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The Latino Cultural Center: Higher Education and the Importance of Community
Get PDFThe Latino Cultural Center (LCC) at Purdue University is 1 of 2 in the state of Indiana, with the other housed at Indiana University. Choosing to pursue higher education has its challenges, but not everyone has access to the same resources or community support that helps make the process easier. The LCC, like the other cultural centers on campus, is vital in distributing resources that aid in student success. They work to create an inclusive environment for the entire campus community by fostering meaningful dialogue and cultural understanding of the Latino/e/x community. They aim to support Latino/e/x faculty and staff while also empowering Latino/e/x students to succeed by giving providing them with vital support systems. Cultural/community work is often seen as shadow-work; its efforts are not validated and labor not prioritized. We often only see its impact when it\u27s pointed out to us or if we directly benefit from it. As an undergraduate student-worker at the center and senior at Purdue University, I see the work which happens in the shadows that deserves to be spotlighted and credited for its contributions to student success. In this community partner snapshot I aim to illustrate the impact culture, community, and sense belonging can have on the student experience when pursuing higher education
Biowall Development for the West Lafayette Public Library
Get PDFA group of multidisciplinary Purdue students are working together to design, assemble, and install a Biowall in the Children’s section of the West Lafayette Public Library. A Biowall is a plant-based filter that improves Indoor Environmental Quality by cleaning indoor air and adding a natural aesthetic to the building space. Purdue has been developing Biowall technology since 2012, and this project involves redesigning it to fit into the available space at the library. The new Biowall design incorporates a watering mechanism that allows for children to get actively involved in maintaining the Biowall and learning about sustainability. This project also allowed university students to participate in the design process, manufacturing, and commissioning of the Biowall. Future add-ons to the design include a display to show current Indoor Environmental Quality, buttons to light different sections of the Biowall for an immersed learning experience.
The project involved the participation of two student organizations, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and Boiler Green Initiative (BGI). The students from these organizations were able to learn about the designing and assembly process, while also learning how a Biowall works. The team involved in the project includes Ph.D., Masters, and Undergraduate students. The students involved came from Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Environmental Engineering, and Construction Management Technology. The project involves working with a community partner, West Lafayette Public Library, and working with Purdue Facilities Service Building (PSFB) to assemble the equipment. An undergraduate class also benefitted from the Biowall by leaning the commissioning process by taking measurements of the different components in the Biowall.
Once assembled and tested at the Environmental Chamber in the Applied Energy Lab located at the Knoy Building, the Biowall will be moved and installed in the West Lafayette Public Library. The location allows for the public to learn about the research done by Purdue, the Biowall will be a tool for everyone to learn about the importance of Indoor Environmental Quality, contaminants in the indoor air, and plants that improve Indoor Air Quality. A website which includes more information about the Biowall will also be active with the installation of the Biowall, the website provides for more outreach opportunities. Detailed documentation will be provided to the Library with Standard Operating Procedures
Experimental Study of Granular Activated Carbon Stacks’ Level- and Time-Dependent Behavior
Get PDFGranular materials, such as activated carbon, have shown advantages in absorbing low-frequency sounds, but they also exhibit significant nonlinearities. In this article, three unique types of granular particle stacks\u27 acoustical behavior are described and experimentally analyzed. First, when measuring the sound absorption spectra of particle stacks with varying depths and sample holder sizes, it was found that the frictional interaction with the tube circumferential wall can significantly affect the measurements, and a 1-D plane-wave model is only valid when the sample is thin. Secondly, when granular samples were tested with increasing excitation levels, the results indicated a decreased modulus and an increased damping. By further varying excitation level and bandwidth, a displacement- related metric was identified to describe this behavior. Thirdly, when measuring particle stacks over a longer period, the stack\u27s resonance peak gradually shifts to a higher frequency as the sample consolidates. This shift in frequency was proportional to log(Time)
Adapting a Narrative Curriculum to a Remote Format in the Context of Socially Distanced Middle School Education Resulting from COVID-19
Get PDFThis paper describes the development of two versions of an NGSS-aligned principles of engineering design unit for use in middle schools. By employing a narrative framework that can help students to connect more deeply with the human contexts and consequences of the engineering design process, our goal was to enhance students’ cognitive and emotional engagement in the learning of engineering design concepts. We first detail the design of an initial version of the unit, titled The Survivorama, which used narrative to enrich a primarily traditional, in-person teaching approach. We then describe the adapted version of the unit, titled the Molasses Disaster, and the modifications we made to the stories and transmedia story elements that facilitated the creation of a fully remote version of the unit. To investigate questions related to the effectiveness of the remote curriculum in sustaining student engagement in the remote context, we carried out a mixed-methods study that looked at (1) teachers’ characterizations of the effect of the curriculum on student engagement and (2) student learning outcomes as measured by performance assessment tasks. Qualitative analysis of teacher interviews supported the notion that teachers found both versions of the curriculum to be highly engaging for their students, though with some important caveats regarding younger students and students who were less literate. Quantitative analysis comparing 2019 and 2020 student response data for students in the 2019 nontreatment, 2019 treatment, and 2020 treatment groups found statistically significant differences in the pattern of responses for both problem-solving and conceptual drawing performance assessment tasks. The pattern of responses supported the inference that student engagement was similar for students in both the 2019 in-person context and the 2020 remote context, and that both differed significantly from the 2019 nontreatment group
Critical Mindset as a 21st Century Skill: Challenging Heteronormative Assumptions through Teaching High School Biology
Get PDFThis study focuses on the lived experience of an experienced biology teacher and their desire/ability to develop a gender-inclusive curriculum. Grounding on a narrative inquiry methodology, the narratives of our genderqueer high school biology teacher illustrate their beliefs about biology teaching and advancing students’ knowledge in ways that empower the students. The study highlights a need to teach biology in a way that develops students\u27 critical mindset as part of a 21st-century skill by emphasizing and weaving sociopolitical issues into their curriculum
Flight Testing GLS Approaches Enabled by Wide Area Corrections in Kerkyra, Greece
Get PDFMany airports with a high value to commercial air traffic have spatial or budgetary constraints which prevent the installation of a precision approach system. We previously designed a low-cost precision approach system which combines the advantages of both ground-based and satellite-based augmentation systems by using a converter between them in order to allow GAST-A approach types. We installed, operated, and flight-tested such a system at Kerkyra Airport using an A320 aircraft. During these, we recorded data from a commercial multimode receiver as well as GPS raw data in order to prove the feasibility of the system. Data were analyzed using the Pegasus toolset as well as a highly precise reference trajectory computed from postprocessed carrier phase data. The data recorded show excellent performance for approach guidance that is no different from that of the more expensive GPS landing system GLS and provides guidance in accordance with the localizer performance with vertical guidance standards. Our low-cost precision approach system can provide precision approach-like guidance to appropriately equipped transport aircraft. Kerkyra Airport is extremely limited in availability of usable surface area, such that conventional precision landing aids cannot be placed on airport property. The system provides the ground-based augmentation system approach service type A, a category defined in Annex 10 to the convention of Chicago. This category has not seen any operational use until now but offers an opportunity to provide precision approaches based on GLS where guidance down to a certain altitude will be sufficient