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Fueling the mind, feeding the world: Communication in agriculture - Communicating in writing (COM04)
Get PDFFor additional information, visit the Texas A&M University Science Communications Lab at https://scicomm.tamu.edu/.This packet contains instructional materials and online modules prepared for Fueling the mind, feeding the world: Communication in agriculture - Communicating in writing (COM04). It includes curriculum, PowerPoint slides, activities, handouts, grading considerations, and notes for instructors. These materials were created as part of the USDA Grant entitled "Fueling the Mind, Feeding the World: Enhancing Communication and Decision-Making Skills of Secondary Agricultural Education Students."
MODULE OVERVIEW: We communicate using written words every day. Signs, menus, instructions, stories���much of our daily life is devoted to decoding the meaning behind writing. Communicating about science is no different as most scientific findings are communicated in writing, but the type of writing used can vary depending on the audience who will be reading it. The Communicating in Writing module will provide an overview of best practices for four different types of writing to arm you with skills to express clear ideas.Secondary Education, Two-Year Postsecondary Education, and Agriculture in the K-12 Classroom (SPECA) Challenge Grants Program no. 2019-38414-30265 and Hatch Project No. TEX09825 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Pockets on the Greens
No full textThe goal of workforce housing is to help those middle income families who do not qualify for other forms of aid, but cannot financially afford to live in the city they work in. This issue is becoming increasingly urgent as many school districts are struggling to retain teachers due to lack of housing or lack of affordable housing. In recent years we have seen an increase in the cost of living state wide, but a truly affected area is Midland, TX. While the cost of living rises teachers salaries remain the same as their salaries are controlled through variables such as their years of experience, the location of their district, and the voting of their local governments. Midland, Texas is an oil town located in West Texas that has seen many booms and bust in the oil and gas industry. In the past five years they have seen exponential growth and a volatile housing market creating a lack of affordable housing in the area and often forcing families to move as they can no longer afford to live in the city limits. The focus of Pocket on the Greens is to propose a housing complex for the teachers and their families in MISD focusing on creating community living with the goal of creating retention
Field Assessment, Analysis, and Improvement of Bonded Link Slabs
No full textMulti-span bridges with simply-supported girders are simple to construct and economical. However, such designs must also consider the behavior of the bridge deck, which spans the gap above the discontinuous girder ends. While expansion joints may be installed in the deck above the girder ends to provide a simple mechanism for relieving structural deformations, expansion joints are associated with deterioration and maintenance issues. When detailing the bridge deck over discontinuous girder ends, replacing expansion joints with continuous link slabs may prevent long-term maintenance and damage issues. Nonetheless, link slab systems are implemented at the cost of complex induced forces and deformations in the region of the link slab. If not properly accounted for in design, these forces and deformations may cause damage in the slab, reducing the life of the superstructure.
In Texas, the standard link slab detail is known as a poor boy joint. The current detail includes continuous reinforcing bars and concrete placement through the link slab region, simplifying construction. Precast, prestressed concrete panels are often used to permanently form the bottom the bridge deck with cast-in-place concrete poured above. While transverse cracking in the link slab region is expected, the poor boy detail is still vulnerable to freeze-thaw cycles and chemical attack.
The goal of this research was to investigate the performance and behavior of existing poor boy details, and to explore design changes to improve their function. The performance investigation was accomplished through a survey of the bridge characteristics and associated damage on current structures, including non-destructive evaluation. Behavior of poor boy details was researched through instrumentation and analysis of link slabs on bridges in service and with finite element analyses of existing details. Finally, improvements to existing designs by reducing cracking were examined with finite element models. The outcome of this research is a more comprehensive understanding of link slab behavior and new strategies for their implementation and design, with the goal of improving the life span of current and future highway bridges