skip to main content


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "McNeill, L."

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. The HSI (Hispanic Serving Institution) ATE (Advanced Technological Education) Hub 2 is a three-year collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that continues the partnership between two successful programs and involves a third partner in piloting professional development that draws upon findings from the initial program. The goal of HSI ATE Hub 2 is to improve outcomes for Latinx students in technician education programs through design, development, pilot delivery, and dissemination of a 3-tier professional development (PD) model for culturally responsive technician education at 2-year Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The project seeks to do this by developing the awareness and ability of faculty to appreciate, engage, and affirm the unique cultural identities of the students in their classes and use this connection to deepen students’ belonging and emerging identities as STEM learners and future STEM technicians. This paper shares the research foundations shaping this approach and the methods by which faculty professional development is being provided to develop this important and sensitive instructional capability in participating faculty. The tiered PD model features a scaffolded series of reflective and activity-oriented modules to incrementally enrich the instructional practices and mindset of HSI STEM educators and strengthen their repertoire of strategies for engaging culturally diverse students. Scaffolding that translates culturally responsive theory to practice spans each of the four distinct topic modules in each tier. Each topic module in a tier then scaffolds to a more advanced topic module in the next tier. Tier 1, Bienvenidos, welcomes HSI STEM educators who recognize the need to better serve their Latinx students, and want guidance for small practical activities to try with their students. Tier 2, Transformation through Action, immerses HSI STEM educators in additional activities that bring culturally responsive practices into their technician training while building capacity to collect evidence about impacts and outcomes for students. Tier 3, Engaging Community, strengthens leadership as HSI STEM educators disseminate results from activities completed in Tiers 1 and 2 at conferences that attract technician educators. Sharing the evidence-based practices and their outcomes contributes to achieving broader impacts in the Advanced Technological Education or ATE Community of NSF grantees. Westchester Community College (WCC), the first 2-year HSI in the State University of New York (SUNY) 64 campus system, is piloting the 3-tier PD model using virtual learning methods mastered through previous NSF ATE work and the COVID-19 context. During the pilot, over 20 WCC technician educators in three cohorts will develop leadership skills and practice culturally responsive methods. The pilot will build capacity within WCC STEM technician programs to better support the diversity of students, industry demand for a diverse workforce, and WCC’s capacity for future development of technician education programs. This first paper in a three part series describes the program goals and objectives, the 3-Tier PD model, and reports initial results for Cohort A’s engagement in the first three modules of Tier 1. 
    more » « less
  2. null (Ed.)
    Continental rifting is fundamental for the formation of ocean basins, and active rift zones are dynamic regions of high geohazard potential. However, much of what we know from the fault to plate scale is poorly constrained and is not resolved at any level of spatial or temporal detail over a complete rift system. For International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 381, we propose drilling within the active Corinth rift, Greece, where deformation rates are high, the synrift succession is preserved and accessible, and a dense, seismic database provides high-resolution imaging, with limited chronology, of the fault network and of seismic stratigraphy for the recent rift history. In Corinth, we can therefore achieve an unprecedented precision of timing and spatial complexity of rift-fault system development and rift-controlled drainage system evolution in the first 1–2 My of rift history. We propose to determine at a high temporal and spatial resolution how faults evolve, how strain is distributed, and how the landscape responds within the first few million years in a nonvolcanic continental rift, as modulated by Quaternary changes in sea level and climate. High horizontal spatial resolution (1–3 km) is provided by a dense grid of seismic profiles offshore that have been recently fully integrated and are complemented by extensive outcrops onshore. High temporal resolution (~20–50 ky) will be provided by seismic stratigraphy tied to new core and log data from three carefully located boreholes to sample the recent synrift sequence. Two primary themes are addressed by the proposed drilling integrated with the seismic database and onshore data. First, we will examine fault and rift evolutionary history (including fault growth, strain localization, and rift propagation) and deformation rates. The spatial scales and relative timing can already be determined within the seismic data offshore, and dating of drill core will provide the absolute timing offshore, the temporal correlation to the onshore data, and the ability to quantify strain rates. Second, we will study the response of drainage evolution and sediment supply to rift and fault evolution. Core data will define lithologies, depositional systems and paleoenvironment (including catchment paleoclimate), basin paleobathymetry, and relative sea level. Integrated with seismic data, onshore stratigraphy, and catchment data, we will investigate the relative roles and feedbacks between tectonics, climate, and eustasy in sediment flux and basin evolution. A multidisciplinary approach to core sampling integrated with log and seismic data will generate a Quaternary chronology for the synrift stratigraphy down to orbital timescale resolutions and will resolve the paleoenvironmental history of the basin in order to address our objectives. 
    more » « less
  3. null (Ed.)
    Drilling the input materials of the north Sumatran subduction zone, part of the 5000 km long Sunda subduction zone system and the origin of the Mw ~9.2 earthquake and tsunami that devastated coastal communities around the Indian Ocean in 2004, was designed to groundtruth the material properties causing unexpectedly shallow seismogenic slip and a distinctive forearc prism structure. The intriguing seismogenic behavior and forearc structure are not well explained by existing models or by relationships observed at margins where seismogenic slip typically occurs farther landward. The input materials of the north Sumatran subduction zone are a distinctively thick (as thick as 4–5 km) succession of primarily Bengal-Nicobar Fan–related sediments. The correspondence between the 2004 rupture location and the overlying prism plateau, as well as evidence for a strengthened input section, suggest the input materials are key to driving the distinctive slip behavior and long-term forearc structure. During Expedition 362, two sites on the Indian oceanic plate ~250 km southwest of the subduction zone, Sites U1480 and U1481, were drilled, cored, and logged to a maximum depth of 1500 meters below seafloor. The succession of sediment/rocks that will develop into the plate boundary detachment and will drive growth of the forearc were sampled, and their progressive mechanical, frictional, and hydrogeological property evolution will be analyzed through postcruise experimental and modeling studies. Large penetration depths with good core recovery and successful wireline logging in the challenging submarine fan materials will enable evaluation of the role of thick sedimentary subduction zone input sections in driving shallow slip and amplifying earthquake and tsunami magnitudes, at the Sunda subduction zone and globally at other subduction zones where submarine fan–influenced sections are being subducted. 
    more » « less
  4. null (Ed.)
    Due to the availability of new site survey data and previous changes that defined proposed Sites SUMA-11C and SUMA-12A as the primary sites for Expedition 362, two new proposed alternate sites have been selected: SUMA-23A and SUMA-24A. This addendum provides the scientific objectives for proposed Sites SUMA-23A and SUMA-24A, regional and detailed maps, and seismic profiles for the two sites. The site priorities and drilling and coring strategy remain unchanged from the original Expedition 362 Scientific Prospectus. The operations time estimates for all alternate sites are presented. The new proposed alternate Sites SUMA-23A and SUMA-24A are located above Fracture Zone 7B, which is located south of the current primary and alternate sites. The sites are located close to the epicenter of one of the 2012 Mw >8 earthquakes. These sites are still part of the input section to the southern 2004 earthquake rupture region of the subduction zone. Proposed Site SUMA-23A provides a section of Unit 1 (thin trench wedge) and a significant part of Unit 2 (Bengal-Nicobar submarine fan deposits and interbedded hemipelagite) overlying Fracture Zone 7B and includes sampling of 10 m of basement atop the basement high. Proposed Site SUMA-24A provides a section of Unit 1 (thin trench wedge) and a thinner part of Unit 2 (Bengal-Nicobar submarine fan deposits and interbedded hemipelagite) than proposed Site SUMA-23A, which overlies Fracture Zone 7B, and includes sampling of 10 m of basement atop the basement high. The new site survey data were acquired on board the Schmidt Ocean Institute (CA, USA) research vessel (R/V) Falkor in 2015 during the MegaTera experiment, an international project between the Earth Observatory Singapore (EOS), the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI), and Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (France). SOI provided the R/V Falkor for the experiment, and EOS funded the rental of the seismic equipment. 
    more » « less
  5. null (Ed.)
    The 2004 Mw 9.2 earthquake and tsunami that struck North Sumatra and the Andaman-Nicobar Islands devastated coastal communities around the Indian Ocean and was the first earthquake to be analyzed by modern techniques. This earthquake and the Tohoku-Oki Mw 9.0 earthquake and tsunami in 2011 showed unexpectedly shallow megathrust slip. In the case of North Sumatra, this shallow slip was focused beneath a distinctive plateau of the accretionary prism. This intriguing seismogenic behavior and forearc structure are not well explained by existing models or by relationships observed at margins where seismogenic slip typically occurs farther landward. The input materials of the North Sumatran subduction zone are a distinctive, thick (up to 4–5 km) sequence of primarily Bengal-Nicobar Fan–related sediments. This sequence shows strong evidence for induration and dewatering and has probably reached the temperatures required for sediment-strengthening diagenetic reactions prior to accretion. The correspondence between the 2004 rupture location and the overlying prism plateau, as well as evidence for a strengthened input section, suggests the input materials are key to driving the distinctive slip behavior and long-term forearc structure. The aim of Expedition 362 is to begin to understand the nature of seismogenesis in North Sumatra through sampling these input materials and assessing their evolution, en route to understanding such processes on related convergent margins. Properties of the incoming section affect the strength of the wedge interior and base, likely promoting the observed plateau development. In turn, properties of deeper input sediment control décollement position and properties, and hence hold the key to shallow coseismic slip. During Expedition 362, two primary, riserless sites (proposed Sites SUMA-11C and SUMA-12A) will be drilled on the oceanic plate to analyze the properties of the input materials. Coring, downhole pressure and temperature measurements, and wireline logging at these sites will constrain sediment deposition rates, diagenesis, thermal and physical properties, and fluid composition. Postexpedition experimental analyses and numerical models will be employed to investigate the mechanical and frictional behavior of the input section sediments/sedimentary rocks as they thicken, accrete, and become involved in plate boundary slip system and prism development. These samples and downhole measurements will augment the internationally collected site survey bathymetric, seismic, and shallow core data that provide the regional geological framework of the margin. 
    more » « less