Balancing Academic Rigor and Creative Thinking: A Transformational Approach to Teaching Senior Design.

Innovation arises from creativity. "Thinking outside the box" has long been seen as a necessary precursor to innovation and invention in engineering. However, creativity is rarely part of traditional engineering curricula. In 2015, our group began to explore integrating theater-based creativity methods into bioengineering capstone design. Evaluation of student outcomes was encouraging, so we continued to develop the course in 2016 and 2017. As we worked to refine the pedagogical process, we discovered tensions (real or perceived) between providing academic rigor and allowing students to embrace their creativity; for instance, we experienced some resistance from engineering faculty and students toward adopting methods they viewed as "artsy" or lacking academic rigor. Here, we discuss the tensions we observed offer potential ways to mitigate such tensions and begin to consider how to expand on our successes.

Trends in Texas high school student enrollment in mathematics, science, and CTE-STEM courses.

BACKGROUND: In the context of Texas of the USA, House Bill 5 signifies a major policy shift requiring entering high school students starting in fall 2014 to choose an endorsement, like science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) being one of them, to provide students with earlier exposure to a coherent course sequence. As we barely understand students' choices before the endorsement requirement, this study explored 6 years of data (2008-2013) on high school student enrollment rates in mathematics, science, and career and technical education (CTE)-STEM courses to set out the baseline of the trends in STEM course enrollment in Texas. RESULTS: The enrollment rates of the STEM-related courses had wide variations by types of courses, gender, and race/ethnicity. Overall, student enrollment rates increased across time in selective and advanced mathematics, science, and CTE-STEM courses, which indicates a promising prospect for the STEM pipeline. However, there were exceptions in several courses with gender and racial/ethnic differences in the trends. Gender disparity was greater in advanced science courses than advanced mathematics courses, and collectively, gender gap in CTE-STEM courses increased greater than advanced mathematics and advanced science courses across years. While racial/ethnic differences were constant across years in both advanced mathematics and advanced science courses, the differences were rising in CTE-STEM courses in recent years. CONCLUSIONS: As little is known about students' preferences in course-taking in STEM courses at the state level, the findings on the trends in students' STEM course-taking, disaggregated by gender and race/ethnicity, can provide needed insights on what institutional K-12 changes would be effective for impacting the STEM pipeline.

Computerized dynamic posturography: the influence of platform stability on postural control.

OBJECTIVE: Postural stability can be quantified using posturography systems, which allow different foot platform stability settings to be selected. It is unclear, however, how platform stability and postural control are mathematically correlated. DESIGN: Twenty subjects performed tests on the Biodex Stability System at all 13 stability levels. Overall stability index, medial-lateral stability index, and anterior-posterior stability index scores were calculated, and data were analyzed using analysis of variance and linear regression analysis. RESULTS: A decrease in platform stability from the static level to the second least stable level was associated with a linear decrease in postural control. The overall stability index scores were 1.5 ± 0.8 degrees (static), 2.2 ± 0.9 degrees (level 8), and 3.6 ± 1.7 degrees (level 2). The slope of the regression lines was 0.17 for the men and 0.10 for the women. CONCLUSIONS: A linear correlation was demonstrated between platform stability and postural control. The influence of stability levels seems to be almost twice as high in men as in women.

Effects of low-dose alcohol consumption on postural control with a particular focus on the role of the visual system.

There is clear evidence that vision contributes to stabilizing posture and that large quantities of alcohol affect balance. It has, however, not yet been investigated whether and how the consumption of low doses of ethanol affects postural control and the visual system. The purpose of this study was therefore to assess the influence of low-dose alcohol intake on balance. After having performed stability tests in a sober condition, 26 healthy males were instructed to consume 0.32 g of ethanol/kg body weight. At predefined time points, blood samples were collected and stability index scores were calculated using computerized dynamic posturography. Thirty minutes after ethanol intake, blood alcohol levels reached a mean peak of 0.037%. Whereas the ability to maintain balance significantly deteriorated during eyes-open testing, it surprisingly did not decrease during eyes-closed testing. Apparently, the visual system is particularly affected by ethanol and plays a major role in maintaining postural stability.

The role and interaction of visual and auditory afferents in postural stability.

BACKGROUND: Maintaining balance requires the integration of vestibular, proprioceptive and visual information and the translation of this input into appropriate motor responses. Although the role of the visual system has been widely investigated, there are no studies addressing the influence of non-specific distracting auditory inputs on postural stability. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the role of the visual and auditory systems in the maintenance of postural stability and to assess potential interaction between the two sensory systems. METHODS: Twenty-three healthy subjects were examined by computerized dynamic posturography. Stability index scores were calculated under each of six conditions: three visual conditions (sway feedback, eyes open without feedback, eyes closed) were combined with two auditory conditions (exposure or no exposure to non-specific auditory input). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test for differences among groups in the six test conditions. RESULTS: Postural stability was much poorer in the eyes-closed (overall stability index (OSI): 6.8+/-2.1 degrees) than in the eyes-open condition (OSI: 2.2+/-1.2 degrees). Balance control significantly improved with visual feedback (OSI: 1.2+/-0.5 degrees). Exposure to non-specific auditory input (music through headphones) did not have a significant influence (OSI: 6.4+/-2.3 degrees /2.0+/-0.9 degrees /1.1+/-0.5 degrees). CONCLUSIONS: Postural stability depended not only on whether the subjects were tested with their eyes open or closed but also on the presence or absence of visual feedback. Non-specific auditory information did not influence postural control. Since postural stability is regulated by multiple senses such as the vestibular system and proprioception, auditory stimuli may play an increasing role if one of the systems involved is impaired.