Search for: All records

Abstract. Green building education prioritizes workforce development to promote high-performing and net zero building adoptions. However, the concept and principles of net zero and building energy have rarely been reflected in the curriculum and instruction of K-12 science education in the United States. This research investigates the design and development of simulation game development paired with a science curriculum to teach green building design and energy principles in rural middle schools. This paper presents our education game development aligned with the newly developed curriculum unit that will be distributed to science classrooms. Green Building Design Studio game was developed from the following research phases: (i) Game scenario design, (ii) Energy simulation module creation, (iii) ML-prediction model development, and (iv) Cost estimation module creation. In ML prediction, the XGBoost algorithm demonstrated reliable performance and accuracy. The game was tested in a 3-day science immersion summer camp with twenty-seven middle school students in Missouri. The research team observed that the game enabled students to iterate de sign changes and promptly see the updated results from the dashboard. This paper describes the game development framework, methods and tools for energy simulation, ML prediction, and game development, as well as the findings and challenges. 

Socio-ecological systems thinking (SEST), is an interdisciplinary science branch that views natural systems and societal systems as one overall system. To support students in building SEST, we designed a 10-week, place-based energy literacy unit where 6th-grade students investigated energy flow between natural systems and their school building. Students developed systems models throughout the unit that they used to propose energy flow relationships between large scale system components and to articulate causal mechanisms that lead to overall system behavior. We analyzed their pre/mid/post-systems models to elucidate their trajectories in discerning system behavior. Findings suggest that students improved in proposing energy flow relationships and causal mechanisms for either the social or natural systems but did not view them as one overall system. 

Development of innovative curriculum materials is a mainstay strategy in research-driven classroom interventions and teacher professional development. Yet even when curricular materials are co-developed by teachers planning to implement the materials, they still must navigate the unique needs and constraints of their classrooms. This study explores differentiated enactment of a co-developed place-based middle school energy literacy unit. The unit uses the school building as a place-based resource to increase student awareness and understanding of fundamental energy concepts, impacts and interactions of natural and human-made energy systems, and considerations for energy efficient building features through engineering design. This multiple-case explores how five teachers across four middle schools in the same school district enacted the unit. Each teacher’s enactment was characterized using Coburn’s (2004) five levels, which are: rejection (materials not enacted), symbolic (materials implemented superficially), parallel structures (materials are implemented with existing practices), assimilation (adopts the materials but transforms materials to fit internal and external factors), and accommodation (enacts the materials with minor changes). We observed symbolic, assimilation, accommodation, and rejection across the teachers, with enactment modes varying across different phases of unit implementation. We analyzed interview and observational data for internal and external factors that shaped their implementation. Internal factors included opportunities for novel teaching and making connections to existing curriculum, activities, and/or practical knowledge. External factors included the presence, or absence, of building supports, inadequate class time, non-core class status, and COVID-19 policies. Internal factors generally supported teachers’ enactment of the materials, whereas external factors that could not be negotiated caused barriers to enactment. Our implications for this work include the importance of teacher support for new curriculum implementation. 

A mild, convenient coupling of aliphatic aldehydes and unactivated alkyl bromides has been developed. The catalytic system features the use of a common Ni( ii ) precatalyst and a readily available bioxazoline ligand and affords silyl-protected secondary alcohols. The reaction is operationally simple, utilizing Mn as a stoichiometric reductant, and tolerates a wide range of functional groups. The use of 1,5-hexadiene as an additive is an important reaction parameter that provides significant benefits in yield optimizations. Initial mechanistic experiments support a mechanism featuring an alpha-silyloxy Ni species that undergoes formal oxidative addition to the alkyl bromide via a reductive cross-coupling pathway. 

The highly infectious disease COVID-19 caused by the Betacoronavirus SARS-CoV-2 poses a severe threat to humanity, and demands for redirection of scientific efforts and criteria to organized research projects. The international Covid19-NMR consortium seeks to provide such new approaches by gathering scientific expertise worldwide. In particular, making available viral proteins and RNAs will pave the way to understanding the SARS-CoV-2 molecular components in detail. The research in Covid19-NMR and the resources provided through the consortium are fully disclosed to accelerate access and exploitation. NMR investigations of the viral molecular components are designated to provide the essential basis for further work, including macromolecular interaction studies and high-throughput drug screening. Here, we present the extensive catalogue of a holistic SARS-CoV-2 protein preparation approach based on the consortium’s collective efforts. We provide protocols for the large-scale production of more than 80% of all SARS-CoV-2 proteins or essential parts of them. Several of the proteins were produced in more than one laboratory, demonstrating the high interoperability between NMR groups worldwide. For the majority of proteins, we can produce isotope-labeled samples of HSQC-grade. Together with several NMR-chemical shift assignments made publicly available on covid19-nmr.com, we here provide highly valuable resources for the production of SARS-CoV-2 proteins in isotope labeled form.