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This article stresses the importance of building design above technology as a relatively inexpensive way to reduce energy costs for a library. Emphasis is placed on passive solar design for heat and daylighting, but also examines passive ventilation and cooling, green roofs, and building materials. Passive design is weighed against technologies that actively capture renewable energy. Best practice examples include new construction and retrofits. Active technologies for capturing renewable energies, such as photovoltaic panels, can be employed when passive solutions are not realistic due to limitations resulting from site selection. Building or remodeling an environmentally sustainable building is more costly than a conventional equivalent, but long-term savings in energy and maintenance can more than compensate for the initial investment. Passive solar heat is particularly compatible with library functionality because it invites natural light into living spaces and eliminates noise that would otherwise exist with forced-air HVAC systems. Practical suggestions for subtle improvements to existing buildings are offered in addition to more ambitious construction projects.

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is in need of several thousand houses to alleviate overcrowding and improve living conditions. The United States government has failed to provide appropriate or sufficient housing and other individuals and organizations that have attempted to build homes for the Lakota have met with widely varying results. This paper documents community-based housing activities of fifteen Pine Ridge residents who attempted to implement a variety of construction techniques. The biggest challenges were obtaining and paying for resources and finding competent, reliable labor. The interviewees used local and salvaged materials extensively and worked within the local, informal economy to meet these challenges and address their dissatisfaction with government cluster housing. Findings suggest that local, community-based construction may provide a successful and culturally sustainable strategy for residential construction because it equips builders with a means to earn a living, develops construction skills, establishes a sense of ownership, and provides appropriate housing that enriches lives and builds pride. (Contains 9 tables and 48 notes.)

The case touches on several areas of marketing: ethics, sales issues, conflicts of interest, marketing forecasts, and issues of pricing. Joe Brice, the visionary and real estate broker for a 36-lot subdivision of moderately priced single-family homes targeting the $190,000 to $260,000 range, seems to have identified an unmet housing market, supported by preliminary agreements with three participating builders and written sales contracts for five predevelopment lot sales. However, Steve Crone, part owner of a successful road construction business and Brice's primary investor, had his construction staff's land planner generate a 22-lot plan that resulted in lot-and-house packages starting at $380,000 and going much higher. Brice has been asked to revise the marketing plan and to revamp the financial projections based on the 22-lot plan, even though his builder contacts and his analysis of the market for larger, more expensive homes suggests that the market is currently overcrowded and may be showing signs of slowing. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)

One of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in the history of the United States ripped through the southeast Missouri town of Joplin on May 22, 2011. As it traveled along a 13-mile path it claimed 161 lives and caused more than $151 million in damages. Ten schools were damaged or destroyed and Joplin High School was a total loss. Just 48 hours after the storm, Joplin Schools Superintendent Dr. C.J. Huff promised the 2011-12 school year would start on time on August 17. To complete this feat, the district relied on local and national experts to design and construct an interim high school within 55 business days. The school, located inside a 96,000 square foot vacant big box retail space, has transformed the educational model for Joplin Schools. After an onsite tour, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proclaimed the school a model for the nation. Funded by a $1 million donation from the United Arab Emirates, Joplin Schools implemented a 1 to 1 laptop program in the interim high school. The 1 to 1 initiative, along with the innovative interim high school design, has moved Joplin Schools to 21st Century learning environments for its students.

The necessity of using inquiry-based learning (IBL) was recently recommended by studies and reports made for the European Commission. Several European projects are devoted to the widespread use of IBL methods. The effects of using IBL are studied worldwide. In the framework of the Seventh Framework Program (FP7) project PRIMAS, a series of piloting activities were organized in Romania in order to test, adapt and develop inquiry-based teaching materials. Most of these piloting actions were organised by local professional communities with the purpose of creating real feedback for the project and for gathering professional experience in implementing inquiry-based pedagogies in mathematics and science education. This article presents an activity where students were formulating the problems. Teachers were only creating the milieu and facilitating the work. As a second step, the accumulated experience related to this activity was used in a professional development (PD) course organised by the Babes-Bolyai University in the framework of the PRIMAS project. (Contains 10 figures and 1 footnote.)

Customers determine whether a product fulfills their needs or satisfies them. "Quality control", then, is the process of finding out what the customer wants, along with designing, producing, delivering, and servicing the product--and ultimately satisfying the customer's expectations. For many years, people considered a product to be of good quality if it passed final inspection before being sold. Today, manufacturers acknowledge that quality should be a focus in all phases of production. More important, manufacturers now see that they should continually look for ways to improve their product quality, using a concept called "total quality control" (TQC). Given the emphasis on the importance of quality in industry today, it's important that technology educators focus on it. This article provides background on the subject and a related activity, the gambrel roof truss challenge, which is appropriate for students from middle school through college levels. (Contains 5 figures and 9 photos.)

Although it can be visualized fairly easily and its symmetry group is easy to calculate, the permutahedron is a somewhat neglected combinatorial object. We propose it as a useful case study in abstract algebra. It supplies concrete examples of group actions, the difference between right and left actions, and how geometry and algebra can work together.

School design utilizing integrated architectural and structural precast and prestressed concrete components has gained greater acceptance recently for numerous reasons, including increasingly sophisticated owners and improved learning environments based on material benefits such as: sustainability, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, storm resistance, cost effectiveness (initial and life-cycle), durability and low maintenance. Safe, high performance, sustainable school design provides physical facilities that improve learning environments while offering shelter from the storm, saving energy and resources, and delivering improved life cycle cost value. (Contains 9 footnotes.)

Purpose: This paper aims to assess the perception of the Ghanaian construction industry of the performance of entry-level building technology graduates. Also, other non-technical skills or attributes expected from building technology graduates are to be compared with the actual proficiency of the graduates. Design/methodology/approach: The findings in this paper are based on a series of interviews and structured questionnaire survey of randomly selected contractors and consultants in the Ghanaian construction industry. Findings: The overall performance of the graduates was considered acceptable by the construction industry. However, much more needed to be done in "coordination" and "scheduling" of site activities by graduates who work as site managers, and in "coordination of site activities" and "issuance of site instructions" for those who work as project managers for contractors. There was a considerable gap between the expectations of the construction industry practitioners and the actual proficiency of building technology graduates in "initiative and creativity", "practical building knowledge", "ability to define and solve problems", and other equally important attributes. The graduates, however, met the expectations of contractors in "computer literacy", "communication skills", and "interpersonal skills", and consultants in "computer literacy" and "leadership capability". Social implications: The results of the study enable entry-level graduates to realize their deficiencies for continual improvement, and the training institution to develop training curricula responsive to the needs of the industry. Originality/value: Even though results from this study generally show a disparity in the expected and actual proficiency levels of building technology graduates, as frequently reported in the literature, it provides a new insight into this problem by providing evidence to the effect that the problem is only manifest in some specific non-technical skill requirements. (Contains 6 tables.)

To gain a full and true understanding of the value of campus heritage requires shifting perspective. On many campuses, heritage resources are perceived to have no relevance whatsoever to the challenges of sustainability. This results largely from a profound misconception about what may constitute a sustainable future and what steps may be needed to achieve one. Campus heritage, far from being irrelevant, offers the most complete course in achieving sustainability in the time frame one has. Heritage buildings and the communities they form are models for how long-term benefit can be derived from the investment of material and energy resources. They have proven to be adaptable over time and welcome intervention by succeeding generations. Heritage buildings were built without addiction to fossil fuels. The precincts, neighborhoods, and communities they form are not dependent on automobiles. The places they make satisfy human aspirations and express culture that generation after generation finds valuable. Campus heritage has relevance more today than ever before. It is important to recognize its full and true value and apply its lessons to achieve a sustainable future. (Contains 3 figures.)

While some disasters involving engineered structures are due to events in nature (e.g., tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes), others may be caused by inadequate materials, design flaws, and poor maintenance. These catastrophes result in the loss of human lives and cost billions of dollars. In the set of lessons described here, students design a tower, select building materials, determine building costs, and identify safety concerns. Working in groups with defined roles, students are actively engaged in project development, implementation, and evaluation. (Contains 6 figures.)

A vane-type low-cost laboratory model anemometer cum power meter is designed and constructed for measuring low wind energy created from accelerating fluids. The constructed anemometer is a device which records the electrical power obtained by the conversion of wind power using a wind sensor coupled to a DC motor. It is designed for its high-reliability, ease of construction and for a wide profile of low-range velocities. The construction of the digital anemometer is an easy task that even unskilled people can manage in a short time. The performance of the digital anemometer is analysed by its capability to convert wind speeds to power. (Contains 5 figures.)

In this article we describe and build a model of a historical weighing device proposed by the Spanish engineer Dario Bacas in the second half of the 19th century. The balance was named "goniobarimeter" by its inventor, and the weighing principle is based on a curious, and not very well known, property of the cycloid. The simplicity of the design makes it especially suitable for a hands-on educational project with pre-university physics students. (Contains 6 figures.)

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) has become an important optical biosensing technology in the areas of biochemistry, biology, and medical sciences because of its real-time, label-free, and noninvasive nature. The high cost of commercial devices and consumables has prevented SPR from being introduced in the undergraduate laboratory. Here, we present an affordable homemade SPR device with all of its components accessible to visualization. This design allows ease of integration with electrochemistry and makes the device suitable for education. We describe a laboratory experiment in which students examine the relationship between the SPR angle and the solution refractive index at the interface and perform a coupled SPR-electrochemistry experiment. Students also study the antibody-antigen binding activity. Most of the experimental work was done as a project by a grade 12 high-school student under proper supervision. We believe that the SPR device and the SPR laboratory will enhance undergraduate chemical education by introducing students to this important modern instrumentation and will help students to learn and understand the molecular interactions occurring at interfaces. (Contains 1 note and 7 figures.)

This paper presents a simple, cost-effective and robust atomic force microscope (AFM), which has been purposely designed and built for use as a teaching aid in undergraduate controls labs. The guiding design principle is to have all components be open and visible to the students, so the inner functioning of the microscope has been made clear to see. All of the parts but one are off the shelf, and assembly time is generally less than two days, which makes the microscope a robust instrument that is readily handled by the students with little chance of damage. While the scanning resolution is nowhere near that of a commercial instrument, it is more than sufficient to take interesting scans of micrometer-scale objects. A survey of students after their having used the AFM resulted in a generally good response, with 80% agreeing that they had a positive learning experience. (Contains 8 figures, 3 tables, and 3 footnotes.)

A project-based laboratory for learning embedded system design with support from industry is presented in this paper. The aim of this laboratory is to motivate students to learn the building blocks of embedded systems and practical control algorithms by constructing a line-following robot using the quadratic interpolation technique to predict the line position. For those students who have acquired basic microcontroller hardware and software programming skills from previous courses, the hands-on exercises in the laboratory include several specific hardware circuits and software algorithms for the final project of constructing the line-following robot. The students are allowed to discuss the hardware and software problems with each other while solving each exercise, although they have to answer the teacher's questions individually to earn the score. To enhance the learning outcomes, a racing contest for the students' line-following robots is also organized to see how well the techniques learned in the laboratory are applied in the final project. The support from the local branch of Microchip Inc. allows students to obtain C-compilers and microcontrollers at no cost. The feedback from students shows that the final project of constructing line-following robots and the racing contest motivates the students to learn actively all the skills included in the laboratory for embedded system design. (Contains 16 figures and 2 tables.)

Shelter has been a concern of humans and animals alike for the millennia. Animals, through their natural instincts, build nests and shelters to meet their needs for protection against predators and seasonal changes in the weather. Early humans sought shelter in caves and cliff dwellings and later began to design and build shelters based on the availability of natural materials. With the discovery and development of concentrated forms of energy such as fossil energy resources, humans began to design structures to suit their needs and comfort. The influence of increasing energy prices and the prospect of climatic changes has caused people to design buildings and structures that are more energy efficient and less intrusive on the environment. Today there are incentives to building construction projects that emphasize "green" materials and efficiencies. Interestingly enough, "going green" does not mean enduring hardships or lessening of the convenience and comfort that people have come to expect in modern homes and buildings. Building codes and practices are being developed that foster intelligent use of materials and resources to design and build desirable and energy efficient buildings and structures. (Contains 5 figures.)

In the summer of 2004, Georgia Southern University began a library construction project that was to last 4 years. An important aspect was the installation of an Automated Retrieval System (ARC) to house a substantial portion of the library collections so that more space could be available for students, faculty, and the services to meet their needs. This paper traces the development of the use of the ARC to house collections, with emphasis on how materials were selected for the two phases of the project and how catalogers have adapted to the idea of collections that can only be browsed virtually.

The Rural Studio, an outreach program of Auburn University, designs innovative houses for poor people living in Alabama's Hale County by using "junk" such as car windshields, carpet tiles, baled cardboard, and old license plates. The article theorizes this particular architecture in terms of Critical Regionalism, developed by Tzonis/Lefaivre and Frampton, and by reflecting on aesthetic problems of junk architecture. Further, the article evaluates the achievements of the Rural Studio by discussing cultural problems arising through participatory design as well as third world architecture and the cultural and social obstacles that architects and architecture students need to overcome. As students become members of the community, patterns of third world architecture are transgressed. I conclude by saying that no vernacular architecture should be politically instrumentalized; architecture like that of the Rural Studio can only thrive within a self-sufficient niche--that is, within the space of an absolute vernacular, disconnected from the context of globalization. (Contains 17 notes.)

This paper investigates the effect of bringing real world case studies on college students' self efficacy, their confidence, and their motivation toward an engineering field. It was found that working with real cases increases student's motivation and maximizes their learning by becoming personally committed to course and program goals. As a result of trying to address the problem statement and analyze the assigned case, students will be inspired to learn the theory and put together their acquired knowledge. It was also found that the learning process will be facilitated by students feeling a need to learn more about their subject to be able to tackle real world's problems. (Contains 10 tables.)

The authors describe their individual and collective experiences reconstructing their New Orleans-based university composition program in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They emphasize how the concept of "floating foundations" helps account for changes in their students' interests, and they suggest that this idea is applicable to the work of writing instructors in general. (Contains 2 notes.)

This paper examines two competing systems of work organisation in the British construction industry and their consequences for learning. Under the traditional "adversarial" system, conflict, hostility and litigation between contractors are commonplace. Such a climate actively militates against collective learning and knowledge sharing between parties. Conversely, under "collaborative working", contractors share risks, pool knowledge and work together to solve problems at all stages and levels in the productive system--a process conceptualised as "knotworking" by some theorists. The paper argues that such learning theories fail to take adequately into account the heavy hand of history and the importance of understanding the nature of the productive systems in which "knotworking" is expected to take root. Both place limits on making "knotworking" a habitual and commonplace activity in construction.

Earthquakes occur across the globe, and their efforts can be felt by people regardless of location. However, a moderate earthquake in Pakistan or Turkey may cause much greater damage than a stronger earthquake in Tokyo. It is imperative to help students understand why this disparity exists--often due to both natural and human influences. Students often ask, "Why don't all the tall buildings fall down when there are earthquakes?" Through this activity, sixth-grade students began to understand the engineering challenges of building earthquake-resistant buildings and how scientists meet that challenge. (Contains 3 figures and 5 online resources.)

This paper illuminates a period of change in the lives of a group of 20 vocational lecturers as they find themselves challenged by both their own and others' categorisation of what and who they are. Such conflicting perspectives are made even starker by their management's introduction of technological innovation into the lecturers' traditional teaching methods. Even as they seek to identify their place within their social, occupational and professional contexts, they continue to be 'simultaneously positioned by other people and forces external to them' (as described by M. Forsey in 2007). This study also highlights the negative impact of imposing change upon practitioners without acknowledging the significance of a whole-life perspective for understanding professional lives and work practices. (Contains 1 note.)

The poor performance and inefficiencies of the construction industry are well recognized and documented. Through a variety of combined industry and government initiatives there has been a continual expression in the UK over the last decade of the urgent need to address the fragmented nature of the industry to improve its performance. A major challenge is for education and industry stakeholders to create closer and more effective relationships with each other to facilitate greater mutual understanding. "Accelerating Change in Built Environment Education" (ACBEE) is a sponsored initiative designed to encourage the closer working together of industry, education and professional bodies to provide more relevant training and education. This paper introduces ACBEE, along with an evaluation framework for measuring the performance of engagements at various levels. This is followed by an analysis of the application of this performance measurement framework through case studies of industry-education engagement. A number of case studies were identified as operating at the grades of "strategic alliance" and "partnership" (as classified in the ACBEE evaluation framework). The analysis of these cases focuses on the drivers behind and the purpose of the engagement, and how these are aligned with the business strategy of the collaborating organizations and measurement of the activity. Evidence of meeting the explicit business needs and strategic objectives and the contribution to good practice knowledge are also discussed. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures, and 2 notes.)

Control systems education often needs to design interesting hands-on exercises that keep students interested in the control theory presented in lectures. These exercises include system modeling, system analyses, controller syntheses, implementation, experimentation, and performance evaluation of a control system. This paper presents an interesting pedagogical tool, a self-balancing human transportation vehicle (HTV), for the teaching of feedback control concepts in undergraduate electrical, mechatronic, and mechanical engineering environments. Such a pedagogical tool can be easily and inexpensively constructed using low-tech commercial components and feedback control approaches. The effectiveness and performance of the proposed HTV system are examined by conducting several experiments on three different terrains. An education process, together with a pedagogical method, is presented to show how the developed HTV can be incorporated into the laboratory course. To increase students' hands-on experience and keep them interested in learning feedback control, this study also investigated how the enrolled students responded to this new pedagogical tool. This education method along with the HTV system is shown to be significantly effective in helping students to understand feedback control theory and practices, and also to result in more motivated and active learning. (Contains 2 tables and 14 figures.)

In this article, the author talks about a hands-on, community-supported project that he initiated with a group of middle school students on Zia Pueblo, in which students used measurement and numeracy skills to build benches for the school grounds. He talks about the theoretical framework of this project and the lessons he learned from this project.

This study proposes an innovative solution to the problem of multiobjective engineering design optimization by integrating desktop VR with genetic computing. Although, this study considers the case of construction design as an example to illustrate the framework, this method can very much be extended to other engineering design problems as well. The proposed framework generates optimal solutions for the problem of construction design, which is becoming an increasingly complex problem due to the multitude of factors involved in the process. This study places special emphasis on the modeling of the scenes within the virtual world from the design perspective. Even though genetic algorithms (GA) have been used by professionals in diverse disciplines to optimize conflicting objectives, these provide the end user with a pool of solutions rather than a unique solution that can be implemented. Hence, this study proposes a desktop VR framework that serves as a visualization tool to aid decision makers to better evaluate the alternative solutions from the Pareto set resulting from the GA process. Modeling alternative scenarios is formulated as an optimization problem wherein design configurations are generated using genetic algorithms. With the goal of sustainable and non-destructive construction design and planning, the algorithm is intended for multiple objectives. The study also presents an innovative perspective on this whole process by presenting the qualitative evaluation of the scene based on human evaluation and incorporating changes. The results demonstrate the robustness of the GA framework and also substantiate the utility of the virtual scenarios. (Contains 2 tables and 10 figures.)

Each year, more than 200 students at YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School in Pennsylvania make a commitment to help improve Philadelphia's neighborhoods as they work toward their high school diplomas. Since YouthBuild Philadelphia's inception in 1992, students have provided a wide variety of volunteer services to families and organizations around the city, while benefiting from experiences that give them a deeper sense of their abilities, both personal and professional. At YouthBuild Philadelphia, former high school dropouts ages 18 to 21 earn their diplomas while working toward industry-recognized certifications in one of three tracks: (1) construction; (2) technology; or (3) nursing. YouthBuild Philadelphia integrates this education and training with service by instilling in the students--most of whom have become disconnected from their communities--a sense of relevance to the neighborhoods in which they live and work. Students volunteer on real work sites, learning skills as they rehabilitate homes for low-income families, refurbish computers and develop websites for local organizations, provide care for long-term residents of nursing homes, and serve as interns in medical facilities. Community service is at the core of YouthBuild Philadelphia's curriculum. Each student becomes a part-time member of AmeriCorps and is required to complete 900 volunteer hours in order to graduate. Those students who complete their hours receive a Segal AmeriCorps Education Award of approximately $2,300, which may be used for up to seven years to assist with postsecondary education. In addition to vocational service, students complete their volunteer hours through a weekly service-learning class and additional service projects with local organizations. YouthBuild Philadelphia also organizes several schoolwide service projects each year, which correspond to several national holidays, including the Martin Luther King Day of Service, Global Youth Service Day, and Make A Difference Day.

In almost all the civil engineering programs in the United States, a student is required to take at least one design course in either steel or reinforced concrete. One of the topics covered in an introductory steel design course is the design of connections. Steel connections play important roles in the integrity of a structure, and many structural failures are attributed to connection failures. In recent years, in order to help students better understand the various connection types, many schools, including Minnesota State, have acquired steel sculptures. A steel sculpture is a physical system that shows forty eight types of connections found in standard construction practices. Unfortunately, because of its size and location (eight feet tall, weighs nearly 2500 pounds and usually erected outdoor), students do not have easy access to it. Moreover, today's students who belong to the Google generation are more comfortable with web-based learning tools. To provide an effective learning opportunity for the Google generation and to provide 24-7 hour access, we have created a web-based interactive version of our steel sculpture. The interactive sculpture shows the close up view of each connection with description, potential failure modes, sample calculations, and field examples. Moreover, to measure the effectiveness of this web-based tool, we conducted student surveys. In this paper, we describe in detail, how the interactive steel sculpture was developed, the results of the surveys, and how this tool could be used to enhance student's learning in a steel design class. (Contains 9 figures.)

This article has implications for the ecological sustainability crisis now looming in China and what this portends for the practice of education. Chemical agriculture, although improving agricultural production, harms ecological systems in rural communities. The author presents research on a group of intellectuals and social activists in 1 nongovernmental organization, who designed and implemented an ecological education program in the hope of changing harmful agricultural practices. In the process, inspiration from and connection with the Indigenous farming tradition of China was gradually found. The traditional farming technologies are informed by relations with the land, plants, and animals; and are not purely technical. They reflect a traditional Chinese worldview distinct from the modern worldview. This nongovernment organization also works on experimental cooperative ecological house building and non-market strategies for the sale of organic products as a way of empowering peasants. (Contains 3 footnotes.)

The West Point Bridge Design (WPBD) building project engages students in project-based learning by giving them a real-life problem to solve. By using technology, students are able to become involved in solving problems that they normally would not encounter. Involvement with interactive websites, such as WPBD, assists students in using higher-level thinking skills and problem solving (NSTA 2006). It is important that we keep our students engaged in learning science, as the scientific society of tomorrow depends upon the science students of today. (Contains 11 figures, 3 resources and 1 online resource.)

A web-based tool for visualizing the simulated structural behavior of building models was developed to support the teaching of structural design to architecture and engineering students by activating their spatial cognition capabilities. The main didactic issues involved establishing a consistent and complete three-dimensional vocabulary (3D) throughout a base collection of structural system diagrams that is as related to familiar two-dimensional (2D) conventions and as intuitively "legible" for architecture students as possible. To this end, the visualization techniques used in a number of structural simulation programs for engineers were assessed according to didactic criteria in the context of the architecture curriculum at two levels: semantic initial assessment for preliminary user-interface design and explorative learning effectiveness based on prototype implementations. The results suggest generalized criteria for modeling multidimensional constructivist learning resources aimed at higher education in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) domain. (Contains 3 notes, 2 tables, and 14 figures.)

As a result of their own sometimes frustrating educational experiences, and a growing discontent with their current teaching methods, the authors, in conjunction with another instructor, decided to try an experiment. With the goal of enhancing visualization and understanding, the instructors created several multi-path educational paths for the reinforced concrete class. These alternative paths or "roads" included electronic visits to the site of the construction of a concrete frame building, homework assignments based on the various building components, discussions with the project manager, and a "hands on" public service project. This paper details the traditional and multi-path educational delivery models in a concrete course, resources required to "construct" more roads to knowledge, the results of a short survey of student reaction, and a synopsis of faculty comments on the effectiveness of the effort. (Contains 6 figures.)

This study examines teacher-student interactions and selected student gender differences with volunteer boys and recruited girls in a technology class. The participants were teachers and triads of girls and boys in single-gender sections of a technology course where the students built, designed features for, and programmed Lego robots. We analyzed transcripts of videotapes of instruction; teacher, parent, and student interviews; student questionnaires; and final programs. Girls and boys differed in a number of ways, and teachers explained their differing interactions with boys and girls as functional responses to those differences. At the end of the course, volunteer boys and recruited girls did not differ in achievement or interest in the course. (Contains 5 tables.)

Science educators advocate hands on experiences and the use of manipulatives as important for children's conceptual development. Consequently, the utilisation of "Lego" robotic technologies in teaching and learning has become more prevalent in school science classrooms. It is important to investigate their value as educational tools, particularly their role in helping children develop conceptual understanding of scientific principles. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of robotic technology with elementary age children, specifically focusing on the children's conceptual development concerning gear function and mechanical advantage. Our results indicate the robot sessions helped develop the students' understanding of gear function in relation to direction of turning, relative speed, and number of revolutions. However, when we examine the children's understanding around the concept of mechanical advantage, we still see the majority of children unable to provide an accurate explanation. The children had difficulty explaining the reasons underpinning their gear arrangement choices for making their robots fast or powerful. The results suggest that providing students with physical experiences is not enough for students to "discover" the relationship of gears to a vehicle's power and speed. A guided inquiry instructional approach is important during the early stages of developing a conceptual understanding of mechanical advantage. (Contains 6 figures.)

The University of Michigan is almost always in the midst of a building boom. Year in and year out, Michigan has one of the most active programs of building renovation and new construction of all American universities. This program is very carefully managed to ensure that substantial architectural design work is not undertaken until there is a strong likelihood that a project will actually be built. But despite these precautions, some projects never make it to the construction phase. Most of these unsuccessful projects are quickly forgotten. Because most never progressed beyond preliminary stages, there is often little documentation remaining, and they are difficult to reconstruct. This article focuses on those for which design drawings survive. For more recent projects, it also draws on the author's own knowledge gained during 37 years as the university planner.

This article illustrates how to integrate mathematics with social issues. Social issues discussed in the newspaper provide a rich context for connecting mathematical activities to the real world. The sample activities focus on measurement concepts. (Contains 2 figures.)