Students are introduced to air masses, with an emphasis on the differences between and characteristics of high- versus low-pressure air systems. Students also hear about weather forecasting instrumentation and how engineers work to improve these instruments for atmospheric measurements on Earth and in space.

Although educational radio stations flourished in the early 1920s--more than 200 existed prior to the introduction of network radio in 1926--most faltered shortly thereafter. One reason was the alignment of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), created by legislation declaring that the airwaves belonged to the public, with commercial interests. When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) replaced the FRC in 1934, educational, religious, and labor groups promoted an amendment requiring the allocation of one-fourth of all broadcast licenses to nonprofit organizations. The amendment failed to pass, and by 1937, only 38 educational radio stations remained in operation. In 1948, as sales of televisions skyrocketed, Freida B. Hennock, the first female FCC commissioner, began a campaign to assign channel frequencies for nonprofit, educational use. Advocates backing Hennock documented the high number of acts or threats of violence shown to children every week on commercial television broadcasts. Consequently, when the FCC in 1952 added UHF (ultra high frequency) channels to the existing VHF (very high frequency) channels, they reserved 10 percent for use by nonprofit educational organizations. In the following testimony to a 1955 Congressional subcommittee, Hennock advocated oversight of commercial television by governmental and civic bodies and championed educational television. The testimony from the general manager of a new Pittsburgh educational station, William Wood, follows. Wood emphasized the lack of violence in his 'poverty stricken' station's programming and included excerpts from fan mail praising an acclaimed children's show, The Children's Corner, a program co-produced by Fred Rogers, who later created, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Until 1967, however, when the Federal government established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to appropriate funds for public television, non-commercial stations struggled to survive.

Students learn what causes air pollution and how to investigate the different pollutants that exist, such as toxic gases and particulate matter. They investigate the technologies developed by engineers to reduce air pollution.

Brief review of applied aerodynamics and modern approaches in aircraft stability and control. Static stability and trim. Stability derivatives and characteristic longitudinal and lateral-directional motions. Physical effects of wing, fuselage, and tail on aircraft motion. Flight vehicle stabilization by classical and modern control techniques. Time and frequency domain analysis of control system performance. Human pilot models and pilot-in-the-loop control with applications. V/STOL stability, dynamics, and control during transition from hover to forward flight. Parameter sensitivity and handling quality analysis of aircraft through variable flight conditions. Brief discussion of motion at high angles-of-attack, roll coupling, and other nonlinear flight regimes.

16.885J offers an holistic view of the aircraft as a system, covering: basic systems engineering; cost and weight estimation; basic aircraft performance; safety and reliability; lifecycle topics; aircraft subsystems; risk analysis and management; and system realization. Small student teams retrospectively analyze an existing aircraft covering: key design drivers and decisions; aircraft attributes and subsystems; and operational experience. Oral and written versions of the case study are delivered. For the Fall 2005 term, the class focuses on a systems engineering analysis of the Space Shuttle. It offers study of both design and operations of the shuttle, with frequent lectures by outside experts. Students choose specific shuttle systems for detailed analysis and develop new subsystem designs using state of the art technology.

William Penn, a well placed English gentlemen and a Quaker, turned an old debt into a charter for the proprietary colony called "Pennsylvania," (all the land between New Jersey and Maryland) Penn took great pains in setting up his colony; twenty drafts survive of his First Frame of Government, the colony's 1682 constitution. Penn was determined to deal fairly and maintain friendly relations with the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. He laid out in great detail the city of Philadelphia as well as organized other settlements and established the Free Society of Traders to control commerce with England. He sent back glowing accounts of the colony to his English friends and patrons. This Letter to the Free Society of Traders, published in 1683, has been recognized as the most effective of his promotional tracts. And it proved successful; by 1700 Pennsylvania's population reached 21,000.

Overview of airline management decision processes, with a focus on economic issues and their relationship to operations planning models and decision support tools. Application of economic models of demand, pricing, costs, and supply to airline markets and networks. Examination of industry practice and emerging methods for fleet planning, route network design, scheduling, pricing and revenue management, with emphasis on the interactions between the components of airline management and profit objectives in competitive environments. Students participate in a competitive airline management simulation game as part of the subject requirements.

Explores a variety of models and optimization techniques for the solution of airline schedule planning problems. Schedule design, fleet assignment, aircraft maintenance routing, crew scheduling, robust planning, passenger mix, integrated schedule planning, and other topics. Solution techniques involving decomposition, e.g., Lagrangian relaxation, column generation and partitioning, and state-of-the-art applications of these techniques to airline problems. Explores a variety of models and optimization techniques for the solution of airline schedule planning and operations problems. Schedule design, fleet assignment, aircraft maintenance routing, crew scheduling, passenger mix, and other topics are covered. Recent models and algorithms addressing issues of model integration, robustness, and operations recovery are introduced. Modeling and solution techniques designed specifically for large-scale problems, and state-of-the-art applications of these techniques to airline problems are detailed.

Classroom experiment illustrating the law of diminishing marginal productivity through the production of paper airplanes.

How much of an impact does air travel have on climate change? What can be done about it? Through a hands-on demonstration and a short literature review, students consider the impacts and future of aviation. With data, students consider why climate communicators and scientists focus on carbon dioxide. This guide is an extension of the TILclimate episode "TIL about planes."

Akiak is the story of a dog that desires to win the Iditarod with her owner, Mick. Akiak is injured and is disqualified from finishing the race, but she follows Mich and the team of dogs to the finish line. This lesson provides teachers with support for using text-dependent questions to help students derive big ideas and key understandings while developing vocabulary.

These materials document the goals and activities of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights; from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Why did our ancestors who made cave paintings in France thrive while Neanderthals died out? What do our closest living ancestors have to teach us about what it means to be human? How do images of the human brain reveal our faculties for language, the use of tools and the ability to forge social bonds? These questions and more are examined in "The Human Spark," a three-part television series funded in part by NSF. In this background briefing, host Alan Alda and the producers of the series discuss their interactions with dozens of scientists to get at the sources of human uniqueness through the lenses of neuroscience, anthropology, human evolution, child development and primatology. The series premieres on PBS stations Jan. 6, 13 and 20, 2010.

Alan Alda, award-winning actor and visiting professor at the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University, talks about his experiences with communicating science to the general public. Looking to close the gap between the scientific community and the public, Mr. Alda discusses what needs to be improved, and how science can be better understood.

This short, time-lapse video shows the changes in the Columbia Glacier from May 12, 2007 to August 20, 2010. Narration provides general description of the geophysical dynamics and processes.

In this video adapted from Storyknife Productions, Alaska Native pilots share how they use traditional knowledge to read the landscape and predict the weather.

In this video adapted from KUAC-TV and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska Native students contribute to research on how their environment is changing as a result of global warming.

As reduced sea ice conditions bring increased shipping and development opportunities to the Arctic, Alaska Native Village Corporations are at the table with resource developers, representing the interests of their people and land.

In this video adapted from Alaska Sea Grant, discover why multiple tsunamis resulted from the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964.

Tribal communities in southeastern Alaska are partnering with federal and state agencies to investigate increasing harmful algal blooms—events that pose human health risks to subsistence harvesters.