We explore the alleged phenomenon of teachers getting bad dreams and nightmares, more often than everyone else, starting with several engineering teachers' most memorable ones.  Do other teachers really get these dreams?  Why do they get them?  What should they do about them, if anything?  Based on a little reading and communication with experts, we developed some preliminary answers to those questions. (Originally aired Oct. 24, 2016)

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• Research on dream content and emotions, "Thematic and Content Analysis of Idiopathic Nightmares and Bad Dreams" (Robert & Zadra, 2014) 
• Research on dream frequency and themes, "Nightmare frequency and nightmare topics in a representative German sample" (Schredl, 2010)
• Website of Roxanna Elden, author of the book "See Me After Class" and the "Disillisionment Power Pack" email series 
• "What are Dreams?", PBS Nova documentary
• Research on the transactional stress model/theory in teachers, "Identification of Elementary Teachers’ Risk for Stress and Vocational Concerns Using the National Schools and Staffing Survey" (Lambert, McCarthy, Fitchett, Lineback, & Reiser, 2015)
• TeacherPop.org, a teachers' mental health blog

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze.  Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor.  Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses. 

The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs and is hosted by engineer Pius Wong. Subscribe and find more information about The K12 Engineering Education Podcast at www.k12engineering.net.

An introduction to this series about engineering vocabulary, phrases, acronyms, jargon, and slang.

Special guest engineer an business consultant Pat Sweet, P.Eng., joins the EWOTD podcast for another episode to talk about the important concept of "verification". This is Part 2 of two episodes.

Hear from two nonprofit organizations trying to provide girls with more education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In Part 1 (start @ 00:59), we visit Girlstart, a Texas-based nonprofit that reaches thousands of girls from 4th grade up to junior high with hands-on programs. Executive Director Tamara Hudgins shares what it’s like to develop the program over the past years and into the future. In Part 2 (start @ 27:27), we talk to the founders of Scientific Adventures for Girls, a newer nonprofit around Oakland, California, that targets younger girls in early elementary. Courtenay Carr-Heuer and Tiffany Sprague are using their experience in the both the corporate and nonprofit sectors to start this organization from the ground up. Together these nonprofit directors give stories about why reaching girls in engineering is important and what practical strategies can help others in this same mission. Hear about after-school curricula, recruitment methods, family engagement, key data to collect, fundraising, and other pivotal aspects of their work.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Girlstart: www.girlstart.org/about-us
• Scientific Adventures for Girls: www.scientificadventures.org
• After School Alliance December 2016 report “The impact of afterschool STEM”: http://afterschoolalliance.org/documents/AfterschoolSTEMImpacts2016.pdf
• Girlstart’s October 2016 research report: https://issuu.com/girlstart/docs/strong_promise_girlstart_after_scho_863a7961051441
• UTeach teacher prep program: http://uteach.utexas.edu/
• 5E Instructional Model, with which Girlstart aligns: http://bscs.org/bscs-5e-instructional-model
• DeSTEMber program: www.destember.org
• Curiosity Hacked makerspace in Oakland: www.curiosityhacked.org/
• TechBridge Girls: www.techbridgegirls.org/
• Previous podcast episode with Linda Kekelis: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep14.html
• Girls Inc: www.girlsinc.org/
• Makerfaire: makerfaire.com/

Remember that the podcast will be at the SXSW Conference and Festival in March, 2017! Pius and Rachel from the podcast will be running workshops for educators and professional engineers: www.sxsw.com/ and sxswedu.com/

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze. Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: www.k12engineering.net. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: www.pioslabs.com

Society is headed toward more driverless cars, self-driving cars, shared cars, connected fleets, and all kinds of autonomous vehicles (AVs). How will engineers of tomorrow deal with this technology? Dr. Kara Kockelman, Professor of Civil Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, talks about her research in this area and current advances in the field. She discusses driver psychology, effects of AVs on the environment, the importance of statistics and computer science in her work, the difference between cars in Texas and California, and much more. 

Related to this episode:  

• Dr. Kara Kockelman’s work: http://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/

• Transportation Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin: http://www.caee.utexas.edu/transportation

• Article on missing sidewalks in Austin, Texas, from Austin Monthly: http://www.austinmonthly.com/AM/December-2017/Want-to-Make-Austin-a-City-for-Everybody-Add-Sidewalks/

• Example study of drivers’ plans for self-driving vehicles: http://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/public_html/TRB18surveyFleetEvolution.pdf

• Some useful terms: SAEV = shared autonomous electric vehicle, which is different from driverless vehicles and self-driving vehicles

• Google/Waymo self-driving car project: https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/

• Texas DOT = Department of Transportation

• Article on a 2017 Texas law allowing autonomous vehicles on roads, from The Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/15/lawmakers-clear-way-driverless-cars-texas-roads-and-highways/

• GPS = global positioning system. Article on GPS in autonomous cars from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/automobiles/wheels/self-driving-cars-gps-maps.html

• LIDAR = light detection and ranging sensors. Article on lidar in Toyota cars from WIRED: https://www.wired.com/story/toyota-luminar-lidar-self-driving-car/

• Article on Uber self-driving car goals, from TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/23/uber-ceo-hopes-to-have-self-driving-cars-in-service-in-18-months/

• DRS - Dynamic Ride Sharing, or shared autonomous vehicles (not car-sharing). Example research article on DRS from Dr. Kockelman: http://www.caee.utexas.edu/prof/kockelman/public_html/TRB18OrlandoDRS.pdf

• Follow the show on Twitter: https://twitter.com/k12engineering

• Follow Pius on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PiusWong

You can support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You can also send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible.

Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor, used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.  Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net.  The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com. 

Vivian Shen and Ruby Lee want to teach kids how to program one-on-one over the internet. Vivian and Ruby are Cofounders of Juni Learning, their new educational startup that provides programming lessons to kids like how others provide private piano lessons. Although they both studied computer science at Stanford, they got to computer science at an older age than the kids they are now serving. They talk about why they started Juni Learning and the benefits and challenges of teaching CS live online.

Related to this episode:  

• Juni Learning: https://junilearning.com/

• Email Juni Learning: hello@learnwithjuni.com

• Stanford Computer Science            : https://cs.stanford.edu/

• Kleiner Perkins, or KPCB: http://www.kpcb.com/

• Python: https://www.python.org/

• Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/

• AP Computer Science: https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-computer-science-a

• Neopets: http://www.neopets.com/

• w3schools: https://www.w3schools.com/

• bioinformatics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioinformatics

• Coterm program at Stanford: https://undergrad.stanford.edu/advising/coterm

• “The Socratic Method: What it is and How to Use it in the Classroom”: http://cgi.stanford.edu/~dept-ctl/tomprof/posting.php?ID=810

• USA Computing Olympiad: http://www.usaco.org/

• Stranger Things on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80057281

• Hour of Code: https://hourofcode.com/us

• Pair programming: https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/pairing/

• Code.org: https://code.org/

• Code Academy: https://www.codecademy.com/

• Computer Programming at Khan Academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming

Our closing music is “Yes And” by Steve Combs, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net.  Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible.  The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

How can you teach universal design to kids and teens?  Have them build accessible games and books, according to The Build a Better Book project, from The University of Colorado Boulder.  Guests Dr. Stacey Forsythe and Dr. Kathryn Penzkover develop the Build a Better Book project at UC Boulder, which provides curriculum for schools and libraries to teach people to create books and games for the visually impaired.  Along the way, they can learn about the design process, makerspace technology, the arts, empathy, and community engagement.  Drs. Forsythe and Penzkover spoke on the podcast during South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 in Austin, Texas.

The cover art for this episode shows a picture book and a chessboard designed by participants in the Build a Better Book project, as shown during SXSW. Both were designed to preserve function and aesthetics even when the reader or player can’t see.

Related to this episode:  

• Build a Better Book project: http://buildabetterbook.org

• Dr. Stacy Forsythe: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/stacey-forsyth

• Dr. Kathryn Penzkover: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/kathryn-penzkover

• CU Science Discovery: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/

• Wikki stix: https://www.wikkistix.com/

• Universal design, as described from the North Carolina State University College of Design: https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/about_ud/udprinciples.htm

• Twitter profile for Build a Better Book: https://twitter.com/buildbetterbook

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net.  Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible.  The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.