Dr. Lorina Quartarone, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, College of Arts and Sciences, recently returned from Italy, where she served as co-leader for a tour, “In the Land of the Sibyl.” This tour, sponsored by the Vergilian Society, explored several ancient cities in Campania such as Puteoli, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Beneventum, with an eye to observing the intersection of several cultures (Greek, Etruscan, native Italian) in this area roughly from 600 BCE to 100 CE. The two-week tour involved visiting sites and reading about the history and archaeology of the area in both ancient and contemporary sources. Twenty individuals, including undergraduates, graduate students and interested adults ranging in age from about 20 to 75 and coming from the United States, Europe and China, participated in the tour. Quartarone co-directed the tour and hopes to be involved with others like it in the future.

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The following papers were presented at the 2011 ASEE (American Society of Engineering Education) conference in Vancouver, Canada:

• “Development and Assessment of an Engineering Course for In-Service and Pre-Service K-12 Teachers” – AnnMarie Thomas (faculty, School of Engineering), Jan B. Hansen (UST Center for Pre-Collegiate Engineering Education), S.H. Cohn, and B.P. Jensen (undergraduate)
• “Using Squishy Circuit Technology in the Classroom” – undergraduate Sam Johnson and AnnMarie Thomas (faculty, School of Engineering)
• “Certificate/Concentration in Engineering for P-12 Educators” – AnnMarie Thomas (faculty, School of Engineering) and Jan B. Hansen (UST Center for Pre-Collegiate Engineering Education)
• “Daring Young Engineers on the Flying Trapeze: Using Circus Arts to Teach Dynamics” – AnnMarie Thomas (faculty, School of Engineering), Keith Berrier (faculty, School of Engineering), and Andrea Guggenbuehl (alum)
• “A Comparison of Design Education Across Two Fields: Lessons from Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering” – Will Besser (undergraduate) and AnnMarie Thomas (faculty, School of Engineering)
• Roles in the Design Process: A Survey of Engineering and Industrial Design Educators – Will Besser (undergraduate) and AnnMarie Thomas (faculty, School of Engineering)

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Undergraduate Matthew Schmidtbauer, and School of Engineering faculty member AnnMarie Thomas, presented “Squishy Circuits” at the 2011 Colloquium on P-12 STEM Education Research at the University of Minnesota. They also  presented “Advanced Squishy Circuits: Using Microcontrollers” at the 2011 MISF (Minnesota Independent School Forum) STEM Seminar Day.