Volume VI Issue 2
Summer 2010 |
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 Nursing
Simulation Lab Opens
 The
University of Connecticut's School of Nursing recently opened a nursing
simulation lab so nursing students can enhance their knowledge and
skills. The new laboratory will enhance UConn's Master's Entry Into
Nursing program, which is designed for individuals who have a bachelor's
degree in a non-nursing field and now wish to pursue a career in
nursing. The program allows students to become eligible to take the RN
licensure exam after the successful completion of a calendar year of
coursework. The new nursing simulation lab allow students to learn how
to diagnose, treat, and respond to medical conditions and patient
emergencies in a safe and supervised environment without any threat to
human life. Using state-of-the-art computer equipment and advanced
technology lifelike mannequins, the students are exposed to a variety of
serious health conditions they will experience in actual clinical
settings. Healthcare will generate 3.2 million new wage and salary jobs
between 2008 and 2018, more than any other industry.
 Find
out about careers in
healthcare and medicine...
NCTL Supports Precollege Engineering Education
 The
National Center for Technological Literacy (NCTL) was established in
2004 to advance technological literacy by helping state governments
modify their educational standards and assessments, designing
standards-based, teacher-tested K-12 engineering materials, offering
pre-service, in-service, and online professional development for
educators, and creating museum exhibits and programs. NCTL is an
initiative of the Museum of Science, Boston, which also offers many
resources to students and teachers interest in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics. The NCTL
website offers information about NCTL curricula and professional
development materials and provides individuals and organizations across
the country with tools to advocate for technological literacy within
their education systems.
Find
out more about precollege STEM
programs and projects...
Dealing
with a Universe of Data
 Modeling
the evolution of the universe is no mean feat, not only because of the
complex mathematics involved, but also because of the sheer amount of
data that is generated from a working model of -- well, the universe. A
team of scientists at the U.S. Department
of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory is working to develop
software to manage the mountains of data and allow for real-time
interactions. "Finding the resources and software capable of rendering
volumes of data at such large scales can be a challenge," says Mark
Hereld, visualization and analysis lead for Argonne's Leadership
Computing Facility (ALCF). The facility is home to Eureka, one of the
world's largest graphics supercomputers, which features 200 high-end
graphics processing units. Eureka enables software such as vl3 -- a
volume rendering toolkit developed at Argonne and the University of
Chicago -- that leverages graphics hardware to visualize such data sets
in real time. Networking advances make it feasible to move large amounts
of data from the location where it was computed to specialized
visualization resources where it can be rendered into images.
Find
out more about career paths in
science, technology,
engineering,
mathematics, and
healthcare...
Degree
Profile: Diagnostic Medical Sonographer
 Diagnostic
imaging embraces several procedures that aid in diagnosing ailments. The
most familiar procedures are the x-ray and the magnetic resonance
imaging; however, not all imaging technologies use ionizing radiation or
radio waves. Sonography, or ultrasonography, is the use of sound waves
to generate an image for the assessment and diagnosis of various medical
conditions. Sonography commonly is associated with obstetrics and the
use of ultrasound imaging during pregnancy, but this technology has many
other applications in the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions
throughout the body.
Diagnostic medical sonographers use special equipment to direct
nonionizing, high frequency sound waves into areas of the patient's
body. Sonographers operate the equipment, which collects reflected
echoes and forms an image that may be videotaped, transmitted, or
photographed for interpretation and diagnosis by a physician.
 Colleges
and universities offer both 2- and 4-year programs in diagnostic medical
sonography, culminating in an associate or a bachelor's degree. Two-year
programs are most prevalent. Course work includes classes in anatomy,
physiology, instrumentation, basic physics, patient care, and medical
ethics.
Diagnostic medical sonographers hold about 50,300 jobs in the United
States. 59 percent of all sonographer jobs were in public and private
hospitals. The remaining jobs were typically in offices of physicians,
medical and diagnostic laboratories, and outpatient care centers. The
median annual earnings of diagnostic medical sonographers is $61,980.
Employment of diagnostic medical sonographers is expected to increase by
about 18 percent through 2018 -- faster than the average for all
occupations.
Find
out more about a career as a
diagnostic medical
sonographer...
Measuring
Matter Hotter than the Sun
 Scientists
have created an exotic state of matter with a temperature of four
trillion degrees Celsius. It’s the hottest temperature ever achieved in
a laboratory and 250,000 times hotter than the heart of the sun. The
team, which included three Vanderbilt University physicists, produced
this super-heated state of matter by accelerating gold nuclei to nearly
the speed of light in opposite directions and then colliding them in the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory
-- the largest particle accelerator in the world dedicated to nuclear
physics research. The new temperature measurement has strengthened the
physicists’ conviction that they have managed to recreate the
quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a state of matter that may have existed
fractions of seconds after the Big Bang.
For the last nine years,
Vanderbilt physicists Victoria Green, Charles Maguire, and Julia
Velkovska have played a key role in the design and operation of PHENIX,
the largest of the four detectors positioned around the accelerator’s
2.4-mile-circumference. "The temperature measurement was made at PHENIX
by measuring the photons, the light particles, that were created with
the plasma and escaped without interacting with other particles," says
Greene, professor of physics and executive dean in the College of Arts
and Science, who contributed to the paper reporting the result. RHIC
scientists don’t know the exact temperature at which the protons and
neutrons in atoms "melt" into their constituent parts, quarks and
gluons. But they do think it is considerably below four trillion
degrees. Their observations of the most primordial of all primordial
soups is improving scientists’ understanding of the "strong force," the
force that acts within the nucleus of the atom and holds it together.
Find
out about careers in physics...
NASA
and Texas Instruments Develop Digital Libraries of Math and Science
Problems
 NASA
and Texas Instruments are using the theme of human space exploration to
develop digital libraries of math and science problems for high school
students. The goal is to bring real-world topics in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics, or STEM, into classrooms to spark students'
excitement and interest in these critical career fields. The
collaboration will produce two digital libraries. One, called "Exploring
Space Through Math: Applications in High School Mathematics," will
provide problems based on NASA data that are set in the context of space
exploration. The project material will cover almost the entire high
school math curriculum, with applications in Algebra 1, Geometry,
Algebra 2, and Pre-Calculus. The other digital library, named "Science
at Work: Exploring Space with NASA-AP," will contain questions for
Advanced Placement classes. This program seeks to develop and test
problems in calculus, statistics, physics, chemistry and biology. The
libraries of questions will use NASA applications and data while
incorporating Texas Instruments' math learning technology. Each problem
includes student and teacher editions to help the teacher link content
to higher concepts.
"Our goal is to make STEM subjects more fun and interactive," said
Werner Garciano, director of Professional Development for Texas
Instruments' Education Technology. "Working with NASA is a great
opportunity to bring exciting, real-world math experiences into the
classroom. Our collaboration will expand the digital content and
professional development that Texas Instruments provides teachers, and
will help engage students more deeply in math. Together, we believe
these activities will break through to students who have never
considered a STEM career path."
Find
out more about career paths in
science, technology,
engineering,
mathematics, and
healthcare...
Experience
STEM Learning at Summer Camp
 Dr.
Bernard A. Harris, Jr., the first African American to walk in space, and
ExxonMobil recently announced that more than 1,500 middle school
students will participate in free science camps this summer. "These
camps help students explore beyond their horizons to encourage a
life-long love of math and science and a better future." The ExxonMobil
Bernard Harris Summer Science Camps will be hosted in 30 universities
across the country, and offers a two-week, free-of-charge experience.
Students typically come from urban districts around the country and are
recommended by their teachers based on leadership skills and science and
mathematics aptitude. Since 2006, almost 4,000 students from across the
country have attended ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camps.
This is just one great example of a Summer STEM camp. Summer camps with
a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are
available through many colleges, universities, corporations, and
foundations across the U.S. For many students they are pivotal
experiences that point to a career in these fields.
Explore
our listing of STEM summer camp
programs...
Career Cornerstone News is a publication of the
Sloan Career Cornerstone Center. Click here
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The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center has a
limited number
of endowment and sponsorship opportunities for organizations,
foundations, or corporations who wish to support those
considering career paths in science, technology, engineering,
mathematics, or healthcare.
Find out more...
This newsletter may be reproduced in other
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