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High school teachers get dose of nuclear ed
THAT FUNNY, CRACKLING
NOISE:
Science teachers from California high schools learn how to
use Geiger counters by measuring radiation from different
objects. The teachers were in Bechtel on March 24 for a one-day
workshop on nuclear science. The workshop was hosted by the
NE department and sponsored by the Northern California Chapter
of the Health Physics Society and the Northern California
Section of the American Nuclear Society. Its goals, say organizers,
are to enhance the teachers’ understanding and provide
them with hands-on activities for their classrooms. Each
teacher received a Geiger counter. “It was definitely
worthwhile,” concluded one participant from St. Francis
High School in Mountain View. (Rachel Shafer photo)
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This time of year in Napa Valley, grapevines come out of dormancy
and develop tender buds, causing vineyard managers to lose sleep. If
the temperature dips below freezing, frost may develop and damage a
year’s worth of crops. During a frost in 2001, one vineyard alone
lost $750,000 worth of grapes.
To avoid that, workers stay up all night monitoring air temperature
across the vineyard with thermometers. If the temperature drops below
freezing in any one area, they have 30 minutes to initiate crop-saving
measures such as running sprinklers or heating the air with oil-drum
fires. But what if there was a better way to monitor the vineyard,
giving field managers more lead time to save their crop? What if
managers knew the exact conditions in their vineyard at any given point?
ME graduate student Alex Do wondered the same thing when Andrew Isaacs,
a Haas School of Business professor and novice winemaker, explained
Napa’s frost problem over a student-professor dinner in the spring
of 2004. The problem so intrigued Do that in the fall he pitched it
as a project to fellow students taking a Management of Technology new
product design class. [FULL STORY]
The world of a Berkeley Engineering student is vastly different from that
of a homeless 12-year-old from San Francisco. But Cal’s Pi Tau Sigma
(PTS) has brought these worlds together.
For eight weeks now, officers from the ME honor society have volunteered
their Friday afternoons to help homeless kids in San Francisco build
and program toy robot cars. “Our goal is to distract the kids from their problems
for a while and, in the process, maybe inspire an interest in science and
engineering,” says the program’s coordinator, ME and business
administration junior, Jae Kim.
It all started last year when Kim volunteered at Berkeley High School and
was inspired by the interaction. At the same time, PTS officers were
floating the idea of using LEGO robot kits to teach underprivileged kids how
to build
and run motors, sensors and software. Kim, the club’s liaison to National
Instruments, approached his contact there, who urged him to apply for a company
grant. The contact also suggested working with “A Home Away from Homelessness,” an
after-school program for San Francisco’s homeless children. When National
Instruments awarded PTS $2,000 in the fall, the pieces fell into place.
[FULL STORY]
Below is the second column in an occasional student perspective series
on the engineering life. Finding a niche is written by NE/mathematics
senior Paul Monasterio, who is graduating this spring.
At this stage in my Cal career, I often sit down and think about all
the things I’ve learned during the past four years. Very rarely
do my thoughts converge on a book, lab, or upper division NE class.
When recalling my learning experiences at Cal, I always think of people.
As a freshman from Caracas, Venezuela, my only exposure to Cal was
the worldwide prestige associated with Berkeley’s academic programs,
in particular Berkeley Engineering. Now, as a senior, I realize that
Berkeley’s outstanding academics are only a small fraction of
the many opportunities that we as students have here, and that the
only way to seize them is to find the right group of people to accompany
you on your journey through Cal. [FULL STORY]
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