Jennifer Barrett - US grants

The Merck Institute for Science Education (MISE) and additional Core Partners including the Educational Testing Service (ETS), Kean University and four urban school districts in New Jersey (Elizabeth Board of Education, Hillside Public Schools, Linden Public Schools and Rahway Public Schools) provide intensive, sustainable, systemic reform with the vision that all middle school students understand and are able to apply key concepts in mathematics and science. Goals for the project are:
Implementing challenging instructional programs
Building professional capacity in schools, the University, ETS, and MISE
Developing leadership among teachers, administrators, and University faculty
Developing a student-centered learning climate in every classroom, and
Building parent and community support.

The project is focusing on the urgent need for well-prepared and supported middle school mathematics and science teachers via an array of coordinated efforts that address candidate recruitment, teacher preparation, and support of teachers in schools.
A common set of standards based instructional materials in mathematics and science is selected and implemented at Grades 6-8 in all districts ensuring content rich and challenging courses for all students. A curriculum audit for assessing level of implementation is developed.
A collaborative assessment Plan that includes a standards based state-wide assessment is administered to all students at Grade 8, nationally-normed, objectively scored, standards-aligned, assessment are administered to all students grades 6 and 7. Collaborative wide end-of-unit assessments including objectively scored and free response items including performance tasks are administered to all students. ETS assists in developing performance assessments.
Professional development schools are established in partner districts. Districts identify and address professional development needs of all teachers and administrators to support effective implementation of instructional materials. Professional development is continuous and ongoing with participation by university faculty and content experts from within P [MS] 2. Attention is paid to teacher induction through mentoring and coaching. A middle school Mathematics and Science Endorsement is developed and implemented by Kean science, mathematics and education faculty, preparing candidates with the content background and knowledge of middle school instruction needed to be effective educators in middle school science and mathematics.
Project goals are realized through all project activities, in that a strong emphasis is placed on developing capacity and creating a continuous learning culture within each partner organization and promotes teacher retention. Collaborative activities have an extensive research component, and results are widely disseminated. Project activities address the needs of underrepresented students and provide strategies and models for increasing achievement and participation of all students in mathematics and science.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."

0932024
De Vita

Sprains of the knee ligaments are among the most common orthopedic injuries. They usually occur when the knee is forced beyond its normal range of motion, such as in a fall. They also happen when the knee experiences an impact, such as in a car accident or during a football tackle. These injuries can consist of a slight over-stretch, a partial tear, or a complete disruption of the ligaments. While many investigators in biomechanics have focused on quantifying the material properties of ligaments, such as tangent modulus, tensile strength, and ultimate strain, little is know of their response to mechanical stimuli that lead to partial and complete failure. In particular, studies are needed to clarify the micro-structural changes associated with partial and complete tears. For the first time, constitutive relationships that explain the role of microstructure in the damage evolution process of ligaments will be developed. These models will be derived by integrating molecular models that provide information about collagen cross-linking and collagen molecular damage with structural continuum models. The structural models will be formulated by taking into account the components of the ligamentous tissues, their geometrical arrangement, and their interactions. They will describe the typical anisotropy, nonlinearity, and inelasticity exhibited by ligamentous tissue. Together with the theoretical study, mechanical and microscopic experiments will be performed to quantify the effect of collagen intermolecular cross-linking on the failure of ligaments. Toward this end, knee ligaments harvested from two groups of animals, one fed with a normal diet and another fed with a lathyritic diet, will be subjected to different sub-failure stretches along their physiological direction. Ligaments will be examined for microscopic structural damage, and molecular fragmentation of collagen _brils will be assessed to determine how ligament failure occurs on a molecular level. This information will, in turn, be correlated to the structural models developed based upon the mechanical data. Together, these three approaches will culminate in a more complete understanding of the structure/function relationship of the components of ligament.

Intellectual Merit. The successful completion of the proposed project requires a combined knowledge of theoretical and experimental mechanics of biological systems as well as molecular biology. The PIs will combine their expertise in continuum mechanics (R. De Vita), molecular modeling (J. W. Freeman), experimental mechanics (J. G. Barrett, R. De Vita and J. W. Freeman) and molecular biology (J. G. Barrett) to formulate novel models that together with mechanical and microscopic experiments will elucidate the relationship between damage development and material composition of ligaments. This research program will have a signifcant impact in the area of engineering materials for replacement grafts and biological scaffolds by offering a knowledge of mechanical and structural properties to target in developing replacements for ligaments. The results can also guide the design of braces or stretching routines to limit ligament strain so as prevent damage during stressful activities. Because ligaments possess a very well organized structure and a relatively simple composition, the research findings will contribute to understanding the failure mechanism of more complex biological soft tissues such as, for example, skin and arteries.

Broader Impacts. Undergraduate and graduate students will be engaged in the theoretical, numerical, and experimental components of the research project. The PIs will work with the Bioin-formatics and Bioengineering Summer Institute program and the College Bound program to attract and retain underrepresented groups to science and engineering. Research findings will be incorporated into current courses that are offered in the undergraduate, graduate and professional curricula. The results of the research will be presented at national and international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.