Tag: Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development

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SMU students share their research at SMU Research Day 2018

SMU Research Day 2018 featured posters and abstracts from 160 student entrants who have participated this academic year in faculty-led research, pursued student-led projects, or collaborated on team projects with graduate students and faculty scientists.

SMU strongly encourages undergraduate students to pursue research projects as an important component of their academic careers, while mentored or working alongside SMU graduate students and faculty.

Students attack challenging real-world problems, from understanding the world’s newest particle, the Higgs Boson, or preparing mosasaur fossil bones discovered in Angola, to hunting for new chemical compounds that can fight cancer using SMU’s high performance ManeFrame supercomputer.

A highlight for student researchers is SMU Research Day, organized and sponsored by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies and which was held this year on March 28-29 in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center.

The event gives students the opportunity to foster communication between students in different disciplines, present their work in a professional setting, and share the outstanding research conducted at SMU.

Find out the winners of the poster session from the SMU Office of Graduate Studies.

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The Chronicle of Higher Education: Is Protesting a Privilege?

The results could suggest that a certain type of environment allows a student more freedom to protest, Baker says. “Certain people have the time and resources to be able to protest in certain ways.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education covered the research of SMU education policy expert Dominique Baker, an assistant professor in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership of Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

Baker’s research published recently in The Journal of Higher Education. She and her co-author on the study, “Beyond the Incident: Institutional Predictors of Student Collective Action,” reported that racial or gender diversity alone doesn’t make a college campus feel inclusive. Students are more likely to initiate social justice campaigns at large, selective, public universities.

Some universities are more likely than others to experience student activism like the “I, Too, Am Harvard” campaign in 2014, the study found.

The Chronicle article by journalist Liam Adams, “Is Protesting a Privilege,” published Dec. 6, 2017.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Liam Adams
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Campus protests advocating for diversity occur more frequently at elite colleges, a study suggests.

Since her days as a Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University, Dominique J. Baker says, she had wondered, “Why do certain universities have protests and others don’t?”

That curiosity led Ms. Baker and a colleague to study differences in protests among higher-education institutions.

Their recent report, published in The Journal of Higher Education, is titled “Beyond the Incident: Institutional Predictors of Student Collective Action.”

The more selective a college and the fewer of its students receiving Pell Grants, they found, the more likely those colleges are experiencing protests against racial microaggressions.

It’s not a new notion that protests occur more commonly at elite institutions. A previous study, by the Brookings Institution, found that more-affluent colleges are likelier venues for protests against controversial speakers, although the report was criticized for being incomplete.

The study by Ms. Baker, an assistant professor of education policy and leadership at Southern Methodist University,and Richard S.L. Blissett, an assistant professor in the department of quantitative methods and education policy at Seton Hall University, focused on the “I, Too, Am” movement, which started at Harvard University to protest microaggressions against students of color.

Racial microaggressions usually involve unequal treatment of people of color, or racial slurs or jokes, notes the report. Some students at Harvard were so fed up with microaggressions on the campus that they started a photography project in which students of color held signs containing offensive statements that had been made to them.

Read the full story.

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Student-led protests seeking inclusive campuses are more likely to occur at selective universities

A new study found that racial or gender diversity alone doesn’t make a college campus feel inclusive. Students are more likely to initiate social justice campaigns at large, selective, public universities.

Some universities are more likely than others to experience student activism like the “I, Too, Am Harvard” campaign in 2014, a new study finds.

That student-led campaign at Harvard publicized the hurtful experiences routinely faced on campus by students from marginalized populations, meaning gender and ethnic minorities.

A new study led by a researcher from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, found that students are more likely to initiate social justice campaigns like the one at Harvard at large, selective, public universities where there are fewer students receiving financial aid.

The study is one of the first to take an empirical look at the institutional characteristics of universities in an effort to understand the current spike in student-led activism.

“Interestingly, our quantitative analysis found that numerical student diversity — in terms of gender and race — was not sufficient to make students feel they attend school on an inclusive campus,” said Dominique Baker, lead author on the research and assistant professor of higher education at SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

“Our study found that more selective institutions, larger institutions, and institutions with fewer students receiving the Federal Pell Grant had greater odds of students adopting social justice campaigns to heighten awareness of their plight,” Baker said.

The federal government awards Pell grants to undergraduate students who need financial assistance for college.

Eradicating student protests isn’t the goal of the new research study, Baker said. Universities are seeing one of the largest jumps in student activism since the 1960s, so the goal is to provide data-based empirical research to help universities improve the campus environment for minority students.

“We are more concerned with what leads to protest and collective action — and which environments are conducive to it,” Baker said. “This research project helps us understand the kinds of contexts in which students may feel compelled and able to act. That may help us think about the ways in which we can best support our students and create more inclusive spaces.”

Co-author of the study is Richard Blissett, an assistant professor in Seton Hall University’s department of education. The researchers reported their findings in The Journal of Higher Education in the article “Beyond the Incident: Institutional Predictors of Student Collective Action.”

Students across the country are fighting for inclusion and justice
The issue is a growing one. Recently, more than 70 U.S. universities have faced questions about how to address student protest demands regarding a variety of social injustices, such as police brutality, racism, and gender disparity, among others, the authors say.

At least 40 U.S. universities have had some sort of “I, Too, Am” campaign.

Studies from decades past that looked at student activism found that social movements and student protests during the 1960s and 1970s took place at more cosmopolitan and prestigious universities on both coasts, as well as some major public universities in between and some progressive liberal arts colleges.

With their new study, Baker and Blissett wanted to see if that holds true now. They looked at whether certain types of U.S. institutions were more likely to see student activism than others.

Numerical diversity is not enough for students to feel a campus is inclusive
The “I, Too, Am Harvard” movement began as a student play and evolved into a photo campaign. For the play and photos, 63 Harvard students held up dry-erase boards on which they wrote examples of racist things that had been said to them, as well as things they would like to say to their peers in response. The photos were published on Tumblr, then went viral on the social news website BuzzFeed. Ultimately that sparked many similarly named movements on other U.S. campuses.

For their study, Baker and Blissett analyzed 1,845 institutions, including those with publicized “I, Too, Am” campaigns. They linked the information with five-years of institution-level data from the U.S. Department of Education on all four-year public and not-for-profit universities.

The researchers also collected various measures of student diversity at each university, including gender and undergraduate racial identity, as well as Pell Grant recipients to capture low-income backgrounds.

They investigated whether the current state of diversity, or recent changes to it, could predict where an “I, Too, Am” campaign would appear. They found no consistent evidence that racial diversity was predictive of a campaign, suggesting diversity alone may not be enough to address student dissatisfaction, the authors said.

“Colleges focusing solely on the number of marginalized students may miss other characteristics of the institutions that could be associated with student mobilization or discontent,” Baker said.

Institutions without campaigns may also have inclusion issues
The researchers found that the 40 institutions with social movements were generally more selective in their admission policies, more socially prestigious, and primarily in the Mideast.

This prompted the researchers to pose the question, “What social resources are required for people to be able to protest in the first place?” Baker said. “This could explain why some institutions have campaigns and some do not. We are continuing in our work to investigate some of these types of questions.”

The results have important implications, said co-author Blissett, suggesting that student expressions of dissatisfaction with institutional racism may not be, as some theories describe, “idiosyncratic overflows of emotion,” but instead a function of the institutional environment.

“We are adding to a growing base of literature that suggests that thinking beyond diversity as reflected in enrollment numbers may be important for institutions that want to ensure that their minority students can thrive, and feel safe and at home on campus,” he said.

That said, just because an institution hasn’t had a student-led campaign does not necessarily mean that the institution doesn’t have social justice problems related to gender and race.

The research findings can help campus leadership see student protests as a key source of political information. The findings suggest that the higher education community can seek ways to create supportive spaces that make campuses feel more inclusive so students are less likely to feel compelled to protest the environment, Baker said.

“We’re not saying that the presence of racial and ethnic minorities or women is not important,” she said. “Our main conclusion from this research is that a focus on forms of diversity and inclusion beyond only enrollment numbers may also be important. Institutions may want to think more holistically about the challenges that these students are facing on their campuses.” — Margaret Allen

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GAINcast Episode 89: How Speed Happens (with Peter Weyand)

“People recognize the power of science, in terms of testing and numbers. But unless you’re involved in it it’s hard to appreciate the creativity that is also part of the process.” — Peter Weyand

The founder of modern sports performance training, Vern Gambetta, interviewed SMU locomotion researcher Peter Weyand about human speed and performance for his GAINcast show.

The GAINcast name is an acronym for the internationally recognized Gambetta’s self-made sports performance education, outreach and training efforts, Gambetta Athletic Improvement Network.

Gambetta’s 60-minute interview with Weyand posted Nov. 2, 2017, “Gaincast Episode 89: How Speed Happens (with Peter Weyand).”

In it, Weyand touches on the experiences early in his career as a high school and college athlete playing basketball and running track that sparked his pursuit of a research and academic career in sports science and human performance.

As a high school coach, Weyand’s early interest intensified, leading him to pursue advanced degrees and a scientific career exploring the mechanics of human locomotion and speed, including at the University of Georgia and then at Harvard’s Concord Field Station.

During that time, Weyand worked with early pioneers in the biomechanics and human performance field, including renowned researcher Dick Taylor. At the field station in particular, Weyand credits Taylor with mentoring young researchers in aggressively and fearlessly digging into basic science questions surrounding mammalian locomotion.

“It was wide open, anything goes. It wasn’t these reductionist questions …. It was anything under the sun you could cook up. And there was an insistence on good scientific questions, and a real integrative perspective on all of it. Those were my formative scientific experiences. People recognize the power of science, in terms of testing and numbers. But unless you’re involved in it it’s hard to appreciate the creativity that is also part of the process. There’s an art of doing science and Dick was a master of that. And everybody that came through that field station under his training, which is really a who’s who in our field in many respects, learned that art from him.”

Weyand is an expert on human locomotion and the mechanics of running. Research from his SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development has produced ground-breaking scientific findings about the science of human speed.

The lab focuses on the mechanical basis of human performance and includes physicist and engineer Laurence Ryan, an expert in force and motion analysis.

The Weyand lab’s most recent research found that the world’s fastest sprinter, Usain Bolt, has an asymmetrical running gait, contrary to the common notions about coaching and training for speed. Bolt’s asymmetry was discovered using the lab’s two-mass model tool, which the researchers have described in the Journal of Experimental Biology, “A general relationship links gait mechanics and running ground reaction forces.” The model can assess the crucial early portion of foot-ground contact — the impact-phase force and time relationships — from motion data only.

Weyand is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology & Wellness.

Listen to the podcast.

EXCERPT:

By Martin Bingisser
GAINcast

There are some basic questions out there that are difficult to answer, such as what limits human running speed. As technology advances, scientists can better study and start to answer this and other simple questions like what makes one athlete faster than another.

Dr. Peter Weyand has spent decades researching locomotion on both animals and humans. His work with elite sprinters has brought some interesting conclusions and is driving the field forward. On this episode of the GAINcast he joins us to discuss his research and its practical implications.

Listen to the podcast.

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Study: New simple method determines rate at which we burn calories walking uphill, downhill, and on level ground

New method uses three variables of speed, load carried and slope to improve on the accuracy of existing standards for predicting how much energy people require for walking — a method beneficial to many, including military strategists to model mission success

When military strategists plan a mission, one of many factors is the toll it takes on the Army’s foot soldiers.

A long march and heavy load drains energy. So military strategists are often concerned with the calories a soldier will burn, and the effect of metabolic stress on their overall physiological status, including body temperature, fuel needs and fatigue.

Now scientists at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, have discovered a new more accurate way to predict how much energy a soldier uses walking.

The method was developed with funding from the U.S. military. It significantly improves on two existing standards currently in use, and relies on just three readily available variables.

An accurate quantitative assessment tool is important because the rate at which people burn calories while walking can vary tenfold depending on how fast they walk, if they carry a load, and whether the walk is uphill, downhill or level.

“Our new method improves on the accuracy of the two leading standards that have been in use for nearly 50 years,” said exercise physiologist Lindsay W. Ludlow, an SMU post-doctoral fellow and lead author on the study. “Our model is fairly simple and improves predictions.”

The research is part of a larger load carriage initiative undertaken by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The average load carried by light infantry foot soldiers in Afghanistan in April and May 2003 was 132 pounds, according to a U.S. Army Borden Institute report.

“Soldiers carry heavy loads, so quantitative information on the consequences of load is critical for many reasons, from planning a route to evaluating the likelihood of mission success,” said SMU biomechanist and physiologist Peter Weyand, @Dr_Weyand.

“The military uses a variety of approaches to model, predict and monitor foot-soldier status and performance, including having soldiers outfitted with wearable devices,” Weyand said. “There is a critical need with modern foot soldiers to understand performance from the perspective of how big a load they are carrying.”

Weyand is senior author on the research and directs the Locomotor Performance Laboratory in the SMU Simmons School of Education, where subjects for the study were tested.

The researchers call their new method the “Minimum Mechanics Model” to reflect that it requires only three basic and readily available inputs to deliver broad accurate predictions. They report their findings in “Walking economy is predictably determined by speed, grade and gravitational load” in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

The necessary variables are the walker’s speed, the grade or slope of the walking surface, and the total weight of the body plus any load the walker is carrying.

“That’s all it takes to accurately predict how much energy a walker burns,” Ludlow said.

While the measurement is a critical one for foot soldiers, it’s also useful for hikers, backpackers, mall-walkers and others who are calorie conscious and may rely on wearable electronic gadgets to track the calories they burn, she said.

Muscle and gait mechanics tightly coupled across speed, grade, load
Existing standards now in use rely on the same three variables, but differently, and with less accuracy and breadth.

The new theory is a departure from the prevailing view that the mechanics of walking are too complex to be both simple and accurate.

“Ultimately, we found that three remarkably simple mechanical variables can provide predictive accuracy across a broad range of conditions,” Ludlow said. “The accuracy achieved provides strong indirect evidence that the muscular activity determining calorie-burn rates during walking is tightly coupled to the speed, surface inclination and total weight terms in our model.”

By using two different sets of research subjects, the researchers independently evaluated their model’s ability to accurately predict the amount of energy burned.

“If muscle and gait mechanics were not tightly coupled across speed, grade and load, the level of predictive accuracy we achieved is unlikely,” Weyand said.

First generalized equation developed directly from a single, large database
The two existing equations that have been the working standards for nearly 50 years were necessarily based on just a few subjects and a limited number of data points.

One standard from the American College of Sports Medicine tested only speed and uphill grades, with its first formulation being based on data from only three individuals.

The other standard, commonly referred to as the Pandolf equation is used more frequently by the military and relies heavily on data from six soldiers combined with earlier experimental results.

In contrast, the generalized equation from SMU was derived from what is believed to be the largest database available for human walking metabolism.

The SMU study tested 32 adult subjects individually under 90 different speed-grade and load conditions on treadmills at the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, @LocomotorLabSMU.

“The leading standardized equations included only level and uphill inclinations,” Weyand said. “We felt it was important to also provide downhill capabilities since soldiers in the field will encounter negative inclines as frequently as positive ones.”

Subjects fast prior to measuring their resting metabolic rates
Another key element of the SMU lab’s Minimum Mechanics Model is the quantitative treatment of resting metabolic rate.

“To obtain true resting metabolic rate, we had subjects fast for 8 to 12 hours prior to measuring their resting metabolic rates in the early morning,” Ludlow said. “Once at the lab, they laid down for an hour while the researchers measured their resting metabolic rate.”

In separate test sessions, the subjects walked on the treadmill for dozens of trials lasting five minutes each, wearing a mouthpiece and nose clip. In the last two minutes of each trial, the researchers measured steady-state rates of oxygen uptake to determine the rate at which each subject was burning energy.

Adults in one group of 20 subjects were each measured walking without a load at speeds of 0.4 meters per second, 0.7 meters per second, 1 meter per second, 1.3 meters per second and 1.6 meters per second on six different gradients: downhill grades of minus six degrees and minus three degrees; level ground; and uphill at inclines of three degrees, six degrees and nine degrees.

Adults in a second group of 20 were each tested at speeds of 0.6 meters per second, 1 meter per second and 1.4 meters per second on the same six gradients, but they carried loads that were 18 percent of body weight, and 31 percent of body weight.

Walking metabolic rates increased in proportion to increased load
As expected, walking metabolic rates increased in direct proportion to the increase in load, and largely in accordance with support force requirements across both speed and grade, said Weyand and Ludlow.

Weyand is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. He also is lead scientist for the biomechanics and modeling portion of the Sub-2-Hour marathon project, an international research consortium based in the United Kingdom. — Margaret Allen, SMU

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$2.5 million NSF grant gives teachers a math assessment tool to help students

New assessment tool for teachers to measure math reasoning skills can drive effort to intervene early in ongoing struggles of U.S. elementary and high school students

A $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, targets the ongoing struggle of U.S. elementary and high school students with math.

When it comes to the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math, research shows that U.S. students continue at a disadvantage all the way through high school and entering college.

The four-year NSF grant to the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development is led by SMU K-12 math education experts Leanne Ketterlin Geller and Lindsey Perry. They will conduct research and develop an assessment system comprised of two universal screening tools to measure mathematical reasoning skills for grades K–2.

“This is an opportunity to develop an assessment system that can help teachers support students at the earliest, and arguably one of the most critical, phases of a child’s mathematical development,” said Ketterlin Geller, a professor in the Simmons School and principal investigator for the grant developing the “Measures of Mathematical Reasoning Skills” system.

Teachers and schools will use the assessment system to screen students and determine who is at risk for difficulty in early mathematics, including students with disabilities. The measures also will help provide important information about the intensity of support needed for a given student.

Few assessments are currently available to measure the critical math concepts taught during those early school years, Ketterlin Geller said.

“Providing teachers with data to understand how a child processes these concepts can have a long-term impact on students’ success not only in advanced math like algebra, but also success in STEM fields, such as chemistry, biology, geology and engineering,” she said.

Early math a better predictor of future learning
A 2015 Mathematics National Assessment of Education Progress report found that only 40 percent of U.S. fourth-grade students were classified as proficient or advanced, and those numbers have not improved between 2009 and 2015. In fact, the geometry scale of the fourth-grade mathematics report was significantly lower in 2015 than in 2009.

Early mathematics is a better and more powerful predictor of future learning, including reading and mathematics achievement, compared to early reading ability or other factors such as attention skills, according to one 2007 study on school readiness.

Research also has found that students’ early mathematics knowledge is a more powerful predictor of their future socioeconomic status at age 42 than their family’s socioeconomic status as children.

Early mathematics comprises numerous skills. However, number sense — the ability to work with numbers flexibly — in addition to spatial sense — the ability to understand the complexity of one’s environment — are consistently identified as two of the main components that should be emphasized in early mathematics standards and instruction, say the SMU researchers.

The Measures of Mathematical Reasoning Skills system will contain tests for both numeric relational reasoning and spatial reasoning.

Universal screening tools focused on these topics do not yet exist
“I’m passionate about this research because students who can reason spatially and relationally with numbers are better equipped for future mathematics courses, STEM degrees and STEM careers,” said Perry, whose doctoral dissertation for her Ph.D. from SMU in 2016 specifically focused on those two mathematical constructs.

“While these are very foundational and predictive constructs, these reasoning skills have typically not been emphasized at these grade levels, and universal screening tools focused on these topics do not yet exist,” said Perry, who is co-principal investigator.

“Since intervention in the early elementary grades can significantly improve mathematics achievement, it is critical that K-2 teachers have access to high-quality screening tools to help them with their intervention efforts,” she said. “We feel that the Measures of Mathematical Reasoning Skills system can really make a difference for K-2 teachers as they prepare the next generation of STEM leaders.”

The four-year project, Measuring Early Mathematical Reasoning Skills: Developing Tests of Numeric Relational Reasoning and Spatial Reasoning, started Sept. 15, 2017. It employs an iterative research design for developing formative assessments, a process that Ketterlin Geller has devoted much of her 20-year career to.

Ketterlin Geller is Texas Instruments Endowed Chair in Education and director of Research in Mathematics Education in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. She is also a Fellow with the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education in the Lyle School of Engineering.

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Texas Tribune: The Q&A — Paige Ware, SMU Simmons School

In this week’s Q&A, The Texas Tribune interviews Paige Ware, who chairs the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Simmons School of Education and Human Development at Southern Methodist University.

Texas Tribune reporter Cassandra Pollock interviewed SMU education expert Paige Ware in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development for a Q&A about preparing the teachers who teach English language learners by instructing them on-site at their schools and helping them work with families in community centers.

Ware’s research focuses both on the use of multimedia technologies for fostering language and literacy growth among adolescents, as well as on the use of Internet-based communication for promoting intercultural awareness through international and domestic online language and culture partnerships.

Her research has been funded by a National Academy of Education/Spencer Post-Doctoral Fellowship, by the International Research Foundation for English Language Education, and by the Ford Scholars program at SMU.

Ware was the principal investigator of a Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition professional development grant supporting secondary school educators in obtaining their ESL supplemental certification.

She is co-author of a technology standards book for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and has written or co-written dozens of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She is a frequent speaker on technology as an acquisition tool for language and culture and on writing development in adolescent learners.

The Texas Tribune article, “The Q&A: Paige Ware,” published Aug. 31, 2017.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Cassandra Pollock
Texas Tribune
Paige Ware chairs the Department of Teaching and Learning at Southern Methodist University’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development. She recently received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to prepare ELL (English language learners) teachers by instructing them on-site at their schools and helping them work with families in community centers.

Tasbo+Edu: Can you expand on the U.S. Department of Education grant you recently received?

Paige Ware: Yes — I co-wrote it with two of my colleagues. The Department of Education can offer these grants every five years; traditionally, they’re called professional development grants, and it’s basically money that flows into tuition to provide teacher training. However, this particular grant required an embedded strong research design into the teacher training components. That’s never been the case with these grants — it’s been exclusively just teacher training.

There were over 300 applications, and only 55 were funded. For our particular grant, we think we got funded for two reasons. First, we partnered really well with Dallas Independent School District. There’s a real desire right now for higher education and teacher training programs to do more partnering and work with districts to be more purposeful about the kind of professional development teachers need. We also partnered with the community; there’s a place in Dallas called the School Zone, which is a consortium of nonprofit groups that are there to help impact West Dallas.

The second reason we think we got the grant is our teachers will be deeply embedded in these community settings. They’ll be learning not just how to teach English better to those learners, but also learning the context. There are also multiple opportunities to work with parents.

Tasbo+Edu: The question your team is trying to tackle is whether it makes a difference for teachers to be practicing in community settings. How are you planning to move forward on it?

Ware: The question came about because most of the time in higher ed for master-level courses, we deliver instruction on university campuses; it’s divorced from actual practice in the field. Or we deliver our instruction on university campuses and then assign teachers to work on their own with English learners. There’s not engagement in the community at the graduate level. What do teachers learn differently when they’re not isolated, but when they’re actually out there in the field? We’re interested in knowing what advantages are there, and what you gain by placing teachers in the community.

There are six reasons why we think it will be advantageous for teaching in the community. First, professional development typically focuses on instruction. Second, our teachers will have more opportunities to engage with families, which isn’t always possible in a school setting. A third reason is our teachers will be able to learn from one another. Fourth, they’ll get to know the children really well because they’re only working with two children for an entire academic year. Fifth, there are a lot of opportunities for feedback, since our instructors will be with teachers in the field, giving them feedback on a weekly basis. Finally, we think this approach will help cultivate a mindset such that when teachers think about English learners, they’re seeing the education of new immigrants as a larger web of bringing people into the community.

Read the full story.

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Texas Tribune: The Q&A — Dr. Diego Román, Simmons School

In this week’s Q&A, The Texas Tribune interviews Diego Román, assistant professor of teaching and learning at Southern Methodist University.

Texas Tribune reporter Cassandra Pollock interviewed SMU education expert Diego Román in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development for a Q&A about how middle school science textbooks frame climate change as an opinion rather than scientific fact.

Román is co-author of a 2015 study of California 6th grade science textbooks and how they present global warming.

Studies estimate that only 3 percent of scientists who are experts in climate analysis disagree about the role of humans in the causes of climate change. And the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the evidence of 600 climate researchers in 32 countries reporting changes to Earth’s atmosphere, ice and seas — in 2013 stated “human influence on the climate system is clear.”

Yet only 54 percent of American teens believe climate change is happening, 43 percent don’t believe it’s caused by humans, and 57 percent aren’t concerned about it.

The new study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks adopted for use in California frame the subject of global warming. Sixth grade is the first time California state standards indicate students will encounter climate change in their formal science curriculum.

“We found that climate change is presented as a controversial debate stemming from differing opinions,” said Román, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning. “Climate skeptics and climate deniers are given equal time and treated with equal weight as scientists and scientific facts — even though scientists who refute global warming total a miniscule number.”

The findings were reported in October 2015 at the 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), held in Helsinki, Finland.

The findings were also published in the Environmental Education Research journal in the article, “Textbooks of doubt: Using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks.”

The Texas Tribune article, “The Q&A: Diego Román,” published Aug. 17, 2017.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Cassandra Pollock
Texas Tribune
With each issue, Tasbo+Edu brings you an interview with experts on issues related to health care. Here is this week’s subject:

Diego Román is an assistant professor in teaching and learning at Southern Methodist University. He has recently researched how climate change is framed for middle school students in science textbooks.

Tasbo+Edu: Can you briefly explain your research findings?

Dr. Diego Román: The big picture of my research is that I look at the linguistic and social factors that impact language use in the science-education context and language development for English learners who are attending school in the U.S.

I am an applied linguist, and one of my research topics was the framing of climate change in middle school textbooks. In terms of the science textbooks and what we found in that specific study, the ones we investigated don’t reflect the way scientists discuss climate change in reports. While science reports resort to the certainty that climate change is happening, the textbooks that we looked at were very uncertain about defining that issue. We looked into seeing why that would be the case, particularly at how science is seen as very specific, objective and certain, but when we discuss climate change, we use a lot of qualifiers — “would,” “could” and “might.”

We’re arguing that this places the weight on the reader to decipher what that means. “Not all” could mean 90 percent, 55 percent or 10 percent, depending on who you’re talking to. So while textbooks are required to address certain topics — such as climate change — they’re not using specific language to help students and teachers have a better understanding and discussion around the issue.

I also look at how we use language — and I do that by using a framework called systemic functional linguistics. It argues that language is caused by the context of use, so the way we talk about science and the way we frame science topics when discussing them may be different than social studies. To explain a different type of knowledge, we connect ideas differently. For example, we emphasize the idea versus the people in science, but in social studies, we look at the people. To do that, we use language. So I look at how language is used in those purposes to convey knowledge and be effective. I try to understand the perspectives of the authors or the people. That’s a big picture description of my research.

Tasbo+Edu: What are the biggest challenges you see moving forward to try to modify the textbook system?

Román: It seems to be how research can impact, in this case, textbook development, and how to find things that applied linguists are doing when it relates to how language is used and if there’s a way to convey scientific knowledge — from a contextual perspective, but also from a linguistics perspective.

Read the full story.

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Quartz: The science explaining how Usain Bolt became the fastest human in the world

The health and science reporter for Quartz magazine, Katherine Ellen Foley, covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand and his colleagues Andrew Udofa and Laurence Ryan for a story about how world championship sprinter Usain Bolt runs so fast.

The article, “The science explaining how Usain Bolt became the fastest human in the world,” published Aug. 2, 2017.

The researchers in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory reported in June that world champion sprinter Usain Bolt may have an asymmetrical running gait. While not noticeable to the naked eye, Bolt’s potential asymmetry emerged after the researchers dissected race video to assess his pattern of ground-force application — literally how hard and fast each foot hits the ground. To do so they measured the “impulse” for each foot.

Biomechanics researcher Udofa presented the findings at the 35th International Conference on Biomechanics in Sport in Cologne, Germany. His presentation, “Ground Reaction Forces During Competitive Track Events: A Motion Based Assessment Method,” was delivered June 18.

The analysis thus far suggests that Bolt’s mechanics may vary between his left leg to his right. The existence of an unexpected and potentially significant asymmetry in the fastest human runner ever would help scientists better understand the basis of maximal running speeds. Running experts generally assume asymmetry impairs performance and slows runners down.

Udofa has said the observations raise the immediate scientific question of whether a lack of symmetry represents a personal mechanical optimization that makes Bolt the fastest sprinter ever or exists for reasons yet to be identified.

Weyand, an expert on human locomotion and the mechanics of running, is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology & Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development, is director of the Locomotor Lab.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Katherine Ellen Foley
Quartz
Eight years ago, Usain Bolt made history in less than 10 seconds at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championship in Berlin, Germany.

The Jamaican sprinter set the world record for the 100-meter dash, clocking in at 9.58 seconds. Since then, no one (not even Bolt himself) has been able to best that time. On Saturday, August 5, Bolt will once more run the 100-meter dash at the IAAF World Championship (assuming he makes it through the qualifying race on August 4). This will be his last race; Bolt is set to retire after this running season (there’s some speculation he may still race in the 2020 Olympics, although as of now Bolt has said he doesn’t want to).

There’s no such thing as a perfect human running machine. But Bolt comes close—thanks to a combination of having all the advantages of a natural-born sprinter and putting in the effort needed to minimize any of his disadvantages.

Broadly speaking, Bolt has the unique muscular build shared by most of the very best sprinters. All human muscles are made of a mix of slow- and fast-twitch fibers—as well as some that are undifferentiated, and will become slow- or fast-twitch depending on how we use them most often. Slow-twitch fibers are built for efficiency and use oxygen to generate energy from sugar. They’re most effective for activities sustained over a long period of time, like distance running. Fast-twitch muscle fibers are used to generate huge amounts of force, but they don’t use oxygen and as a result can’t carry us far. Training can help shape undifferentiated fibers into either slow- or fast-twitch, but for the most part the best runners were born with an imbalance of one or the other. Elite marathoners have way more slow-twitch fibers, and sprinters like Bolt have an abundance of fast-twitch ones.

The best sprinters also run with a different form than the rest of us. It’s not that they move their legs significantly faster; it’s that they hit the ground harder (paywall). Most of the force sprinters generate is directed straight into the ground for vertical movement; only about 5% is used to propel them forward, Peter Weyand, a physiologist studying human speed at Southern Methodist University in Texas, told Popular Science in 2013. The more force a sprinter can pack into the ground with a quick foot strike, the faster he or she goes.

In a 2010 study, Weyand’s lab conducted an experiment where subjects jogged, ran, and hopped on one foot on a treadmill. They found that the most force came from hopping, thanks to the leg’s longer airtime. The researchers then calculated that if a runner were to generate the maximum hopping force possible with each step, he or she’d be able to reach a speed of 19.3 meters per second (63.3 feet per second)—which would make for a 5.18 second 100-meter dash.

This is just a fun theoretical experiment; it’s impossible to actually sprint and jump straight up and down at the same time. But it appears Bolt generates a powerful punch to the track—maybe the most powerful ever.

Read the full story.

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How Stuff Works: Scientists Discover Something Mind-blowing About How Usain Bolt Runs

Journalist Patrick J. Kiger with the news site How Stuff Works covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand and his colleagues Andrew Udofa and Laurence Ryan for a story about Usain Bolt’s asymmetrical running gait.

The article, “Scientists Discover Something Mind-blowing About How Usain Bolt Runs,” published Aug. 2, 2017.

The researchers in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory reported in June that world champion sprinter Usain Bolt may have an asymmetrical running gait. While not noticeable to the naked eye, Bolt’s potential asymmetry emerged after the researchers dissected race video to assess his pattern of ground-force application — literally how hard and fast each foot hits the ground. To do so they measured the “impulse” for each foot.

Biomechanics researcher Udofa presented the findings at the 35th International Conference on Biomechanics in Sport in Cologne, Germany. His presentation, “Ground Reaction Forces During Competitive Track Events: A Motion Based Assessment Method,” was delivered June 18.

The analysis thus far suggests that Bolt’s mechanics may vary between his left leg to his right. The existence of an unexpected and potentially significant asymmetry in the fastest human runner ever would help scientists better understand the basis of maximal running speeds. Running experts generally assume asymmetry impairs performance and slows runners down.

Udofa has said the observations raise the immediate scientific question of whether a lack of symmetry represents a personal mechanical optimization that makes Bolt the fastest sprinter ever or exists for reasons yet to be identified.

Weyand, who leads the lab and its researchers, he is an expert on human locomotion and the mechanics of running. He is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology & Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development, is director of the Locomotor Lab.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Patrick J. Kiger
How Stuff Works
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is the world record-holder in both the 100- and 200-meter, and winner of those events in the last three Summer Olympics. Bolt can hit a top speed of around 27 mph (43.5 kph), and has clearly established himself as the greatest sprinter of all time. But there’s something curious about his legs, and the way he uses them.

As the athlete prepares to run in his final world championship meet in London’s 2017 World Athletics Championships, taking place Aug. 4-13 and less than three weeks before Bolt’s 31st birthday, scientists are still trying to figure out just how the fastest human on the planet manages to achieve such incredible speed. Researchers at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Locomotor Performance Laboratory don’t quite have the answer yet — but they’ve made a surprising discovery.

The researchers analyzed video footage of Bolt and other sprinters from the 2011 Diamond League race at the World Athletics Championships in Monaco. They also used a “two mass model” analysis tool they developed, which allows them to study the physical forces that a runner creates — without actually bringing Bolt into a lab and putting him on a treadmill. They found that Bolt had an uneven, assymetrical stride, which is something that scientists might have expected to slow him down.

When he runs, Bolt’s right leg strikes the ground with 13 percent more peak force than does his left leg, and with each stride, his left leg stays in contact with the track about 14 percent longer than the right. The researchers findings have been published in a new study in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Bolt’s asymmetrical stride is probably due to his anatomy. As he recounted in his autobiography “The Fastest Man Alive: The True Story of Usain Bolt,” Bolt discovered as an adult that he has scoliosis, a condition in which his spine curves slightly to the left, which has forced his hips out of alignment so that his right leg is a half-inch (1.2 centimeters) shorter than the left. Bolt has written that he feels awkward standing still, and leans to the right because it feels uncomfortable to stand and place pressure on his left leg. Sitting in the same position for too long gives him backaches.

Read the full story.

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Slate: Making the Perfect Sprinter More Perfect

How Usain Bolt could have run even faster.

Slate online magazine journalist Adam Willis covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand and his colleagues Andrew Udofa and Laurence Ryan for a story about the world’s fastest sprinter, Usain Bolt, and whether he could possibly run even faster with different form.

The article, “Making the Perfect Sprinter More Perfect,” published Aug. 4, 2017.

Weyand, who leads the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, is an expert on human locomotion and the mechanics of running. In his most recently published research, Weyand was part of a team that developed a concise approach to understanding the mechanics of human running. The research has immediate application for running performance, injury prevention, rehab and the individualized design of running shoes, orthotics and prostheses. Called the two-mass model, the work integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force application on the ground — during jogging, sprinting and at all speeds in between.

His lab also reported in June that world champion sprinter Usain Bolt may have an asymmetrical running gait. While not noticeable to the naked eye, Bolt’s potential asymmetry emerged after the researchers dissected race video to assess his pattern of ground-force application — literally how hard and fast each foot hits the ground. To do so they measured the “impulse” for each foot.

Udofa presented the findings at the 35th International Conference on Biomechanics in Sport in Cologne, Germany. His presentation, “Ground Reaction Forces During Competitive Track Events: A Motion Based Assessment Method,” was delivered June 18.

The analysis thus far suggests that Bolt’s mechanics may vary between his left leg to his right. The existence of an unexpected and potentially significant asymmetry in the fastest human runner ever would help scientists better understand the basis of maximal running speeds. Running experts generally assume asymmetry impairs performance and slows runners down.

Udofa has said the observations raise the immediate scientific question of whether a lack of symmetry represents a personal mechanical optimization that makes Bolt the fastest sprinter ever or exists for reasons yet to be identified.

Weyand also has been widely interviewed in years past on the controversy surrounding double-amputee South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius. Weyand co-led a team of scientists who are experts in biomechanics and physiology in conducting experiments on Pistorius and the mechanics of his racing ability.

Weyand, who is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology & Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development, is director of the Locomotor Lab.

The researchers described the two-mass model earlier this year in the Journal of Experimental Biology in their article, “A general relationship links gait mechanics and running ground reaction forces.” It’s available at bitly, http://bit.ly/2jKUCSq.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Adam Willis
Slate
Usain Bolt is the only person to win both the 100 and 200 meters at three Olympic games. He is also the only person to do this at two Olympic games. Bolt has broken five individual outdoor track and field world records, three of them his own. He has run three of the five fastest 100-meter races and four of the six fastest 200-meter races in history. As Bolt gets set for the World Athletics Championships in London, the final meet of his beyond-illustrious career, we should be grateful for all the memorable moments the world’s fastest man has given us. We should also be ingrates and ask: Could he have run faster?

Bolt has an uncanny knack for making the incredibly difficult look easy—like Muhammad Ali coming off the ropes, like Westley fencing with his left hand, like James Joyce writing Ulysses from Paris. It’s only natural to wonder, then, if he could have done more. His midrace celebrations, his apparent aversion for practice and affinity for parties, his less than sensible diet—he reportedly ate 1,000 Chicken McNuggets in 10 days during the Beijing Olympics—all suggest history’s greatest sprinter might’ve had a little bit more in the tank.

After Bolt breezed to a 9.69 world record in the 100 meters at the 2008 Olympics, jogging and chest thumping across the finish line just days before his 22nd birthday, his coach Glen Mills made headlines with his claim that Bolt would have hit 9.52, at worst, if he had just run through the line. Scientists took on the task of projecting the time that might have been, with most concluding that 9.52 was, at best, a slight exaggeration. Bolt, though, made that claim look less sensational when he tore through his own world records at the world championships in Berlin a year later, posting 9.58 in the 100 and 19.19 in the 200. Still, Bolt would never reach the 9.52 that Mills estimated, nor, for that matter, the 9.4 that he himself predicted. He would never best those world records that he set in Berlin, when he was not yet 23 years old.

“We haven’t seen the 2009 Bolt since 2009,” says Peter Weyand, the director of the Locomotor Performance Laboratory at Southern Methodist University and a leading expert on the science of sprinting. When I asked Weyand about Bolt’s early peak, he told me that, although 22 or 23 is not an unusual age for a sprinter to top out, he would have predicted more after Bolt’s 2009 performances.

While recent research from Weyand’s lab concluded that Bolt’s stride is abnormally asymmetric, Weyand says it’s unlikely this asymmetry held Bolt back in any way. He does point, however, to several aspects of Bolt’s form that are considered unorthodox and potentially suboptimal.

Read the full story.

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The New York Times: Something Strange in Usain Bolt’s Stride

Bolt is the fastest sprinter ever in spite of — or because of? — an uneven stride that upends conventional wisdom.

The New York Times reporter Jeré Longman covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand and his colleagues Andrew Udofa and Laurence Ryan for a story about Usain Bolt’s apparent asymmetrical running stride.

The article, “Something Strange in Usain Bolt’s Stride,” published July 20, 2017.

The researchers in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory reported in June that world champion sprinter Usain Bolt may have an asymmetrical running gait. While not noticeable to the naked eye, Bolt’s potential asymmetry emerged after the researchers dissected race video to assess his pattern of ground-force application — literally how hard and fast each foot hits the ground. To do so they measured the “impulse” for each foot.

Biomechanics researcher Udofa presented the findings at the 35th International Conference on Biomechanics in Sport in Cologne, Germany. His presentation, “Ground Reaction Forces During Competitive Track Events: A Motion Based Assessment Method,” was delivered June 18.

The analysis thus far suggests that Bolt’s mechanics may vary between his left leg to his right. The existence of an unexpected and potentially significant asymmetry in the fastest human runner ever would help scientists better understand the basis of maximal running speeds. Running experts generally assume asymmetry impairs performance and slows runners down.

Udofa has said the observations raise the immediate scientific question of whether a lack of symmetry represents a personal mechanical optimization that makes Bolt the fastest sprinter ever or exists for reasons yet to be identified.

Weyand, who is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology & Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development, is director of the Locomotor Lab.

An expert on human locomotion and the mechanics of running, Weyand has been widely interviewed about the running controversy surrounding double-amputee South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius. Weyand co-led a team of scientists who are experts in biomechanics and physiology in conducting experiments on Pistorius and the mechanics of his racing ability.

For his most recently published research, Weyand was part of a team that developed a concise approach to understanding the mechanics of human running. The research has immediate application for running performance, injury prevention, rehab and the individualized design of running shoes, orthotics and prostheses. The work integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force application on the ground — during jogging, sprinting and at all speeds in between.

They described the two-mass model earlier this year in the Journal of Experimental Biology in their article, “A general relationship links gait mechanics and running ground reaction forces.” It’s available at bitly, http://bit.ly/2jKUCSq.

The New York Times subscribers or readers with remaining limited free access can read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Jeré Longman
The New York Times
DALLAS — Usain Bolt of Jamaica appeared on a video screen in a white singlet and black tights, sprinting in slow motion through the final half of a 100-meter race. Each stride covered nine feet, his upper body moving up and down almost imperceptibly, his feet striking the track and rising so rapidly that his heels did not touch the ground.

Bolt is the fastest sprinter in history, the world-record holder at 100 and 200 meters and the only person to win both events at three Olympics. Yet as he approaches his 31st birthday and retirement this summer, scientists are still trying to fully understand how Bolt achieved his unprecedented speed.

Last month, researchers here at Southern Methodist University, among the leading experts on the biomechanics of sprinting, said they found something unexpected during video examination of Bolt’s stride: His right leg appears to strike the track with about 13 percent more peak force than his left leg. And with each stride, his left leg remains on the ground about 14 percent longer than his right leg.

This runs counter to conventional wisdom, based on limited science, that an uneven stride tends to slow a runner down.

So the research team at S.M.U.’s Locomotor Performance Laboratory is considering a number of questions as Bolt prepares for what he said would be his final performances at a major international competition — the 100 meters and 4×100-meter relay next month at the world track and field championships in London.

Among those questions: Does evenness of stride matter for speed? Did Bolt optimize this irregularity to become the fastest human? Or, with a more balanced stride during his prime, could he have run even faster than 9.58 seconds at 100 meters and 19.19 seconds at 200 meters?

“That’s the million-dollar question,” said Peter Weyand, director of the S.M.U. lab.

The S.M.U. study of Bolt, led by Andrew Udofa, a doctoral researcher, is not yet complete. And the effect of asymmetrical strides on speed is still not well understood. But rather than being detrimental for Bolt, the consequences of an uneven stride may actually be beneficial, Weyand said.

It could be that Bolt has naturally settled into his stride to accommodate the effects of scoliosis. The condition curved his spine to the right and made his right leg half an inch shorter than his left, according to his autobiography.

Initial findings from the study were presented last month at an international conference on biomechanics in Cologne, Germany. Most elite sprinters have relatively even strides, but not all. The extent of Bolt’s variability appears to be unusual, Weyand said.

“Our working idea is that he’s probably optimized his speed, and that asymmetry reflects that,” Weyand said. “In other words, correcting his asymmetry would not speed him up and might even slow him down. If he were to run symmetrically, it could be an unnatural gait for him.”

Antti Mero, an exercise physiologist at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, who has researched Bolt’s fastest races, said he was intrigued by the S.M.U. findings.

The New York Times subscribers or readers with remaining limited free access can read the full story.

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People ForWords team named semifinalist in national XPrize competition

SMU’s puzzle-solving smartphone app selected as one of eight to move to next round in $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE competition

For Corey Clark, deputy director for research in the SMU Guildhall game development program, adult literacy became a personal challenge the moment he learned of its scope. “There are about 600,000 adults in Dallas who have less than a third-grade reading level,” he says. “If we could help 10 percent of those people, that’s 60,000 people who could learn to read proficiently. That makes a difference in a lot of people’s lives.”

This challenge is at the heart of a partnership between Southern Methodist University and Literacy Instruction for Texas (LIFT), and their work has been recognized with a semifinalist position in the $7 million Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE presented by Dollar General Literacy Foundation competition.

The team, People ForWords, includes collaborators from SMU Guildhall, SMU Simmons School of Education and Human Development, and LIFT. People ForWords is one of eight teams chosen for the semifinals out of 109 entrants, and the only Texas team to make the cut.

In this global competition, teams develop mobile applications, compatible with smart phone devices, that have the potential to increase literacy skills among adult learners. The solutions discovered through the applications will help reveal and overcome roadblocks in improving adult literacy through providing access, retention, and a scalable product to the public.

As development lead of People ForWords, Clark recruited a cadre of Guildhall-trained artists, programmers and producers via the program’s alumni career portal. The development team came together in March 2016. By October, they had created a beta version of Codex: The Lost Words of Atlantis.

As participants in a globe-trotting adventure, English-language learners play as enterprising archaeologists and work to decipher the forgotten language of a lost civilization. As the players solve the puzzles of the Atlantean runes, audible prompts for each letter and sound help them learn the look and feel of written English<, developing and strengthening their own reading skills. Developed for English- and Spanish-speaking adults, but safe for all ages, the game also provides history lessons as it visits real locations around the world. Needs of adult literacy learners very different from other gamers
Codex: The Lost Words of Atlantis supports English literacy learners in both English and Spanish. Egypt is the first destination in a planned five-region journey across the globe; in future versions, People ForWords plans to develop additional regions with new gameplay, new characters, and new literacy skills.

An important step in the game design process came with playtesting at LIFT Academy and Dallas’ Jubilee Park community center — where the designers could reach their game’s target audience. They quickly figured out that the needs of adult literacy learners were very different from those of other gamers.

“This was the first time some participants had used a desktop computer,” Clark says. “How do you make a game that’s fun and interactive, yet simple and intuitive enough to be a first experience with technology?”

To find out, Clark collected and analyzed data on game elements such as how long players stuck with a task, how many times they repeated moves, how quickly they progressed, and whether performing the game actions translated into the desired learning outcomes. “First, games have to be fun,” he says. “From story to characters, you want to engage people enough to play over and over again. And this happens to be the exact same process that reinforces learning.”

And as Clark points out, at its core, every game is about learning. “Whether it’s a map, a system or a skill, you learn something new with every move you make,” he says. “And games are safe environments to do that, because they allow you to fail in ways that aren’t overwhelming. They let you keep trying until you succeed.”

Illiteracy plays a factor in poverty
In North Texas, the XPRIZE is more than a competition. According to LIFT, one in five adults in North Texas cannot read, a key factor in poverty. Dallas has the fourth highest concentration of poverty in the nation, with a 41 percent increase from 2000 to 2014.

“This is a dedicated effort by our team to tackle the growing issue of low literacy and poverty in our communities,” according to a People ForWords statement. “Each organization involved in the collaboration brings their expertise to the competition: knowledge in education, adult literacy, and game development. Together these skills have allowed our team to build a functional, fun application that helps improve adult literacy through sharpening reading and writing skills.”

“The faculty at SMU Guildhall bridge the gap between serious academic research and commercial video games,” says Guildhall Director Gary Brubaker. “This environment has allowed our research and development team to yield a product for the XPRIZE adult literacy competition that brings together the creative, entertaining nature of games with the impactful literacy lessons being taught.”

Research plays a large role at SMU Guildhall. Not only are large-scale research endeavors such as the XPRIZE taking place year-round, but research is also incorporated into the curriculum. Independent studies such as student theses explore a vast range of interests within video game development and its global implications and uses. Both current students and alumni are able to put their analytical and research skills to good use by participating as funded research assistants on a myriad of Guildhall’s “games for good” projects.

“Our students greatly benefit from breaking ground with new gaming technologies and expanding their usage into other fields,” said Elizabeth Stringer, Deputy Director of Academics at SMU Guildhall. “Many of our graduates continue to use their game development skills to aid society and further causes for which they are passionate.”

Testing of the eight semifinalists’ literacy software begins in mid-July with 12,000 adults who read English at a third grade level or lower. Selection of up to five finalists will depend on results of post-game testing to evaluate literacy gains among test subjects. Finalists will be named in May 2018, and the winner will be selected in 2019. — Kathleen Tibbetts, SMU

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SMU and LIFT team named one of eight semifinalists for $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPrize

SMU’s “Codex: Lost Words of Atlantis” adult literacy video game is puzzle-solving smartphone game app to help adults develop literacy skills

The SMU and Literacy Instruction for Texas (LIFT) team was named today one of eight semifinalists in the $7 million Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE presented by Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

The XPRIZE is a global competition that challenges teams to develop mobile applications designed to increase literacy skills in adult learners.

SMU participants include education experts from SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development, along with video game developers from SMU Guildhall — a graduate school video game development program. They are working with literacy experts from LIFT to design an engaging, puzzle-solving smartphone app to help adults develop literacy skills. Students from LIFT help test the game.

The SMU and LIFT team, People ForWords, is one of 109 teams who entered the competition in 2016. The team developed “Codex: Lost Words of Atlantis.”

In the game, players become archeologists hunting for relics from the imagined once-great civilization of Atlantis. By deciphering the forgotten language of Atlantis, players develop and strengthen their own reading skills. The game targets English- and Spanish-speaking adults.

Students at LIFT, a North Texas nonprofit adult literacy provider, have tested and provided key insights for the game during its development. According to LIFT, one in five adults in North Texas cannot read, a key factor in poverty. Dallas has the fourth highest concentration of poverty in the nation, with a 41 percent increase from 2000 to 2014. LIFT is one of the largest and most widely respected adult basic education programs in Texas and offers adult basic literacy, GED preparation and English as a Second Language programs with the goal of workforce empowerment.

Testing of the eight semi-finalists’ literacy software begins in mid-July with 12,000 adults who read English at a third grade level or lower. Selection of up to five finalists will depend on results of post-game testing to evaluate literacy gains among test subjects. Finalists will be named in May of 2018 and the winner will be named in 2019. — Nancy George, SMU

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Dallas Innovates: SMU Researchers: Usain Bolt’s Gait is Asymmetrical

The researchers assessed Bolt’s running using a new motion-based method to test how hard and fast each foot hits the ground.

Journalist Lance Murray with D Magazine’s Dallas Innovates covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand and his colleagues Andrew Udofa and Laurence Ryan for a story about Usain Bolt’s asymmetrical running gait.

The article, “SMU Researchers: Usain Bolt’s Gait is Asymmetrical,” published July 5, 2017.

The researchers in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory reported in June that world champion sprinter Usain Bolt may have an asymmetrical running gait. While not noticeable to the naked eye, Bolt’s potential asymmetry emerged after the researchers dissected race video to assess his pattern of ground-force application — literally how hard and fast each foot hits the ground. To do so they measured the “impulse” for each foot.

Biomechanics researcher Udofa presented the findings at the 35th International Conference on Biomechanics in Sport in Cologne, Germany. His presentation, “Ground Reaction Forces During Competitive Track Events: A Motion Based Assessment Method,” was delivered June 18.

The analysis thus far suggests that Bolt’s mechanics may vary between his left leg to his right. The existence of an unexpected and potentially significant asymmetry in the fastest human runner ever would help scientists better understand the basis of maximal running speeds. Running experts generally assume asymmetry impairs performance and slows runners down.

Udofa has said the observations raise the immediate scientific question of whether a lack of symmetry represents a personal mechanical optimization that makes Bolt the fastest sprinter ever or exists for reasons yet to be identified.

Weyand, who leads the lab and its researchers, he is an expert on human locomotion and the mechanics of running. He is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology & Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development, is director of the Locomotor Lab.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Lance Murray
Dallas Innovates
When it comes to running, nobody does it faster than Usain Bolt, the eight-time Olympic champion and triple world record holder.

The lanky Jamaican sprinter is known for his explosive acceleration down the track and the famous images of him looking back as he leaves his competitors in his wake.

You’d think Bolt’s powerful legs work as a symmetrical team propelling him at great speed toward the finish line, but according to researchers at Southern Methodist University, Bolt’s gait may, in fact, be asymmetrical.

SMU researchers examined the running mechanics of Bolt, who is considered the world’s fastest man.

The analysis, so far, suggests that his mechanics may vary from his right leg to his left, according to Andrew Udofa, a biometrics researcher in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory.

According to a blog on SMU Research News, most running experts assume that asymmetry impairs performance and slows a runner down. This unexpected asymmetry in Bolt’s mechanics could help scientist better understand the basis of maximal running speeds, according to the university.

“Our observations raise the immediate scientific question of whether a lack of symmetry represents a personal mechanical optimization that makes Bolt the fastest sprinter ever or exists for reasons yet to be identified,” Udofa, a research team member, said in the blog.

Read the full story.

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Texas Tribune: The Q&A — Dr. Jill Allor, Simmons School

Dr. Jill Allor says a child with a disability needs more intensive instruction — more practice and every step laid out very carefully.

In this week’s Q&A, The Texas Tribune interviews Jill Allor, professor of teaching and learning at Southern Methodist University.

Texas Tribune reporter Sanya Monsoor interviewed SMU education expert Jill Allor, professor of Teaching and Learning in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development for a Q&A about kids with disabilities and struggling readers.

A former special education teacher, Allor’s research is school-based and focuses on reading acquisition for students with and without disabilities, including students with learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities.

She is principal investigator on the federally-funded research grant “Project Intensity: The Development of a Supplemental Literacy Program Designed to Provide Extensive Practice with Multiple-Criteria Text for Students with Intellectual Disabilities” from the Institute of Education Sciences.

The grant’s purpose is to develop carefully designed texts and application lessons to provide students who are struggling to learn to read, particularly those with intellectual disabilities.

Allor was awarded the 2000 Award for Outstanding Research by the Council on Learning Disabilities.

The Texas Tribune article, “The Q&A: Jill Allor,” published June 21, 2017.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Sanya Monsoor
Texas Tribune
With each issue, Trib+Edu brings you an interview with experts on issues related to public education. Here is this week’s subject:

Jill Allor is a professor with the Department of Teaching and Learning at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on reading and reading disabilities.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Trib+Edu: Tell me about the most important aspects of your research as it relates to kids with disabilities and struggling readers.

Jill Allor: One of the things that’s really interesting about kids with disabilities is the things we know that are effective for teaching kids in general are also effective for them.

The differences are in how explicit we need to be and how much repetition is needed. A child with a disability needs more intensive instruction — they need more practice and they need every step laid out very carefully.

Research shows if you start out with explicit instruction in kindergarten and first grade, you can address reading problems extremely early. You can prevent many problems and prevent some kids from even needing a diagnosis.

Trib+Edu: What are some of the biggest challenges in identifying and addressing these problems?

Allor: There are some kids that have average intelligence or better but yet struggle to learn how to read. We have a lot of research about what to do for them. They need explicit instruction and the primary problem is usually in the phonological areas. So focusing on phonics early and making that very explicit is critical.

The majority of the kids in special education have learning disabilities. But more recently, since 2005, my focus has been on students who have intellectual disabilities.

A student with a learning disability generally has an average IQ level but has an unexpected problem learning how to read. For a student with an intellectual disability, they’re going to have problems learning in all areas.

What we found in our research is all of the things that work for students who have a learning disability, who are struggling readers, also work for (students with an intellectual disability) but it needs to be even more explicit and more intensive.

Trip+Edu: How do you attain that intensive instruction?

Read the full story.

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Does symmetry matter for speed? Study finds Usain Bolt may have asymmetrical running gait

A new method for assessing patterns of ground-force application suggests the right and left legs of the world’s fastest man may perform differently, defying current scientific assumptions about running speed.

World champion sprinter Usain Bolt may have an asymmetrical running gait, according to data recently presented by researchers from Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

While not noticeable to the naked eye, Bolt’s potential asymmetry emerged after SMU researchers assessed the running mechanics of the world’s fastest man.

The analysis thus far suggests that Bolt’s mechanics may vary between his left leg and his right, said Andrew Udofa, a biomechanics researcher in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory.

The existence of an unexpected and potentially significant asymmetry in the fastest human runner ever would help scientists better understand the basis of maximal running speeds. Running experts generally assume asymmetry impairs performance and slows runners down.

“Our observations raise the immediate scientific question of whether a lack of symmetry represents a personal mechanical optimization that makes Bolt the fastest sprinter ever or exists for reasons yet to be identified,” said Udofa, a member of the research team.

The SMU Locomotor Lab, led by Peter Weyand, focuses on the mechanical basis of human performance. The group includes physicist and engineer Laurence Ryan, an expert in force and motion analysis, and doctoral researcher Udofa.

The intriguing possibility of Bolt’s asymmetry emerged after the SMU researchers decided to assess his pattern of ground-force application — literally how hard and fast each foot hits the ground. To do so they measured the “impulse” for each foot.

Impulse is a combination of the amount of force applied to the ground multiplied by the time of foot-ground contact.

“The manner in which Bolt achieves his impulses seems to vary from leg to leg,” Udofa said. “Both the timing and magnitude of force application differed between legs in the steps we have analyzed so far.”

Impulse matters because that’s what determines a runner’s time in the air between steps.

“If a runner has a smaller impulse, they don’t get as much aerial time,” Weyand said. “Our previous published research has shown greater ground forces delivered in shorter periods of foot-ground contact are necessary to achieve faster speeds. This is true in part because aerial times do not differ between fast and slow runners at their top speeds. Consequently, the combination of greater ground forces and shorter contact times is characteristic of the world’s fastest sprinters.”

The researchers didn’t test Bolt in the SMU lab. Instead, they used a new motion-based method to assess the patterns of ground-force application. They analyzed Bolt and other elite runners using existing high-speed race footage available from NBC Universal Sports. The runners were competing in the 2011 Diamond League race at the World Athletics Championships in Monaco.

Udofa analyzed 20 of Bolt’s steps from the Monaco race, averaging data from 10 left and 10 right.

The researchers relied upon foot-ground contact time, aerial time, running velocity and body mass to determine the ground reaction forces using the new method, made possible by the “two-mass model” of running mechanics.

Runners typically run on a force-instrumented treadmill or force plates for research examining running ground-reaction forces. However, the two-mass model method provides a tool that enables motion-based assessments of ground reaction forces without direct force measurements.

“There are new avenues of research the model may make possible because direct-force measurements are not required,” Weyand said. “These include investigations of the importance of symmetry for sprinting performance. The two-mass model may facilitate the acquisition of data from outside the lab to help us better address these kinds of questions.”

Udofa presented the findings at the 35th International Conference on Biomechanics in Sport in Cologne, Germany. His presentation, “Ground Reaction Forces During Competitive Track Events: A Motion Based Assessment Method,” was delivered June 18.

Two-mass model relies on basic motion data
SMU researchers developed the concise two-mass model as a simplified way to predict the entire pattern of force on the ground — from impact to toe-off — with very basic motion data.

The model integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force on the ground.

It provides accurate predictions of the ground force vs. time patterns throughout each instant of the contact period, regardless of limb mechanics, foot-strike type or running speed.

The two-mass model is substantially less complex than other scientific models that explain patterns of ground force application during running. Most existing models are more elaborate in relying on 14 or more variables, many of which are less clearly linked to the human body.

“The two-mass model provides us with a new tool for assessing the crucial early portion of foot-ground contact that is so important for sprinting performance,” said Udofa. “The model advances our ability to assess the impact-phase force and time relationships from motion data only.”

The two-mass model was developed in SMU’s Locomotor Performance Laboratory by Kenneth P. Clark, now an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University, West Chester, Pa.; Ryan, a physicist and research engineer at SMU’s Locomotor Performance Laboratory; and Weyand.

The researchers described the two-mass model earlier this year in the Journal of Experimental Biology in their article, “A general relationship links gait mechanics and running ground reaction forces.” It’s available at bitly, http://bit.ly/2jKUCSq.

Support for the research came from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.

Weyand is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology & Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development. — Margaret Allen, SMU

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Dallas Innovates: Mobile Makerspace Once Known as SparkTruck Rolls Into Town

The big, boxy California transplant is being adopted by Southern Methodist University and will be retooled for Texas to help teachers fuel the creative spark in students.

Reporter Dave Moore with Dallas Innovates interviewed Katie Krummeck, director of SMU’s Deason Innovation Gym in the Lyle School of Engineering, and Rob Rouse, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Teaching & Learning of Simmons School about their collaboration in design-based learning environments.

The School of Engineering and SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development are building a dedicated place for students to adopt a “maker-based approach” to education.

The Dallas Innovates article, “Mobile Makerspace Once Known as SparkTruck Rolls Into Town,” published May 19, 2017.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Dave Moore
Dallas Innovates
You might call it a maker truck in the making, and it’s about to hit the streets of Dallas to promote the maker movement to teachers and students alike.

Formerly called the SparkTruck, Southern Methodist University adopted the vehicle from Stanford University in California where it resided for the past five years.

The truck made a cross-country journey to Dallas where SMU students will redesign it, inside and out, to make it a teaching tool to help K-12 teachers to inspire and to pursue professional development through innovation.

“This big truck is a kind of rolling ambassador for the maker movement,” said Katie Krummeck, director of SMU’s Deason Innovation Gym. “If you’re not familiar with it, the maker movement is all about sharing creative challenges with people from very different backgrounds to build things.“

Krummeck said the truck will be a big boost in maker education.

“The explosion in easily available digital tools and software is fueling the fire, and it turns out that this kind of hands-on maker-based instruction is a great way to engage students in whatever subject they are learning,” she said.

SMU students will retrofit the truck to ensure that its educational mission is supported by things such as workflow, storage, and comfort.

During its journey from California, the truck carried this message on its side: “This is not a maker truck” — yet.

Krummeck is familiar with the truck. She managed the SparkTruck program at Stanford before coming to SMU in 2015.

“We’re going to develop teaching frameworks, open-source curriculum, tools, and resources as well as some really engaging professional development opportunities for educators,” Krummeck said in a release. “And we’re going to deliver these resources and experiences out of the back of this mobile makerspace. We’ll know what to call it after our students put their heads together during the design challenge we have planned for May 22-26.”

Read the full story.

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Texas Tribune: The Q&A — Dr. Stephanie Al Otaiba, Simmons School

In this week’s Q&A, The Texas Tribune interviews Stephanie Al Otaiba, professor of teaching and learning at Southern Methodist University.

Texas Tribune reporter Sanya Monsoor interviewed SMU education expert Stephanie Al Otaiba Professor of Teaching and Learning in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development for a Q&A about early language acquisition in children.

Al Otaiba holds the Patsy and Ray Caldwell Centennial Chair in Teaching and Learning and teaches graduate courses in literacy, special education, assessment, response to intervention and mentoring doctoral students.

Al Otaiba’’s research interests include school-based literacy interventions, response to intervention, learning disabilities, diverse learners and teacher training. Her line of research has been supported by several federally funded grants from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences, the Office of Special Education Programs, and from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Her dissertation was awarded the 2001 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the International Reading Association and in 2010 she was the recipient of The Council for Exceptional Children Division for Research’ Distinguished Early Career Research Award. She is vice president of the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children.

The Texas Tribune article, “The Q&A: Stephanie Al Otaiba,” published April 27, 2017.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Sanya Monsoor
Texas Tribune
With each issue, Trib+Edu brings you an interview with experts on issues related to public education. Here is this week’s subject:

Stephanie Al Otaiba is a professor of teaching and learning at Southern Methodist University. Her work focuses on early language acquisition, literacy interventions, disabilities and diverse learners.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Trib+Edu: Tell me more about your research regarding early language acquisition and why it’s important to start early.

Stephanie Al Otaiba: Research shows that once kids are in third and fourth grade it’s a lot more difficult to remediate reading problems, which sometimes go on to be classified as disabilities. But early intervention can help kids before they fall behind. In many cases, if we start very early, we can discern who are the children who have true learning disabilities from children who just haven’t had the right kind of instruction.

Trib+Edu: How common is it for those two categories to get mixed up?

Al Otaiba: It’s common. The statistics show that fewer than 50 percent of children that are in urban high-need schools are reading on grade level by fourth grade. Classrooms are getting more and more diverse, which brings more heterogeneity to the classroom. Teachers need to have an array of strategies that they can use to target the needs of different children.

If we have children that are emerging bilinguals, ideally, they will be taught in both languages but primarily in their native language until they learn how letters and sounds work. Children that are coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, many of them have had less exposure to rich academic language or had fewer opportunities to read at home, and so may come to school with different levels of preparedness.

If you work hard in pre-K and kindergarten to close the language gap, then these students will be better prepared once they get to second and third grade. If we get kids to third grade and they’re two grade levels behind, it’s really hard for them to catch up.

Trip+Edu: How do you deal with students of the same age group who are at different stages in their reading comprehension?

Read the full story.

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Texas Tribune: The Q&A — Candace Walkington

In Texas middle schools, only around 70 percent of students actually pass our state standardized tests in math. — Candace Walkington, SMU

Texas Tribune reporter Sanya Monsoor interviewed SMU education expert Candace Walkington, an assistant professor of Teaching and Learning in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, for a Q&A about teaching math to middle school and high school students.

Walkington specializes in mathematics education. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in Mathematics from Texas A&M University, and she is a former NSF-GK12 Fellow and college mathematics professor. She received her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from the University of Texas at Austin. She was also an IES Postdoctoral Fellow in Mathematical Thinking, Learning, and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a recipient of the prestigious Spencer Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Grant.

Walkington’s research examines how abstract mathematical ideas can become connected to students’ concrete, everyday experiences such that they become more understandable. She conducts research on “personalizing” mathematics instruction to students’ out of-school interests in areas like sports, music, shopping, and video games. She also examines ways to connect mathematical practices with physical motions including gestures. Her work draws upon theories of situated and embodied cognition, and she is an active member of the learning sciences community. Her research uses both qualitative methods like discourse and gesture analysis, and quantitative methods like hierarchical linear modeling and educational data mining.

The Texas Tribune article, “The Q&A: Candace Walkington,” published April 12, 2017.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Sanya Monsoor
Texas Tribune
With each issue, Trib+Edu brings you an interview with experts on issues related to public education. Here is this week’s subject:

Candace Walkington is an assistant professor in teaching and learning at Southern Methodist University. Her research focuses on innovative ways to teach math to middle school and high school students.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Trib+Edu: Tell me about your research as it relates to teaching math differently.

Candace Walkington: My research mainly focuses on ways to make mathematics instruction more engaging for students in grades six through 10. Research suggests that’s a particularly problematic time for students when it comes to motivation and interest in math.

I look at interventions where mathematics is connected to things that students are interested in, like popular culture interests. This could include their experiences playing sports, playing video games, engaging with social media and how they’re using numerical and algebraic reasoning in all of these contexts.

Trib+Edu: Why is mathematics intervention important for this age group?

Walkington: In Texas middle schools, only around 70 percent of students actually pass our state standardized tests in math. If you look at the passing rate for students who are economically disadvantaged, it’s around 60 percent. These numbers have been on a pattern of decline.

According to ACT scores, only 42 percent of test takers in Texas are deemed college ready in mathematics, meaning they have a reasonable chance of being successful in an introductory college algebra course.

So things are happening around this middle school transition and the end of high school transition, which is causing a lot of students to turn away from mathematics, disengage and run into trouble in these classes.

Read the full story.

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More than half of the racial college completion gap explained by pre-college factors

The two key factors driving the achievement gap between Hispanic and White students were poverty and attending a high-minority high school.

In an analysis of Texas students, more than 60 percent of the racial gap in college completion rates can be attributed to factors that occur before college — factors that are beyond the control of many colleges and universities, finds a new study led by NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development and with a co-author from Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

The study found that the two key factors driving the achievement gap between Hispanic and White students were poverty and attending a high-minority high school.

“Our findings demonstrate that these disparities can often be traced back to high school, suggesting that colleges and universities are not solely responsible for the racial gap in graduation rates,” said Stella M. Flores, associate professor of higher education at NYU Steinhardt and the study’s lead author.

Co-authors are Dominique J. Baker, an assistant professor in SMU’s Department of Education Policy & Leadership in the Simmons School of Education & Human Development, and Toby J. Park, Florida State University.

Research shows that some student populations are less likely than others to complete college, with a significant gap in completion rates between Black and Hispanic students and their White counterparts. But less information is available on what part of the educational pipeline is most likely to contribute to the gaps between these student groups.

The study, “The racial college completion gap: Evidence from Texas,” published in The Journal of Higher Education. The researchers focused on the college completion gap by race and sought to determine not only the factors associated with college completion, but also how these factors may be contributing to racial disparities.

They analyzed data from kindergarten through college completion for all public school students in Texas, one of the nation’s largest and most diverse states. They focused on one cohort of students who graduated from high school in 2002, entered a four-year institution that fall, and graduated college within six years by 2008. The sample consisted of 25,875 White, 9,837 Hispanic and 5,139 Black students.

As expected, six-year college completion rates varied by race: 65.5 percent for White students, 51.4 percent for Hispanic students, and 43.6 percent for Black students. The college completion gap in Texas aligns with national figures, where Hispanics experience at least a 12 percentage-point gap in college completion compared with their White counterparts, while Black students experience a 22 percentage-point gap.

Combination of factors contribute to disparities
Confirming the racial college completion gap, however, was only the first step in the analysis. The researchers then dug into what factors contribute to these disparities.

They found that pre-college characteristics — a combination of individual, academic, and high school context factors — contributed upward of 61 percent of the total variance for both Hispanic and Black students as compared with their White counterparts.

These pre-college influences shared similarities but also differed by race. The two key factors driving the achievement gap between Hispanic and White students were poverty and attending a high-minority high school.

While attending a high-minority high school also explained a large portion of the college completion gap between Black and White students, the next most critical group of factors that explained this gap were related to academic preparation such as access to rigorous coursework that included high-level math courses and AP courses.

“These results unsurprisingly suggest that college completion is both a financial issue and one of academic preparation, but also that one factor may be more critical to one population than another, at least in Texas,” said Flores. “This has important implications for how and where we should invest public funds.”

Post-secondary factors accounted for a much smaller proportion of completion gap
The researchers also looked at factors connected to the college experience, such as the percentage of tenured faculty members, faculty-to-student ratio, per-student expenditures, and whether the school was designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution or a Historically Black College or University. These post-secondary factors accounted for a much smaller proportion — 35 percent — of the completion gap than did individual factors and schooling outcomes initiated prior to enrolling in college.

“This finding is notable because a number of states have engaged in performance-based funding for higher education. However, our research suggests that it would be unfair to rank or award funding to institutions based on factors over which they have lower levels of control,” Flores said. “Accountability is very important, but knowing the sources of inequality along the educational pipeline should be acknowledged and attended to in such formulas.”

The research was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Civil Rights Project/Projecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA. — New York University

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SMU Research Day 2017 visitors query SMU students on the details of their research

The best in SMU undergraduate and graduate research work was on full display at Research Day in the Hughes Trigg Student Center.

More than 150 graduate and undergraduate students at SMU presented posters at SMU Research Day 2017 in the Promenade Ballroom of Hughes-Trigg Student Center Ballroom on March 28.

Student researchers discussed their ongoing and completed SMU research and their results with faculty, staff and students who attended the one-day event.

Explaining their research to others is a learning experience for students, said Peter Weyand, Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

“Research Day is an opportunity for SMU students to show off what they’ve been doing at the grad level and at the undergrad level,” Weyand said, “and that’s really an invaluable experience for them.”

Posters and presentations spanned more than 20 different fields from the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development, the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences and SMU Guildhall.

“It’s a huge motivation to present your work before people,” said Aparna Viswanath, a graduate student in engineering. Viswanath presented research on “Looking Around Corners,” research into an instrument that converts a scattering surface into computational holographic sensors.

The goal of Research Day is to foster communication about research between students in different disciplines, give students the opportunity to present their work in a professional setting, and to share the outstanding research being conducted at SMU.

The annual event is sponsored by the SMU Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

View highlights of the presentations on Facebook.

Some highlights of the research:

  • Adel Alharbi, a student of Dr. Mitchell Thornton in Lyle School’s Computer Science and Engineering presented research on a novel demographic group prediction mechanism for smart device users based upon the recognition of user gestures.
  • Ashwini Subramanian and Prasanna Rangarajan, students of Dr. Dinesh Rajan, in Lyle School’s Electrical Engineering Department, presented research about accurately measuring the physical dimensions of an object for manufacturing and logistics with an inexpensive software-based Volume Measurement System using the Texas Instruments OPT8241 3D Time-of-Flight camera, which illuminates the scene with a modulated light source, observing the reflected light and translating it to distance.
  • Gang Chen, a student of Dr. Pia Vogel in the Department of Chemistry of Dedman College, presented research on multidrug resistance in cancers associated with proteins including P-glycoprotein and looking for inhibitors of P-gp.
  • Tetiana Hutchison, a student of Dr. Rob Harrod in the Chemistry Department of Dedman College, presented research on inhibitors of mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress related to human T-cell leukemia virus type-1, an aggressive hematological cancer for which there are no effective treatments.
  • Margarita Sala, a student of Dr. David Rosenfield and Dr. Austin Baldwin in the Psychology Department of Dedman College, presented research on how specific post-exercise affective states differ between regular and infrequent exercisers, thereby elucidating the “feeling better” phenomenon.
  • Bernard Kauffman, a Level Design student of Dr. Corey Clark in SMU Guildhall, presented research on building a user interface that allows video game players to analyze vast swaths of scientific data to help researchers find potentially useful compounds for treating cancer.

Browse the Research Day 2017 directory of presentations by department.

See the SMU Graduate Studies Facebook page for images of 2017 Research Day.

See the SMU Anthropology Department photo album of Research Day 2017 poster presentations.

According to the Fall 2016 report on Undergraduate Research, SMU provides opportunities for student research in a full variety of disciplines from the natural sciences and engineering, to social sciences, humanities and the arts. These opportunities permit students to bring their classroom knowledge to practical problems or a professional level in their chosen field of study.
Opportunities offered include both funded and curricular programs
that can be tailored according to student needs:

  • Students may pursue funded research with the assistance of a
    variety of campus research programs. Projects can be supported
    during the academic year or in the summer break, when students
    have the opportunity to focus full-time on research.
  • Students may also enroll in research courses that are offered in
    many departments that permit them to design a unique project,
    or participate in a broader project.
  • Students can take advantage of research opportunities outside
    of their major, or design interdisciplinary projects with their faculty
    mentors. The Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute supports
    such research via the Mayer Scholars.

    • View videos of previous SMU Research Day events:

    See Research Day winners from 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014.

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    GotScience.org: Can You Improve Your Running with Physics?

    The researchers studied the running mechanics of forty-two people ranging from recreational runners to Olympic medalists.

    GotScience.org reporter Emily Rhode covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand and the SMU Locomotor Laboratory. Weyand is the director of the Locomotor Lab.

    Other authors on the study were Laurence Ryan, a physicist and research engineer in the lab, and
    Kenneth Clark , previously with the lab and now an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University in West Chester, Penn.

    The three have developed a concise approach to understanding the mechanics of human running. The research has immediate application for running performance, injury prevention, rehab and the individualized design of running shoes, orthotics and prostheses. The work integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force application on the ground — during jogging, sprinting and at all speeds in between.

    The GotScience.org article, “Can You Improve Your Running with Physics?,” published March 27, 2017.

    Weyand is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    An expert on human locomotion and the mechanics of running, Weyand has been widely interviewed about the controversy surrounding double-amputee South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius. Controversy has swirled around the sprinter over whether his light-weight, carbon-fiber prosthetic “Cheetah” legs give him a competitive advantage.

    Weyand helped lead a team of scientists who are experts in biomechanics and physiology in conducting experiments on Pistorius and the mechanics of his racing ability.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Emily Rhode
    Gotscience.org
    Running is one of the simplest forms of exercise we can do. It requires no protective gear or fancy equipment. At its core, it just requires force. Runners are constantly searching for clues for how to improve their speed and prevent injury. But until now, there was no easy way to fully assess the way a runner moves. In a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers at Southern Methodist University describe a new method that requires nothing more than a quality camera and basic laws of physics to predict how a runner and the ground will impact each other.

    Newton’s second law of motion says that force is mass multiplied by acceleration. A runner’s mechanics, or movement, can be represented by a simple waveform—a visual representation of force over time. The moment the runner’s foot hits the ground is represented by the beginning of the wave. As the mass of the runner’s body accelerates toward the ground, the amount of force increases and the wave climbs. The wave then slopes down as the runner begins the motion of lifting the leg again.

    Collecting the data to create this pattern of force between the runner’s body and the ground is normally a complicated process that requires knowing the masses and motion of as many as fourteen different variables. A team consisting of Dr. Kenneth P. Clark, Dr. Laurence J. Ryan, and Dr. Peter G. Weyand believed that they could simplify the process considerably by focusing on just two parts of the body: the lower leg and the foot.

    The researchers studied the running mechanics of forty-two people ranging from recreational runners to Olympic medalists. They measured each person’s body mass and used high-speed cameras to capture the motion of running. At the same time, a specialized treadmill recorded the force of the runners’ footfalls as they moved through their strides. The team then compared the real data to an algorithm, or set of mathematical steps, that they developed to predict an individual’s waveform pattern.

    Read the full story.

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    New York Times: Blade Runner Tests Limits of Prosthetics, Years After Oscar Pistorius

    Track-and-field rules regarding athletes with prosthetic limbs remain gray, even nonexistent.

    The New York Times reporter Filip Bondy interviewed SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand of the SMU Locomotor Laboratory, for a story about Hunter Woodhall, an 18-year-old athlete with prosthetic limbs competing against top scholastic stars in the United States.

    Weyand, who is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, is director of the Locomotor Lab.

    An expert on human locomotion and the mechanics of running, Weyand has been widely interviewed about the controversy surrounding double-amputee South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius. Controversy has swirled around the sprinter over whether his light-weight, carbon-fiber prosthetic “Cheetah” legs give him a competitive advantage.

    Weyand helped lead a team of scientists who are experts in biomechanics and physiology in conducting experiments on Pistorius and the mechanics of his racing ability.

    For his most recently published research, Weyand was part of a team that developed a concise approach to understanding the mechanics of human running. The research has immediate application for running performance, injury prevention, rehab and the individualized design of running shoes, orthotics and prostheses. The work integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force application on the ground — during jogging, sprinting and at all speeds in between.

    The New York Times article, “Blade Runner Tests Limits of Prosthetics, Years After Oscar Pistorius,” published March 13, 2017.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Filip Bondy
    The New York Times
    A decade after Oscar Pistorius caused track-and-field officials to re-examine their rules regarding the use of prosthetic limbs at the Olympics, a high school amputee is running in open competition on similar carbon-fiber blades. And once again, guidelines are gray, even nonexistent.

    The athlete, Hunter Woodhall, 18, from Syracuse, Utah, is at the Armory track in Manhattan to run in an invitational, 400-meter heat on Saturday at the New Balance Nationals Indoor, competing against the top scholastic stars in the country.

    One of the youngest competitors at the Rio Paralympics, Woodhall won silver in the 200-meter competition at 21.12 seconds and bronze in the 400 with a personal-best 46.70. He also appeared to capture gold while anchoring the 4×100 relay, but the United States team was disqualified over an exchange violation on an earlier leg.

    Amid these successes, background grumbling appears to have increased in connection with his eligibility for open competitions.

    Woodhall has such a winsome personality, it is impossible to imagine anyone complaining to his face about anything. The meet directors are thrilled to have him participate. But there are no hard-and-fast rules regarding the eligibility of bladed runners at scholastic or collegiate levels, and the scientific debate has never been fully settled about whether the prosthetics offer a competitor some unfair advantage.

    “When something different comes along, people want an answer,” Woodall said. He added that “staying away’’ from the whole debate might be the best alternative.

    “Fighting this war is not going to go anywhere,” he said. “At the end of the day, I’m not a scientist, they’re not a scientist, we’re not going to come to a consensus. I just put in the work.”

    A decade ago, long before he was convicted in the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, Pistorius was effectively banned from open competition by the International Association of Athletics Federations. The group in 2007 prohibited any device that “incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides a user with an advantage.”

    After further testing at Sport University Cologne, in Germany, on behalf of the I.A.A.F., a report concluded that Pistorius’s legs were using 25 percent less energy than those of “able-bodied” runners. He was declared ineligible for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

    That ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, after further testing at Rice University resulted in a paper for the Journal of Applied Physiology contending that Pistorius was “mechanically dissimilar” to competitors racing on legs, moving his body differently.

    Even the scientists involved in the Rice study could not come to complete agreement, however. According to a report in Scientific American, Peter Weyand, a physiologist at Southern Methodist University, believed Pistorius had a mechanical edge. A biomechanics expert, Rodger Kram from the University of Colorado, contended that Pistorius’s artificial limbs created as many problems as advantages.

    The court ruled that the testing in Cologne had not factored in the disadvantages of Pistorius’s motion around a curve, or his problems at the start of a race. (These are also the elements of every competition that present the greatest challenges to Woodhall.) Pistorius was eventually selected to participate for South Africa in the 2012 Olympics in London.

    Read the full story.

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    Huffington Post: A New Physics Discovery Could Make You A Faster Runner

    It’s all about the force

    Reporter Sarah DiGiullo with the online news magazine The Huffington Post covered the research of Peter Weyand and the SMU Locomotor Laboratory. Weyand, who is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, is the director of the Locomotor Lab.

    Other authors on the study were Laurence Ryan, a physicist and research engineer in the lab, and
    Kenneth Clark , previously with the lab and now an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University in West Chester, Penn.

    The three have developed a concise approach to understanding the mechanics of human running. The research has immediate application for running performance, injury prevention, rehab and the individualized design of running shoes, orthotics and prostheses. The work integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force application on the ground — during jogging, sprinting and at all speeds in between.

    The Huffington Post article, “Researchers reveal the mechanics of running is simpler than thought – and it could revolutionize shoe design,” published Feb. 13, 2017.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Sarah DiGiullo
    The Huffington Post
    When it comes to race day, runners may have favorite moisture-wicking gear, a stopwatch and tunes to help get that coveted personal record.

    But physicists say running at your top speed may actually be a lot simpler. It all comes down to the force of your foot striking the ground ― and that’s about it.

    After studying the physics behind some of the world’s fastest runners, researchers came up with a new model they say could make anyone faster. It may help injured runners recover faster, too.

    The researchers developed an equation that calculates two forces: The total force of the shin, ankle and foot striking the ground, and the total force of the rest of the body striking the ground. The method, which they detailed in an article published recently in the Journal of Experimental Biology, can predict how fast an athlete will run.

    “We’ve known for quite some time that fast people are fast because they’re able to hit the ground harder in relation to how much they weigh,” explained the study’s co-author, Peter Weyand, director of the Locomotor Performance Laboratory at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

    But Weyand and his team were looking to better understand why it was that some people are able to hit the ground harder than others. The new equation makes the answer a lot clearer, with fewer measurements than previous models.

    Read the full story.

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    Dallas Innovates: SMU Study Finds Simpler Way to Explain Physics of Running

    The research could have implications on shoe design, rehabilitation practices, and running performance.

    Reporter Heather Noel with Dallas Innovates covered the research of Peter Weyand and the SMU Locomotor Laboratory. Weyand, who is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, is the director of the Locomotor Lab.

    Other authors on the study were Laurence Ryan, a physicist and research engineer in the lab, and
    Kenneth Clark , previously with the lab and now an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University in West Chester, Penn.

    The three have developed a concise approach to understanding the mechanics of human running. The research has immediate application for running performance, injury prevention, rehab and the individualized design of running shoes, orthotics and prostheses. The work integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force application on the ground — during jogging, sprinting and at all speeds in between.

    The Dallas Innovates article, “SMU Study Finds Simpler Way to Explain Physics of Running,” published Feb. 2, 2017.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Heather Noel
    Dallas Innovates
    Understanding the physics of running all comes down to the motion of two body parts, according to researchers at Southern Methodist University.

    Their findings published recently in the Journal of Experimental Biology, concluded that running can be explained in a lot simpler terms than scientists previously thought. After examining Olympic-caliber runners, they came up with a “two-mass model” that uses the lower leg that comes into contact with the ground and the sum total of the rest of the body to determine ground force.

    “The foot and the lower leg stop abruptly upon impact, and the rest of the body above the knee moves in a characteristic way,” said Kenneth Clark, SMU grad and assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University, in a release.

    “This new simplified approach makes it possible to predict the entire pattern of force on the ground — from impact to toe-off — with very basic motion data.”

    The research could have implications on shoe design, injury prevention, rehabilitation practices, and running performance.

    “The approach opens up inexpensive ways to predict the ground reaction forces and tissue loading rates. Runners and other athletes can know the answer to the critical functional question of how they are contacting and applying force to the ground,” said Laurence Ryan, a physicist and research engineer at SMU’s Locomotor Performance Laboratory, in a release.

    Read the full story.

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    Daily Mail: Researchers reveal the mechanics of running is simpler than thought – and it could revolutionise shoe design

    New study: Pattern of force on the ground is due to the motion of two parts of the body

    Reporter Stacy Liberatore with London’s Daily Mail newspaper covered the research of Peter Weyand and the SMU Locomotor Laboratory. Weyand, who is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, is the director of the Locomotor Lab.

    Other authors on the study were Laurence Ryan, a physicist and research engineer in the lab, and
    Kenneth Clark , previously with the lab and now an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University in West Chester, Penn.

    The three have developed a concise approach to understanding the mechanics of human running. The research has immediate application for running performance, injury prevention, rehab and the individualized design of running shoes, orthotics and prostheses. The work integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force application on the ground — during jogging, sprinting and at all speeds in between.

    The Daily Mail article, “Researchers reveal the mechanics of running is simpler than thought – and it could revolutionise shoe design,” published Jan. 31, 2017.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Stacy Liberatore
    Daily Mail
    A study has found a new explanation for the basic mechanics of human running.

    While observing Olympic-caliber sprinters, researchers discovered that a runner’s pattern of force application on the ground is due to the motion of just two parts of the body: the contacting leg and the rest of the body.

    The new approach could help create new patterns to optimize the design of running shoes, orthoses and prosthetics, as experts are able to see exactly how a person runs.

    The Southern Methodist University (SMU) researchers explained that the basic concept of their ‘two-mass model’ is relatively simple — a runner’s pattern of force application on the ground is due to the motion of two parts of the body: the lower portion of the leg that is contacting the ground, and the sum total of the rest of the body.

    The force contributions of the two body parts are each predicted from their largely independent motions when they have foot-ground contact.

    And then combined to predict the overall pattern.

    The final prediction relies only upon classical physics and a characteristic link between the force and motion for the two body parts.

    ‘Our model inputs are limited to contact time on the ground, time in the air, and the motion of the ankle or lower limb.

    ‘From three basic stride variables we are able to predict the full pattern of ground-force application,’ said Laurence Ryan, who is a physicist and research engineer at SMU’s Locomotor Performance Laboratory.

    ‘The approach opens up inexpensive ways to predict the ground reaction forces and tissue loading rates.’

    Read the full story.

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    New study connects running motion to ground force, provides patterns for any runner

    New approach simplifies the physics of running, enabling scientists to predict ground force patterns; applies to rehab, shoe design and athletic performance.

    Researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, have developed a concise approach to understanding the mechanics of human running. The research has immediate application for running performance, injury prevention, rehab and the individualized design of running shoes, orthotics and prostheses. The work integrates classic physics and human anatomy to link the motion of individual runners to their patterns of force application on the ground – during jogging, sprinting and at all speeds in between.

    Researchers at Southern Methodist University in Dallas have developed a concise new explanation for the basic mechanics involved in human running.

    The approach offers direct insight into the determinants of running performance and injuries, and could enable the use of individualized gait patterns to optimize the design of shoes, orthoses and prostheses according to biomechanics experts Kenneth Clark , Laurence Ryan and Peter Weyand, who authored the new study.

    The ground force-time patterns determine the body’s motion coming out of each step and therefore directly determine running performance. The impact portion of the pattern is also believed to be a critical factor for running injuries.

    “The human body is mechanically complex, but our new study indicates that the pattern of force on the ground can be accurately understood from the motion of just two body parts,” said Clark, first author on the study and currently an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

    “The foot and the lower leg stop abruptly upon impact, and the rest of the body above the knee moves in a characteristic way,” Clark said. “This new simplified approach makes it possible to predict the entire pattern of force on the ground — from impact to toe-off — with very basic motion data.”

    This new “two-mass model” from the SMU investigators substantially reduces the complexity of existing scientific explanations of the physics of running.

    Existing explanations have generally relied upon relatively elaborate “multi-mass spring models” to explain the physics of running, but this approach is known to have significant limitations. These complex models were developed to evaluate rear-foot impacts at jogging speeds and only predict the early portion of the force pattern. In addition, they are less clearly linked to the human body itself. They typically divide the body into four or more masses and include numerous other variables that are hard to link to the actual parts of a human body.

    The SMU model offers new insight by providing concise, accurate predictions of the ground force vs. time patterns throughout each instant of the contact period. It does so regardless of limb mechanics, foot-strike type and running speed.

    “Our model inputs are limited to contact time on the ground, time in the air, and the motion of the ankle or lower limb. From three basic stride variables we are able to predict the full pattern of ground-force application,” said Ryan, who is a physicist and research engineer at SMU’s Locomotor Performance Laboratory.

    “The approach opens up inexpensive ways to predict the ground reaction forces and tissue loading rates. Runners and other athletes can know the answer to the critical functional question of how they are contacting and applying force to the ground.” added Ryan.

    Current methods for assessing patterns of ground force application require expensive in-ground force platforms or force treadmills. Additionally, the links between the motions of an athlete’s body parts and ground forces have previously been difficult to reduce to basic and accurate explanations.

    The researchers describe their new two-mass model of the physics of running in the article, “A general relationship links gait mechanics and running ground reaction forces,” published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

    “From both a running performance and injury risk standpoint, many investigations over the last 15 years have focused on the link between limb motion and force application,” said Weyand, who is the director of SMU’s Locomotor Performance Laboratory. “We’re excited that this research can shed light on this basic relationship.”

    Overall force-time pattern is the sum of two parts
    Traditional scientific explanations of foot-ground forces have utilized different types of spring and mass models ranging from complex to very simple. However, the existing models have not been able to fully account for all of the variation present in the force-time patterns of different runners — particularly at speeds faster than jogging. Consequently, a comprehensive basis for assessing performance differences, injury risks and general running mechanics has not been previously available.

    The SMU researchers explain that the basic concept of the new approach is relatively simple — a runner’s pattern of force application on the ground is due to the motion of two parts of the body: the lower portion of the leg that is contacting the ground, and the sum total of the rest of the body.

    The force contributions of the two body parts are each predicted from their largely independent, respective motions during the foot-ground contact period. The two force contributions are then combined to predict the overall pattern. The final prediction relies only upon classical physics and a characteristic link between the force and motion for the two body parts.

    New approach can be applied accurately and inexpensively
    The application of the two-mass approach is direct and immediate.

    “Scientists, clinicians and performance specialists can directly apply the new information using the predictive approach provided in the manuscript,” Clark said. “The new science is well-suited to assessing patterns of ground-force application by athletes on running tracks and in performance training centers.”

    These capabilities have not been possible previously, much less in the inexpensive and accurate manner that the new approach allows for with existing technology.

    “The only requirement is a quality high-speed camera or decent motion sensor and our force-motion algorithms,” Clark said. “It’s conceivable that even shoe stores would benefit by implementing basic treadmill assessments to guide footwear selection from customer’s gait mechanics using the approach.”

    A critical breakthrough for the SMU researchers was recognition that the mass contribution of the lower leg did not vary for heel vs. forefoot strikes and was directly quantifiable. Their efforts lead them to recognize the initial force contribution results from the quick stopping of the lower part of the leg — the shin, ankle and foot — which all come down and stop together when the foot hits the ground.

    Olympic sprinters were a clue to discovery
    The SMU team discovered a general way to quantify the impact forces from the large impacts observed from Olympic-caliber sprinters. Like heel strikers, the patterns of Olympic sprinters exhibit a sharp rising edge peak that results from an abrupt deceleration of the foot and lower leg. However, sprinters accomplish this with forefoot impacts rather than the heel-first landing that most joggers use.

    “The world-class sprinters gave us a big signal to figure out the critical determinants of the shape of the waveform,” said Weyand. “Without their big impact forces, we would probably have not been able to recognize that the ground-force patterns of all runners, regardless of their foot-strike mechanics and running speed, have two basic parts.”

    When the researchers first began to analyze the seemingly complicated force waveform signals, they found that they were actually composed of two very simple overlapping waveforms, Ryan said.

    “Our computer generated the best pattern predictions when the timing of the first waveform coincided with the high-speed video of the ankle stopping on impact. This was true to within a millisecond, every single time. And we did it hundreds of times,” he said. “So we knew we had a direct physical relationship between force and motion that provided a critical insight.”

    New approach has potential to diagnose injury, rehab
    The SMU team’s new concise waveforms potentially have diagnostic possibilities, Weyand said.

    For example, a runner’s pre-injury waveforms could be compared to their post-injury and post-rehab waveforms.

    “You could potentially identify the asymmetries of runners with tibial stress fractures, Achilles tendonitis or other injuries by comparing the force patterns of their injured and healthy legs,” he said.

    And while medical images could suggest the injury has healed, their waveforms might tell a different story.

    “The waveform patterns might show the athlete continues to run with less force on the injured limb. So it may offer an inexpensive diagnostic tool that was not previously available,” Weyand said.

    Weyand is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

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    How Stuff Works: Could Humans Break the Two-hour Marathon Barrier?

    How Stuff Works reporter Julia Layton tapped the expertise of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand for a news story about the burning question of the limits of human speed and whether — or when — runners will break the two-hour marathon barrier. Weyand explained the biomechanics of human locomotion, particularly as it pertains to fast runners.

    The article “Could Humans Break the Two-hour Marathon Barrier?” published Nov. 16, 2016.

    Weyand, director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on runners, specifically world-class sprinters, looks at the importance of ground forces for running speed, and has established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    Weyand is Glenn Simmons Centennial Chair in Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Could Humans Break the Two-hour Marathon Barrier?.

    EXCERPT:

    By Julia Layton
    How Stuff Works
    The New York City Marathon saw some impressive finishes in 2016. In the Nov. 6 race, women’s winner Mary Keitany of Kenya crossed the finish line in 2:24:26, and Eritrea’s Ghirmay Ghebreslassie took the men’s division with 2:07:51. Ghebreslassie earned a $25,000 bonus for breaking the 2:08:00 mark.

    The world records, however, were perfectly safe. No woman has come within three minutes of Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 at the London Marathon in 2003 (Radcliffe is British). In the 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) stretch that is the marathon, a minute is an “exceptionally long time,” writes Noah Davis on Pacific Standard. “Losing by five minutes to a 2:15 marathoner,” he explains, “is to be almost a mile [1.6 kilometer] behind when she crosses the finish line.”

    The men’s marathon record of 2:02:57, established by Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto at the 2014 Berlin Marathon, may be approaching the limits of human physiology.

    The Two-hour Barrier
    In marathon science, two hours is the “golden ticket.” It’s really just the next-lowest round number in marathon times, explains Dr. Peter Weyand, professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, but “[t]he progression toward the [two-hour] barrier has for some time marked it as a milestone in the history of athletics and human performance — one of great symbolic and functional significance.”

    Marathon times have plummeted in the last few decades. The men’s record fell by almost four minutes between 1998 and 2014, and the women’s dropped by more than five minutes. At this point, most experts predict a runner will eventually break the two-hour-hour mark. When and how it will happen is more controversial.

    “The number of variables involved that will need to align simultaneously to break the two-hour barrier are numerous,” writes Weyand, “making specific predictions highly uncertain.” However, he says five years is “not unrealistic.”

    Could Humans Break the Two-hour Marathon Barrier?.

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    KERA News: The Biomechanical Breakdown Of Back Flips On Pogo Sticks

    KERA news reporter Courtney Collins tapped the expertise of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand for a news story about the extreme pogo stick performers that have captivated fair goers this year at the Texas State Fair. Weyand explained the biomechanics of the high-flying backflips and stunts of the pogo stick gymnasts.

    The article “The Biomechanical Breakdown Of Back Flips On Pogo Sticks” aired on Oct. 17, 2016.

    Weyand, director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on runners, specifically world-class sprinters, looks at the importance of ground forces for running speed, and has established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    Weyand is Glenn Simmons Centennial Chair in Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Watch the video and listen to the broadcast.

    EXCERPT:

    By Courtney Collins
    KERA News
    There’s a lot to gawk at at the State Fair of Texas. A 55 foot tall cowboy, towering cones of cotton candy, flashing midway rides that defy gravity. This year, a handful of guys on pogo sticks do that too.

    Three times a day, the Xpogo demo team does everything from back flips to 7-foot bounds over a limbo pole. It looks cool, sure. The biomechanical breakdown of what these athletes are actually doing is even cooler.
    The Xpogo athletes can pull off tricks most of us would never attempt. Jumps with no hands, jumps with no feet. Black flips, front flips and sky-high leaps over obstacles.

    Bryan Pognant has been involved in extreme pogo-sticking for 15 years. He says the key to getting tricks down isn’t strength, it’s…

    “Balance, always balance,” he says. “We have 13 year olds jumping like 10 feet, and that’s only because they know how to balance.”

    Watch Pognant perform a trick called the ‘no foot peg grab’ with scientific analysis from SMU professor of physiology and biomechanics Peter Weyand.

    Watch the video and listen to the broadcast.

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    The Guardian: How fast can we go? The science of the 100m sprint

    “Newton figured out the laws of motion centuries ago but when we apply them to the human body it gets really complex, really quickly.” — Peter Weyand

    Book a live interview

    Peter Weyand, SMUTo book a live or taped interview with Peter Weyand in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News and Communications, at 214-768-7654, or email news@smu.edu.

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    Journalist Simon Usborne tapped the human-speed expertise of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand for an article in the London newspaper The Guardian. The article examines the potential for humans to continue improving strength and speed beyond what has already been achieved.

    Usborne interviewed Weyand for his expertise on the mechanics of running and speed of world-class sprinters like Usain Bolt. The article “How fast can we go? The science of the 100m sprint” published Oct. 3, 2016.

    Weyand, director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on runners, specifically world-class sprinters, looks at the importance of ground forces for running speed, and has established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    In particular, Weyand’s finding that speed athletes are not able to reposition their legs more rapidly than non-athletes debunked a widespread belief. Rather, Weyand and his colleagues have demonstrated sprinting performance is largely set by the force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.

    Weyand is Glenn Simmons Centennial Chair in Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Simon Usborne
    The Guardian
    The greatest race in the Olympics is the simplest. Eight runners, eight straight lines. A bang, an explosion of muscle and, less than ten seconds later, a winner. And all they do is run. No bikes, boats, vaults or horses — just one foot in front of the other. Yet, in those three dozen blinks of an eye, sprinters in the 100m perform physical feats so advanced that scientists are still trying to understand them.

    “On one level you’d think we would have pieced it together a long time ago,” says Peter Weyand, one of the world’s leading students of running and professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at South Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. “Newton figured out the laws of motion centuries ago but when we when we apply them to the human body it gets really complex, really quickly.”

    Simply analysing the extreme motion and exertions of a sprinter is challenging. Weyand and his team have a large treadmill in their lab capable of rolling at 90mph. In the punishing max test, athletes straddle the moving belt and hop on for a few seconds at a time. They start slow, with rests in between. “We increase the speed until the athlete can’t maintain it,” the professor says. “We need eight steps without moving backwards for a good trial.”

    The tests are a safer version of jumping off the back of an old Routemaster bus and staying upright for eight paces – athletes wear harnesses in case they trip – but how fast is the bus going? “The unofficial record on our treadmill is 11.72 metres per second,” Weyand says. That’s 26.7mph, or not far off a city speed limit, or Bolt’s peak speed during his 2009 world record run of 27.8mph. “When we have elite athletes do the test, the whole office comes over to watch.”

    High-speed treadmills, slow-motion imaging and pressure sensors have allowed scientists to study aspects of elite sprinting that were largely unknown as recently as 15 years ago. “If you asked a coach in the late 1990s what they were doing it was all very much based on form,” Weyand says. “But when we started this work back at that time, the first thing we figured out is that what makes these guys fast is how forcefully they can hit the ground in relation to their body weight.”

    When Usain Bolt looks like he’s floating over the track, he’s really not. That extreme rippling in the face that slow motion footage reveals in some runners demonstrates the forces that transfer from foot to floor. “We know that Bolt will peak out with each step at about five times his weight, while non-sprinting athletes will peak at about 3.5 times,” Weyand explains. “The science is clear: the top athletes are specialised to deliver the most force to the ground and that’s what makes them fast. But even now I think we’re still in the formative phase — it hasn’t yet translated into broad practices in training.”

    Read the full story.

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    Researchers test blood flow in athletes’ brains to find markers that diagnose concussions

    Diagnosing concussions is difficult because it typically rests on subjective symptoms such as forgetfulness, wobbly gait and disorientation or loss of consciousness. A new study of college athletes investigates objective indicators using Doppler ultrasound to measure brain blood flow and blood vessel function.

    A hard hit to the head typically prompts physicians to look for signs of a concussion based on symptoms such as forgetfulness, wobbly gait and disorientation.

    But symptoms such as those are subjective. And youth who are anxious to get back to their sport can sometimes hide the signs in order to brush off adult concerns, says physiologist Sushmita Purkayastha, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

    Now a new study funded by the Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair at U.T. Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas aims to find noninvasive objective indicators to diagnose whether an athlete has suffered a concussion. Using transcranial Doppler ultrasound, the study will probe the brains of college athletes to measure blood vessel function in the brain, looking for tell-tale signs related to blood flow that help diagnose concussion, said Purkayastha, a researcher on the new study.

    “We know this is an understudied area. With other health problems, when the doctor suspects diabetes or hypertension, they don’t guess, they run objective tests to confirm the diagnosis. But that’s not the case with concussion — yet,” said Purkayastha, whose research expertise is blood flow regulation in the human brain. “That’s why my research focus is to find markers that are objective and not subjective. And this method of monitoring blood flow in the brain with ultrasound is noninvasive, inexpensive and there’s no radiation.”

    Purkayastha and others on the research team are working under a one-year, $150,000 pilot research grant from the Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair, a UT Southwestern initiative funded by the Texas Legislature to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of brain injuries.

    The team will observe 200 male and female college athletes over the next two years. Half the athletes will be students playing a contact-collision sport who have recently suffered a sports-related concussion. The other half, a control group, will be students playing a contact-collision sport who don’t have a concussion. The study draws on athletes from football, soccer, equestrian sports, cheerleading and recreational sports.

    The researchers began testing subjects in August. They expect to have results by the Fall of 2017.

    “We are very excited at establishing this collaboration between SMU and the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at UTSW. Our work with Dr. Purkayastha promises to give meaningful insight into the role of cerebral blood flow mechanisms after concussion and will point us in the right direction for improved neurorecovery,” said physician Kathleen Bell, a leading investigator at U.T. Southwestern’s Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair and principal investigator on the study. Bell is a nationally recognized leader in rehabilitation medicine and a specialist in neurorehabilitation.

    Diagnosing concussions by using objective, non-invasive and inexpensive markers will result in accurate diagnosis and better return-to-play decisions following a concussion, thereby preventing the long-term risk of second-impact syndrome, said Purkayastha, an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness of SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    “Although sports-related concussions are common, the physiology of the injury is poorly understood, and hence there are limited treatments currently available,” she said.

    Hemorrhage or blackouts result, for example, if autoregulation malfunctions
    While the brain is the most important organ in the body, it has been very understudied, said Purkayastha, a professor in the Simmons School of Education & Human Development. But since blood vessels in the brain behave similarly to those in the rest of the body, it’s possible to measure blood vessel function in the brain by monitoring blood pressure and brain blood flow. Observing those functions could reveal a marker, she said.

    In Purkayastha’s lab on the SMU campus, student athletes are being outfitted with two small ultrasound probes, one on each side of their forehead in the temple area, to test blood vessel function. Specifically, the two probes monitor the blood flow through middle cerebral artery, which supplies blood to 75 percent of the brain. The artery traverses the brain, circulating blood to the brain tissues responsible for movement, cognition and decision-making.

    Branching from the middle cerebral artery is a network of blood vessels that get smaller and smaller as they get further from the artery, spreading like tree branches through the brain. The smallest vessels — via a different local regulatory mechanism — maintain constant blood flow to the brain, making microadjustments, such as constricting and dilating in the face of constant changes in blood pressure. Adjustments occur as a person’s muscles move, whether standing, sitting, exercising, or even just laughing and experiencing emotion. These continual adjustments in the vessels — called cerebral autoregulation — keep blood flow constant and regular. That prevents problems such as hemorrhaging or passing out from large fluctuations in blood pressure that is either too high or too low.

    Researchers suspect concussion diminishes a vessels ability to properly regulate blood flow
    In the current study, ultrasound probes on the temples record the vessels’ microadjustments as digital data. That information is processed through a WinDaq data acquisition software and analyzed to examine cerebral autoregulation with spontaneous changes in blood pressure during that period of time.

    Unlike at the doctor’s office, when a cuff is used to measure blood pressure at a rate of single measurements during 30 seconds, Purkayastha’s ultrasound monitoring of blood pressure provides continuous blood pressure recording throughout each heartbeat. As sound waves bounce into the artery and send back an echo, they measure the speed of red blood cells and other blood components moving through the artery.

    “We collect 10 minutes of very high frequency data points collecting information on beat-to-beat changes in blood pressure and blood flow to the brain for every single heartbeat,” said Purkayastha. “Then we analyze and post-process and examine how well the blood vessels were able to maintain constant blood flow to the brain. We suspect in people with concussion that the autoregulation function isn’t operating properly which leads to impairments in function such as wobbly gait, disorientation or forgetfulness. This is a noninvasive way to see if there’s a flaw in the autoregulation.”

    Athletes with confirmed diagnosis of concussions will be tested three times during the course of the study. The first test is three days after a suspected concussion, the second is 21 days afterward, and the third is three months afterward.

    “The pilot studies so far look promising and our goal is to better understand the mechanism behind injury and design objective markers detecting concussion,” said Purkayastha.

    The Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair at U.T. Southwestern Medical Center, a component of the Harold and Annette Simmons Comprehensive Center for Research and Treatment in Brain and Neurological Disorders, is a collaborative initiative involving local and national organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, University of Texas Dallas and its Center for BrainHealth, Children’s Medical Center, Dallas VA Medical Center, and Parkland Health and Hospital System, as well as Texas Health Resources and Texas Health Ben Hogan Sports Medicine. — Margaret Allen, SMU

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    Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Plants & Animals Researcher news SMU In The News

    Science.mic: Usain Bolt’s Winning Race at the Rio Olympics, Explained by Science

    “His foot and ankle mechanics into the ground (which are crucial variable for force application and speed) seem excellent based on the available information, but could potentially be more forceful with modest adjustments,” Weyand said.

    For more information

    Peter Weyand, SMUTo book a live or taped interview with Peter Weyand in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News and Communications, at 214-768-7654, or email news@smu.edu.

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    Journalist Kelly Dickerson referenced the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand for an article in the news blog Science.Mic examining the potential for humans to continue improving strength and speed beyond what has already been achieved.

    Dickerson quotes Weyand for his expertise on the mechanics of running and speed of world-class sprinters like Usain Bolt. The article “Usain Bolt’s Winning Race at the Rio Olympics, Explained by Science” published Aug. 15, 2016.

    Weyand, director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on runners, specifically world-class sprinters, looks at the importance of ground forces for running speed, and has established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    In particular, Weyand’s finding that speed athletes are not able to reposition their legs more rapidly than non-athletes debunked a widespread belief. Rather, Weyand and his colleagues have demonstrated sprinting performance is largely set by the force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.

    Weyand is Glenn Simmons Centennial Chair in Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Kelly Dickerson
    Science.mic
    Sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica just made history by winning his third straight gold medal in the men’s 100-meter dash — something no runner has done before.

    How does Bolt keep doing it?

    Bolt doesn’t win by moving his legs faster than everyone else. At the Olympic level, there are much more important factors that contribute to speed, and Bolt has figured out how to capitalize on them.

    The key to sprinting isn’t a quicker stride, according to research by Peter Weyand, a professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University. It comes down to the amount of force a runner can apply to the ground, as well as how long they leave their feet on the ground per step.

    Case in point: Studies have found the average runner applies about 500 to 600 pounds per step. An Olympic runner applies upward of 1,000 pounds. The average runner has their foot on the ground for 0.12 seconds per step, according to the Post Game. An Olympic runner has it there for less than a tenth of a second.

    Bolt is really tall — he stands at 6 feet, 5 inches. Normally, that height would be a disadvantage, Weyand explained.

    “Shorter individuals are advantaged coming out of the blocks and over the initial 5 to about 15 meters of the race,” Weyand said in an email. “Shorter runners have less mass to move, so the ground force needed to accelerate the body is not as great. So although Bolt is not the best starter in the world, he loses relatively little ground versus what science indicates he should.”

    “Although Bolt is not the best starter in the world, he loses relatively little ground versus what science indicates he should.”

    After the start of the race, Bolt’s height becomes a major advantage for two reasons, according to Weyand:

    Read the full story.

    Follow SMU Research on Twitter, @smuresearch.

    For more SMU research see www.smuresearch.com.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information, www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Plants & Animals Researcher news SMU In The News

    The Globe and Mail: In perfect asymmetry

    “Weyand says there’s no ideal weight or height for sprinting fast, but that the world’s best have something in common — they apply greater ground force, a rapid punch to the ground, when their feet contact the track.” — The Globe and Mail

    For more information

    Peter Weyand, SMUTo book a live or taped interview with Peter Weyand in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News and Communications, at 214-768-7654, or email news@smu.edu.

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    Journalist Rachel Brady referenced the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand for an article in the news blog The Roar examining the potential for humans to continue improving strength and speed beyond what has already been achieved.

    Porter quotes Weyand for his expertise on the mechanics of running and speed of world-class sprinters like Usain Bolt. The article “In perfect asymmetry” published Aug. 18, 2016.

    Weyand, director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on runners, specifically world-class sprinters, looks at the importance of ground forces for running speed, and has established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    In particular, Weyand’s finding that speed athletes are not able to reposition their legs more rapidly than non-athletes debunked a widespread belief. Rather, Weyand and his colleagues have demonstrated sprinting performance is largely set by the force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.

    Weyand is Glenn Simmons Centennial Chair in Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Rachel Brady
    The Globe and Mail
    It’s hard to explain, but experts would love to try. Canadian sprinter Andre De Grasse, at 5-foot-9 and 154 pounds and with a running style that has his right arm flying behind him, doesn’t fit the conventional mold of a world class sprinter, reports Rachel Brady. So why’s he so fast?

    Some experts in the biomechanics of sport have been watching Canada’s rising track star, Andre De Grasse, with fascination, dreaming of what it would be like to get the speedy phenom into their labs to find out how the first-time Olympian with the unconventional style runs so fast.

    The 5-foot-9, 154-pound sprinter is shorter and less muscular than most of his opponents. He doesn’t start races out of the blocks particularly well, and as he flies down the track, his right arm swings backward in a quirky sort of way. To boot, the 21-year-old youngster took up sprinting less than four years ago. Yet De Grasse, who ran the 100-metre dash in 9.91 seconds to capture an Olympic bronze medal on Sunday, is defying many conventional beliefs about how a world-class sprinter should look and move.

    The youngster from Markham, Ont., repeatedly pumps his outstretched right arm behind him when hitting his top speed during a race; meanwhile his left arm is bent and pumping in a more typical way.

    The asymmetry is in sharp contrast to most of his opponents, who typically pump bent arms at both sides. De Grasse told a reporter from the International Association of Athletics Federations website last year that he attributes that extended right arm swing to an imbalance in his hips caused by a minor basketball injury in his childhood.

    The experts say it’s no surprise that De Grasse is being left to run the way he’s most comfortable.

    … One expert with experience testing world-class sprinters in a locomotor performance lab says arms have little effect on what is most important to elite sprinting – ground-reaction forces.

    “His arm swing is not at all consequential to performance,” said Peter Weyand, professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. “The arms are light pendulums that allow runners to stay balanced as they execute strides. Differences in the arm’s motion and how it’s angled at the elbow really doesn’t matter to the sprinter’s velocity and the interaction between the feet and the ground. Some of the old guard still think arm motion really matters, but most today realize it’s not that consequential. The old guard might have tried to bend a sprinter’s elbow into place, but they wouldn’t have been able to offer much scientific data about why they were doing it.”

    Read the full story.

    Follow SMU Research on Twitter, @smuresearch.

    For more SMU research see www.smuresearch.com.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information, www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    The Roar: Humans can’t bolt much faster than Usain — What science says about the 100m world record

    Record-breaking has slowed, but science could find new ways to make us keep getting stronger and faster

    For more information

    Peter Weyand, SMUTo book a live or taped interview with Peter Weyand in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News and Communications, at 214-768-7654, or email news@smu.edu.

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    Simmons Faculty Peter Weyand In Physiology Locomotor LabGood news! You’re likely burning more calories than you thought

    Sports writer Matt Porter referenced the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand for an article in the news blog The Roar examining the potential for humans to continue improving strength and speed beyond what has already been achieved.

    Porter quotes Weyand for his expertise on the mechanics of running and speed of world-class sprinters like Usain Bolt. The article “Humans can’t bolt much faster than Usain: What science says about the 100m world record” published Aug. 15, 2016.

    Weyand, director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on runners, specifically world-class sprinters, looks at the importance of ground forces for running speed, and has established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    In particular, Weyand’s finding that speed athletes are not able to reposition their legs more rapidly than non-athletes debunked a widespread belief. Rather, Weyand and his colleagues have demonstrated sprinting performance is largely set by the force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.

    Weyand is Glenn Simmons Centennial Chair in Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Matt Porter
    The Roar
    We’ve just watched the incomparable Usain Bolt ensure his immortality as the greatest sprinter of all time with his third successive 100m Olympic Gold medal in Rio.

The world rejoiced and the embattled Rio Olympics organisers and IAAF breathed a sigh of relief as the Great Jamaican ran down twice convicted doping cheat Justin Gatlin to claim his rightful place in the Olympic pantheon.

    The triumph came barely half an hour after South African Wayde van Niekerk smashed Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old 400m world record to beat home a star-studded field in the final of that event to scorch the lap in 43.03s, a whopping 0.15s faster than the old mark.

    What an hour for the fastest humans on the planet. 

The 100m final is my favourite nine and a bit seconds of any Olympic Games. So primal. So raw. No other modes of transport involved. No distance to endure, water to splash through or bends in the track to negotiate. No racquets, bats, clubs or balls. Just the fastest of a land-based mammal species attempting to out-run one another from start to finish over a very short distance in a straight line.

    …Peter Weyand, a biomechanics professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas is a leading expert in human locomotion. He reckons the primary factor influencing speed is how much force sprinters hit the ground with their feet.

    When athletes run at a constant speed they use their limbs like pogo sticks, Weyand says. Once a sprinter hits the ground, his limb compresses and gets him ready to rebound. When he’s in the air, the feet get ready to hit the ground again.

    Every time a runner hits the ground, 90 per cent of the force goes vertically to push him or her up again, while only 5 per cent propels him or her horizontally. In that regard, sprinters behave a lot like one of those super bouncy balls you play with as a kid, Weyand says. “They bounce a lot.” 

Our body naturally adjusts to how fast we run by changing how hard we hit the ground. The harder we hit the ground, the faster we go.

    So just how hard can humans hit the ground while they run?

    Read the full story.

    Follow SMU Research on Twitter, @smuresearch.

    For more SMU research see www.smuresearch.com.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information, www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Culture, Society & Family Learning & Education Mind & Brain Technology

    Students grasp abstract math concepts after they demonstrate them with arm motions

    Video game that directs students to make arm movements fosters understanding for proving complex geometry theorems

    Students who make relevant arm movements while learning can improve their knowledge and retention of math, research has shown.

    Now researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a model using geometry proofs that shows potential for wide adoption — a video game in which students make movements with their arms to learn abstract math concepts.

    The research is the first to use widely available technology combined with relevant body gestures and apply it to the learning of complex reasoning in a highly conceptual, pre-college math domain — geometric proof production.

    “When they’re doing geometry, students and teachers gesture all the time to show shapes, lines, and relationships, and the research suggests this is very beneficial,” said teaching expert Candace Walkington, assistant professor of teaching and learning in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development.

    “Our goal is to create an environment that supports students in making motions that help them understand the math better, Walkington said.”

    Walkington and educational psychology professors Mitchell Nathan and Peter Steiner, University of Wisconsin-Madison are collaborating on the project with SMU Guildhall, SMU’s graduate-level academic program for digital game-development.

    The researchers have been awarded a four-year $1.39 million grant for their work from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Educational Sciences, Educational Research Grants.

    “Much of math education is about learning rules and procedures. Geometry proof is different,” said Nathan, a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Students have to learn how to think conceptually about why certain statements about shapes are true, how they are always true, for all members of a class of shapes, and how to explain it to others so they are convincing. We think that level of mathematical understanding is embodied.”

    Emerging research is investigating the theory that our body actions can actually influence our thoughts, in addition to our thoughts driving our actions. Body movement can induce new activity in our neural systems. This activity can create and influence our learning, thinking and mental organization. This mind-body partnership, dubbed “embodied cognition,” is driving new approaches to learning subjects such as math.

    “What is so exciting about this geometry research project is that it shows how theories of embodied cognition are becoming mature enough to start to develop a whole new class of educational technology that we can envision as part of everyday math classrooms in the near term,” Nathan said.

    Video game fosters learning by pairing gestures with geometry proofs
    At the heart of the new study is the video game “The Hidden Village.” A motion-capture video game, “The Hidden Village” helps foster learning by pairing motions with geometry proofs. Designed for a Windows PC computer with Microsoft’s Kinect 2 motion-capture camera attached, the game’s signature design element is an episodic story paired with directives for arm movements.

    Each episode leads a student to perform certain motions with their arms, correlating those with questions and answers related to proofs of geometry theorems.

    To begin, a student stands in front of the Kinect camera. The camera detects the student, then calibrates to each student’s body shape, size and movement, familiarizing itself with the student.

    When play begins, the camera and software detect movements in real time and provide feedback about whether the students are appropriately matching the motions.

    A demo of the latest version of the video game is available on Youtube, with an explanatory video at this link.

    Directed body motions can improve proving of theorems
    The previous version of the game was tested at a high school in Dallas in February with positive results. The researchers are presenting those results in early November at the Psychology of Mathematics Education conference in Tucson, Arizona.

    Preliminary findings showed students liked learning in the video game format, and benefited when they were encouraged to think about how their body motions related to the geometric proofs.

    “High school students really struggle to learn proof in geometry, and often their initial performance on these proofs is very low,” said Walkington, who specializes in math education and connecting it to students’ concrete everyday experiences. “However, making and thinking through the motions from the game, they’re given a new resource with which to think about the problems.”

    Recent research led by Nathan found that directed body motions can lead to improvements in geometry theorem proving even when students claim no awareness of the relevance of the actions to the mathematical tasks. Research has also found that verbal prompts from a teacher to connect the actions to mathematical ideas further improve student proof practices.

    The new grant, “How dynamic gestures and directed actions contribute to mathematical proof practices,” runs from July 2016 through June 2020. — Margaret Allen, SMU

    Follow SMU Research on Twitter, @smuresearch.

    For more SMU research see www.smuresearch.com.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information, www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Good news! You’re likely burning more calories than you thought

    Leading standardized equations used to predict or estimate walking energy expenditure — calories burned — count too few calories in nearly all cases on level surfaces, study finds. New method improves accuracy.

    Jennifer Nollkamper and Dr. Lindsay Ludlow assist Dr. Takeshi Fujii in a treadmill test that captures volume of oxygen, volume of expired air and the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide, all variables that help measure energy expenditure during walking. (Hillsman Jackson, SMU)
    Jennifer Nollkamper and Dr. Lindsay Ludlow assist Dr. Takeshi Fujii in a treadmill test that captures volume of oxygen, volume of expired air and the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide, all variables that help measure energy expenditure during walking. (Hillsman Jackson, SMU)

    Walking is the most common exercise, and many walkers like to count how many calories are burned.

    Little known, however, is that the leading standardized equations used to predict or estimate walking energy expenditure — the number of calories burned — assume that one size fits all. The equations have been in place for close to half a century and were based on data from a limited number of people.

    A new study at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, found that under firm, level ground conditions, the leading standards are relatively inaccurate and have significant bias. The standards predicted too few calories burned in 97 percent of the cases researchers examined, said SMU physiologist Lindsay Ludlow.

    For more information

    Lindsay Ludlow, SMU, Weyand, Locomotor LabTo book a live or taped interview with Lindsay Ludlow in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News and Communications, at 214-768-7654, or email news@smu.edu.
    Peter Weyand, SMUTo book a live or taped interview with Peter Weyand in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News and Communications, at 214-768-7654, or email news@smu.edu.

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    A new standardized equation developed by SMU scientists is about four times more accurate for adults and kids together, and about two to three times more accurate for adults only, Ludlow said.

    “Our new equation is formulated to apply regardless of the height, weight and speed of the walker,” said Ludlow, a researcher in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory of biomechanics expert Peter Weyand. “And it’s appreciably more accurate.”

    Ludlow and her colleagues report the new equation in the Journal of Applied Physiology, “Energy expenditure during level human walking: seeking a simple and accurate predictive solution.” The article is published in the March 1, 2016 issue, and available online at this link.

    “The economy of level walking is a lot like shipping packages – there is an economy of scale,” said Weyand, a co-author on the paper. “Big people get better gas mileage when fuel economy is expressed on a per-pound basis.”

    The SMU equation predicts the calories burned as a person walks on a firm, level surface. Ongoing research is expanding the algorithm to predict the calories burned while walking up- and downhill, and while carrying loads, Ludlow said.

    SMU’s research is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense Medical Research and Materiel Command. The grant is part of a larger DOD effort to develop load-carriage decision-aid tools to assist foot soldiers.

    The research comes at a time when greater accuracy combined with mobile technology, such as wearable sensors like Fitbit, is increasingly being used in real time to monitor the body’s status. The researchers note that some devices use the old standardized equations, while others use a different method to estimate the calories burned.

    New equation considers different-sized people
    To provide a comprehensive test of the leading standards, SMU researchers compiled a database using the extensive walking metabolism data available in the existing scientific literature to evaluate the leading equations for walking on level ground.

    “The SMU approach improves upon the existing standards by including different-sized individuals and drawing on a larger database for equation formulation,” Weyand said.

    The new equation achieves greater accuracy by better incorporating the influence of body size, and by specifically incorporating the influence of height on gait mechanics. Specifically:

    • Bigger people burn fewer calories on a per pound basis of their body weight to walk at a given speed or to cover a fixed distance;
    • The older standardized equations don’t account for size differences well, assuming roughly that one size fits all.

    Accuracy of standardized equations had not previously undergone comprehensive evaluation
    The exact dates are a bit murky, but the leading standardized equations, known by their shorthand as the “ACSM” and “Pandolf” equations, were developed about 40 years ago for the American College of Sports Medicine and for the military, Ludlow said.

    The Pandolf method, for example, draws on walking metabolism data from six U.S. soldiers, she said. Both the Pandolf and ACSM equations were developed on a small number of adult males of average height.

    The new more accurate equation will prove useful. Predicting energy expenditure is common in many fields, including those focused on health, weight loss, exercise, military and defense, and professional and amateur physical training.

    “Burning calories is of major importance to health, fitness and the body’s physiological status,” Weyand said. “But it hasn’t been really clear just how accurate the existing standards are under level conditions because previous assessments by other researchers were more limited in scope.”

    Energy expenditure estimates could assist with monitoring the body’s physiological status
    Accurate estimations of the rate at which calories are burned could potentially help predict a person’s aerobic power and likelihood for executing a task, such as training for an athletic competition or carrying out a military objective.

    In general, the new metabolic estimates can be combined with other physiological signals such as body heat, core temperature and heart rate to improve predictions of fatigue, overheating, dehydration, the aerobic power available, and whether a person can sustain a given intensity of exercise.

    Military seeks solutions to overburdened soldier problem
    The military has a major interest in more accurate techniques to help address their problem of over-burdened soldiers.

    “These soldiers carry incredible loads — up to 150 pounds, but they often need to be mobile to successfully carry out their missions,” said Weyand, a professor of Applied Physiology and Wellness in the SMU Simmons School of Education.

    Accurately predicting how many calories a person expends while walking could supply information that can help soldiers avoid thermal stress and fatigue in the field, especially troops deployed to challenging environments.

    “Soldiers incur a variety of physiological and musculoskeletal stresses in the field,” Weyand said. “Our metabolic modeling work is part of a broader effort to provide the Department of Defense with quantitative tools to help soldiers.” — Margaret Allen

    Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Culture, Society & Family Earth & Climate Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

    Capital Public Radio: California Sixth-Grade Textbooks Frame Climate Change As Uncertain

    Books voice doubt over whether climate change is real and suggest global warming could be beneficial, researchers say in analysis of four science texts

    California, study, climate change, sixth grade, textbooks, SMU, Stanford, Public radio, sacramento

    Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, Calif., covered new research co-authored by SMU teaching expert Diego Román.

    The new study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks adopted for use in California frame the subject of global warming. Sixth grade is the first time California state standards indicate students will encounter climate change in their formal science curriculum.

    Co-author on the article is K.C. Busch, a Ph.D. candidate in science education in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

    Studies estimate that only 3 percent of scientists who are experts in climate analysis disagree about the role of humans in the causes of climate change. And the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the evidence of 600 climate researchers in 32 countries reporting changes to Earth’s atmosphere, ice and seas — in 2013 stated “human influence on the climate system is clear.”

    Yet only 54 percent of American teens believe climate change is happening, 43 percent don’t believe it’s caused by humans, and 57 percent aren’t concerned about it.

    “We found that climate change is presented as a controversial debate stemming from differing opinions,” said Román, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the SMU Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. “Climate skeptics and climate deniers are given equal time and treated with equal weight as scientists and scientific facts — even though scientists who refute global warming total a miniscule number.”

    The findings were reported in October 2015 at the 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), held in Helsinki, Finland.

    The findings were also published in the Environmental Education Research journal in the article, “Textbooks of doubt: Using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks.”

    The radio report published Nov. 30, 2015.

    Listen to the report.

    EXCERPT:

    By Amy Quinton
    Capital Public Radio
    Sixth-grade is usually the first time California students are formally taught about climate change as part of their science curriculum. A recent study shows some textbooks present the subject as a debate stemming from opinions rather than science.

    Stanford and Southern Methodist University researchers analyzed the language in four sixth grade science textbooks from major publishers. All were published in 2008 and adopted for use in California.

    The authors found that the books contain language that frames climate change as possibly happening and that humans may or may not be causing it. Fewer than three percent of scientists refute climate change. But when attributing information to scientists, the textbooks used verbs like “believe”, “think”, or “propose.” Rarely were scientists said to be drawing conclusions from evidence or data.

    “What’s happening is that if you just leave it as the general ‘some scientists agree’ teachers will have to interpret what does the ‘some’ mean, it could be 60 percent, 40 percent, so it’s up to the teacher, it’s up to the student to interpret that,” says Diego Román, with Southern Methodist University and co-author of the study.

    The authors say the textbooks discussed the impact of climate change in hypothetical terms. Some suggested that global warming could be beneficial. Some states have begun adopting new national standards for science education, but the textbooks in the study are still in use.

    The study was published in the journal Environmental Education Research.

    Listen to the report.

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    Culture, Society & Family Earth & Climate Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

    Stanford U press release: Textbooks inaccurately present science on climate change as uncertain and doubtful

    Stanford research shows that some California science textbooks by major publishers portray climate change as a debate over different opinions rather than as scientific fact.

    study, climate change, textbooks, 6th graders, Diego Roman, SMU, Stanford

    Stanford University issued a press release about new research co-authored by SMU teaching expert Diego Román.

    The new study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks adopted for use in California frame the subject of global warming. Sixth grade is the first time California state standards indicate students will encounter climate change in their formal science curriculum.

    Co-author on the article is K.C. Busch, a Ph.D. candidate in science education in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

    Studies estimate that only 3 percent of scientists who are experts in climate analysis disagree about the role of humans in the causes of climate change. And the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the evidence of 600 climate researchers in 32 countries reporting changes to Earth’s atmosphere, ice and seas — in 2013 stated “human influence on the climate system is clear.”

    Yet only 54 percent of American teens believe climate change is happening, 43 percent don’t believe it’s caused by humans, and 57 percent aren’t concerned about it.

    “We found that climate change is presented as a controversial debate stemming from differing opinions,” said Román, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the SMU Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. “Climate skeptics and climate deniers are given equal time and treated with equal weight as scientists and scientific facts — even though scientists who refute global warming total a miniscule number.”

    The findings were reported in October 2015 at the 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), held in Helsinki, Finland.

    The findings were also published in the Environmental Education Research journal in the article, “Textbooks of doubt: Using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks.”

    The press release published Nov. 23, 2015.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Clifton B. Parker
    Stanford University
    Major California science textbooks may be misrepresenting the science behind climate change as much weaker than it actually is, new Stanford research shows.

    In doing so, the textbooks more closely reflect the public debate about climate change rather than the scientific reality, according to the paper, which was published in the Environmental Education Research journal.

    “We found that through language choices, the text portrayed climate change as uncertain along several lines, such as whether climate change was happening, whether humans were causing it and what the effects will be,” said K.C. Busch, a doctoral candidate in science education at Stanford Graduate School of Education.

    Busch is co-author of the article with Diego Román, assistant professor of education at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

    Classroom influence
    Middle school students learn about climate change in large part through textbooks used in their classes, Busch and Román wrote. And what they learn during those formative years does matter, they wrote, noting a recent poll found that only 54 percent of American teens believe that climate change is actually happening, and 43 percent do not believe that it is caused by humans.

    “What might be the sources of this erroneous belief among American youth? Some answers may be found in the students’ classrooms,” they wrote.

    Their study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks commonly used in California, which were published nearly 10 years ago, present the subject of climate change. The works studied were Focus on Earth Science (Prentice Hall, 2008), Focus on Earth Science (Glencoe-McGraw-Hill, 2007), Focus on Earth Science (CPO Science, 2007) and Earth Science (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 2007).

    Under California state standards, sixth grade is the first time that students learn about climate change in their formal science curriculum, the researchers said.

    ‘Uncertain’ climate change
    In their research, Busch and Román analyzed each textbook’s section about climate change, comprising 279 clauses that contained 2,770 words. They found that the message communicated in the textbooks was that climate change might be happening and that humankind may or may not be causing it. Those works were unclear about the need for a human response and action against the threat of climate change, Busch and Román said.

    Read the full story.

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    Culture, Society & Family Earth & Climate Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

    The Guardian: California public school textbooks mislead students on climate, study says

    Books voice doubt over whether climate change is real and suggest global warming could be beneficial, researchers say in analysis of four science texts

    The Guardian, climate change, textbooks, 6th graders, Diego Roman, SMU, Stanford

    The Guardian has covered the research of SMU teaching expert Diego Román co-author of a new study on California 6th grade science textbooks and how they frame the subject of climate change.

    Studies estimate that only 3 percent of scientists who are experts in climate analysis disagree about the role of humans in the causes of climate change. And the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the evidence of 600 climate researchers in 32 countries reporting changes to Earth’s atmosphere, ice and seas — in 2013 stated “human influence on the climate system is clear.”

    Yet only 54 percent of American teens believe climate change is happening, 43 percent don’t believe it’s caused by humans, and 57 percent aren’t concerned about it.

    The new study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks adopted for use in California frame the subject of global warming. Sixth grade is the first time California state standards indicate students will encounter climate change in their formal science curriculum.

    “We found that climate change is presented as a controversial debate stemming from differing opinions,” said Román, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the SMU Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. “Climate skeptics and climate deniers are given equal time and treated with equal weight as scientists and scientific facts — even though scientists who refute global warming total a miniscule number.”

    Co-author on the article is K.C. Busch, a Ph.D. candidate in science education in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

    The findings were reported in October 2015 at the 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), held in Helsinki, Finland.

    The findings were also published in the Environmental Education Research journal in the article, “Textbooks of doubt: Using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks.”

    The Guardian article published Nov. 23, 2015.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Oliver Milman
    The Guardian
    Textbooks in California public schools are misleading students on climate change, with material that expresses doubt over whether it is real and promotes the view that increasing temperatures may be beneficial, according to a Stanford University study.

    An analysis of four key science texts given to sixth-grade students in California showed that the books “framed climate change as uncertain in the scientific community – both about whether it is occurring as well as about its human-causation”.

    Researchers studied 2,770 words used in the books, which are given to students as their first introduction to climate science, and found that the widely accepted opinion that the climate is changing and that humans are the main cause wasn’t represented in the books.

    Whereas California science textbooks on other subjects list facts, the books focused on climate change use conditional words like “could”, “might” or “may” throughout. Three of the textbooks are called Focus on Earth Science, published separately by Prentice Hall, Glencoe-McGraw-Hill and CPO Science. The fourth is called Earth Science, published by Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

    The Prentice Hall book, first published in 2008, states: “Not all scientists agree about the causes of global warming. Some scientists think that the 0.7C degree rise in global temperatures over the past 120 years may be due in part to natural variations in climate.”

    The same book stresses that climate change “could have some positive effects”.

    “Farmers in some areas that are now cool could plant two crops a year instead of one,” it reads. “Places that are too cold for farming today could become farmland. However, many effects of global warming are likely to be less positive.”

    Meanwhile, Earth Science has a passage that reads: “Until recently, climatic changes were connected only to natural causes. However, studies indicate that human activities may have an influence on climate change.”

    The Stanford University study concludes that the language used in the textbooks is likely to promote doubt over the science of climate change and dampen any sense of urgency in dealing with the issue.

    Read the full story.

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    Culture, Society & Family Learning & Education Researcher news

    California 6th grade science books: Climate change a matter of opinion not scientific fact

    Textbooks from different major publishers give climate deniers equal weight as vast majority of climate scientists who cite scientific evidence of human-caused global warming

    A new study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks adopted for use in California frame the subject of global warming. (SMU)
    A new study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks adopted for use in California frame the subject of global warming. (Diego Román, SMU)

    If American teens are unsure about climate change or its cause, some school textbooks aren’t helping, says teaching expert Diego Román, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, co-author of a new study on the subject.

    Studies estimate that only 3 percent of scientists who are experts in climate analysis disagree about the causes of climate change. But the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the evidence of 600 climate researchers in 32 countries reporting changes to Earth’s atmosphere, ice and seas — in 2013 stated “human influence on the climate system is clear.”

    Yet only 54 percent of American teens believe climate change is happening, 43 percent don’t believe it’s caused by humans, and 57 percent aren’t concerned about it.

    The new study measured how four sixth-grade science textbooks adopted for use in California frame the subject of global warming. Sixth grade is the first time California state standards indicate students will encounter climate change in their formal science curriculum.

    The researchers examined different textbooks, each published in either 2007 or 2008 by a different major publisher. They found and analyzed 279 clauses containing 2,770 words discussing climate change.

    “We found that climate change is presented as a controversial debate stemming from differing opinions,” said Román, an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the SMU Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. “Climate skeptics and climate deniers are given equal time and treated with equal weight as scientists and scientific facts — even though scientists who refute global warming total a miniscule number.”

    The message communicated in the four textbooks was that climate change is possibly happening, that humans may or may not be causing it, and its unclear if we need to take immediate mitigating action, the researchers found.

    That representation matches the public discourse around global warming, in which previous studies have shown that media characterize climate change as unsettled science with high levels of scientific uncertainty. The researchers said only 33 percent of the U.S. public believes climate change is a serious threat.

    The textbooks misrepresented, however, actual scientific discourse, which asserts climate change is an environmental problem bearing immense risk, where the human impact is clear, and where immediate action is warranted, the authors said.

    “The primary purpose of science education is to represent the science accurately, but this analysis of textbooks shows this not to be the case for climate science,” they said.

    Co-author on the article is K.C. Busch, a Ph.D. candidate in science education in Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

    The findings were reported in October 2015 at the 11th Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), held in Helsinki, Finland.

    The findings were also published in the Environmental Education Research journal in the article, “Textbooks of doubt: Using systemic functional analysis to explore the framing of climate change in middle-school science textbooks.”

    New national standards align with scientific discourse
    An extensive body of prior research has revealed students have many misconceptions about climate change, confusing it, for example, with causing acid rain and ozone depletion, as well as linking it to skin cancer, the authors note.

    Now there’s an opportunity to ensure textbooks aren’t part of the problem, by altering misleading language, Román said.

    States have begun adopting new national standards for science education as a result of recommendations by the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards. Those standards were developed in part by the National Science Teachers Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and align more accurately with the scientific discourse.

    “As the Next Generation Science Standards become adopted and implemented, publishers are writing new textbooks that include climate change,” the authors said. “This reworking of science textbooks provides a rare opportunity to reflect on how we can create texts that enhance science teaching and learning.” The standards were completed in April 2013.

    Specifically, the textbook researchers recommend against stripping out uncertainty, since even well proven theories carry the possibility of a better theory that contradicts one or more postulates of the theory.

    Instead they recommend clarifying what exactly is unknown and why.

    They also recommend the inclusion of humans as agents and as the cause of climate change. That fact is scientifically supported and not controversial among scientists who study climate from a broad range of disciplines, including geology, geophysics, geography, paleoclimatology, glaciology, hydrology, ecology, evolutionary biology, environmental studies and oceanography.

    Textbook language doesn’t reflect science of climate change
    To study the textbooks, the researchers applied text analysis to conduct an exhaustive examination of the choices and frequency of language, including the level of uncertainty as well as the agents involved.

    The textbooks did promote uncertainty when addressing the causes of climate change by using verbs such as could, may or might. And some passages created the view that global warming could even be beneficial. One textbook wrote:

    “Global warming could have some positive effects. Farmers in some areas that are now cool could plant two crops a year instead of one. Places that are too cold for farming today could become farmland. However, many effects of global warming are likely to be less positive. Higher temperatures would cause water to evaporate from exposed soil, such as plowed farmland. Dry soil blows away easily. Thus, some fertile fields might become ‘dust bowls.’”

    The texts emphasized abstractions, such as deforestation or the burning of wood, without referencing humans.

    When attributing information to scientists, the textbooks used verbs such as believe, think or propose, but rarely were scientists said to be drawing conclusions from evidence or data. There was one occurrence when the noun evidence was used, the authors said, and then it was to suggest the notion that climate change is not new:

    “Scientists have found evidence of many major ice ages throughout Earth’s geologic history.”

    Less frequently used were verbs that describe scientific practices — such as “find,” “determine,” “measure,” “obtain.” The most frequently used word when scientists were present in the sentence was “think,” which introduces the idea that it was decided rather than observed or found as the result of scientific observation and research, Román said.

    Language matters, particularly in California, Texas, New York
    The findings suggest that textbooks should be more specific about the facts, should cite sources, and should accurately reflect the methods by which scientists reached their conclusions.

    “The work of scientists should be represented accurately rather than saying that scientists think or believe, as if it’s a matter of opinion,” Román said.

    As a social scientist who studies linguistics and the impact of words, Román said language matters, particularly in the textbooks in the nation’s three most populated states, California, Texas and New York, which set standards for the rest of the country.

    “These textbooks discuss the impact of climate change on the Earth in hypothetical terms, in complete contradiction to scientific research findings,” he said.

    The researchers note that while it’s accurate that agreement isn’t unanimous, only about 3 percent of climate scientists disagree about the causes of climate change. “Yet textbooks characterize that with the description ‘some scientists,’ so students can assume its 50-50, which is very different from saying ‘97 percent of scientists,’” he said.

    Does the language reflect a compromise by publishers as they walk a fine line?

    “It appears textbook publishers include discussion of climate change to appease one segment of their market — but then to appease another segment they suggest doubt, which doesn’t reflect the scientific reality,” he said.

    Textbooks lack specific language to guide student action
    Textbook language should reflect the language used in scientific reports, be explicit about the sources of information and should clarify human cause, with specific actions students can take to produce change, the authors recommend.

    Yet none of the textbooks explicitly called students to act to mitigate climate change, the authors note.

    Generic information, such as “take care of the environment” or “stop burning coal and wood,” lack specific solutions for action.

    “Students think, ‘that’s not me — that’s the people in the Amazon who are burning forests,’” Román said. “Textbooks must draw the connection between specifics, such as turning off lights or driving less, to relate solutions to students and their lives.” — Margaret Allen

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    Reading ability soars if young struggling readers get school’s intensive help immediately

    Reading skill fails to improve when schools follow current practices that require struggling readers to fail first before they merit tutoring or extra teaching

    wait to fail, struggling readers, teaching, SMU, Simmons

    Reading skills improve very little when schools follow the current standard practice of waiting for struggling readers to fail first before providing them with additional help, according to researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

    In contrast, a recent study found that a dynamic intervention in which struggling readers received the most intensive help immediately, enabled students to significantly outperform their peers who had to wait for additional help, said Stephanie Al Otaiba, lead author on the research.

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    To book a live or taped interview with Dr. Stephanie Al Otaiba in the SMU Broadcast Studio, 214-768-7650 or news@smu.edu.
    Paul Yovanoff, wait to fail, reading, education, response to intervention, SMU, Simmons

    To book a live or taped interview with Dr. Paul Yovanoff in the SMU Broadcast Studio, 214-768-7650 or news@smu.edu.

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    “We studied how well struggling readers respond to generally effective standard protocols of intervention to help them improve. We found that how those interventions are provided within a school — how immediately they are provided — makes an important difference,” said Al Otaiba, professor of teaching and learning in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at SMU.

    Proficient reading is critical, and early intervention is imperative, said co-author and academic skills measurement expert Paul Yovanoff, also a professor of teaching and learning in the Simmons School.

    About 40 percent of U.S. children in fourth grade do not read at a proficient level, Yovanoff said.

    “We’re not talking about a small group of children,” he said. “We’re talking about a large group. And the number is higher in urban areas and higher among minority students. How can these kids grow up and participate in society as moms and dads in the economy unless they’re literate? Reading is a bottleneck for their success in school and in life.”

    Determined to help more struggling readers, the researchers hope the findings of their study will lead to further research that helps educators identify where the malleable levers are for change within school systems and in professional development for teachers.

    “It’s possible schools could manage interventions and assess interventions differently,” Al Otaiba said. “And schools might also provide teachers with different or added professional development, coaching and support, particularly where so many struggling readers are included in general education for a large portion of the school day.”

    A wait-to-fail system can be the unintended consequence of response to intervention as it’s currently practiced in U.S. schools, the researchers said.

    “If you have to wait a certain time to demonstrate that you need more help, then it’s a wait-to-fail system,” Yovanoff said. “Good teaching would collect frequent information about the student’s performance and adjust help appropriately.”

    The research was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

    Co-author was Jeanne Wanzek, the Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University.

    The researchers reported the findings in their article “Response to Intervention” in the European Scientific Journal. It’s published online at the European Scientific Journal site.

    Those with intensive intervention immediately outperformed
    The study, initiated in 2011, followed 522 first grade public school students for three years through third grade.

    At the start of the study, the children were young beginning readers with the poorest initial reading skills, who were struggling and at risk for developing reading disabilities.

    The children were randomly sorted into two groups. One group was assigned to receive an immediate and intensive intervention, which included additional structured reading instruction 45 minutes a day, four days a week, in subgroups of three to five students.

    The second group started with good classroom instruction. Children who didn’t respond well after eight weeks received additional help. If they continued not to respond, they received another layer of help. Educators call this approach a multi-tier model of response to intervention.

    “We contrasted the multi-tier model with what we call a dynamic model, where we gave kids with the weakest initial skills the strongest intervention right away,” Al Otaiba said. “The kids in the dynamic system outperformed the kids who got help later.”

    Struggling readers boosted skills significantly
    The researchers followed up on the students in third grade, and found that those that had received the immediate intensive intervention continued to outperform the children who had to wait, Al Otaiba said.

    Those children are now in sixth grade, and the researchers continue to monitor their performance.

    Students in the study who received appropriate intensive interventions significantly outperformed the students who had to wait by a third of a standard deviation, Yovanoff said

    “So when we say our intervention has improved performance by a third of a standard deviation, we’ve increased their skill beyond a random fluctuation in performance,” he said “We’re quite confident this child has in fact learned to a very significant degree. It’s statistically significant.”

    Even those helped the most failed to catch up with peers
    Did struggling readers who improved catch up to their non-struggling peers, however?

    Yes — in their ability to pronounce and read a real word, the researchers found.

    But they continued to lag behind their peers in how fast they could read, and in intonation and comprehension.

    “Still, they were less far behind in those areas than the kids who had to wait to get help,” Al Otaiba said.

    The researchers measured growth and change over time, as opposed to a student’s performance at one specific point. So as time goes on, it’s possible to see the gap closing, the researchers said.

    The researchers hope the study findings will guide schools in effective intervention practices.

    “The notion is to develop more intensive, individualized interventions to help prevent reading problems and maximize reading skills for children who are struggling,” Al Otaiba said. — Margaret Allen

    Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Mustang Minute! Simmons researcher tests if video game motion capture can teach math

    Motion capture software, popular in the world of video gaming, is being tested to see if it may be a useful tool in the classroom.

    Researchers know that the more engaged students are, the more likely they are to learn.

    In her research, SMU teaching expert Candace Walkington, assistant professor of teaching and learning in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development, has measured different kinds of engagement and its effectiveness as a teaching tool.

    Now Walkington has asked students to test motion capture software as a tool for teaching math. The students are enrolled in summer video game design camps at Guildhall, SMU’s premier graduate video game education program.

    Students practiced a motion capture software program that teaches geometry. The program was created by Walkington in partnership with Extreme Reality, an industry leader in motion capture software. Results of the preliminary testing will be included in a grant proposal Walkington is preparing to test the software further.

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    For the preliminary test, Walkington asked students to read problems on a computer and then move their arms to either signal their answers or advance the math questions to the next sequence.

    The study is one of several for Walkington, whose previous studies have focused on how abstract mathematical concepts can be grounded in students’ out-of-school interests, experiences and everyday reasoning practices.

    Another of Walkington’s recent studies, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, draws data from Pennsylvania classrooms using an in-school intelligent tutoring system for Algebra I. The software personalizes instruction to match the pace of each student, detects a student’s current state of knowledge, determines which kinds of problems to present and what feedback and help are needed, and tracks each child’s progress. Walkington has a long-time collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center.

    She has also been awarded a grant as part of the Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of the National Academy of Education. The $55,000 grant supports early career scholars working in critical areas of education research.

    Walkington earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from Texas A&M University, and had planned to have a career as a financial mathematician. She changed her career path after completing a National Science Foundation graduate teaching fellowship at a high-poverty rural school in Iola, Texas.

    There Walkington discovered firsthand the satisfaction of designing innovative strategies to help struggling fifth and sixth graders learn math. The experience brought back memories of her own seventh-grade struggle with algebra, which had threatened to derail her interest in math.

    Walkington has also participated in the Measures of Effective Teaching Project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    While working on her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, Walkington collaborated on research geared toward identifying what teacher behaviors are a strong predictor of student success on standardized math tests. The research was incorporated into the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching Project, one of the largest research efforts in U.S. history to identify and understand effective teaching. The project is shaping educational policy nationally.

    Walkington and research colleague Michael P. Marder, executive director of UTeach Science Program, University of Texas at Austin, contributed protocols to the MET Project based on their findings, including one finding that classrooms where the teacher focuses specifically on students deeply understanding math have higher test scores compared to classrooms where teachers focus on drill and standardized test preparation. In addition, they also found that classroom management was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for learning.

    Walkington’s research appears in a new groundbreaking book about the MET Project, “Designing Teacher Evaluation Systems: New Guidance from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project,” (Wiley, July 2014). Walkington, who led a team that analyzed 1,000 video math lessons of teachers around the country to code effective teaching, is first author on a chapter. — Margaret Allen

    Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

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    $3.78 million awarded by Department of Defense to SMU STEM project for minority students

    African Americans make up 11% of U.S. workforce but only 6% of STEM workers; 83% of SMU STEM students pursue grad school

    Dallas eighth-graderTomisin Ogunfunmi measure sodium bicarbonate for a lab simulating air bag inflation.
    Dallas eighth-graderTomisin Ogunfunmi measure sodium bicarbonate for a lab simulating air bag inflation.

    The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded the STEMPREP Project at Southern Methodist University a $3.78 million grant to support its goal of increasing the number of minorities in STEM fields.

    The grant follows a $2.6 million grant in 2014.

    According to a report just released from the Executive Office of the President, 21 percent of Hispanic men and 28 percent of black men have a college degree by their late twenties compared to nearly half of white men. The 2013 U.S. Census Bureau reports that African Americans make up 11 percent of the U.S. workforce but only 6 percent of STEM workers. Hispanics make up 15 percent of the U.S. workforce, but just 7 percent of the STEM workforce.

    To create more diversity in STEM fields, the STEMPREP Project, based at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at SMU, recruits bright, science-minded middle school students for the first phase of the 10-year program.

    One hundred seventh and eighth grade minority students live on the SMU campus through August 1 for six weeks of college-level biology, chemistry, statistics and research writing and presentation classes, laboratory techniques course, and the creation of a final in-depth research presentation on a disease. Each day begins with class at 8:30 a.m and wraps up after study hall at 8:30 p.m.

    Eighth-grader Walter Victor Rouse, II wants to be a heart surgeon and professional basketball player to honor his grandfather, Loyola basketball standout Vic Rouse, who died from heart disease before Walter was born. Vic Rouse was an honor student at Loyola University in 1963 when his rebound and basket in overtime clinched the NCAA basketball championship for Loyola. Rouse died in 1999 at age 56.

    STEMPREP identifies talent early and nurtures it with practice and coaching
    As a STEMPREP student, Walter is part of a program that boasts an impressive success rate – 100 percent of STEMPREP project students who finish the program attend college and 83 percent go on to graduate school to become physicians, pharmacists, dentists, researchers or engineers.

    “Being in this program empowers students,” says Charles Knibb, STEMPREP director of academic affairs, an SMU research professor and a former surgeon.

    Moses Williams, executive director, founded the program in 1990 when he was director of admissions for Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

    “As a gatekeeper, I realized there were not a lot of minorities being considered,” he says. “I wanted to change that.” He compares the program to training young athletes: Identify talent early and then nurture it through practice and coaching.

    Eighth-grader Beatriz Coronado of Marietta, Georgia, says she would be spending the summer taking care of her little brothers if she wasn’t at SMU as part of STEMPREP. Instead she recently completed her favorite lab so far, an enzyme-linked immuno assay simulation that detects and measures antibodies in the blood. She plans to become a family physician.

    Charles Knibb, SMU, Simmons

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    Dallas eighth-grader Tomisin Ogunfunmi says he didn’t know he could be so independent until he spent six weeks on the SMU campus at STEMPREP last summer. Now he looks forward to next summer when he will work in a Philadelphia university research lab with a scientist as a mentor. He plans to pursue a combination MD/PhD to become a biomedical engineering researcher, possibly at a university.

    After participants in the STEMPREP program finish the junior high component, they spend their senior high and college summers working in university, U.S. government and private research laboratories in Philadelphia, Bethesda, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver.

    Taisha Husbands, who graduated from SMU in May with psychology and chemistry degrees, joined the STEMPREP program as an eighth grader.

    “I’ve known since I was four that I wanted to be a doctor,” says Husbands, a native of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. “But I come from a family of teachers and police officers; I thought this program would help me reach my goal.”

    Husbands starts medical school in August at the University of Southern California. In the meantime, this summer she is teaching science to current STEMPREP seventh and eighth graders and lives with them in a residence hall on campus. She hasn’t forgotten what it is like to be an eighth grader wrestling with college-level material and created an evening study session for students who wanted extra help.

    “When I was in eighth grade, one of the STEMPREP teachers sat down with me at lunch every day to help me with the material,” she says. “Helping these students is one of those pay-it-forward things.”

    Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    ESPN: How have players become so big and so fast?

    Blame a former pole-vaulter who in 1969 was weight training the Nebraska Cornhusker’s injured players

    Boyd Epley changed the way Nebraska approached strength training, and soon after other programs followed their lead. (Courtesy Nebraska athletics)
    Boyd Epley changed the way Nebraska approached strength training, and soon after other programs followed their lead. (Courtesy Nebraska athletics)

    SMU physiologist and biomechanics researcher Peter G. Weyand was quoted by ESPN reporter Josh Moyer in his Big Ten Blog for an article about the evolution of the speed and size of college football players.

    Weyand leads the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory and is recognized worldwide as an expert in human running performance. An expert in the locomotion of humans and other terrestrial animals, Weyand’s broad research interests focus on the relationships between muscle function, metabolic energy expenditure, whole body mechanics and performance.

    Moyer’s ESPN article, “How have players become so big and so fast? Blame a former pole-vaulter” published July 1, 2015.

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    Weyand’s research on the limits of human and animal performance has led to featured appearances on the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, NHK Television Japan, National Public Radio and others.

    Read the full article, “How have players become so big and so fast? Blame a former pole-vaulter.”

    EXCERPT:

    By Josh Moyer
    ESPN Staff Writer

    Nebraska’s Boyd Epley can still remember the weight-room phone call during a warm August afternoon in 1969. He didn’t know the brief talk would forever alter the college football landscape.

    For months Epley, a no-name pole-vaulter from a no-name Arizona junior college, had trained — almost inadvertently — the Huskers’ injured football players. Epley lifted weights to strengthen his injured back — using techniques he picked up from a body-building friend in high school — and the Huskers’ football players mimicked him.

    Tom Osborne, then a first-year offensive coordinator at Nebraska, noticed that those injured players returned to the gridiron even better than before, so he wondered what kind of impact strength training would have on healthy players. Why couldn’t Epley work his magic on the entire Huskers team? Why not call down to the weight room and hire him as the nation’s first full-time strength and conditioning coach?

    “If you’re looking for the most impactful change, in terms of progression, Nebraska’s coaches coming onto the scene like that — that was probably the single most important event,” said Dr. Peter Weyand, an SMU professor of applied physiology and biomechanics, and one of the nation’s foremost experts on human performance.

    Read the full article, “How have players become so big and so fast? Blame a former pole-vaulter.”

    Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Outside Magazine: Inside the Effort to Crack the Sub-Two Hour Marathon

    A bold, scientist-backed effort to achieve the impossible within the next five years may benefit all runners—even if the goal remains a moonshot.

    Weyand, SMU, sub two-hour marathon

    The work of SMU physiologist and biomechanics researcher Peter G. Weyand was featured in an article in Outside Magazine about an international scientific collaboration’s effort to crack the sub-two hour marathon.

    Weyand leads the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory and is recognized worldwide as an expert in human running performance. An expert in the locomotion of humans and other terrestrial animals, Weyand’s broad research interests focus on the relationships between muscle function, metabolic energy expenditure, whole body mechanics and performance.

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    An associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, Weyand is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on the importance of ground forces for running speed established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    In particular, his finding that speed athletes are not able to reposition their legs more rapidly than non-athletes debunked a widespread, but baseless belief. Rather, Weyand and colleagues demonstrated sprinting performance is largely set by the force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.

    This work provided the understanding that enabled Weyand and colleagues to investigate the influence of prosthetic limbs on sprint running performance.

    Weyand’s research on the limits of human and animal performance has led to featured appearances on the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, NHK Television Japan, National Public Radio and others.

    The article published April 10, 2015.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Brian Alexander
    Outside Magazine
    Last year, when University of Brighton professor Yannis Pitsiladis announced Sub2-Hrs, an organized effort to break the two-hour marathon barrier within five years—a milestone akin to the four-minute mile or the ten-second 100 meters—a chorus of naysayers sprang to their feet in protest. Exercise physiologist Ross Tucker even called the effort “disingenuous” on his sports science blog.

    Any number of theories have been floated as to why the Sub2-Hrs effort will fail, but all of them may be missing the point. The object of the exercise, according to team member Peter Weyand, a professor of applied physiology at Southern Methodist University, is to assemble a team of experts in various segments of human performance including genetics, physiology, training, nutrition, medicine, biomechanics and see what happens.

    The exact details of the Sub2-Hrs project aren’t yet available. It’s unknown at this point, for example, if there will be some compound where athletes will train and live together under the supervision of clipboard-carrying scientists. Weyand said the plan is to screen runners who have dominated distance running (likely East Africans), for genetic variants that might predispose them to success, then apply the skills of other experts toward improving those elite athletes’ running efficiency, diet, avoiding injuries, and so on, so that one of them may break that two hour barrier within the next five years.

    “There are a number of basic questions about why people run the way they do,” Weyand explained. “What movement patterns are best for performance? Are they the same patterns that prevent injuries? There is a sea of unanswered questions.”

    Read the full story.

    Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Study will teach algebra with student-authored stories that draw on their own interests

    Tapping students’ rich algebraic ways of reasoning during out-of-school activities — such as sports, social networking and video games — generates personalized connections

    Candace Walkington, SMU, algebra, teaching

    Can students learn algebra from Instagram and video games?

    Teaching researcher Candace Walkington, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, thinks so.

    Walkington’s new study, funded by the National Academy of Education, will test that idea.

    “In previous work, I found that students draw upon rich algebraic ways of reasoning when pursuing their out-of-school interests in areas like sports, social networking and video games,” said Walkington, whose research focus is evidence-based effective teaching. “Making connections to these topics in algebra class can improve long-term understanding of algebraic ideas.”

    The new study asks pre-algebra students to author their own algebra stories based on their personal interests.

    Candace Walkington, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching & Learning in the SMU Simmons School, teaches evidence-based teaching strategies to future educators. (Credit: SMU)
    Candace Walkington, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching & Learning in the SMU Simmons School, teaches evidence-based teaching strategies to future educators. (Credit: SMU)

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    Students in middle schools in Dallas Independent School District will describe how linear relationships approximate what they encounter in their everyday lives, such as how they accumulate followers on Instagram or score points in a video game over time, said Walkington, an assistant professor of teaching and learning.

    Approximately 200 pre-Algebra students in eight classrooms at schools in the Dallas Independent School District are participating in the study. Based on results from earlier research, Walkington hypothesizes that authoring the stories will elicit students’ interest in the content to be learned by drawing on their knowledge about home and community.

    A pilot version of the study begins Spring 2015. The full study starts Fall 2015.

    Walkington was awarded the grant as part of the Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of the National Academy of Education. The $55,000 grant supports early career scholars working in critical areas of education research.

    Making math accessible and captivating is critical for encouraging learning
    Algebra is a gatekeeper to many careers and to higher-level mathematics, making it critical for students to master, Walkington said, but students struggle to understand the abstract representations.

    “Students often can’t see the connection between their world and algebra,” she said. “Exploring ways to connect math to their lives, experiences and knowledge is critical for making it accessible and captivating. That’s especially true when considering students from diverse backgrounds.”

    Walkington’s previous studies — including participation in the Measures of Effective Teaching Project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and her long-time collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center — have focused on how abstract mathematical concepts can be grounded in students’ out-of-school interests, experiences and everyday reasoning practices.

    “These studies combine cognitive theories related to activation of prior knowledge with motivational theories related to the development of interest in order to understand and intervene upon students’ mathematical understanding,” Walkington said.

    Search for effective teaching drives quantitative, qualitative methods
    Walkington’s study uses qualitative and quantitative methods to compare an experimental group to a control group. She will look at how the intervention elicits students’ interest in learning algebra, and at the impact on students’ classroom discussions, on learning algebra concepts and promoting a positive outlook toward math.

    “Personalizing instruction has the potential to improve learning and attitudes in algebra courses that are a key barrier to academic advancement and economic attainment,” said Walkington, a professor in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development.

    Walkington’s NAE study at Marsh Middle School in Dallas will provide personalized learning interventions for seventh and eighth grade math students. The study complements a new grant recently awarded to Dallas Independent School District by the Gates Foundation to build personalized learning models in eight DISD schools. Walkington will provide professional development to the eight teams, and is planning a research study that describes the process all eight schools go through as they build personalized learning models on their campuses.

    The research is critical for establishing evidence-based criteria for teaching.

    “There actually hasn’t been an extensive body of research showing if the customized approach is effective, for whom it’s effective, or what content it’s effective for. So there’s a lack of evidence,” says Walkington. “At the same time, we have this rise of technological systems in the schools with amazing potential to individualize instruction to each student.”

    New design studies build and expand on previous findings
    One of Walkington’s recent studies, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology, draws data from Pennsylvania classrooms using an in-school intelligent tutoring system for Algebra I. The software personalizes instruction to match the pace of each student, detects a student’s current state of knowledge, determines which kinds of problems to present and what feedback and help are needed, and tracks each child’s progress.

    Walkington took that a step further by adding student interests and hobbies into the software. After surveying ninth grade students about their interests, Walkington wrote math problems around those interests. The problems were programmed into the software, so problems are presented in the context most appealing to each individual student.

    “We found that students receiving personalization performed better on the math lesson than students presented problems that weren’t customized to their interests. We also found that one or two months later – on future lessons that weren’t personalized – those students who had received personalization were still doing better,” Walkington said.

    That study has been expanded to another group of high school students. In a recent paper presented at the Educational Data Mining Conference in London, Walkington demonstrated that personalization improved students’ interest in mathematics, which in turn improved achievement for those not interested in math initially. Ongoing studies in Houston and San Antonio schools allow students the choice of personalized context for each problem.

    “We think the combination of personalization and choice is going to have even more impact than personalization by itself,” she said. Early results from these studies support this hypothesis.

    Innovative strategies help struggling fifth and sixth graders
    Walkington earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from Texas A&M University, and had planned to have a career as a financial mathematician. She changed her career path after completing a National Science Foundation graduate teaching fellowship at a high-poverty rural school in Iola, Texas.

    There Walkington discovered firsthand the satisfaction of designing innovative strategies to help struggling fifth and sixth graders learn math. The experience brought back memories of her own seventh-grade struggle with algebra, which had threatened to derail her interest in math.

    “We’re focusing on the sixth- to ninth-grade math when students start to lose interest. At the same time they also start to become deeply interested in things outside of school, like music and sports,” Walkington says. “In this next study we’re hoping we see that personalization also gives them a more positive outlook toward mathematics and shows them how much they like math class.”

    While working on her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, Walkington collaborated on research geared toward identifying what teacher behaviors are a strong predictor of student success on standardized math tests. The research was incorporated into the Gates Foundation’s Measures of Effective Teaching Project, one of the largest research efforts in U.S. history to identify and understand effective teaching. The project is shaping educational policy nationally.

    Walkington and research colleague Michael P. Marder, executive director of UTeach Science Program, University of Texas at Austin, contributed protocols to the MET Project based on their findings, including one finding that classrooms where the teacher focuses specifically on students deeply understanding math have higher test scores compared to classrooms where teachers focus on drill and standardized test preparation. In addition, they also found that classroom management was a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for learning.

    Walkington’s research appears in a new groundbreaking book about the MET Project, “Designing Teacher Evaluation Systems: New Guidance from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project,” (Wiley, July 2014). Walkington, who led a team that analyzed 1,000 video math lessons of teachers around the country to code effective teaching, is first author on a chapter. — Margaret Allen

    Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    ESPN: SMU Locomotor Performance Lab spotlighted during SMU-Texas A&M football game

    Weyand’s research on the limits of human and animal performance has led to featured appearances on the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, NHK Television Japan, NPR and others.

    The SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory saw a few minutes of play during the SMU-Texas A&M football game Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014.

    ESPN’s broadcast team stopped by to see the reigning U.S. national 400-meter champion Gil Roberts on the lab’s high-tech treadmill.

    SMU physiologist and biomechanics expert Peter Weyand and his team at the lab study human performance and the boundaries of human speed.

    Peter-Weyand SMU
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    Weyand, recognized worldwide as an expert in human running performance, worked with Roberts on the lab’s specially equipped treadmill — it can go up to 90 miles an hour — which can measure how forcefully an athlete’s feet hit the ground.

    As an athlete runs, the lab’s ultra high-speed video system (normally used in the entertainment-animation-video game design industry) can capture 1,000 frames a second, delivering accurate and detailed data about a runner’s biomechanics.

    In the lab’s most recent published study, “Key to speed? Elite sprinters are unlike other athletes — deliver forceful punch to ground,” the scientists found that the key to speed is how forcefully athletes hit the ground — not how quickly they reposition their legs. They found that at top speed the world’s fastest runners take just as long to reposition their legs as an average Joe.

    Weyand is an expert in the locomotion of humans and other terrestrial animals with broad research interests that focus on the relationships between muscle function, metabolic energy expenditure, whole body mechanics and performance.

    His research draws on the largely distinct traditions of human exercise physiology and comparative biomechanics to consider basic functional issues.

    Weyand’s research on the limits of human and animal performance has led to featured appearances on the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CNN, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, NHK Television Japan, National Public Radio and others.

    The lab is part of the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development.

    Follow SMUResearch.com on twitter at @smuresearch.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Shape: How to Run Like an Elite Sprinter

    Sprinters lift their knees higher before driving their foot down, like a hammer striking a nail, says Clark.

    elite sprinters, Shape, SMU, Weyand, Clark

    Shape magazine reporter Amanda MacMillan has covered the research of SMU researcher Ken Clark, a doctoral student and researcher in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory. The lab and research are under the direction of SMU biomechanics expert Peter G. Weyand, associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics.

    Clark’s and Weyand’s new research found that the world’s fastest sprinters have unique gait features that account for their ability to achieve fast speeds.

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    Kenneth Clark, SMU, sprinters, gait, speed

    To book a live or taped interview with Ken Clark in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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    The new findings indicate that the secret to elite sprinting speeds lies in the distinct limb dynamics sprinters use to elevate ground forces upon foot-ground impact.

    The Shape article, “How to run like an elite sprinter,” published Aug. 26.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Amanda MacMillan
    Shape
    Scientists say they’ve figured out why elite sprinters are so much faster than the rest of us mere mortals, and surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the donuts we ate for breakfast. The world’s fastest runners have a significantly different gait pattern than other athletes, according to a new study from Southern Methodist University—and it’s one that we can train our own bodies to emulate.

    When researchers studied the running patterns of competitive 100- and 200-meter dash athletes versus competitive soccer, lacrosse, and football players, they found that the sprinters run with a more upright posture, and lift their knees higher before driving their foot down. Their feet and ankles remain stiff upon making contact with the ground too—”like a hammer striking a nail,” says study co-author Ken Clark, “which caused them to have short ground contact times, large vertical forces, and elite top speeds.”

    Most athletes, on the other hand, act more like a spring when they run, says Clark: “Their foot strikes aren’t as aggressive, and their landings are a little more soft and loose,” causing much of their potential power to be absorbed rather than expended. This “normal” technique is effective for endurance running, when runners need to conserve their energy (and go easier on their joints) over longer time periods. But for short distances, says Clark, moving more like an elite sprinter may help even normal runners pick up explosive speed.

    Read the full story.

    Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

    For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Key to speed? Elite sprinters are unlike other athletes — deliver forceful punch to ground

    New research finds that world-class sprinters attack the ground to maximize impact forces and speed

    The world’s fastest sprinters have unique gait features that account for their ability to achieve fast speeds, according to two new studies from Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

    The new findings indicate that the secret to elite sprinting speeds lies in the distinct limb dynamics sprinters use to elevate ground forces upon foot-ground impact.

    “Our new studies show that these elite sprinters don’t use their legs to just bounce off the ground as most other runners do,” said human biomechanics expert and lead author on the studies Ken Clark, a researcher in the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory. “The top sprinters have developed a wind-up and delivery mechanism to augment impact forces. Other runners do not do so.”

    The new findings address a major performance question that has remained unanswered for more than a decade.

    Previous studies had established that faster runners attain faster speeds by hitting the ground more forcefully than other runners do in relation to their body weight. However, how faster runners are able to do this was fully unknown. That sparked considerable debate and uncertainty about the best strategies for athletes to enhance ground-force application and speed.

    “Elite speed athletes have a running pattern that is distinct,” Clark said. “Our data indicate the fastest sprinters each have identified the same solution for maximizing speed, which strongly implies that when you put the physics and the biology together, there’s only one way to sprint really fast.”

    The critical and distinctive gait features identified by the study’s authors occur as the lower limb approaches and impacts the ground, said study co-author and running mechanics expert Peter Weyand, director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Lab.

    “We found that the fastest athletes all do the same thing to apply the greater forces needed to attain faster speeds,” Weyand said. “They cock the knee high before driving the foot into the ground, while maintaining a stiff ankle. These actions elevate ground forces by stopping the lower leg abruptly upon impact.”

    The new research indicates that the fastest runners decelerate their foot and ankle in just over two-hundredths of a second after initial contact with the ground.

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    The researchers reported their findings with co-author and physicist Laurence J. Ryan, research engineer for the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory in the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development.

    The finding that elite sprinters apply greater ground forces with a distinctive impact pattern is reported in the Journal of Applied Physiology in the article, “Are running speeds maximized with simple-spring stance mechanics?” It appears online at http://bit.ly/1Be92Mk in advance of appearing in the print journal.

    The finding that faster athletes deliver a firm, rapid punch to the ground upon contact is reported in The Journal of Experimental Biology, in the article “Foot speed, foot-strike and footwear: linking gait mechanics and running ground reaction forces.” It appears online at http://bit.ly/1uskM9v.

    Studies compared data from competitive sprinters to other athletes
    The tests conducted at SMU’s Locomotor Performance Lab compared competitive sprinters to other fast-running athletes.

    The competitive sprinting group included track athletes who specialized in the 100- and 200-meter events. More than half had international experience and had participated in the Olympics and Track and Field World Championships.

    They were compared to a group of athletes that included competitive soccer, lacrosse and football players.

    All the athletes in both groups had mid- and fore-foot strike patterns. Their running mechanics were tested on a custom, high-speed force treadmill that allowed the researchers to capture and analyze hundreds of footfalls at precisely controlled speeds. Video captured for the studies is posted to the SMU Locomotor Performance Lab Youtube channel. Images on flickr are at http://bit.ly/YKwAtB.

    The researchers measured ground-force patterns over a full range of running speeds for each athlete from a jog to top sprinting speed.

    “We looked at running speeds ranging from 3 to 11 meters per second,” Clark said. “Earlier studies in the field of biomechanics have examined ground reaction force patterns, but focused primarily on jogging speeds between 3 and 5 meters per second. The differences we found became identifiable largely because of the broad range of speeds we examined and the caliber of the sprinters who participated in the study.”

    Classic spring model of running does not explain the unique gait features of top sprinters
    The contemporary view of running mechanics has been heavily influenced by the simple spring-mass model, a theory first formulated in the late 1980s. The spring-mass model assumes the legs work essentially like the compression spring of a pogo stick when in contact with the ground.

    In this theory, during running at a constant speed on level ground, the body falls down out of the air. Upon landing, the support leg acts like a pogo stick to catch the body and pop it back up in the air for the next step.

    It’s been generally assumed that this classic spring model applies to faster running speeds and faster athletes as well as to slower ones.

    Elite sprinters do not conform to widely accepted theories of running mechanics
    Clark, Ryan and Weyand questioned whether such a passive catch-and-rebound explanation could account for the greater ground forces widely understood as the reason why sprinters achieve faster speeds.

    After the researchers gathered ground reaction force waveform data, they found that sprinters differed from other athletes. From there they compared the waveforms to those predicted by the simple spring in the classic model.

    “The elite sprinters did not conform to the spring-model predictions,” said Clark. “They deviated a lot, specifically during the first half of the ground-contact phase. Our athlete non-sprinters, on the other hand, conformed fairly closely to the spring-model predictions, even at their top speeds.”

    Weyand said the new findings indicate that the classic spring model is not sufficient for understanding the mechanical basis of sprint running performance.

    “We found all the fastest athletes applied greater ground forces with a common and apparently characteristic pattern that resulted from the same basic gait features,” he said. “What these sprinters do differently is in their wind up and delivery mechanics. The motion of their limbs in the air is distinct; so even though the duration of their limb-swing phase at top speed does not differ from other runners, the force delivery mechanism differs markedly.”

    Sprinters have a common mechanical solution for speed — one that athletes who aren’t as fast do not execute.

    “This provides scientific information so coaches and athletes can fully identify what to train,” Clark said. “It is our hope that our results can translate into advances in evidence-based approaches to training speed.”

    The research was funded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and SMU’s Simmons School of Education and Human Development. — Margaret Allen

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    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Department of Defense awards $2.6 million to SMU STEM program for minority students

    One hundred percent of STEMPREP project students who finish the program attend college and 83 percent go on to graduate school to become physicians, pharmacists, dentists, researchers or engineers.

    The U.S. Department of Defense recently awarded the STEMPREP Project at Southern Methodist University a $2.6 million grant to support its goal of increasing the number of minorities in STEM fields. STEMPREP recruits bright, science-minded minority middle school students for the two-summer classroom phase of the STEMPREP project, then provides high school students with summer opportunities at research labs.

    The program, based at SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, boasts an impressive success rate. One hundred percent of STEMPREP project students who finish the program attend college and 83 percent go on to graduate school to become physicians, pharmacists, dentists, researchers or engineers.

    “Being in this program empowers students,” says Charles Knibb, STEMPREP director of academic affairs, an SMU research professor and a former surgeon.

    According to a 2013 report from the U.S. Census Bureau, African Americans make up 11 percent of the U.S. workforce but only 6 percent of STEM workers. Hispanics make up 15 percent of the U.S. workforce, but just 7 percent of the STEM workforce.

    STEMPREP students intern at laboratories throughout the United States
    Joy Brown-Bryant plans to change those statistics – she would like to be U.S. surgeon general one day. But first, the 14-year-old from Oakland, Calif. wants to help reconstruct the faces of military burn victims as a plastic surgeon. Brown-Bryant is well on her way to achieving her goal.

    Charles Knibb, SMU, Simmons

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    She is one of 100 seventh- and eighth-grade STEMPREP students living on the SMU campus for six weeks of college-level biology, chemistry, statistics and research writing classes, daily biochemistry labs, and development of a final in-depth research presentation on a disease.

    After two summers at SMU, students in grades 9 through 12 are ready to work as summer research interns at laboratories at universities, the National Institutes of Health and private industry, with careful mentoring all along the way. This summer, STEMPREP high school and college students are interning in research laboratories in Bethesda, Philadelphia, Vancouver and Dallas.

    Moses Williams, executive director, founded the program in 1990 when he was admissions director for Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

    “As a gatekeeper, I realized there were not a lot of minorities being considered,” he says. “I wanted to change that.” He compares the program to training young athletes: Identify talent early and then nurture it through practice and coaching.

    STEMPREP students also learn the nonacademic lessons of college life at SMU – sharing a room in a residence hall, selecting their own meals in the campus dining hall and washing their own clothes. “I’m an only child; I’ve always had my own room,” says Stephen Isabell, a seventh-grader from Olney, Md. “Living in a dorm is a lot different than home, but it’s worth it. I’m becoming more independent.”

    STEMPREP students return as counselors to other young scientists
    At SMU, 12 STEMPREP high school seniors have come full circle, returning to the university as counselors to the newest crop of young scientists.
    “Being part of STEMPREP confirmed my decision to become a doctor,” says 18-year-old STEMPREP counselor Feaven Berhe. “In ninth grade when I started working in a research lab studying chemotherapy for breast cancer, I knew I wanted to pursue a medical career.”

    Berhe assisted with breast cancer nanochemotherapy research for two summers at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and last summer conducted a behavioral study on rats at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This summer she is assisting with pancreatic cancer research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.

    At 10 p.m. curfew each evening, Berhe checks on the seventh- and eighth-grade students in the residence hall. “It makes me emotional to talk with them,” she says. “They are beginning to realize that they are part of something that is life-changing.” — Nancy George

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    The Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at SMU reflects the University’s vision of serving the most important educational needs of the city, region and nation, graduating students for successful careers in a variety of fields and providing educational opportunities beyond traditional degree programs. The school is committed to rigorous, research-driven programs that promote evidence-based, effective practices in education and human development.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Help wanted: Principals who embrace change

    In their recommendations for averting a leadership crisis, SMU researchers Lee Alvoid and Les Black examine school districts at the forefront of supporting and training effective principals

    In a March 3, 2011 photo, teacher Josh Krinsky, left, and Principal Brett Kimmel get together in Krinsky's Global History class at the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
    In a March 3, 2011 photo, teacher Josh Krinsky, left, and Principal Brett Kimmel get together in Krinsky’s Global History class at the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

    Training principals for new roles is key to new U.S. Department of Education school reforms, according to a new report by researchers at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. But insufficient training and support enabling principals to meet these new expectations is leading to a leadership crisis. Twenty percent of newly minted principals leave the profession after two years, and seasoned professionals are opting for early retirement.

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    Lee Alvoid, SMU, education, reform, principals

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    BlackL

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    Jill Allor, SMU, reading, intellectual disabilityLow IQ students learn to read at 1st-grade level after persistent, intensive instruction

    Education researchers Lee Alvoid and Watt Lesley Black Jr. examine school districts at the forefront of supporting and training effective principals in “The Changing Role of the Principal: How High-Achieving Districts are Recalibrating School Leadership,” published July 1 by the Center for American Progress. As former principals and current faculty members at SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, both Alvoid and Black bring unique insight to the study.

    Teacher evaluation is a key element in President Obama’s Race to the Top education reform initiative, which in turn places demands on principals’ expertise and time.

    After analyzing six school districts across the United States with innovative support and training for principals, Alvoid and Black developed key recommendations for school districts.

    Their recommendations include focusing principal training on coaching teachers, redesigning principal job descriptions to focus on teachers and student outcomes, and developing partnerships with universities to recruit and train future principals.

    “Few reformers have paid attention to growing demands on principals, and few districts have intervened to help reevaluate the tasks,” says Alvoid, chair and clinical associate professor of education policy and leadership at the Simmons School. “The districts we feature in the report pay attention to the need of supporting practicing principals with deeper instructional training as they implement stronger teacher evaluation systems.”

    Strategies differ among school districts
    The charter school Uplift Education in Dallas added at each of its schools an operations director, responsible for all non-instructional aspects of running a school, such as building maintenance and student nutrition.

    Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in Charlotte, North Carolina added a dean of students position to support principals with student issues. Other districts strengthened principal training, particularly on coaching teachers.

    “The principal shapes the instructional vision and goals and is positioned to leverage his or her influence to effect substantial changes in instructional practice,” says Black, clinical associate professor of education and policy at the Simmons School. “In short — though the teacher has the most direct impact on students — the principal has the most direct impact on the teacher.’’ — Nancy George

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    The Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development at SMU reflects the University’s vision of serving the most important educational needs of the city, region and nation, graduating students for successful careers in a variety of fields and providing educational opportunities beyond traditional degree programs. The school is committed to rigorous, research-driven programs that promote evidence-based, effective practices in education and human development.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Mommy blog: Kids with intellectual disability can learn to read — and moms say, “We know!”

    “It’s certainly no shocker that our kids are capable of reading. More than anyone, we know how bright they are.” — Ellen Seidman

    Popular mommy blogger Ellen Seidman, whose blog “Lovethatmax” focuses on issues related to children identified with a disability, blogged about new SMU education reading research. Led by SMU reading expert Jill Allor, the study’s findings offer hope for thousands of children identified with intellectual disability or low IQ who have very little, if any, reading ability.

    The four-year, pioneering study is the first large-scale longitudinal study of its kind to demonstrate the reading potential of students with intellectual disability or low IQ, said lead author Jill H. Allor, principal investigator of the study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

    The current study also demonstrates the effectiveness of a teaching method that’s scientifically based for use with children identified with intellectual disability or low IQ, said Allor, a reading researcher whose expertise is reading acquisition.

    Coauthors included Patricia Mathes, TI Endowed Chair in Evidence-Based Education and a professor in the Simmons School.

    Mathes and Allor, former special education teachers, developed the study’s reading program after research into how children with dyslexia and other learning problems learn to read. The program was previously validated with struggling readers without intellectual disability or low IQ.

    The research will continue under a new $1.5 million U.S. Department of Education grant, also led by Allor, principal investigator.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Ellen Seidman
    Love that Max
    It’s not every day that I read about a study in the news and I get all emotional. But one about teaching reading to kids with special needs: yes. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, it found that students with intellectual disability who participated in a four-year program with intensive, specialized instruction learned to read at a first-grade level or higher. The kids, who had Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, Williams syndrome and physical disabilities, started the study around age 7.

    I’m well aware that it’s possible for kids with ID to learn to read because Max is reading, and making good progress. Still, it’s thrilling to see proof-positive research—and it’s surely going to inspire many parents out there. The study was done at Southern Methodist University and involved two verbal groups of children; one group of 76 received reading intervention, and the other group of 65 kids got the usual instructional method of teaching reading.

    Kids in the intervention group were taught reading 40 to 50 minutes a day in small settings, with a ratio of four students per teacher. They used a program developed by two former special education teachers for struggling readers with average IQs called Early Interventions in Reading (here’s a PDF about it). The program helps with letter knowledge and sounds, recognizing syllables and other phonological awareness, sounding out and sight words. Kids repeatedly read in unison, paired up with teachers, and read independently, too. Other activities touched on comprehension and listening.

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    Low IQ students learn to read at 1st-grade level after persistent, intensive instruction

    Study offers hope for all struggling readers after large sample of special education students and students with low IQ significantly improved their reading ability over several academic years

    The findings of a pioneering four-year educational study offer hope for thousands of children identified with intellectual disability or low IQ who have very little, if any, reading ability.

    The study by researchers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, is the first large-scale longitudinal study of its kind to demonstrate the reading potential of students with intellectual disability or low IQ, said lead author Jill H. Allor, principal investigator of the study, which was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

    The researchers found that students with intellectual disability who participated in four years of persistent, specialized instruction successfully learned to read at a first-grade level or higher.

    “This study proves that we should never give up on anyone. It raises expectations for all children,” Allor said. “Traditionally the focus of instruction for students with intellectual disability has been functional skills, such as how to manage their personal hygiene, do basic chores around the house or simple work skills. This study raises academic expectations as well.”

    The study demonstrates there’s hope for every struggling reader, said Allor, a reading researcher whose expertise is reading acquisition. The study’s implications can be life-changing for non-readers and struggling readers.

    “If these children, and any other struggling readers, can learn to read, that means they can go grocery shopping with a shopping list, read the labels on boxes and cans, and read basic instructions,” Allor said. “Even minimal reading skills can lead to a more independent life and improved job opportunities.”

    The findings indicate a critical need for more research to determine ways to streamline and intensify instruction for these students, said Allor, whose research focuses on preventing reading failure among struggling readers.

    “This study demonstrates the potential of students with intellectual disability or low IQ to achieve meaningful literacy goals,” said Allor. “And it also clearly demonstrates the persistence and intensity needed to help children with low IQs learn to read.”

    Students identified with intellectual disability account for nearly one in every 100 public school students, according to the study, which cites the U.S. Department of Education. Of those identified with intellectual disability who do graduate, most don’t receive a diploma, only a certificate of completion, said the study’s authors, all from SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    “This article is a call for boldness and the redoubling of our efforts to truly teach all children to read,” said the authors.

    The researchers report the findings, “Is scientifically based reading instruction effective for students with below-average IQs?” in the journal Exceptional Children, published by the Council for Exceptional Children.

    The study was funded with a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Allor, professor in the department of teaching and learning in the SMU Simmons School, was principal investigator.

    Successful instruction relied on proven, scientific-based teaching method
    For the study, a group of 141 children was divided into two groups. One group of 76 children received the reading intervention. A group of 65 children was taught in a business-as-usual instructional environment, which included various amounts of reading instruction and methods.

    The children in the intervention group were taught reading 40 to 50 minutes a day in intensive small group settings of one to four students per teacher. Teachers used “Early Interventions in Reading,” a proven curriculum designed by SMU reading specialist and study co-author Patricia G. Mathes and Allor.

    Most of the students entered the study around the age of 7 and variously were identified with disabilities including Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, Williams syndrome or a physical disability. All of the students had the ability to speak.

    IQs of the students in the study ranged from 40 to 80. IQ scores in the range of 85 to 115 are considered to be average.

    Instruction was provided by six teachers certified in special education and four part-time teachers certified in general education. Teaching experience ranged from five years to 35 years.

    After four years of the specialized teaching the researchers found that students with mild or moderate intellectual disability could independently read at the first-grade level, and some even higher.

    Students receiving the specialized instruction significantly outperformed the comparison group on a variety of key reading tests.

    Scientifically based reading program put to the test
    The current study also demonstrates the effectiveness of a teaching method that’s scientifically based for use with children identified with intellectual disability or low IQ, said Allor.

    Mathes and Allor, former special education teachers, developed the study’s reading program after research into how children with dyslexia and other learning problems learn to read.

    Teachers providing the intervention received extensive support and training, the authors said. That included multi-day professional development training on curriculum implementation, monthly meetings with the research team to address instructional and behavioral issues, and instructional support from reading coaches who previously taught the intervention.

    The program, previously validated with struggling readers without intellectual disability or low IQ, included a series of brief activities that increased in difficulty that were geared toward phonological awareness, letter knowledge and sounds, sounding out and sight words.

    Fluency was developed from repeated reading in unison to paired reading and independent timed reading, the authors said. Comprehension activities included strategies for both listening and reading comprehension.

    Students used provided materials that included word cards, small readers and activity pages to play reading games or to read aloud with someone else.

    IQ is generally considered a predictor of learning ability, but in this study with students who are intellectually disabled or low IQ, the results showed that IQ didn’t always predict academic achievement. Although generally students with higher IQs improved more quickly, there were many individual cases where a student with a lower IQ outperformed a student with a higher IQ, Allor said.

    Coauthors were Patricia Mathes, TI Endowed Chair in Evidence-Based Education and a professor in the Simmons School; J. Kyle Roberts; Jennifer P. Cheatham, research associate; and Stephanie Al Otaiba, professor.

    The research will continue under a new $1.5 million U.S. Department of Education grant, led by Allor, principal investigator on the grant. Al Otaiba and Paul Yovanoff, both professors in SMU’s new special education program, are co-investigators on the new grant. — Margaret Allen

    For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    MedicalXpress: When a parent dies, what helps a child cope?

    Families should allow children who have lost a parent to grieve in their own individual ways

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    Healthday reporter Barbara Bronson Gray tapped the expertise of social worker and educational psychologist Sarah Feuerbacher, clinical director of the family counseling clinic at SMU.

    The article by Bronson Gray, “When a parent dies, what helps a child cope?,” published March 14 online.

    Feuerbacher’s clinical focus is on holistic approaches to working with diverse individuals in their intrapersonal and environmental systems, as well as multifaceted themes of family abuse and healthy relationships. Her current research endeavor is a mixed method cross-case study analysis focusing on increasing self esteem and social skills among young adults on the Autism spectrum using team building interventions through multi-tiered psycho-educational processing groups.

    Read the full story.

    EXCERPT:

    By Barbara Bronson Gray
    Healthday
    It’s hard to imagine what a child may feel when a mother or father dies. Studies have found this crisis can pose serious psychological and developmental problems for years. Now new research suggests kids’ academic performance can also suffer.

    The extensive study from Sweden finds that after a parent’s death, kids tend to struggle with lower grades and even failure in school. If the tragedy was caused by something external—such as accidents, violence or suicide—the impact seems to be even more pronounced.

    The problems typically hit the underserved hardest. “External deaths are more often associated with relative poverty, addiction and mental health problems than are natural deaths,” said lead study author Dr. Anders Hjern, a professor of social epidemiology of children and youth at Stockholm University.

    Hjern said that higher social and economic status seems to help shield kids from school failure, possibly because students with more resources generally have better academic performance to start with. “Thus the effects of losing a parent usually do not have the same consequences as for low-income children who have a high risk for school failure even without a parental loss,” he said.
    In other words, almost all kids will have some trouble in school after the death of a parent. But for those already struggling, the crisis can be devastating to their performance.

    Other insight emerged into how children tend to react to the grief of a parent’s death. When the researchers adjusted data for socioeconomic status, they found no difference in a child’s reaction whether the parent who died was the mother or the father. “Surprisingly not,” Hjern said.

    The study team also discovered that much of the lower school performance they noted among bereaved children is related to family characteristics that existed before the death.

    The study, published online March 10 and in the April print issue of Pediatrics, tapped a national data registry to look for an association between parental death before age 15 and school performance at age 15 to 16. Researchers took into account factors such as the family’s social and economic situation, parental substance abuse, mental health problems and criminality.

    The investigators included more than 770,000 people born in Sweden from 1973 to 1981. Information on time and cause of parental death, and school performance was available for all the individuals included, thanks to the nature and scope of national records in Sweden.

    While the study found an association between the loss of a parent and declining school performance, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

    Special attention should be given in schools to grieving children to prevent a decline in school performance, the researchers concluded. They also stressed that any health services support for these kids should address not only psychological needs, but also issues related to financial problems and the family environment.

    The findings ring true to Sarah Feuerbacher, clinical director of the family counseling clinic at Southern Methodist University, in Dallas. “It makes complete sense to say that if a child doesn’t have healthy parental support they will struggle,” she said.

    Read the full story.

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    WFAA: ‘Flopping’ research could lead to changes in the NBA

    Peter Weyand and his team set out nine months ago on a research project dubbed “The Physics of Flopping: Blowing the Whistle on a Foul Practice.”

    WFAA TV journalist Jason Wheeler covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter G. Weyand, who is teaming with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to investigate the forces involved in basketball collisions and the possibility of estimating “flopping” forces from video data.

    The coverage, “‘Flopping’ research could lead to changes in the NBA,” was published Dec. 15.

    Flopping is a player’s deliberate act of falling, or recoiling unnecessarily from a nearby opponent, to deceive game officials. Athletes engage in dramatic flopping to create the illusion of illegal contact, hoping to bait officials into calling undeserved fouls on opponents.

    Ken Clark, a fourth year doctoral student in biomechanics at SMU, uses a push bar to simulate "flopping" with SMU student volunteer D'Marquis Allen. (Photo: WFAA)
    Ken Clark, a fourth year doctoral student in biomechanics at SMU, uses a push bar to simulate “flopping” with SMU student volunteer D’Marquis Allen. (Photo: WFAA)
    Peter-Weyand SMU
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    The phenomenon is considered a widespread problem in professional basketball and soccer. To discourage the practice, the National Basketball Association in 2012 began a system of escalating fines against NBA players suspected of flopping.

    The Cuban-owned company Radical Hoops Ltd. awarded a grant of more than $100,000 to fund the 18-month research study at SMU. Weyand is associate professor and director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Read the full story

    EXCERPT:

    By Jason Wheeler
    WFAA
    A dramatic gesture is sometimes all it takes to get your opponent in trouble on the basketball court.

    Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s real.

    But with money from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a research team in Dallas is doing a scientific study on the difference between “fouls” and “flops.”

    There are entire pages of compilation videos on YouTube showing the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) examples of “flopping” in the NBA — pro basketball players suspected of embellishing the extent of contact with other players to persuade the ref to blow the whistle.

    But how can you really tell — even with a replay — when an athlete is, in fact, faking a foul?

    With more than $100,000 in funding from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, SMU professor Peter Weyand and his team set out nine months ago on a research project dubbed “The Physics of Flopping: Blowing the Whistle on a Foul Practice.”

    It’s a whimsical name for a study, but one that could change the way the game is played — or at least officiated.

    “We try to have fun doing the science,” Weyand said. “If we are successful with it, there is a lot of potential application.”

    This research could change the outcomes of games and even lead to new rules and penalties.

    So far, here’s what the SMU researchers have come up with:

    Read the full story

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Sports on Earth: The Science of the Flop

    “And so, for the first time in the history of mankind, and this looks like a one-time thing, flopping is being dissected like a laboratory frog.” — Shaun Powell

    The flopping study at SMU
    The flopping study at SMU will operate in two phases, first to stuy the force required to knock someone off balance, second to study two players drawing contact from one another. (AP)

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    Sports on Earth journalist Shaun Powell covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter G. Weyand, who is teaming with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to investigate the forces involved in basketball collisions and the possibility of estimating “flopping” forces from video data.

    The coverage, “The science of the flop,” was published Dec. 13.

    Flopping is a player’s deliberate act of falling, or recoiling unnecessarily from a nearby opponent, to deceive game officials. Athletes engage in dramatic flopping to create the illusion of illegal contact, hoping to bait officials into calling undeserved fouls on opponents.

    The phenomenon is considered a widespread problem in professional basketball and soccer. To discourage the practice, the National Basketball Association in 2012 began a system of escalating fines against NBA players suspected of flopping.

    The Cuban-owned company Radical Hoops Ltd. awarded a grant of more than $100,000 to fund the 18-month research study at SMU. Weyand is associate professor and director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Read the full story

    EXCERPT:

    By Shaun Powell
    Sports on Earth
    Billionaires are different than the rest of us. They have money to burn, and in the case of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, money to learn. In the past year Cuban shelled out 100 large to fund a scientific study on flopping in the NBA, just because he was smitten by players faking fouls, so in this case you might argue his money is both burning and learning.

    Seriously, now: A hundred grand to understand the complexities and biomechanical execution from the combustible result of forceful contact between a moving mass of human flesh and a stationary being, and whether a healthy degree of chicanery and tomfoolery is being utilized to trigger a favorable response from an impartial and faulty bystander with a whistle, who must make a snap judgment based on the electrodes produced by his eyes?

    All for that?

    Well.

    Maybe in the past, when he was a bit new to the NBA ownership game, Cuban mishandled a buck or two. Paying millions to Erick Dampier and Shawn Bradley, 14 feet worth of stiff centers, immediately comes to mind. Hey, we’ve all thrown away money before, mainly on a cheap pair of socks that sprouted holes after three washings; it’s all relative. But Cuban has a better grip now, and has always been a brilliant and cutting-edge guy, and is even richer than ever, so why not part ways with 1/500,000,000 (or so) of your net worth to get to the bottom of an act that’s the scourge of the NBA? How can anyone insist, for one second, this isn’t money well spent?

    And so, for the first time in the history of mankind, and this looks like a one-time thing, flopping is being dissected like a laboratory frog (who, by the way, does a fair amount of flopping once he’s violently sliced by a scalpel). It’s happening inside a nondescript building just off the Southern Methodist University campus, and being conducted by Peter Weyand, an associate professor for applied physiology and biomechanics. But for this particular study, we’ll just call him the Professor of Flopology.

    “This is unexplored territory,” he said. “There’s little to no information on how much force it takes to knock someone off balance, and how much someone can control their resistance. Most of the balance research is done on the elderly, not young and healthy people.”

    Weyand was a bit surprised to get an email from Cuban a little more than a year ago, asking if the he’d have any interest in conducting a study. Weyand once played collegiately at Bates College where, he said — and he swears — he never flopped. Not once.

    “Not to my recollection, although that was a long time ago,” he added.

    Weyand discovered no study had ever been done on flopping — what a surprise — and saw it as an opportunity for ground-breaking research on what is a good foul and what’s a fake, and the merits of force.

    Read the full story

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    DMN: The physics of flopping — SMU researcher studies mechanics of NBA fakery

    Weyand, an associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at SMU, is using technology to determine how much force is necessary to knock an athlete off his or her feet.

    (From left) Researcher Ken Clark pushes student D'Marquis Allen as Peter Weyand waits to catch Allen during a demonstration on the physics of "flopping." Weyand, an associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University, is using technology to help understand how much force is necessary to knock an athlete off his or her feet. (Photo Dallas Morning News)
    (From left) Researcher Ken Clark pushes student D’Marquis Allen as Peter Weyand waits to catch Allen during a demonstration on the physics of “flopping.” Weyand, an associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics at Southern Methodist University, is using technology to help understand how much force is necessary to knock an athlete off his or her feet. (Photo Dallas Morning News)

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    Dallas Morning News science reporter Anna Kuchment covered the research of SMU biomechanics expert Peter G. Weyand, who is teaming with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to investigate the forces involved in basketball collisions and the possibility of estimating “flopping” forces from video data.

    The coverage, “The physics of flopping: SMU researcher studies mechanics of NBA fakery,” was published Dec. 13.

    Flopping is a player’s deliberate act of falling, or recoiling unnecessarily from a nearby opponent, to deceive game officials.

    Athletes engage in dramatic flopping to create the illusion of illegal contact, hoping to bait officials into calling undeserved fouls on opponents.

    The phenomenon is considered a widespread problem in professional basketball and soccer. To discourage the practice, the National Basketball Association in 2012 began a system of escalating fines against NBA players suspected of flopping.

    The Cuban-owned company Radical Hoops Ltd. awarded a grant of more than $100,000 to fund the 18-month research study at SMU. Weyand is associate professor and director of the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    Read the full story

    EXCERPT:

    By Anna Kuchment
    Dallas Morning News
    Was it a flop or not?

    Last summer, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban gave Southern Methodist University more than $100,000 to try to answer that question scientifically. On Thursday, SMU biomechanics expert Peter Weyand demonstrated the early stages of his flopping research to a small group of journalists.

    Flopping is when an athlete fakes a fall to trick referees into calling a foul on an opponent. The behavior is prevalent in sports such as basketball and soccer.

    It’s an especially sore point with fans.

    “In regular life, people tend to dislike dishonest people, and the same thing goes for basketball,” said Jeff Lenchiner, editor of the NBA news site InsideHoops.com. “It’s dishonesty expressed physically, and it’s considered an insult to the game.”

    In one compilation of flops posted to YouTube involving Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs, an outraged spectator calls the behavior “a disease” and a mark of cowardice, “bad sportsmanship and horrible acting.”

    Flopping also costs players money. Last year, the National Basketball Association cracked down on the practice. Players now receive a warning after their first flop, followed by a series of escalating fines, from $5,000 for two flops to $30,000 for five violations.

    Weyand says there is plenty of good science that can come from studying flopping. “This is uncharted territory,” he says. Scientists lack even a basic understanding of how much force is required to topple someone.

    That is one of the experiments Weyand demonstrated Thursday. D’Marquis Allen, an SMU sophomore, stood on a treadmill-like platform. Wearing black spandex shorts, a black cycling T-shirt and reflective sensors stuck to his skin, he braced himself for a shove. Soon a lab volunteer pushed him in the chest with a device called a “flop-buster”: a padded yellow bar embedded with sensors. Allen took several steps back.

    “That was definitely a foul,” Weyand said later, after measuring the force of the collision.

    The research team was surrounded by gadgets that will help it measure the mechanics of basketball collisions. High-speed cameras recorded motion in three-dimensional space. Force plates beneath the platform on which Allen was standing marked his center of gravity. And motion sensors measured Allen’s position, velocity and acceleration.

    The goal: to help officials tell flop from foul by simply looking at a video.

    “I feel strongly about introducing science and data to situations in business and sports where there previously had been none,” Cuban said by email. “I love to challenge conventional wisdom with” research.

    But at this stage, it’s unclear whether flopping can be measured scientifically.

    Read the full story

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    Performance Enhancing Legs Race Toward the Track Record Book

    This article by Dr. Peter Weyand, SMU biomechanics associate professor, originally published Aug. 27, 2013, on the Huffington Post. Co-authors are Matthew Bundle, Director of the Biomechanics Laboratory at the University of Montana, and SMU researchers Kenneth Clark and Laurence Ryan

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    By Peter Weyand
    SMU Associate Professor &
    Director, SMU Locomotor Performance Lab
    An intriguing, technological watershed is fast approaching for athletics — that defining moment when an athlete with artificial limbs shatters an “able-bodied” world record.

    Brazilian, double-limb, amputee sprinter Alan Oliveira is certainly not a household name, but he has quietly become much faster than some better known amputee runners. Earlier this summer, the 21-year-old lowered the Paralympic 100- and 200-meter world records by time margins two to five greater than those by which Usain Bolt eclipsed the able-bodied records for the same events in recent years. Oliveira’s current 200-meter mark is only 0.01 and 0.11 seconds shy, respectively, of the most recent B and A qualifying standards for the Olympic Games.

    Yet, what is most intriguing about Alan Oliveira’s performances in the short sprints is what they portend for a slightly longer sprint event. His 200-meter record of 20.66 seconds was achieved with the characteristically slow start and blazing finish of a double, lower-limb amputee athlete. His time, and the manner in which he achieved it, indicates that in the longest sprint event of 400-meters, for which the start is relatively unimportant, he is currently capable of running world-class times of 45 seconds or less.

    Vertical forces of double-limb amputee runner.
    The vertical forces applied to the ground and stride time patterns of a double-limb amputee runner (upper panel illustration and black line) and an elite track athlete (not illustrated, grey line) sprinting at 24.3 miles per hour (10.8 meters per second).

    Moreover, projections that fully consider the advantages that double artificial limbs can provide indicate that he could conceivably break the able-bodied 400 meter world record as soon as he chooses to concentrate on the longer event.

    The physics of sprint running with biological limbs
    The top sprinting speeds runners can achieve depend upon: 1) how quickly the limbs can be repositioned in the air between steps, and 2) how forcefully the foot can strike the surface (in relation to body weight) while on the ground.

    While these physical limits are not surprising, the temporal manner in which they are imposed upon runners with biological limbs is. First, and contrary to intuition, at top speed, the fastest runners do not reposition their limbs appreciably more rapidly than slow runners do. Fast and slow athletes alike take just over one-third of a second to reposition, or swing their limbs during an all-out sprint. Second, fast and slow runners also spend the same amount of time airborne between steps at just over one-tenth of a second. Third, at any given speed, the time a runner’s foot is in contact with the ground is predominantly set by leg length. All runners, regardless of athleticism, spend progressively less time on the ground as they run faster.

    Because of the time requirements nature imposes on the human running stride, the predominant differentiating factor for sprinting speed is how forcefully a runner’s foot can strike the ground in the limited time available at high speeds. World-class sprinters will typically apply peak ground forces that are four to five times their body weight during foot-ground contact periods that last less than one-tenth of a second. Average athletes hit the running surface with peak forces of roughly three times body weight during foot-ground contact times that last appreciably longer than one-tenth of a second.

    Double artificial limbs break down the biological barriers to performance
    Double, artificial lower limbs enhance speed in the same way that classic devices like ice skates and cross-country skis do; they allow athletes to circumvent the intrinsic time limits on the human running stride. Skates and skis prolong the time on the ground when the skate or ski applies force while simultaneously reducing or eliminating the time in the air. With these critical timing alterations to the gait cycle, the ground forces needed to attain any speed are greatly reduced, and the maximum speeds possible for human-powered travel become considerably greater.

    Extremely lightweight carbon-fibre lower limbs enhance human performance by exploiting the same basic mechanism to a lesser degree. Reduced mass shortens the time needed for limb repositioning by one fifth and the airborne period between steps by one third, while enhanced limb compliance prolongs the duration of those critically short periods during which force is applied to the ground. The net result of these timing alterations is that double-limb amputee athletes can reach world-class sprinting speeds with the ground forces and athleticism of an average high-school athlete. Moreover, double-limb amputee athletes can now engineer increases in speed with basic blade alterations, like reducing mass or increasing length.

    No technological advantage for single-limb amputee sprinters
    As one might imagine, the design choices available to single-limb amputees for limb lengths, masses, compliances are comparatively quite narrow. Even moderate between-leg disparities in lengths or other limb properties would hinder rather than help their performance due to the asymmetries introduced. Consequently, single-leg amputees cannot operate outside the timing constraints of runners with biological limbs as double-limb amputees can. The presence of their biological limb constrains swing, aerial and contact times to biological values and leaves them with the same force-based requirement for speed that non-amputees have.

    Certainly, the approaching watershed of a double-limb amputee athlete eclipsing the able-bodied world record will intensify policy issues for athletics. How the scientifically apparent performance disparities described here ultimately translate into specific policy is difficult to predict given the dynamics of the administrative, legal and scientific processes involved. However, broader consideration of the numerous pharmaceutical, technical and other interventions in our midst makes one conclusion clear. The growing number of enhancement options available will deliver a sporting future in which performance limits will be determined progressively more by regulatory policy — and progressively less by the traditional limits of human biology.

    Peter Weyand is Associate Professor and Director, the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory at the Simmons School of Education and Human Development.

    See the Huffington Post article.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    KQED: In Teaching Algebra, the Not-So-Secret Way to Students’ Hearts

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    SMU algebra Candace Walkington To book a live or taped interview with Candace Walkington in the SMU Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email SMU News at news@smu.edu.

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    Journalist Katrina Schwartz with California Public Media station KQED reported on the research of SMU Assistant Professor Candace Walkington, who authored a year-long study of 141 ninth graders at a Pennsylvania high school and found that students whose algebra curriculum was personalized to their interests mastered the concepts faster than those students whose learning wasn’t personalized.

    The article, “In Teaching Algebra, the Not-So-Secret Way to Students’ Hearts,” was published Dec. 9.

    Walkington teaches in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the SMU Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development. Her research examines how abstract mathematical ideas can become connected to students’ concrete, everyday experiences such that the concepts are better understood. Walkington conducts research on “personalizing” mathematics instruction to students’ out of-school interests in areas like sports, music, shopping and video games. She also examines ways to connect mathematical practices with physical motions including gestures. Her work draws upon theories of situated and embodied cognition, and she is an active member of the learning sciences community. Her research uses both qualitative methods like discourse and gesture analysis, and quantitative methods like hierarchical linear modeling and educational data mining.

    Read the article.

    EXCERPT:

    Katrina Schwartz
    KQED
    Education researchers are beginning to validate what many teachers have long known — connecting learning to student interests helps the information stick. This seems to work particularly well with math, a subject many students say they dislike because they can’t see its relevance to their lives.

    “When I started spending time in classrooms I realized the math wasn’t being applied to the students’ world in a meaningful way,” said Candace Walkington, assistant professor in the department of teaching and learning at Southern Methodist University. She conducted a year-long study on 141 ninth graders at a Pennsylvania high school to see whether tailoring questions to individual student interests could help students learn difficult and often abstract algebra concepts.

    Researchers studied a classroom using Carnegie Learning software called Cognitive Tutor, a program that has been studied frequently. In the study, half of the students chose one of several categories that interested them — things like music, movies, sports, social media — and were given an algebra curriculum based on those topics. The other half received no interest-based personalization. All the problems had the same underlying structure and were meant to teach the same concept.

    Walkington found that students who had received interest-based personalization mastered concepts faster. What’s more, in order to ensure that learning was robust, retained over time, and would accelerate future learning, she also looked at student performance in a later unit that had no interest-based personalization for any of the students. “Students that had previously received personalization, even though it was gone, were doing better on these more difficult problems as well,” said Walkington.

    She also found that struggling students improved the most when their interests were taken into account. “We picked out the students who seemed to be struggling the most in Algebra I and we found that for this sub-group of students that were way behind the personalization was more effective,” Walkington said. Specifically, the study tested students’ ability to turn story problems into algebraic equations — what’s called algebraic expression writing.

    “That’s one of the most challenging skills to teach students because it’s a very abstract skill,” Walkington said. She hypothesizes that the abstract nature of the concepts actually allowed students to more easily generalize and apply the same knowledge to a wide variety of situations and to more difficult problems in later units.

    Walkington is working to expand her study to all the ninth graders in a school district of 9,000 students. “The bigger, you make it the harder it is to tap into the interests of students,” Walkington said. But she’s confident that there are some general-interest categories that many students share, like sports and movies.

    Read the article.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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    BioNewsTexas: SMU Dallas Speed Scientist Featured in PBS NOVA Series Segment

    Peter Weyand (right) trackside at SMU

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    BioNewsTexas covered the research of SMU biomechanics researcher Peter G. Weyand, who was featured on an episode of the PBS series “NOVA.” NOVA host David Pogue explored the biological and physical limits of speed on the Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 broadcast, “Making Stuff: Faster.”

    Weyand, associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on the importance of ground forces for running speed established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    In particular, his finding that speed athletes are not able to reposition their legs more rapidly than non-athletes debunked a widespread, but baseless belief. Rather, Weyand and colleagues demonstrated sprinting performance is largely set by the force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.

    This work provided the understanding that enabled Weyand and colleagues to investigate the influence of prosthetic limbs on sprint running performance.

    “The NOVA segment demonstrates the power of science to identify and improve performance capabilities. This is particularly exciting in an era in which electronic technologies allow discoveries to be applied quickly, broadly and on mobile platforms,” Weyand says. “I believe we are on the cusp of an unprecedented opportunity to responsibly and effectively advance performance training tools and practices.”

    Read the article.

    EXCERPT:

    By Charles Moore
    BioNewsTexas
    What amazing new inventions will revolutionize our lives in the near future — how we compute, commute, and tackle health & safety? What is is the cutting-edge “stuff” powering the next wave of science and tech innovation?

    Will it be levitating trains; self-driving cars; wing-flapping hummingbird drones; supercomputing machines; fish slime stronger than bulletproof Kevlar, ultra-fast sailboats; bomb-sniffing plants; firefighting goo; swarms of flying robots? Civilization is built on the human ability to invent — to create new materials and technologies from the raw materials of the earth.

    So what will the stuff of the future be made of? New York Times technology correspondent and best-selling author David Pogue will guide viewers through a new generation of cutting-edge materials that is powering a next wave of scientific and technological innovation in a four-part NOVA series: “MAKING STUFF: Faster, Wilder, Colder, Safer” premiering on consecutive Wednesday nights on October 16, 23, 30 and November 6, at 9pm ET/8c on PBS (check local listings).

    In the premiere episode, “MAKING STUFF: Faster,” In “Making Stuff Faster,” Mr. Pogue wants to find out how much we can tweak physiology and engineering to move humans and machines even faster. He investigates everything from lightning-fast electric muscle cars to ultra-sleek sailboats to ultra-fast cameras and quantum teleportation. Mr. Pogue meets with Dr. Peter Weyand, Associate Professor of Applied Physiology and Biomechanics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas’s SMU Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. Dr. Weyand, introduced as a professor of speed, explains how we can be faster. His lab at SMU (a high-tech facility equipped with superfast cameras) helps him on his singular mission: to make humans faster. Dr. Weyand’s work has led him to believe that the force of steps when we run is the key to human speed and, in a unique experiment, and he demonstrates to NOVA viewers how a complete and utter amateur like David Pogue can have off significant amounts of time off the clock by adjusting the way he runs. NOVA also explores important questions: Is it possible to go too fast? Have we hit a point where innovation outpaces our human ability to keep up?

    Read the article.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

    Categories
    Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

    LiveScience: Need for Speed: New Series Explores World’s Fastest Things

    Peter Weyand (right) trackside at SMU

    Book a live interview

    To book a live or taped interview with Peter Weyand in the SMU News Broadcast Studio call SMU News at 214-768-7650 or email news@smu.edu.

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    LiveScience covered the research of SMU biomechanics researcher Peter G. Weyand, who was featured on an episode of the PBS series “NOVA.” NOVA host David Pogue explored the biological and physical limits of speed on the Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 broadcast, “Making Stuff: Faster.”

    Weyand, associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on the importance of ground forces for running speed established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    In particular, his finding that speed athletes are not able to reposition their legs more rapidly than non-athletes debunked a widespread, but baseless belief. Rather, Weyand and colleagues demonstrated sprinting performance is largely set by the force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.

    This work provided the understanding that enabled Weyand and colleagues to investigate the influence of prosthetic limbs on sprint running performance.

    “The NOVA segment demonstrates the power of science to identify and improve performance capabilities. This is particularly exciting in an era in which electronic technologies allow discoveries to be applied quickly, broadly and on mobile platforms,” Weyand says. “I believe we are on the cusp of an unprecedented opportunity to responsibly and effectively advance performance training tools and practices.”

    Read the article.

    EXCERPT:

    By Tanya Lewis
    LiveScience

    From building the world’s fastest cars, trucks and boats to rooting for Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, humans are obsessed with speed.

    In the premiere of the new NOVA series “Making Stuff,” which airs tonight at 9 p.m. EDT/8 p.m. CDT on PBS, host and technology columnist David Pogue takes viewers on a whirlwind tour of the world’s fastest things.

    In the show, Pogue burns rubber in a souped-up electric car, zooms from house to house delivering packages and flies above the waves on the sailboat that won this year’s America’s Cup. […]

    […] Next, Pogue journeys to Southern Methodist University in Dallas to test out his sprinting chops. In the lab of physiologist Peter Weyand, researchers study the biomechanics of running and other sports. With the world’s fastest treadmill, a multidimensional force sensor and top-of-the-line motion-capture video systems, Weyand and his colleagues study what makes people run fast. Surprisingly, fast runners aren’t distinguished by their leg movements, Weyand said, but rather how hard they hit the ground. “Elite sprinters will hit with forces four to five times their body weight,” he told LiveScience. […]

    Read the article.

    SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

    SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

    Categories
    Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Researcher news SMU In The News

    KERA, NOVA: SMU researcher Peter Weyand discusses the upper limits of human speed

    The work of SMU biomechanics researcher Peter G. Weyand (at right in photo) was featured on an episode of the PBS series “NOVA.” Host David Pogue explored the biological and physical limits of speed on the Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 broadcast, “Making Stuff: Faster.”

    Weyand and NOVA producer Anna Lee Strachan will discuss the research at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 18, at a screening of the program in the first floor pavilion of Simmons Hall, 3101 University. Weyand also will appear on KERA Radio’s program “Think” with host Krys Boyd on Monday, Oct. 14.

    Weyand, associate professor of applied physiology and biomechanics in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, is one of the world’s leading scholars on the scientific basis of human performance. His research on the importance of ground forces for running speed established a contemporary understanding that spans the scientific and athletic communities.

    In particular, his finding that speed athletes are not able to reposition their legs more rapidly than non-athletes debunked a widespread, but baseless belief. Rather, Weyand and colleagues demonstrated sprinting performance is largely set by the force with which one presses against the ground and how lo