Feature: Nuclear Energizes Teachers
Posted on October 16th, 2011 by ASEE
Despite the anxiety triggered by last spring’s nuclear disaster in Japan, nuclear power is still a key part of this country’s energy mix. Industry and universities are enlisting help from teachers in preparing the next generation of nuclear engineers and technicians.
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Tags: Electrical, Electrical Engineering, Energy, Nuclear Engineering, Nuclear Science, Programs for Teachers, Teacher Training, Teacher Workshops, Teachers, Workshops
A Purdue University engineering professor has found that building and racing go-karts is a great way not only to interest his own students in science and engineering, but at-risk middle-school kids as well. 
Students in grades 4-8 build simple circuits using a battery, wires, and light bulbs. They examine how electricity is conducted through a light bulb using a battery as a power source, and learn the difference between a series circuit and a parallel circuit.
This lesson engages students in grades 6-8 in an electrolysis activity separating hydrogen and oxygen to help them understand how hydrogen is created to be used as an energy source.
An engineer-turned-teacher, Christopher Tolbert inspires both at-risk and advanced students with challenges that convert gasoline-powered cars to run on electricity. In Tolbert’s high-octane classroom, “every student is held accountable.”
Students in grades 6-12 disassemble one of two different single-use cameras and create a systems diagram and precise reassembly instructions for the device. They then attempt to rebuild the other camera using instructions developed by their peers. Through this reverse engineering activity, students learn about the work of systems engineers.
At Drexel University, Assistant Prof. Youngmoo Kim and his students think up ways to put the power of a music arranger into the hands of unskilled and untutored listeners. Literally into their hands: Soon, if Kim’s research pans out, an iPhone could be all a listener needs to imprint downloaded music with his or her own taste and style, adjusting tempo, pitch, and mood.
