X-Informatics MOOC: Web Development and Design
Mentor: Sidd Maini
Supervisor: Dr. Geoffery Fox
Indiana University - Research Experience for Undergraduates

Abstract
Online learning is an upcoming trend in the education world today. As there is a rise in technology, so do different institutions create online classes online using sites like Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Coursera and so on.
Indiana University, school of Informatics and Computing, is one of the many schools that have chosen to get students enrolled in online classes. One of these classes is the Big Data X-informatics MOOC, which our research is based on. The main problem we are faced with that we are finding the best methods to eradicate is how to make online learning much more effective to the students.

Therefore, we are to invent ideas to create features that will improve interaction between the educational content and the user (students and professors). Firstly, surveys were made on other online educational sites like Coursera, Udemy, edX, Udacity, Duolingo, course builder, and Khan Academy. This was to observe features on these sites that enabled effective interaction with the different calibers of students and the sites, and features that did otherwise. Our findings enabled us to create new features or modify old features that enhance student-service interactivity. Furthermore, having gained knowledge from articles like "Design Principles for Visual Communication" Visual Communication," and "Peer Instruction in CS: Research and Experience," we are using AXURE to create the near perfect design / wireframes, with the observed features, that will interact effectively with the student; hence, catalyzing efficient learning.

Using Common Core State Standards of Seventh Grade Mathematics in the Application of NXT LEGO® Robotics for CReSIS Middle School Students
Mentor: Dr. Darnell Johnson
ECSU Research Experience for Undergraduates in Ocean, Marine and Polar Sciences
RET Team: Malcolm McConner (ECSU), Jessica Hathaway (ECSU), Ricky Dixon (MVSU)

Abstract
In 2010 Common Core Standards included critical content for all students in American education for forty-five states. Previously, every state had its own set of academic standards and students in each state were learning at different levels. In the new global economy, all students must be prepared to compete on a global basis. Students are expected to develop a deeper mastery of content and demonstrate what they know through writing and other projects. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's (NCDPI) current curriculum and instruction are more student-centered with greater focus on skills, abilities, and a shift towards more performance assessments. This research was designed to focus on mathematical processes of the Common Core Standard in mathematics lesson plans for seventh grade students. A group of seventh grade students from two middle schools of Elizabeth City Public Schools in northeastern North Carolina were selected for this research at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) for the Center of Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS). Pre and post test data were collected through student assessments and teaching observations to evaluate student growth in content knowledge, understanding and application. The Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Team used mathematical strategies to teach various scientific, mathematical, and design concepts, through designing and programming NXT LEGO® Robotics for the seventh grade level. The students received hands on experience for robotics construction and programming with application of mathematics, motion, and problem solving in a collaborative group setting.

From 0 to 100: Cloud computing for the Non-Programmer
Mentor: Dr. Gregor van Laskewski
Indiana University - Research Experience for Undergraduates

Abstract
This project will be demonstrating that it is possible to use and program a cloud within seven weeks, even though the student has no prior research and programming experience. The student will be faced with identifying what a cloud is as an abstract concept. The student will be exposed to an absolute minimum level in programming needed to program the cloud. Small programming exercises and lessons will be given to not only learn abstractly about the cloud, but will allow the student to experience using the cloud in a production setting. We will demonstrate that the student at the end of this period will be capable of using hundreds of virtual machines and controlling them from a program.

Utilizing HUBzero to Create an Educational Hub for CReSIS Educational Data Sets
Mentor: Dr. Geoffrey Fox
Indiana University - Research Experience for Undergraduates

Abstract
HUBzero is an open source software package used to construct web sites for scientific research and educational activities. Hubzero was originally created by researchers at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in conjunction with the National Science Foundation (NSF) who sponsored the Network for Computational Nanotechnology to support nanoHUB.org. The HUBzero platform currently supports over 40 hubs across a variety of disciplines, including cancer research, biofuels, climate modeling, water quality, and education
This project utilized data from the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS), which was established by the NSF as a Science and Technology Center in 2005. CReSIS has a mission of developing new technologies and computer models to measure and predict the response of sea level change to the mass balance of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Their website offers enormous amounts of ice sheet data that includes thickness, dates, latitudes and longitudes. Also the website offers educational data sets which this project has utilized.

The goal of the project was to create a Hub that has the ability to access CReSiS educational data that has been stored on a server on the campus of Elizabeth City State University (ECSU). This Hub will allow students and educators to have access to this information for the use of education and scientific collaboration. HUBZero requires that the administer uses joomal, html, css and php code to create the template. HUBZero also uses an application called Raptture to create a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is capable of deploying new tools without having to rewrite special code for the web. Tools in a hub have been created to be interactive, which means its capable of zooming in on a graph, rotating a module, probing surfaces of a 3D volume, without having to download the application to the client's computer. Do to the fact that HubZero supports Grid Data management, it is capable of sending jobs off to TeraGrid, DiaGrid, and RedCloud to process the data faster and more efficiently. This Hub is the first science gateway implemented at Elizabeth City State University that is meant for the public.

Early North Carolina Colonial and Native American GPR Site Surveyal
Mentor: Dr. Malcolm LeCompte
ECSU Research Experience for Undergraduates in Ocean, Marine and Polar Sciences
Archaeology Team: Kelechi Onyiriuka (ECSU), Michael Cobb (ECSU), Rashad Williamson (MVSU)

Abstract
The earliest English colonial populations in the new world spread rapidly through southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. These peoples had to overcome insufficient food sources, threat of attack by hostile indigenous peoples, and even hostile European powers. Early, mutually beneficial, contact and relations with non-hostile Native Americans were often sought by European colonists as a survival strategy. Sites characterized by close proximity between colonists and natives are well known in northeast North Carolina. Opportunities for participating in the archaeological investigations of early historic colonial sites became possible with a collaborative research effort undertaken with the Museum of the Albemarle (MOA) and the Elizabeth City State University's Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) in June 2012. Students in a summer research program for undergraduates have engaged in a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of a site related to the Culpeper rebellion of 1677. This summer, in collaboration with MOA, a high-resolution GPR survey was performed of a known Native American settlement site that existed in close proximity to early colonial habitations near Edenton, NC, on the Chowan River. The survey was designed to reveal the presence of any buried remnant structures that might indicate adoption by Native Americans of cultural features of colonial life such as defensive fortifications, or structures that may have served either religious or commercial purposes such as a church or trading post. Alternatively, evidence for the presence of dwellings might indicate a closer affiliation between struggling colonists and the indigenous population. The early colonial and Native American contact site survey team learned to use the Geophysical Survey Systems SIR-3000 Utility Scan Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and the associated RADAN 6.6 data processing software. It performed a Ground Penetrating Radar survey at 0.5-meter spatial resolution of the most promising areas for colonist and Native American interaction as defined by prior MOA archaeological studies in collaboration with the museum's archaeologist. Data collected was processed and examined for any evidence of buried structural features. Surveying such sites with GPR is important due to modern threats to the maintenance of their pristine state. Threats to such sites include residential development, forestry operations, agricultural, and increasing shoreline erosion.

Abstract
Seaspace and Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in February of 2012. Seaspace is the world's leading provider of satellite ground stations and processing software for remote sensing applications. The MOU stated that ECSU would provide a training site for Seaspace's technology and data products along with integration of the products into classroom curriculum. In return, Seaspace would provide ground stations for receiving direct broadcast data from various telemetries. The ground stations include a 3.7m X/L band, a 3.6m C band, and a 5.0m L band dishes, along with accompanying computing hardware. The purpose of this project was to generate a training curriculum focused on the K-12 classroom, along with college courses, and outside governmental agencies. The curriculum contains one hour modules which as a whole could be presented as a 10 hour course that qualifies as one continuing education unit (CEU) for K-12 teachers and administrators. Example modules for "Introduction to Remote Sensing" and "Introduction to the TeraScan" were also created.