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Research suggests that, to narrow the gender gap in engineering, we should focus on helping young girls identify with engineering both because gendered attitudes emerge around kindergarten and because identity is more predictive than performance on persistence in the field. This qualitative study sought to understand the impact of collaborative engineering design on the development of engineering identities in elementary-school students and compared the findings across gender. We focused on three tiers of collaboration embedded into the engineering design process: peer groups, role models, and shared goals. More specifically, the elementary students worked in small teams and partnered with undergraduate engineers to help design and build dancing robots that come together for a coordinated dance performance. We used ethnographic methods, including pre- and post-program student interviews, video-recorded program sessions, and documentation of student work, to investigate elementary students' engineering identities. Three themes emerged from our analysis. First, working with peers encouraged students who were initially uninterested in engineering, the majority of whom were girls, to join the program and helped them to engage in the activities. Second, partnering with engineer role models contributed to the elementary students' developing identities as engineers: The girls were most influenced by the personal bonds they formed, while the boys were most influenced by the technical skills they learned. Third, all girls and most boys preferred the idea of working toward a shared goal over competitive projects that, as described by the students, can cause bad feelings and hurt friendships. Our work supports and extends elementary engineering literature by considering the role of multiple tiers of collaboration in identity development in girls and boys. Our results suggest that engineering design programs that foster collaboration can help more students, especially more girls, engage in and identify with engineering, thereby contributing to the narrowing of the gender gap.

Introduction: Literature suggests that although behavioral therapy is an effective means of intervention for children with disabilities, family participation in these programs is often lacking. Several barriers exist to meaningful parent education and parent-professional partnerships, which can lead to lower quality outcomes for both the individual with a disability and their families. These barriers should be identified and addressed. This study used a survey measure to gather quantitative and qualitative information on parental perceptions of barriers to behavioral parent education and training as well as suggestions for creating a stronger family-professional partnership. Common themes that emerged from the analysis include: a need for open and honest communication, the importance of a professional's training and experience in the field, and the availability of services. Knowledge of the barriers which exist in behavior parent training will allow providers to better serve families and ensure a stronger outcome of service. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

We investigated how an induction program supported and constrained beginning teachers' efforts to teach science or mathematics in equitable and effective ways. We focused our investigation on the teaching and learning of equitable instructional practices; we conceived of such practices as attention to students' experiences, instruction for English learners, differentiation, and reform-minded science or mathematics strategies. During the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years, we examined the experiences of two beginning secondary teachers (one in science and one in mathematics) enrolled in a state-mandated, K-12 induction program. We conducted multiple interviews with our beginning teachers, their experienced mentors, and induction professionals; videotaped all 21 induction seminars and 4 series of lessons for each beginning teacher; and examined each teacher's 12 teaching performance assessment products. Qualitative analysis of data made visible the successes and struggles in using a K-12 induction program to promote equitable science and mathematics instruction. Beginning teachers saw their induction program as contributing little to their learning to teach toward equity; they pointed to their previous teacher education experiences and current school communities as more powerful forces in shaping the ways they taught science or mathematics to all students. We close with recommendations for other teacher educators and induction professionals.

Examines views and practices of first-year science teachers, graduates of a teacher education program in California, focusing on gender equity and multicultural education. Explores teachers' attempts at the nature of science and implementing equitable instruction in classrooms. Discusses commonalties across teachers' successes and struggles in learning to teach science as well as lessons about ways to improve preservice science teacher education. (Author/KHR)

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During military contingency operations, aircraft are required to land, taxi, and takeoff on unpaved surfaces. In some cases, operational time limitations do not allow for the construction of paved surfaces to establish airfield operations. The original flexible pavement design procedure for paved surfaces, which is based on the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and the -factor (Alpha-factor), was extended and applied to the design and evaluation of aggregate-surfaced pavements. With the reformulation of the CBR-Alpha for the design of flexible pavements, efforts were also directed at defining a new equation for the design of aggregate-surfaced airfields. This paper focuses on the development of a new CBR-Beta procedure for the design and evaluation of aggregate-surfaced airfields. Data from previous studies conducted on aggregate-surfaced full-scale test sections were used for this purpose. The new performance curve proposed in this paper for aggregate-surfaced airfields has the same format as the equation that was proposed and accepted for flexible pavements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we debate the strengths and limitations of standards-based science education reform in the United States. Our purpose is to raise questions and encourage conversations about the mis/uses of standards to shape science curriculum and instructional practices at both state and national levels. We begin by examining the case of California: California recently developed science content standards and used these standards to guide the development, assessment, and adoption of K-8 science instructional materials, a process in which we participated. We offer substantive critique of the California standards themselves and the ways such standards narrowly frame science education for the state's teachers and students. We then move to more general challenges posed by fashioning standards as instruments of reform: the proliferation of increasingly unwieldy instructional materials and the muting of teachers' voices in local decision-making processes. While we do not call for the elimination of standards, we argue for greater awareness of the challenges in using standards to achieve science education reform and for renewed effort to include teachers in the translation of standards into local, responsive practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the influence of status on high school student interactions during science groupwork in California. Result of failure by teachers and the curriculum to address status issues; Inequities in group work participation and science learning; Recommendations for groupwork refinements.

Radiocesium, 137Cs, and rare earth elements (REEs) were determined in suspended material and dissolved fractions of waters across the salinity gradient in North San Francisco Bay (estuary). We describe the variation of this conservative isotope tracer with salinity and sediment load. REE data are used to differentiate marine and terrigenous source terrains for suspended material and dissolved fractions. We estimate that about 1–4×1010 Bq of 137Cs migrates annually on suspended material through the North Bay. In addition, 137Cs concentrations were measured in surface waters off Baja California. Combined in situ water density (σt) and 137Cs data distinguish between California Current and Gulf of California water, and delineate areas of upwelling, where nutrient-rich, deep Pacific Intermediate water, with little or no 137Cs, is brought to the surface off promontories along Baja California. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]