Upcoming Deadlines:

September 6 – Teachers in the Lead: NGSS in Illinois

September 27 – World Wide Day of Play

October 2 – Robert Noyce Connections Conference

October 7 – SmartGrid Professional Development

More information can be found at our website:

CeMaST.IllinoisState.edu

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 4

CeMaST Newsletter

Closer to the ISU campus, Dr. Darci Harland (CeMaST)

led 13 teachers in Introducing Students to Research

and Development for the High School Classroom. This project was designed for teachers who want to

implement student research components into their

curriculum. Teacher participants from Clinton,

Elmhurst, Olym-

pia, El Paso-

Gridley, Naper-

ville, Prairie

Central, Wash-

ington, and East

St. Louis con-

ducted their

own micro ex-

periments and

then designed a

STEM research

project for their own students. Introducing Students to

Research and Development provided a framework on

which participants developed and practiced inquiry-

based, content-rich activities that support student

understanding of the research process. Dr. Harland

was joined by experts in student research including

Allison Hennings (nurse turned teacher at Oak Park

River Forest, IL who has implemented a research

course), Dr. Jorge Valdez and Ms. Tanaga Boozer from

the United States Patent and Trademark Office,

and Ms. Mindy Stoller (former teacher at Washington

Community High School).

CeMaST Helping to Lead Implementation of Next

Generation Science Standards in Illinois

F or the past two summers, teachers from across

Illinois have participated in a variety of summer

professional development programs organized by

CeMaST and funded by the Illinois State Board of

Education and the U.S. Department of Education. Over

150 teachers participated in these workshops as

authors, curriculum designers, and leaders.

In the Real Science and the Next Generation Science

Standards workshop, Dr. Brad Christensen (CeMaST/

TCH), Dr. Rebekka Darner (BIO), and Dr. Ryan Brown

(CeMaST/TCH) led 22 teachers from Rockford,

Belvidere, Woodstock, Harlem, and across

Winnebego County in the creation of a series of online

learning modules over the course of the two-week

workshop. These modules were created to teach

science content, as defined by the Next Generation

Science Standards in the context of career clusters

(as defined by the Illinois Pathways). Teachers visited

industrial, business, and non-profit locations (such as

Burpee Museum, Rockford International Airport,

Green Circuit Solar Farm, the Rockford Ice Hogs,

Thermo Fisher Scientific, and UTC Aerospace) looking

for science and engineering activities that could be

translated into

online modules

for high school

students. The 22

Real Science

teachers then

led professional

development for

a further 60

teachers on the

content of the

Real Science

lessons. Finish-

ing its third year, the Real Science project parallels the

Real Numbers in Real Situations project, which was begun in 2012 to help teachers develop lessons

to teach the new Common Core State Standards for

Mathematics.

We were very sorry to hear about the early return of

Team Mercury, Illinois State’s solar car team, from the

annual national solar car race. They had been in

the midst of the three-day Formula Sun Grand Prix

qualifier when a fire destroyed the Mercury 5 solar car

overnight.

Solar car teams from across the world arrived at

Circuit of the Americas race track in Austin, Texas this

July to compete in the annual solar car race, the

American Solar Challenge. The kickoff of the annual

solar car event began on July 14th with Scrutineering

before the start of the Formula Sun Grand Prix

qualifier on July 17th. Scrutineering is three days of

inspection and testing by race officials, which all cars

and drivers must pass in order to move on to the

Formula Sun

Grand Pr ix

qualifying race.

After passing

scrutineering,

Team Mercury

moved on to the

qualifier. De-

spite difficulties

on day one, day

two had the team hopeful that they were on their way

to qualifying for the road race. Team Mercury even

won the award for the Fastest Dynamics Slalom Test

CEMAST NEWSLETTER

In Urbana, Teaching Next Generation

Energy Concepts with Next Generation Science

Standards involved 21 junior high and high school STEM teachers in teaching next-generation

energy concepts by utilizing the Next

Generation Science Standards. Workshop

presenters included energy production,

regulatory, and renewable experts:

Dr. David Loomis (Center for Renewable

Energy), Dr. Amy Bloom (CeMaST/

Geography), and Mr. Matt Aldeman

(Center for Renewable Energy). Teachers

also visited Clinton Nuclear Generation

Station, Ameren Substation, and Danville

Community College. The project will lead

to increased awareness and conceptual

understanding of critical energy concepts,

a more educated public that is better able to make

difficult energy-related decisions, and increased

college readiness.

Finally, in the Cornbelt STEM Alliance, teachers from Pontiac and Olympia spent two weeks under the

guidance of Mrs. Chris Embry Mohr (Olympia)

reworking the complete districts' curricula to align

with the Next Generation Science

Standards. Twenty-eight teachers from the

junior and senior high in both districts

focused in on the scientific and engineer-

ing practices of the new standards.

In all these projects, teacher participants

left the first summer workshop with a unit

plan to implement during the 2013–2014

school year. These teachers, joined by

colleagues from across Illinois, finished

their work by participating in and leading

a conference, Teachers in the Lead: New

Illinois Learning Standards for Science, on September

6th at Illinois State University. See back page for more

information about this conference.

Page 2

with an 8.5 second slalom. However, the car caught

fire in the garage overnight and was destroyed. Team

Mercury stayed

on to see the

other teams off

on the road race

that started in

Austin, Texas

and ended in

M i n n e a p o l i s ,

Minnesota.

Team Mercury

returned home

to Normal disappointed but already thinking about

ideas for the Mercury 6: “While we would have liked

for our homecoming news releases to be of a different

nature, the reality is: not everything works out as

intended. We will be to arriving back in Normal this

evening and after a good night's sleep in our own

beds, we will begin planning for what our next steps

are. We've already begun brainstorming, and we have

many options as to where we go from here. The team

would like to thank everyone for their condolences

and words of encouragement. We will be back!”

Please visit the Team Mercury website at

www.solarcar.ilstu.edu or visit them on Facebook or Twitter. The team could use your support.

Illinois State’s Team Mercury: Looking Forward to Next Year

Page 3

This July, CeMaST

played host to 71 high

school students on the

Illinois State campus for

a weeklong summer

research experience,

the Illinois Summer

Research Academy

(ISRA) held July 13th-

18th. This marked the 5th year for the academy in

which high school students spend a week with ISU

professors and other high school students from across

Illinois working on various hands-on research

projects. Students are introduced to current research

projects of ISU faculty and exposed to the tools and

techniques that are being used to accomplish this

research. Students then make contributions to these

research projects or work on their own

research projects with their peers. This

year’s research opportunities included

the following:

Ecology of Prairie Plants Three students worked with Dr. Vickie

Borowicz on research projects concerning

seed predation of wild indigo or competition

between an exotic legume and a native

parasitic plant.

Participants: Lauren Eckert, Marcus Tecarro, and Molly

Widing.

Biochemistry Nine students worked with Dr. Marjorie A. Jones growing

Leishmania tarentolae (a one-celled organism) performing

assays to measure how additions of various compounds

affect the cells, and using spectroscopy and microscopy.

Participants: Dominick Biggs, Sabrina Bruozas, Nicole Hefner,

Sai Krishna Komaragiri, Ian McCormic, Cecily Negri,

Abhishek Pandravada, Zachary Sample, and Nihal Voruganti.

Chemistry Five students worked with Dr. Andrew Mitchell focusing

their research on the development of new reactions that are

either inspired by or directed toward natural products,

carbon-based molecules discovered in a variety of

environments.

Participants: Gregory Anderson, Alexandria Konishenko-

Williams, Jason Kwon, Robert Norton, and Kevin Slater.

Computer Mapping and GPS Nine students worked with Mrs. Crystal K. Williams

applying various Geographic Information System (GIS)

technologies to real world problems through hands-on

computer and GPS research.

Participants: Giovanni Alicea, Alan Bellamy Jr., Jennifer

Davila, Brendan Gridley, RuthAnn Haefli, Julisa Jimenez,

Ishaan Nerurkar, Morgan Peterson, and Yesenia Saldana.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014

Opportunities in Computing: A Hands-on Overview

of Information Technology Thirty-two students worked with Dr. Bryan Hosack and other

staff and faculty members from the School of Information

Technology on research activities including: using sensors

embedded in computers to control temperature, lighting,

and other systems; encrypting information; learning how to

tear down, troubleshoot, and rebuilding a home computer;

robotics; and many others.

Participants: Waleed Abdulkawi, Josue Aguirre, Anthony

Bartley, Joshua Boyle, LeAnn Bridgeforth, Jeremy Chionglo,

Yoen Dominguez, Liam Freeman, Max Freeman, Ryan

Freeman, Luis Garcia, William Gillis, Andrew Gustafson,

Noemi Hawkins, Hafza Javed, Nicholas Katrakis, Elijah King,

Son Le, Arshad Narmawala, Jonathan Newlin, Bryan Nguyen,

Lakshmi Pandravada, Sarah Park, Dymond Parnell, Alexander

Plumadore, Benjamin Trang, Maxwell Twitchell, Joshua

Vargas, Alfredo Vazquez, Cameron Wright, Graham Wright,

and Benjamin Zinn.

Exploratory Mathematics Research Thirteen students worked with Dr. Saad

El-Zanati and Dr. David Barker on

conjectures, proofs, and counter examples

using Latin squares and other topics.

Participants: Mariah Bryant, Danyell Cole,

Amanda Cortez, O'Rion Craig, Stephanie

Flores, Mariah Fulton, Mayra Moreno Jorge

Nunez, Luis Rico, Armando Rodriquez,

Karina Solano, Elizabeth Sotelo, and Ashlei

Williams.

This year’s Illinois Summer Research Academy was

larger than ever, in part due to generous scholarships

funded by the National Science Foundation, the Illinois

State University School of Information Technology,

Department of Mathematics, Office of Research,

CeMaST, and the Illinois Geographic Alliance.

CeMaST would also like to thank all of the faculty

members, staff members, and undergraduate and

graduate student chaperones who helped to make this

event a success. Be sure to check out the Bloomington

Pantagraph article, Robots Build Interest in Computer

Technology, which featured students in the

Opportunities in Computing experience.

For more information, please visit the ISRA website:

cemast.illinoisstate.edu/students/high-school/summer-

academy/

Illinois Summer Research Academy 2014

Center for Mathematics, Science, and

Technology

210 W. Mulberry St.

Campus Box 5960

Normal, IL 61790-5960

Phone: 309-438-3089

Fax: 309-438-3592

E-mail: cemast@ilstu.edu

For m ore new s a nd i n form at i on ,

V i s i t our w ebs i t e :

C eMa ST . I l l i no i s S t a t e . e du

Teachers in the Lead: New Illinois Learning

Standards for Science

The Teachers in the Lead: New Illinois Learning

Standards for Science conference took place

on September 6th at Illinois State University. This

conference served as a culminating experience for the

teachers involved in the NGSS professional develop-

ment workshops organized by CeMaST and funded by

the Illinois State Board of Education and the U.S.

Department of Education. Over 150 teachers

participated in these workshops—Real Science and

the Next Generation Science Standards, Introducing

Students to Research and Development for the High

School Classroom, Teaching Next Generation Energy

Concepts with Next Generation

Science Standards, and Cornbelt

STEM Alliance—as authors, curricu-

lum designers, and leaders. These

teachers, along with colleagues

from across Illinois, participated in

and led this conference.

The keynote speakers for the

conference were Dr. Lee Shumow

from Northern Illinois University,

who is a Presidential Teaching

Professor in Educational Psychology, and Dr. Brian

Reiser from Northwestern University, who is a Profes-

sor in Learning Sciences. In addition to the keynote

presentations, there were three breakout sessions.

Breakout Session I included the following sessions:

Kernels of Knowledge; Fail Early, Fail Often: Engineer-

ing Student Learning Through Research; A Compari-

son of Traditional Scientific Modeling and Modeling

Through the Lens of NGSS; and Meeting NGSS Stand-

ards Through Engineering Putt-Putt Boats. Breakout

Session II included: Minecraft Edu: Using Video

Games to Teach in NGSS and STEM Classrooms;

NGSS: A School District's Journey;

Where Does Our Water Come From?;

and WIP5 Project Director Meeting

and Program Update. Finally,

Breakout Session III included: Solar

Reflection and Energy; Cool Your

School and Beat the Heat; Better

Presentations; and Smart Grid.

For more information, please visit:

cemast.illinoisstate.edu/

educators/development/ngss-

conference.shtml Dr. Lee Shumow, Northern Illinois University (left), and

Dr. Brian Reiser, Northwestern University (right).