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Spring 2020
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ISSN 0043-0439 Issued Quarterly at Washington DC
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Volume 106
Number 1
Winter 2020
Journal of the
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Editor's Comments S. Howard
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ISSN 0043-0439 Issued Quarterly at Washington DC
Spring 2020
EDITOR’S COMMENTS
Presenting the 2020 Spring issue of the Journal of the Washington Academy
of Sciences.
We start with the continued tale of Libby Haynes, the story of
aviation weather forecasting from one of our members.
A strategy for STEM inspiration going beyond the classroom is the
next paper. We very much need people in STEM fields to solve the
problems we do have and those to come.
The third paper looks at the specific STEM field of engineering and
considers trends in federal funding and representation of women.
The next paper is about Mars. Ancient river morphological features
on Mars address our curiosity about water and the history of water on Mars.
The final paper is mathematical treatise on elementary divisors.
There is no science bite for this issue. Please consider submitting
short (typically one page) papers on an interesting tidbit in science. There
are a lot of interesting tidbits out there. Every science field has them. They
sit in your brain ready to share. We all want to learn about things in fields
other than our own. So pile them up and send them in.
The Journal is the official organ of the Academy. Please consider
sending in technical papers, review studies, announcements, SciBites, and
book reviews. Send manuscripts to wasjourn ashacadsci.org. If you are
interested in being a reviewer for the Journal, please send your name, email
address, and specialty to the same address. Each manuscript is peer
reviewed, and there are no page charges. As you can tell from this issue we
cover a wide range of the sciences.
al(@w
I encourage people to write letters to the editor. Please send by email
(wasjournal(@washacadsci.org) comments on papers, suggestions for
articles, and ideas for what you would like to see in the Journal. I also
encourage student papers and will help the student learn about writing a
scientific paper.
Sethanne Howard
Washington Academy of Sciences
ill
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences
Editor Sethanne Howard showard@washacadsci.org
Board of Discipline Editors
The Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences has a twelve member
Board of Discipline Editors representing many scientific and technical
fields. The members of the Board of Discipline Editors are affiliated with a
variety of scientific institutions in the Washington area and beyond —
government agencies such as the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST); universities such as Georgetown; and professional
associations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE).
Anthropology Emanuela Appetiti eappetiti@hotmail.com
Astronomy Sethanne Howard sethanneh@msn.com
Behavioral and Social
Sciences Carlos Sluzki csluzki@gmu.edu
Biology Poorva Dharkar poorvadharkar@gmail.com
Botany Mark Holland maholland@salisbury.edu
Chemistry Deana Jaber djaber@marymount.edu
Environmental Natural
Sciences Terrell Erickson terrell.erickson1(@wdce.nsda.gov
Health Robin Stombler rstombler@auburnstrat.com
History of Medicine Alain Touwaide atouwaide@hotmail.com_
Operations Research Michael Katehakis mnk@rci.rutgers.edu
Science Education Jim Egenrieder jim@deepwater.org
Systems Science Elizabeth Corona elizabethcorona@gmail.com
Spring 2020
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Spring 2020
v1
Washington Academy of Sciences
Affiliated Institutions
National Institute for Standards & Technology (NIST)
Meadowlark Botanical Gardens
The John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress
Potomac Overlook Regional Park
Koshland Science Museum
American Registry of Pathology
Living Oceans Foundation
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA)
Washington Academy of Sciences
Memories by Libby
Bail Out Libby!
Elizabeth Haynes
Air Weather Service USAF
Mrs. ELIZABETH HAYNES wanted some possible memories of a future
airline captain she had known in the distant past, September of 1953 being
the last time she saw him. Her request appeared on the REPA (Retired
Eastern Pilots Association) Website Notices page in autumn 2016, with her
email address. Sadly no one responded to her over the next 5-6 months so
she got in touch again and this time gave the REPA historian some further
information and a story or two about Eddie (as she called him).
Seems a long time ago Eddie was flying aerobatics in a PT-23 with Libby,
a young woman friend of his, and suddenly yelled at her, Bail out!
Libby picks up the story:
I was unaware of any problem, but knew it just wasn’t in his nature
to do this as a joke, so I didn’t answer, but obeyed as quickly as I could. I
had been sitting on a parachute because | had flown my first solo cross-
country the day before, July 4, 1952, and had checked it out from Andrews
AFB (the FAA required the parachute on one’s first solo cross-country). So
over the side I went! Eddie dove in to our home field and landed while I
came down in a pasture, and the farmer there took me back to the airport.
Eddie’s comment to me was, Boy, am I glad to see you! I was pretty much
OK, just a sprained back and fractured ankle bone.
Later we learned there was a crack in the carburetor gasket that
leaked only when flying inverted. After rolling out, the leak caught fire; Ed
expected the left wing to blow off. It didn’t, because that wing tank was full
to the cap; no fumes. When he rolled to a stop, he was not on fire, but all
the fabric on the fuselage had burned off. The plywood floor of my front
cockpit was burned through. Ed was somewhat protected by the tank of oil
between the cockpits; he was painfully burned, but not deeply enough to
Spring 2020
leave scars. Yes, this memory is still very vivid. Our guardian angels were
both on duty that day! (I am convinced that there are squadrons of guardian
angels assigned to watch over pilots)... Figure 1 shows Libby in her plane.
Re: st a ee ks : Y
Figure 1: This is my “Firebird,” at Hybla Valley Airport south of
Alexandria, Virginia, summer 1953. I am the pilot in the front seat and my
younger brother, Ed Daggit (future army paratrooper) is in the rear, taxiing
for takeoff.
I wish someone had thought to take a photo of the airplane in its
burned-out condition when Eddie landed it. Everyone at that little airport
pitched in to repair it. I can’t imagine what their labor would have been
worth. I bought the muslin for the fuselage and sewed it to shape on my
mother’s sewing machine, and bought the nine gallons of dope we used,
five gallons of aluminum and four of bright red. And I must’ve paid the
professionals who overhauled the engine and found the broken gasket, but
I don’t remember doing it.
After being a widow for 25 years I finally got into my husband’s
keepsake drawer and found his primary training log book. It was entirely by
one instructor, in the same 65 hp. Aeronca L3. On his first lesson’s entry,
Washington Academy of Sciences
2
the instructor wrote “shows aptitude.” Solo flight after 8 hr. 5 min, “well
done.” and the last entry, after 35 hr. 10 min, “O.K. for flight test.” All in
54 days total. He was 19 years old.
My husband, William Haynes, was commissioned from aviation
cadets in March 1942; his class was activated as the 64th Troop Carrier
Group and delivered C-47s to North Africa with a belly full of fuel for the
crossing (Natal to Dakar). The crew made coffee in flight in a butt can
propped in a helmet shell with sand and avgas burning in it. Gives me the
shudders to think of it! Yes, they were very young!
He retired from the Air Force in 1964, with about 8500 hours,
mostly in C-47s, C-54s, and C-124s. He never lost an airplane or a
passenger or crew member, and nobody was seriously wounded, but a few
times during the Italian campaign they came back with bullet holes and a
feathered prop.
I was an Air Force officer too—OCS at Lackland AFB, Class 51-C
(see Figure 2). My first assignment as a shiny new second lieutenant was to
Kelly AFB, in the weather station as an observer. Working in base ops, I
could see the departures and arrivals board, and begged rides in Air Force
airplanes. Rules were easier in those days! Once I had a ride in a T-33, and
the pilot let me take the stick for a few minutes. That is a cherished memory.
From Kelly to Wichita took a bit under an hour. It took four hours to get
back in a C-47.
Back to Eddie, did he ever tell you why he had to join the Marines
right out of high school? And that he was honorably discharged as disabled,
in a wheelchair, and told he would never walk again? He told me that if he
couldn’t fly, he didn’t want to live, so he made himself get up and walk and
drove a taxi to pay for his flight instruction, to earn his licenses and ratings.
Flying for an airline was his dream career, and it’s good to know that he did
It.
I don’t know whether he told anybody else this story below, or
whether he was ashamed of it.
Spring 2020
Figure 2: Libby at OCS, Class 51-C, Lackland AFB Texas
Ed grew up in Anacostia, DC, on the steep ridge of land paralleling
the river just east of Bolling AFB. From his back yard, he could look down
onto the airfield and dream about becoming a pilot. (At this time, I don’t
know if he had ever had a flying lesson, but he had done a great deal of
reading about flying.) One fine August night, he told me, while he was still
in high school, the Devil got into him (his words) and he walked down the
hill, squirmed under the fence, and crept onto the air base. He climbed into
a parked P-51 and sat in the cockpit reading the takeoff check list by
flashlight. Then, he started the engine, taxied onto the north-south runway,
and took off. He flew the plane around for about fifteen minutes, then came
in and landed without incident.
When he came to a stop, he was met by the M.P.s, who took him
into custody and to the DC police. He was taken to Junior Village (the
juvenile detention facility), until he saw the juvenile court judge. His
sentence was probation, return to high school, graduate, and then
immediately join the Marine Corps. If he served one hitch and was
honorably discharged, the judge said, his juvenile arrest record would be
expunged.
Washington Academy of Sciences
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He did exactly as he was told, joined the Marines, and was sent to
the Southeast Asia Theater. There he developed a severe case of “jungle
rot” — a hideous infestation of tropical flesh-eating bacteria — and after a
long hospitalization and honorable discharge, still in a wheelchair, and
continuing treatment, he finally, due to his own determination to live to fly,
was completely healed.
As I mentioned, he drove a taxi to earn money for flying lessons.
After earning his commercial license, he spent several weeks as a crop
duster to pay for his instrument rating. Just before flying off in his PT-23
for that job, he grinned at me and said, “They expect to lose a third of their
first-season dusters!” But he came back.
I can’t help but think of Ed as “‘a born pilot.” You know the saying,
“Old pilots never die; they just go on to a new plane.”
I have tried and tried to figure out the thought processes of that
juvenile judge. Was he amused that Eddie, while certainly doing something
illegal, was skilled enough to carry it off without hurting either any person
or damaging government property? Did he see the potential in this young
man? (I’m sure Ed never got in trouble with the law again!) The judge
certainly could have totally destroyed his future, but he did not, and his
judgment was correct. I wonder if he ever knew how Eddie turned out.
Our paths parted, and the last time I saw Eddie was in September
1953. Please tell me about the rest of his life. I’m sure it was competent,
professional, and honorable, and I hope joyous and complete.
Editor’s Note: It certainly was!!!
If you knew Eastern Captain Edmond M. (Eddie) Kerge (he retired as an L-
1011 Captain based at JFK and died December 7, 1999) and would be
willing to share some of your memories of him with Libby, she would
greatly appreciate it...
Figure 3 is the memorial to Eastern pilots. Figure 4 shows the L-
1011. Figure 5 shows the memorial plaque listing Kerge’s name.
Spring 2020
Figure 3: Eastern pilots’ memorial
Figure 4: Lockheed L-1011
Washington Academy of Sciences
KENNE DY, R. B. VvI947
KENNEDY, W.C. 11/16/1953
KENNEDY IIL, J.L. 1/13/1964
KENNEY, J.N. 6/18/1956
KENT, J.H. 10/9/1972
KENT, L.S. 8/3/1945
KENYON, T. 12/15/1934
KERGE, E.M. 9/12/1955
KERLEY, R.N, 1/29/1973
KERN, CLS. 6/3/1957
KERN, FB. 12/1/1930
KERNS, K.S, 9/23/1968
KERNS, R.L. 9/23/1968
KERR, A.P. 3/1/1929
KERR, D.W. 9/14/1970
Figure 5: Bronze plaque commemorating all 6,962 living and deceased
pilots who flew for Eastern Airlines, with their dates of employment.
Figure 6 shows Bolling Field in 1945. The pictures are from the web site:
Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields by Paul Freeman, 2017.
A 10/23/43 aerial view looking southwest at Bolling Field from the 1945 AAF Airfield Directory (courtesy of Scott Murdock)
depicted the field as having 4 paved runways.
Figure 6: Bolling Field in 1945
Spring 2020
e \water
sees
(" “Hel
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Anacostia NAS & Bolling AFB, as depicted on the 1949 USAF Target Complex Chart.
Figure 7 — National airport is at the left margin
The north-south runway is the longest runway, parallel to the Potomac
River. National airport is at the left margin across the river. Due to this
proximity, Bolling Air Force Base and the adjoining Anacostia Naval Air
Station to the north were closed to fixed-wing aircraft operations in 1962,
and all military aircraft were relocated eight miles to the east to Andrews
AFB, which is spacious enough to accommodate them.
In Figure 8 the photo looks down on Bolling AFB, north is to the top of
the picture, as in Figure 7. Edmond Kerge lived on the street under the
trees in the lower right of the picture. That wooded area is on a very steep
drop to the eastern edge of the air base.
Washington Academy of Sciences
*
A 1949 aerial view of Bolling AFB,
showing an amazing number of aircraft parked on the field,
including large numbers of single-engine & multi-engine aircraft on the ramp on the east side,
Figure 9
Spring 2020
10
Washington Academy of Sciences
Beyond the Classroom: A Strategy for STEM
Inspiration
Paul Arveson
Washington Academy of Sciences
Abstract
Many studies have reviewed the shortcomings in STEM education in the US
and have offered ways to improve it. Most of the studies have addressed
traditional K-12 and undergraduate classroom methods. This article reviews the
literature and identifies an emerging trend in "beyond the classroom" methods,
which have the potential for inspiring more students to engage in STEM
activities that can lead to valuable careers for the individual and society.
The Need for STEM Skills and Knowledge
PROGRESS IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) fields provides the best opportunity for raising the quality of life of
our society. Therefore, scientific academies have sought to "advance
science, serve society" — the motto of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS). But surveys show that the demand for
STEM graduates far exceeds the supply. Only about five percent of all
employees are in STEM careers, including all the medical workers [1]. What
can educators, parents and volunteers do to increase the supply?
Consider a random sample of K-12 students. The following paths to a
STEM career might occur:
e Path 1 - Students are already inspired to pursue science early in life.
e Path 2 - Students get interested in STEM at some time in their
school years.
e Path 3 - Students change to a STEM career at some time after they
graduate.
Path | students are already motivated, and education can only encourage that
path. For Path 3 students, some experience later in life causes a shift in career
interests as adults; educators have little influence over those experiences.
But for Path 2 students, inspiring educational experiences have the
possibility of recruiting students toward a STEM career. As educators and
STEM volunteers, we have the opportunity of creating those inspiring
experiences.
Spring 2020
We know from reports and our own experience that many children
get "turned off" to science and math at some point in the middle grades.
What causes these reactions to STEM subjects? Some of the most valuable
insights came from the work of Sheila Tobias, one of the pioneers in the
women’s equality movement of the 1970s. She was an insightful advocate
of improved math education, especially for girls and women. Tobias
reinterpreted "math inability" as "math anxiety" [2]. In a traditional
classroom setting, the task of solving a math problem in front of the class
can be painful and trigger more fear and anxiety. This anxiety leads to
avoidance of the subject. Since math is a system that builds in a logical
sequence, any gaps in knowledge lead to further difficulties later on. This
causes increased anxiety and avoidance, leading to a lifelong block and a
feeling that "I'm just not good at math." By examining their feelings, not just
the math problem, Tobias uncovered psychological barriers in math
achievement caused by a restricted educational process. Tobias noted that
math anxiety was particularly challenging for female students in this era.
Tobias later addressed a related question: "What makes science
‘hard'?" In order to explore this question she created controlled experiments
in which faculty in non-science fields were asked to attend a science lecture
or take a science course. Her findings indicated that science ability was not
a matter of intelligence, but of how different individuals process their
perceptions of the world. Her conclusions were summed up in the book
"They're not dumb; they're different" [3]. Tobias' books were bestsellers and
helped to shake up the STEM education establishment. She is currently
exploring the way engineering is taught, and she advocates that all students
should be exposed to this subject, because of its importance in our
technological world. [4].
STEM Education Gaps
The recognition of educational barriers and gaps became widely
realized after the launch of Sputnik in 1957, a shock which provoked the
United States government to focus attention on STEM education [5]. New
federal initiatives were established to develop improved methods, equipment
and textbooks. Ample new funding was provided by the National Science
Foundation, and high-level studies were conducted among _ science
educators, including the Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC) [6] and
the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) [7].
Washington Academy of Sciences
These initiatives have since been followed by a continuing series of
studies, curricula, and textbooks designed to improve science education and
assess its results. Here we can only highlight a few of the more recent
The Obama administration, via the Office on Science and
Technology Policy, in 2010 launched the President's Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology (PCAST).
Senior experts were invited to author a series of influential studies
[8]. PCAST 2010 dealt with K-12 STEM education [9]. Under the heading
"Troubling Signs", the Executive Report had this to say:
“Despite our historical record of achievement, the United States now
lags behind other nations in STEM education at the elementary and
secondary levels. International comparisons of our students’
performance in science and mathematics consistently place the
United States in the middle of the pack or lower. On the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, less than one-third of U.S.
eighth graders show proficiency in mathematics and science.
Moreover, there is a large interest and achievement gap among some
groups in STEM, and African Americans, Hispanics, Native
Americans, and women are seriously underrepresented in many
STEM fields. This limits their participation in many well-paid, high-
growth professions and deprives the Nation of the full benefit of their
talents and perspectives.
It is important to note that the problem is not just a lack of proficiency
among American students; there is also a lack of interest in STEM
fields among many students. Recent evidence suggests that many of
the most proficient students, including minority students and women,
have been gravitating away from science and engineering toward
other professions. Even as the United States focuses on low-
performing students, we must devote considerable attention and
resources to all of our most high-achieving students from across all
groups.
Schools often lack teachers who know how to teach science and
mathematics effectively -and who know and love their subject well
enough to inspire their students. Teachers lack adequate support,
including appropriate professional development as well as
interesting and intriguing curricula. School systems lack tools for
Spring 2020
assessing progress and rewarding success. The Nation lacks clear,
shared standards for science and math that would help all actors in
the system set and achieve goals. As a result, too many American
students conclude early in their education that STEM subjects are
boring, too difficult, or unwelcoming, leaving them ill-prepared to
meet the challenges that will face their generation, their country, and
the world."
Focus on Standard Assessments
In the recent decade, education studies have shifted toward a more
business-oriented focus on measuring and evaluating results against national
standards, the assumption being that over time, schools with learn what
works and will migrate toward those practices. Initially a "Common Core"
of standards were defined for STEM fields, but due to political opposition,
today only standards for math and English remain. Currently the Common
Core state standards initiative for mathematics has been defined and adopted
by all but nine states. It is not a curriculum but a set of standardized goals in
a sequence. The standards are evidence-based. They "draw on conclusions
from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)
and other studies of high-performing countries.... the progression in the
Common Core State Standards is mathematically coherent and leads to
college and career readiness at an internationally competitive level." [10]
However, the Common Core does not include science, technology or
engineering standards.
Recently there has been increasing push-back on the business-like
orientation on measurement of performance, from both teachers and
students. The pressure to achieve numerical test scores has been questioned
as the main goal. Moreover, it has proven difficult to devise performance
metrics that are fair to all teachers.
A recent study has shown that behavior (e.g. number of absences and
suspensions, grade point average, and on-time progression to 10th grade) of
9th graders is a stronger predictor than test scores of student success [11].
Education is not like a commercial business, where performance is
easy to measure in terms of dollars. It should not be surprising that there
would be ongoing challenges in educational assessment. Moreover,
Washington Academy of Sciences
15
assessments alone do not guide educators into learning what works. There is
still a strong need for experimentation and innovation.
Behavior-focused education emphasizes engaging students in "fun"
and hands-on activities are part of a well-balanced exposure to science. And
moving some of these activities outside the classroom setting may be
especially influential for some of the “Path 2” students.
Technology Education Lags
Another PCAST report from 2013 [12] noted that
"... our world today relies to an astonishing degree on systems, tools,
and services that belong to a vast and still growing domain known as
Networking and Information Technology (NIT). NIT underpins our
national prosperity, health, and security. In recent decades, NIT has
boosted U.S. labor productivity more than any other set of forces. ....
In order to sustain and improve our quality of life, it is crucial that
the United States continue to innovate more rapidly and more
creatively than other countries in important areas of NIT. Only by
continuing to invest in core NIT science and technology will we
continue to reap such enormous societal benefits in the decades to
come.”
The client-side tools of information technology are converging: the
desktop, laptop, smart phone, and the Internet. Practically everybody will
need to use these technologies at home and work. They are getting smarter,
smaller, and faster. Some human-based skills (visual pattern recognition,
natural language understanding, delicate manual tasks) are difficult for
machines to replicate, but the recent emergence of powerful machine
learning tools and the advent of “big data” are rapidly overcoming many of
these difficulties.
The tasks assumed for robots so far are often unimaginative and
childish, such as contests, ball throwing, cleaning floors, etc. These are easy
but not very valuable or marketable tasks. They may be giving the wrong
image of robotics’ potential to both students and business people. Students
working in robotics will increasingly aim toward the development of truly
practical, money-saving or risky tasks. These will often lend themselves to
inventions that can be developed and marketed. This prospect will continue
to inspire some young people.
Spring 2020
Traditional Education Can’t Keep Up
These new and emerging technologies are evolving too fast for
traditional educators to develop the knowledge, skills and materials needed
to adequately inspire and engage young people in the classroom. The
situation calls for a greatly increased engagement of professional scientists
and engineers who are already using these skills and technologies. Hence,
we believe that this kind of educational activity should extend beyond the
classroom.
A 2012 National Academies study on discipline-based classroom
learning [13] focused on research on undergraduate STEM teaching
methods. Not the methods themselves, but the research on those methods.
The conclusion was that we don't have much evidence on what works, and
whatever we do know was not included in this report. Many educators have
now realized that traditional classroom methods, no matter how well they
are conducted, cannot keep up with the speed of change in STEM subject
matter. A 2015 report by the National Research Council [14] concluded:
"The ways in which young people learn about science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has fundamentally changed
in the past decade. More so than ever, young people now have
opportunities to learn STEM in a wide variety of settings, including
clubs, summer programs, museums, parks, and online activities.
They spend more time in supervised programs outside of school, and
they have greater access to on-demand learning resources and
opportunities. At the same time, STEM learning outside of school
has become a focal piece of the education opportunities provided by
many national nonprofit organizations, statewide education
networks, federal programs, and corporate and family foundations.
And there is growing evidence that opportunities to learn STEM
outside of school directly affect what is possible inside classrooms,
Just as what happens in classrooms affects out-of-school learning."
In 2016 the NAS published a study [15] that surveyed several
examples of innovative practices in collaborative STEM education that
could be widely adopted. This publication is pertinent to our concern. Here
is an excerpt from the Summary:
"Educators, policy makers, industry leaders, and others recognize the
importance of strong college-university-industry collaboration in
Washington Academy of Sciences
17
preparing the STEM workforce of the future. Two recent reports
from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
(Engage to Excel, 2012 [16]) and the National Science and
Technology Council (Federal STEM Education 5 Year Strategic
Plan, 2013 [17]) emphasize the importance of encouraging stronger
university-industry partnerships as vehicles to enhance student
learning and diversify pathways to careers in STEM. The landmark
National Academies report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm”
(National Research Council, 2007 [18]), also examined the essential
relationships between university-industry collaboration and regional
economic growth. The report suggested that partnerships among
academia, governments, and industry succeed when all members of
the partnership see the collaboration as in their best interests, and
further, pursue these relationships in the spirit of mutual trust and
appreciation of the value that each partner brings to the table.”
Three overarching findings emerged from the 2016 NAS study:
¢ “Significant numbers of university students are graduating with
STEM degrees, but many lack the right combination of technical and
employability skills needed to thrive in the workplace. In short, we
have many students with credentials, but fewer with the requisite
skills to succeed early in STEM careers. This situation 1s particularly
acute with minority students and female students, who are still
significantly underrepresented in the STEM workforce and in STEM
degree fields in most 4-year universities.
¢ “Employers are increasingly focusing on the skills and abilities new
hires possess, rather than the specific field in which an individual has
obtained a degree or credential. While there is a need for STEM
graduates who will work as professional research and development
scientists and engineers (so-called STEM narrow skills), there is a
growing need for individuals who apply STEM knowledge and skills
in technologically sophisticated occupations that require a facility
with STEM concepts, but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree (so-
called STEM broad skills). There is also a growing need for students
with a breadth of skills outside of their core STEM discipline,
including skills that are perhaps best developed through a well-
rounded liberal education that includes STEM courses, humanities
courses, and experiences in the arts. These include problem solving,
critical thinking, teamwork and collaboration, communication, and
creativity.
Spring 2020
- “A robust and effective STEM workforce development ecosystem
requires proactive steps on behalf of university leaders, local
employers, and intermediary organizations to build and sustain
alliances that benefit students and regional economic development.
Most of the concrete and high-impact strategies that surfaced during
the course of the study—including those recommended in this
report—do not require extensive policy change by governing boards,
but rather can be undertaken at the classroom, department, or
program level within a college or university, often in collaboration
with a local employer. ...."
Diversity and Inclusion
A new 2019 report from the AAAS, “Levers for Change: An
assessment of progress on changing STEM instruction” [19] emphasized the
need for expanding outreach and access to the entire population, combined
with innovative experiential methods. The report made frequent use of the
term “research-based instructional strategies” (RBIS) to designate the set of
active teaching and learning practices that support improved student
learning. In general, such active, collaborative, and student-engaging
strategies support learning, independent of discipline (Kuh, 2008 [20];
Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005 [21]; see also Fairweather, 2008 [15]). (A list
of 32 such strategies is given in [22]).
The following excerpts are findings drawn from the 2019 report:
"Women, minorities and persons with disabilities remain
underrepresented in STEM professions while they are an increasing
percentage of the overall U.S. workforce. Alternative and diverse
approaches to excellence in education and mentoring " - NSF
Strategic Plan [23].
"To meet the demands of a global economy and foster technological
innovation, the United States needs more well prepared and diverse
workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) fields (PCAST, 2012) [16]. National studies reveal racial
and ethnic disparities in science literacy, as well as in educational
achievement, employment, and health outcomes that depend on
STEM education [24]. All Americans should have equitable
opportunities to enter the high-paying, high-status, and high-
employment jobs typical of STEM careers, and to learn, enjoy, and
use science to make informed decisions in everyday life, in the
Washington Academy of Sciences
voting booth, and in their communities Access to STEM learning
opportunities begins in childhood and requires well-prepared preK-
12 and informal educators to teach and inspire young people in
mathematics and science (PCAST, 2010). High-quality STEM
education for all undergraduates is essential to achieving all of these
national goals. A large and ever-growing body of education research
demonstrates that pedagogical approaches that foster active and
collaborative learning can enhance student learning, attitudes, and
persistence in STEM educational paths.”
“Yet most students do not experience these engaging pedagogies.
Indeed, students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, as
well as low-income and first-generation college students, are more
likely to benefit, yet least likely to experience them .... Policymakers
view improving instruction as a “best bet” [23] and as the “lowest-
cost, fastest policy option to providing the STEM professionals that
the nation needs” [16].”
Fairweather [15] reviewed the literature on promising practices in
STEM undergraduate instruction and concluded that the problem
was not a lack of knowledge about which teaching practices were
effective, but rather insufficient use of these practices: The key to
improving STEM undergraduate education lies in getting the
majority of STEM faculty members to use more effective
pedagogical techniques than is now the norm in these disciplines. (p.
Je ie
“.[Mlore effort needs to be expended on strategies to promote the
adoption and implementation of STEM reforms rather than on
assessing the outcomes of these reforms.”
“ .The problem in STEM education lies less in not knowing what
works and more in getting people to use proven techniques (p. 28).”
“Thus, it is crucial that we learn how to lower these barriers and
promote adoption of effective evidence-based teaching practices...”
“There is sufficient evidence from education research in and across
the disciplines to indicate that active learning experiences are good
for students and support their learning, attitudes, sense of belonging,
and persistence in STEM. (We know that ongoing studies will further
detail these benefits and how they vary among different student
groups and settings.)” (p. 9).
Spring 2020
Mentoring is also prescribed as a strategy for improving the retention
rates in STEM education for Latina women, as shown in a recent paper by
Staveley [28]. She recommended nine suggestions for effective mentoring
of Latina women.
The AAAS “Levers of Change” report studied undergraduate college
instruction in classrooms. But the evidence indicates that successful
inspiration of students in STEM hinges on their experience in early K-12
grades, in experiences both inside and outside the classroom. Therefore, we
believe that some of the most important “Levers of Change” will be located
in these experiences. Hence, to get a more complete picture of the scope of
RBIS education, it will be necessary to widen the scope of the research to
cover these activities, many of which are occurring "under the radar" of
formal educational systems and assessments.
STEM Support in the Classroom
One way to fill the STEM gap is to bring scientists into the
classroom. A local ongoing STEM program that has been doing this is the
AAAS Senior Scientists and Engineers (SSE) STEM Volunteer Program
that is managed by Betty Calinger at AAAS headquarters for schools in the
DC, suburban Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area [29]. The volunteers, led
by Dr. Don Rea, recruit other professional scientists (either working or
retired) to attend a local school regularly once or twice a week to guide and
support the teacher in that classroom.
After-School Activities
A transitional move from the classroom is through after-school
activities or out-of-school time (“OST”). These are of course traditional
activities, especially for sports, but also for school clubs, science fairs,
school plays, projects etc. There is a growing interest in such activities
among many community stakeholders (including home schoolers and an
emerging movement called “community schools”). In this way teachers can
receive up-to-date and refresher training for in STEM in after-school settings
[30]. But teachers alone cannot be expected to perform all the STEM
education responsibilities.
Washington Academy of Sciences
Science fairs and STEM fairs
Science fair and STEM fair competitions are very popular and
widespread. Competitive fairs are supported and standardized by a number
of national organizations, including the Regeneron Science Talent Search,
the National Science Bowl, Broadcom Masters (for middle school students),
the International Science and Engineering Fair (for high school students),
FIRST Robotics [31], the Biology Olympiad, the Physics Olympiad, the
Google Science Fair, and many more. In our area federal employees support
and mentor students in many of these science fair projects. A summary of
local science fairs and programs has been compiled on the website of the
Washington Academy of Sciences [32].
The science fair is a venerable tradition across the US. But the quality
of student projects in these activities is uneven, and their concept of the
“scientific method” has a narrow definition that has been carried along as
part of the tradition. Also, they give students a very limited exposure to the
range of STEM research in modern practice. At one science fair I recently
attended, I noted that not one of the projects required the students to go
outdoors (e.g. “Which detergent cleans the best?”; “Mold growth in bread”).
Science fairs could provide an opportunity for inner-city students to engage
with nature — there are many local parks, rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay
where field trips could be done. The Smithsonian’s Nature Center, the
National Arboretum, the National Zoo, and the Botanical Garden are all
located in the city.
Many fields of science — such as astronomy, archaeology, botany,
ecology, geology, meteorology, oceanography, paleontology, and zoology —
require careful exploration of the natural environment. Unfortunately, many
school science fairs do not take advantage of opportunities for helping
children to encounter the natural world in a scientific way. The lack of
exposure to nature outdoors may give urban students a limited view of the
real world, as well as of their opportunities in scientific careers.
Despite these limitations, the fact that science fairs are deeply
embedded in the culture and curricula of most public schools means that they
should continue to be encouraged and promoted. We only need to help
teachers to improve and leverage this tradition.
Spring 2020
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STEM activities beyond the classroom
The conclusion of the Levers of Change report and earlier studies 1s
that there is likely to be increased student engagement, inspiration, and
commitment to STEM education outside the traditional classroom
environment, in less formal, unstructured activities that feel more like “fun”
to the student.
Some of these STEM-related non-formal activities include:
- Activities in “maker spaces”, in which children of diverse ages engage in
hands-on design and construction of various devices.
- Robotics clubs, such as FIRST Robotics [31], which have recruited a
nationwide team of robot design engineers and a hierarchy of competitions.
- Special-interest clubs for high school age children, including Explorers
Clubs, Boy and Girl Scouts, Red Cross first aid units, mathematics and
chess clubs, etc.
Many of these activities are largely student-run, so by definition they
are engaging to students. They develop confidence and leadership skills as
well as technical skills. And most of them lead directly in career-relevant
directions.
STEM Activities of the Washington Academy of Sciences
The preceding sections of this article have reviewed the general
findings of educators and policy makers regarding STEM education. These
scholars have arrived at several consistent recommendations regarding
improvements that should be made in STEM educational activities, both
inside and outside the classroom. At this point we wish to describe closely
one specific case as an example of what is being done — the STEM activities
in which the Washington Academy of Sciences has been directly involved.
The Washington Academy of Sciences assumes its jurisdiction to
cover the District of Columbia and surrounding suburbs in Maryland and
Virginia within a radius of 50 miles. Most members live in this region, and
this is the region covered by our awards program, board members and
volunteers [32].
The Academy benefits from the abundant scientific facilities and
professionals in this area. In addition to some leading universities, we have
Washington Academy of Sciences
23
several institutions that treat specialized branches of science. This region
includes the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — the presence of which
partly accounts for the growing number of other medical research companies
in our area. There are major government scientific headquarters, including
the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). There is the
Office of Science of the Department of Energy, and we have the National
Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). There is the National
Aviation and Space Administration (NASA). The Applied Physics Lab of
Johns Hopkins University is an individual lab. On the military side there are
three major naval facilities: Naval Research Lab, the US Naval Observatory,
and the Naval Surface Warfare Center (at Carderock). There is the Army
Research Laboratory, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and Fort
Detrick, which is in Frederick. There is also the nation's cryptographic
installations around Fort Meade and the National Security Agency (NSA).
And many more.
Programs that use experienced scientists and engineers inside the
school setting can supplement the educational work of teachers and the
standard academic curriculum. But as the reviews of STEM education above
show, in recent years there has been increasing recognition that for many
reasons, classroom methods are limited in their ability to engage students
and attract them to consider the many STEM career opportunities in
government and industry. For example, a 2016 report identified the high
priority areas of technology that are needed by NASA [33]. Two of NASA's
High Priority Technology Areas are:
- TA4, Robotics and Autonomous Systems
ee ULACTT: Modeling, Simulation, Information Technology, and
Processing
These fields are specifically relevant to the activities of young people
in maker spaces and robotics programs. Research and development in these
areas is ongoing at the local NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, Johns
Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and elsewhere in the Academy’s
region. The activities described below are limited to certain areas of
Maryland and DC. However, there are also a number of similar programs
and activities in northern Virginia.
Spring 2020
ges
Figure |. Dr. Paul Hazan judges a project at a science fair (photo by the author)
The Washington Junior Academy of Sciences has managed a
program since the 1940's to provide science fair judges to various schools
hosting K-12 STEM fair conferences and events in the DMV region. In the
1990s, Dr. Paul Hazan (see Figure 1) served as the judges’ coordinator and
offered leadership to grow the number of judges and events in which we
participated. David Moran in Maryland and Jim Egenreider in Virginia
helped to expand the recruiting of judges, including the participation of other
members of the Academy's Board of Managers. Dick Davies assumed
leadership of the Junior Academy in the early 2000's and continued to
broaden the reach of our STEM programs. He recruited Kevin Brogan as a
partner in organizing teams of judges. In recent years Dr. Vijay Kowtha and
the author have led judging at the Blair Magnet High School and other
STEM events (see Figure 2).
Washington Academy of Sciences
vis
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ae 2. Winners of the Blair Trae HS STEM rie 2020 (photo by V. Kowtha)
Maker Spaces
"Maker spaces" are large rooms dedicated to the creation and
construction of devices such as robots by children of all ages. These
constructions require special tools and products. Many new types of
technical devices are being widely adopted in industry, and school systems
struggle to keep up with an awareness of these devices and the skills needed
to control them. These devices include small low-cost computers (e.g.
Raspberry Pi) and microprocessors (e.g. Arduino) that are integrated into
and shaping many industries, such as robotics, drones, and the Internet of
Things (loT). Other tools that are finding increased applications are 3D
printers, laser cutters and CNC routers. The engineering skills to effectively
learn and use these devices include CAD (computer-aided design), coding,
cybersecurity, soldering and wiring, electronic sensors, network
communications, etc. These are the kinds of skills taught in maker spaces
and robotics clubs, such as the ones established by FIRST Robotics, Inc.
Dr. Kowtha has served for many years as a creator and coordinator
of robotics and maker space clubs in College Park, Greenbelt, Landover,
Maryland, and in DC, with an emphasis on outreach to underrepresented
students in STEM. In 2017 he established a branch of FIRST Robotics
(Team Illusion 4464) in Greenbelt, MD. Using the acronym MASER-DC
(Mentors Advancing STEM Education and Research in DC) [34], he has
Spring 2020
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organized maker spaces for K-12 students in DC and Prince Georges
County, Maryland.
| ES IS AI 5"
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Figure 3. Beltway Plaza Mall maker space, 2017. (photo by the author)
For several months, the maker space for Team Illusion 4464 was
housed in a storefront in Beltway Plaza Mall (see Figure 3). This enabled
passersby to see the activities ongoing and many new students were recruited
in this way.
, : iz -
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Figure 4. Dr. Kowtha in the new maker space for Bladerunners. (photo by the author)
Recently Dr. Kowtha established an all-girls robotics club called
Bladerunners that operates out of a space he rented in College Park, Prince
Georges County, MD (see Figure 4).
Washington Academy of Sciences
Rockville Science Center, Maryland
The Rockville Science Center [35] is a volunteer outreach
organization to inspire an interest and knowledge of science in the local
community. Under the leadership of Robert Eckman, the Rockville Science
Center hosts a variety of maker groups, including MoCo Makers, which
presently meets in a room in Rockville Library. Access to this space is
limited to library hours, and the space is limited (see Figure 5).
Figure 5. MoCo Makers participating in a project (photo by the author)
In the library space MoCo Makers leader Matt Zamora offers weekly
presentations to the public on a wide range of technologies. In the past three
years, the following technologies have been explored and discussed among
the participants: Field-programmable gate arrays, cluster computing,
Raspberry Pi, Verilog syntax, modular electronics, MakerBot for telescopes,
glove sensors, 3D printers, prototyping, stepper motors, servo motors,
drones, MIDI streams, solar sensors, git, digital radio, MicroPython,
Kickstarter, GPS, Chromecast, fractals, microcontrollers, Slack, Fusion 360
for CNC manufacturing, cryptocurrency, blockchain, Arduino, neural
networks, diodes, algorithms, encryption, navigation, sun tracking, self-
propelling spheres, compiling C++, LEDs, operating systems, mobile apps,
Spring 2020
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reverse engineering, electrical power grids, robot analysis, torque,
oscilloscopes, resistors, touchscreen LCD, Beaglebone, car transmissions,
temperature sensors, robotic mounts, and the Vagrant software development
tool see Figure 6).
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Figure 6. Rockville Science Center storefront, opened in 2020 (photo by R. Eckman)
Recently Rockville Science Center has acquired a store-front STEM
program maker space in the center of the city. This large space, which gets
ample public traffic, will provide high visibility for many planned science
and engineering activities every day, including scientist panel discussions, a
planetarium and a biology workshop. Also, it will allow student access to
the space at times when the library is closed.
Rockville Science Center also hosts a monthly Science Cafe, a
Young Adult Science Cafe, several robotics programs, and tours of local
science and engineering labs. They provide summer camps and hosts an
annual Rockville Science Day in April (but not this year! )
Other beyond-the-classroom programs similar to these are being
conducted in DC and Virginia. As the "baby boomer" generation is now
reaching retirement, we can expect to have an increasing reservoir of
experienced people from whom to recruit and engage in STEM educational
efforts, and as Academy members increase their engagement in tutoring,
judging, and mentoring, we can expect to report more success stories in the
future.
Washington Academy of Sciences
29
These programs are successful at attracting students because they
leverage the time that is available for after-school activities, and likewise
they leverage the time that is available to retired senior scientists and
engineers. The programs bring these two groups together for STEM
activities that are fun, challenging, and career inspiring. Moreover, the
hands-on activities in building robots, programming computers, operating
and constructing drones and other machines provides students with ample
opportunities for creativity and experiences not available in the classroom.
Although these activities are called "beyond the classroom", by no
means does this imply that schools are not involved. Partnering with local
schools and school systems is essential. Partnering has mutual benefits
including:
- Schools provide the pool of students who may be recruited for
beyond-school programs
- Interactions with teachers are necessary to avoid duplication and fill
specific gaps in instruction
- Teachers help identify students who are academically prepared to
benefit from beyond-school programs
Local science and engineering businesses and government agencies
are also stakeholders in beyond-the-classroom programs. They often
recognize these programs as a potential source of talent for employment, and
in some cases, they support these programs for that reason (see Figure 7).
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S
Figure 7. Typical activity in the Beltway Plaza Mall maker space with a diverse group of
students and mentors.
(photo by the author).
Summary
The reports cited above indicate that education researchers are
increasingly recognizing the potential of beyond-the-classroom programs to
increase the quality, quantity and diversity of STEM students. The
Washington Academy of Sciences has a unique position and opportunity to
greatly enhance the effectiveness of STEM education in the DC area. There
are already several beyond-the-classroom programs that are open for
business, but they need more volunteer mentors, more equipment, and more
financial support.
Washington Academy of Sciences
Recommendations
The current pandemic experience is reminiscent of the Sputnik
experience in the US: it has shocked us into recognizing a new existential
threat to survival. One of the logical outcomes of this experience will be the
demand for an increased number of STEM graduates, as scientific research
is the only strategy we have to mitigate such threats in the future. This will
require further removal of psychological barriers to STEM education as well
as the creation of many new kinds of opportunities for young people to
engage in STEM activities.
All of the US states have an Academy of Science (or Sciences), and
they are affiliated with the National Association of Academies of Science.
the Association's stated policy is "... to ensure that their students shall
conduct original research and technological or engineering design projects
that contribute to a fuller understanding and enrichment of the world rather
than simply repeating previous research or template experiments." [36]
This policy emphasizes the value of originality and creativity in
STEM activities. Academies of science have a unique vantage point for
assessing the quality of STEM education activities, and for direct
participation in making improvements in ways that are appropriate for their
particular location and environment.
The case study above reviewed the current STEM education
activities of one local region of the US. Similar activities are replicated all
over the country; science fairs, in particular, are a venerable and widespread
activity, but they tend to be unoriginal and uninspiring. There is an
expanding interest in hands-on activities centered around maker spaces and
the creation of microprocessor-based devices and 3D printers. These items
have now become affordable to many students. Currently, with stay-at-home
orders in place, many students are able to continue their construction
activities at home. Some are fabricating 3D-printed face shields and other
PPE for use in medical and other settings. The NIH has encouraged this
practice and has even created a website where individuals can post new
designs for 3D printing — even including 3D models of the SARS-CoV-2
spike protein molecule [37]. Undoubtedly our current home-based education
experience will lead to more useful ideas and products.
Spring 2020
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Here are some examples of ways in which the academies can support
STEM education:
1. As the saying goes, "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste". The management
and resolution of the current pandemic must be guided by scientific
knowledge, some of which does not yet exist. Governments at local levels
are now recognizing their increasing dependence on specialized technical
guidance, equipment and institutions. Constituents in a local jurisdiction are
likely to be willing to increase their investments in STEM education to meet
future crises. The local academy of science could play an important role in
advocating for these investments.
2. Establish partnerships with nonprofit organizations (such as FIRST
Robotics) that operate maker spaces with high outreach potential. Provide
publicity and financial support to these organizations and recruit mentors to
serve as participants for their programs.
3. Create a Committee for Encouragement of Science Talent. This
committee will be responsible for developing procedures for monitoring and
evaluating the effectiveness of activities to encourage young people outside
the classroom setting. The committee can provide recommendations for
awards and recognition to individuals, such as an award for Leadership in
STEM Inspiration to be include among the awards offered by the academy.
4. Partner with other local scientific societies (such as Sigma Xi and IEEE)
in volunteer activities and sponsorships.
5. Offer a formal call for papers from high school and undergraduate
students. Submissions will be peer-reviewed and qualified papers will be
published in the academy's journal, or in Sigma Xi's Chronicle of the New
Researcher, which already has in place a peer-review and editorial process.
6. Replicate the work of the AAAS STEM Volunteer Program, which
recruits volunteer professional scientists to serve in public school science
classrooms in the DC area [29].
7. Ask WAS members to donate supplies, such as surplus scientific
equipment and furniture, to help equip the maker spaces.
8. Recruit STEM fair judges for school events by reaching out to local
scientific institutions and companies.
9. Create a network to recruit senior STEM Fair awardees to serve as tutors
and mentors for younger students.
Washington Academy of Sciences
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LoS)
10. Establish partnerships in STEM projects between students in different
countries, using Internet collaboration tools. This will allow students to
experience the increasingly international character of professional research
activities.
These are just a few examples of strategies and activities of an
academy that can be developed into detailed plans to fit the particular needs
and resources in a particular state or metropolitan region.
References
Ecklund, E.H. and Scheitle, C. (2014). “Religious Communities,
Science, Scientists and Perceptions: A Comprehensive Survey”,
presentation at AAAS Annual Meeting, Feb. 16, 2014.
Tobias, S. "Overcoming Math Anxiety", Norton & Co., New York
(1978).
Tobias, S. "They're not dumb; they're different", Research Corp.,
Tucson (1990).
https://rescorp.org/gdresources/publications/Tobias-Sheila_Theyre-
Not-Dumb.pdf
Tobias, S. "What makes science and math 'hard'?",
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOX GQuQuK Olo
Gibson, E. (2020). "NSF and Postwar US Science", Physics Today,
73(5), p. 40-46.
Physical Science Study Committee (PSSC),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Science_Study Committee
Biological Sciences Curriculum Study,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological Sciences Curriculum Stu
dy
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
(PCAST),
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/eop/ostp/pcas
t/docsreports
"Prepare and Inspire: K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Math (STEM) Education for America’s Future", PCAST (2010),
https://obamawhitehouse.archives. gov/sites/default/files/microsites/
ostp/peast-stem-ed-final.pdf
_ “Common Core State Standards Initiatives: Myths vs. Facts",
http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/myths-vs-facts/
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Me
14.
lay
Wie
20.
OM
Dias
C. K. Jackson, "The Full Measure of a Teacher",
https://www.educationnext.org/full-measure-of-a-teacher-using-
value-added-assess-effects-student-behavior/
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. "Discipline-Based Education Research: Understanding and
Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering",
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research-understanding-and-improving-learning-in-undergraduate
"Identifying and Supporting Productive STEM Programs in Out-of-
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and-supporting-productive-stem-programs-in-out-of-school-settings
"Promising practices for Strengthening the Regional STEM
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ostp/pcast-engage-to-excel-final_2-25-12.pdf
Federal STEM Education 5 Year Strategic Plan (2013),
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ostp/stem_stratplan_2013.pdf
. “Rising Above the Gathering Storm”, National Research Council
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https://teachthought.com/pedagogy/32-research-based-
instructional-strategies/
Washington Academy of Sciences
35
ye
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vx p
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Spring 2020
Bio:
Paul Arveson currently serves as VP of the Junior Academy on the Board
of the Washington Academy of Sciences. His first career was as a physicist
in the Navy, where he conducted research in acoustics and oceanography.
He has a BS in Physics and an MS in Computer Systems Management and
has served as a developer and technology architect for various agencies. He
is co-founder of the Balanced Scorecard Institute, a strategic consulting firm.
Recently he served as a Senior Associate in the Dialogue on Science, Ethics
and Religion Program at the American Association for the Advancement of
Science.
Washington Academy of Sciences
Changing Trends in Federal Funding U.S. Doctoral
Degree Programs and Women’s Representation
among Engineering Doctorate Recipients
Lisa M. Frehill
Energetics Technology Center, Indian Head, MD
Abstract
Federal funds played an important role in the expansion of engineering graduate
programs between 1977 and 2015. Simultaneously, U.S. immigration policies
enabled international students to enter for studies, while Title [IX opened the
doors of engineering schools to women. This article blends institutional data
from the National Science Foundation’s survey of federally financed research
and development with Department of Education data on doctoral degrees to
explore the role of women and temporary residents in this expansion
of engineering higher education. This paper shows that temporary resident
women were an important component of women's increased presence among
recent cohorts, as temporary residents of both genders became a larger part of
engineering PhD recipients. The analyses also show that mid-tier institutions
appeared to provide the best point of entrée for non-citizen engineering
students.
Introduction and Background
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY signaled a shift in U.S. investment in higher
education, transforming the post-secondary system from an elite luxury to
an accessible goal for more of the U.S. population. This expanded access,
and consequently larger high-skilled human capital pool, thus enabled the
rapid pace of technological advancement for the United States (Goldin and
Katz 1999). Indeed, the U.S. education system has been characterized by on-
going evolution, change, and expansion, offering new opportunities to new
populations in new fields over its history. In this way, the complex
relationship between federal educational funding, expanded access, and
available human capital becomes the key driver in innovation, invention, and
employment opportunity which serve as the hallmarks of the U.S. economy
(Kelly et al. 1998; Optimal Solutions Group 2011).
When considering the role of technological superiority in supporting
a robust economy, fields such as engineering are particularly important. A
number of efforts in the last half of the twentieth century led to expansion
and growth of engineering education. In 1958 Congress passed the National
Defense Education Act (NDEA) as part of the response to the Soviet Union’s
Spring 2020
38
Sputnik launch. This Act provided loans to college students, graduate
fellowships, and funded improvements in elementary and secondary science
and mathematics education (Public Law (P.L.) 85-864). Seven years later,
Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 authorized $55 million to
strengthen “developing institutions,” which offered or prepared students for
“engineering, mathematics, physical or biological sciences, or other
technological fields...” (P.L. 89-329, Title III: 1229). Among many other
programs, these examples highlight the relationship between federal funding
and expanded access to science and engineering education to support U.S.
economic growth and technological advancement (Kelly et al. 1998).
On the human resources side of the equation post-World War II baby
boomers were coming of age in the 1960s, which further spurred the growth
of colleges and universities. To encourage young men to pursue engineering
and natural science fields, the Military Selective Service Act of 1967 (the
“Draft Act”) provided grounds for military service deferment for men
“whose civilian activity is found to be necessary to the maintenance of the
national health, safety, or interest” which included educational pursuits
“deemed essential to the national interest ...”. Thus, young men could defer
military service and avoid deployment by pursuing science and engineering
studies - an option that was especially attractive in the Vietnam War era (P.L.
69-96).
The twentieth century also saw expanded access to higher education.
For women in engineering, Title IX of the U.S. Education Amendments of
1972 was critical in opening the doors of previously-closed engineering
schools.' The impact of Title LX on women’s participation in engineering is
unmistakable: whereas women earned less than 1% of engineering
bachelor’s degrees prior to 1972, by 1977 they earned 4%, with continued
growth through to 2000, when women accounted for one-fifth of all
engineering bachelor’s recipients (Frehill et al. 2009).
Finally, global transformations and changes in U.S. immigration
policy enabled the increased participation of temporary residents in U.S.
engineering doctoral degree programs as an important component of growth
of these programs in the latter decades of the 20th century. PhDs awarded to
' Under Title IX, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded
from participation in [...] any education program or activity receiving Federal financial
assistance.” (U.S.C A§ 1681, Title IX, 34 C.F.R. 106.1)
Washington Academy of Sciences
39
temporary residents increased from 847 in 1977 to 5,786 in 2015. Between
1990 and 1994, and then from 2000 onwards, temporary residents accounted
for more engineering PhDs awarded by U.S. universities than did U.S.
citizens or permanent residents (NSF 2017).
The role of women and temporary residents in U.S. engineering
human capital, and the intersection of these two demographic characteristics
as an instance of multiple marginalities, has been a little-explored issue. In
the past several years, there has been increased attention by groups such as
the U.S. National Academies and the Association for Women in Science
(AWIS), among others, to the persistent “double-bind” experienced by
women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM). (Williams et al 2014) Taking a term from a 1976 report, these new
studies have sought to describe how multiple marginalities continue to affect
the working lives of women in the STEM fields. (Malcom ef al. 1976)
However, the high-profile National Academies reports of 2007, 2010, and
2013 are completely silent on the potential impact of citizenship status on
the careers of women in STEM. While Williams ef a/. (2014) include
reference to birth origin and STEM field when describing individual
research respondents, the implications of status as a temporary resident is
not explored.
Additionally, in the past four decades a growing body of literature
has focused on the production of STEM human resources and similarities
and differences of career outcomes across demographic groups (e.g., see
Corbett and Hill 2015, Kanny, Sax and Riggers-Piehl 2014, Hill, Corbett
and St. Rose 2010 and Frehill, DiFabio, and Hill 2008 for reviews). Quite
often, especially since 2008, researchers often do not disaggregate “STEM,”
which obscures important differences between careers in these fields.
Similar to other STEM fields, bachelor’s (BS) and master’s (MS) degreed
engineers engage in different work than do PhD engineers. However, unlike
some other STEM fields—most notably, the life sciences—MS and BS
credentials have traditionally enabled engineers to secure relatively well-
paying employment, posing recruitment challenges for U.S. doctoral degree
programs different than those in the life sciences.” Engineering programs,
2 At the bachelor’s degree level, engineers with bachelor’s degrees routinely earn some of
the highest starting salaries when compared to their newly-graduated peers in fields like
biology, business, and teaching. (Brandi et al 2010, Frehill 2011, and Langdon et al.
Spring 2020
40
therefore, are often tightly connected with employers and attenuated to BS
and MS needs.’
The engineering research workforce represents a distinct labor
market. While the doctoral degree is a necessary credential for entry, as in
other fields, the points of discontinuity between BS/MS-level education and
doctoral education pose unique challenges for student recruitment to
engineering doctoral programs. Well-paying jobs and family formation
serve as economic disincentives for employed engineers to pursue doctoral
degrees. Yet PhD students are a critical research workforce at universities,
therefore, expansion of academic research-intensive engineering programs
must solve this recruitment dilemma.
The role of federal funding in the engineering education enterprise is
important to consider in this regard. Faculty secure research grants from
external funders, particularly federal sources, while universities provide
critical research infrastructure critical. Students support the bulk of the
funded research work in exchange for tuition remission and stipends. The
connection between research dollars and graduate education was quite
notable in the 1990s, for example, when the National Institutes of Health
doubled its research funding over a four-year period. During that period
graduate education in life sciences expanded rapidly but once the doubling
period ended, the large number of doctoral recipients who subsequently
entered the PhD workforce found a severely limited labor market. (FASEB
2015; Frehill 2016)
This paper examines the convergence of the macro-level trends
described here—namely the demographic changes in the composition of
engineering doctoral degree programs, the proliferation and expansion of
2011) Advocates of increasing minority participation in doctoral engineering programs
often cite the high salaries earned by new engineers as posing a special challenge for
recruiting students to graduate school. Further, in fields like biology, physics, and
chemistry the master’s degree was sometimes considered a “consolation prize” for
individuals who were not able to make-the-grade in research, but for engineering the
master’s is considered a valuable credential, enabling engineers to maintain currency in
rapidly-changing technological environments. (Frehill 2003)
* Indeed, when providing guidance about PhD programs at Society of Women Engineers’
conferences, the author was routinely informed by participants that when they asked the
employer representatives in the career fair area about graduate school, such
representatives suggested that a master’s degree was “great” but that a PhD would mean
the individual would be “over-qualified” and, therefore, unemployable.
Washington Academy of Sciences
4]
these programs, and the policy framework that facilitated these changes.
What has been the role of previously underrepresented groups—particularly
women and international students--in the growth of the U.S. graduate
engineering enterprise in recent decades? This paper will show that changes
in federal funding of higher education have played a role in the general
growth of engineering doctorate degrees.
In order to assess the role of demographic and funding trends the
proliferation and expansion of engineering doctoral programs, and the policy
framework that enabled change, the following research questions are posed:
e To what extent is there a relationship between demographic changes
in engineering doctoral enrollment and the federal policy and
funding changes supporting these programs?
e To what extent have changes in federal funding of post-secondary
education supported increased access for U.S. women and
international students in engineering PhD programs at U.S. colleges
and universities?
Data and Methods
Data Sources
Three main data sources were used for this paper, all of which were
accessed via the NSF WebCASPAR database system (NSF 2017). These
included the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
“completions by race’ degree data. IPEDS data are compiled by the U.S.
Department of Education from annual data submitted by colleges and
universities, which are required to report as a condition of receiving federal
financial aid. Second, we pulled annual data about federally financed higher
education research and development (R&D) expenditures for engineering
via WebCASPAR. Within the context of institutions with doctoral degree
programs in engineering, which are highly dependent upon federal
financing, these IPEDS and federal funding data are population data. Finally,
via the same WebCASPAR system, we used data from the Survey of Earned
Doctorates (SED). Administered annually to all recipients of research
doctoral degrees from U.S. colleges and universities, the SED has a response
4 This is a technical term used in the field.
42
rate in excess of 95 percent for each year since its first administration in
oY:
Variables
Consistent with the institutional approach of the paper, the selected
datasets provided the opportunity to look at system-level and institutional
level findings. The IPEDS and Federal R&D data were available at the
institutional level; institutional level data were not available with the SED
data. These latter data, therefore, provide additional descriptive information
about the overall U.S. production of engineering PhDs. Federally Financed
Higher Education R&D Expenditures in engineering were all adjusted to
current (2016) dollars).
Gender is one of two key analytical variables, with results about
individuals reported for women and men, consistently reported across the
various datasets. Citizenship status was the second key categorical variable.
IPEDS and SED provide disaggregation of degree data for two groups: U.S.
citizens and permanent residents (hereafter denoted U.S.)° versus temporary
residents (denoted “Temp. Resid.” in graphs). Federal higher education
R&D expenditures for engineering provide a measure of the university-
based research infrastructure support for the field. These data were obtained
using the NSF WebCASPAR database system for the period 1973-2015 at
the institutional level.
Engineering 1s considered a “major field group” in NSF data
publications. For additional demographic analyses, we disaggregated by
specialty area for the four largest engineering fields: chemical engineering,
civil engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. As
will be shown, these fields have different demographic profiles in terms of
gender and citizenship status.
Women, especially temporary resident women, continue to represent
relatively small numbers of students in engineering PhD programs,
especially at the institutional level on which this paper focuses. This means
that any given year could show a much different snapshot than the next year
in the sequence. As such, we use three-year periods to even out these
potential year-on-year biases. We selected the earliest and latest such periods
’ For clarity, we often use the term “U.S.” as a descriptor rather than the more
cumbersome “U.S. citizens and permanent residents.”
Washington Academy of Sciences
that were available in the data we used (i.e., 1977-1979 and 2013-2015) and
three intervening periods: 1990-1992, 2000-2002, and 2010-2012°. These
periods, therefore, provide snapshots of the 38-year timeframe covered by
these data.
The number of doctoral degrees conferred in each of these five periods
were used as a means of stratifying U.S. institutions conferring doctoral
degrees. In this way, we control for the relative size of graduate engineering
programs. Very large programs were defined as those that produced more
than 133 PhDs in a year; large programs were those that awarded 67-133
PhDs per year); and all others that awarded one or more PhDs in a year.
Analyses
I use simple descriptive analyses to show trends for the four groups of
interest: U.S. women; temporary resident women; U.S. men; and temporary
resident men. Within the institutional-level data file, we also compute
correlations between federally financed higher education R&D expenditures
for engineering within each of the five periods under consideration with the
overall number of doctoral degrees in engineering and the percentage of
doctoral degrees conferred to women and temporary residents.
Post-hoc tests of the differences between correlations within each set
across the five time-period snapshots were also performed. Using the Fisher
r-to-z transformation (Lowry 2017), pairwise comparisons were performed,
with results highlighted or noted at the bottom of each table. It should be
noted, as well, that the IPEDS and financial data are population data, rather
than the results of samples.
6 IPEDS data for degrees were not available in 1978, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and
1988. This means that with respect to degrees, the 1977-1979 period is an average of
two (rather than three) values. Engineering R&D expenditure data were available for all
years, so the 1977-1979 period included all three years. While the Survey of Earned
Doctorates (SED) may have been a useful alternative source of data about doctoral
degrees, these data have substantial missing data on one of our key variables-citizenship
status-and are not publicly available for 2007 and later, rendering these data useless for
our institutional level analyses. SED data were used only for our discipline-specific
analyses due to limitations associated with availability of the IPEDS data.
Spring 2020
44
Results
Figure 1, shows the overall federal R&D funding trend between 1973
and 2015 for institution groupings based on the 2013-2015 doctoral degree
production. Average annual federally financed R&D increased for the very
large and large institutions, while all other institutions (i.e., those that
produced fewer than 67 PhDs per year in 2013-2015) experienced relatively
modest growth in average federally financed R&D. In the most recent three-
year period, there has been a slight decline for “All other” and a more
pronounced decline for Very Large engineering PhD programs in average
federally financed R&D expenditures. Finally, average federally financed
R&D expenditures appear to be converging for the 11 Very Large and the
22 Large institutions.
$100,000
@ Very Large (n=11)
A $90,000 aw,
=
e
3 $80,000 a Large (n=22) - =i
o haa VC
ui $70,000 @ All others (n=156) A
5 @
= eee
ac ee A
* $60,000 7 x
oD ee
=) e
S & $50,000 e Ase
as ee? a
=a °°
® — $40,000 ‘ he
ic)
mo}
co) @ee%e aA A
$30,000 °° WC om
3 - aA
S60 A
= $20,000 oe
S A,gAA
oO $10,000 9ooeeet?* toe
2 ' WV oe?
Foo oS Sooo?
a OO OO%G 40005 440%%
IAQ) alis)7 As) 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
Figure 1: Annual Mean Federally Funded R&D Expenditures (in Constant
2016 $thousands) in Engineering per Institution within PhD-Cohort Size
Group (Based on 2015 Doctoral Degree Conferrals in Engineering)
At the institutional level, a similar increase in temporary resident
participation was evident. Figure 2 shows the number of U.S. institutions
that issued at least one engineering PhD to a temporary resident student. This
figure shows the same increase in temporary resident engineering PhDs over
the study period, with nearly all U.S. engineering doctoral degree programs
Washington Academy of Sciences
45
conferring at least one PhD to a temporary resident starting in the early
1990s, as indicated by the nearly overlapping lines in Figure 2.
Figure 3 is based on all institutions that reported engineering doctoral
degree awards in the study period via the IPEDS data system, disaggregated
by both citizenship status and gender. Temporary resident men, especially,
have been a significant — but variable-sized - population within U.S.
graduate engineering populations, earning a majority of U.S. engineering
doctoral awards in a brief period in the early 1990s and then again in the
post-2000 period. In 2015, temporary residents accounted for 56% of all
engineering doctoral degrees (temporary resident women accounted for
12%), with U.S. women accounting for an additional 11% of the doctoral
degrees awarded in 2015. As shown in Figure 1, the upward trend in
temporary resident women’s participation in U.S. doctoral engineering
programs generally parallels that of U.S. women. In the most recent period
from 2010-2015, however, the increase in the number of degrees for U.S.
women was 28.5% as compared to the 38.8% for temporary resident women.
In contrast, the number of engineering doctoral degrees awarded to both U.S.
and temporary resident men increased by about 33% in 2015 as compared to
the number awarded in 2010.
Number of U.S. Universities Conferring Engineering PhDs, 1977 - 2015
250
—*— All Inst Awarding
Eng. PhDs
200 +++@®-+> Inst. Awarding Eng
PhDs to Temp.
Resid.
RR
uw
oO
Number of Universities
Rb
io)
oO
°
€
©
50
0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Figure 2: Trend in Engineering Doctoral Programs at U.S. Universities
Source: Author’s analysis of NSF’s IPEDS degree data accessed via the WebCASPAR database
system.
Spring 2020
46
Next we examine the descriptive statistics and correlations between
demographics of engineering PhD recipients and federal R&D funding of
U.S. universities. Table | reports the median funding level for institutions as
well as degree awards by institutional group and time period. The five three-
year periods were selected to show snapshots over time. As discussed,
above, three-year averages are used as a standard way to account for the
volatility in the small numbers of graduates when disaggregated by
demographic characteristics in order to avoid the potential problem of false
positive conclusions associated with change (i.e., due to year-on-year
variations that are more “noise” than real effect). The first period is the
earliest time at which IPEDS data for engineering disaggregated by gender
and citizenship status were available, representing a time 5-7 years after
Title [X. The final period represents the most recent three-year period prior
to the most recent administration during which there has been a marked
downturn in international graduate students at U.S. universities. (Okahana
and Zhou 2019)
100%
90%
C] Male Temporary
80% Residents
es Male U.S. Citizens and
7 Permanent Residents
60%
O Female Temporary
Residents
40%
@ Female U.S. Citizens and
Permanent Residents
1977-1979 1990-1992 2000-2002 2010-2012 2013-2015
Figure3: Trend in Doctoral Degree Awards in Engineering from U.S.
Colleges and Universities, 1977-2015 by Gender and Birth Origin Source:
IPEDS data accessed via NSF WebCASPAR database system. Note: 1978 data were not available.
therefore, the 1977-1979 period represent a two-year average, while all other periods are three-year
averages
Washington Academy of Sciences
47
There was only one very large institution in the earliest period (1977-
1979) but the number in this category (as well as the other two size
categories) continued to grow through 2013-2015. The 17 very large
institutions had median federal R&D expenditures in engineering of $65.5
million per year and produced about 213 PhDs each year in the most recent
period, 2013-2015. In contrast, the 26 large institutions had a median $40.9
million of expenditures of federal R&D funds and graduated fewer than half
as many engineering PhDs in the same period. Finally, there were 179
institutions who graduated an average of 22-23 engineering PhDs each year
between 2013 and 2015, with a median of $6.9 million each year in federal-
funded R&D expenditures.
Table 1. Median Funding (in millions of 2016 dollars), Average PhDs in
Engineering, Percent Women and Percent Temporary Residents among
Engineering PhDs, by Institutional Group and Time Period
Annual
Average
Eng R&D PhDs
Very Large (more than 133 PhDs/year)
1977-1979 $101.6
1990-1992 $57.0
2000-2002 $86.9
2010-2012 12 $88.1
2013-2015 Yi $65.5
Large (67-133 PhDs/year)
1977-1979 4
19901992 14
2000-2002 16
201022012 2)
2013-2015 — 26
All Others (with | or
more PhDs)
[OT 7-1879 140 37.1%
1990-1992 144 Sper ihe
2000-2002 166 : 55.8%
2010-2012 186 ' 55.1%
2013-2015 Wey 57.2%
Spring 2020
48
Table 2 examines the correlations between engineering PhD recipient
demographics and federal funding levels (adjusted for inflation to constant
2016 dollars) in each of the four most recent time periods. The correlation
between funding and the total number of PhDs has declined since the 1990-
1992 period but remains relatively robust. There are no statistically
significant correlations between the relative percentage of temporary
residents and engineering R&D funding. The largest change in correlation
coefficients, however, is evidenced between the percentage of women PhD
recipients and engineering R&D funding; this correlation coefficient was
only statistically significant in 1990-1992, with very weak or negligible
associations in all other years.
Table 2: Correlations between Federal Engineering R&D Funding and PhD
Recipients’ Demographics and Federal Funding for Each Time Period
% Temp.
Total PhDs % Women | Resid.
1977-1979
1990-1992 _
2000-2002
35
: 5
2010-2012 043 031
2013-2015 -.005 -.038
* Indicates two-tailed significance at p < 0.05; ** indicates two-tailed significance at p <
0.01. Shading within the Total PhD column indicates the results of post-hoc tests (using
the Fisher r-to-z transformation) of the differences between correlations within the
column. For Total PhDs, 0.809 is larger than all others (p=0.00); 0.589 and 0.501 are
equal (p=0.24) as are 0.393 and 0.402 (p=0.91); and 0.589 > both 0.402 (p=0.01) and
0.393 (p=0.01). None of the correlations in the last two columns are statistically
significantly different using the Fisher r-to-z transformation. The largest difference in
the % Women column produced a z=1.77 with p=0.07; while that in the % Temp.
Resid. Column produced a z = 0.96 with p=0.34.
Table 3 controls for institutional type in these correlations, reporting
results for the 17 institutions that were in the “very large” group in 2013-
2015 (left three columns of Table 3) and the 26 institutions that were in the
“large” group (right three columns of Table 3). For the very large
institutions, there is a far stronger relationship between engineering R&D
funding and PhD production, as evidenced by the larger correlation
coefficients—all of which were statistically significant at least p < 0.05—in
the first column of the table. However, there was a far weaker — and
sometimes negative — correlation between PhD production and engineering
Washington Academy of Sciences
49
R&D funding for those institutions that produced between 67 and 133 PhDs
per year in engineering in the 2013-2015 period. Indeed, only the 0.428
correlation in the 1977-1979 period for these 26 institutions was statistically
significant.
The post-hoc tests for the correlations reported in Table 2 indicate that
the correlations in the first column, those associated with the correlation
between Total PhDs and federally-funded R&D expenditures, were in three
groupings with the 0.809 for the 1977-1979 period significantly greater than
all others; followed by the two correlations for the middle two periods; and
then the two for the most recent two periods. None of the correlations in the
last two columns are statistically significantly different for the five time
periods shown.
Table 3. Correlations of Engineering PhD Demographics with Federal R&D
Funding, by Year and Institution Classification for Top PhD Producing
Institution Groups in 2013-2015
Very Large (2013-2015)
(n = 17 institutions) (n = 26 institutions)
Total
Eng. 9
PhDs Female | Resid.
1977- ne 7
Large (2013-2015)
Total Eng.
PhDs
%
2010-
: -.219 -.102 07
42 245
* Indicates two-tailed significance at p < 0.05; ** indicates two-tailed significance at p
.184 -.326
< ().01. Shading within columns indicate the results of post-hoc tests (using the Fisher r-
to-z transformation) of the differences between correlations within the column. For
Very Large institutions, Total Eng. PhDs, only 0.922 > 0.665 (z=2.12; p=0.03), no
others were significant (comparing 0.922 to 0.761 had a z=1.60, p=0.11); none of the %
Female or % Temp. Resid. correlations were significantly different (largest gap had
z=0.99, p=0.32 in the former, and z=1.78, p=0.08 in the latter). None of the correlations
within each column for the Large institutions were statistically significant when using
the Fisher r-to-z transformation post-hoc test.
0
50
For both the very large and large institutions, the correlation between
R&D funding and the percentage of temporary resident PhD recipients was
always negative, quite volatile, and rarely statistically significant. For
example, there was a strong negative correlation (-0.666) in the 2000-2002
period for the very large engineering PhD schools. The percentage of female
PhDs was positively correlated with R&D funding in all but the first period
for both types of schools but tended to be a stronger correlation for the large
compared to the very large schools in each of the five time periods. The
correlation between the percentage of women among PhD recipients and
R&D funding was only significant — and of moderate size — for the 1990-
1992 and 2010-2012 periods for the 26 large PhD producing engineering
schools.
Next we examine the descriptive statistics and correlations between
the demographics of engineering PhD recipients and federal R&D funding
awarded to U.S. universities. Table 1 reports median funding level for
institutions, divided by relative engineering PhD degree production. The five
three-year periods were selected to show snapshots over time. As discussed,
above, three-year averages are a standard way to avoid the problem of a
potential false positive on change (i.e., due to year-on-year variation that are
more noise than effect). The first and last periods are defined by data
availability, while the other three periods were meant to provide milestone
marks between the late 1970s and the present. Also shown in Table | are
data on degree awards by institutional type.
There was only one very large institution in the earliest period shown,
1977-1979, but the number grew to 17 by the most recent period. These
institutions had median federal R&D expenditures for engineering of $70.9
million per year and produced about 213 PhDs per year, on average, between
2013 and 2015. In 1977-1979 there were just four large engineering schools;
this number had grown more than six-fold by the 2013-2015 period. These
large institutions produced an average of just less than half as many PhDs
annually (approximately 91) than did the very large institutions and received
about $45.1 million in R&D funds for engineering each year in 2013-2015.
Washington Academy of Sciences
Conclusion
The twentieth century was marked with revolution and transformation,
on many levels and for many domains- perhaps none more so than the
educational system, which supports an educated, skilled population. While
this particular paper did not explore causal links between funding, policy,
and demographic changes in engineering programs- several compelling
correlations emerged, providing the basis for further research into the
complex relationship between federal post-secondary education funding,
changing demographics (including gender, ethnicity, and nativity), and
human capital. This paper found that immigration policy changes with the
rise of temporary resident students included women in engineering. These
temporary resident women were an important component of the increased
presence of women among U.S. engineers in recent cohorts of PhD
recipients, as temporary residents of both genders came to represent a larger
share of engineering PhD recipients from U.S. universities.
Expansion of engineering in higher education, at the time when the
Federal government was making investments in facilities and faculty
quality, meant that there was an expansion in doctoral degrees awarded in
engineering, as might be expected. As in other fields, the engineering
doctoral degree provides a research-oriented toolkit for engineers, enabling
movement from highly applied, technical work in industrial and government
settings into research positions in those same sectors, in addition to entrée
into academic careers.
The unexpected finding of a lack of a correlation between federal
funding and increasing temporary resident PhD recipients suggested that
mid-tier doctorate institutions appeared to provide the best point of entrée
for non-citizen engineering students. Perhaps mid-tier institutions rely on
increasing enrollment of temporary resident students as a growth strategy to
supplement lower federal funding levels? Or maybe international students
pay a larger percentage of tuition, or work as teaching assistants (rather than
as research assistants supported by external funds) in exchange for tuition
remission? Such questions suggest directions for future research. The weak
(or non-existent) relationships between the percentage of women and R&D
funding
The role of specific programmatic interventions in the demographic
composition of engineering PhDs is another area for future study. Just as
Spring 2020
Nn
i)
other researchers have examined the impact of the doubling of NIH funding
on production of PhDs in the biomedical sciences (Blume-Kohout 2012,
Diaz et al 2012, and Frehill 2016), similar analyses of the trends described
in this article could be completed. NSF-funded programs such as the
Alliance for Minority Participation “Bridge to the Doctorate” supplements,
the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, and the NSF
Advance: Institutional Transformation’ program may have affected the
pools of graduate students and production of PhDs starting in the early part
of the 21“ century. Such analyses, however, require careful analyses to
avoid over-stating program effects, given the larger social context in which
they were embedded.
Overall, this paper concludes that there is some relationship between
federal funding of post-secondary education and macro-level demographic
changes. We also conclude that these changes are associated with increases
in female representation in engineering PhD degree production. A limitation
of this paper is the lack of further discussion of the actual effect, strength,
and significance of this relationship. We plan to address these aspects
through further research. This paper represented an exploratory look into the
complicated and complex dynamics of federal funding, human capital, and
changing demographics in PhD degree production. These initial findings
have supported the formation of an initial research agenda to further pursue
more detailed analyses of these variables and how these relationships can be
better understood and leveraged to support continued and increase
representation of women in the U.S. engineering enterprise.
Conflict of Interest
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of
any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a
potential conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
I thank Katie Seely-Gant, who provided research support for earlier versions
of this paper. The author is grateful to the three anonymous reviewers, whose
comments helped us improve the manuscript.
’ The Advance program is focused on faculty composition rather than the gender
composition of graduate degree cohorts.
Washington Academy of Sciences
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Bio
Lisa M. Frehill has been a senior analyst at Energetics Technology Center
since 2010, which included support to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Research and Engineering's STEM Development Office and to the National
Science Foundation. Her research focuses on science and engineering
human resource issues, with an emphasis on gender, diversity, and inclusion
issues.
Washington Academy of Sciences
59
Ancient River Morphological Features on Mars
versus Arizona’s Moenkopi Plateau
Antonio J. Paris & Laurence A. Tognetti
Planetary Sciences, INC.
ABSTRACT
Mars is currently at the center of scientific debate regarding proposed
ancient river morphological landscapes on the planet. An increased
curiosity in the geomorphology of Mars and its water history, therefore,
has led to an effort to better understand how those landscapes formed.
Many studies, however, consist of patchwork investigations that have
not thoroughly examined proposed ancient fluvial processes on Mars
from an Earth-analog perspective. The purpose of this investigation,
therefore, is to compare known fluvial features on Moenkopi Plateau
with proposed paleopotamologic features on Mars. The search for
analogs along the Moenkopi Plateau was due to the similarities in fluvial
erosion, influenced and modified by eolian (wind) activity, primarily
from Permian through Jurassic age. By analyzing orbital imagery from
two cameras onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) -
the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and the
Context Camera (CTX) - and paralleling it with imagery obtained from
the U.S. Geological Survey and an unmanned aircraft operating over the
Moenkopi Plateau, this investigation identified similar fluvial
morphology. We interpret, therefore, that the same fluvial processes
occurred on both planets, thereby reinforcing the history of water on
Mars.
PROPOSED FLUVIAL FORMATIONS ON MARS
THE HISTORY OF WATER ON MARS is a matter of contention, and one of the
essential questions planetary scientists are attempting to unravel. The Kasei
Valles, for illustration, is a vast system of canyons in the Mare Acidalium
and Lunae Palus quadrangles on Mars, centered at latitude 24.6° N and
longitude 65.0° W (Figure 1). The canyons are ~1,580 km long and represent
one of the largest proposed outflow channel systems on the planet. !
Numerous studies have attempted to interpret the troughs and valleys of
Kasei Valles as incontrovertible outflow channels, but their history and
origin remain ambiguous. Surface features in the region appear to represent
an outflow area that could have been the result of catastrophic flooding
millions of years ago. Proposed paleopotamologic features in Kasei Valles,
such as tributaries, terraces, flood plains, and streamlined islands, appear
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analogous to known fluvial features found on the Moenkopi Plateau, which
were shaped by the flow of water. Others proposed that glacial action or
volcanic activity produced the paleopotamologic features on Mars, rather
than the flow of liquid water.’
saa 8 FLUVIAL saath aa KASEI VALLES
A,
Win hy
Vp, 4. G
On 4
STREAMLINED ISLANDS
Pi td AL ‘i LEN a . } BY \
J? fs ‘ 6) 7 i \ :
FLOOD PLAIN | 4 fof ABA
, i & y\, gt ‘ {
‘ po. ay a ;
he #
\ wy
Figure 1: Proposed fluvial features created by the flow of water. Source: NASA
Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter
MOENKOPI PLATEAU
This investigation focuses on the Moenkopi Plateau in northeastern
Arizona (Figure 2). The area extends from the Little Colorado River
northeastward to the summit, covering 484 km”. Elevations range from 1,280
m at the Little Colorado River to 1,700 m on the plateau. The Adeti Eechii
Cliffs, an erosional scarp, demarcates the southwest edge of the Moenkopi
Plateau. Other major erosional scarps to the southwest include the Red Rock
Cliffs and Ward Terrace.*
Geomorphic interactions between eolian and fluvial processes since
the late Pleistocene are reflected by drainage patterns on northeasterly
plunging sedimentary rocks and by the northeastward withdrawal of cuestas
along the southwest boundary of the plateau. Tributary drainages, such as
the Five Mile, Landmark, Tonahakaaad, Tohachi, and Gold Spring Wash,
Washington Academy of Sciences
61
flow southwestward from the edge of the plateau toward the Little Colorado
River. Subsequent fluvial drainages, moreover, are entrenched within
resistant strata near the base of retreating scarps, leaving a visual record of
scarp retreat and development during the past ~2.4 million years.’ During
the Pliocene, wind-swept sand from indigenous sedimentary strata was
Pe i, - 4
os van . =e
LITTLE COLORADO RIVER | - >t |
VE Ne ~
oar,
* Se
BLACK POINT LAVA FLOW
Tz VS Vey sd
= \ Del pre
o
d
i- a
—-
a
FLAGSTAFF, AZ ,
50 Miles South
Figure 2: The Moenkopi Plateau. Source: USGS
transported from Little Colorado in the southwest onto the Moenkopi Plateau
in the northeast, opposite of the direction of fluvial flow.
As noted above, the age of present fluvial and eolian deposits in the
analog area is Holocene and Pleistocene, undivided.” Geologically, the
plateau consists of exposed sedimentary rocks of Permian through Jurassic;
volcanic basalt deposits from the Black Point lava flow; and surficial
deposits consisting of sand dunes, sand sheets and landside deposits (Figure
3). Sedimentary rocks that consist of silica-cemented sandstone, interbedded
limestone, and multi-colored shale plunge to the northeast and form
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62
northwest-trending ledges and cliffs. The bedrock in the area of study,
moreover, has been eroded by streams, winds, and a copious supply of loose
sediment available for redeposition.°
GEOLOGICAL MAP OF EARTH ANALOG AREA
yLBEAGK pon mt FLOW By
Surficial Deposits: Sedimentary Rocks:
* QD-Sand dunes and sheets (Holocene)
* QAY - Young alluvial fan deposits (Holocene and Pleistocene)
* QGY — Young terrace-gravel deposits (Holocene and Pleistocene) JN - Navajo Sandstone (Lower Jurassic)
* QTES — Old eolian sand sheets and dune deposits (Pleistocene and Pliocene) JKN - Kayenta to Navajo Transition Zone (Lower Jurassic)
* QAE— Young mixed alluvium and eolian deposits (Holocene and Pleistocene) , JK - Kayenta Formation ( Lower Jurassic)
* QTG5— Oldest terrace-gravel deposits (Pliocene and Miocene) + JM—Moenave Formation (Lower Jurassic to Upper Triassic)
* QI- Landslide deposits (Holocene and Pleistocene)
Glen Canyon Group (Lower Jurassic to Upper Triassic)
Chinle Formation (Upper Triassic):
Volcanic Deposits:
* TRCO-Owi Rock Member
* TBPB — Black Point Basalt Flows (Pliocene) * TRCP — Petrified Forest Member
* TRCS—Shinarump Member
Moenkopi Formation (Middle to Lower Triassic):
/ \ * TRMHM - Holbrook and Moqui Members (Middle to Lower Triassic)
N * TRMSS- Shnabkaib Member (Lower Triassic)
SKM * TRMW-Wupatki Member (Lower Triassic)
Figure 3: Geological Survey of the Moenkopi Plateau. Source: USGS and
Planetary Sciences, Inc.
GEOMORPHOLOGY OF FLUVIAL SYSTEMS ON EARTH
Fluvial systems, the most significant geomorphic agent on Earth, are
primarily dominated by streams and rivers. For millions of years fluvial
processes have sculpted, eroded, and transported sediment to create new
landforms. The watershed or drainage basin is a fundamental landscape
component in fluvial geomorphology and consists of a parent river and its
Washington Academy of Sciences
63
tributaries.’ The rivers, streams, and the depositional and erosional behavior
of fluvial systems produce a variety of geomorphic topographies along the
floodplain, such as meandering systems, tributaries, terraces, oxbows,
confluence, braiding, cut banks, point bars, streamlined islands, and terraces
(Figure 4). Erosion, which originates from the power and consistency of the
current, can affect the formation of the river's path.* Furthermore, the
availability, rate of deposition, size, and composition of sediment moving
through the channel will shape and change the direction of the river over
time.’ Dunes and sand sheet deposits due to eolian activity further contribute
to the morphology of the Moenkopi Plateau.
Today, stream deposits between the Little Colorado River and the
Moenkopi Plateau consist mostly of mud, silt sand, and gravel. Throughout
seasonal dry spells in late spring and early summer, sand and silt travel in
the wind from stream channels, primarily Tohachi Wash (Figure 2), onto
adjacent flood plains.’ Most of the sand occurs in sheets that advance
northeasterly. Where the sand is relatively thin or sparse, it forms well-
defined barchan or parabolic dunes while thicker sand sheets form complex
dunes.'!° Some of the sand blown by the wind from washes, however, is
transported by streams back into the washes. This recycling takes place in all
drainages east of the Little Colorado River regardless of their orientation. '!
DATA COLLECTION
ORBITAL IMAGERY OF MARS AND IMAGERY OF THE
MOENKOPI PLATEAU
The NASA HiRISE and CTX imagery used in this investigation were
available through NASA’s Planetary Data System (PDS) and the Lunar and
Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona. HiRISE can see the surface of
Mars with a high-resolution capability up to ~30 centimeters per pixel, while
the MRO CTX camera can observe at ~6 meters per pixel.'” MRO also
observes the Martian surface earlier in the day; thus, more geomorphic
features are evident with partially sunlit floors.'? A partially sunlit floor
allows planetary scientists to identify specific features characteristic to
paleofluvial action and floor morphologies, such as tributaries, terraces,
flood plains, and streamlined islands. The data for Martian surface
composition and properties came from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer
(TES) onboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which is accessible
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through the Java Mission-planning and Analysis for Remote Sensing
(JMARS). The database is a geospatial information system (GIS) developed
by ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility to provide mission planning and data-
analysis tools to NASA scientists and instrument team members. Global
mineral abundance maps were derived using atmospherically corrected TES
spectral data and a suite of 36 endmembers, and interpolation used between
adjacent orbit tracks.'* The MRO images (HiRISE and CTX) were then
compared with imagery obtain through the use of a crewless aerial vehicle
(UAV) operated by Planetary Science, Inc. in situ on the Moenkopi Plateau.
The UAV offered a powerful camera on a 3-axis stabilized gimbal that
recorded video at 4k resolution up to 60 frames per second and featured real-
glass optics that captured aerial imagery at 12 megapixels from an altitude
up to 800 m and a range of 7 km.'° Data obtained from the U.S. Geological
Survey Earth Explorer (EE) imagery interface for high altitude aerial
imagery also provided remote sensing inventory of the Moenkopi Plateau.
7 nF OF Bi SYSTEMS
Cut banks rhe en oe al
Point Bars ae Gees Braiding &
uilived ae \ Weal :
Islands
Figure 4; Examples of Fluvial Morphology. Source: USGS and Planetary Sciences, Inc.
Washington Academy of Sciences
IMAGERY ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION
In Appendix 1, we present a series of orbital imagery of proposed
paleopotamologic formations on Mars alongside aerial imagery of known
fluvial morphology on the Moenkopi Plateau. The images infer that known
fluvial processes that occur on the Moenkopi Plateau also took place on Mars
early in its history. As the two planets are comparable compositionally, their
rocks and minerals have similar names.'® The shape and size of geomorphic
processes on Mars, however, depend mostly on a set of environmental
conditions and properties dissimilar to Earth. Lesser atmospheric pressure
altered the scattering of material, and lower gravity facilitated wider
dispersion.'’ Consequently, fluvial artifacts on Mars are larger than their
terrestrial analogs.
ANALOG 1: TRIBUTARY
A tributary is a stream or river that does not flow directly into a sea
or ocean. In this fluvial setting, as exhibited in Figure 5, the water in both
tributaries flowed into a more significant stream, parent river, or channel.
These waterways, including the main stem river, drain the neighboring
drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater, leading the water out
into an ocean.!® The tributary located in the western region of Nilus Mensae
(latitude 22.102° N and longitude 287.570° E) is of the ~4 billion-year
Noachian age, undivided, and characterized by canyons and channel floors
similar to the tributaries in the Moenkopi Plateau. The Nilus Mensae area 1s
a highland transition unit dominated by complex admixtures of impact,
sedimentary, and volcanic rocks; it primarily consists of basalt, andesite, and
traces of feldspar, hematite, and quartz.'” The tributary investigated in the
Moenkopi Plateau (latitude 35° 43’ 45” N and longitude 111° 18’ 51” W) is
of Holocene to Pleistocene age. The area is dominated by deposits of basaltic
ash fragments, quartz, feldspar, gray-brown chert, quartz sandstone grains,
and quartz with iron inclusions.°
ANALOG 2: CONFLUENCE
A confluence or conflux occurs where two or more flowing bodies of
water intersect to form a single river or where a tributary or wash joins a
parent river or channel.*? The natural flow of confluences gives rise to
hydrodynamic patterns, such as mixing layers, stagnation zones, and shear
layers, which, in some instances, can be identified from orbital and aerial
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imagery. Denser materials transported by either flow, such as large pebbles
and rocks, sink to the main river bottom at or downstream of the confluence
and amalgamate into deposits.
Dao Vallis, a proposed outflow channel on Mars, is of the warmer
wetter ~3 billion year Hesperian age and runs southwestward into Hellas
Planitia from the southern slopes of the voleano Hadriacus Mons. It and its
tributary, Niger Vallis, extend for about 1,200 km.”! Geologically, the area
along the channel is comprised of planar deposits meters to tens of meters
thick and tens to hundreds of kilometers across; flood lavas sourced from a
regional fissure; and vent systems and lobate scarps are also typical.** Some
proposed that Dao Vallis received water when hot magma from Hadriacus
Mons melted vast amounts of ice in the frozen ground, released in massive
outburst floods.”? In one particular paleofluvial setting at Dao Vallis (latitude
-36.804° S and longitude 89.990° E), settled mixing layers, stagnation zone,
and shear layering can be identified (Figure 6). Telemetry from TES
indicates an abundance of basalt, feldspar, and traces of quartz and
hematite.'? Conversely, the confluence examined on the Moenkopi Plateau
(latitude 35° 43’ 10” N and longitude 111° 08’ 06” W) likewise arose from
the convergence of two streams flowing southwestward from the Adeii
Eechui Cliffs. The seasonal wash consists of a young mixture of alluvium fan
deposits (Holocene and Pleistocene) dominated by clear quartz, milky
quartz, light-red quartz, blue-gray chert, and fragments of basaltic ash
fragments and schist.2 Owl Rock, Chinle Formation (Upper Triassic),
borders the rivers.
ANALOG 3: STREAMLINED ISLANDS
Streamlined or teardrop-shaped islands stand in the beds of most
large outflow channels on Mars. These islands mark where rock outcrops
made obstructions that successfully resisted the floods.** Along the flanks of
some streamlined islands, ledges or benches develop. These indicate
particularly resistant strata or where the flood maintained a depth long
enough to erode the ledge or bench. After floodwaters divide around the
obstruction, they progressively erode the ground behind it.*°
Lying east of the volcanic region of Tharsis, Kasei Valles is the most
significant proposed outflow channel on Mars. Similar to fluvial systems on
the Moenkopi Plateau, the channels of Kasei Valles appear to have been
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carved by liquid water, possibly during massive floods that originated in
tectonic and volcanic activity in Tharsis.°* Though larger than their
terrestrial counterpart, streamlined islands are abundant at Kasei Valles. A
particular streamlined island on Kasei Valles (latitude 24.736° N and
longitude 311.401° E) unmistakably exhibits morphology consistent with the
floodwater divide, including ledges and benches (Figure 7). This streamlined
island of Noachian age is dominated by basalt, andesite, and traces of sulfate,
feldspar, and carbonate. Additionally, the island is gradational with Chryse
Planitia - a posited large lake or an ocean during the Hesperian or the
subsequent cold dry Amazonian period.'? The analogous streamlined island
at the Moenkopi Plateau (latitude 35° 46’ 08” N_ and longitude 111° 19’ 30”
W) is a stream-channel of Holocene age (Figure 7). The composition of
bedrock samples along the streamlined island mainly consists of basaltic ash
fragments, milky quartz, clear quartz, white quartz sandstone grains, and
traces of magnetite and siltstone mud curls.* This analog, moreover, also
exhibits ledges and benches consistent with fluvial erosion.
ANALOG 4: TERRACES
Terraces commonly appear on the banks of channels and rivers. Their
presence indicates sufficient fluvial activity for erosion before the water
receded. Terraces also could have been shaped by several layers of strata that
resisted erosion better than the layers above or below.”* There are a variety
of terraces of different sizes along the channels of Kasei Valles. The channel
located at latitude 23.829° N and longitude 295.544° E distinctly exhibits
terracing steps consistent with fluvial morphology (Figure 8). These
Noachian-age terraces feature basalt, andesite and traces of pyroxene, quartz,
sulfate, olivine, sheet silicates, feldspar, carbonates, and hematite.'? The
terraces investigated on the Moenkopi Plateau (latitude 35° 45’ 20” N and
longitude 110° 56’ 18” W) likewise exhibit several layers of erosion due to
numerous stages of water flow. These terraces are part of the Navajo
Sandstone, Glen Canyon Group laid down in the Lower Triassic and possibly
Early Triassic.° The wide range of colors exposed along the Navajo
Sandstone reflects a long history of modification by groundwater and other
subsurface fluids over the last 190 million years.*° The diverse colors
originate from the presence of variable mixtures and amounts of hematite,
goethite, and limonite that fill the pore space of the quartz sand in the Navajo
Sandstone.7’
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ANALOG 5: ALLUVIAL FANS
Alluvial fans are triangular-shaped deposits of material transported
by water. They are an example of unconsolidated sediment and tend to form
in elevated regions with a rapid change in slope from a high to a low
gradient.> The water flow transporting the sediment runs at a relatively high
velocity due to the steep slope, which is why coarse material can remain in
the stream. When the gradient decreases into a flat area, the fluvial action
loses the energy it needs to transport the sediment further. The deposit
eventually spreads out, forming an alluvial fan.?’
Capri Chasma lies in the eastern portion of the Valles Marineris, the
largest known canyon system in the Solar System. Deeply incised canyons
such as Capri Chasma are exceptional targets for examining alluvial
morphology, as many of the walls reveal distinct types of bedrock. Capri
Chasma is a late Noachian highland comprised of undifferentiated impact,
volcanic, fluvial, and basin material.° The alluvial fan located on Capri
Chasma at latitude -13.354° S and longitude 308.285° E reveals how
material was transported by water from a minor tributary to form the fan
(Figure 9). Telemetry from TES at this particular fan shows abundant basalt
and andesite with traces of quartz, sulfate, olivine, sheet silicates, feldspar,
carbonates, and hematite.'” The alluvial fan examined east of the Moenkopi
Plateau (latitude 36° 12’ 41” N and longitude 11123’ 28” W) exhibits fluvial
morphology analogous with the alluvial fan on Capri Chasma. In this
geologically setting, water flowed from the top of the plateau through a series
of stratigraphy (Kayenta Formation, Wingate Sandstone, and Chinle
Formation) exposing fluvial siltstone, fine-grained silty sandstone with
interbedded purplish-red shale and authigenic quartz.
ANALOG 6: BRAIDING
A braided river is a network of river channels separated by small,
often temporary, islands called braid bars. Braiding tends to occur in steeper
slopes with high sediment loads.*° Formations are common where water flow
is slow, and there is a buildup of sediment in the river, causing changes in
the direction of the river to create new, but often temporary, meandering
channels.*!
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Marte Vallis is a valley in the Amazonis Planitia quadrangle of Mars,
located at latitude 5.690° N and longitude 177.516° E. The valley is a
proposed outflow channel, carved in the geological past by catastrophic
release of water from aquifers beneath the Martian surface.** The valley
displays noticeable braided flows analogous with those examined along the
Tohachi Wash on the Moenkopi Plateau (Figure 10). Telemetry from TES at
this particular flow reveals basalt and traces of sulfate, quartz, carbonates,
feldspar, and hematite.'” Conversely, the flow along the Tohachi Wash
(latitude 35° 42’ 41” N and longitude 111° 14’ 07” W) similarly exhibits
braided morphology, formed when water receding from the northeast slowed
due to a buildup of sediment. Young terrace gravel, alluvium, and eolian
deposits from Holocene and Pleistocene make up this braided river.
Geologically, the river is dominated by clear quartz, basaltic ash fragments,
siltstone mud curls, quartz sandstone grains and trace evidence of dark-red
quartz, milky quartz, gray chert, biotite, gypsum, and schist fragments.*
ANALOG 7: OXBOWS
An oxbow is a crescent-shaped lake or river that forms when a vast
meandering flow stops, creating a free-standing body of water or a U-shaped
bend regardless of being cut off from the main waterway.’ On the inside of
the loop, the water travels more slowly, which leads to the deposition of silt.
Meanwhile, water on the outside edges flows faster, which erodes the banks
and widens the meander. Over time the loop of the meander expands until
the neck disappears altogether.
Suggested meandering streambeds on Aeolis Mensae (latitude -5.58°
S and longitude 153.551° E), for instance, exhibit a series of oxbow
morphology analogous to those found on the Moenkopi Plateau (Figure 11).
At Aeolis Mensae, some places on the stream show inverted relief, in which
a stream bed could be a raised feature, rather than a valley. The inversion
may be produced by the deposition of large rocks or by cementation that left
the old channel as a raised ridge because the stream bed is more resilient to
erosion.** Telemetry from TES at this particular oxbow reveals mostly traces
of feldspar, sheet silicates, carbonates, and sulfate.'” The oxbow on the
Tohachi Wash (latitude 35° 51’ 00” N and longitude 111° 11’ 39” W), which
is a member of the Glen Canyon Group (Lower to possibly Upper Triassic)
is comprised of clear quartz, basaltic ash fragments, siltstone mud curls,
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quartz sandstone grains and trace evidence of dark-red quartz, gray chert,
biotite, and gypsum.
ANALOG 8: CUT BANKS AND POINT BARS
In river morphology, as the water flows across the land, it erodes the
soil and creates banks. Cut banks, in abundance along meandering streams,
are located on the outside of a bend. They are cliff-shaped and molded by
soil erosion as water flow collides with the river bank.*° On the other hand,
a point bar is a crescent-shaped depositional feature made of alluvium that
accumulates on the inside of the bend. Point bars, like cut banks, are found
in abundance in meandering streams and rivers.*°
Cut banks and point bars are found along numerous channels on
Mars, to include at Hypanis Valles (latitude 9.842° N and longitude 314.106°
E). The Hypanis Valles are a set of channels in a 270-km valley in Xanthe
Terra (Figure 12). The channels are burrowed between Middle Noachian
highlands and feature volcanic, fluvial, undifferentiated impact, and basin
materials. Some studies have proposed that long-lived flowing water carved
these channels.*’ Telemetry from TES at this particular Martian oxbow
reveals mostly silicon, iron, thorium and traces of quartz, feldspar, hematite,
sulfate, potassium and chlorine. The Little Colorado River on the Moenkopi
Plateau exhibits cut bank and point bar morphology analogous to the
channels on Hypanis Valles. In a particular point along the Little Colorado
River (latitude 35° 47’ 35” N and longitude 111° 19’ 05” W), a series of
erosion and deposition activity along the inside and outside of the bends
reveal how cut banks and point bars are formed (Figure 12). The
composition of samples along these bends are predominantly basaltic ash
fragments, milky quartz, clear quartz, white quartz sandstone grains and
traces of magnetite and siltstone mud curls.*
CONCLUSION
An analysis of the HiRISE and CTX imagery of Mars has identified
paleopotamologic features consistent with the visual record of the Moenkopi
Plateau. Fluvial artifacts on Mars, such as tributaries, confluence,
streamlined islands, terraces, alluvial fans, braided rivers, oxbows, cut banks,
and point bars, were formed by the flow of water, as interpreted by the Earth
analog. Moreover, accompanying fluvial interactions, such as drainage
patterns, erosion, and deposition of sediments, are analogous on both planets.
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7]
This investigation, therefore, has resolved the contention regarding
paleopotamologic artifacts on Mars by demonstrating that the fluvial
landscapes were formed by water. Accordingly, earlier patchwork
investigations proposing glacial action and/or volcanic activity as the
mechanism behind these fluvial artifacts on Mars can be ruled out.
NOTES:
Though not conclusive or the primary purpose of our investigation,
telemetry from TES and remote sensing data from the U.S. Geological
Survey indicate that a particular mineral, quartz, has been detected on the
alluvial features of Mars and the Moenkopi Plateau. Quartz is the second
most copious mineral in the Earth’s crust and forms in either igneous rocks
or environments with geothermal waters. A recent study proposed that quartz
found on Mars near Antoniadi Crater formed as a diagenetic product of
hydrated amorphous silica, indicating there was once persistent water at
Antoniadi Crater.**
BIO
Antonio Paris, the Principal Investigator (PI) for this study, is the Chief
Scientist at Planetary Sciences, Inc., a former Assistant Professor of
Astronomy and Astrophysics at St. Petersburg College, FL, and a graduate
of the NASA Mars Education Program at the Mars Space Flight Center,
Arizona State University. He is the author of “Mars: Your Personal 3D
Journey to the Red Planet”. His latest peer-reviewed publication includes
Prospective Lava Tubes at Hellas Planitia — an investigation into leveraging
lava tubes on Mars to provide crewed missions protection from cosmic
radiation. Prof. Paris is a professional member of the Washington Academy
of Sciences and the American Astronomical Society.
FIELD RESEARCH CONTRIBUTOR
Laurence A. Tognetti recently graduated from Arizona State University with
a Master’s Degree in Geological Sciences with thesis research focusing on
geomorphological processes of the Martian surface. As a Field Researcher
for the Planetary Sciences Inc., he operated the UAV in situ on the Moenkopi
Plateau and assisted in imagery analysis.
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APPENDIX 1
ANALOG 1: TRIBUTARIES
Western Region of Nilus Mensae, Kasei Valles Moenkopi Plateau
22.102°N 287,570°E 35° 43°45" N 111°18°S1°W
b { zx?
bis NILUS HENSAE |
*
-
Figure 5: Nilus Mensae (Credit: NASA) and Moenkopi Plateau (Credit: Planetary
Sciences, Inc. UAV)
ANALOG 2: CONFLUENCE
Dao Vallis Moenkopi Plateau
36.804°S 89.990°E 35° 43° 10°N 113° 08' 06"W
Figure 6: Dao Vallis (Credit: NASA) and Moenkopi Plateau (Credit: USGS)
Washington Academy of Sciences
Kasei Valles Moenkopi Plateau
23.829°N 295. 544°E 35°45’ 20"N 110° 56’ 18°W
Sen aater bigs
Figure 8: Kasei Valles (Credit: NASA) and Moenkopi Plateau (Cr
edit: USGS)
ANALOG 5: ALLUVIAL FANS
Capri Chasma Moenkopi Plateau
13.354°S 308.285" 36° 12°41°N 111° 23 28°W
a
a : —
- mal
Direction of Flow
SESS ey
Figure 7: Capri Chasma (Credit: NASA) and Moenkopi Plateau (Credit: Planetary Sciences,
Inc. UAV)
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ANALOG 6: BRAIDED RIVERS
Marte Vallis Moenkopi Plateau
5.691°N 177.516°E 35°42'41°N 111° 14'07°W
Figure 10: Marte Vallis (Credit: NASA) and Moenkopi Plateau (Credit: Planetary Sciences, Inc.
UAV)
ANALOG 7: OXBOWS
Aeolis Mensae Moenkopi Plateau
-5.58°S 153.551°E 35°51’ 00°N 111°11°39"W
Figure 11: Aeolis Mensae (Credit: NASA) and Moenkopi Plateau (Credit: USGS)
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Hypanis Valles Moenkopi Plateau
9.842°N 314.106°E 35° 47°35°N 111° 19'0S"W
Figure 12: Hypanis Valles (Credit: NASA) and Moenkopi Plateau (Credit: Planetary Sciences,
Inc. UAV)
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*4 HiRISE Imagery, Sinuous Ridges Near Aeolis Mensae, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State
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35 Marshak, S., 2009. Essentials of Geology, W. W. Norton & Company; Third Edition, ISBN: 978-0393932386
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Springer, p. 432 ISBN 1-4020-0872-4
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Washington Academy of Sciences
Ve
Elementary Divisor
David Torain II
Montgomery College
Abstract
A commutative ring R is called an Elementary Divisor ring if every matrix A
with coefficients in R admits diagonal reduction. Rings are commutative with
unit and modules are unital. R is an elementary divisor if and only if every
finitely presented module over R is a direct sum of cyclic modules.
I
Background
IN ALGEBRA THE ELEMENTARY DIVISORS of a module over a principal ideal
domain occur in one form of the structure theorem for finitely generated
modules over a principal ideal domain. In ring theory, a commutative ring is
a ring in which multiplication operation is commutative. A series of
theorems and proofs to this effect follow.
Theorem 1. Let R be acommutative, Noetherian MP2 ring with the identity,
then R is a direct sum of fields.
Proof: Assume that R is a MP1, if not, then there is an ideal that J # Re J
for any idempotent e, since all ideals are finitely generated in a noetherian
ring and all finitely generated ideals in a MP1 ring are generated by an
idempotent. Now, let J be the maximal amount of the set of ideals, which is
not of the form Re. Also, let J be the maximal among
{I'| c J and I’ is of the form Re}
so that J] = Re and set f = 1 —e.
Then
R=I1 @Rf andj =CUnJ) OY URS) =1 BYU NRPS).
Then
tar? #0, sucelrelegyn hy) Sy.
Henee,
4ge] A Rf such that g* = g # 0 because J is a MP2.
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78
Now
I CI@Rg = Re+Rg = Re +g).
Moreover, since
e=(e+4g),
Re c Re(e +g) €].
“= ><. Hence, R is MP1 and since R is noetherian and R is the direct sum
of fields.
Theorem 2. If R isa MP1 and R has ACC, then R is a semisimple Artinian.
In particular, if R is commutative, then R is a direct sum of fields.
Proof: Since every ideal is finitely generated and hence generated by an
idempotent, each ideal summand of R implies that R has a composition
series in the category of R modules. Hence, R has DCC. Thus, since R is
semisimple with DCC, R is a direct sum of matrix rings over division rings
by Artin-Wedderburn's Theorem. Artin-Wedderburn's Theorem states that
an (Artinian) semisimple ring R is isomorphic to a product of finitely many
n; — by—n,, matrix rings over division rings D;, for some integers n;, both
of which are uniquely determined up to permutation of the index i. But R
commutative implies R is a direct sum of fields.
Theorem 3. Let R be a commutative noetherian MP2 ring with an identity.
Then the following statements are equivalent:
1. Risadirect sum of fields.
2. For some positive integer k, M,(R) is MP2.
3. For all positive integer k, M,(R) is MP2.
Proof: (3) = (2) which is trivial. (2) = (4), since M,(R) is MP2, R is
MP2. By theorem 1, R is direct sum of fields since it is a commutative
noetherian MP2 ring with identity. (1) > (3), if R® > F;, then M,(R) =
®»> M,(F;) for all k. The MP2 property is preserved by arbitrary direct
sums yielding the desired conclusion.
Theorem 4. Let R be a ring with an identity. Then the following statements
are equivalent:
I RisMP1,
2. For some positive integer k, M,(R) is MP1.
78
Washington Academy of Sciences
3. For every positive integer k, M,(R) is MP1.
Proof: (3) = (2) which is trivial. (2) = (1), let A = diag(a,, ..., a),
where a, = a, = -*: a, = aeR, which is nonzero. Then AeM,(R), since
M,,(R) is MP1, 3 a matrix XeM,,(R), X is nonzero, such that AXA = A. Then
for at least one x;; € R, (1 <i < k), ax;;a = a, where x;; is nonzero and -.
»R is MP1. (1) = (3), is well known since any matrix ring over an MP1
ring is MP1 due to J. Von Neumann [2]
Il
MP2 Ring as an Elementary Divisor
Definition 1: For any positive n, let M,,(R) denote a ring of n x n matrices
with entries in R. Where R is called an Elementary Divisor ring, if for every
A in M,,(R), there are units P and Q in M,,(R) such that PAQ is a diagonal
matrix.
Definition 2: A ring R with identity is called unit MP2, if Va € R, there is a
unit u in Rjwau = wu.
Melvin Henriksen states that if R is a unit MP1, then R is an Elementary
divisor ring [3]. It is also true that if R is a unit MP1, then M,,(R) 1s a unit
MP1. Thus, it is natural to investigate if similar properties hold for unit MP2
rings and that the unit MP2 rings by definition are Elementary Divisor rings.
However, I will show that if R is a unit MP2, then it is not necessarily true
that M,(R) is a unit MP2.
Theorem 5: Let R be a ring with identity and a € R, then the following
statements are true:
1. There is a unit uin R|uau = u.
2. R isa division ring.
Proof: (1) = (2), since uau = u, then uau — u = 0 and u(au — 1) = 0.
Multiplying everything by u~’, yields wu as a right-inverse of a and on the
right-hand side yields wu as a left-inverse of a. Since R is not necessarily
commutative, R is a division ring. (1) = (2) is trivial.
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Theorem 6: By Theorem 9, R is a unit MP2 = R, is a division ring = is
unit MP1 = by Henriksen's result it follows that R is an Elementary Divisor
Ring.
Theorem 7: Let R be a ring with an identity possessing no nontrivial zero
divisors and aéR, then the following statements are true:
1. There is a unit win R|uau = u.
2. There is a unit win R such that au and ua are idempotents.
3. There is a unit win R such that either au or ua is
idempotent.
4. R isa division ring.
Proof: (1) = (2), if (1) holds, then (aw)? = a(uau) = au and (au)? =
@anla =ua, @) = (C3), mivially (@Z)— G), ta is idempotent, ica
uaua = ua; hence, (uau — u)a = 0, which implies uau = u since R has
no nontrivial zero-divisors; thereby wa =1 and a has a left inverse.
Similarly, a has a right inverse and R is a division ring. (4) = (1), if R is
a division ring, then there is a unit y such that ya = 1. Then yay = y.
Remark: Let D be a division ring. Then surely D is a unit MP1 as well as a
unit MP2. However, M,,(D) is not a unit MP2. Thus, R unit MP2 does not
necessarily imply that M,,(R) 1s unit MP2.
Example. Let R be Q the field of rationales. Then R is unit MP2. Now in
M,(Q), let A = [, 4 then since A is singular, there cannot be a unit or
nonsingular matrix B, such that BAB = B, for otherwise A would be
invertible ,..—><. Another observation to be made is when an Elementary
Divisor Ring R is unit MP1, then R is certainly unit MP1. For example, any
semisimple Artinian matrix ring is unit MP1 as demonstrated by Gertrude
Ehrlich [3].
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Washington Academy of Sciences
81
References
[1] J. von Neumann. "On Regular Rings", Proc. Nat Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 22
1936, 707-713.
[2] Mevin Henriksen. "On A Class of Regular Rings That Are Elementary
Divisor Rings", Arch. Math. (Basel), 24, 1979, 569-571.
[3] Gertrude Ehrlich, "Unit-Regular Rings", Portugaliae Mathematica, 27,
1969, 2092212.
Bio
Dr. David S. Torain, IT is a Full Professor of Mathematics at Montgomery
College in Germantown, MD. His research area is in Optimization and
Partial Differential Equations, where he studies the use of parametric
nonlinear differential equations as a mathematical model.
He was elected as a 2018 — 20019 AAAS Fellow for his contributions to the
field of Applied Mathematics, particularly for the discovery of Torain’s
equations that model the harvesting of species under abnormal conditions.
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