STEM program targets local high achievers

Bloomsburg University recently welcomed a group of top high school sophomores from Bloomsburg, Central Columbia and Berwick Area school districts to campus for their first taste of our Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Magnet program. Eighteen academically talented students were admitted for the program’s first year.

Students in the STEM Magnet program have enrolled together in five courses — two each during fall 2013 and spring 2014 and one during January 2014 — and earn a total of 15 credits. They will earn 15 additional credits during their second year in the program.

This summer the students are going through a short orientation, meeting some of the faculty, talking with a few college mentors and getting to know each other better through a series of Quest team-building exercises. The STEM program heads to the classroom and lab this fall.

The two-year program will focus on engineering, but also will give students interested in math or other sciences the tools needed to be successful in college. Classes will include Computer Science, Coding, Engineering Sampler, Engineering Seminar, Calculus I or II, Physics I, Physics II, Technical Writing, Economics and Ethics.

College graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics are in great demand, but nearly half of students majoring in these fields fail to complete their degrees. Local superintendents have expressed a need for this type of program to help students prepare for the rigors of these majors and to meet the needs of local employers.

To be eligible, sophomores in Bloomsburg, Central Columbia and Berwick Area high schools must have taken Algebra I and II, Geometry and two years of science. They also must have a positive recommendation from their science or math teacher, at least a 95 percent attendance record and a commitment to enroll in the program for both their junior and senior years of high school. A panel reviewed all applications this past spring.

Paying it forward with innovative minds

Bloomsburg University's strategic planning grants are geared toward funding new innovative projects and the development of Centers of Excellence and Innovative Programs, leading to academic excellence, fiscal sustainability, enhanced enrollment management and stronger sense of community. In continuation of this successful initiative, the Strategic Planning and Resource Council 2 (SPARC 2) recently invited teams to submit full proposals for the 2013 Presidential Strategic Planning Grants. Thirteen letters of intent were submitted for review in early April. Seven of them have been invited to submit full proposals. Grant recipients will be announced in November.

In the meantime, research continues this summer. And three notable faculty-led projects, which earlier this year earned sizable grant awards (two from the National Science Foundation), will be in full-swing over the summer break.

 

Highlighted Faculty Research Awards

John Hranitz, professor of biology, National Science Foundation (NSF), $316,000, “Behavior of honeybees and solitary bees in natural pollination systems and their responses to environmental stressors,” (Partnership with the University of Central Oklahoma). Researchers on the eight-week project in Turkey and Greece during summer 2013 will include faculty from six universities in three countries, as well as undergraduate student researchers.

Karl Kapp, professor of instructional technology, National Science Foundation (NSF) Advanced Technology Education (ATE), $250,000, “Development of an open source, online virtual tensil strength testing stimulation,” (Partnership with Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and the National Office of Project Lead the Way). Materials created from this three-year project will be used by undergraduate engineering technology students and pre-engineering high school students in the Project Lead the Way network of 4,215 schools nationwide.

Heather Feldhaus, assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Center for Rural Pennsylvania, $14,000, “Rural homelessness,” (Collaboration with Columbia County Housing Authority, ColumbiaMontour Homelessness Task Force and researchers from Bucknell University and Lycoming College). The study will identify, gather and evaluate existing patterns of homelessness and housing insecurity. Researchers will report on the current situation and collaborate on a long-term plan to better measure and track homelessness in rural Pennsylvania.