STEM Education and Outreach Center

Winter Edition, 2016

The SOAR Club organized a visit from a class from Sitton

Elementary School to visit the UP campus to learn about

Engineering. Big thanks to students from the SOAR Club,

students from the Shiley School of Engineering, and Engineering

professors Tim Doughty, Shazib Viglee, and Aziz Inan for hosting

the grade school students!

Students from Open School also came to campus for a visit.

Once again the Shiley School of Engineering stepped up to the

plate to introduce these students to the wonders of

engineering. Special thanks to Khalid Khan for leading that

group’s STEM visit!

Visits to the UP Campus

UP Gets a New Grant :

Solar Thermal Energy

University of Portland Shiley School of Engineering has received

three separate grants totaling $45,000 for undergraduate

student research projects dealing with environmental and

sustainability issues.

The research involves collaboration with other schools and

organizations, and each project is funded by a $15,000 grant

from the Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges & Universi-

ties (The Alliance) and the Katherine Bisbee II Fund of the

Oregon Community Foundation. The grant’s funds are to be

applied to projects that are easily discernable, have an element

of creativity, and show a long-term benefit to the people

and/or natural areas of Oregon.

The first grant involves the second phase of a partnership with

George Fox University and Portland General Electric (PGE), who

last summer jointly did research on solar-thermal energy

production. The project, submitted by UP engineering professor

Heather Dillon, provided students and faculty with a “real

world” challenge in terms of renewable energy science.

Students and faculty developed an automatic load control

algorithm to control the electrical load based on variations in

local weather.

The two universities worked together closely last summer and

developed project paths that allowed both schools to end up

with relevant laboratory data and experiments. George Fox

engineering professor Chad Stillinger was a collaborator on the

project, which received feedback from industry partner PGE.

“I am thankful for the PGE team for engaging these young

people in learning about energy systems and inspiring them to

continue their education in this area,” said Kregg Arntson,

Director, Corporate Social Responsibility and Executive Director

of PGE Foundation. “Being more intentional about connecting

our Alliance scholars with the energy industry not only benefits

the students in their educational pursuits, it helps us ensure we

have a qualified pool of workers to sustain us into the future.”

The STEM Center has had a busy

semester, mostly filled with

outreach activities. We held our first

on campus Family STEM Night in

November. We were really pleased

with the turnout. It was great to

have so many of our students and

faculty working with the local K-8

students and their families. The

enthusiasm in Howard Hall was palpable! See this issue of the

newsletter for more info and pictures. We also had two school

groups (Sitton Elementary and Open School) requesting

individualized visits, which I am happy to say we were able to

provide—mostly thanks to the faculty in the Shiley School of

Engineering and the SOAR Club on campus! This semester the

STEM Center is going to focus its attention inward to see how we

can better serve our own UP students and outward to provide

professional development opportunities for area teachers. We

have several ideas in the hopper, but you’ll have to wait to our

next edition to see what we did! Do remember to check our web

site (https://sites.up.edu/stem/) as Lloyd keeps it updated with

news and grant opportunities for faculty, undergraduate students,

and K-12 teachers!

We hope you have been enjoying this rather mild winter and wish

you a lovely start to spring!

Patricia Morrell morrell@up.edu

An Introduction

from the Director

Family STEM Night

and other

Outreach Activities

Robert Butler

Receives a

National Award

Faculty Grants and

Other news

Pollentia Update

Newsletter

Content

University of

Portland’s First

On-Campus Family

STEM Night:

You may recall, the last newsletter had an article on Dr. Robert

Butler winning the Neil Miner Award for his outstanding work in

Geoscience education. That same skill and enthusiasm has been

recognized by Western States Seismic Policy Council and

Dr. Butler received an award for Educational Outreach to

Schools. Dr. Butler has spearheaded the Cascadia Earthscope

Earthquake and Tsunami Education Program (CEETEP), serving as

their principal investigator, and is also known for his engaging

teaching style, long history with Earth Sciences, and his own

textbook on Paleomagnetism.

Pollentia Update

Faculty Presentation

Tisha Morrell and Julie Kalnin (both from the School of

Education) presented a research paper at the Annual

International Meeting of the Association for Science Teacher

Education, in Reno, Nevada this past January. Their study

examined the impact of a longitudinal professional development

experience (PD) on changing identity through communities of

practice. The PD focused on climate change and followed a

teacher as researcher model. The findings described the impact

of participation in the PD on both the teachers and the climate

change scientists involved in the project.

On November 19th in the Howard Hall Gym, University of Port-

land was delighted to hold an exciting event for K-8 students

and their parents to learn more about the possibilities of STEM

education. Just under 140 school children accompanied by

approximately 170 adults and family members were greeted by

activities put forward by an assortment of 100 UP students, club

members, and faculty representing the College of Arts and Sci-

ences and Schools of Engineering, Nursing and Education.

Among these were Dr. Robert Butler, winner of last year’s Neil

Miner award for his work in Earth Sciences, who gave a fantastic

presentation on earthquakes, as well as Dr. Shazib Vijlee, whose

students produced a perfect sine wave with a Ruben’s Tube.

Kids went home with diffraction glasses, pencils, and squishy

brains as our thanks for participating in the event.

Dr. Robert Butler Recognized Again!

Father Richard Rutherford (professor emeritus from Theology)

had his article “The Adventure Continues: Update on the

Pollentia Expedition” published in the February 2016 issue of

Catholic Cemetery. Also, the new video promoting Pollentia –

Roman City is in the top position on the Pollentia Wordpress site:

https://sites.up.edu/pollentia. If you haven't seen this short film,

give yourself to a 2 minute treat and, if new to the site, scroll

around a bit too for a more detailed share in the past two

Pollentia summers. If you are interested in participating in or

supporting the 2016 Summer Expedition, please contact Father

Rutherford (ruther@up.edu)

Grants for High-Needs

Careers

University of Portland, working with Impact NW and the Portland

Metro STEM Partnership, has secured a $75,000 grant from

Work Systems, Inc. The project, according to UP mathematics

professor Stephanie Salomone, includes writing curriculum to

help prepare youth in Multnomah and Washington counties for

four high-needs career pathways: infrastructure, manufacturing,

information technology, and health care. The project will serve

as a pilot program during the first year, and the goal of Work

Systems, Inc. is to eventually make its curriculum available

statewide. Work Systems, Inc. is a non-profit organization that

pursues and invests resources to improve the quality of the

workforce in the City of Portland, and Multnomah and

Washington counties.