Indianapolis, Indiana
June 15, 2014
June 15, 2014
June 18, 2014
2153-5965
Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies
NSF Grantees Poster Session
24
24.870.1 - 24.870.24
10.18260/1-2--22803
https://peer.asee.org/22803
607
Dr. Ehlig-Economides has been full professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University in the Albert B. Stevens endowed chair since 2004. Before that she worked for Schlumberger for 20 years in well test design and interpretation, integrated reservoir characterization, modern well construction design, and well stimulation. She has worked in more than 30 countries and authored more than 60 papers. Dr. Ehlig-Economides has received a number of technical awards in including the SPE Formation Evaluation and Lester C. Uren Awards and the Anthony Lucas Gold Medal, and she was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2003. She is currently a member of the National Academy Board on Energy and Environmental Systems (BEES). She is developing courses and academic programs in Energy Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Bugrahan Yalvac is an associate professor of science and engineering education in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M University, College Station. He received his Ph.D. in science education at the Pennsylvania State University in 2005. Prior to his current position, he worked as a learning scientist for the VaNTH Engineering Research Center at Northwestern University for three years. Yalvac’s research is in STEM education, 21st century skills, and design and evaluation of learning environments informed by the How People Learn framework.
Emily (Binks) Cantrell, Ph.D., is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Reading and Language Arts at Texas A&M University - College Station, where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in reading and ESL, co-directs the Texas A&M Reading Clinic, and also serves as the adviser for the Aggie Storytelling Association. She has published widely and presents at international conferences on a regular basis, with her most recent publication entitled "Peter Effect in the Preparation of Reading Teachers" in Scientific Studies of Reading. She is actively involved with the International Dyslexia Association, serving as a reviewer of teacher preparation programs and founding/advising the local Brazos Valley chapter. Prior to returning to A&M (where she received all three of her degrees and obtained her Reading Specialist, Master Reading Teacher, and EC-6 Generalist Classroom Teacher certifications), Dr. Cantrell lived and worked at the University of Hull in England for several years as an Assistant Professor and Research Coordinator and also taught first grade in a small, rural school district in central Texas. Outside of her work at A&M, Dr. Cantrell is also a consultant for both the Neuhaus Education Center in Houston and the Region VI Education Service Center in Huntsville. In addition to delivering professional development seminars for Neuhaus and Region VI, she serves as the Knowledgeable and Skilled Teachers of Reading (KASTOR) coordinator for Neuhaus, in which she closely mentors new teachers throughout the greater Houston area. Dr. Cantrell is a firm believer that teachers are the most powerful tool in the education system and is passionate about increasing the quality of preparation and support teachers receive in order to meet the diverse needs of their students.
Dr. Sarma V. Pisupati is an Associate professor in the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering and Program Chair of Energy Engineering Program at Penn State.
Don is a professional project manager and a licensed software engineer. He provides project management consulting and mentoring to clients across Texas A&M University. He has contributed to the University's project management methodologies, frameworks, tools, and curriculum. Don was a published game developer, with over a dozen titles ranging from Orbiter in 1985 to Harpoon 3 Professional in 2012.
Dr. Reza Toossi is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at CSULB. He received his B.S. degree from the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. He continued his Post Doctoral research studies in the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and joined the CSULB faculty in 1981. Dr. Toossi has worked both as a research scientist and a consultant on various projects related to aqueous aerosols and droplets in the atmosphere, nuclear safety, sensor design, air pollution modeling, flame propagation, fluid mechanics, and fiber optics.
Dr. Toossi has successfully managed over $6 M in research contracts from various private and Government agencies, holds two patents and has published a book on energy and in various peered and refereed journals. His current research interests are in hydrogen storage systems, combustion-generated soot emission, sorption refrigeration, hybrid-electric vehicle design, and renewable energy systems.
Dr. Toossi is a member of ASME, ASEE, SAE, SPIE, AAPT, and Tau Beta Pi, and the recipient of the 2001 CSULB Distinguished Faculty Teaching, 1995 CSULB Distinguished Faculty Scholarly and Creative Achievement, and 1994/1995 TRW Excellence in Teaching awards.
Prof. Sukesh Aghara is an Associated Professor in the Chemical and Nuclear Engineering Department at University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is a NASA Administrator’s Fellow at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). Dr. Aghara has over 12 years of experience in development and teaching of a variety of courses in nuclear engineering and chemical engineering discipline. He was responsible for conceptualization, development and implementation of the nuclear engineering concentration and the energy engineering minor at the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering.
He has served as PI/Director of the $5 million NSF CREST Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, the Director for Panther Pipeline Project, Scientific Lead for the Radiation Transport Group with NASA Center for Radiation Engineering and Science for Space Exploration (CRESSE). He has been a visiting scientist to NASA LaRC and Nuclear Science and Technology Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He served as a member of the ANS delegation to India for nuclear collaboration and visited French Nuclear facilities as part of a US group of nuclear engineering professor.
His research expertise includes radiation shielding analysis and experimental design, applications of nuclear analytical techniques, nuclear energy, security and safeguards.
Professor in Teaching, Learning and Culture and Education Administration and Human Development
Dr. Mehmet C. Ayar is a scientific programs expert in the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). He received his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with specialization in STEM education at Texas A&M University in 2012. His research is in ethnographic studies of science and engineering practice, curriculum development, design of learning environments, and robotics activities. Dr. Ayar worked for the Live Energy Project during his Ph.D. studies at Texas A&M University. Prior to his Ph.D. studies, he worked for three years as a science teacher at a private school in Turkey.
Live Energy: US Faculty Co-Author an Electronic Textbook to Deliverthe Most Up-to-date and Relevant Content in Energy and Sustainability.In this NSF funded collaborative research project, five engineering faculty from campusesacross the US have co-authored an electronic textbook with the most up-to-date andrelevant content material to teach energy and its sustainability topics to college students.Existing textbook materials on energy and its sustainability are very limited in number andthey often fail to provide the most recent information to the reader. Because of theevolving nature of the technical, political, economic, and societal settings that impact themass media’s and public’s comprehension of energy and its sustainability, the traditionalprinted textbook materials are not sufficiently providing global, trans-disciplinary, and up-to-date content. Our engineering professors and the NSF have recognized the need todevelop a textbook material involving dynamic content in nature that can be updatedfrequently online by multiple authors to better serve the needs of the college studentslearning about energy and its sustainability topic and their role in society.In this poster presentation, we will report the outcomes of the project including thecharacteristics of the courses our faculty taught, our research design, data collection andmanagement processes, and the evaluations of the student outcomes with and without theelectronic textbook was used in the instruction. In our measures, we attempted to capturethe students’ content understanding, their life-long learning skills, their attitudes towardsengineering, and their learning skills pertaining to energy and its sustainability. Thecontent questionnaire instrument includes 20 multiple-choice items written by one of ourfaculty members. The life-long learning scale and the engineering attitude scale were citedin the literature with valid and reliable measures. Our research team designed theremaining energy and its sustainability learning skills items.We have collected control data from the five institutions during the beginning and end ofthe Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, and Spring 2013 semesters. Studentsin the faculty authors’ classes were the study participants. The pre and post semesterresponses of the students on the research instruments revealed that the traditional textbookmaterials (or the instruction without our electronic textbook material) did not significantlyimpact the students’ content understanding and their skills and attitudes pertaining toenergy and engineering. Findings also show no institutional differences. From the pilotsemester (Spring 2011), we used the collected control data to evaluate the effectiveness ofthe content questionnaire items. Item analysis revealed six items to be re-designed. Wemodified these six items that had marginal difficulty powers or that very insufficientlydiscriminated the upper and lower student groups. The revised scales were used in the Fall2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, and Spring 2013 semesters. We will highlight our analysisof the newly collected data and revision of the design. During Spring 2013, the electronictextbook was implemented. Students’ perceptions of the electronic textbook, includingstatistically significantly higher perceptions from those who viewed the electronic textbookvia iBook versus those who did not, will be presented and discussed.Our faculty members have been drafting the chapters since Summer 2011. The table belowrepresents the chapter titles and table of contents. In our presentation, we will also providean overview of the electronic textbook.Table. The table of contents for the electronic textbook.Section 1. Past, Present, and Future of EnergyChapter 1.1 Energy SustainabilityChapter 1.2 Energy Uses and SourcesChapter 1.3 Energy ConversionsSection 2. Valuing Energy, the Environment, and SustainabilityChapter 2.1 Economics of EnergyChapter 2.2 Economics of the EnvironmentChapter 2.3 Sustainability MetricsSection 3. Fossil Fuel and BioenergyChapter 3.1 CoalChapter 3.2 OilChapter 3.3 Natural GasChapter 3.4 Unconventional Fossil ResourcesChapter 3.5 BioenergyChapter 3.6 Environmental Consequences of CombustionSection 4. Nuclear EnergyChapter 4.1 Nuclear Energy TechnologyChapter 4.2 Nuclear Energy Policy and Global IssuesSection 5. Renewable Energy Sources for Heating and ElectricityChapter 5.1 Hydro EnergyChapter 5.2 Geothermal EnergyChapter 5.3 Solar Thermal EnergyChapter 5.4 Solar Photovoltaic EnergyChapter 5.5 Wind EnergyChapter 5.6 Transmission, Distribution, and Storage for Renewable Energy SourcesSection 6. Future Energy ChoicesChapter 6.1 Natural Gas as a BridgeChapter 6.2 HydrogenAppendicesAppendix A: Mathematical NotationAppendix B: Abbreviations and Acronyms
Ehlig-Economides, C., & Yalvac, B., & Binks-Cantrell, E., & Pisupati, S. V., & Gilman, D. R., & Toossi, R., & Aghara, S. K., & Robinson, T. A., & Smith, D. L., & Ayar, M. C. (2014, June), Live Energy: U.S. Faculty Co-Author an Electronic Textbook to Deliver the Most Up-to-Date and Relevant Content in Energy and Sustainability Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--22803
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