Session X32: Fluid Dynamics - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

How I Organize Research Notes for Writing

Do you find yourself constantly having to go back and re-read the same journal articles as you write dissertations, review papers, or other articles? Citation managers like Zotero and Mendeley can corral sources, but that does little to tell you which of the dozens of papers in your library has the information you need. In my current book project, I am juggling hundreds of research articles, along with dozens of interview transcripts, books, and other sources. At this scale, I've had to develop a robust system of annotating, note-taking, and organizing to keep the information I care about accessible when I need it. In this talk, I will share what my process looks like, with a focus on methodology rather than software.   

Open Educational Resources (OER) in Fluid Mechanics

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching resources that are freely available in the public domain. They include textbooks, videos, lecture notes, problem sets, software and more. They differ from Open Access in that they are published under a license that permits free use, re-distribution, and modifications (re-mixing) although attribution is still required. Like the rest of the publishing industry, teaching resources for fluids have been disrupted by technology. Nevertheless, there are limited OER resources available to instructors and students of fluid mechanics. In this talk I’ll list some of the OER aimed at graduate and undergraduate fluids courses (including my Flow Visualization book) and facilitate a discussion about the pros and cons of OER for our community. For example, traditionally published textbooks are intensively reviewed and edited, while OER textbooks often are not. Authors of traditionally published texts are paid royalties in addition to institutional support, while OER authors are only supported by their institutions. Is author support independent of the value of the contributed material? How can we make OER work for us?   

Traveling Gallery of Fluid Motion to Harmonize Art and Science for Public Engagement

The Gallery of Fluid Motion (GFM) holds potential as a powerful outreach tool, capable of extending its educational impact beyond the Division. By launching a "Traveling" Gallery of Fluid Motion, we curated captivating exhibitions that offer a unique platform for art/science education. This initiative will position the DFD as a leader in science communication and outreach, showcasing the accomplishments and scholarship of the DFD community while educating the public about physics through art. The first exhibition, featuring past submissions to the GFM was hosted at the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of Sciences (CPNAS) in Washington, DC for six months. This exhibition explored the fascinating interplay between art and science, perfectly aligned with the core mission of the Gallery of Fluid Motion. The showcased works, ranging from photographs and videos to sculptures and sound installations, were created by both scientists and artists. By presenting fluid dynamics beyond traditional academic settings, we can spark curiosity, inspire creativity, and foster a deeper appreciation for the wonders of science. Through this project, the goal is to establish sustainable partnerships between GFM, artists, educational researchers, local universities, museums, and communities for the future Traveling Gallery of Fluid Motion (TGFM) exhibits, focusing on enhancing identity development through art and science integration.   

Scientific Storytelling for Middle-Grade Audiences: "The Story of a Girl"

A well-told story has the power to enliven a topic and inspire an audience to action, possibly transforming lives. The Stories of Women in Fluids Initiative aims to use the power of storytelling to recruit and retain femme-identifying individuals, particularly those of color, to create a more demographically representative STEM community. This presentation focuses on one of our anthologies, "The Story of a Girl", targeted towards readers ages 8 to 12 using our newly developed writing genre- scientific storytelling - to write about science in a way that not only conveys the science but invites the reader to envision themselves working in the field. The volunteer authors in this anthology interweave fluid dynamics knowledge developed through their research with the story of how they became interested in the field and where it has taken them, personally and professionally. Our anthology showcases the breadth of fluid dynamics applications, with the goal of leading by example and encouraging the interest of female-identifying students in fluid dynamics and, more broadly, STEM. This talk will provide insight to the process of writing to engage students in the middle grades as well as a preview of our publication timeline and longer term plans post publication.   

Retaining Early Career Underrepresented Scientists: The Stories of Women in Fluids Initiative

A well-told story has the power to enliven a topic and inspire an audience to action, possibly transforming lives. The Stories of Women in Fluids Initiative aims to use the power of storytelling to recruit and retain femme-identifying individuals, particularly those of color, to create a more demographically representative STEM community. This presentation focuses on our anthology targeted towards early-career scientists. At the heart of our book lies the powerful theme of 'Persevere, Survive, and Thrive,' which captures the remarkable career trajectories of the women featured in its pages. The book illuminates the complex social, economic, and cultural factors shaping women's engineering experiences. The stories in this anthology, volunteered by female scientists and engineers, celebrate women's strength and resilience while acknowledging their challenges. Our anthology showcases the breadth of career stages and experience from women in the field, with the goal of leading by example and encouraging the interest of female-identifying researchers to remain in fluid dynamics and, more broadly, STEM. This talk will provide insight to the process of crafting these personal narratives as well as a preview of our publication timeline and longer term plans post publication.   

Justice-impacted Educational Initiatives – Evidence-based Transformative Learning and Research Experiences

The Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) at Princeton University combines the University's academic and service-driven initiatives by providing access to high-quality for-credit college education to justice-impacted students in the New Jersey carceral system, fostering a campus dialogue on mass incarceration and its relationship to systemic inequalities in access to education. This is supported by a strong volunteer teaching and tutoring program employing evidence-based pedagogy that is open to university as well as community members. In this talk, I will provide an overview of activities that not only support college-level STEM education inside carceral systems but also REU and mentoring programs that are designed to supplement the educational experiences of justice-impacted students continuing their education outside the carceral system. Drawing on my experience as a PTI fellow, course instructor and developer, and a past REU mentor, I will make the case for expanding quality access to educational as well as research opportunities for justice-impacted students to better democratize the academic landscape.   

Mathematics peer education for incarcerated students in an Illinois state prison

Many incarcerated people struggle with basic mathematics, including fractions, decimals, negative numbers, and algebra. These challenges can prevent incarcerated people from entering high school equivalency programs in the prison, as they cannot pass the ``Test of Adult Basic Education'' (TABE) due to their low math skills. Some other incarcerated people are very adept with mathematics and are eager for leadership and skill development opportunities. This talk discusses a new mathematics program at the Danville Correctional Center, through the Education Justice Project (EJP) and the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This program invites incarcerated students who are struggling with basic mathematics as well as those who are comfortable with calculus and beyond to work together. The students who struggle with mathematics are taught by those who are more skilled through both one-on-one tutoring and through interactive teaching on a chalk board. All members are given opportunities to reflect on the process of teaching and learning, to build a reflective environment that improves their ability to teach and to learn. In this talk, we will reflect on the promise and the challenges for the program. Lessons for peer teaching and reflection exercises in more typical classrooms will also be discussed.   

Every Drop Counts: How we can all contribute to efforts towards DEI in our research communities

Contributing in DEI initiatives in-person or remotely can be a satisfactory endeavor and make a difference in the lives of young students, particularly those from historically underrepresented communities. During my career as an engineer and researcher, I have participated in multiple initiatives for diversity, equity, and inclusion both as a mentee and a mentor. As a Puerto Rican from a small-town community, I have been the target audience for these initiatives while also trying to be involved as a mentor. Participating in many programs while while also not compromising my research work which as a graduate student was at times difficult to balance, which is also true for other researchers and faculty. For this presentation, I will showcase the initiatives I have been a part of both as a mentee and a mentor and highlight the effects these kinds of programs can have through my lived experience. Most importantly, I want to drive the message that everyone can get involved in their own communities (in-person or online) in initiatives that may exist, and that no effort is too small when it comes to impacting others, particularly from historically marginalized communities, through mentorship and getting involved in whichever way works best on an individual capacity.   

Cultivating inclusivity in introductory undergraduate STEM course syllabi: Mismatching between student needs and faculty practices

The timing, use, and versatility of course syllabi allow instructors to set the tone of a course with (or without) an eye towards inclusivity. As we strive to attract and retain students with diverse backgrounds, syllabi can be a key way to make courses more welcoming and inclusive. We report a study about inclusive practices in introductory undergraduate course syllabi at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a private four-year STEM institution in Massachusetts. We consider Identity Safety Cues (ISCs) as a measure of inclusivity and evaluate whether syllabi: (a) list instructors' pronouns, (b) utilize readings and materials authored by women and gender minority scholars, and (c) contain inclusivity statements. We compare perspectives on these three aspects from two data sets: 163 syllabi analyzed based on a well-defined rubric, and results from an anonymous undergraduate student survey. The two complementary datasets provide a way to investigate links between student and faculty perceptions of syllabi use and desired content. We find sharp differences between students' expectations and actual syllabi content for all three ISCs of interest, with students wanting inclusive practices at the forefront of course development regardless of subject, and faculty lagging behind. We also find that instructors' gender, title, and field strongly influence the inclusivity of their syllabi. We provide suggestions on how to incorporate inclusive practices in syllabi design and propose further questions to explore.   

D/Dt or d/dt for the material derivative? The views of Sir George, Sir Harold, Lady Bertha, Sir James, and other friends.

Known by many names, the material derivative is the total time derivative following the motion of a fluid parcel.  The material derivative initially appeared in the works of D'Alembert and Euler in the mid-18th century, when they first formulated hydrodynamics as a field theory governed by partial differential equations (Truesdell, 1954; Darrigol, 2005).  At last year's APS-DFD eduation and outreach session, an abstract by Shahbazi (2023) opines that "Using 'D/Dt' to denote the total derivative is awkward and unnecessary as students do not have prior exposure to this notation in the calculus course, and it can be replaced by the familiar notation 'd/dt'."  Both notations can be found in the contemporary literature, while some authors elect to write out the full expression every time, without using either of the abbreviations. Introduced by Stokes (1845), the D/Dt notation is criticized by Jeffreys & Jeffreys (1946) as a relic of an obsolete, 19th century notational convention for partial derivatives (see also Cajori, 1929).  I present evidence of the painful evolution of material derivative notation from 19th century English, French, and German fluid mechanics textbooks.  Meanwhile White (2006) and especially Lighthill (1986) offer defenses of D/Dt that may keep the issue unsettled.  An argument can even be made for using d/dt for Lagrangian coordinates, and D/Dt for Eulerian coordinates (Saffman, 1992), echoing Lagrange (1788) and others.   

In The Flow: An Immersive Experience Illustrating How Fluid Dynamics Connects Us Globally and Impacts Our Climate

Many fluids and physics related laboratory facilities are inaccessible to the general public. The limitations on physical access to the locations where cutting edge research is conducted can limit exposure of the next generation to potential career opportunities and may contribute to a lack of understanding of the global impacts of this research. To bring fluids research to a broader community, we take climate related work conducted at the University of New Hampshire Flow Physics Facility and present it to middle school and high school students in two formats: an in-person tour and a virtual tour using NASA Infiniscope’s Tour It platform.

Both the in-person and virtual tour cover the same material, which aligns with the next generation science standards for monitoring and minimizing human impact on the environment. This NASA SCoPE seed grant project provided funds to collaborate with a professional artist who installed interactive displays in a wind tunnel to truly showcase how art and science can work together to help understand human-environment interconnectivity. During both the online interaction and in-person tours, pre-tour and post-tour surveys were conducted to evaluate how much visitors learned and the effectiveness of in-person versus virtual communication of information. During this presentation, the results of our comparison showing that the virtual tour is as effective, if not more, than an in-person tour will be shown and our best practices will be reviewed.