Aten Inc.'s new free iPhone game Rhythmatical teaches students the connection between music and math.

Thomas Vaidhyan admits he can attribute much of what he’s learned about gaming to his young son.

When Vaidhyan, now the CEO of IT firm and game developer Aten Inc., first arrived in the Triangle, he realized quickly something was missing in the classroom.

“When I started getting involved with sending my son to schools here, I started researching quite a bit on that and found out very surprisingly, for me, a lot of the technologies and innovations that we’re getting incubated in our universities and developed in our industries weren’t necessarily percolating into our school systems,” he said.

To him, pulling gaming into the classroom was a no-brainer.

“It made a lot of simple common sense to use games for translating some of the abstract concepts in a very simple, easy-to-understand means to children,” he said.

That’s why his company, guided by a growing body of educational research, has been working to develop engines and applications in the rapidly expanding field of serious games, which teach and test users’ skills while they play.

Vaidhyan’s noticed the change in perception toward gaming, even in his daily life. After taking his son to a golf camp, he was surprised to learn the instructor rarely had to teach the complicated method of scoring anymore — his classes were already veterans of the fairways featured on Wii Sports.

“Five years ago when we were talking about it, people asked, ‘Are you crazy?’ But now everybody is understanding games can be a very effective tool,” he said.

The prevalence of devices like the iPad and smartphones is also expanding the potential playing field for educational games beyond the console and computer.

“You will see us moving more and more away from books and using devices like the iPhone and the iPad, where not only do you read, but that translates to a more visual and interactive experience,” Vaidhyan said.

Aten’s newest entry in the serious gaming field is a free iPhone app called Rhythmatical, which teaches about the connection between music and mathematics. It was created in collaboration with Virginia Tech and is targeted toward elementary school children.

It’s a far cry from blockbuster, next-generation franchises like Halo or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but Vaidhyan said that’s a good thing.

“Gaming companies and commercial games compete with movie productions — $10 million for one of those productions is considered to be cheap,” he said. “It definitely doesn’t scale to an educational environment.”

Other Aten titles, such as this classroom simulation, use virtual environments to educate users.

It’s that price point, Vaidhyan said, that’s keeping good serious games out of the fields of education and corporate training — but it’s also giving companies like his a unique opportunity.

“We’re able to get down to that and have a team and a framework where we can churn out these virtual environments at one-fourth or one-fifth of the cost that these gaming companies would take to create some of this,” he said. “One of the things that has kept us going in this field is the fact that we’ve brought ourselves to an attractive price point that can easily scale.”

Particularly in the case of 3-D gaming, some companies charge up to $250,000 just to license their game engines, or the software infrastructure that forms the foundation for different titles. The engines Aten uses, by comparison, can range from $1,500 to free.

For the average consumer, Vaidhyan said there’s a lack of good content on the market.

“The games that I’ve seen out there have been either gaming companies bringing them out themselves — which means commercially they’ll look good, they’re great games, but do not involve a lot of educational research background or aspects. Or, purely educational games that are boring,” Vaidhyan said.

He points out that demand is so high that teachers are learning to adapt existing games — like the multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft — to their needs in the classroom.

But that dichotomy also presents a challenge for companies like Aten, which must balance a fun experience with applied learning.

“Where we could have a blend of this is where we can have success,” he said.

To do that, Aten pairs experienced game designers with experts from whatever field the title is trying to teach. The result should be what Vaidhyan jokingly termed “stealth learning.”

This Aten racing title requires players to learn more about car mechanics and engineering before modifying their vehicles.

“A successful education game is one where the user or the children don’t even know it’s educational,” he said. “They say it’s just another game.”

And like their commercial counterparts, serious games aren’t just for children.

Virtual Heroes, a serious gaming company also based in the Triangle, recently partnered with the Duke School of Medicine to develop a 3-D training game for the emergency room.

Aten’s also working on working with a major pharmaceutical company to create a simulated environment of their assembly line, allowing for virtual hands-on training without the risk.

“We have made it so simple for them that their assembly line workers can train themselves by pulling it out of their learning management system,” Vaidhyan said. “Here, they’d be doing exactly what they’d be doing on an assembly line, except they do it on a computer.”

Future corporations and classrooms could even implement a tracking component of the training and education module that would allow them to identify shortfalls — whether it’s a step of the production process or a mathematical concept.

“From a management perspective, you’re able to say, ‘This person is not getting this particular aspect,’” Vaidhyan said. “The management can give that person an individualized training.”

And solving the problem could happen almost instantly.

“You can give them formative feedback right in the virtual environment itself,” he added.

Outside the virtual environment, users of these technologies are learning something even more valuable — whether the game is serious or shoot-em-up. That’s another lesson Vaidhyan’s gleaned from his son, who often consults classmates when he’s stuck on a tough level.

“They are being forced to share best practices. They are talking to each other, figuring out how someone else is doing it and applying it,” Vaidhyan said. “That’s very valuable in the corporate world.”

Dr. Anu Sud talks to Robby Fisher, a Durham student participating in the Scientifica program she helped found.

Dr. Anu Sud’s two daughters were accomplished in science by the time they were in high school, in part thanks to coaching by their mother, who had been a cytogeneticist at UNC-Chapel Hill and at LabCorps. The older daughter attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and the younger, Shivani, won a $100,000 scholarship in the Intel Science Talent Search and numerous other top science honors when she was a junior and senior at Jordan High School.

When Shivani went off to Princeton, Dr. Sud was like many professional women who interrupt their careers to raise kids: should she return to her former career or try a new path? Then Shivani said to her, “Mom, why not help other kids like you helped us?”

She went to Dr. Carl Harris, then superintendant of Durham Public Schools, and out of their joint vision, she says, Scientifica was founded. This unique program exposes Durham Public School kids to scientific research being conducted at local universities and companies. The kids are mentored by students at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill and are given the opportunity to conduct research during summer internships.

Now Dr. Sud feels that she has 300 kids—the approximate number who have benefited from Scientifica through internships and science club programs in the last two years.

The program’s mission is to create an environment in Durham schools where excellence in science is fostered. That kind of excellence cannot always be achieved by classroom instruction and book reading.

Students who complete Scientifica internships present their research to fellow students. By excelling in research and public presentation, they become positive role models to their peers.

Many of the undergraduate mentors come from the ranks of A.B. Duke, Robertson, and Morehead Scholars—some of the top students at Duke and UNC. They are able to tell the students how they got to their high level of achievement, which was often by participating in science fairs and other extracurricular programs. Sometimes professors come to talk to classes, and last year, a Duke professor’s lab adopted a middle school classroom for two days, dividing them into small groups and teaching them how to isolate DNA.

The heart of the program is the summer internship program, where students not only complete a research project but learn from mentors how to write up research results and present them to their classmates. The hope is that the student participants will extend the reach of the program by impressing their classmates with how comfortable they’ve become doing research and presenting it publicly.

A grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund now offers both the students and their mentors the ability to receive a stipend for their summer of science.

Scientifica is broadening its reach by forming science clubs at many of the public schools and by creating teams to compete in science fairs and other competitions like Envirothon and the International Robotics Competition. For the latter, Durham public high school students joined with peers at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. “It was an amazing experience for our students, both the competition and the partnership with Science and Math,” Dr. Sud says.

Durham students prepare for the International Robotics Competition. They had six weeks to design and build a robot.

The competition boosted the students' physics and engineering knowledge as well as their interpersonal skills.

Students and their volunteer academic coaches worked after school for five hours every day for six weeks to design and build a robot. Participating in the project was a great way to learn physics, says Dr. Sud. The robot had to navigate a bump, which meant the students had to figure out the size of wheels that could handle that angle. “Things like that you can’t as easily learn in books,” she says.

Terry Crystal presents her research project.

Working in a group, they also had to develop real-life skills like negotiation and showing your best side, she says.

Scientifica’s programs are designed for students who have already shown a commitment to and aptitude for science. Sometimes, those kids need an extra boost, and there are few programs available for them, Dr. Sud says. She remembers a girl in the program, Terry Chrystal, a B student who did research internships two summers in a row at Duke. After the first year, she thought she’d be happy getting into any college. After the second year, she was talking Duke and Yale.

“This program gave her that confidence,” says Dr. Sud.

More information on Scientifica, including application forms, is available here. View a video about the program produced by Durham Public Schools here.

Today, I asked Russ Williams from North Carolina Zoological Society and the Russlings blog to answer a few questions:

Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your (scientific) background?

I’m an English major from Northeastern Pennsylvania who works at the North Carolina Zoo (24 years executive director, N.C. Zoological Society). I try to stay somewhat current, despite my age (north of 60). For example, I am listening these days to music by Death Cab for Cutie, Arcade Fire, Flaming Lips, Radiohead and Pole Cat Creek, along with the oldies (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Hank [and Lucinda] Williams, Coltrane and Bach).

Started personally blogging about zoo animals and issues about five years ago. (Took an intro course in blogging at UNC-Greensboro by G’boro blogfather Ed Cone (Word Up). Found I was learning much from Google searches, and then by following the blogs and tweets of certain science journalists and bloggers, conservation researchers, etc. (The blogs and tweets of Wild Muse/@tdelene and you, BoraZ, are favorite sources.) Flickr and YouTube have provided much for my blogs and tweets too.

Tell us a little more about your career trajectory so far: interesting projects past and present?

Had no idea I’d work for a Zoo. (Even named a son Noah; would never do that to someone by plan!) Growing up, I knew I would have a career in advertising, like my father. Did do some retail advertising (broadcast and newspaper) after graduation – early 1970′s. Didn’t like it. Backpacked in Europe for two months. Returned to work with weekly newspapers. This led to public relations/communications for non-profits. This led to fund raising. This led to North Carolina (United Way in Winston-Salem, 1980-85). This led to the NC Zoo Society – 1985-now.

Result: accidental zoology tinkerer.

What does it mean to be the Director of the NC Zoological Society? What does the job entail?

Always remember that I have about 100,000 bosses, in about 27,000 NC Zoo Society member households. Our staff tries to provide excellent customer service to our members and to be their “champions” when it comes to getting a good return on their investments in the Zoo in general or a very specific program, like Field Trip Earth (recognized as a Landmark website by the American Association of School Librarians – one of 21, including Google Earth, Library of Congress, NASA and Smithsonian Education).

What is taking up the most of your time and passion these days? What are your goals?

Proud of my small role in how the NC Zoo and Zoo Society have grown and the creation of both Field Trip Earth (our educational website featuring journals and other media offered by conservation researchers around the world) and Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park (the largest such gathering, offering and breeding of rare and endangered ducks, geese and swans in the world).

Really enjoy helping folks accomplish what they want to accomplish for the future of the NC Zoo through “The Lions Pride“, a grouping of people who have made planned arrangements for their Zoo, mainly through wills.

Capital campaigns, like Project: Pachyderms (African elephants and southern white rhinos) and Project: Polar Bears also meet my need to attain goals requiring some considerable preparation and effort. (I’ve also plodded through a few full, running marathons and to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, at 55).

NC Zoo has something else unique about it – the Zoo School! Can you tell us more about it?

A “magnet” Asheboro City high school, the Zoo School is right on site here. It uses the Zoo as a teaching tool not just to study biology and geography, but for all learning, making use of the Zoo for English composition and communications, mathematics, business and many other studies.

What was the best aspect of ScienceOnline2010 for you?

Appreciate your prodding, Bora, to demonstrate Field Trip Earth at ScienceOnline2010. The Charlotte Observer science editor attended our demonstration and the result was an 85-column-inch article in both the Observer and Raleigh News & Observer by T. DeLene Beeland, whose Wild Muse blog and tweets were already favorites of mine, introduced by your RTs, Bora. I want to take in more of the sessions the next time. Only got to one session (other than our own series of demos) and it was exceptional.

It was so nice to see you again and thank you for the interview. I’ll see you at the Zoo soon….and at ScienceOnline2011, of course!

Today, I asked Mark MacAllister, Coordinator of On-Line Learning Projects at the North Carolina Zoological Society to answer a few questions:

Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your (scientific) background?

I was born and educated in the Midwest–grew up in northwest Illinois, spent a lot of time on my grandparents’ dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin, and went to undergrad school at Oberlin College. I then came south for the first of three tours of duty in North Carolina, including grad school at UNC-Chapel Hill. Also mixed in there is time spent living and working in Salt Lake City, St. Louis, Buffalo, Toronto, London and Chicago. I’m still a Midwesterner at heart, and really miss long sightlines and cold winters. But I love North Carolina, especially my current and quirky hometown of Pittsboro–it’s kind of like “The Andy Griffith Show” where every third person is a massage therapist. I work for the North Carolina Zoological Society, which is based in Asheboro, but telecommute from my shed-in-the-woods office in Pittsboro.

Philosophically, I tend to find myself most interested in the place where technology, education (especially K-12 but also for adults) and environmental advocacy come together. I feel that each one of those can be improved by the application of the other two–if that makes any sense. I’m an early adopter in all three, and have been lucky enough to be able to be involved in somewhat radically new things in each area. I’ve been self-teaching on computers since 1982, beginning with a Kaypro running CP/M. My Master’s degree is in Environmental Policy and Law, meaning that I took half my coursework in UNC’s Political Science department and the other half through the Law School. And, as far as teaching goes–one of the nicest compliments anyone ever paid me was to call me a “natural teacher,” meaning that I don’t have a teaching license but I somehow manage to pull it off.

Tell us a little more about your career trajectory so far: interesting projects past and present?

After grad school, my wife and I moved to Salt Lake City. I spent five years out there working on wilderness advocacy. I did a lot of research in the field–getting paid to hike and camp in the deserts of southern Utah was a great gig–and also in the public document rooms of various state and federal agencies. The advocacy groups I worked with were involved in mining, grazing, water rights, logging and other threats to wilderness preservation. What I began to notice toward the end of my tenure there was that many issues that appeared to be landscape-related were actually endangered species-related, and as a result I began to become more interested in species preservation.

We came back to North Carolina and in 1996 I went to work for the Chatham County Schools administrative office. The state was just beginning to wire classrooms, the Internet was just beginning to find its footing in terms of K-12 education, and Chatham understood early on that a significant teacher training effort would need to follow close on the heels of the effort to get everything wired. My job was in many ways focused on creating an atmosphere of support for integrating the Internet into classrooms; in other words, I was asked to help teachers understand why adopting technology was in everyone’s best interest, and then to work with them to actually help them gain those skills. Not long after we got started, Chatham was recognized as one of the ten top technology school districts in the country.

While this was all going on, I found myself thinking more and more about the content of the K-12 curriculum. It seemed obvious that a wonderful way to interest kids and meet curriculum goals was to focus the whole deal on the study of animals and wildlife, and to do so with technology-rich methods. I approached the Education Curator at the North Carolina Zoo, and not long after that we were partnering to build two websites focused on field-based wildlife research. These sites eventually evolved into FieldTripEarth, which is one of the many things I’m working on these days. I’ve been at the Zoo for ten years now, and have seen through a variety of other projects, ranging from teacher education (in both the US and Africa) to social media planning to field-based informal education.

What is taking up the most of your time and passion these days? What are your goals?

I’m often thinking about “raw learning materials” (this is David Warlick’s term, see Landmark Project) and how to best put them into the hands of students and teachers. I’m not particularly interested in curriculum–that is, in designing and assembling big packages of resources that teachers can then plug into their classrooms. Rather, I’m curious about how best to make original source material available to classrooms and, better yet, how to put those classrooms in contact with the people that actually generate those source materials (By source materials, I mean first-person narratives, photos, video, datasets, maps and so on that, taken together, tell a story about what a scientist or other field researcher is working on). FieldTripEarth wheels and deals in exactly this currency, and we’ve been successful in providing classrooms a way to access these materials from researchers working all over the world. What they do with them is, for the most part, up to the students and teachers–we do offer some generalized strategies for using the materials found on the website, but for the most part we urge everyone to apply them to meet their specific needs.

What I wish I could spend more time on–or at least be more successful at doing–is bringing various classrooms into substantive contact with each other. I don’t mean waving at each other through Skype…rather, what I’m on the lookout for are ways to help students in various locations work together to solve learning problems, to interview field scientists, to author a video about a particular topic, and so on. I think there’s a lot of potential in this, but I’m not convinced that teachers and administrators will buy into it.

More generally, I’m interested in teaching process and thinking skills to whoever will sit still long enough to learn them. What we commonly call the scientific method can of course be used to learn in any academic or technical area. Unfortunately, most schools aren’t teaching thinking as an organized process; that’s why I try to focus on the work being done by field researchers, because I consider them role models of sorts when it comes thinking that is both multi-disciplinary and systematic.

I have some other goals, of course. I’d like to figure out a way to make hiking and biking more a part of the K-12 classroom. I’d like to read and write more, and to think out loud with colleagues more frequently.

How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook? Do you find all this online activity to be a net positive (or even a necessity) in what you do?

I’ve never really taken to blogging as part of my work, though I do read several blogs focused on politics and policy, both of which are hobby horses of mine. Twitter and Facebook are a relatively small part of my professional life, mostly because right now my employer focuses more on their utility in serving members than in educating them. I think these tools form a net positive, but will be much more relevant once we figure out how to use them as educational, rather than informational, resources.

What was the best aspect of ScienceOnline2010 for you? Any suggestions for next year? Is there anything that happened at this Conference – a session, something someone said or did or wrote – that will change the way you think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing?

The best thing about the conference was witnessing the various interests people brought with them–as well as the varying levels of expertise. It helped me remember that this is still such an evolving area. The sessions were all strong, but for the most part my strongest impressions were formed outside of the meeting rooms.

As far as suggestions for next year–it would be cool to invite some consumers of science communication and let us see how they put it to work in their lives. There was a bit of that at 2010, but there’s a lot of untapped experience out there.

And while we’re at it, I’d love to have a session focused on the question “How do we make our students’ experiences with technology at school at least as rich and relevant as the experiences they are having outside of school?”

It was so nice to meet you and thank you for the interview. I hope to see you again next January.

Today, I asked Andrea Novicki from the Duke CIT blog to answer a few questions:

Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your (scientific) background?

Hi, thank you so much for asking. I’m currently employed at Duke University in the Center for Instructional Technology as an academic technology consultant for the sciences – I work with faculty who teach science or math, to help them figure out how to effectively and efficiently help students learn, using technology. My work is a satisfying combination of science, education and technology. Scientifically, I began as a marine biologist as an undergraduate and in early grad school; still, marine biology feels like my natural home. I became inspired by a summer course to study neural systems and behavior, because investigating changes in behavior at the level of changes in molecules in single, identified neurons was both exciting and satisfying. After a couple of postdocs and a tenure track faculty position, I stepped away from research and teaching and I went sailing, driven by a restless sense of adventure. I’m now back in academia, working with smart, interesting people.

Tell us a little more about your career trajectory so far: interesting projects past and present?

I have been involved with some great projects; if there is a theme, it is change, both in my research projects and in my career. I’ve investigated the neural pathways that mediate color change in squid and octopus and I participated in research cruises identifying midwater ocean animals. On land I worked with insects, monitoring and altering activity in single neurons that correlate with behavior change, and predicting and then, satisfyingly, finding a neuron with particular characteristics.

I (and many other people) began to question the traditional lecture way that science was taught and early on, I began using computers and technology to help students learn biology.

What is taking up the most of your time and passion these days? What are your goals?

My goals? Do I have to be realistic? I’d like to contribute to making science accessible; I’d like for everyone to recognize the beautiful complexity and interconnectedness of the natural world at all scales, and find joy of figuring out for themselves how things work.

What aspect of science communication and/or particular use of the Web in science interests you the most?

I’m excited about the increased openness and social nature of science. In my grad school days, the model was that successful scientists kept to themselves until they published, and then only in reputable, peer-reviewed journals; anything else was considered frivolous and distracting. Now, because of the web, science is now more public and more accessible (accessible both technologically and in presentation style). I’m a huge fan of Jean-Claude Bradley’s open notebook science approach, ever since I heard him speak at the first science blogging conference. This project (and many others) make the process of science more open. Passionate blogs by students and post docs as well as people who run their own labs show what science is really like – it’s done by caring people with feelings and emotions, not just some distant, always-right white-coated professor. This openness about the process, as well as the explanations of results made accessible (like at researchblogging.org) have the potential to illustrate the appeal of science to everyone.

I’d like to see people use some of the new visualization tools to explore publically available data sets to make new discoveries, just because they are curious, regardless of their final degrees or institutional affiliation.

How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook? Do you find all this online activity to be a net positive (or even a necessity) in what you do?

I lurk on numerous blogs, and I love scienceblogs, it’s a great way to keep up on how science is changing, and visit my favorite topics. I’m very fortunate, in that monitoring how people use technology to communicate science (for science education) is part of my job. I follow people on Twitter and find it a useful way to find new ideas and resources, and contribute occasionally. Although I do have an account on Facebook, I rarely look at it.

I do contribute to a blog, but it’s more about technology in education than about science, and is part of my job. As a confirmed introvert, I find blogging difficult. I am, by nature, a lurker. I’m in awe of people who can toss off a post without thinking it over and over and over.

In other words, all of this online activity is necessary for my work; I do not contribute enough, but I benefit tremendously.

What was the best aspect of ScienceOnline2010 for you? Any suggestions for next year? Is there anything that happened at this Conference – a session, something someone said or did or wrote – that will change the way you think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing?

Every session I attended was thought-provoking! Stacy Baker’s students stole the show again; my notes have many observations about their attitudes towards technology. I also welcomed the sessions by librarians – their ability to find information, and think about how it is organized will continue to be invaluable.

I observed that the conference had many people attending who were not exactly science bloggers (people like me, for example), which showed how many options there are for people to participate in science online in some way, even if they are not, strictly speaking, science bloggers.

There’s still something wonderful about meeting someone for the first time after you’ve already read their writing – it’s like you can peek into their brain. When you meet a blogger (or any writer), your first impression has already been formed and modified and added to, and their physical appearance is irrelevant. It’s an almost utopian ideal – people are judged by the quality of their thoughts, not what they look like.

At one session, during a discussion of Google Earth and GIS, Cameron Neylon thought aloud about using visualizations as a way of distributing data, which is something I had been thinking about, as a way of making science, and raw data, more accessible. He, of course, said it more elegantly and I will be thinking about this for some time. How can good visualizations be used as a way of distributing data, in a way that does not immediately shape a conclusion but allows for exploration?

It was so nice to see you again and thank you for the interview. I’m sure I’ll see you before then, and I expect you’ll join our event again next January.

Today, I asked Maria Droujkova to answer a few questions:

Welcome to Science In The Triangle. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your (scientific) background?

At any given time, I typically work on multiple mathematics education projects, as a leader or as a consultant. Geographically, I have connections with North Carolina, where I’ve been living for a while, and also Dusseldorf, Germany, New Orleans, LA, Moscow, Russia and Crimea, Ukraine – places where I lived and worked before. Philosophically, “progressor” from an old Russian science fiction book series, someone who facilitates progress, is close to my self-image. I visualize social changes around mathematics, and then work on making them happen. The main current directions of changes are helping children make their own mathematics, Math 2.0, and community-centered learning.

Tell us a little more about your career trajectory so far: interesting projects past and present?

In the early 2000s, I started or led several large and central blog and forum parent and educator communities on early childhood education in runet (Russian internet). My main English site naturalmath.com started in 1996 with a few pages on multiplication, paradoxes and learner rights, and has been growing since then. I have been interested in game development since 2003, had a DoED grant to support some R&D for Natural Math and consulted for others. I am currently building a framework for math game development, including a taxonomy of math game mechanics and a game classification.

Since mid-nineties I’ve been leading family Math Clubs of various types, with thousands of families involved over these years. I am leading six Clubs and unClasses right now, exploring grid and coordinate reasoning with 5-6yo, infinity with 7-9yo, and physics computer modeling, as well as Wonderland art math, with tweens and teens. In 2009, I started Math 2.0 Interest Group, with activities that include software development, conferences, weekly webinars, and asynchronous discussions.

I defended a doctoral dissertation about metaphors in math in 2004, and continue to develop a metaphor-based theory of mathematical learning. I also have a MS in Applied Math, and even though I have not worked as a research mathematician since the nineties, having focused on education, I feel my understanding of relatively high-level mathematics is a particular strength.

What is taking up the most of your time and passion these days? What are your goals?

There are five parts to my Natural Math Theory of Change: Mathematical Authoring, Psychology of Mathematics Education, Humanistic Mathematics, Executable Mathematics, and Community Mathematics. All of these directions come up in every project I do. Here are some immediate goals:
- Publish “The book of the Club” for every Math Club session we have, inviting all members to actively co-author, of course.
- Start and finish two collaborative Online Family Studies this Spring: Early Algebra and Multiplicative Reasoning, publish these two book drafts once people in the studies react/contribute/develop them
- Organize Math Online 2011, a conference for the Math 2.0 Interest Group
- Restructure naturalmath.com (yet again)
- Present the math game design framework at a conference, and get a couple of articles about it in print
- Start Math Fairs, global, collaborative (non-competitive) series of math events for families and Math Clubs

What aspect of science communication and/or particular use of the Web in science interests you the most?

- Citizen science
- Math 2.0
- Apprenticeships for kids, opportunities for participation in real communities of practice
- Community building for social change

How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook? Do you find all this online activity to be a net positive (or even a necessity) in what you do?

- Blogging is something I did a lot in early 2000s, but not as much anymore. I comment on a few blogs and I hosted a Carnival event last year, ironically, on a wiki.
- I mostly use Google Groups and wikis for my projects, because of the number of voices involved, and the network structure (definitely not “one to many”).
- I am active in many Nings, wikis, Twitter hashtag networks, Facebook and LinkedIn communities.

To answer the last question, I think of myself as living online. So the “net positive” question is isomorphic to asking if my life has a meaning. I surely hope so!

What was the best aspect of ScienceOnline2010 for you? Any suggestions for next year? Is there anything that happened at this Conference – a session, something someone said or did or wrote – that will change the way you think about science communication, or something that you will take with you to your job, blog-reading and blog-writing?

I liked meeting people – that was the best for me. Also, the inspiration for Math Online 2011 was great. “Citizen science” is a phrase I have not even heard before, but it fits quite a few of my projects and those I find valuable, so I’d like to nominate it as one of the more significant content items.

As for suggestions, I would like to see several mindmaps, created by and for participants, and helping me to visualize the group as a whole. I envision them both as big pieces of paper on the wall (quaint, I know), and online entities we are all invited to edit. Here are some I want:

Interests – areas – fields – names
Online communities – areas – examples we love (and who is active in each)
Projects – area tags – leaders – active people – those who want to participate (this may be a table, rather than a concept map)

So, for example, I’d like to see what projects are active in citizen science, who the leaders are, and who at the conference is involved. Or, more generally, who is interested in a particular science area.

It was so nice to see you again and thank you for the interview.

The investment reflects how important college degrees are to the economy, the labor pool and the standard of living in the U.S.

But does student financial aid work? What is the taxpayers’ return on the investment?

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded RTI International a $70 million contract to find out.

RTI, a Research Triangle Park institute that employs about 2,800 researchers and technical experts, has collected data on postsecondary students who receive financial aid since 1996. The new, 10-year contract is an expansion and an extension of this work.

The research “provides data that collectively give a comprehensive picture of postsecondary outcomes and their relationship to financial aid,” said John Riccobono, vice president of RTI’s education studies division. (Photo at right.)

“The results of this study will help researchers and federal policy makers better understand and address the affordability of college for families and the effectiveness of financial aid programs,” Riccobono said.

Under the contract, RTI will provide a snapshot of who the students are and what type of aid they receive. The data will come from a nationally representative survey of 120,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students called National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, or NPSAS.

The survey is conducted every three to four years and includes attendance patterns, type of institution attended and demographic information such as family income.

In addition to the snapshot from the NPSAS survey, RTI will track 23,000 students who are starting their postsecondary education during the 2011-2012 academic year. The Beginning Postsecondary Students study will follow the students for five years and collect outcome data such as degree completion and employment information.

The student sample in the two studies represents about 24 million undergraduate and graduate students in the U.S.