November 2015

What Are Altmetrics? Are They Important?

Altmetrics, also known as alternative metrics, offer a way to gauge the attention that research output (such as articles, data sets, program code, slide decks, and posters) is generating on social media, reference sharing sites (such as Mendeley), blogs, and other online media.?

The term “altmetrics” was coined on Twitter in 2010 by Jason Priem, then a graduate student at the University of North Carolina’s School of Information and Library...

NCI at Frederick Contributes to Feds Feed Families

Once again, NCI at Frederick participated in the annual Feds Feed Families event, which challenges federal workers to help knock out hunger with a food drive. This year, NIH collected 26,315 pounds of non-perishable goods, beating its goal of collecting 20,000 pounds.

This includes over four tons of food that was collected at satellite locations, including NCI at Frederick. The food collected at NCI at Frederick was donated locally to the Frederick Rescue Mission. These donations help feed local families in need through the holiday season.

Expanding STEM Education

Editor’s note: This article is written as a reflection on experiential STEM education by a student who completed her Werner H. Kirsten internship in June 2015. Here, she advocates for incorporating hands-on experience into STEM curricula.

If the only way for high school students to learn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is through textbooks, then count me out. But how then do you get students to learn STEM outside of the classroom? The focus of this article is to advocate for high school STEM education through experiential learning.

Tom Freston, one of the founders and the chief executive officer (CEO) of MTV Productions, said in an interview in Men’s Journal that “innovation is taking two things that already exist and...

New Poster Puzzler

Your challenge is to correctly identify the item and its location from the picture. Clue: It’s somewhere at the NCI campus at Frederick or Fort Detrick.

Win a framed photograph of the Poster Puzzler and have your photo featured on the Poster website by e-mailing your guess, along with your name, e-mail address, and daytime phone number, to poster@mail.nih.gov.

All entries must be received by Friday, February 12, 2016, and the winner will be drawn from all correct answers received by that date.

Good luck and good hunting!

Poster Puzzler Solution: Taking in Air

The current Poster Puzzler image shows the top of Building 560, where a new supply air handler was recently installed by Facilities Maintenance and Engineering (FME) staff, as part of lab renovations in wing 1, floor 1. FME staff enlarged the attic of the building to make space for the air handler. Building 560, the largest building at the NCI at Frederick campus, houses about 120 labs and has 19 air handlers.

A supply air handler draws in outside air, filters it, cools or heats it, and adjusts the humidity to provide clean conditioned air to the laboratories. The Building 560 air handler weighs approximately 22,500 pounds and moves 22,000 cubic feet of air per minute.

Softball Games Bring NCI and Leidos Biomed Employees Together

NCI and Leidos Biomed employees took to the fields at Nallin Pond for the third annual slow-pitch softball games on August 26. The series attracted 54 employees who were divided into four teams, Red, Blue, Gray, and White, and they were cheered on by about 40 enthusiastic spectators.

In the first set of games, the Gray team defeated the Blue team, 15–8, and the White team pulled out a win against the Red team, 17–15. After a brief rest, the two winning teams and the two losing teams faced each other in a second set of games.

On Field 1, the “winners” match-up of the Gray and White teams was a nail biter, with a close score throughout the game. Daylight was a factor, however, and the team captains decided to call the game for safety reasons. With a lead of 15 to 13, the Gray team was declared the overall winner.