II. Missouri S&T: Designed for success
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III. POLITICAL HOTLINE
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DEVOS’S ‘CRINGE-INDUCING’ 60 MINUTES INTERVIEW
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s road to the Trump administration ran through Michigan, where for years she used her family fortune—her husband is billionaire Amway heir Dick DeVos and her father was a billionaire car-parts supplier—to promote charter schools (including religious-affiliated ones) and voucher payment systems for public schools. The theory behind school choice is that the free market can improve struggling public schools when they have to compete for funding with private ones. That hasn’t really worked out in Michigan, however. Earlier this month, when DeVos appeared on 60 Minutes for a tough interview with Lesley Stahl, the secretary’s performance was widely panned, even by Republicans. When Stahl asked DeVos if
Michigan’s public schools have gotten better since being subjected to more competition, she replied: “I don’t know. I, I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better.” She also admitted she “intentionally” avoided visiting the state’s worst schools, then added, “maybe I should.” DeVos also said that the federal government had gotten “zero results” despite having “invested billions and billions and billions of dollars” in public schools. But Stahl countered that student test scores have climbed in the last 25 years. Republican activist and commentator Ana Navarro tweeted: “I had not seen a TV interview so cringe-inducing since Sarah Palin saw Russia from her backyard.”
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STUDENT POLL: BALANCING FREE SPEECH, INCLUSIVITY IS HARD
Free speech is a constitutional right, but it’s become more of a political issue on college campuses in recent years as appearances of some controversial speakers have sparked raucous protests and attempts by students to shut them down. And a new Gallup-Knight Foundation survey of 3,000 students finds, as the New York Times reports, that students seem to be wrestling over how to embrace free speech while still having more inclusive campuses. Nearly 90 percent called First Amendment rights very or extremely important, but more than 80 percent also said it’s important to promote a more inclusive and diverse society. Overall, free speech won out over inclusivity by a 53 percent to 46 percent margin, but there were partisan differences. A majority of
Democrats, women and minorities said inclusivity was more important, independents were evenly split, but 69 percent of Republicans favored free speech. A majority of students from all backgrounds, 70 percent overall, said hate speech doesn’t deserve constitutional protection. And there was strong support—even from Republicans—for “safe spaces” for students who want to avoid having to deal with upsetting issues. Seventy percent of Republicans supported the zones. There was also strong agreement—92 percent—that liberals are free to speak their minds on campuses, but only 69 percent thought that was true for conservatives, a finding that Democrats agreed with, as well.
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IV. INNOVATIONS
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U.K. STARTUP DEVELOPS ENERGY-DENSE SUPERCAPACITOR
New technologies have greatly improved battery storage and are bringing down costs, as well. But many researchers think the Holy Grail of power storage is supercapacitors. They use a static charge, instead of chemicals, to store energy. Accordingly, supercapacitors are quick to charge and discharge—think seconds—and aren’t depleted by use, so they have long life cycles. Their main problem is energy density, or lack thereof. As Wired reports, the best ones hold a mere 5 percent of the energy per kilogram of a lithium ion battery. But Superdielectrics, a British startup with links to the universities of Surrey and Bristol, says it’s developed a supercapacitor that can store huge amounts of energy. One of the founders is Donald Highgate, who
back in the 1970s developed a polymer mesh that made contact lenses more comfortable because it was flexible, transparent, and retained water. More recently, Highgate was working with colleagues to make a version of the polymer for biomedical devices that was electrically conductive. They stumbled on a variant material that has dielectric properties 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than existing conductors, Wired says. Moreover, it’s mainly composed of water, so is cheap to make and, unlike batteries, isn’t a potential fire hazard. The company says it expects to produce a version with energy densities of up to 180 watt-hours per kilogram, similar to those of lithium ion batteries, that could be charged in a matter of seconds. One problem that needs to resolved: leakage. Batteries can retain most of their stored energy for weeks or months, but energy stored in
supercapacitors can drain away in hours or days. For cars, the solution may be having a small battery pack onboard to provide back-up power.
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AWARD-WINNERS INCLUDE WEATHER APP, JAUNDICE THERAPY
Cornell University’s recent Engineering Innovation Award Competition is an annual showcase for student teams. This year’s was the first time it was expanded outside the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and it produced some interesting winners, ranging from the fun to the serious. Brella is a personalized weather app that checks out the local weather and suggests what clothes to wear. It’s already available in Apple’s App Store and is supported by Amazon’s intelligent device, Alexa. Iko One is a smart, tabletop herb garden: Users just put in preseeded pods and add water, and Iko One uses light and temperature measurements to allow for the best growing conditions. Xboard is an electric skateboard that’s been engineered to
perform tricks. Motors and batteries are hidden within its deck of composite carbon fiber, and they can propel it from zero to 20 m.p.h. in just 50 feet. Geofloc is a water-filtration system for municipal plants that eschews using gravity to filter sand and sediments from drinking water. Instead it uses vertical jets that shunt the water upward, which suspends clumps of sediment in the middle portion of a filtration tank. Another winner was a portable, inexpensive, and easy-to-use jaundice phototherapy device that can treat infants who have the potentially dangerous ailment. Current devices shine light on a baby’s skin to treat to jaundice, but many communities in developing nations don’t have access to them. This device could be used in those areas where hospital treatment isn’t readily available.
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V. THE K-12 REPORT
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OLDEST STUDENTS IN A CLASS HAVE SLIGHT ADVANTAGE
Students who are a bit old for their grade are more likely to attend college, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association. Researchers at Australian Catholic University tracked more than 10,000 Australian students over a decade, and found that age difference had modest though significant effects. Fifty-eight percent of students who were nearly a year too old for their grade went on to enroll in college, while only 52 percent of their younger peers pursued higher education. “Being young for your grade really does lead to lower academic self-confidence, especially in math, even accounting for students’ actual performance in those subjects,” Associate Professor of Psychology Philip D. Parker, the study’s lead author,
tells Science Daily.
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EX-EDUCATION SECRETARY JOINS TURNITIN BOARD
Arne Duncan, the former U.S. education secretary for much of the Obama administration, has joined the board of Turnitin, an Oakland, Calif., education technology company that provides services that include writing help, literacy skill development, and plagiarism-checking software, according to THE Journal. According to the company’s website, its products are used by more than 30 million students at 15,000 institutions in 150 countries. Duncan, who previously ran the Chicago Public Schools system, was education secretary from January 2009 to December 2015, and is noted for pushing all U.S. states to adopt the Common Core Standards. But he drew some enmity from teachers’ unions for promoting the use of student test data to evaluate teachers and schools.
Duncan is also a managing partner at the Emerson Collective, a nonprofit that focuses on education, immigration reform, the environment, and other social-justice initiatives, THE Journal says, and is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
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VI. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS |
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VII. COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS |
2018 ASEE ELECTION WINNERS
PRESIDENT-ELECT - Stephanie G. Adams, Dean of the Batten College of Engineering and Technology, Old Dominion University;
VICE PRESIDENT MEMBER AFFAIRS - Gary Steffen, Associate Professor and Department Chair
Indiana University, Purdue University Fort Wayne
CHAIR-ELECT, ZONE I - Pritpal Singh, Professor and Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Villanova University
CHAIR-ELECT, ZONE III
- Kenneth W. Van Treuren, Associate Dean, Research and Faculty Development; Interim Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Baylor University
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AEEE SYMPOSIUM SET FOR BALTIMORE AT END OF MAY
The 2nd Annual Advancing Excellence in P-12 Engineering Education (AEEE) symposium will be held May 29–31, 2018 in Baltimore, Md. The symposium, and larger AEEE project, seek to: (a) promote collaboration to pursue a vision/direction for P-12 Engineering Education; and (b) develop a coherent content framework for scaffolding the teaching of engineering and design at the high school level. After hearing from national leaders, symposium participants will work in breakout groups to review and refine the Progressions of Learning in Engineering and recommend culturally-relevant engineering instructional vignettes and
activities. Additional details are available at https://www.iteea.org/Activities/2142/AEEE_P12/130242/130249.aspx
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NEW TUEE PHASE II WEBINAR SERIES—PPREPARING TOMORROW’S ENGINEERS (MARCH/APRIL 2018)
This free, NSF-supported webinar series explores specific in-class exercises and activities that faculty can implement to help develop student professional skills. Individual webinars focus on leadership, ethics, and critical thinking/reflection skills. This series is inspired by the TUEE (Transforming Undergraduate Education in Engineering) Phase II workshop, during which students shared insights on their education experiences. Learn more and sign up now: https://www.asee.org/webinars
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STATEMENT SUPPORTING SCHOLARLY RESEARCH ON DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN STEM
Over the past year, there has been a proliferation of targeted attacks on scholarly work that addresses diversity and inclusion in STEM education, including work in engineering education specifically. Many of these attacks have appeared on conservative outlets and in broader alt-right media and social media networks. When specific faculty members are targeted, they and their colleagues are often subject to harassing and threatening calls, emails, tweets, and more. ASEE supports our members and all academic researchers in the face of these attacks on academic freedom. Read the full statement here.
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VIII. SOUND OFF |
Do you have a comment or suggestion for Connections?
Please let us know. Email us at: connections@asee.org. Thanks.
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