we hoped to motivate the learning of how to read seismograms, what to see in the data, and what to teach in the class. Through lots of workshops and activities, even with near-real time earthquake game competition and board game (quake-nopoly) developed along the way, we came to realize the huge gap between what people need and what we do. And to bridge the gap, a new generation of citizen seismic network is needed. Imagine at work, you receive the alarm from sensors at home that tells you the location, size, and type of anomalous shaking events in the neighborhood. Can this future "warning" system happen, allowing citizen to do emergence response? This is a story about facing the challenge, transforming the doubt of "why do I care" to a future IoT world.

The Development of an Instrument to Measure the Project Competences of College Students in Online Project-Based Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chien-Liang

2018-02-01

This study sought to develop a self-report instrument to be used in the assessment of the project competences of college students engaged in online project-based learning. Three scales of the KIPSSE instrument developed for this study, namely, the knowledge integration, project skills, and self-efficacy scales, were based on related theories and the analysis results of three project advisor interviews. Those items of knowledge integration and project skill scales focused on the integration of different disciplines and technological skills separately. Two samples of data were collected from information technology-related courses taught with an online project-based learning strategy over different semesters at a college in southern Taiwan. The validity and reliability of the KIPSSE instrument were confirmed through item analysis and confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling of two samples of students' online response sets separately. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for the entire instrument was 0.931; for each scale, the alpha ranged from 0.832 to 0.907. There was also a significant correlation ( r = 0.55, p < 0.01) between the KIPSSE instrument results and the students' product evaluation scores. The findings of this study confirmed the validity and reliability of the KIPSSE instrument. The confirmation process and related implications are also discussed.

Prediction of the area affected by earthquake-induced landsliding based on seismological parameters

Science.gov (United States)

Marc, Odin; Meunier, Patrick; Hovius, Niels

2017-07-01

We present an analytical, seismologically consistent expression for the surface area of the region within which most landslides triggered by an earthquake are located (landslide distribution area). This expression is based on scaling laws relating seismic moment, source depth, and focal mechanism with ground shaking and fault rupture length and assumes a globally constant threshold of acceleration for onset of systematic mass wasting. The seismological assumptions are identical to those recently used to propose a seismologically consistent expression for the total volume and area of landslides triggered by an earthquake. To test the accuracy of the model we gathered geophysical information and estimates of the landslide distribution area for 83 earthquakes. To reduce uncertainties and inconsistencies in the estimation of the landslide distribution area, we propose an objective definition based on the shortest distance from the seismic wave emission line containing 95 % of the total landslide area. Without any empirical calibration the model explains 56 % of the variance in our dataset, and predicts 35 to 49 out of 83 cases within a factor of 2, depending on how we account for uncertainties on the seismic source depth. For most cases with comprehensive landslide inventories we show that our prediction compares well with the smallest region around the fault containing 95 % of the total landslide area. Aspects ignored by the model that could explain the residuals include local variations of the threshold of acceleration and processes modulating the surface ground shaking, such as the distribution of seismic energy release on the fault plane, the dynamic stress drop, and rupture directivity. Nevertheless, its simplicity and first-order accuracy suggest that the model can yield plausible and useful estimates of the landslide distribution area in near-real time, with earthquake parameters issued by standard detection routines.

Facilitate, Collaborate, Educate: the Role of the IRIS Consortium in Supporting National and International Research in Seismology (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Simpson, D. W.; Beck, S. L.

2009-12-01

Over the twenty-five years since its founding in 1984, the IRIS Consortium has contributed in fundamental ways to change the practice and culture of research in seismology in the US and worldwide. From an original founding group of twenty-two U.S. academic institutions, IRIS membership has now grown to 114 U.S. Member Institutions, 20 Educational Affiliates and 103 Foreign Affiliates. With strong support from the National Science Foundation, additional resources provided by other federal agencies, close collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey and many international partners, the technical resources of the core IRIS programs - the Global Seismographic Network (GSN), the Program for Array Seismic Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (PASSCAL), the Data Management System (DMS) and Education and Outreach - have grown to become a major national and international source of experimental data for research on earthquakes and Earth structure, and a resource to support education and outreach to the public. While the primary operational focus of the Consortium is to develop and maintain facilities for the collection of seismological data for basic research, IRIS has become much more than an instrument facility. It has become a stimulus for collaboration between academic seismological programs and a focus for their interactions with national and international partners. It has helped establish the academic community as a significant contributor to the collection of data and an active participant in global research and monitoring. As a consortium of virtually all of the Earth science research institutions in the US, IRIS has helped coordinate the academic community in the development of new initiatives, such as EarthScope, to strengthen the support for science and argue for the relevance of seismology and its use in hazard mitigation. The early IRIS pioneers had the foresight to carefully define program goals and technical standards for the IRIS facilities that have stood

Using "Petites Projects" to Further Engage Students in Geography

Science.gov (United States)

Katz, Richard

2013-01-01

The challenge of teaching AP Human Geography to high school students is to make geography relevant, engaging and "real world." Often the pace of teaching AP classes constrains the ability of teachers to do creative projects and truly engage students until after the exam is over in May. In this lesson plan, the author suggests using "Petites…

Student Perceptions of Writing Projects in a University Differential-Equations Course

Science.gov (United States)

Latulippe, Christine; Latulippe, Joe

2014-01-01

This qualitative study surveyed 102 differential-equations students in order to investigate how students participating in writing projects in university-level mathematics courses perceive the benefits of writing in the mathematics classroom. Based on previous literature on writing in mathematics, students were asked specifically about the benefits…

Ergonomics work assessment in rural industrial settings: a student occupational therapy project.

Science.gov (United States)

Bowman, Peter J

2012-01-01

This case study describes a student occupational therapy (OT) program, the creation of a worksite assessment project as a part of a Community Connections: Partners for Learning and Service grant funded by Health Resources and Services Administration. The primary goals were to design occupation-based community learning experiences in a variety of rural community settings, so that students might benefit from participating in the community based learning and: based on the results, embed occupation-based learning into existing occupational therapy curriculum. The components of the project and the ergonomics content of the OT education program are described; details of the work assessment are presented with analysis of data from the student evaluation of this project.

Enhancing Teacher and Student Engagement and Understanding of Marine Science Through Classroom Citizen Science Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Goodale, T. A.

2016-02-01

Overview This paper presentation shares findings from a granted funded project that sought to expand teacher content knowledge and pedagogy within the fields of marine science and coastal resource management through the implementation of classroom citizen science projects. A secondary goal was to increase middle and high school student interest and participation in marine science and natural resources research. Background A local science & engineering fair has seen a rapid decline in secondary student participants in the past four years. Research has demonstrated that when students are a part of a system of knowledge production (citizen science) they become much more aware, involved and conscious of scientific concepts compared to traditional school laboratory and nature of science activities. This project's primary objectives were to: (a) enhance teacher content expertise in marine science, (b) enrich teacher professional learning, (c) support citizen science classroom projects and inspire student activism and marine science engagement. Methods Project goals were addressed through classroom and meaningful outdoor educational experiences that put content knowledge into field based practices. Teachers learned to apply thier expanded content knowlege through classroom citizen science projects that focus on marine resource conservation issues such as fisheries management, water quality, turtle nesting and biodiversity of coastal ecosystems. These projects would eventually become potential topics of citizen science research topics for their students to pursue. Upon completion of their professional development, participants were urged to establish student Marine Science clubs with the goal of mentoring student submissions into the local science fair. Supplemental awards were possible for the students of project participants. Findings Based on project measures participants significantly increased their knowledge and awareness of presented material marine science and

Using Sales Management Students to Manage Professional Selling Students in an Innovative Active Learning Project

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Joyce A.; Hawes, Jon M.

2013-01-01

This paper describes an application of active learning within two different courses: professional selling and sales management. Students assumed the roles of sales representatives and sales managers for an actual fund-raiser--a golf outing--sponsored by a student chapter of the American Marketing Association. The sales project encompassed an…

Adapting Controlled-source Coherence Analysis to Dense Array Data in Earthquake Seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Schwarz, B.; Sigloch, K.; Nissen-Meyer, T.

2017-12-01

Exploration seismology deals with highly coherent wave fields generated by repeatable controlled sources and recorded by dense receiver arrays, whose geometry is tailored to back-scattered energy normally neglected in earthquake seismology. Owing to these favorable conditions, stacking and coherence analysis are routinely employed to suppress incoherent noise and regularize the data, thereby strongly contributing to the success of subsequent processing steps, including migration for the imaging of back-scattering interfaces or waveform tomography for the inversion of velocity structure. Attempts have been made to utilize wave field coherence on the length scales of passive-source seismology, e.g. for the imaging of transition-zone discontinuities or the core-mantle-boundary using reflected precursors. Results are however often deteriorated due to the sparse station coverage and interference of faint back-scattered with transmitted phases. USArray sampled wave fields generated by earthquake sources at an unprecedented density and similar array deployments are ongoing or planned in Alaska, the Alps and Canada. This makes the local coherence of earthquake data an increasingly valuable resource to exploit.Building on the experience in controlled-source surveys, we aim to extend the well-established concept of beam-forming to the richer toolbox that is nowadays used in seismic exploration. We suggest adapted strategies for local data coherence analysis, where summation is performed with operators that extract the local slope and curvature of wave fronts emerging at the receiver array. Besides estimating wave front properties, we demonstrate that the inherent data summation can also be used to generate virtual station responses at intermediate locations where no actual deployment was performed. Owing to the fact that stacking acts as a directional filter, interfering coherent wave fields can be efficiently separated from each other by means of coherent subtraction. We

Student ownership of projects in an upper-division optics laboratory course: A multiple case study of successful experiences

Science.gov (United States)

Dounas-Frazer, Dimitri R.; Stanley, Jacob T.; Lewandowski, H. J.

2017-12-01

We investigate students' sense of ownership of multiweek final projects in an upper-division optics lab course. Using a multiple case study approach, we describe three student projects in detail. Within-case analyses focused on identifying key issues in each project, and constructing chronological descriptions of those events. Cross-case analysis focused on identifying emergent themes with respect to five dimensions of project ownership: student agency, instructor mentorship, peer collaboration, interest and value, and affective responses. Our within- and cross-case analyses yielded three major findings. First, coupling division of labor with collective brainstorming can help balance student agency, instructor mentorship, and peer collaboration. Second, students' interest in the project and perceptions of its value can increase over time; initial student interest in the project topic is not a necessary condition for student ownership of the project. Third, student ownership is characterized by a wide range of emotions that fluctuate as students alternate between extended periods of struggle and moments of success while working on their projects. These findings not only extend the literature on student ownership into a new educational domain—namely, upper-division physics labs—they also have concrete implications for the design of experimental physics projects in courses for which student ownership is a desired learning outcome. We describe the course and projects in sufficient detail that others can adapt our results to their particular contexts.

NASA rocket launches student project into space

OpenAIRE

Crumbley, Liz

2005-01-01

A project that began in 2002 will culminate at sunrise on Tuesday, March 15, when a team of Virginia Tech engineering students watch a payload section they designed lift off aboard a sounding rocket from a launch pad at NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility and travel 59 miles into space.

Mathematical Modeling Projects: Success for All Students

Science.gov (United States)

Shelton, Therese

2018-01-01

Mathematical modeling allows flexibility for a project-based experience. We share details of our regular capstone course, successful for virtually 100% of our math majors for almost two decades. Our research-like approach in this course accommodates a variety of student backgrounds and interests, and has produced some award-winning student…

Enhancing Student Learning through Scaffolded Client Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Tomlinson, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

This article reports on the current status of client projects (CPs) in business communication courses, provides a scaffolded model for implementing CP, and assesses student learning in CPs. Using a longitudinal mixed method research design, survey data and qualitative materials from six semesters are presented. The instructor survey indicated need…

Fundraising Strategies Developed by MBA students in Project-Based Learning Courses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joao Alberto Arantes do Amaral

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The ability to raise funds is a skill that most modern project managers need. While a good deal of literature exists on the strategies NGOs employ to raise funds for their operations, less attention has been paid to the strategies used by students involved in Project-Based Learning courses that often partner with NGOs. Fundraising is an important skill that not only provides students with opportunities for creativity, but also helps them develop the communication skills they will need in the work they do after they graduate.In this paper, we discuss the fundraising strategies developed by MBA students in 204 social projects completed between 2002 and 2014. The projects were done in partnership with 39 community partners in Sao Paulo, Brazil (NGOs and Public Institutions. In our study, we followed quantitative and qualitative research methods, analyzing data and documents from the projects’ databases. We identified six different fundraising strategies: organizing raffles, soliciting donations from private corporations, organizing paying events, utilizing online social networks developing crowdfunding, and soliciting individual donations.

Development of a student engagement approach to alcohol prevention: the Pragmatics Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Buettner, Cynthia K; Andrews, David W; Glassman, Michael

2009-01-01

Significant involvement of students in the development and implementation of college alcohol prevention strategies is largely untested, despite recommendations by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and others. The purpose of the Pragmatics Project was to test a student engagement model for developing and implementing alcohol intervention strategies. The Pragmatics Project involved 89 undergraduate students on a large Midwestern university campus in the design and implementation of projects focused on reducing harm associated with high-risk drinking and off-campus parties. The engagement model used an innovative course piloted in the Human Development and Family Science department. The course successfully involved both students and the community in addressing local alcohol issues. The course design described would fit well into a Master of Public Health, Community Psychology, Health Psychology, or interdisciplinary curricula as well as the service learning model, and it is applicable in addressing other health risk behaviors.

Student-Teacher Collaboration: A Skateboard Project that Really Rocks!

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Tim

2005-01-01

As a teacher, the author gets his biggest charge from seeing students' eyes light up when he asks them a question related to a topic on which they are the experts and he is the novice. Skateboarding provides a prime example. Since most of his students have a personal interest and involvement in skateboarding, he introduced a skateboard project to…

Effects of Seismological and Soil Parameters on Earthquake Energy demand in Level Ground Sand Deposits

Science.gov (United States)

nabili, sara; shahbazi majd, nafiseh

2013-04-01

Liquefaction has been a source of major damages during severe earthquakes. To evaluate this phenomenon there are several stress, strain and energy based approaches. Use of the energy method has been more focused by researchers due to its advantages with respect to other approaches. The use of the energy concept to define the liquefaction potential is validated through laboratory element and centrifuge tests as well as field studies. This approach is based on the hypothesis that pore pressure buildup is directly related to the dissipated energy in sands which is the accumulated areas between the stress-strain loops. Numerous investigations were performed to find a relationship which correlates the dissipated energy to the soil parameters, but there are not sufficient studies to relate this dissipated energy, known as demand energy, concurrently, to the seismological and the soil parameters. The aim of this paper is to investigate the dependency of the demand energy in sands to seismological and the soil parameters. To perform this task, an effective stress analysis has been executed using FLAC finite difference program. Finn model, which is a built-in constitutive model implemented in FLAC program, was utilized. Since an important stage to predict the liquefaction is the prediction of excess pore water pressure at a given point, a simple numerical framework is presented to assess its generation during a cyclic loading in a given centrifuge test. According to the results, predicted excess pore water pressures did not closely match to the measured excess pore water pressure values in the centrifuge test but they can be used in the numerical assessment of excess pore water pressure with an acceptable degree of preciseness. Subsequently, the centrifuge model was reanalyzed using several real earthquake acceleration records with different seismological parameters such as earthquake magnitude and Hypocentral distance. The accumulated energies (demand energy) dissipated in

Education projects: an opportunity for student fieldwork in global health academic programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Fyfe, Molly V

2012-01-01

Universities, especially in higher-income countries, increasingly offer programs in global health. These programs provide different types of fieldwork projects, at home and abroad, including: epidemiological research, community health, and clinical electives. I illustrate how and why education projects offer distinct learning opportunities for global health program fieldwork. As University of California students, we partnered in Tanzania with students from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science (MUHAS) to assist MUHAS faculty with a curricular project. We attended classes, clinical rounds, and community outreach sessions together, where we observed teaching, materials used, and the learning environment; and interviewed and gathered data from current students, alumni, and health professionals during a nationwide survey. We learned together about education of health professionals and health systems in our respective institutions. On the basis of this experience, I suggest some factors that contribute to the productivity of educational projects as global health fieldwork.

Interdisciplinary Service-Learning: Building Student Competencies through the Cross-Cultural Parent Groups Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michele Belliveau

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Changing demographics and an emphasis on competency-based social work education call for innovative approaches to the delivery of curricular content. In an effort to introduce BSW students to the socio-political issues facing the local Latino immigrant community, a service-learning project was developed in collaboration with the Spanish Language Department and a local middle school. An analysis of outcomes from social work student evaluations showed that students engaged with the community and issues in new and unexpected ways. Through their engagement in a cross-cultural group project, students developed greater cultural competency, honed their group practice skills in an unfamiliar context, provided a needed service to the community, and raised their awareness about the working conditions of new immigrants as part of a developing framework for social action. Details and implications of the project as a means to build student competencies are described.

Undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of service-learning through a school-based community project.

Science.gov (United States)

Bassi, Sherry

2011-01-01

Service-learning (SL) is an experiential teaching method that combines instruction with community service, with the aim of enriching students' academic learning, interpersonal skills and sense of responsibility while making meaningful contributions to the community. However, measuring outcomes of service-learning projects is difficult. This article reports on the perceptions of 18 third-year undergraduate nursing students who took part in a pilot service-learning project targeting tobacco use in a local elementary school. Faculty members evaluated the program's outcomes by engaging students in structured reflection on the program about its relevance to their future careers as practicing professionals, especially in community-based settings. The students' perceptions were elicited through three sets of reflective assignments following the project. Findings from the reflective assignments suggest that the pilot program was successful in enhancing the students' academic, social, and personal development while building a partnership between the school of nursing and key players in the community, including school-based nurses, teachers, administrators, families, and community leaders. The author suggests that service-learning projects can help nursing students accomplish key developmental tasks of the college years (such as building their competence, autonomy, and integrity), while helping impart the skills and values they will need as they graduate and seek professional nursing roles.

Developing an online support tool to assist students in higher education with project proposals

OpenAIRE

Haji Suhaili, Wida Susanty

2015-01-01

The research presented in this thesis investigates ways to assist students with writing their project proposals. There is limited literature on the problems students have when writing project proposals in Higher Education. Particularly most of the literature has concentrated on the writing aspects, rhetorical aspects and structure of a scientific article. Even though various studies on assessment of undergraduate individual and group project works have been done, the project pr...

Increasing Prediction the Original Final Year Project of Student Using Genetic Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Saragih, Rijois Iboy Erwin; Turnip, Mardi; Sitanggang, Delima; Aritonang, Mendarissan; Harianja, Eva

2018-04-01

Final year project is very important forgraduation study of a student. Unfortunately, many students are not seriouslydidtheir final projects. Many of studentsask for someone to do it for them. In this paper, an application of genetic algorithms to predict the original final year project of a studentis proposed. In the simulation, the data of the final project for the last 5 years is collected. The genetic algorithm has several operators namely population, selection, crossover, and mutation. The result suggest that genetic algorithm can do better prediction than other comparable model. Experimental results of predicting showed that 70% was more accurate than the previous researched.

Using technology-enhanced, cooperative, group-project learning for student comprehension and academic performance

Science.gov (United States)

Tlhoaele, Malefyane; Suhre, Cor; Hofman, Adriaan

2016-05-01

Cooperative learning may improve students' motivation, understanding of course concepts, and academic performance. This study therefore enhanced a cooperative, group-project learning technique with technology resources to determine whether doing so improved students' deep learning and performance. A sample of 118 engineering students, randomly divided into two groups, participated in this study and provided data through questionnaires issued before and after the experiment. The results, obtained through analyses of variance and structural equation modelling, reveal that technology-enhanced, cooperative, group-project learning improves students' comprehension and academic performance.

Motivating Students to Develop Satellites in a Problem and Project-Based Learning Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jesper Abildgaard; Nielsen, Jens Frederik Dalsgaard; Zhou, Chunfang

2013-01-01

During the last decade, a total of three student satellites have been developed by engineering students in a Problem and Project-Based Learning (PBL) environment at Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark. As solving such a complex project, we emphasize that a high level of motivation is needed for the...

Students' perceptions of a community-based service-learning project related to aging in place.

Science.gov (United States)

Oakes, Claudia E; Sheehan, Nancy W

2014-01-01

This article describes a service-learning project that was designed to help undergraduate health professions students understand the complexities related to aging in place. The service-learning project also incorporated a research component to expose the students to the research process. Students' reflections regarding the benefits that they derived from the experience suggest that they value learning about older adults through one-on-one interactions more than they value the opportunity to participate in the research project. Implications for undergraduate health professional education are discussed.

NORSTAR Project: Norfolk public schools student team for acoustical research

Science.gov (United States)

Fortunato, Ronald C.

1987-01-01

Development of the NORSTAR (Norfolk Public Student Team for Acoustical Research) Project includes the definition, design, fabrication, testing, analysis, and publishing the results of an acoustical experiment. The student-run program is based on a space flight organization similar to the Viking Project. The experiment will measure the scattering transfer of momentum from a sound field to spheres in a liquid medium. It is hoped that the experimental results will shed light on a difficult physics problem - the difference in scattering cross section (the overall effect of the sound wave scattering) for solid spheres and hollow spheres of differing wall thicknesses.

Recent research in earth structure, earthquake and mine seismology, and seismic hazard evaluation in South Africa

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Wright, C

2003-07-01

Full Text Available of earthquakes, earthquake hazard and earth structure in South Africa was prepared for the centennial handbook of the Interna- tional Association of Seismology and the Physics of the Earth?s Interior(IASPEI).3 Referencestothesescompletedinthelastfour...

Student project of optical system analysis API-library development

Science.gov (United States)

Ivanova, Tatiana; Zhukova, Tatiana; Dantcaranov, Ruslan; Romanova, Maria; Zhadin, Alexander; Ivanov, Vyacheslav; Kalinkina, Olga

2017-08-01

In the paper API-library software developed by students of Applied and Computer Optics Department (ITMO University) for optical system design is presented. The library performs paraxial and real ray tracing, calculates 3d order (Seidel) aberration and real ray aberration of axis and non-axis beams (wave, lateral, longitudinal, coma, distortion etc.) and finally, approximate wave aberration by Zernike polynomials. Real aperture can be calculated by considering of real rays tracing failure on each surface. So far we assume optical system is centered, with spherical or 2d order aspherical surfaces. Optical glasses can be set directly by refraction index or by dispersion coefficients. The library can be used for education or research purposes in optical system design area. It provides ready to use software functions for optical system simulation and analysis that developer can simply plug into their software development for different purposes, for example for some specific synthesis tasks or investigation of new optimization modes. In the paper we present an example of using the library for development of cemented doublet synthesis software based on Slusarev's methodology. The library is used in optical system optimization recipes course for deep studying of optimization model and its application for optical system design. Development of such software is an excellent experience for students and help to understanding optical image modeling and quality analysis. This development is organized as student group joint project. We try to organize it as a group in real research and development project, so each student has his own role in the project and then use whole library functionality in his own master or bachelor thesis. Working in such group gives students useful experience and opportunity to work as research and development engineer of scientific software in the future.

Relationship between Students' Scores on Research Methods and Statistics, and Undergraduate Project Scores

Science.gov (United States)

Ossai, Peter Agbadobi Uloku

2016-01-01

This study examined the relationship between students' scores on Research Methods and statistics, and undergraduate project at the final year. The purpose was to find out whether students matched knowledge of research with project-writing skill. The study adopted an expost facto correlational design. Scores on Research Methods and Statistics for…

Enhancing the Student Learning Experience in Software Engineering Project Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Marques, Maira; Ochoa, Sergio F.; Bastarrica, Maria Cecilia; Gutierrez, Francisco J.

2018-01-01

Carrying out real-world software projects in their academic studies helps students to understand what they will face in industry, and to experience first-hand the challenges involved when working collaboratively. Most of the instructional strategies used to help students take advantage of these activities focus on supporting agile programming,…

Bulgarian National Digital Seismological Network

Science.gov (United States)

Dimitrova, L.; Solakov, D.; Nikolova, S.; Stoyanov, S.; Simeonova, S.; Zimakov, L. G.; Khaikin, L.

2011-12-01

The Bulgarian National Digital Seismological Network (BNDSN) consists of a National Data Center (NDC), 13 stations equipped with RefTek High Resolution Broadband Seismic Recorders - model DAS 130-01/3, 1 station equipped with Quanterra 680 and broadband sensors and accelerometers. Real-time data transfer from seismic stations to NDC is realized via Virtual Private Network of the Bulgarian Telecommunication Company. The communication interruptions don't cause any data loss at the NDC. The data are backed up in the field station recorder's 4Mb RAM memory and are retransmitted to the NDC immediately after the communication link is re-established. The recorders are equipped with 2 compact flash disks able to save more than 1 month long data. The data from the flash disks can be downloaded remotely using FTP. The data acquisition and processing hardware redundancy at the NDC is achieved by two clustered SUN servers and two Blade Workstations. To secure the acquisition, processing and data storage processes a three layer local network is designed at the NDC. Real-time data acquisition is performed using REFTEK's full duplex error-correction protocol RTPD. Data from the Quanterra recorder and foreign stations are fed into RTPD in real-time via SeisComP/SeedLink protocol. Using SeisComP/SeedLink software the NDC transfers real-time data to INGV-Roma, NEIC-USA, ORFEUS Data Center. Regional real-time data exchange with Romania, Macedonia, Serbia and Greece is established at the NDC also. Data processing is performed by the Seismic Network Data Processor (SNDP) software package running on the both Servers. SNDP includes subsystems: Real-time subsystem (RTS_SNDP) - for signal detection; evaluation of the signal parameters; phase identification and association; source estimation; Seismic analysis subsystem (SAS_SNDP) - for interactive data processing; Early warning subsystem (EWS_SNDP) - based on the first arrived P-phases. The signal detection process is performed by

Regional geology, tectonic, geomorphology and seismology studies to interest to nuclear power plants at Itaorna beach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hasui, Y.; Almeida, F.F.M. de; Mioto, J.A.; Melo, M.S. de.

1982-01-01

The study prepared for the nuclear power plants to be located at Itaorna comprised, the analysis and integration of Geologic, tectonic, geomorphologic and seismologic information and satisfactory results of regional stability were obtained. (L.H.L.L.) [pt

On Student Motivation in a Problem and Project-Based Satellite Development and Learning Environment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Jesper Abildgaard; Nielsen, Jens Frederik Dalsgaard; Zhou, Chunfang

2013-01-01

During the past decade, students at Aalborg University have had the possibility to participate in the cross disciplinary, and cross semester project of building and launching a cubesat. However, as such a project easily can last from three to five years, from the initial development to the launch...... of the satellite, it is important to consider how to keep the different student groups, who have participated in the project motivated in further developing of their respective subsystems, as well as engage actively in knowledge transfer to new student groups....

A Discussion Project on High School Adolescents' Perceptions of the Relationship between Students and Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Ronald J.

1976-01-01

Describes a small group discussion project involving students and teachers in two large white suburban high schools. The project's intention was to focus discussion on the social quality of the relationship between students and teachers, and to assess the impact of the discussions on student perceptions. (Author/RK)

The Development of an Instrument to Measure the Project Competences of College Students in Online Project-Based Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chien-Liang

2018-01-01

This study sought to develop a self-report instrument to be used in the assessment of the project competences of college students engaged in online project-based learning. Three scales of the KIPSSE instrument developed for this study, namely, the knowledge integration, project skills, and self-efficacy scales, were based on related theories and…

Improving patient care through student leadership in team quality improvement projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Tschannen, Dana; Aebersold, Michelle; Kocan, Mary Jo; Lundy, Francene; Potempa, Kathleen

2015-01-01

In partnership with a major medical center, senior-level nursing students completed a root cause analysis and implementation plan to address a unit-specific quality issue. To evaluate the project, unit leaders were asked their perceptions of the value of the projects and impact on patient care, as well as to provide exemplars depicting how the student root cause analysis work resulted in improved patient outcome and/or unit processes. Liaisons noted benefits of having an RCA team, with positive impact on patient outcomes and care processes.

Student ownership of projects in an upper-division optics laboratory course: A multiple case study of successful experiences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dimitri R. Dounas-Frazer

2017-12-01

Full Text Available We investigate students’ sense of ownership of multiweek final projects in an upper-division optics lab course. Using a multiple case study approach, we describe three student projects in detail. Within-case analyses focused on identifying key issues in each project, and constructing chronological descriptions of those events. Cross-case analysis focused on identifying emergent themes with respect to five dimensions of project ownership: student agency, instructor mentorship, peer collaboration, interest and value, and affective responses. Our within- and cross-case analyses yielded three major findings. First, coupling division of labor with collective brainstorming can help balance student agency, instructor mentorship, and peer collaboration. Second, students’ interest in the project and perceptions of its value can increase over time; initial student interest in the project topic is not a necessary condition for student ownership of the project. Third, student ownership is characterized by a wide range of emotions that fluctuate as students alternate between extended periods of struggle and moments of success while working on their projects. These findings not only extend the literature on student ownership into a new educational domain—namely, upper-division physics labs—they also have concrete implications for the design of experimental physics projects in courses for which student ownership is a desired learning outcome. We describe the course and projects in sufficient detail that others can adapt our results to their particular contexts.

Solidarity Projects in Norwegian Schools: Students' Motivation and School Leaders' Rationale

OpenAIRE

Brustad, Maja Rosvold

2014-01-01

Abstract Each year thousands of Norwegian students spend one day of their education to collect money for different aid projects. These projects aim at giving youth in developing countries the opportunity to education and are referred to as Solidarity Projects. The projects are organized by different NGO s. The first organizations that started offering solidarity projects were Operation Day´s Work. This organization was founded in 1964, and is run for, by and with youth. Participation in solid...

Coupled rolling motion: a student project in non-holonomic mechanics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Janova, Jitka; Musilova, Jana; Bartos, JirI

2009-01-01

This paper presents an original undergraduate student project in theoretical mechanics: a demonstration of theory and experiment agreement inspired by a recently theoretically treated mechanical problem of coupled rolling motion of two cylinders. The problem of a mechanical system subjected to non-holonomic constraints is theoretically and numerically solved. Subsequently, the solution is quantitatively verified by a simple and inexpensive experiment, originally proposed and constructed by the authors. The comparison of results of the theoretical study with experimental output shows that there are instruments to directly verify rather abstract mathematical theories even on the undergraduate level. Moreover, combining the theoretical description of the problem with an appropriate laboratory experiment and computational procedures gives students a more complex view of the physical problem as a whole. This paper can be used by physics teachers on the undergraduate university level as an inspiration for an interesting student project. Moreover, the theoretical part of this paper itself can be used by interested intermediate students themselves as a good exercise in theoretical mechanics.

Enhancement of students’ creative thinking skills on mixture separation topic using project based student worksheet

Science.gov (United States)

Nurisalfah, R.; Fadiawati, N.; Jalmo, T.

2018-05-01

The aim of this study is to describe the effectiveness of project based student worksheet in improving students' creative thinking skills. The research method is using quasi experiment with the matching only pre-test post-test control group design. The population in this research is all students of class VII SMP N 2 Belitang Madang Raya with class VII1 as control class and class VII4 as experiment class. The sample of this research is obtaining by purposive sampling technique. The effectiveness of project based student worksheet is based on significant post-test differences between the control class and the experiment class as well as the effect size. The results show that the using of project based student worksheet is effective in improving students' creative thinking skills on mixture separation topic.

Conception and test of Echoes, a spectro-imager dedicated to the seismology of Jupiter

Science.gov (United States)

Soulat, L.; Schmider, F.-X.; Robbe-Dubois, S.; Appourchaux, T.; Gaulme, P.; Bresson, Y.; Gay, J.; Daban, J.-B.; Gouvret, C.

2017-11-01

Echoes is a project of a spaceborne Doppler Spectro-Imager (DSI) which has been proposed as payload to the JUICE mission project selected in the Cosmic Vision program of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is a Fourier transform spectrometer which measures phase shifts in the interference patterns induced by Doppler shifts of spectral lines reflected at the surface of the planet. Dedicated to the seismology of Jupiter, the instrument is designed to analyze the periodic movements induced by internal acoustic modes of the planet. It will allow the knowledge of the internal structure of Jupiter, in particular of the central region, which is essential for the comprehension of the scenario of the giant planets' formation. The optical design is based on a modified Mach-Zehnder interferometer operating in the visible domain and takes carefully into account the sensitivity of the optical path difference to the temperature. The instrument produces simultaneously four images in quadrature which allows the measurement of the phase without being contaminated by the continuum component of the incident light. We expect a noise level less than 1 cm2s-2µHz-1 in the frequency range [0.5 -10] mHz. In this paper, we present the prototype implemented at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA) in collaboration with Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS) to study the real performances in laboratory and to demonstrate the capability to reach the required Technology Readiness Level 5.

Teaching as Improvisational Experience: Student Music Teachers' Reflections on Learning during an Intercultural Project

Science.gov (United States)

Westerlund, Heidi; Partti, Heidi; Karlsen, Sidsel

2015-01-01

This qualitative instrumental case study explores Finnish student music teachers' experiences of teaching and learning as participants in an intercultural project in Cambodia. The Multicultural Music University project aimed at increasing master's level music education students' intercultural competencies by providing experiences of teaching and…

How citizen seismology is transforming rapid public earthquake information and interactions between seismologists and society

Science.gov (United States)

Bossu, Rémy; Steed, Robert; Mazet-Roux, Gilles; Roussel, Fréderic; Caroline, Etivant

2015-04-01

Historical earthquakes are only known to us through written recollections and so seismologists have a long experience of interpreting the reports of eyewitnesses, explaining probably why seismology has been a pioneer in crowdsourcing and citizen science. Today, Internet has been transforming this situation; It can be considered as the digital nervous system comprising of digital veins and intertwined sensors that capture the pulse of our planet in near real-time. How can both seismology and public could benefit from this new monitoring system? This paper will present the strategy implemented at Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) to leverage this new nervous system to detect and diagnose the impact of earthquakes within minutes rather than hours and how it transformed information systems and interactions with the public. We will show how social network monitoring and flashcrowds (massive website traffic increases on EMSC website) are used to automatically detect felt earthquakes before seismic detections, how damaged areas can me mapped through concomitant loss of Internet sessions (visitors being disconnected) and the benefit of collecting felt reports and geolocated pictures to further constrain rapid impact assessment of global earthquakes. We will also describe how public expectations within tens of seconds of ground shaking are at the basis of improved diversified information tools which integrate this user generated contents. A special attention will be given to LastQuake, the most complex and sophisticated Twitter QuakeBot, smartphone application and browser add-on, which deals with the only earthquakes that matter for the public: the felt and damaging earthquakes. In conclusion we will demonstrate that eyewitnesses are today real time earthquake sensors and active actors of rapid earthquake information.

Educational Designs Supporting Student Engagement Through Network Project Studies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Jørgen Lerche

2016-01-01

Internationally, new pedagogical approaches emphasizing collaboration or learning in networks have been developed following the introduction of new technologies, especially the spread of social media. It is interesting to see such pedagogical developments in relation to similar approaches......, developed from the traditions of organizing university studies through student-driven project work and problem-driven learning approaches, which have been developed at the Danish universities of Roskilde and Aalborg as early as from the beginning of the 1970s. Specific educational designs integrating...... digital media are discussed, especially focusing on student engagement and the implications of organizing the pedagogical practice as networked project work. The discussions are based on the author’s experiences during 16 years of teaching and supervising at the Danish Master’s Program of ICT and Learning...

Recruiting first generation college students into the Geosciences: Alaska's EDGE project

Science.gov (United States)

Prakash, A.; Connor, C.

2008-12-01

Funded in 2005-2008, by the National Science Foundation's Geoscience Education Division, the Experiential Discoveries in Geoscience Education (EDGE) project was designed to use glacier and watershed field experiences as venues for geospatial data collected by Alaska's grade 6-12 middle and high school teachers and their students. EDGE participants were trained in GIS and learned to analyze geospatial data to answer questions about the warming Alaska environment and to determine rates of ongoing glacier recession. Important emphasis of the program was the recruitment of Alaska Native students of Inupiat, Yup'ik, Athabascan, and Tlingit populations, living in both rural and urban areas around the state. Twelve of Alaska's 55 school districts have participated in the EDGE program. To engage EDGE students in the practice of scientific inquiry, each was required to carry out a semester scale research project using georeferenced data, guided by their EDGE teacher and mentor. Across Alaska students investigated several Earth systems processes including freezing conditions of lake ice; the changes in water quality in storm drains after rainfall events; movements of moose, bears, and bison across Alaskan landscapes; changes in permafrost depth in western Alaska; and the response of migrating waterfowl to these permafrost changes. Students correlated the substrate beneath their schools with known earthquake intensities; measured cutbank and coastal erosion on northern rivers and southeastern shorelines; tracked salmon infiltration of flooded logging roads; noted the changing behavior of eagles during late winter salmon runs; located good areas for the use of tidal power for energy production; tracked the extent and range of invasive plant species with warming; and the change of forests following deglaciation. Each cohort of EDGE students and teachers finished the program by attended a 3-day EDGE symposium at which students presented their research projects first in a

Insights into the use and affordances of social and collaborative applications for student projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Omolola Ola Bankole

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The use of social and collaborative computing has the potential of assisting learning and improving the ability to work together as part of a team. Team work is a graduate attribute that students need to acquire before transitioning from university into the workplace. The aim of this exploratory research was to provide insights into the use of social and collaborative applications by Computer Science students, and the emergent affordances student project teams have created with the use of these applications. It answers the questions: What elearning platforms or applications do students use to collaborate for team projects? What technology affordance draws students to use these applications? This study adopts affordance theory as the theoretical framework. Two types of content analysis: conventional content analysis and summative content analysis were used to analyse the data. Data was gathered using a pre-designed questionnaire with the teams during the first semester of 2016. Findings show that the university’s elearning platform is utilised for some of their courses; however students seem to prefer free and open source platforms. Student project teams used applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Docs, as well as email messages, to work jointly, and were successfully able to complete their team projects. Four types of technology affordances: communicative-affordance, document share-affordance, course resource-affordance, and integrity-affordance, were identified as being relevant.

Seismology: Ways and means for regional cooperation. Transparencies used during the presentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Menzhi, M.

1999-01-01

Within the frame of international cooperation in the field of CTBT, this paper describes the first seismologic station established in Morocco in 1934, and in sixties and seventies another 15 stations after the earthquake in Agadir. In 1982, a system for seismic detection was installed having as main objectives he following: coordination and correlation of activities concerned with evaluation of seismic risks in the Mediterranean region, and integration of geophysical data needed for seismic risk assessment

Sparking Passion: Engaging Student Voice through Project-Based Learning in Learning Communities

Science.gov (United States)

Ball, Christy L.

2016-01-01

How do we confront entrenched educational practices in higher education that lead to student demotivation, poor retention, and low persistence? This article argues that project-based learning that situates student voice and capacity at the center of culturally-responsive curriculum has the potential to spark student passion for problem-solving…

Teachers' tendencies to promote student-led science projects: Associations with their views about science

Science.gov (United States)

Bencze, J. Lawrence; Bowen, G. Michael; Alsop, Steve

2006-05-01

School science students can benefit greatly from participation in student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry projects. For various possible reasons, however, students tend not to be engaged in such inquiries. Among factors that may limit their opportunities to engage in open-ended inquiries of their design are teachers' conceptions about science. To explore possible relationships between teachers' conceptions about science and the types of inquiry activities in which they engage students, instrumental case studies of five secondary science teachers were developed, using field notes, repertory grids, samples of lesson plans and student activities, and semistructured interviews. Based on constructivist grounded theory analysis, participating teachers' tendencies to promote student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry projects seemed to correspond with positions about the nature of science to which they indicated adherence. A tendency to encourage and enable students to carry out student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry projects appeared to be associated with adherence to social constructivist views about science. Teachers who opposed social constructivist views tended to prefer tight control of student knowledge building procedures and conclusions. We suggest that these results can be explained with reference to human psychological factors, including those associated with teachers' self-esteem and their relationships with knowledge-building processes in the discipline of their teaching.

Conceptualizing the role of multidisciplinarity and student perceptions of university-industry collaboration in project-based learning

OpenAIRE

Heikkinen, Juho

2017-01-01

Project-based learning has a long history, especially in the disciplines of computer science and engineering. This approach is used to offer students a realistic view of their discipline, and this experience can be enhanced with industrial involvement as companies bring their real world problems to projects. One recent trend in project-based learning is utilizing multidisciplinary teams, enabling students to contrast their skills and experience with students from other discipli...

ORGANIZATION OF INDEPENDENT WORK STUDENTS OF MASTER OF TELECOMMUNICATION TRAINING PROJECT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. Perminova

2013-03-01

Full Text Available The article explains the need to implement active learning of students in the practice of the organization їh homework. In particular, the author proved the rationality of the use of telecommunications projects and use the web in quest of independent study students graduate.

The effects of topic choice in project-based instruction on undergraduate physical science students' interest, ownership, and motivation

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Milner-Bolotin, Marina

2001-07-01

Motivating nonscience majors in science and mathematics studies became one of the most interesting and important challenges in contemporary science and mathematics education. Therefore, designing and studying a learning environment, which enhances students' motivation, is an important task. This experimental study sought to explore the implications of student autonomy in topic choice in a project-based Physical Science Course for nonscience majors' on students' motivational orientation. It also suggested and tested a model explaining motivational outcomes of project-based learning environment through increased student ownership of science projects. A project, How Things Work, was designed and implemented in this study. The focus of the project was application of physical science concepts learned in the classroom to everyday life situations. Participants of the study (N = 59) were students enrolled in three selected sections of a Physical Science Course, designed to fulfill science requirements for nonscience majors. These sections were taught by the same instructor over a period of an entire 16-week semester at a large public research university. The study focused on four main variables: student autonomy in choosing a project topic, their motivational orientation, student ownership of the project, and the interest in the project topic. Achievement Goal Orientation theory became the theoretical framework for the study. Student motivational orientation, defined as mastery or performance goal orientation, was measured by an Achievement Goal Orientation Questionnaire. Student ownership was measured using an original instrument, Ownership Measurement Questionnaire, designed and tested by the researchers. Repeated measures yoked design, ANOVA, ANCOVA, and multivariate regression analysis were implemented in the study. Qualitative analysis was used to complement and verify quantitative results. It has been found that student autonomy in the project choice did not make a

Students Perceptions of Excellence in Landscape Architecture Studio Projects: A UNSW Perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Linda Corkery

2004-06-01

Full Text Available This paper describes an action-research project undertaken to explore teaching and learning in the design studio in the Faculty of the Built Environment (FBE, University of New South Wales, Sydney. The research project involved three undergraduate design programmes (architecture, interior architecture and landscape architecture within the FBE, however this paper will focus only on the findings related to the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLArch programme. The studio is at the core of the design-based curriculum for the landscape architecture degree. This setting nurtures and encourages students to demonstrate a range of capabilities and attributes expected in professional practice. Design projects are complex, integrated assessment tasks. While design teachers use criteria to assess knowledge and skills, students often feel the judgement of overall design project excellence is based on subjective interpretation. There is also concern about the effectiveness of design teaching across the studios. Specifically, the study identified students' perceptions of what constitutes the mark of High Distinction (HD and characteristics of the ideal design teacher. This paper does not present a discourse analysis of the theoretical framework and concepts of the research project. That material is presented in previous and subsequent publications (Corkery et al, 2003.

The AAU-cubesat Student Satellite Project: Architectual Overview and Lessons Learnt

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Østergaard, Kasper Zinck; Alminde, Lars; Bisgaard, Morten

satellite like the AAU-cubesat. Results from the operation phase will be stated, and recommendations on further work on pico-satellite designs will be given. In addition as the project has been carried through by students, the educational value of the project will be addressed as well....

University of Colorado CubeSat Student Projects as Successful Model for Teaching Students about Engineering Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Palo, S. E.; Li, X.; Woods, T. N.; Kohnert, R.

2014-12-01

There is a long history of cooperation between students at the University of Colorado, Boulder and professional engineers and scientists at LASP, which has led to many successful space missions with direct student involvement. The recent student-led missions include the Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE, 1998 - 2002), the Student Dust Counter (SDC) on New Horizons (2006 - present), the Colorado Student Space Weather Experiment (CSSWE), being a very successful NSF CubeSat that launched in September 2012, and the NASA Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat (launch will be in early 2015). Students are involved in all aspects of the design, and they experience the full scope of the mission process from concept, to fabrication and test, and mission operations. A significant part of the student involvement in the CubeSat projects is gained by using the CubeSat development as a focal point for an existing two-semester course sequence in CU's Aerospace Engineering Sciences (AES) Department: the Space Hardware Design section of Graduate Projects I & II (ASEN 5018 & ASEN 6028). The goal of these courses is to teach graduate students how to design and build systems using a requirement-based approach and fundamental systems engineering practices. The two-semester sequence takes teams of about 15 students from requirements definition and preliminary design through manufacturing, integration, and testing. In addition to the design process, students learn key professional skills such as working effectively in groups, finding solutions to open-ended problems, and actually building a system to their own set of specifications. The partnership between AES and LASP allows us to include engineering professionals in the mix, thus more effectively training science and engineering students for future roles in the civilian or commercial space industry. The mentoring process with LASP engineers helps to mitigate risk of the inexperience of the students and ensures consistent

The experimental operation of a seismological data centre at Blacknest

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grover, F.H.

1978-10-01

A short account is given of the development and operation of a unit within Blacknest which acts as a centre for handling data received from overseas seismological array stations and stations in the British Isles and also exchanges data with other centres. The work has been carried out as a long-term experiment to assess the capability of small networks of existing research and development stations to participate in the monitoring of a possible future Comprehensive Test Ban treaty (CTB) and to gain experience of the operational requirements for Data Centres. A preliminary assessment of a UK National Technical Means (NTM) for verifying a CTB is obtained inter alia. (author)

Real-time GPS seismology using a single receiver: method comparison, error analysis and precision validation

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Xingxing

2014-05-01

Earthquake monitoring and early warning system for hazard assessment and mitigation has traditional been based on seismic instruments. However, for large seismic events, it is difficult for traditional seismic instruments to produce accurate and reliable displacements because of the saturation of broadband seismometers and problematic integration of strong-motion data. Compared with the traditional seismic instruments, GPS can measure arbitrarily large dynamic displacements without saturation, making them particularly valuable in case of large earthquakes and tsunamis. GPS relative positioning approach is usually adopted to estimate seismic displacements since centimeter-level accuracy can be achieved in real-time by processing double-differenced carrier-phase observables. However, relative positioning method requires a local reference station, which might itself be displaced during a large seismic event, resulting in misleading GPS analysis results. Meanwhile, the relative/network approach is time-consuming, particularly difficult for the simultaneous and real-time analysis of GPS data from hundreds or thousands of ground stations. In recent years, several single-receiver approaches for real-time GPS seismology, which can overcome the reference station problem of the relative positioning approach, have been successfully developed and applied to GPS seismology. One available method is real-time precise point positioning (PPP) relied on precise satellite orbit and clock products. However, real-time PPP needs a long (re)convergence period, of about thirty minutes, to resolve integer phase ambiguities and achieve centimeter-level accuracy. In comparison with PPP, Colosimo et al. (2011) proposed a variometric approach to determine the change of position between two adjacent epochs, and then displacements are obtained by a single integration of the delta positions. This approach does not suffer from convergence process, but the single integration from delta positions to

[Implementation of the eLearning project NESTOR. A network for students in traumatology and orthopedics].

Science.gov (United States)

Back, D A; Haberstroh, N; Hoff, E; Plener, J; Haas, N P; Perka, C; Schmidmaier, G

2012-01-01

Modern internet-based information technologies offer great possibilities to create and improve teaching methods for students. The eLearning tool NESTOR (Network for Students in Traumatology and Orthopedics) presented here was designed to complement the existing clinical teaching in orthopedics and traumatology at the Charité, University Medicine Berlin. Using a learning management system, videos, podcasts, X-ray diagnosis, virtual patients, tests and further tools for learning and study information were combined. After implementation the eLearning project was evaluated by students. The NESTOR project offers various possibilities for knowledge acquisition. Students using the program voluntarily showed a high acceptance whereby 82.4% were very satisfied with the contents offered and 95.3% supported the idea of a future use of NESTOR in teaching. The blended learning approach was positively evaluated by 93.5% of the students. The project received the eLearning seal of quality of the Charité University Medicine Berlin. Using complex eLearning tools, such as the NESTOR project represents a contemporary teaching approach in the teaching of traumatology and orthopedics and should be offered in a blended learning context as they are well accepted by students.

Cooperative Learning in Graduate Student Projects: Comparing Synchronous versus Asynchronous Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Strang, Kenneth

2013-01-01

Cooperative learning was applied in a graduate project management course to compare the effectiveness of asynchronous versus synchronous online team meetings. An experiment was constructed to allocate students to project teams while ensuring there was a balance of requisite skills, namely systems analysis and design along with HTML/Javascript…

Students Development of Food and Health-Related Action Competence - Upscaling LOMA Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ruge, Dorte; Nielsen, Morten Kromann; Jensen, Kirsten

, based on preliminary results from LOMA I project, there are indications, that students at the whole school develop healthier eating habits and experience comensality, Sense of Coherence and QOL, when they participate in LOMA educational activities. The evaluation of LOMA II will apply a mixed methods......, that encompass participation from both teachers, pedagogs and students (8-15 years) and teacher-students.The evaluation of LOMA II will apply a mixed methods design, that facilitates a 'realist' (Pawson and Tilley 1998; Carlsson and Simovska 2012) approach to data collection and analysis. Apart from more...... mainstream methods of measurement, action research strategies (Checkland 2000) will be applied at certain stages of the evaluation, e.g. during pilot-projets and in relation to students participation in the 'mid-term-seminar' of the project in 2016. Expected Outcomes It is expected, that LOMA II...

Particulate Air Contamination in Puerto Rico: A Student Involvement Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Eckert, Richard R.

1979-01-01

Describes a research project undertaken by physics undergraduate students to monitor particulate air contamination in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and to determine the meteorological factors which contribute to it. (GA)

An Opportunity to Lead Sustainably: The Benefits and Considerations of Student-Led Green Revolving Fund Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Kononenko, Kevin

2012-01-01

In recent years, energy- and resource-reduction projects have compelled student leaders to create sustainability projects on campuses across the country. This paper examines the role that students play in green revolving funds, including identification, approval, and management. After speaking with numerous students on a variety of campuses, it is…

Students' and teachers' perceptions: initial achievements of a Project-Based Engineering School

Science.gov (United States)

Terrón-López, María-José; Velasco-Quintana, Paloma-Julia; García-García, María-José; Ocampo, Jared R.

2017-11-01

A unified academic model based on the project-based learning (PBL) methodology was implemented, in the 2012-2013 period, in the School of Engineering at Universidad Europea de Madrid. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether teachers and students participating in the capstone projects feel that the objectives for which this methodology was designed for are being achieved. The data were collected through interviews to participants at the end of the PBL experience. The results are encouraging, as students seem to be more motivated, and they say that they are experiencing deeper learning, and have developed key competitive skills required for their professional lives. Findings also suggest that teachers face positively the PBL as a learning approach since they perceive that students obtain a deeper learning, develop transversal skills with the projects and are more engaged with their studies. Implications and recommendations for the future of the model are also discussed.

Students in a School Environment: A Project Focused on Family Involvement of At-Risk

Science.gov (United States)

Denney, Pat

2011-01-01

This project examined family involvement of at risk students in mid-west communities. The purpose of this project was to study the affect of family involvement on at-risk student achievement. The redefining of the perception of America has resulted in a crisis of academic performance in the traditionally slow-changing education systems. This topic…

Using Technology-Enhanced, Cooperative, Group-Project Learning for Student Comprehension and Academic Performance

Science.gov (United States)

Tlhoaele, Malefyane; Suhre, Cor; Hofman, Adriaan

2016-01-01

Cooperative learning may improve students' motivation, understanding of course concepts, and academic performance. This study therefore enhanced a cooperative, group-project learning technique with technology resources to determine whether doing so improved students' deep learning and performance. A sample of 118 engineering students, randomly…

Empowering Students through Project-Based Learning: Perceptions of Instructors and Students in Vocational Education Institutes in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Tongsakul, Anuvat; Jitgarun, Kalayanee; Chaokumnerd, Weerachai

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify and compare instructors' and students' perceptions of factors that contribute to the effective use of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in Thailand. The sample for the study consisted of 247 electrical technology instructors from Thai vocational education institutes and 161 students who were electrical power…

Research and Mapping for MCEECDYA Project: Student Academic Engagement. Report 2012

Science.gov (United States)

Ure, Christine; Gray, Jan

2012-01-01

The purpose of the Research and Mapping for MCEECDYA Project: Student Academic Engagement was to examine the characteristics of schools with a low Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) from all jurisdictions that were identified to be making a difference to student academic and to identify the key drivers and characteristics of…

Student cognition and motivation during the Classroom BirdWatch citizen science project

Science.gov (United States)

Tomasek, Terry Morton

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the ways various stakeholders (CBW project developer/coordinator, elementary and middle school teachers, and 5th through 8th grade students) envisioned, implemented and engaged in the citizen science project, eBird/Classroom BirdWatch. A multiple case study mixed-methods research design was used to examine student engagement in the cognitive processes associated with scientific inquiry as part of citizen science participation. Student engagement was described based on a sense of autonomy, competence, relatedness and intrinsic motivation. A goal of this study was to expand the taxonomy of differences between authentic scientific inquiry and simple inquiry to include those inquiry tasks associated with participation in citizen science by describing how students engaged in this type of science. This research study built upon the existing framework of cognitive processes associated with scientific inquiry described by Chinn and Malhotra (2002). This research provides a systematic analysis of the scientific processes and related reasoning tasks associated with the citizen science project eBird and the corresponding curriculum Classroom BirdWatch . Data consisted of responses to surveys, focus group interviews, document analysis and individual interviews. I suggest that citizen science could be an additional form of classroom-based science inquiry that can promote more authentic features of scientific inquiry and engage students in meaningful ways.

Moving towards persistent identification in the seismological community

Science.gov (United States)

Quinteros, Javier; Evans, Peter; Strollo, Angelo; Ulbricht, Damian; Elger, Kirsten; Bertelmann, Roland

2016-04-01

The GEOFON data centre and others in the seismological community have been archiving seismic waveforms for many years. The amount of seismic data available continuously increases due to the use of higher sampling rates and the growing number of stations. In recent years, there is a trend towards standardization of the protocols and formats to improve and homogenise access to these data [FDSN, 2013]. The seismological community has begun assigning a particular persistent identifier (PID), the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), to seismic networks as a first step for properly and consistently attributing the use of data from seismic networks in scientific articles [Evans et al., 2015]. This was codified in a recommendation by the international Federation of Digital Seismic Networks [FDSN, 2014]; DOIs for networks now appear in community web pages. However, our community, in common with other fields of science, still struggles with issues such as: supporting reproducibility of results; providing proper attribution (data citation) for data sets; and measuring the impact (by tracking their use) of, those data sets. Seismological data sets used for research are frequently created "on-the-fly" based on particular user requirements such as location or time period; users prepare requests to select subsets of the data held in seismic networks; the data actually provided may even be held at many different data centres [EIDA, 2016]. These subsets also require careful citation. For persistency, a request must receive exactly the same data when repeated at a later time. However, if data are curated between requests, the data set delivered may differ, severely complicating the ability to reproduce a result. Transmission problems or configuration problems may also inadvertently modify the response to a request. With this in mind, our next step is the assignment of additional EPIC-PIDs to daily data files (currently over 28 million in the GEOFON archive) for use within the data

A Project-Based Course on Newton's Laws for Talented Junior High-School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Langbeheim, Elon

2015-01-01

Research has shown that project-based learning promotes student interest in science and improves understanding of scientific content. Fostering student motivation is particularly important in accelerated science and technology programmes for talented students, which are often demanding and time-consuming. Current texts provide little guidance on…

Using Medical Student Quality Improvement Projects to Promote Evidence-Based Care in the Emergency Department.

Science.gov (United States)

Manning, Michael W; Bean, Eric W; Miller, Andrew C; Templer, Suzanne J; Mackenzie, Richard S; Richardson, David M; Bresnan, Kristin A; Greenberg, Marna R

2018-01-01

The Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC) initiative for Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency includes as an element of Entrustable Professional Activity 13 to "identify system failures and contribute to a culture of safety and improvement." We set out to determine the feasibility of using medical students' action learning projects (ALPs) to expedite implementation of evidence-based pathways for three common patient diagnoses in the emergency department (ED) setting (Atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, and pulmonary embolism). These prospective quality improvement (QI) initiatives were performed over six months in three Northeastern PA hospitals. Emergency physician mentors were recruited to facilitate a QI experience for third-year medical students for each project. Six students were assigned to each mentor and given class time and network infrastructure support (information technology, consultant experts in lean management) to work on their projects. Students had access to background network data that revealed potential for improvement in disposition (home) for patients. Under the leadership of their mentors, students accomplished standard QI processes such as performing the background literature search and assessing key stakeholders' positions that were involved in the respective patient's care. Students effectively developed flow diagrams, computer aids for clinicians and educational programs, and participated in recruiting champions for the new practice standard. They met with other departmental clinicians to determine barriers to implementation and used this feedback to help set specific parameters to make clinicians more comfortable with the changes in practice that were recommended. All three clinical practice guidelines were initiated at consummation of the students' projects. After implementation, 86% (38/44) of queried ED providers felt comfortable with medical students being a part of future ED QI

The 21 August 2017 Ischia (Italy) Earthquake Source Model Inferred From Seismological, GPS, and DInSAR Measurements

Science.gov (United States)

De Novellis, V.; Carlino, S.; Castaldo, R.; Tramelli, A.; De Luca, C.; Pino, N. A.; Pepe, S.; Convertito, V.; Zinno, I.; De Martino, P.; Bonano, M.; Giudicepietro, F.; Casu, F.; Macedonio, G.; Manunta, M.; Cardaci, C.; Manzo, M.; Di Bucci, D.; Solaro, G.; Zeni, G.; Lanari, R.; Bianco, F.; Tizzani, P.

2018-03-01

The causative source of the first damaging earthquake instrumentally recorded in the Island of Ischia, occurred on 21 August 2017, has been studied through a multiparametric geophysical approach. In order to investigate the source geometry and kinematics we exploit seismological, Global Positioning System, and Sentinel-1 and COSMO-SkyMed differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar coseismic measurements. Our results indicate that the retrieved solutions from the geodetic data modeling and the seismological data are plausible; in particular, the best fit solution consists of an E-W striking, south dipping normal fault, with its center located at a depth of 800 m. Moreover, the retrieved causative fault is consistent with the rheological stratification of the crust in this zone. This study allows us to improve the knowledge of the volcano-tectonic processes occurring on the Island, which is crucial for a better assessment of the seismic risk in the area.

My Experience as a Student Participant in the Institute for Geophysics/Huston-Tillotson University Geodiversity Project

Science.gov (United States)

Putman, N.; Ellins, K.; Holt, J.; Olson, H. C.

2006-12-01

As a senior pre-service teacher at Huston-Tillotson University, a minority-serving institution in Texas, I found myself in need of a science course and reluctantly enrolled in "Special Topics in the Geosciences," a survey course taught by visiting scientists from The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics (UTIG). I had no idea what the geosciences were about. On the first day of class we took a test and I began to feel a sense of foreboding, but after speaking with the instructors, I left filled with excitement. With my limited background in science, I knew that the class was going to be challenging and require a lot of studying. I took every opportunity offered in the class to learn more about the geosciences. If there was a field trip, I went. If there was an opportunity for me to speak to children about what I learned, I did. For example, I participated in the Explore UT open house event where, rather than being an observer as I had expected, I found myself explaining earthquake seismology to students, parents and visitors. The experience was pivotal. As I explained to a small group of 3rd graders how they could use computer applications to observe and understand seismic waves, I realized I wanted to be a science teacher and not an elementary level-teacher as I had planned. Since completing "Special Topics in the Geosciences," I've been an undergraduate research assistant at UTIG. Over the summer, I adapted approximately ten existing UTIG Earth Science learning activities into the 5-E instructional model for the fall 2006 professional development Earth Science Revolution Workshops for in- service teachers, and I developed a new lesson on tides for these workshops. I also participated in presenting both a workshop for minority-serving elementary teachers and a class for alternative certification teachers at HTU. In early September, I joined a group of scientists, engineers, and space-suited "astronauts" in the Arizona desert near Meteor Crater

Laboratory-based Interpretation of Seismological Models: Dealing with Incomplete or Incompatible Experimental Data (Invited)

Science.gov (United States)

Jackson, I.; Kennett, B. L.; Faul, U. H.

2009-12-01

In parallel with cooperative developments in seismology during the past 25 years, there have been phenomenal advances in mineral/rock physics making laboratory-based interpretation of seismological models increasingly useful. However, the assimilation of diverse experimental data into a physically sound framework for seismological application is not without its challenges as demonstrated by two examples. In the first example, that of equation-of-state and elasticity data, an appropriate, thermodynamically consistent framework involves finite-strain expansion of the Helmholz free energy incorporating the Debye approximation to the lattice vibrational energy, as advocated by Stixrude and Lithgow-Bertelloni. Within this context, pressure, specific heat and entropy, thermal expansion, elastic constants and their adiabatic and isothermal pressure derivatives are all calculable without further approximation in an internally consistent manner. The opportunities and challenges of assimilating a wide range of sometimes marginally incompatible experimental data into a single model of this type will be demonstrated with reference to MgO, unquestionably the most thoroughly studied mantle mineral. A neighbourhood-algorithm inversion has identified a broadly satisfactory model, but uncertainties in key parameters associated particularly with pressure calibration remain sufficiently large as to preclude definitive conclusions concerning lower-mantle chemical composition and departures from adiabaticity. The second example is the much less complete dataset concerning seismic-wave dispersion and attenuation emerging from low-frequency forced-oscillation experiments. Significant progress has been made during the past decade towards an understanding of high-temperature, micro-strain viscoelastic relaxation in upper-mantle materials, especially as regards the roles of oscillation period, temperature, grain size and melt fraction. However, the influence of other potentially important

The Power Plant Mapping Student Project: Bringing Citizen Science to Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Tayne, K.; Oda, T.; Gurney, K. R.; O'Keeffe, D.; Petron, G.; Tans, P. P.; Frost, G. J.

2014-12-01

An emission inventory (EI) is a conventional tool to quantify and monitor anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants into the atmosphere. Gridded EI can visually show geographical patterns of emissions and their changes over time. These patterns, when available, are often determined using location data collected by regional governments, industries, and researchers. Datasets such as Carbon Monitoring and Action (CARMA, www.carma.org) are particularly useful for mapping emissions from large point sources and have been widely used in the EI community. The EI community is aware of potentially significant errors in the geographical locations of point sources, including power plants. The big challenge, however, is to review tens of thousands of power plant locations around the world and correct them where needed. The Power Plant Mapping Student Project (PPMSP) is a platform designed for students in 4th through 12th grade to improve the geographical location of power plants indicated in existing datasets to benefit international EI research. In PPMSP, we use VENTUS, a web-based platform (http://ventus.project.asu.edu/) that invites citizens to contribute power plant location data. Using VENTUS, students view scenes in the vicinity of reported power plant coordinates on Google Maps. Students either verify the location of a power plant or search for it within a designated radius using various indicators, an e-guide, and a power plant photo gallery for assistance. If the power plant cannot be found, students mark the plant as unverified. To assure quality for research use, the project contains multiple checkpoints and levels of review. While participating in meaningful research that directly benefits the EI research community, students are engaged in relevant science curricula designed to meet each grade level's Next Generation Science Standards. Students study energy, climate change, the atmosphere, and geographical information systems. The curricula is

Student-Identified Strengths and Challenges of Using Blackboard for Group Projects in a Social Work Course

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Melissa B. Littlefield

2002-05-01

Full Text Available Blackboard (TM provides social work educators integrated online communication tools that they can employ to facilitate student learning through features such as e-mail, discussion forums, file exchange, virtual classroom, and links to online resources. This study describes students’ experiences using Blackboard (TM to support a group project assignment. The majority of students found it easy to use and useful for the project, and indicated that they would like to use it in other courses. In addition, students gained technical skills as a result of the group project. Students’ group project grades and final course grades were comparable to those in other sections of the same course taught by this investigator. The findings of this study suggest that online technology can be used to facilitate group assignments for MSW students. The benefits include increased efficiency of group functioning and increased accountability of group members. The challenges include technical problems and student resistance to using the technology.

Vermont EPSCoR Streams Project: Engaging High School and Undergraduate Students in Watershed Research

Science.gov (United States)

Ray, E.; McCabe, D.; Sheldon, S.; Jankowski, K.; Haselton, L.; Luck, M.; van Houten, J.

2009-12-01

The Vermont EPSCoR Streams Project engages a diverse group of undergraduates, high school students, and their teachers in hands-on water quality research and exposes them to the process of science. The project aims to (1) recruit students to science careers and (2) create a water quality database comprised of high-quality data collected by undergraduates and high school groups. The project is the training and outreach mechanism of the Complex Systems Modeling for Environmental Problem Solving research program, an NSF-funded program at the University of Vermont (UVM) that provides computational strategies and fresh approaches for understanding how natural and built environments interact. The Streams Project trains participants to collect and analyze data from streams throughout Vermont and at limited sites in Connecticut, New York, and Puerto Rico. Participants contribute their data to an online database and use it to complete individual research projects that focus on the effect of land use and precipitation patterns on selected measures of stream water quality. All undergraduates and some high school groups are paired with a mentor, who is either a graduate student or a faculty member at UVM or other college. Each year, undergraduate students and high school groups are trained to (1) collect water and macroinvertebrate samples from streams, (2) analyze water samples for total phosphorus, bacteria, and total suspended solids in an analytical laboratory, and/or (3) use geographic information systems (GIS) to assess landscape-level data for their watersheds. After training, high school groups collect samples from stream sites on a twice-monthly basis while undergraduates conduct semi-autonomous field and laboratory research. High school groups monitor sites in two watersheds with contrasting land uses. Undergraduate projects are shaped by the interests of students and their mentors. Contribution to a common database provides students with the option to expand the

Collaborations between Multicultural Educators and Archivists: Engaging Students with Multicultural History through Archival Research Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Fernández, Natalia

2016-01-01

When multicultural educators and archivists collaborate to design projects that engage students with multicultural history through archival research, students can learn in-depth research skills with primary source documents, creatively share their knowledge, and, on a broader level, engage with their local community history. The projects shared in…

CERN Summer Student Project Report – Simulation of the Micromegas Detector

CERN Document Server

Soares Ferreira Nunes Teixeira, Sofia Luisa

2015-01-01

My project during the Summer Student Programme at CERN consisted on simulations of the Micromegas (MM) detectors in order to test and characterize them in the presence of contamination by air of the gas mixture. The MM detectors were chosen for the upcoming upgrade of the ATLAS detector. The motivation for this project and the results obtained are here presented. Moreover, the work that should be carried out after this programme as a continuation of this project is also referred. To conclude, final considerations about the project are presented.

Student Project and Curriculum Based on Light at Night Data Collection

Science.gov (United States)

Craine, Erin M.; DeBenedetti, Jennifer C.

2012-05-01

There is a growing movement in the educational field to promote science, technology, engineering and math studies, stemming from a concern about waning understanding and interest among K-12 students in these topics. STEM Laboratory, Inc. (STEM) has developed a Sky Brightness Meter (SBM) that can be used with ease yet produces complex information relating to light at night monitoring. STEM sees the SBM and its corresponding data archive as a means to involve students in projects that relate to scientific method exploration, makes science more accessible, and encourages a life long appreciation and understanding of scientific endeavors. In this paper we present an example of a project template that could be used by students studying effects of artificial light on sky brightness. STEM has developed several outreach lessons aligned with the National Common Core Curriculum, Systems Thinking concepts and local standards to be implemented in classrooms or independent youth organizations.

Tedese Project

Science.gov (United States)

Buforn, E.; Davila, J. Martin; Bock, G.; Pazos, A.; Udias, A.; Hanka, W.

The TEDESE (Terremotos y Deformacion Cortical en el Sur de España) project is a joint project of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada de San Fernando, Cadiz (ROA) supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia with the participation of the GeoforschungZen- trum, Potsdam (GFZ). The aim is to carry out a study of the characteristics of the oc- currence and mechanism of earthquakes together with measurements of crustal struc- ture and deformations in order to obtain an integrated evaluation of seismic risk in southern Spain from. As part of this project a temporal network of 10 broad-band seismological stations, which will complete those already existing in the zone, have been installed in southern Spain and northern Africa for one year beginning in October 2001. The objectives of the project are the study in detail of the focal mechanisms of earthquakes in this area, of structural in crust and upper mantle, of seismic anisotropy in crust and mantle as indicator for tectonic deformation processed and the measure- ments of crustal deformations using techniques with permanent GPS and SLR stations and temporary GPS surveys. From these studies, seismotectonic models and maps will be elaborated and seismic risk in the zone will be evaluated.

A uniform seismological bulletin for the European - Mediterranean region

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bossu, R.; Piedfroid, O.; Riviere, F.

2002-01-01

The goal of this EU funded project is to develop means and tools to produce a homogeneous European-Mediterranean seismic bulletin that could serve as a reference. The 3 main objectives are 1) the definition of a unified magnitude scale for M > 3, 2) an improved location of events especially in border regions, 3) Improving rapid and regular data exchange within the European-Mediterranean region. The first step is to define an homogeneous and accurate magnitude estimation for the whole region of interest. Experience shows that the differences in the magnitudes reported by several institutes for a given event may vary up to 1.5 units. Three different magnitude computations are applied on a reference data set of well known events: a Lg waves coda magnitude, a Richter local magnitude and a moment magnitude scale. The comparison of the results is currently carried out. The algorithm associated to the selected magnitude will be implemented locally on a set of stations. New velocity models for border regions are developed from the analysis of the residuals of events recorded by permanent and temporary networks. The robustness and reliability of the 3D models versus 1D model have been evaluated. EMSC gathers via e-mail manually picked seismic phase arrival times with or without associated locations from about 50 seismological institutes of the European- Mediterranean region in a database. These bulletins are automatically merged by unique software. The number of processed events is about 2000 / month and should grow significantly with larger input from Middle East and Northern Africa. Events are then submitted to an automatic analysis of the location reliability, and, for dubious events, to a manual reprocessing. In order to improve data exchange, the installation of autoDRM systems is promoted. (authors)

Peer assessment of individual contributions to a group project: Student perceptions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kench, Peter L.; Field, Nikki; Agudera, Maila; Gill, Margo

2009-01-01

Group work has many benefits for a student's professional development but it is difficult to determine the individual contributions to the group assessment tasks. Peer assessment of an individual's contribution to group work can be used to encourage student participation. It is important that the method of peer assessment is fair and that the students' submissions be treated confidentially. A model for peer assessment of individual contributions to the group assessment is described. Students who did not participate adequately in the group were penalised resulting in a reduced individual grade. Perceptions of the peer assessment method are reported for students enrolled (n = 169) in the subject 'Medical Radiations Project'. The questionnaire showed a positive student response towards the peer assessment model.

The Senegal Project: A Cultural Foods Unit for Middle School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, Diane

2011-01-01

The Senegal Project is the culminating project in a unit on cultural foods in an 8th grade family and consumer sciences (FCS) course. Initially, students take a quick world tour by studying and cooking foods from Mexico, Italy, China, and India followed by a "more depth and less breadth" study of Senegal, a country with a culture vastly…

Fundraising Strategies Developed by MBA Students in Project-Based Learning Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Arantes do Amaral, Joao Alberto; Petroni, Liége Mariel; Hess, Aurélio

2016-01-01

The ability to raise funds is a skill that most modern project managers need. While a good deal of literature exists on the strategies NGOs employ to raise funds for their operations, less attention has been paid to the strategies used by students involved in Project-Based Learning courses that often partner with NGOs. Fundraising is an important…

The establishment of the Blacknest seismological database on the Rutherford Laboratory system 360/195 computer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blamey, C.

1977-01-01

In order to assess the problems which might arise from monitoring a comprehensive test ban treaty by seismological methods, an experimental monitoring operation is being conducted. This work has involved the establishment of a database on the Rutherford Laboratory 360/195 system computer. The database can be accessed in the UK over the public telephone network and in the USA via ARPANET. (author)

Recent advance in polar seismology: Global impact of the International Polar Year

Science.gov (United States)

Kanao, Masaki; Zhao, Dapeng; Wiens, Douglas A.; Stutzmann, Éléonore

2015-03-01

The most exciting initiative for the recent polar studies was the International Polar Year (IPY) in 2007-2008. The IPY has witnessed a growing community of seismologists who have made considerable efforts to acquire high-quality data in polar regions. It also provided an excellent opportunity to make significant advances in seismic instrumentation of the polar regions to achieve scientific targets involving global issues. Taking these aspects into account, we organize and publish a special issue in Polar Science on the recent advance in polar seismology and cryoseismology as fruitful achievements of the IPY.

High School Students' Reasons for Their Science Dispositions: Community-Based Innovative Technology-Embedded Environmental Research Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Ebenezer, Jazlin; Kaya, Osman Nafiz; Kasab, Dimma

2018-05-01

The purpose of this investigation was to qualitatively describe high school students' reasons for their science dispositions (attitude, perception, and self-confidence) based on their long-term experience with innovative technology-embedded environmental research projects. Students in small groups conducted research projects in and out of school with the help of their teachers and community experts (scientists and engineers). During the 3-year period of this nationally funded project, a total of 135 students from five schools in a mid-west State participated in research activities. Of the 135 students, 53 students were individually interviewed to explore reasons for their science dispositions. Students' reasons for each disposition were grouped into categories, and corresponding frequency was converted to a percentage. The categories of reasons were not only attributed to the use of innovative technologies in environmental research but also the contexts and events that surrounded it. The reasons that influenced students' science dispositions positively were because engaging in environmental research projects with technology contributed to easing fear and difficulty, building a research team, disseminating findings, communicating with the community, researching with scientists, training by teachers, and acknowledging teachers' knowledge. These results advanced how and why students develop science dispositions in the positive direction, which are as follows: building science teacher capacity, developing a community of inquirers, and committing to improve pedagogical practices.

Seismological and geological investigation for earthquake hazard in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Doku, M. S.

2013-07-01

A seismological and geological investigation for earthquake hazard in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area was undertaken. The research was aimed at employing a methematical model to estimate the seismic stress for the study area by generating a complete, unified and harmonized earthquake catalogue spanning 1615 to 2012. Seismic events were souced from Leydecker, G. and P. Amponsah, (1986), Ambraseys and Adams, (1986), Amponsah (2008), Geological Survey Department, Accra, Ghana, Amponsah (2002), National Earthquake Information Service, United States Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado 80225, USA, the International Seismological Centre and the National Data Centre of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. Events occurring in the study area were used to create and Epicentral Intensity Map and a seismicity map of the study area after interpolation of missing seismic magnitudes. The least square method and the maximum likelihood estimation method were employed to evaluate b-values of 0.6 and 0.9 respectively for the study area. A thematic map of epicentral intensity superimposed on the geology of the study area was also developed to help understand the relationship between the virtually fractured, jointed and sheared geology and the seismic events. The results obtained are indicative of the fact that the stress level of GAMA has a telling effect on its seismicity and also the events are prevalents at fractured, jointed and sheared zones. (au)

What Do College Students, Young Families, and Empty Nesters Want in a Car? A Market Segmentation and Marketing Mix Project for Introduction to Marketing Students

Science.gov (United States)

Bristow, Dennis; Gulati, Rajesh; Schneider, Kenneth C.

2013-01-01

This paper presents the details of a student project used in introduction to marketing courses. The project is designed to involve students in the application of survey research to generate data used to make a series of marketing management decisions. Students collect data from three different segments of the car buying market and make product,…

Implementation of a project-based engineering school: increasing student motivation and relevant learning

Science.gov (United States)

Terrón-López, María-José; García-García, María-José; Velasco-Quintana, Paloma-Julia; Ocampo, Jared; Vigil Montaño, María-Reyes; Gaya-López, María-Cruz

2017-11-01

The School of Engineering at Universidad Europea de Madrid (UEM) implemented, starting in the 2012-2013 period, a unified academic model based on project-based learning as the methodology used throughout the entire School. This model expects that every year, in each grade, all the students should participate in a capstone project integrating the contents and competencies of several courses. This paper presents the academic context under which this experience has been implemented, and a summary of the work done to design and implement the Project-Based Engineering School at the UEM. The steps followed, the structure used, some sample projects, as well as the difficulties and benefits of implementing the programme are discussed in this paper. The results are encouraging as students are more motivated and the initial set objectives were accomplished.

Students' construction of a simple steam distillation apparatus and development of creative thinking skills: A project-based learning

Science.gov (United States)

Diawati, Chansyanah; Liliasari, Setiabudi, Agus; Buchari

2017-05-01

This project-based learning combined the chemistry of separation process using steam distillation with engineering design process in an undergraduate chemistry course. Students built upon their knowledge of phase changes, immiscible mixture, and the relationship between vapor pressure and boiling point to complete a project of modifications steam distillation apparatus. The research method is a qualitative case study, which aims to describe how (1) the creative thinking skills of students emerged during six weeks of theproject, (2) students built steam distillation apparatus characteristics as the project product and (3) students response to the project-based learning model. The results showed that the students had successfully constructed a steam distillation apparatus using plastic kettle as steam generator and distillation flask. A Plastic tubewas used to drain water vapor from steam generator to distillation flask and to drain steam containing essential oil to the condenser. A biscuit tin filled with ice was used as a condenser. The time required until resulting distillate was fifteen minutes. The production of essential was conductive qualitatively by a very strong smell typical of essential oil and two phases of distillate. Throughout the project, students formulated the relevant and varied problem, formulated the goals, proposed the ideas of the apparatus and materials, draw apparatus design, constructed apparatus, tested apparatus, evaluated, and reported the project. Student response was generally positive. They were pleased, interested, more understanding the concepts and work apparatus principles, also implemented new ideas. These results indicate that project-based learning can develop students' creative thinking skills. Based on these results, it is necessary to conduct research and implemented project-based learning to other concepts.

Ten Projects to Involve Your Students Directly in French.

Science.gov (United States)

van Lent, Peter C.

1981-01-01

Proposes 10 activities to provide French classes of all levels with a broad spectrum of language projects involving direct and active use of French including students polling each other, skits based on television commercials, geographical "show and tell," cooking French dishes, writing a monthly newspaper, and field trips. (BK)

Identifying College Students Likely to Participate in a Travel Abroad Volunteer Project

Science.gov (United States)

Nonis, Sarath A.; Relyea, Clint

2014-01-01

Foreign travel provides excellent opportunities for college students to broaden their global mindset. While empirical research focusing on variables that influence student participation in study abroad programs are available, there is a paucity of research that focuses on travel abroad programs relating to participating in volunteer projects.…

The Voices Project: Reducing White Students' Racism in Introduction to Psychology

Science.gov (United States)

Nordstrom, Alicia H.

2015-01-01

This study examined the impact of an assignment involving intergroup contact (The Voices Project [TVP]) on student racism toward Muslims, African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics in Introduction to Psychology. TVP students interviewed members from racial groups and wrote autobiographical memoirs of their lives. A faculty-writing team integrated…

Biotechnology by Design: An Introductory Level, Project-Based, Synthetic Biology Laboratory Program for Undergraduate Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Beach, Dale L; Alvarez, Consuelo J

2015-12-01

Synthetic biology offers an ideal opportunity to promote undergraduate laboratory courses with research-style projects, immersing students in an inquiry-based program that enhances the experience of the scientific process. We designed a semester-long, project-based laboratory curriculum using synthetic biology principles to develop a novel sensory device. Students develop subject matter knowledge of molecular genetics and practical skills relevant to molecular biology, recombinant DNA techniques, and information literacy. During the spring semesters of 2014 and 2015, the Synthetic Biology Laboratory Project was delivered to sophomore genetics courses. Using a cloning strategy based on standardized BioBrick genetic "parts," students construct a "reporter plasmid" expressing a reporter gene (GFP) controlled by a hybrid promoter regulated by the lac-repressor protein (lacI). In combination with a "sensor plasmid," the production of the reporter phenotype is inhibited in the presence of a target environmental agent, arabinose. When arabinose is absent, constitutive GFP expression makes cells glow green. But the presence of arabinose activates a second promoter (pBAD) to produce a lac-repressor protein that will inhibit GFP production. Student learning was assessed relative to five learning objectives, using a student survey administered at the beginning (pre-survey) and end (post-survey) of the course, and an additional 15 open-ended questions from five graded Progress Report assignments collected throughout the course. Students demonstrated significant learning gains (p Biology Laboratory Project enhanced their understanding of molecular genetics. The laboratory project is highly adaptable for both introductory and advanced courses.

Investigating Changes in Student Attitudes and Understanding of Science through Participation in Citizen Science Projects in College Coursework

Science.gov (United States)

Cardamone, Carolin; Cobb, Bethany E.

2018-01-01

Over the last decade, web-based “citizen science” projects such as the Zooniverse have allowed volunteers and professional scientists to work together for the advancement of science. While much attention has been paid to the benefits to science from these new projects, less attention has been paid to their impact on the participants and, in particular, to the projects’ potential to impact students who might engage in these projects through coursework. We report on a study engaging students in introductory astronomy classes at the George Washington University and Wheelock College in an assignment in which each student individually contributed to a “physics” or “space” citizen science project of their choice, and groups of students worked together to understand and articulate the scientific purpose of a citizen science project to which they all contributed. Over the course of approximately four weeks, the students kept logs of their individual contributions to the project, and recorded a brief reflection on each of their visits (noting, for example, interesting or confusing things they might encounter along the way). The project culminated with each group delivering a creative presentation that demonstrated their understanding of both the science goals of the project and the value of their own contributions to the project. In this talk, we report on the experience of the students with the project and on an assessment of the students’ attitudes toward science and knowledge of the process of science completed before the introduction of the assignment and again at its conclusion.

Motivating Students for Project-based Learning for Application of Research Methodology Skills.

Science.gov (United States)

Tiwari, Ranjana; Arya, Raj Kumar; Bansal, Manoj

2017-12-01

Project-based learning (PBL) is motivational for students to learn research methodology skills. It is a way to engage and give them ownership over their own learning. The aim of this study is to use PBL for application of research methodology skills for better learning by encouraging an all-inclusive approach in teaching and learning rather than an individualized tailored approach. The present study was carried out for MBBS 6 th - and 7 th -semester students of community medicine. Students and faculties were sensitized about PBL and components of research methodology skills. They worked in small groups. The students were asked to fill the student feedback Questionnaire and the faculty was also asked to fill the faculty feedback Questionnaire. Both the Questionnaires were assessed on a 5 point Likert scale. After submitted projects, document analysis was done. A total of 99 students of the 6 th and 7 th semester were participated in PBL. About 90.91% students agreed that there should be continuation of PBL in subsequent batches. 73.74% felt satisfied and motivated with PBL, whereas 76.77% felt that they would be able to use research methodology in the near future. PBL requires considerable knowledge, effort, persistence, and self-regulation on the part of the students. They need to devise plans, gather information evaluate both the findings, and their approach. Facilitator plays a critical role in helping students in the process by shaping opportunity for learning, guiding students, thinking, and helping them construct new understanding.

Active tectonics in the Mygdonia basin (northern Greece): a combined seismological and remote-sensed geomorphology approach

Science.gov (United States)

Gkarlaouni, Charikleia; Andreani, Louis; Pennos, Chris; Gloaguen, Richard; Papadimitriou, Eleftheria; Kilias, Adamantios; Michail, Maria

2014-05-01

along the southern flank of the Mygdonia graben. Observed differences may be related to a diachronic evolution. River profiles crossing the Thessaloniki-Gerakarou fault system (TGFS) south of the Mygdonia basin display anomalies such as knickpoints or convex segments. These anomalies reflect significant changes in river base-levels possibly triggered by uplift/subsidence processes. We also computed the normalized steepness index (ksn) for concave segments in rivers. We observe an increase of ksn values towards the south while the lithology remains almost constant. These changes in ksn values may be thus related to an increase in deformation rates along the southern TGFS. Our geomorphic analysis also highlighted several flat paleo-surfaces located on top of main ranges at elevations comprised between 300 and 450m above the basin infill. Finally, we produced thematic maps combining present-day seismicity, historical earthquakes and geomorphic features derived from DEM. The combined use of both seismology and remote-sensed geomorphology allowed us to better understand the at-depth and surface expressions of active structures within the Mygdonia basin. It also provided further insights into the tectonic evolution of the study area. This project is funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Greek State Scholarschips Foundation (IKY) under the IKYDA initiative.

Evaluating Students' Perceptions and Attitudes toward Computer-Mediated Project-Based Learning Environment: A Case Study

Science.gov (United States)

Seet, Ling Ying Britta; Quek, Choon Lang

2010-01-01

This research investigated 68 secondary school students' perceptions of their computer-mediated project-based learning environment and their attitudes towards Project Work (PW) using two instruments--Project Work Classroom Learning Environment Questionnaire (PWCLEQ) and Project Work Related Attitudes Instrument (PWRAI). In this project-based…

Enhancing student perspectives of humanism in medicine: reflections from the Kalaupapa service learning project.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Winona K; Harris, Chessa C D; Mortensen, Kawika A; Long, Linsey M; Sugimoto-Matsuda, Jeanelle

2016-05-09

Service learning is endorsed by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) as an integral part of U.S. medical school curricula for future physicians. Service learning has been shown to help physicians in training rediscover the altruistic reasons for pursuing medicine and has the potential to enhance students' perspectives of humanism in medicine. The Kalaupapa service learning project is a unique collaboration between disadvantaged post-baccalaureate students with an underserved rural community. This study was conducted to determine whether the Kalaupapa service learning curricula enhanced student perspectives of humanism in medicine at an early stage of their medical training. Program participants between 2008 and 2014 (n = 41) completed written reflections following the conclusion of the service learning project. Four prompts guided student responses. Reflections were thematically analyzed. Once all essays were read, team members compared their findings to condense or expand themes and assess levels of agreement. Emerging themes of resilience and unity were prominent throughout the student reflections. Students expressed respect and empathy for the patients' struggles and strengths, as well as those of their peers. The experience also reinforced students' commitment to service, particularly to populations in rural and underserved communities. Students also gained a deeper understanding of the patient experience and also of themselves as future physicians. To identify and address underserved and rural patients' health care needs, training programs must prepare an altruistic health care workforce that embraces the humanistic element of medicine. The Kalaupapa service learning project is a potential curricular model that can be used to enhance students' awareness and perspectives of humanism in medicine.

How Undergraduate Students Use Social Media Technologies to Support Group Project Work

Science.gov (United States)

McAliney, Peter J.

2013-01-01

Technology continues to evolve and become accessible to students in higher education. Concurrently, teamwork has become an important skill in academia and the workplace and students have adopted established technologies to support their learning in both individual and team project work. Given the emergence of social media technologies, I examined…

Creative capstone computer projects for post-graduate students of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

With this in mind, the English Department at the University of Stellenbosch has designed a module in its Honours course that allows post-graduate students the opportunity to develop additional skills in the design and development of multimedia projects that effectively combine the knowledge they have gained during the ...

An Empirical Study of Hospitality Management Student Attitudes toward Group Projects: Instructional Factors and Team Problems

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Youngsoo; Ro, Heejung

2012-01-01

The development of positive attitudes in team-based work is important in management education. This study investigates hospitality students' attitudes toward group projects by examining instructional factors and team problems. Specifically, we examine how the students' perceptions of project appropriateness, instructors' support, and evaluation…

Evaluating Types of Students' Interactions in a Wiki-Based Collaborative Learning Project

Science.gov (United States)

Prokofieva, Maria

2013-01-01

Wiki technology has been promoted as a collaborative software platform. This study investigates interactions that occur in a wiki-based collaborative learning project. The study draws on interaction literature and investigates the types of interactions with which students are engaged in wiki-based group projects, clusters that reflect online…

Students Upgrading through Computer and Career Education System Services (Project SUCCESS). Final Evaluation Report 1993-94. OER Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Greene, Judy

Students Upgrading through Computer and Career Education System Services (Project SUCCESS) was an Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII-funded project in its fourth year of operation. The project operated at two high schools in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan (New York). In the 1993-94 school year, the project served 393 students of…

Mobile and modular. BGR develops seismological monitoring stations for universal applications; Mobil und modular. BGR entwickelt universell einsetzbare seismologische Messstationen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hinz, Erwin; Hanneken, Mark [Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover (Germany). Fachbereich ' ' Seismologisches Zentralobservatorium, Kernwaffenteststopp' '

2016-05-15

BGR seismologists often set up monitoring stations for testing purposes. The engineers from the Central Seismological Observatory have now developed a new type of mobile monitoring station which can be remotely controlled.

Medical students' creative projects on a third year pediatrics clerkship: a qualitative analysis of patient-centeredness and emotional connection.

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, Johanna; Ortiz, Diane; Ree, You Ye; Sarwar, Minha

2016-03-16

Increasingly, medical educators are incorporating reflective writing and original creative work into educational practices with the goals of stimulating student self-awareness, appreciation of multiple perspectives, and comfort with ambiguity and uncertainty. This study investigated students' creative projects to assess the extent to which they adopted a patient/relationship-centered, emotionally connected position toward patients and families. Over a 10 year period, students on a required third year pediatrics clerkship individually or in groups completed either a reflection or an education project using a creative medium. 520 projects (representing 595 students, 74.7 % of total eligible students) were qualitatively analyzed according to various thematic and emotion-based dimensions. The majority of projects were personal narrative essays and poetry. The largest number of project themes related to the importance of patient/relationship-centered medicine with patients. The next largest number of projects focused on health education of parents, patients, or classmates. In telling their stories, students were more likely to use a personal voice representing either their or the patient's perspective than an objective, impersonal one. In terms of emotional tone, projects were more likely to be serious than humorous. The largest number of students' emotions expressed an empathic tone. Students identified a large number and wide range of both negative and positive feelings in themselves and their patients. The majority of student emotions were positive, while the majority of patient and family emotions were negative. Students' preference for patient-centered, relational themes, as well as their tendency to favor the first voice, empathic tone, and willingness to express a range of positive and negative emotions in presenting their projects, suggests that they valued emotional connection with patients and families during the pediatrics clerkship experience.

Project-Based Learning in a STEM Academy: Student Engagement and Interest in STEM Careers

Science.gov (United States)

Misher, Pamela Henry

This case study explored the utilization of project-based learning (PBL) and how it affected student engagement and interest in STEM careers. Sixty-seven students and nine teachers participated in this case study. Three research questions addressed student engagement, perceptions, and challenges during PBL implementation. This study was designed to understand the experiences teachers and students had when they participated in a PBL environment. This research investigated how to develop a globally skilled workforce utilizing a PBL approach and the challenges teachers encountered during implementation. The survey data and informal focus-group sessions with staff and students were utilized, analyzed, and summarized in order to obtain insight on perceptions, challenges, and implementation of PBL. PBL is an instructional approach that was designed to encourage more engaged learning. This approach was built upon realistic learning activities that stimulated student interest and motivation. This research discovered that PBL did teach content and 21st century skills as students worked collaboratively toward a common goal while responding to a question or problem. This study revealed that rigorous projects were carefully planned to aid students in learning important academic content. This study displayed how PBL allowed students to reflect on their projects and ideas with the opportunity to voice their decisions and findings. This instructional approach provided opportunities for students to investigate and strengthen interest in future STEM careers. The driving force of America's future economy and maintaining the competitive edge will be through more innovation, mainly derived from advances in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers. As business and industry leaders stressed the importance of improving STEM education, there continued to be a need to better prepare students to fill STEM-related careers. This research adds to the current body of research

Group Projects in Social Work Education: The Influence of Group Characteristics and Moderators on Undergraduate Student Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

Postlethwait, Ariana E.

2016-01-01

This study examined the impact of group size, group formation, group conflict, and division of labor on student outcomes in a group project for a sample of 112 BSW research seminar students at a large university in the Midwest. Students completed surveys on their experiences with the group project at the end of the semester. Multiple regression…

Students' Research Experiences during Consulting Projects: Three Themes Emerging from Case Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Carissa M. Holler

2010-01-01

Student consulting projects, an advanced form of problem-based learning, allow students to apply the skills developed in their classes on behalf of client organizations. A review of selected case studies in business education and other management education literature shows that research is an integral part of this consulting process. More than…

Project Career: An individualized postsecondary approach to promoting independence, functioning, and employment success among students with traumatic brain injuries.

Science.gov (United States)

Minton, Deborah; Elias, Eileen; Rumrill, Phillip; Hendricks, Deborah J; Jacobs, Karen; Leopold, Anne; Nardone, Amanda; Sampson, Elaine; Scherer, Marcia; Gee Cormier, Aundrea; Taylor, Aiyana; DeLatte, Caitlin

2017-09-14

Project Career is a five-year interdisciplinary demonstration project funded by NIDILRR. It provides technology-driven supports, merging Cognitive Support Technology (CST) evidence-based practices and rehabilitation counseling, to improve postsecondary and employment outcomes for veteran and civilian undergraduate students with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Provide a technology-driven individualized support program to improve career and employment outcomes for students with TBI. Project staff provide assessments of students' needs relative to assistive technology, academic achievement, and career preparation; provide CST training to 150 students; match students with mentors; provide vocational case management; deliver job development and placement assistance; and maintain an electronic portal regarding accommodation and career resources. Participating students receive cognitive support technology training, academic enrichment, and career preparatory assistance from trained professionals at three implementation sites. Staff address cognitive challenges using the 'Matching Person with Technology' assessment to accommodate CST use (iPad and selected applications (apps)). JBS International (JBS) provides the project's evaluation. To date, 117 students participate with 63% report improved life quality and 75% report improved academic performance. Project Career provides a national model based on best practices for enabling postsecondary students with TBI to attain academic, employment, and career goals.

Implementation of an education development project in pathology to improve student competency-lessons learnt.

Science.gov (United States)

Negi, Gita; Harsh, Meena; Chauhan, Vijendra D; Kalra, Vinita; Agarwal, Pradeep; Kusum, Anuradha

2015-08-01

Basic medical sciences and clinical teachings are not coordinated in the present medical education system. They are not taught keeping in mind the outcomes required at the time of actual handling of patients in the community. An educational development project was implemented in the Department of Pathology with the aim that it will result in the student learning to link the pathophysiology of the disease to clinical scenarios and become fully competent for lifelong medical practice. The pathology teaching of the second professional batch was modified by starting with defining the desired outcomes/competencies in the student's knowledge, skills, and attitude which were then addressed by lectures, demonstrations, practical classes and small group activities where case scenarios and laboratory reports were included. The outcome was assessed by Objectively Structured Clinical/Practical Examination and multiple choice questions. Force field analysis, faculty and student interviews, and questionnaires were used to assess the factors affecting its implementation and impact. Totally 80 students of the 2(nd) Professional MBBS were exposed to a competency-based education development project. It was found that the system was appreciated by faculty and students, especially the integration with clinical scenarios. There were many factors which influenced the execution of this program, including motivation level of students and faculty, time, logistics and meticulous planning. There was a significant improvement in student's performance and satisfaction. Many factors including prior planning were a major determinant for the success of this education development project.

The use of student-driven video projects as an educational and outreach tool

Science.gov (United States)

Bamzai, A.; Farrell, W.; Klemm, T.

2014-12-01

With recent technological advances, the barriers to filmmaking have been lowered, and it is now possible to record and edit video footage with a smartphone or a handheld camera and free software. Students accustomed to documenting their every-day experiences for multimedia-rich social networking sites feel excited and creatively inspired when asked to take on ownership of more complex video projects. With a small amount of guidance on shooting primary and secondary footage and an overview of basic interview skills, students are self-motivated to identify the learning themes with which they resonate most strongly and record their footage in a way that is true to their own experience. The South Central Climate Science Center (SC-CSC) is one of eight regional centers formed by the U.S. Department of the Interior in order to provide decision makers with the science, tools, and information they need to address the impacts of climate variability and change on their areas of responsibility. An important component of this mission is to innovate in the areas of translational science and science communication. This presentation will highlight how the SC-CSC used student-driven video projects to document our Early Career Researcher Workshop and our Undergraduate Internship for Underrepresented Minorities. These projects equipped the students with critical thinking and project management skills, while also providing a finished product that the SC-CSC can use for future outreach purposes.

Assessing student understanding of sound waves and trigonometric reasoning in a technology-rich, project-enhanced environment

Science.gov (United States)

Wilhelm, Jennifer Anne

This case study examined what student content understanding could occur in an inner city Industrial Electronics classroom located at Tree High School where project-based instruction, enhanced with technology, was implemented for the first time. Students participated in a project implementation unit involving sound waves and trigonometric reasoning. The unit was designed to foster common content learning (via benchmark lessons) by all students in the class, and to help students gain a deeper conceptual understanding of a sub-set of the larger content unit (via group project research). The objective goal of the implementation design unit was to have students gain conceptual understanding of sound waves, such as what actually waves in a wave, how waves interfere with one another, and what affects the speed of a wave. This design unit also intended for students to develop trigonometric reasoning associated with sinusoidal curves and superposition of sinusoidal waves. Project criteria within this design included implementation features, such as the need for the student to have a driving research question and focus, the need for benchmark lessons to help foster and scaffold content knowledge and understanding, and the need for project milestones to complete throughout the implementation unit to allow students the time for feedback and revision. The Industrial Electronics class at Tree High School consisted of nine students who met daily during double class periods giving 100 minutes of class time per day. The class teacher had been teaching for 18 years (mathematics, physics, and computer science). He had a background in engineering and experience teaching at the college level. Benchmark activities during implementation were used to scaffold fundamental ideas and terminology needed to investigate characteristics of sound and waves. Students participating in benchmark activities analyzed motion and musical waveforms using probeware, and explored wave phenomena using waves

A Pre-Mobility eTandem Project for Incoming International Students at the University of Padua

Science.gov (United States)

Griggio, Lisa; Rózsavölgyi, Edit

2016-01-01

This study focuses on a strategic partnership with students from the University of Padua and international students coming to Padua mainly in the setting of Erasmus student mobility and exchange programs. The project is designed specifically for incoming international students to facilitate their integration into the Italian higher educational…

Relationship of creative projects in anatomy to medical student professionalism, test performance and stress: an exploratory study.

Science.gov (United States)

Shapiro, Johanna; Nguyen, Vincent P; Mourra, Sarah; Boker, John R; Ross, Marianne; Thai, Trung M; Leonard, Robert J

2009-11-03

The anatomy course offers important opportunities to develop professionalism at an early stage in medical education. It is an academically significant course that also engenders stress in some students. Over a three-year period, 115 of 297 students completed creative projects. Thirty-four project completers and 47 non-completers consented to participate in the study. Projects were analyzed for professionalism themes using grounded theory. A subset of project completers and non-completers were interviewed to determine their views about the stress of anatomy and medical school, as well as the value of the creative projects. We also compared test performance of project completers and non-completers. Projects completed early in the course often expressed ambivalence about anatomy, whereas later projects showed more gratitude and sense of awe. Project completers tended to report greater stress than noncompleters, but stated that doing projects reduced stress and caused them to develop a richer appreciation for anatomy and medicine. Project completers performed significantly lower than non-completers on the first written exam (pre-project). Differences between groups on individual exams after both the first and second creative project were nonsignificant. For some students, creative projects may offer a useful way of reflecting on various aspects of professionalism while helping them to manage stress.

DNA Fingerprinting of Trout Lilies: A High School Student Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Vann, Carolyn N.; Saxon, Herbert L.; Brblic, Tom; Elliades, Stacie; Lambert, Scott; Shaw, Jake; Smith, Ryan; Inman, Megan

1998-01-01

Reports on a student's research project on the degree of genetic diversity within the trout lily species. Enables a rough prediction of the continuance of the species and provides insight into how to manage plants that might be endangered. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Using the Student Research Project to Integrate Macroeconomics and Statistics in an Advanced Cost Accounting Course

Science.gov (United States)

Hassan, Mahamood M.; Schwartz, Bill N.

2014-01-01

This paper discusses a student research project that is part of an advanced cost accounting class. The project emphasizes active learning, integrates cost accounting with macroeconomics and statistics by "learning by doing" using real world data. Students analyze sales data for a publicly listed company by focusing on the company's…

A Project-Based Learning Approach to Teaching Physics for Pre-Service Elementary School Teacher Education Students

Science.gov (United States)

Goldstein, Olzan

2016-01-01

This paper describes the impact of the project-based learning (PBL) approach on learning and teaching physics from the perspective of pre-service elementary school teacher education students and an instructor. This approach promoted meaningful learning (mainly in the scope of projects), higher motivation, and active involvement of students in…

What do medical students understand by research and research skills? Identifying research opportunities within undergraduate projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Murdoch-Eaton, Deborah; Drewery, Sarah; Elton, Sarah; Emmerson, Catherine; Marshall, Michelle; Smith, John A; Stark, Patsy; Whittle, Sue

2010-01-01

Undergraduate research exposure leads to increased recruitment into academic medicine, enhanced employability and improved postgraduate research productivity. Uptake of undergraduate research opportunities is reported to be disappointing, and little is known about how students perceive research. To investigate opportunities for undergraduate participation in research, recognition of such opportunities, and associated skills development. A mixed method approach, incorporating student focus and study groups, and documentary analysis at five UK medical schools. Undergraduates recognised the benefits of acquiring research skills, but identified practical difficulties and disadvantages of participating. Analysis of 905 projects in four main research skill areas - (1) research methods; (2) information gathering; (3) critical analysis and review; (4) data processing - indicated 52% of projects provided opportunities for students to develop one or more skills, only 13% offered development in all areas. In 17%, project descriptions provided insufficient information to determine opportunities. Supplied with information from a representative sample of projects (n = 80), there was little consensus in identifying skills among students or between students and researchers. Consensus improved dramatically following guidance on how to identify skills. Undergraduates recognise the benefits of research experience but need a realistic understanding of the research process. Opportunities for research skill development may not be obvious. Undergraduates require training to recognise the skills required for research and enhanced transparency in potential project outcomes.

Using Medical Student Quality Improvement Projects to Promote Evidence-Based Care in the Emergency Department

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael W. Manning

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction The Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC initiative for Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency includes as an element of Entrustable Professional Activity 13 to “identify system failures and contribute to a culture of safety and improvement.” We set out to determine the feasibility of using medical students’ action learning projects (ALPs to expedite implementation of evidence-based pathways for three common patient diagnoses in the emergency department (ED setting (Atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, and pulmonary embolism. Methods These prospective quality improvement (QI initiatives were performed over six months in three Northeastern PA hospitals. Emergency physician mentors were recruited to facilitate a QI experience for third-year medical students for each project. Six students were assigned to each mentor and given class time and network infrastructure support (information technology, consultant experts in lean management to work on their projects. Students had access to background network data that revealed potential for improvement in disposition (home for patients. Results Under the leadership of their mentors, students accomplished standard QI processes such as performing the background literature search and assessing key stakeholders’ positions that were involved in the respective patient’s care. Students effectively developed flow diagrams, computer aids for clinicians and educational programs, and participated in recruiting champions for the new practice standard. They met with other departmental clinicians to determine barriers to implementation and used this feedback to help set specific parameters to make clinicians more comfortable with the changes in practice that were recommended. All three clinical practice guidelines were initiated at consummation of the students’ projects. After implementation, 86% (38/44 of queried ED providers felt comfortable

ObspyDMT: a Python toolbox for retrieving and processing large seismological data sets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Hosseini

2017-10-01

Full Text Available We present obspyDMT, a free, open-source software toolbox for the query, retrieval, processing and management of seismological data sets, including very large, heterogeneous and/or dynamically growing ones. ObspyDMT simplifies and speeds up user interaction with data centers, in more versatile ways than existing tools. The user is shielded from the complexities of interacting with different data centers and data exchange protocols and is provided with powerful diagnostic and plotting tools to check the retrieved data and metadata. While primarily a productivity tool for research seismologists and observatories, easy-to-use syntax and plotting functionality also make obspyDMT an effective teaching aid. Written in the Python programming language, it can be used as a stand-alone command-line tool (requiring no knowledge of Python or can be integrated as a module with other Python codes. It facilitates data archiving, preprocessing, instrument correction and quality control – routine but nontrivial tasks that can consume much user time. We describe obspyDMT's functionality, design and technical implementation, accompanied by an overview of its use cases. As an example of a typical problem encountered in seismogram preprocessing, we show how to check for inconsistencies in response files of two example stations. We also demonstrate the fully automated request, remote computation and retrieval of synthetic seismograms from the Synthetics Engine (Syngine web service of the Data Management Center (DMC at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS.

Coronal Seismology of Flare-Excited Standing Slow-Mode Waves Observed by SDO/AIA

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Tongjiang; Ofman, Leon; Davila, Joseph M.

2016-05-01

Flare-excited longitudinal intensity oscillations in hot flaring loops have been recently detected by SDO/AIA in 94 and 131 Å bandpasses. Based on the interpretation in terms of a slow-mode wave, quantitative evidence of thermal conduction suppression in hot (>9 MK) loops has been obtained for the first time from measurements of the polytropic index and phase shift between the temperature and density perturbations (Wang et al. 2015, ApJL, 811, L13). This result has significant implications in two aspects. One is that the thermal conduction suppression suggests the need of greatly enhanced compressive viscosity to interpret the observed strong wave damping. The other is that the conduction suppression provides a reasonable mechanism for explaining the long-duration events where the thermal plasma is sustained well beyond the duration of impulsive hard X-ray bursts in many flares, for a time much longer than expected by the classical Spitzer conductive cooling. In this study, we model the observed standing slow-mode wave in Wang et al. (2015) using a 1D nonlinear MHD code. With the seismology-derived transport coefficients for thermal conduction and compressive viscosity, we successfully simulate the oscillation period and damping time of the observed waves. Based on the parametric study of the effect of thermal conduction suppression and viscosity enhancement on the observables, we discuss the inversion scheme for determining the energy transport coefficients by coronal seismology.

ObspyDMT: a Python toolbox for retrieving and processing large seismological data sets

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseini, Kasra; Sigloch, Karin

2017-10-01

We present obspyDMT, a free, open-source software toolbox for the query, retrieval, processing and management of seismological data sets, including very large, heterogeneous and/or dynamically growing ones. ObspyDMT simplifies and speeds up user interaction with data centers, in more versatile ways than existing tools. The user is shielded from the complexities of interacting with different data centers and data exchange protocols and is provided with powerful diagnostic and plotting tools to check the retrieved data and metadata. While primarily a productivity tool for research seismologists and observatories, easy-to-use syntax and plotting functionality also make obspyDMT an effective teaching aid. Written in the Python programming language, it can be used as a stand-alone command-line tool (requiring no knowledge of Python) or can be integrated as a module with other Python codes. It facilitates data archiving, preprocessing, instrument correction and quality control - routine but nontrivial tasks that can consume much user time. We describe obspyDMT's functionality, design and technical implementation, accompanied by an overview of its use cases. As an example of a typical problem encountered in seismogram preprocessing, we show how to check for inconsistencies in response files of two example stations. We also demonstrate the fully automated request, remote computation and retrieval of synthetic seismograms from the Synthetics Engine (Syngine) web service of the Data Management Center (DMC) at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS).

Preparing TESOL Students for the ESOL Classroom: A Cross-Cultural Project in Intercultural Communication

Science.gov (United States)

Medina-López-Portillo, Adriana

2014-01-01

Intercultural communication classes for TESOL students give them a solid foundation for their work with their own ESOL students. This article presents the cross-cultural project that TESOL students have to complete in a required intercultural communication class at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the case study that was used to…

A Study on the Evaluation of Science Projects of Primary School Students Based on Scientific Criteria

Science.gov (United States)

Gungor, Sema Nur; Ozer, Dilek Zeren; Ozkan, Muhlis

2013-01-01

This study re-evaluated 454 science projects that were prepared by primary school students between 2007 and 2011 within the scope of Science Projects Event for Primary School Students. Also, submitted to TUBITAK BIDEB Bursa regional science board by MNE regional work groups in accordance with scientific research methods and techniques, including…

Inspiring students through an authentic polar science expedition: the RESEt Project

Science.gov (United States)

Cattadori, Matteo

2016-04-01

RESEt (Research and Education Svalbard Experience www.resetsvalbard.it) is an ongoing educational project focusing mainly on polar and climate system topics. It started in 2014 and will end in 2017 with the high school diploma of the 22 students (16 y. o.) making the participant class. This class attend a school (Liceo Filzi, Rovereto, Trento. Italy) with a primary focus on disciplines like philosophy and education, rather then STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Nevertheless their science curricula include climate topics that are rather challenging to grasp and, at the same time, crucial for their scientific citizenship. Some questions arise: How to foster their interest in geosciences topics? How to engage them in authentic scientific knowledge? How to increase their interest in scientific university courses during their post-secondary career? RESEt project will attempt to answer these questions through the development of integrated activities distributed over the last three years of their high school cycle. The most important moment will be an educational scientific expedition at the Svalbard, an archipelago located in the Arctic. The expedition be entirely organized, planned, and directed by students. In Svalbard, students will visit the main scientific facilities devoted to climate studies including those of Italian CNR (National Research Council) and they will perform some environmental measurement using data-loggers. Students are even involved in the fundraising process to raise more than ten thousand Euros needed to for travel expenses. This work is aimed mainly at presenting some of the preliminary data collected during the RESEt project, including the fundraising aspects. The management of the RESEt project strongly relies on the experience and network gained by the abstract author during the participation to the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program of International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2009 as well as the support of Polar

Contextual Student Learning through Authentic Asteroid Research Projects using a Robotic Telescope Network

Science.gov (United States)

Hoette, Vivian L.; Puckett, Andrew W.; Linder, Tyler R.; Heatherly, Sue Ann; Rector, Travis A.; Haislip, Joshua B.; Meredith, Kate; Caughey, Austin L.; Brown, Johnny E.; McCarty, Cameron B.; Whitmore, Kevin T.

2015-11-01

Skynet is a worldwide robotic telescope network operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with active observing sites on 3 continents. The queue-based observation request system is simple enough to be used by middle school students, but powerful enough to supply data for research scientists. The Skynet Junior Scholars program, funded by the NSF, has teamed up with professional astronomers to engage students from middle school to undergraduates in authentic research projects, from target selection through image analysis and publication of results. Asteroid research is a particularly fruitful area for youth collaboration that reinforces STEM education standards and can allow students to make real contributions to scientific knowledge, e.g., orbit refinement through astrometric submissions to the Minor Planet Center. We have created a set of projects for youth to: 1. Image an asteroid, make a movie, and post it to a gallery; 2. Measure the asteroid’s apparent motion using the Afterglow online image processor; and 3. Image asteroids from two or more telescopes simultaneously to demonstrate parallax. The apparent motion and parallax projects allow students to estimate the distance to their asteroid, as if they were the discoverer of a brand new object in the solar system. Older students may take on advanced projects, such as analyzing uncertainties in asteroid orbital parameters; studying impact probabilities of known objects; observing time-sensitive targets such as Near Earth Asteroids; and even discovering brand new objects in the solar system.Images are acquired from among seven Skynet telescopes in North Carolina, California, Wisconsin, Canada, Australia, and Chile, as well as collaborating observatories such as WestRock in Columbus, Georgia; Stone Edge in El Verano, California; and Astronomical Research Institute in Westfield, Illinois.

Social Loafing on Group Projects: Structural Antecedents and Effect on Student Satisfaction

Science.gov (United States)

Aggarwal, Praveen; O'Brien, Connie L.

2008-01-01

To respond to the expectations of the industry and business school accreditation bodies, marketing faculty have been making extensive use of group projects in their curricula. A common problem with the use of student groups, however, is that of social loafing. In this study, we identify some easy-to-implement project set-up factors and examine…

Comparison between project-based learning and discovery learning toward students' metacognitive strategies on global warming concept

Science.gov (United States)

Tumewu, Widya Anjelia; Wulan, Ana Ratna; Sanjaya, Yayan

2017-05-01

The purpose of this study was to know comparing the effectiveness of learning using Project-based learning (PjBL) and Discovery Learning (DL) toward students metacognitive strategies on global warming concept. A quasi-experimental research design with a The Matching-Only Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design was used in this study. The subjects were students of two classes 7th grade of one of junior high school in Bandung City, West Java of 2015/2016 academic year. The study was conducted on two experimental class, that were project-based learning treatment on the experimental class I and discovery learning treatment was done on the experimental class II. The data was collected through questionnaire to know students metacognitive strategies. The statistical analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in students metacognitive strategies between project-based learning and discovery learning.

Students Upgrading through Computer and Career Education System Services (Project SUCCESS). Final Evaluation Report 1992-93. OER Report.

Science.gov (United States)

New York City Board of Education, Brooklyn, NY. Office of Educational Research.

Student Upgrading through Computer and Career Education System Services (Project SUCCESS) was an Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title VII-funded project in its third year of operation. Project SUCCESS served 460 students of limited English proficiency at two high schools in Brooklyn and one high school in Manhattan (New York City).…

Students' Views of Assessment in Project-Led Engineering Education: Findings from a Case Study in Portugal

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandes, Sandra; Flores, Maria Assuncao; Lima, Rui Manuel

2012-01-01

According to the demands of the Bologna process, new educational methods and strategies are needed in order to enhance student-centred learning. Project work is one of those approaches. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of project-led education (PLE) on students' learning processes and outcomes, within the context of a first-year engineering…

Broad band seismology in the Scotia region. The base Esperanza seismological observatory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Russi, M.; Costa, G.; Febrer, J.

1995-08-01

The lithospheric study and the identification of relevant lateral heterogeneities in the Antarctic continent and borderlands, is essential to understand the geodynamic evolution both of the continental and oceanic bordering regions. The complexity of the geological evolution and the structural properties of the lithosphere in the Scotia area have been stressed by many authors. The present setting of the area is the result of the mutual interaction among the Antarctic, South American and several minor plants whose geodynamic history and actual boundaries are still partially unknown. The intense seismic activity that characterizes the region encourages the use of the seismological approach to investigate the lithospheric structure of the area. Since January 1992 a broad band three components station is operating at the Antarctic base Esperanza in the NE area of Antarctic Peninsula. The station has been installed with financial support of the Italian Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide (PNRA) by Osservatorio Geofisico Sperimentale (OGS) and Instituto Antartico Argentino (IAA). Russi et al. (1994) have analyzed selected recordings using the frequency-time analysis (FTAN) method obtaining some relevant information on the large scale structure of the lithosphere in the Scotia region even if data recorded by a single station were available. The extension of our analysis to further events and to horizontal component records is here presented. Within the framework of the international co-operation to the Antarctic Seismographic Network, the OGS and the IAA are upgrading the Esperanza station and installing an additional broad band station near the town of Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina) with the financial support of PNRA. The inversion of the dispersion curves through the FTAN of the signals recorded by an increased number of stations and generated by events with source-station paths spanning the region will allow us to extract the elastic and anelastic

"Know Your Well" A Groundwater Quality Project to Inform Students and Well-Owners

Science.gov (United States)

Olson, C.; Snow, D.; Samal, A.; Ray, C.; Kreifels, M.

2017-12-01

Over 15 million U.S. households rely on private, household wells for drinking water, and these sources are not protected under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Data on private well water quality is slowly being collected and evaluated from a number of different agencies, sources and projects. A new project is designed both for training high school students and to help assess the quality of water from rural domestic wells in Nebraska. This "crowd sourced" program engaging high school agricultural education programs, FFA chapters, and science classes with students sampling and testing water sampling from rural domestic wells from 12 districts across the state. Students and teachers from selected school were trained through multiple school visits, both in the classroom and in the field. Classroom visits were used to introduce topics such as water quality and groundwater, and testing methods for specific analytes. During the field visit, students were exposed to field techniques, the importance of accuracy in data collection, and what factors might influence the water in sampled wells. High school students learn to sample and test water independently. Leadership and initiative is developed through the program, and many experience the enlightenment that comes with citizen science. A customized mobile app was developed for ease of data entry and visualization, and data uploaded to a secure website where information was stored and compared to laboratory tests of the same measurements. General water quality parameters, including pH, electrical conductivity, major anions are tested in the field and laboratory, as well as environmental contaminants such as arsenic, uranium, pesticides, bacteria. Test kits provided to each class were used by the students to measure selected parameters, and then duplicate water samples were analyzed at a university laboratory. Five high schools are involved in the project during its first year. Nitrate, bacteria and pesticides represent major

Authentic student research projects on physics and the human body

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Heck, A.; Ellermeijer, T.; Kędzierska, E.

2010-01-01

Students in Dutch senior secondary education are obliged to perform their own research project of approximately 80 hours. They are stimulated to choose the topic themselves (preferably with relations to two subjects, like physics and mathematics) and have a lot of freedom in the design of the

Relationship of creative projects in anatomy to medical student professionalism, test performance and stress: an exploratory study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thai Trung M

2009-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The anatomy course offers important opportunities to develop professionalism at an early stage in medical education. It is an academically significant course that also engenders stress in some students. Methods Over a three-year period, 115 of 297 students completed creative projects. Thirty-four project completers and 47 non-completers consented to participate in the study. Projects were analyzed for professionalism themes using grounded theory. A subset of project completers and non-completers were interviewed to determine their views about the stress of anatomy and medical school, as well as the value of the creative projects. We also compared test performance of project completers and non-completers. Results Projects completed early in the course often expressed ambivalence about anatomy, whereas later projects showed more gratitude and sense of awe. Project completers tended to report greater stress than noncompleters, but stated that doing projects reduced stress and caused them to develop a richer appreciation for anatomy and medicine. Project completers performed significantly lower than non-completers on the first written exam (pre-project. Differences between groups on individual exams after both the first and second creative project were nonsignificant. Conclusion For some students, creative projects may offer a useful way of reflecting on various aspects of professionalism while helping them to manage stress.

Experiences with Designing a Team Project Module for Teaching Teamwork to Students

OpenAIRE

Bieliková, Mária

2005-01-01

Team projects play an important role in the education of engineers. This paper describes a team project module (called Team project) that is part of a postgraduate course in Informatics. Its main objective is to give students a hands-on experience with different aspects of working in team on a problem. We discuss several aspects that should be considered in designing such module as a part of a curriculum: team formation, team communication, team assessment, problem statement and assignment, d...

Curricular Goals and Personal Goals in Master's Thesis Projects: Dutch Student-Supervisor Dyads

Science.gov (United States)

de Kleijn, Renske A. M.; Meijer, Paulien C.; Brekelmans, Mieke; Pilot, Albert

2013-01-01

To be effective, feedback should be goal-related. In order to better understand goal-related feedback in Master's thesis projects, the present study explores the goals of supervisors and students in supervision dyads and similarities and differences within and between these dyads. Twelve supervisors and students were interviewed, and their goals…

Exploring Students' Computational Thinking Skills in Modeling and Simulation Projects: : A Pilot Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grgurina, Natasa; van Veen, Klaas; Barendsen, Erik; Zwaneveld, Bert; Suhre, Cor; Gal-Ezer, Judith; Sentance, Sue; Vahrenhold, Jan

2015-01-01

Computational Thinking (CT) is gaining a lot of attention in education. We explored how to discern the occurrences of CT in the projects of 12th grade high school students in the computer science (CS) course. Within the projects, they constructed models and ran simulations of phenomena from other

Helping Students Understand Intersectionality: Reflections from a Dialogue Project in Residential Life

Science.gov (United States)

Claros, Sharon Chia; Garcia, Gina A.; Johnston-Guerrero, Marc P.; Mata, Christine

2017-01-01

In this chapter, the authors share insights from a dialogue project focused on intersectionality within a residential life setting and discuss additional strategies for helping students understand intersectionality.

Novice Supervisors' Practices and Dilemmatic Space in Supervision of Student Research Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Vereijken, Mayke W. C.; van der Rijst, Roeland M.; van Driel, Jan H.; Dekker, Friedo W.

2018-01-01

Growing interest in student research projects in higher education has led to an emphasis on research supervision. We focus in this study on novice supervisors' approaches to research supervision as they explore their practices and experience difficulties supervising medical-students. Teacher noticing was used as a sensitising concept and relations…

Authentic research projects: Students' perspectives on the process, ownership, and benefits of doing research

Science.gov (United States)

Bernard, Warren

2005-11-01

Authentic research projects are one type of inquiry activity as defined by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993) and are a core component in science education reform movements. The purpose of this study was to examine high school students' perspectives of an authentic research project. The context for this study was a local Science and Engineering Fair (SEF) that involved students from a Metro-Atlanta public high school. This study provided information about this type of activity from the student's perspective, an emic viewpoint. In this qualitative study, demographic information was used for the purposeful selection of fourteen students making up the study sample. In this descriptive ethnography, data were collected via an open-ended survey, three individual interviews, a web log, and a group interview. Interviews were audio taped and conducted according to the protocol established by Lincoln and Guba (1998). Transcripts of the interviews, web logs, and survey responses were coded and analyzed by the constant comparative method as described by Glaser and Strauss (1965). Reliability and validity were achieved through member checks and triangulation. Using Gowin's Vee diagram (1981) as a theoretical framework for analysis, themes emerged describing the students' research experience. The themes included the students' initial reactions, difficulty getting started, accepting ownership of their project, growing interest, acknowledged benefits of the research experience, and a reflective look back at their experience. Overall, students described the authentic research experience as a worthwhile activity. The implications of the study are two-fold. At the practitioner level, teachers should engage students in research, but should do so in a manner that maximizes authenticity. Examples may include having students present a formal prospectus and work with a scientist mentor. For Science Educators in teacher preparation programs, there should be an

Analysis of Students' Participation Patterns and Learning Presence in a Wiki-Based Project

Science.gov (United States)

Roussinos, Dimitrios; Jimoyiannis, Athanassios

2013-01-01

The educational applications of wikis are becoming very popular among instructors and researchers and they have captured their attention and imagination. This paper reports on the investigation of a wiki project designed to support university students' collaborative authoring and learning. The design framework of the wiki-based project is outlined…

Implementing Problem Based Learning through Engineers without Borders Student Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Wittig, Ann

2013-01-01

Engineers Without Borders USA (EWB) is a nonprofit organization that partners student chapters with communities in fundamental need of potable water, clean air, sanitation, irrigation, energy, basic structures for schools and clinics, roads and bridges, etc. While EWB projects may vary in complexity, they are all realistic, ill-structured and…

Bringing the Maker Movement to School. Fourth Grade Students Create Projects to Illustrate the Transfer and Transformation of Energy

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Wendy; Smith, Brian C.

2016-01-01

The Maker Movement allows students to strengthen humanistic values through projects and experiences that require the use of their heads, hearts, and hands. Students are introduced to creative technologies that bridge the digital and physical worlds. Through whimsical projects, students take an interest in the concepts and ideas that might normally…

The Effect of Environmental Science Projects on Students' Environmental Knowledge and Science Attitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Balushi, Sulaiman M.; Al-Aamri, Shamsa S.

2014-01-01

The current study explores the effectiveness of involving students in environmental science projects for their environmental knowledge and attitudes towards science. The study design is a quasi-experimental pre-post control group design. The sample was 62 11th-grade female students studying at a public school in Oman. The sample was divided into…

Using Student Learning and Development Outcomes to Evaluate a First-Year Undergraduate Group Video Project

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Murray; Mattheis, Allison; Johnson, Brady

2012-01-01

Students in an interdisciplinary undergraduate introductory course were required to complete a group video project focused on nutrition and healthy eating. A mixed-methods approach to data collection involved observing and rating video footage of group work sessions and individual and focus group interviews. These data were analyzed and used to evaluate the effectiveness of the assignment in light of two student learning outcomes and two student development outcomes at the University of Minnesota. Positive results support the continued inclusion of the project within the course, and recommend the assignment to other programs as a viable means of promoting both content learning and affective behavioral objectives. PMID:22383619

Watershed Watch: Using undergraduate student-driven inquiry-based research projects as a means of engaging undeclared students in the biogeosciences

Science.gov (United States)

Rock, B. N.; Hale, S.; Graham, K.; Hayden, L. B.

2009-12-01

Watershed Watch (NSF 0525433) engages early undergraduate students from two-year and four-year colleges in student-driven full inquiry-based instruction in the biogeosciences. Program goals for Watershed Watch are to test if inquiry-rich student-driven projects sufficiently engage undeclared students (or noncommittal STEM majors) to declare a STEM major (or remain with their STEM major). The program is a partnership between two four-year campuses - the University of New Hampshire (UNH), and Elizabeth City State University (ECSU, in North Carolina); and two two-year campuses - Great Bay Community College (GBCC, in New Hampshire) and the College of the Albemarle (COA, in North Carolina). The program focuses on two watersheds: the Merrimack Ricer Watershed in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and the Pasquotank River Watershed in Virginia and North Carolina. Both the terrestrial and aquatic components of both watersheds are evaluated using the student-driven projects. A significant component of this program is an intensive two-week Summer Research Institute (SRI), in which undeclared freshmen and sophomores investigate various aspects of their local watershed. Two Summer Research Institutes have been held on the UNH campus (2006 and 2008) and two on the ECSU campus (2007 and 2009). Students develop their own research questions and study design, collect and analyze data, and produce a scientific oral or poster presentation on the last day of the SRI. The course objectives, curriculum and schedule are presented as a model for dissemination for other institutions and programs seeking to develop inquiry-rich programs or courses designed to attract students into biogeoscience disciplines. Data from self-reported student feedback indicate the most important factors explaining high-levels of student motivation and research excellence in the program are: 1) working with committed, energetic, and enthusiastic faculty mentors, and 2) faculty mentors demonstrating high degrees of

Solving some problems of engineering seismology by structural method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ishtev, K.G.; Hadjikov, L.M.; Dineva, P.S.; Jordanov, P.P.

1983-01-01

The work suggests a method for solving the direct and inverse problems of the engineer seismology by means of the structural approach of the systems theory. This approach gives a possibility for a simultaneous accounting of the two basic types of damping of the seismic signals in the earth foundation-geometrical damping and a damping in consequence of a dissipative energy loss. By the structural scheme an automatic account is made of the geometric damping of the signals. The damping from a dissipative energy loss on the other hand is accounted for through a choice of the type of frequency characteristics or the transmission functions of the different layers. With a few examples the advantages of the model including the two types of attenuation of the seismic signal are illustrated. An integral coefficient of damping is calculated which analogously to the frequency functions represents a generalized characteristic of is the whole earth foundation. (orig./HP)

Waves and rays in seismology answers to unasked questions

CERN Document Server

Slawinski, Michael A

2016-01-01

The author dedicates this book to readers who are concerned with finding out the status of concepts, statements and hypotheses, and with clarifying and rearranging them in a logical order. It is thus not intended to teach tools and techniques of the trade, but to discuss the foundations on which seismology — and in a larger sense, the theory of wave propagation in solids — is built. A key question is: why and to what degree can a theory developed for an elastic continuum be used to investigate the propagation of waves in the Earth, which is neither a continuum nor fully elastic. But the scrutiny of the foundations goes much deeper: material symmetry, effective tensors, equivalent media; the influence (or, rather, the lack thereof) of gravitational and thermal effects and the rotation of the Earth, are discussed ab initio. The variational principles of Fermat and Hamilton and their consequences for the propagation of elastic waves, causality, Noether's theorem and its consequences on conservation of energy...

Ambient seismic noise tomography for exploration seismology at Valhall

Science.gov (United States)

de Ridder, S. A.

2011-12-01

Permanent ocean-bottom cables installed at the Valhall field can repeatedly record high quality active seismic surveys. But in the absence of active seismic shooting, passive data can be recorded and streamed to the platform in real time. Here I studied 29 hours of data using seismic interferometry. I generate omni-directional Scholte-wave virtual-sources at frequencies considered very-low in the exploration seismology community (0.4-1.75 Hz). Scholte-wave group arrival times are inverted using both eikonal tomography and straight-ray tomography. The top 100 m near-surface at Valhall contains buried channels about 100 m wide that have been imaged with active seismic. Images obtained by ASNT using eikonal tomography or straight-ray tomography both contain anomalies that match these channels. When continuous recordings are made in real-time, tomography images of the shallow subsurface can be formed or updated on a daily basis, forming a very low cost near-surface monitoring system using seismic noise.

Effect of project work on secondary school students science process ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The study investigated the effect of students' project work on secondary school science process skills acquisition in Biology. The study was carried out in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were postulated and tested at 0.05 level of ...

Virginia Demonstration Project Encouraging Middle School Students in Pursuing STEM Careers

Science.gov (United States)

Bachman, Jane T.; Kota, Dena H.; Kota, Aaron J.

2011-01-01

Encouraging students at all grade levels to consider pursuing a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields i s a national focus. In 2005, the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD), a Department of Defense laboratory located in Da hlgren, Virginia, began work on the Virginia Demonstration Project (VDP) with the goal of increasing more student interest in STEM educatio n and pursuing STEM careers. This goal continues as the program enters its sixth year. This project has been successful through the partici pation of NSWCDD's scientists and engineers who are trained as mentor s to work in local middle school classrooms throughout the school year, As an extension of the in-class activities, several STEM summer aca demies have been conducted at NSWCDD, These academies are supported by the Navy through the VDP and the STEM Learning Module Project. These projects are part of more extensive outreach efforts offered by the National Defense Education Program (NDEP), sponsored by the Director, Defense Research and Engineering. The focus of this paper is on the types of activities conducted at the summer academy, an overview of the academy planning process, and recommendations to help support a nati onal plan of integrating modeling and simulation-based engineering and science into all grade levels. based upon the lessons learned

Project- Based Learning and Problem-Based Learning: Are They Effective to Improve Student's Thinking Skills?

OpenAIRE

Anazifa, R. D; Djukri, D

2017-01-01

The study aims at finding (1) the effect of project-based learning and problem-based learning on student's creativity and critical thinking and (2) the difference effect of project-based learning and problem-based learning on student's creativity and critical thinking. This study is quasi experiment using non-equivalent control-group design. Research population of this study was all classes in eleventh grade of mathematics and natural science program of SMA N 1 Temanggung. The participants we...

The Effect of STEM Learning through the Project of Designing Boat Model toward Student STEM Literacy

Science.gov (United States)

Tati, T.; Firman, H.; Riandi, R.

2017-09-01

STEM Learning focusses on development of STEM-literate society, the research about implementation of STEM learning to develope students’ STEM literacy is still limited. This study is aimed to examine the effect of implementation STEM learning through the project of designing boat model on students STEM literacy in energy topic. The method of this study was a quasi-experiment with non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design. There were two classes involved, the experiment class used Project Based Learning with STEM approach and control class used Project-Based Learning without STEM approach. A STEM Literacy test instrument was developed to measure students STEM literacy which consists of science literacy, mathematics literacy, and technology-engineering literacy. The analysis showed that there were significant differences on improvement science literacy, mathematics technology-engineering between experiment class and control class with effect size more than 0.8 (large effect). The difference of improvement of STEM literacy between experiment class and control class is caused by the existence of design engineering activity which required students to apply the knowledge from every field of STEM. The challenge that was faced in STEM learning through design engineering activity was how to give the students practice to integrate STEM field in solving the problems. In additional, most of the students gave positive response toward implementation of STEM learning through design boat model project.

Implementation of a Project-Based Engineering School: Increasing Student Motivation and Relevant Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Terrón-López, María-José; García-García, María-José; Velasco-Quintana, Paloma-Julia; Ocampo, Jared; Vigil Montaño, María-Reyes; Gaya-López, María-Cruz

2017-01-01

The School of Engineering at Universidad Europea de Madrid (UEM) implemented, starting in the 2012-2013 period, a unified academic model based on project-based learning as the methodology used throughout the entire School. This model expects that every year, in each grade, all the students should participate in a capstone project integrating the…

A Framework to Manage through Control and Automation a semester long student Project assignment in e-Learning Environment

OpenAIRE

Chaumun, Mamade Ajmal

2013-01-01

Managing semester-long project assignments is not always an easy task since teachers need to keep track of many elements of the project that will reflect in a proper assessment of the students’ work. Integrating an LMS into the educational process and therefore to assign, track, and assess the project may add to the complication, this can be very challenging and especially when students work in groups. Students expect support and guidance from teachers in all stages of the project...

Students' Perceptions of a Project-Based Organic Chemistry Laboratory Environment: A Phenomenographic Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Burrows, Nikita L.; Nowak, Montana K.; Mooring, Suazette R.

2017-01-01

Students can perceive the laboratory environment in a variety of ways that can affect what they take away from the laboratory course. This qualitative study characterizes undergraduate students' perspectives of a project-based Organic Chemistry laboratory using the theoretical framework of phenomenography. Eighteen participants were interviewed in…

The Impact an Oratory Project generates to Primary School Students who live in Rural Areas of Cartago

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Gabriela Amador-Solano

2014-03-01

Full Text Available This article aims at showing the development and relevance of an extension project in seven rural schools located in “circuito 05” in the central area of Cartago. The main goal is to enhance oral commu­nication in elementary school students. The project was designed as a training workshop for the teach­ers in the chosen schools in order to be taught to students by implementing an oratory club. In each student´s dissertation, the researchers observed the enthusiasm that the project caused in the schools. Objectives, contents, activities, assessment and observations were designed in a didactic plan to be used upon needs of institutions.

The effect of project-based learning on students' statistical literacy levels for data representation

Science.gov (United States)

Koparan, Timur; Güven, Bülent

2015-07-01

The point of this study is to define the effect of project-based learning approach on 8th Grade secondary-school students' statistical literacy levels for data representation. To achieve this goal, a test which consists of 12 open-ended questions in accordance with the views of experts was developed. Seventy 8th grade secondary-school students, 35 in the experimental group and 35 in the control group, took this test twice, one before the application and one after the application. All the raw scores were turned into linear points by using the Winsteps 3.72 modelling program that makes the Rasch analysis and t-tests, and an ANCOVA analysis was carried out with the linear points. Depending on the findings, it was concluded that the project-based learning approach increases students' level of statistical literacy for data representation. Students' levels of statistical literacy before and after the application were shown through the obtained person-item maps.

The Lichen-GIS Project, Teaching Students How to Use Bioindicator Species to Assess Environmental Quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephen Wagner

2009-12-01

Full Text Available A content-driven biology course for preservice, K-8 teachers has been developed. This course uses the constructivist approach, where instructors engage students by organizing information around concept-based problems. To this end a semester-long inquiry-based project was introduced where students studied lichen populations on trees located on their campus to monitor air quality. Data were incorporated into a geographical information systems (GIS database to demonstrate how it can be used to map communities. Student teams counted the number of each lichen type within a grid placed on each tree trunk sampled and entered this information into a GIS database. The students constructed maps of lichen populations at each sample site and wrote abstracts about their research. Student performance was assessed by preparation of these abstracts as well as scores on pre- and posttests of key content measures. Students also completed a survey to determine whether the project aided in their comprehension as well as their interest in incorporating this activity into their own curricula. The students’ pre- and posttest results showed an eightfold improvement in the total score after the semester project. Additionally, correct responses to each individual content measure increased by at least 35%. Total scores for the abstract ranged from 12 to 20 points out of 20 total points possible (60% to 100% with a mean score of 15.8 points (78%. These results indicate that this exercise provided an excellent vehicle to teach students about lichens and their use as bioindicators and the application of geospatial technologies to map environmental data.

Organization of BSc and MSc projects in project families

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ottosen, Lisbeth M.; Goltermann, Per; Jensen, Pernille Erland

2014-01-01

This work reports organization of student thesis projects in project families, with the benefit to both teaching and learning. The project organization went from student projects broadly distributed on topics related to different research issues and individual supervision to project families with...

Features of adaptation of first-year students who participated in the project «Proryv»

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grishina A.V.

2016-10-01

Full Text Available this article deals with the problem of adaptation of students to the university. Particular attention is drawn to the results of a pilot study to identify important psychological qualities of the person of the student who contributed to the effective adaptation of students in the framework of participation in All-Russian innovation project «Breakthrough».

Fault geometry of 2015, Mw7.2 Murghab, Tajikistan earthquake controls rupture propagation: Insights from InSAR and seismological data

Science.gov (United States)

Sangha, Simran; Peltzer, Gilles; Zhang, Ailin; Meng, Lingsen; Liang, Cunren; Lundgren, Paul; Fielding, Eric

2017-03-01

Combining space-based geodetic and array seismology observations can provide detailed information about earthquake ruptures in remote regions. Here we use Landsat-8 imagery and ALOS-2 and Sentinel-1 radar interferometry data combined with data from the European seismology network to describe the source of the December 7, 2015, Mw7.2 Murghab (Tajikistan) earthquake. The earthquake reactivated a ∼79 km-long section of the Sarez-Karakul Fault, a NE oriented sinistral, trans-tensional fault in northern Pamir. Pixel offset data delineate the geometry of the surface break and line of sight ground shifts from two descending and three ascending interferograms constrain the fault dip and slip solution. Two right-stepping, NE-striking segments connected by a more easterly oriented segment, sub-vertical or steeply dipping to the west were involved. The solution shows two main patches of slip with up to 3.5 m of left lateral slip on the southern and central fault segments. The northern segment has a left-lateral and normal oblique slip of up to a meter. Back-projection of high-frequency seismic waves recorded by the European network, processed using the Multitaper-MUSIC approach, focuses sharply along the surface break. The time progression of the high-frequency radiators shows that, after a 10 second initiation phase at slow speed, the rupture progresses in 2 phases at super-shear velocity (∼4.3-5 km/s) separated by a 3 second interval of slower propagation corresponding to the passage through the restraining bend. The intensity of the high-frequency radiation reaches maxima during the initial and middle phases of slow propagation and is reduced by ∼50% during the super-shear phases of the propagation. These findings are consistent with studies of other strike-slip earthquakes in continental domain, showing the importance of fault geometric complexities in controlling the speed of fault propagation and related spatiotemporal pattern of the high-frequency radiation.

[The supervisor has a crucial role in the medical student's degree projects. Experiences from seven semesters at Karolinska Institutet].

Science.gov (United States)

Möller, Riitta; Shoshan, Maria; Ponzer, Sari

2015-01-13

In Sweden degree projects have a central role in evaluation of higher education, wherefore significant resources are spent on developing students' research competence. The undergraduate medical program at Karolinska Institutet introduced its degree project course in 2010. This paper gives an overview of the course and summarizes experiences from the first seven terms. In order to finalize their projects within one term, most students need substantial support. A highly structured course and frequent progress monitoring are advantageous. Other crucial factors are the quality of the supervision and students' verbal skills as well as support in scientific writing. In addition, increased awareness of the learning outcomes already at the beginning of the course may help students to achieve the expected results. Finally, students need to recognize their own responsibility for learning. 

DOE/Project SEED student scholars partnership. Final report, June 7, 1994--April 27, 1995

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1995-06-13

Project SEED is an innovative career development activity administered by ACS for economically disadvantaged high school students. SEED students spend 10 weeks during the summer in an academic, industrial, or governmental research laboratory working under the supervision of a researcher. Intent is to attempt to overcome obstacles which have excluded the economically disadvantaged from professional careers. Students are required to prepare a technical summary, give presentations to their sponsoring groups, and design and display a poster session. Each student also completed a pre- and post-program survey.

Investigating the Linkage between Intrinsic Motivation and Project Team Satisfaction in Undergraduate Agricultural Leadership Students

Science.gov (United States)

Lamm, Kevan W.; Carter, Hannah S.; Melendez, Marcus W.

2014-01-01

Organizations have increased the amount of work that is completed by project teams over the past several decades. This trend is projected to continue into the foreseeable future. In response to this trend, the academic community has increased the number of project team based learning experiences for students in classes. The challenge has been that…

A Tri-Country Marketing Project--Preparing Students for the Realities of a Global Marketplace

Science.gov (United States)

Freeman, Ina; Knight, Peter; Butt, Irfan

2011-01-01

With rapidly increasing globalization, business students are required to understand complex global markets and adapt to the rapid changes in the global landscape. This paper discusses a project where students from International Marketing courses in Pakistan, the United States, and France used an interactive platform as a base to jointly explore…

Which Type of Inquiry Project Do High School Biology Students Prefer: Open or Guided?

Science.gov (United States)

Sadeh, Irit; Zion, Michal

2012-01-01

In teaching inquiry to high school students, educators differ on which method of teaching inquiry is more effective: Guided or open inquiry? This paper examines the influence of these two different inquiry learning approaches on the attitudes of Israeli high school biology students toward their inquiry project. The results showed significant…

Clinical Application Projects (CAPs) for Health Science Students in Introductory Microbiology.

Science.gov (United States)

Halyard, Rebecca A.

Clinical Application Projects (CAPs) have been developed that allow dental hygiene and nursing students to apply introductory microbiology principles and skills learned in lecture and laboratory to a problem in an appropriate clinical situation. CAPs therefore substitute for the traditional study of "unknowns". Principles and processes emphasized…

Creating a Facebook Page for the Seismological Society of America

Science.gov (United States)

Newman, S. B.

2009-12-01

In August, 2009 I created a Facebook “fan” page for the Seismological Society of America. We had been exploring cost-effective options for providing forums for two-way communication for some months. We knew that a number of larger technical societies had invested significant sums of money to create customized social networking sites but that a small society would need to use existing low-cost software options. The first thing I discovered when I began to set up the fan page was that an unofficial SSA Facebook group already existed, established by Steven J. Gibbons, a member in Norway. Steven had done an excellent job of posting material about SSA. Partly because of the existing group, the official SSA fan page gained fans rapidly. We began by posting information about our own activities and then added links to activities in the broader geoscience community. While much of this material also appeared on our website and in our publication, Seismological Research Letters (SRL), the tone on the FB page is different. It is less formal with more emphasis on photos and links to other sites, including our own. Fans who are active on FB see the posts as part of their social network and do not need to take the initiative to go to the SSA site. Although the goal was to provide a forum for two-way communication, our initial experience was that people were clearly reading the page but not contributing content. This appears to be case with fan pages of sister geoscience societies. FB offers some demographic information to fan site administrators. In an initial review of the demographics it appeared that fans were younger than the overall demographics of the Society. It appeared that a few of the fans are not members or even scientists. Open questions are: what content will be most useful to fans? How will the existence of the page benefit the membership as a whole? Will the page ultimately encourage two-way communication as hoped? Web 2.0 is generating a series of new

Refining Southern California Geotherms Using Seismologic, Geologic, and Petrologic Constraints

Science.gov (United States)

Thatcher, W. R.; Chapman, D. S.; Allam, A. A.; Williams, C. F.

2017-12-01

Lithospheric deformation in tectonically active regions depends on the 3D distribution of rheology, which is in turn critically controlled by temperature. Under the auspices of the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) we are developing a 3D Community Thermal Model (CTM) to constrain rheology and so better understand deformation processes within this complex but densely monitored and relatively well-understood region. The San Andreas transform system has sliced southern California into distinct blocks, each with characteristic lithologies, seismic velocities and thermal structures. Guided by the geometry of these blocks we use more than 250 surface heat-flow measurements to define 13 geographically distinct heat flow regions (HFRs). Model geotherms within each HFR are constrained by averages and variances of surface heat flow q0 and the 1D depth distribution of thermal conductivity (k) and radiogenic heat production (A), which are strongly dependent on rock type. Crustal lithologies are not always well known and we turn to seismic imaging for help. We interrogate the SCEC Community Velocity Model (CVM) to determine averages and variances of Vp, Vs and Vp/Vs versus depth within each HFR. We bound (A, k) versus depth by relying on empirical relations between seismic wave speed and rock type and laboratory and modeling methods relating (A, k) to rock type. Many 1D conductive geotherms for each HFR are allowed by the variances in surface heat flow and subsurface (A, k). An additional constraint on the lithosphere temperature field is provided by comparing lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) depths identified seismologically with those defined thermally as the depth of onset of partial melting. Receiver function studies in Southern California indicate LAB depths that range from 40 km to 90 km. Shallow LAB depths are correlated with high surface heat flow and deep LAB with low heat flow. The much-restricted families of geotherms that intersect peridotite

Towards monitoring the englacial fracture state using virtual-reflector seismology

Science.gov (United States)

Lindner, F.; Weemstra, C.; Walter, F.; Hadziioannou, C.

2018-04-01

In seismology, coda wave interferometry (CWI) is an effective tool to monitor time-lapse changes using later arriving, multiply scattered coda waves. Typically, CWI relies on an estimate of the medium's impulse response. The latter is retrieved through simple time-averaging of receiver-receiver cross-correlations of the ambient field, i.e. seismic interferometry (SI). In general, the coda are induced by heterogeneities in the Earth. Being comparatively homogeneous, however, ice bodies such as glaciers and ice sheets exhibit little scattering. In addition, the temporal stability of the time-averaged cross-correlations suffers from temporal variations in the distribution and amplitude of the passive seismic sources. Consequently, application of CWI to ice bodies is currently limited. Nevertheless, fracturing and changes in the englacial macroscopic water content alter the bulk elastic properties of ice bodies, which can be monitored with cryoseismological measurements. To overcome the current limited applicability of CWI to ice bodies, we therefore introduce virtual-reflector seismology (VRS). VRS relies on a so-called multidimensional deconvolution (MDD) process of the time-averaged crosscorrelations. The technique results in the retrieval of a medium response that includes virtual reflections from a contour of receivers enclosing the region of interest (i.e., the region to be monitored). The virtual reflections can be interpreted as artificial coda replacing the (lacking) natural scattered coda. Hence, this artificial coda might be exploited for the purpose of CWI. From an implementation point of view, VRS is similar to SI by MDD, which, as its name suggests, also relies on a multidimensional deconvolution process. SI by MDD, however, does not generate additional virtual reflections. Advantageously, both techniques mitigate spurious coda changes associated with temporal variations in the distribution and amplitude of the passive seismic sources. In this work, we

The Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) Project

Science.gov (United States)

Beichner, Robert J.

2011-04-01

How do you keep a classroom of 100 undergraduates actively learning? Can students practice communication and teamwork skills in a large class? How do you boost the performance of underrepresented groups? The Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs (SCALE-UP) Project has addressed these concerns. Because of their inclusion in a leading introductory physics textbook, project materials are used by more than 1/3 of all science, math, and engineering majors nationwide. The room design and pedagogy have been adopted at more than 100 leading institutions across the country. Physics, chemistry, math, astronomy, biology, engineering, earth sciences, and even literature classes are currently being taught this way. Educational research indicates that students should collaborate on interesting tasks and be deeply involved with the material they are studying. We promote active learning in a redesigned classroom for 100 students or more. (Of course, smaller classes can also benefit.) Class time is spent primarily on "tangibles" and "ponderables"--hands-on activities, simulations, and interesting questions. Nine students sit in three teams at round tables. Instructors circulate and engage in Socratic dialogues. The setting looks like a banquet hall, with lively interactions nearly all the time. Hundreds of hours of classroom video and audio recordings, transcripts of numerous interviews and focus groups, data from conceptual learning assessments (using widely-recognized instruments in a pretest/posttest protocol), and collected portfolios of student work are part of our rigorous assessment effort. Our findings (based on data from over 16,000 students collected over five years as well as replications at adopting sites) can be summarized as the following: 1) Female failure rate is 1/5 of previous levels, even though more is demanded of students. 2) Minority failure rate is 1/4 that seen in traditionally taught courses. 3) At-risk students are more

A One-year Case Study: Understanding the Rich Potential of Project-based Learning in a Virtual Reality Class for High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Morales, Teresa M.; Bang, EunJin; Andre, Thomas

2013-10-01

This paper presents a qualitative case analysis of a new and unique, high school, student-directed, project-based learning (PBL), virtual reality (VR) class. In order to create projects, students learned, on an independent basis, how to program an industrial-level VR machine. A constraint was that students were required to produce at least one educational application of VR. This study incorporated in-depth classroom observations, interviews with students, analyses of student projects, and surveys of parents and teachers to examine the social and learning processes in the class, and the nature of content learning represented in student projects. The results demonstrated that PBL can be effective even with minimal teacher guidance. The findings substantiate an educational approach rich with promise, for at least some students, that deserves considerable additional study to maximize its powerful potentials for independent and peer-mentored learning.

QuakeML: Status of the XML-based Seismological Data Exchange Format

Science.gov (United States)

Euchner, Fabian; Schorlemmer, Danijel; Kästli, Philipp; Quakeml Working Group

2010-05-01

QuakeML is an XML-based data exchange standard for seismology that is in its fourth year of active community-driven development. The current release (version 1.2) is based on a public Request for Comments process that included contributions from ETH, GFZ, USC, SCEC, USGS, IRIS DMC, EMSC, ORFEUS, GNS, ZAMG, BRGM, Nanometrics, and ISTI. QuakeML has mainly been funded through the EC FP6 infrastructure project NERIES, in which it was endorsed as the preferred data exchange format. Currently, QuakeML services are being installed at several institutions around the globe, including EMSC, ORFEUS, ETH, Geoazur (Europe), NEIC, ANSS, SCEC/SCSN (USA), and GNS Science (New Zealand). Some of these institutions already provide QuakeML earthquake catalog web services. Several implementations of the QuakeML data model have been made. QuakePy, an open-source Python-based seismicity analysis toolkit using the QuakeML data model, is being developed at ETH. QuakePy is part of the software stack used in the Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP) testing center installations, developed by SCEC. Furthermore, the QuakeML data model is part of the SeisComP3 package from GFZ Potsdam. QuakeML is designed as an umbrella schema under which several sub-packages are collected. The present scope of QuakeML 1.2 covers a basic description of seismic events including picks, arrivals, amplitudes, magnitudes, origins, focal mechanisms, and moment tensors. Work on additional packages (macroseismic information, seismic inventory, and resource metadata) has been started, but is at an early stage. Contributions from the community that help to widen the thematic coverage of QuakeML are highly welcome. Online resources: http://www.quakeml.org, http://www.quakepy.org

Evaluating the impact of a PBL-course for first-year engineering students learning through PBL-projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mosgaard, Mette; Spliid, Claus Monrad

2011-01-01

The PBL-course for engineering students at Aalborg University provides support for student-groups' project-work and collaborative learning when planning and conducting scientific problem-based project with societal relevance. The results of a survey among some of the groups indicate that the limi...... that the limited experience with the Aalborg PBL Model clearly affects groups' perception of importance of using different PBL-tools. Development of process-competencies depends upon facilitation of reflection and experimentation....

The West-African craton margin in eastern Senegal: a seismological study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dorbath, Catherine; Dorbath, Louis; Gaulon, Roland; Le Page, Alain

1983-01-01

A vertical short period seismological array was operated for six months in earstern Senegal. Large P wave travel-time anomalies are in fairly good relation with the gravity and geological features. Two-dimensional inversion of the data shows the existence of a major vertical discontinuity extending from the surface to 150-200 km depth. The other heterogeneities are mainly located in the crust and related to specific segments of the regional geology: craton, Mauritanides and Senegalo-Mauritanian basin. The main discontinuity dipping to the east is interpreted as the trace of an old subduction slab. We propose the following geodynamical process to explain the formation of the Mauritanides orogenic belt: continental collision after opening of a back-arc marginal basin in late Precambrian and its closure until Devonian

"Does Hope Change? Testing a Project-Based Health Intervention among Urban Students of Color"

Science.gov (United States)

Zusevics, Kaija L.; Johnson, Sheri

2014-01-01

Hope is positively correlated with educational attainment and health. Interventions based on project-based learning (PBL) may increase youth hope. This study examined how a PBL intervention affected hope among urban students of color. Students in health classes were invited to participate. A PBL health class was implemented in four classrooms. The…

Effects of Implementing STEM-I Project-Based Learning Activities for Female High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Lou, Shi-Jer; Tsai, Huei-Yin; Tseng, Kuo-Hung; Shih, Ru-Chu

2014-01-01

This study aims to explore the application of STEM-I (STEM-Imagination) project-based learning activities and its effects on the effectiveness, processes, and characteristics of STEM integrative knowledge learning and imagination development for female high school students. A total of 72 female high school students were divided into 18 teams.…

Microbial Murders Crime Scene Investigation: An Active Team-Based Learning Project that Enhances Student Enthusiasm and Comprehension of Clinical Microbial Pathogens.

Science.gov (United States)

Steel, J Jordan

2017-01-01

Microbial disease knowledge is a critical component of microbiology courses and is beneficial for many students' future careers. Microbiology courses traditionally cover core concepts through lectures and labs, but specific instruction on microbial diseases varies greatly depending on the instructor and course. A common project involves students researching and presenting a disease to the class. This method alone is not very effective, and course evaluations have consistently indicated that students felt they lacked adequate disease knowledge; therefore, a more hands-on and interactive disease project was developed called Microbial Murders. For this team-based project, a group of students chooses a pathogen, researches the disease, creates a "mugshot" of the pathogen, and develops a corresponding "crime scene," where a hypothetical patient has died from the microbe. Each group gives a presentation introducing the microbial pathogen, signs/symptoms, treatments, and overall characteristics. The students then visit each other's crime scenes to match the pathogen with the correct crime scene by critically thinking through the clues. This project has shown remarkable success. Surveys indicate that 73% of students thought the project helped them understand the material and 84% said it was worth their time. Student participation, excitement, understanding, and application of microbial disease knowledge have increased and are evident through an increase in course evaluations and in student assessment scores. This project is easy to implement and can be used in a wide variety of biology, microbiology, or health classes for any level (middle school through college).

Project work on wellbeing in multidisciplinary student teams : A triple testimonial on eps at artesis

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rohaert, S.; Baelus, C.; Lacko, D.

2012-01-01

The European Project Semester (EPS) programme offers an educational framework to support students to practice problem-and project-based cross-disciplinary product innovation and research, in small multidisciplinary and international teams. To explore the potential and the restrictions of this

Project-Based Social Justice Mathematics: A Case Study of Five 6th Grade Students

Science.gov (United States)

McHugh, Maighread L.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how five sixth grade female students navigated the process of project-based learning as they designed and implemented their own project centered on mathematics while using a social justice lens. The theoretical frameworks of Authentic Intellectual Work and Social Justice…

Extra! Extra! Read All about It! How to Construct a Newsletter: A Student Project

Science.gov (United States)

Renard, Monika; Tracy, Kay

2011-01-01

This article discusses a student project that highlights the value of printed employee newsletters as an internal communication tool for organizations. The project provides specific information and directions on how to develop an employee newsletter on human resource topics. Microsoft Word 2007 is used for newsletter formatting. The article also…

Student Team Projects in Information Systems Development: Measuring Collective Creative Efficacy

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Hsiu-Hua; Yang, Heng-Li

2011-01-01

For information systems development project student teams, learning how to improve software development processes is an important training. Software process improvement is an outcome of a number of creative behaviours. Social cognitive theory states that the efficacy of judgment influences behaviours. This study explores the impact of three types…

Increase Student Engagement through Project-Based Learning. Best Practices Newsletter

Science.gov (United States)

Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), 2015

2015-01-01

We learn by doing. This simple philosophy is at the heart of project-based learning in the 21st-century classroom. It is grounded in the belief that the stand and lecture approach to teaching, worksheets and rote memorization are not enough to move students down a path to the deep learning necessary for success in college and careers. Essential…

Seismological database for Banat seismic region (Romania) - Part 1: The parametric earthquake catalogue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oros, E.; Popa, M.; Moldovan, I. A.

2008-01-01

The most comprehensive seismological database for Banat seismic region (Romania) has been achieved. This paper refers to the essential characteristics of the first component of this database, namely the Parametric Earthquakes Catalogue for the Banat Seismic Region (PECBSR). PECBSR comprises 7783 crustal earthquakes (3 ≤ h ≤ 25 km) with 0.4 ≤ M i ≥ 5.6 (M i is M L , M D , M S , M W , Mm and/or mb from compiled sources) occurred in the Banat region and its surroundings between years 1443 and 2006. Different magnitude scales were converted into moment magnitude scale, Mw. The completeness of PECBSR strongly depends on the time. (authors)

The Impact of Project-Based Learning on Minority Student Achievement: Implications for School Redesign

Science.gov (United States)

Cervantes, Bernadine; Hemmer, Lynn; Kouzekanani, Kamiar

2015-01-01

Project-Based Learning (PBL) serves as an instructional approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in the investigation of real-world problems to create meaningful and relevant educational experiences. The causal-comparative study compared 7th and 8th students who had utilized the PBL with a comparison group in…

Web Based Projects Enhancing English Language and Generic Skills Development for Asian Hospitality Industry Students

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Mei-jung

2009-01-01

This study investigated hospitality students' responses toward their learning experiences from undertaking group projects based upon a College web platform, the "Ubiquitous Hospitality English Learning Platform" (U-HELP). Twenty-six students in the Department of Applied Foreign Languages participated in this study. Their attitudes toward…

Examining student conceptions of the nature of science from two project-based classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Moss, David M.

The purpose of this research was to develop descriptive accounts of precollege students' conceptions of the nature of science from two project-based classrooms, and track those conceptions over the course of an academic year. A model of the nature of science was developed and served as the criterion by which students' beliefs were evaluated. The model distinguishes between two major categories of science, the nature of the scientific enterprise and the nature of scientific knowledge. Five students were selected from each class and interviewed individually for 30-45 minutes each, six times over the year. Data from semi-structured, formal interviewing consisted of audio-recorded interviews which were transcribed verbatim. All passages were coded using codes which corresponded to the premises of the model of the nature of science. Passages in the transcripts were interpreted to develop a summary of the students' conceptions over the year. Qualitative methodologies, especially formal interviewing in conjunction with participant observation, were effective for uncovering students' conceptions of the nature of science, adding to the knowledge base in this field. The research design of the current study was a significant factor in explaining the inconsistencies seen between findings from this study and the literature. This study finds that participants at both classroom sites held fully formed conceptions of the nature of science for approximately 40 percent of the premises across the model. For two-thirds of the elements which comprise the premises, participants held full understandings. Participants held more complete understandings of the nature of scientific knowledge than the nature of the scientific enterprise. Most participants had difficulty distinguishing between science and non-science and held poor understandings of the role of questions in science. Students' beliefs generally remained unchanged over the year. When their conceptions did evolve, project

Students as agents – connecting faculty with industry and creating collaborative projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Lotte Bjerregaard

2015-01-01

Collaborative projects between partners in the building industry and students constitute important means for addressing more advanced parts of the CDIO Syllabus 4. In this paper an existing internship program is revised in order to enhance collaboration between industry and faculty...

Health Advocacy Project: Evaluating the Benefits of Service Learning to Nursing Students and Low Income Individuals Involved in a Community-Based Mental Health Promotion Project.

Science.gov (United States)

Samuels-Dennis, Joan; Xia, Liudi; Secord, Sandra; Raiger, Amelia

2016-10-08

Poverty, along with other factors such as unemployment, work and life stressors, interpersonal violence, and lack of access to high quality health and/or social services all play a role in determining who develops a mental illness and for whom those symptoms persist or worsen. Senior nursing student preparing to enter the field and working in a service learning capacity may be able to influence early recovery and symptom abatement among those most vulnerable to mental illness. A consortium of community stakeholders and researchers collaboratively designed a 10-week mental health promotion project called the Health Advocacy Project (HAP). The project combines case management and system navigation support delivered by trained and highly supervised nursing students to individuals experiencing major depressive disorder (MDD) and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this article, we present the findings of a qualitative fidelity evaluation that examines the effectiveness of nursing students in delivering the health advocacy intervention at the level and with the intensity originally intended. The findings demonstrate how the services of senior nursing students may be optimized to benefit our healthcare system and populations most at risk for developing MDD and PTSD.

25 Years of Research in Earth Physics and One Century of Seismology in Romania

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marmureanu, Gh.

2002-01-01

The conference '25 Years of Research in Earth Physics and One Century of Seismology in Romania' held at Bucharest, Romania on September 27-29, 2002 was structured as follows: 1. Keynote lectures (4 papers); Section 1 - Exchange of data and improvement of earthquake monitoring during the last 25 years (6 papers); Section 2 - Study of the seismic source (5 papers); Section 3 - Seismotectonics and geodynamics of the Carphato - Balkan area (16 papers); Section 4 - Seismic hazard assesment (14 papers); Section 5 - Earthquake prediction research (7 papers); Section 6 - Lessons from earthquake damage and policies for seismic risk mitigation (3 papers)

The Effect of Project-Based Learning on Students' Statistical Literacy Levels for Data Representation

Science.gov (United States)

Koparan, Timur; Güven, Bülent

2015-01-01

The point of this study is to define the effect of project-based learning approach on 8th Grade secondary-school students' statistical literacy levels for data representation. To achieve this goal, a test which consists of 12 open-ended questions in accordance with the views of experts was developed. Seventy 8th grade secondary-school students, 35…

QuakeML: Recent Development and First Applications of the Community-Created Seismological Data Exchange Standard

Science.gov (United States)

Euchner, F.; Schorlemmer, D.; Kästli, P.; Quakeml Group, T

2008-12-01

QuakeML is an XML-based exchange format for seismological data which is being developed using a community-driven approach. It covers basic event description, including picks, arrivals, amplitudes, magnitudes, origins, focal mechanisms, and moment tensors. Contributions have been made from ETH, GFZ, USC, SCEC, USGS, IRIS DMC, EMSC, ORFEUS, GNS, ZAMG, BRGM, and ISTI. The current release (Version 1.1, Proposed Recommendation) reflects the results of a public Request for Comments process which has been documented online at http://quakeml.org/RFC_BED_1.0. QuakeML has recently been adopted as a distribution format for earthquake catalogs by GNS Science, New Zealand, and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC). These institutions provide prototype QuakeML web services. Furthermore, integration of the QuakeML data model in the CSEP (Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability, http://www.cseptesting.org) testing center software developed by SCEC is under way. QuakePy is a Python- based seismicity analysis toolkit which is based on the QuakeML data model. Recently, QuakePy has been used to implement the PMC method for calculating network recording completeness (Schorlemmer and Woessner 2008, in press). Completeness results for seismic networks in Southern California and Japan can be retrieved through the CompletenessWeb (http://completenessweb.org). Future QuakeML development will include an extension for macroseismic information. Furthermore, development on seismic inventory information, resource identifiers, and resource metadata is under way. Online resources: http://www.quakeml.org, http://www.quakepy.org

Exploring the experiences of female students in introductory project-based engineering courses at two- and four-year institutions

Science.gov (United States)

Swan, Amy K.

2011-12-01

This qualitative study explored the experiential and contextual factors that shaped female students' pathways into introductory project-based engineering classes at two community colleges and one four-year institution, as well as female students' experiences within and outside of these classes. The study was framed by Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) (Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1996) and Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory. Findings were based on analyses of data gathered through multiple methods: observations; individual interviews with female students; focus group interviews with project teams; and document collection. The findings of this study revealed that while positive experiences with math or science were a likely pre-cursor to engineering interest, experiential learning appeared to be a more powerful force in fostering students' engineering interest. Specifically, participants developed an interest in engineering through academic, professional, and extracurricular engineering- and design-related activities that familiarized them with the tasks and skills involved in engineering work and helped them develop a sense of selfefficacy with regard to this work. Interest and self-efficacy, in turn, played a role in students' postsecondary educational decision-making processes, as did contextual factors including families and finances. This study's findings also showed that participants' project teams were a critically important microsystem within participants' ecological environments. Within this sometimes "chilly" microsystem, female students negotiated intrateam processes, which were in some cases affected by gender norms. Intrateam processes that influenced female students' project-based learning experiences included: interpersonal dynamics; leadership; and division of labor. This study also identified several ways in which the lived experiences of participants at the community colleges were different from, or similar to, those of participants

A Project-Based Engineering and Leadership Workshop for High School Students

Science.gov (United States)

Ryder, Linda Sue; Pegg, Jerine; Wood, Nathan

2012-01-01

Summer outreach programs provide pre-college participants an introduction to college life and exposure to engineering in an effort to raise the level of interest and bring more students into engineering fields. The Junior Engineering, Mathematics, and Science (JEMS) program is a project-based summer workshop in which teams of high school students…

Extending the Pathway: Building on a National Science Foundation Workforce Development Project for Underserved k-12 Students

Science.gov (United States)

Slattery, W.; Smith, T.

2014-12-01

With new career openings in the geosciences expected and a large number of presently employed geoscientists retiring in the next decade there is a critical need for a new cadre of geoscientists to fill these positions. A project funded by the National Science Foundation titled K-12 Students, Teachers, Parents, Administrators and Higher Education Faculty: Partners Helping Rural Disadvantaged Students Stay on the Pathway to a Geoscience Career involving Wright State University and the Ripley, Lewis, Union, Huntington k-12 school district in Appalachian Ohio took led to dozens of seventh and eighth grade students traveling to Sandy Hook, New Jersey for a one week field experience to study oceanography with staff of the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium. Teachers, parent chaperones, administrators and university faculty accompanied the students in the field. Teachers worked alongside their students in targeted professional development during the weeklong field experience. During the two academic years of the project, both middle school and high school teachers received professional development in Earth system science so that all students, not just those that were on the summer field experience could receive enhanced science learning. All ninth grade high school students were given the opportunity to take a high school/college dual credit Earth system science course. Community outreach provided widespread knowledge of the project and interest among parents to have their children participate. In addition, ninth grade students raised money themselves to fund a trip to the International Field Studies Forfar Field Station on Andros Island, Bahamas to study a tropical aquatic system. Students who before this project had never traveled outside of Ohio are currently discussing ways that they can continue on the pathway to a geoscience career by applying for internships for the summer between their junior and senior years. These are positive steps towards taking charge of their

The Acadia Learning Project: Lessons Learned from Engaging High School Teachers and Students in Citizen Science Supporting National Parks

Science.gov (United States)

Nelson, S. J.; Zoellick, B.; Davis, Y.; Lindsey, E.

2009-12-01

In 2007 the authors initiated a citizen science research project, supported with funding from the Maine Department of Education, designed to extend research at Acadia National Park to a broader geographic area while also providing high school students and teachers with an opportunity to engage in authentic research in cooperation with working scientists. The scientific focus of the work has been on providing information about the mercury burden of organisms at different trophic levels across different geographic and environmental settings. The pedagogical focus has been on providing students with immersion in a substantial, field-based project, including background research, hypothesis formulation, data collection and analysis, and presentation of research findings. Starting work with 6 teachers in two schools the first year, the project expanded to involve more than 20 teachers and 350 students in a dozen schools in its second year. In coming years, with support from NOAA and cooperation from other National Parks in the region, the project will expand to include work in other states along the coast of the Gulf of Maine. In this paper the authors describe evolution in the use of the Internet over the first two years of the project, a sharpened focus on professional development for teachers, survey results regarding student views of the nature of science, the importance of focusing on rigorous, useful data collection from an educational perspective, success in establishing that samples collected by students are useful in research, the disjuncture between scientific and pedagogical outcomes, an assessment of the value of student poster presentations, and lessons learned about preparation and use of curriculum support materials. The authors also describe future directions, which include an increased focus on professional development and student work with graphs, a narrower focus in sample collection, and increased use of the Internet to provide participating teachers

The structure and functions of an automated project management system for the centers of scientific and technical creativity of students

OpenAIRE

Dmitriev, V. M.; Gandzha, T. V.; Gandzha, V. V.; Panov, S. A.

2013-01-01

This article discusses the possibility of automating of the student's projecting through the use of automated project management system. There are described the purpose, structure and formalism of automated workplace of student-designer (AWSD), and shown its structural-functional diagram.

National Writing Project's Multimodal Literacies and Teacher Collaboration: Enhanced Student Learning on Global Social Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Iyengar, Kalpana; Hood, Caleb

2016-01-01

Iyengar and Hood, both teacher consultants with the San Antonio Writing Project (SAWP), and instructors of an undergraduate society and social issues class, collaborated to enhance their undergraduate students' writing experiences using the National Writing Project model (Lieberman & Wood, 2003). Iyengar and Hood used strategies such as…

Separation of Stochastic and Deterministic Information from Seismological Time Series with Nonlinear Dynamics and Maximum Entropy Methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gutierrez, Rafael M.; Useche, Gina M.; Buitrago, Elias

2007-01-01

We present a procedure developed to detect stochastic and deterministic information contained in empirical time series, useful to characterize and make models of different aspects of complex phenomena represented by such data. This procedure is applied to a seismological time series to obtain new information to study and understand geological phenomena. We use concepts and methods from nonlinear dynamics and maximum entropy. The mentioned method allows an optimal analysis of the available information

Teaching with Soap: Examples of Project-Based Units for Students and Future Educators

Science.gov (United States)

Farrell, Ivan; Hamed, Kastro M.

2016-01-01

This article describes the use of project-based instruction in activities and labs intended to develop higher-order thinking skills with high school students and pre-service teachers through the use of soap making.

From innovation to implementation - SME collaboration in student projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bridgwood, Ian

The Center for Bachelor of Engineering Studies at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Diplom) [1] provides B.Eng. programs with the Conceive Design Implement and Operate framework [2] as a central element. Courses are designed to be a source of innovation, particularly in relation to small a...... and medium sized enterprises (SME) in the region. The project based courses teach students to undertake the analysis, design and implementation of systems which are relevant to and in cooperation with SMEs....

Exploring Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations to Participate in a Crowdsourcing Project to Support Blind and Partially Sighted Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Layas, Fatma; Petrie, Helen

2016-01-01

There have been a number of crowdsourcing projects to support people with disabilities. However, there is little exploration of what motivates people to participate in such crowdsourcing projects. In this study we investigated how different motivational factors can affect the participation of people in a crowdsourcing project to support visually disabled students. We are developing "DescribeIT", a crowdsourcing project to support blind and partially students by having sighted people describe images in digital learning resources. We investigated participants' behavior of the DescribeIT project using three conditions: one intrinsic motivation condition and two extrinsic motivation conditions. The results showed that participants were significantly intrinsically motivated to participate in the DescribeIT project. In addition, participants' intrinsic motivation dominated the effect of the two extrinsic motivational factors in the extrinsic conditions.

Experience and Methodology gained from 4 years of Student Satellite Projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alminde, Lars; Bisgaard, Morten; Bhanderi, Dan

2005-01-01

The AAU Cubesat student satellite project at Aalborg University was initiated in September 2001 and led to the launch of the satellite on the 30th of June 2003 with a “Rockot” rocket from Plesetsk in Russia. The satellite survived three months in orbit and based on the experiences gained the next...

University of Houston Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Projects

Science.gov (United States)

Bering, E. A., III; Talbot, R. W.; Hampton, D. L.; Molders, N.; Millan, R. M.; Halford, A. J.; Dunbar, B.; Morris, G. A.; Prince, J.; Gamblin, R.; Ehteshami, A.; Lehnen, J. N.; Greer, M.; Porat, I.; Alozie, M.; Behrend, C. C.; Bias, C.; Fenton, A.; Gunawan, B.; Harrison, W.; Martinez, A.; Mathur, S.; Medillin, M.; Nguyen, T.; Nguyen, T. V.; Nowling, M.; Perez, D.; Pham, M.; Pina, M.; Thomas, G.; Velasquez, B.; Victor, L.

2017-12-01

The Undergraduate Student Instrumentation Project (USIP) is a NASA program to engage undergraduate students in rigorous scientific research, for the purposes of innovation and developing the next generation of professionals for an array of fields. The program is student led and executed from initial ideation to research to the design and deployment of scientific payloads. The University of Houston has been selected twice to participate in the USIP programs. The first program (USIP_UH I) ran from 2013 to 2016. USIP_UH II started in January of 2016, with funding starting at the end of May. USIP_UH I (USIP_UH II) at the University of Houston was (is) composed of eight (seven) research teams developing six (seven), distinct, balloon-based scientific instruments. These instruments will contribute to a broad range of geophysical sciences from Very Low Frequency recording and Total Electron Content to exobiology and ozone profiling. USIP_UH I had 12 successful launches with 9 recoveries from Fairbanks, AK in March 2015, and 4 piggyback flights with BARREL 3 from Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden in August, 2015. USIP_UH II had 8 successful launches with 5 recoveries from Fairbanks, AK in March 2017, 3 piggyback flights with BARREL 4 from Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden in August, 2016, and 1 flight each from CSBF and UH. The great opportunity of this program is capitalizing on the proliferation of electronics miniaturization to create new generations of scientific instruments that are smaller and lighter than ever before. This situation allows experiments to be done more cheaply which ultimately allows many more experiments to be done.

Soil and its selected properties on the example of an individual project for the grade 1 students of upper secondary school

Science.gov (United States)

Krzeczkowska, Małgorzata

2014-05-01

According to the requirements of the new core curriculum for Chemistry, students shall acquire knowledge through research and use the acquired chemical knowledge in their everyday life. However, in the recommended conditions and mode of implementation of the curriculum it is confirmed, that students' autonomous observation constitutes a basis for experiencing, inferences, analysis, and generalisations of phenomena [1]. It is obvious that teachers should create proper didactic situations, during which school students have a possibility to develop attitudes, skills and competences. More about competences we can find in the recommendations of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning [2]. The detailed content of the core curriculum for the subject of chemistry at the fourth stage of education (basic level), we read: "4. Chemistry of soil. Student: 1) explains what the sorption properties of the soil are; plans and performs .... study of the sorption properties of the soil. " In the school year 2012/2013 chemistry teachers decided to offer students of a first-class to be involved in the project "Soil in the chemist's eye." It was considered that the method of the project is known from lower secondary school level and the teacher will have an opportunity to recognize students, who in the future, will choose the class with advanced chemistry program and determine the level of their skills, in particular the research skills. What we can offer to students does not necessarily take place in a well-equipped chemical laboratory. On the contrary, this process should be based on the well-known school subjects items, articles, objects and phenomena, which students meet in everyday life. The well-chosen methodologies and ways of showing the world will be, more understandable and skills will become a permanent part of the students, knowledge. Project characterization: a) The proposed project is problem-oriented, in

Analyzing the Impact of the 2012 Ford Focus Target Hunt: Can Student Managed Projects Accomplish Both Academic and Corporate Objectives?

Science.gov (United States)

Aurand, Timothy W.; St. Clair, Jordan; Sullivan, Ursula

2012-01-01

Student-managed business projects offer students the opportunity to garner valuable real world experience while businesses can fulfill corporate responsibilities utilizing relatively inexpensive manpower. This paper describes an event marketing/social media marketing project completed in conjunction with Jackson-Dawson Communications, representing…

The Effects of an Experiential Service-Learning Project on Residential Interior Design Students' Attitudes toward Design and Community

Science.gov (United States)

Gomez-Lanier, Lilia

2016-01-01

This mixed research methods study explores whether project-based service-learning projects promote greater learning than standard project-based projects and whether introduced earlier into the curriculum promotes a greater student understanding of the world issues affecting their community. The present study focused on comparing sophomore and…

Students Dig Deep in the Mystery Soil Lab: A Playful, Inquiry-Based Soil Laboratory Project

Science.gov (United States)

Thiet, Rachel K.

2014-01-01

The Mystery Soil Lab, a playful, inquiry-based laboratory project, is designed to develop students' skills of inquiry, soil analysis, and synthesis of foundational concepts in soil science and soil ecology. Student groups are given the charge to explore and identify a "Mystery Soil" collected from a unique landscape within a 10-mile…

Service and the Millennial Business Student: The Motivating Influence of an E-Book Class Project

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, William W.

2017-01-01

A commitment to voluntary service that benefits others was reinforced for students who authored an e-book on service as a class project in a senior business course. The immersive experience of writing short essays that focused on service shifted students' motivations toward service and solidified their intentions to continue with service after…

The SOURCE Demonstration Project: Helping Disadvantaged High School Students Enroll in College

Science.gov (United States)

Bos, Johannes; Berman, Jacqueline

2009-01-01

The primary research question for this project was whether a streamlined, relatively inexpensive, counseling-based program that assists low-income high school students with the college and financial application processes can significantly increase college enrollment rates. The intervention was designed to test the hypothesis that lack of…

Student evaluation of research projects in a first-year physics laboratory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sharma, Manjula D; Mendez, Alberto; Sefton, Ian M; Khachan, Joe

2014-01-01

We describe the evaluation by students of a scheme of open-ended, research-based group project work which has become a standard component of first-year physics courses at the University of Sydney and is now in its 19th year of operation. Data were gathered from two sources: direct observations of the classes and a written survey. A summary of the classroom observations and the results from a detailed analysis of the survey responses are presented. The feedback from the cohort of approximately 800 students is largely positive but we identify a few discrepancies between stated course goals and the results from the survey. (paper)

Severity Classification of a Seismic Event based on the Magnitude-Distance Ratio Using Only One Seismological Station

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luis Hernán Ochoa Gutiérrez

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Seismic event characterization is often accomplished using algorithms based only on information received at seismological stations located closest to the particular event, while ignoring historical data received at those stations. These historical data are stored and unseen at this stage. This characterization process can delay the emergency response, costing valuable time in the mitigation of the adverse effects on the affected population. Seismological stations have recorded data during many events that have been characterized by classical methods, and these data can be used as previous "knowledge" to train such stations to recognize patterns. This knowledge can be used to make faster characterizations using only one three-component broadband station by applying bio-inspired algorithms or recently developed stochastic methods, such as kernel methods. We trained a Support Vector Machine (SVM algorithm with seismograph data recorded by INGEOMINAS's National Seismological Network at a three-component station located near Bogota, Colombia. As input model descriptors, we used the following: (1 the integral of the Fourier transform/power spectrum for each component, divided into 7 windows of 2 seconds and beginning at the P onset time, and (2 the ratio between the calculated logarithm of magnitude (Mb and epicentral distance. We used 986 events with magnitudes greater than 3 recorded from late 2003 to 2008. The algorithm classifies events with magnitude-distance ratios (a measure of the severity of possible damage caused by an earthquake greater than a background value. This value can be used to estimate the magnitude based on a known epicentral distance, which is calculated from the difference between P and S onset times. This rapid (< 20 seconds magnitude estimate can be used for rapid response strategies. The results obtained in this work confirm that many hypocentral parameters and a rapid location of a seismic event can be obtained using a few

Improvement of Student Critical Thinking Skills with the Natural Product Mini Project Laboratory Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aliefman Hakim

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This research aims to investigate effect of learning using natural product mini project laboratory on students’ critical thinking skills. The research was conducted on sixth semester of 59 students of chemistry and chemistry education program from one of the state universities in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia in 2012/2013. This research revealed class where the student learn using natural product mini project laboratory had more critical thinking skills than those using verification laboratory. The average n-gain of critical thinking skills for experiment class was 0.58 while for the control class was 0.37. The highest n-gain in the experiment class was 0.70 for “deciding on an action (selecting criteria to judge possible solutions indicators”, while the smallest n-gain was 0.47 for “the making and judging value of judgments (balancing, weighing, and deciding indicators. We concluded that the natural product mini project laboratory was better than verification laboratory in improving the students’ critical thinking skills.

Pathway to Graduation: A Pilot Reading Project for Middle School Students during the Summer Months

Science.gov (United States)

Hilsmier, Amanda Strong; Wood, Patricia F.; Wirt, Susan; McTamney, Diane; Malone, Mary Beth; Milstead, Becky

2014-01-01

The purpose of this article is to outline the implementation of a summer reading project targeted at middle school students with identified reading deficits and behavioral concerns called Pathway to Graduation (PTG). The project was a collaborative process between a school district, local university, and department of mental health. The students…

Sustainable Seas Student Intertidal Monitoring Project, Duxbury Reef, Bolinas, CA

Science.gov (United States)

Soave, K.; Dean, A.; Prescutti, K.; Ball, O.; Chang, E.; Darakananda, K.; Jessup, K.; Poutian, J.; Schwalbe, H.; Storm, E.

2008-12-01

The Sustainable Seas Student Monitoring Project at the Branson School in Ross, CA has monitored Duxbury Reef in Bolinas, CA since 1999, in cooperation with the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association and the Gulf of Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Goals of the project include: 1) To monitor the rocky intertidal habitat and develop a baseline database of invertebrates and algal density and abundance; 2) To contribute to the conservation of the rocky intertidal habitat through education of students and visitors about intertidal species and requirements for maintaining a healthy, diverse intertidal ecosystem; 3) To increase stewardship in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary; and 4) To contribute abundance and population data on key algae and invertebrate species to the national database, LiMPETS (Long Term Monitoring Program and Experiential Training for Students). Student volunteers complete an intensive training course on the natural history of intertidal invertebrates and algae, identification of key species, rocky intertidal ecology, interpretation and monitoring techniques, and history of the sanctuary. Students identify and count key invertebrate and algae species along two permanent transects (A and B), and using randomly determined points within a permanent 100 m2 area, three times per year (fall, winter, and late spring). Using the data collected since 2004, we will analyze the population densities of aggregating anemones, Anthopleura elegantissima, for seasonal abundance variations as well as long-term population trends. We will also follow the seasonal and long-term population fluctuations of red algal turf, Endocladia muricata and Gelidium coulteri, and black turban snails, Tegula funebralis. Comparing populations of turf algae and the herbivorous black turban snails gathered before and after the November 7, 2007 San Francisco Bay oil spill shows very little impact on the Duxbury Reef intertidal inhabitants. Future analyses will

Characterization of Material Properties at Brady Hot Springs, Nevada by Inverse Modeling of Data from Seismology, Geodesy, and Hydrology

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Wang, H. F.; Feigl, K. L.; Patterson, J.; Parker, L.; Reinisch, E. C.; Zeng, X.; Cardiff, M. A.; Fratta, D.; Lord, N. E.; Thurber, C. H.; Robertson, M.; Miller, D. E.; Akerley, J.; Kreemer, C.; Morency, C.; Davatzes, N. C.

2017-12-01

The PoroTomo project consists of poroelastic tomography by adjoint inverse modeling of data from seismology, geodesy, and hydrology. The goal of the PoroTomo project is to assess an integrated technology for characterizing and monitoring changes in the rock mechanical properties of an enhanced geothermal system in 3 dimensions with a spatial resolution better than 50 meters. In March 2016, we deployed the integrated technology in a 1500-by-500-by-400-meter volume at Brady. The 15-day deployment included 4 distinct time intervals with intentional manipulations of the pumping rates in injection and production wells. The data set includes: active seismic sources, fiber-optic cables for Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) arranged vertically in a borehole to 400 m depth and horizontally in a trench 8700 m in length and 0.5 m in depth; 244 seismometers on the surface, 3 pressure sensors in observation wells, continuous geodetic measurements at 3 GPS stations, and 7 InSAR acquisitions. To account for the mechanical behavior of both the rock and the fluids, we are developing numerical models for the 3-D distribution of the material properties. We present an overview of results, including:Tomographic images of P-wave velocity estimated from seismic body waves [Thurber et al., this meeting].Tomographic images of phase velocity estimated from ambient noise correlation functions [Zeng et al., this meeting].Models of volumetric contraction to account for subsidence observed by InSAR and GPS [Reinisch et al., this meeting].Interpretation of pressure and temperature data [Patterson et al., this meeting].Taken together, these results support a conceptual model of highly permeable conduits along faults channeling fluids from shallow aquifers to the deep geothermal reservoir tapped by the production wells. The PoroTomo project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The cost and value of pre-registration clinical placements for Project 2000 students.

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Jones, M L; Akehurst, R

1999-07-01

The research outlined in this article was commissioned by the Sheffield and North Trent College of Nursing and Midwifery to explore the cost implications of pre-registration clinical placements in the context of Project 2000. The authors outline the methodology and findings of an exercise designed to collect relevant cost information which was not readily available. On the basis of these findings, they suggest that: at 1995/1996 pay and prices, clinical placements cost the education provider approximately pound 890 per student per annum; in terms of real resources, the value to service providers of the service contribution made by second- and third-year nursing and midwifery students on ward-based placements outweighs the value of the time spent by qualified staff on their supervision and education. Once the funding assumptions underlying the introduction of Project 2000 have been taken into account, second- and third-year nursing and midwifery students benefit the service provider by on average pound 3.46 for every hour they spend in an unrostered ward-based placement. The service contribution made by students in community-based clinical placements cannot free staff time in the same way as on the wards and, because qualified staff in these areas are generally more highly graded, the value of the time they spend on the supervision and education of students on placement is higher than in ward-based placements. Second- and third-year students therefore appear to cost the service provider on average pound 0.48 for each hour they spend in a community-based placement. It was not possible to determine whether this cost translates into a reduction in patient contacts.

Comenius Project: Are e-Learning Collaborations of High School Students across Europe in Maths Possible?

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Simonovits, Reinhard; McElroy, Jim; O'Loughlin, James; Townsend, Colin

2013-01-01

The overall aim of the project is to allow for the collaboration of high school students of different European countries on small, selected maths topics. This involves the use of technology, student mobility and English language competency. Benefits are also expected to accrue to teachers of mathematics by providing the opportunity to work with…

Affordances of students' using the World Wide Web as a publishing medium in project-based learning environments

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Bos, Nathan Daniel

This dissertation investigates the emerging affordance of the World Wide Web as a place for high school students to become authors and publishers of information. Two empirical studies lay groundwork for student publishing by examining learning issues related to audience adaptation in writing, motivation and engagement with hypermedia, design, problem-solving, and critical evaluation. Two models of student publishing on the World Wide Web were investigated over the course of two 11spth grade project-based science curriculums. In the first curricular model, students worked in pairs to design informative hypermedia projects about infectious diseases that were published on the Web. Four case studies were written, drawing on both product- and process-related data sources. Four theoretically important findings are illustrated through these cases: (1) multimedia, especially graphics, seemed to catalyze some students' design processes by affecting the sequence of their design process and by providing a connection between the science content and their personal interest areas, (2) hypermedia design can demand high levels of analysis and synthesis of science content, (3) students can learn to think about science content representation through engagement with challenging design tasks, and (4) students' consideration of an outside audience can be facilitated by teacher-given design principles. The second Web-publishing model examines how students critically evaluate scientific resources on the Web, and how students can contribute to the Web's organization and usability by publishing critical reviews. Students critically evaluated Web resources using a four-part scheme: summarization of content, content, evaluation of credibility, evaluation of organizational structure, and evaluation of appearance. Content analyses comparing students' reviews and reviewed Web documents showed that students were proficient at summarizing content of Web documents, identifying their publishing

[Doctoral thesis projects for medical students? Retrospective estimation of the fraction of successfully completed medical doctoral thesis projects at Witten/Herdecke University].

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Scharfenberg, Janna; Schaper, Katharina; Krummenauer, Frank

2014-01-01

The German "Dr med" plays a specific role in doctoral thesis settings since students may start the underlying doctoral project during their studies at medical school. If a Medical Faculty principally encourages this approach, then it should support the students in performing the respective projects as efficiently as possible. Consequently, it must be ensured that students are able to implement and complete a doctoral project in parallel to their studies. As a characteristic efficiency feature of these "Dr med" initiatives, the proportion of doctoral projects successfully completed shortly after graduating from medical school is proposed and illustrated. The proposed characteristic can be estimated by the time period between the state examination (date of completion of the qualifying medical examination) and the doctoral examination. Completion of the doctoral project "during their medical studies" was then characterised by a doctoral examination no later than 12 months after the qualifying medical state examination. To illustrate the estimation and interpretation of this characteristic, it was retrospectively estimated on the basis of the full sample of all doctorates successfully completed between July 2009 and June 2012 at the Department of Human Medicine at the Faculty of Health of the University of Witten/Herdecke. During the period of investigation defined, a total number of 56 doctoral examinations were documented, 30 % of which were completed within 12 months after the qualifying medical state examination (95% confidence interval 19 to 44 %). The median duration between state and doctoral examination was 27 months. The proportion of doctoral projects completed parallel to the medical studies increased during the investigation period from 14 % in the first year (July 2009 till June 2010) to 40 % in the third year (July 2011 till June 2012). Only about a third of all "Dr med" projects at the Witten/Herdecke Faculty of Health were completed during or close to

ITEAMS: An Out-Of-School Time Project to Promote Gain in Fundamental Science Content and Enhance Interest in STEM Careers for Middle School Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaimie L. Miller

2011-08-01

Full Text Available We report preliminarily on the efficacy of an innovative, STEM education project for middle-school youth participating in outof- school-time programs, targeting girls and students from underrepresented communities. Participating students attend urban schools in Eastern Massachusetts. The two main goals for the technology-based project are to inspire the participants to consider STEM careers and increase the student mastery of fundamental STEM subject matter. The students control robotic telescopes – either from school or home – to acquire and then process images of solar system and deep space objects. Project teachers attend workshops to become adept at using the robotic telescopes, meet weekly with the students, pilot project curricula, collaborate with staff to plan and supervise field trips and star parties, and assist in all project evaluation. There are both academic and non-academic partners; the latter include amateur astronomers and retired engineers. We use an online system to evaluate teacher and student subject matter knowledge and survey students and parents about STEM careers.

Raising the Bar: Challenging Students in a Capstone Project Course with an Android and Mobile Web Parallel Development Team Project

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Wong, Wilson; Pepe, James; Englander, Irv

2017-01-01

Information systems capstone projects aim to prepare students for what they will encounter in the industry after graduation. Corporate application development is often a complex endeavor that requires coordination between related products. For example, software development in the mobile application sector may require a coordinated parallel…

The Effect of Project Based Learning on Seventh Grade Students' Academic Achievement

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Kizkapan, Oktay; Bektas, Oktay

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a significant effect of project based learning approach on seventh grade students' academic achievement in the structure and properties of matter. In the study, according to the characteristics of quantitative research methods, pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design was…