Search for: All records

This work aims to help high school STEM teachers integrate computational thinking (CT) into their classrooms by engaging teachers as curriculum co-designers. K-12 teachers who are not trained in computer science may not see the value of CT in STEM classrooms and how to engage their students in computational practices that reflect the practices of STEM professionals. To this end, we developed a 4-week professional development workshop for eight science and mathematics high school teachers to co-design computationally enhanced curriculum with our team of researchers. The workshop first provided an introduction to computational practices and tools for STEM education. Then, teachers engaged in co-design to enhance their science and mathematics curricula with computational practices in STEM. Data from surveys and interviews showed that teachers learned about computational thinking, computational tools, coding, and the value of collaboration after the professional development. Further, they were able to integrate multiple computational tools that engage their students in CT-STEM practices. These findings suggest that teachers can learn to use computational practices and tools through workshops, and that teachers collaborating with researchers in co-design to develop computational enhanced STEM curriculum may be a powerful way to engage students and teachers with CT in K-12 classrooms. 

Free-living amoebae often harbor obligate intracellular bacterial symbionts. Amoebophilus (A.) asiaticus is a representative of a lineage of amoeba symbionts in the phylum Bacteroidota. Here, we analyse the transcriptome of A. asiaticus strain 5a2 at four time points during its infection cycle and replication within the Acanthamoeba host using RNA sequencing. Our results reveal a dynamic transcriptional landscape throughout different A. asiaticus life cycle stages. Many intracellular bacteria and pathogens utilize eukaryotic-like proteins (ELPs) for host cell interaction and the A. asiaticus 5a2 genome shows a particularly high abundance of ELPs. We show the expression of all genes encoding ELPs and found many ELPs to be differentially expressed. At the replicative stage of A. asiaticus, ankyrin repeat proteins and tetratricopeptide/Sel1-like repeat proteins were upregulated. At the later time points, high expression levels of a type 6 secretion system that likely prepares for a new infection cycle after lysing its host, were found. This study reveals comprehensive insights into the intracellular lifestyle of A. asiaticus and highlights candidate genes for host cell interaction. The results from this study have implications for other intracellular bacteria such as other amoeba-associated bacteria and the arthropod symbionts Cardinium forming the sister lineage of A. asiaticus.

 

There is broad belief that preparing all students in preK-12 for a future in STEM involves integrating computing and computational thinking (CT) tools and practices. Through creating and examining rich “STEM+CT” learning environments that integrate STEM and CT, researchers are defining what CT means in STEM disciplinary settings. This interactive session brings together a diverse spectrum of leading STEM researchers to share how they operationalize CT, what integrated CT and STEM learning looks like in their curriculum, and how this learning is measured. It will serve as a rich opportunity for discussion to help advance the state of the field of STEM and CT integration. 

There is broad belief that preparing all students in preK-12 for a future in STEM involves integrating computing and computational thinking (CT) tools and practices. Through creating and examining rich “STEM+CT” learning environments that integrate STEM and CT, researchers are defining what CT means in STEM disciplinary settings. This interactive session brings together a diverse spectrum of leading STEM researchers to share how they operationalize CT, what integrated CT and STEM learning looks like in their curriculum, and how this learning is measured. It will serve as a rich opportunity for discussion to help advance the state of the field of STEM and CT integration. 

The nature of dark matter and properties of neutrinos are among the most pressing issues in contemporary particle physics. The dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber is the leading technology to cover the available parameter space for weakly interacting massive particles, while featuring extensive sensitivity to many alternative dark matter candidates. These detectors can also study neutrinos through neutrinoless double-beta decay and through a variety of astrophysical sources. A next-generation xenon-based detector will therefore be a true multi-purpose observatory to significantly advance particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, solar physics, and cosmology. This review article presents the science cases for such a detector.