Britt Faulstick

Recent climate-related crises — from severe storms and flooding to extreme heat — have raised new questions about how local governments communicate the risk of these crises and what they are doing to keep their citizens safe. To better understand what this communication looks like at local level, and the factors that may be shaping it, researchers from Drexel University analyzed climate resilience planning information available on the public-facing websites of 24 coastal communities in New Jersey that are contending with the effects of sea level rise. Their report, recently published in the Journal of Extreme Events, found wide variation in the number and extent of mitigation actions taken and how the websites describe causes of coastal hazards — for example, only half of the communities are acknowledging sea level rise as a contributing factor to these hazards.

In an ongoing effort to support Philadelphia’s K-12 schools by growing the number of certified teachers, Drexel University is expanding its teacher residency program, which helps current and prospective teachers obtain Pennsylvania teaching certifications. Supported by a $600,000 multi-year grant from the William Penn Foundation, Drexel’s School of Education will train and certify 25 teachers over the next three years using a teacher residency model similar to the one it launched with Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter School in 2020.

Drexel University is embarking on a three-year, $5-million multinational collaboration to produce MXene nanomaterials. The project, which is a collaboration with Kalifa University in the United Arab Emirates, the University of Padua in Italy and the Kyiv, Ukraine-based MXene manufacturing company Carbon-Ukraine, seeks to use the promising nanomaterial, first discovered at Drexel, to provide clean drinking water for arid areas of the world threatened by climate change and improve cell labeling and tracking technology for biomedical analysis.

Drawing inspiration from the veinous ears of jackrabbits and elephants, Drexel University researchers have come up with a new approach to passive heating and cooling that could one day make buildings more energy efficient. Their concept, recently published in the Journal of Building Engineering, embeds a vascular network within cement-based building materials that, when filled with paraffin-based material, can help passively regulate the surface temperature of walls, floors and ceilings.