NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract MentorNet's Wisconsin and Hawaii Statewide Initiatives Abstract The state of Wisconsin and state of Hawaii are the only states in the nation to have offered MentorNet membership to all public universities and technical colleges. This innovative partnership highlights a new model to launch MentorNet on college campuses. MentorNet, the E-Mentoring Network for Diversity in Engineering and Science and an award-winning nonprofit e-mentoring organization, offers a proven effective means to connect students (protégés) in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors with professionals (mentors) in industry, government and higher education. Since mentoring is recognized as an important engagement strategy to encourage women and girls to pursue STEM education and careers, other states can benefit from the story of the Wisconsin and Hawaii collaboration. Hawaii’s Maui Economic Development Board and Wisconsin’s Milwaukee School of Engineering have partnered under a Women in Technology grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service. This grant is to encourage women and girls in rural areas to pursue STEM education and careers. Because students at the Hawaii and Wisconsin partner campuses were enthusiastic about their MentorNet experience, the Women in Technology grant funded a two-year contract to waive membership fees for MentorNet for all four-year and two-year University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Technical College System campuses; 30 institutions could potentially participate. One of the aims of this program was to encourage more technical/community colleges to partner with MentorNet, broadening the range of mentoring opportunities for the diverse population of students who attend such schools. To promote MentorNet participation in the Wisconsin systems, a collaborative team from Hawaii, Milwaukee School of Engineering, MentorNet, the University of Wisconsin System, and the Wisconsin Technical College System held a one-day orientation training in August 2005. A hands-on training session was offered via a phone/web conference in October 2005. During the first year, 24 campuses participated. The University of Wisconsin System includes 26 campuses: 13 two-year campuses, 11 four-year campuses, two large Ph.D. granting institutions and the University of Wisconsin Extension. Of the participating University of Wisconsin campuses, a majority of the MentorNet protégés (73%) came from four-year undergraduate programs. A solid majority (83%) were female. Students at one of the University of Wisconsin four-year campuses rated MentorNet higher than the national average for the statement “I feel that my college should continue to participate in MentorNet.” The Wisconsin Technical College System has 16 colleges with 47 campuses; 12 of the 16 Wisconsin Technical College System colleges joined MentorNet in 2005 and have continued the relationship. Additionally, MentorNet created an E-Forum group specifically for technical college nontraditional students. In October 2006, the collaborative team followed up with a third MentorNet workshop for campus representatives. This paper describes the statewide initiatives of Hawaii’s and Wisconsin’s projects, including the administrative aspect, the profile, numbers and evaluations of the protégés; a comparison of the
Environmental and Spatial Technology (EAST) is a high school elective class that uses sophisticated technology in service projects designed to improve student’s critical thinking and problem solving skills. EAST is a national initiative that now includes over 150 schools in Arkansas, Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana and Hawaii. It is a project-based, service-learning class that integrates technology into the traditional high school curriculum. EAST students work in teams to solve real-world problems in their schools and communities. Among the technologies that EAST students interact with on a daily basis are: networking and network system administration, presentation applications, computer aided design (CAD), visualization software, global positioning systems (GPS), geographical information systems (GIS), web page design, computer generated animation, solid modeling and assembly, database management, computer programming, and design concepts and applications. There are over 10,000 students nationwide participating in EAST. EAST develops partnerships with business, industry, and government agencies to provide access to technology for the students to use in their projects. The benefit of this model for females and minorities is the requirement that students recruited and selected for the EAST program represent the diversity of the school’s student population in terms of gender, academic performance, age, race, and socioeconomic status. There are on-site visits to ensure that there is equitable access to participation for all students and that the student enrollment is representative of the student body. Equity is achieved because it is required.
Artificial neural networks are applied to the problem of detecting breast cancer from histologic data. Evolutionary programming is used to train the networks. This stochastic optimization method reduces the chance of becoming trapped in locally optimal weight sets. Preliminary results indicate that very parsimonious neural nets can outperform other methods reported in the literature on the same data. The results are statistically significant.
The Project EAST program rises to the top as a best practices model. Currently serving 450 students on four Islands, the mission of EAST is to promote critical thinking and problem solving skills, by engaging students in an educational environment steeped in emerging technologies and community based learning. Project EAST student, Shanoa Miller utilized GIS to answer the burning question -- "Fire Ants or no Fire Ants"? She conducted research in partnership with the University of Hawaii to research the existence of fire ants on the Island of Maui. The Fire Ant species, if found, would cause havoc on our fragile ecosystem. GPS and GIS technologies were used to map the ant collection data and results. The ant identification process resulted in the collection and discovery of 16 different ant species. The Fire Ant was not discovered, but government involvement by increasing field surveys for invasive insects is ongoing.
Akimeka's "Digital Bus" is a mobile science and technology lab supporting K12 schools and community organizations throughout Maui County. This mobile learning platform offers field-based, engaging science projects at outdoor locations and at school sites. One of the many technologies available on the Digital Bus is GIS. Students are exposed to the technology, and are introduced to a "sense of place", and encouraged to think spatially in their daily lives. This technology is a wonderful expansion for the buses mission to provide students with science, tech, engineering, and math exposure. Students enjoy the opportunity to map local species, watersheds, and their fragile environment utilizing GIS. Akimeka utilizes GIS in their daily education activities and look forward to continued partnerships with students, teachers, schools, and high tech industry partners. Alaka'ina is a fledgling organization that understands the need for innovative leadership and education programs that generate interest and participation for our rural communities throughout the State of Hawai'i.
