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Spatial analysis of tornado paths shows no areas of elevated tornado risk statistically separate from Tornado Alley, but some parts of the Southeast are identified as the most tornado prone in the nation. This work is not meant to identify a Tornado Alley that is "better" or "truer" than previous work. There are numerous different criteria for defining such an area, and the chosen priorities of a particular method can certainly result in an area that is different from other studies. Any method meant to define Tornado Alley will require some subjective decision making by the researchers, and that is acceptable so long as the decisions are well reasoned and justified. Brooks et al. (2003) suggest that the total threat of tornado touchdown may be the most basic and important quantity to be derived from tornado climate data, and it can be further argued that the most important quantity is the ultimate risk of being impacted by a tornado path. This research is motivated by  A map of tornado events from 1950-2007 over the middle part of the United States.

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This paper presents an integrative standards-based STEM curriculum that uses robots to develop students' computational thinking. The need for the project is rooted in both the overall lack of existing materials as well as the need for materials that directly address specific STEM standards in an integrative fashion. The paper details the first mesocycle of an educational design research project (EDR) in which a robust theoretical framework was created to support the development of a 2-week series of robotics lessons. Analysis of evaluation data from 5 fifth-grade teachers and their students revealed that the integrative curriculum supported student problem solving and teacher practices that supported cognitive demand. Implications for research, design, and instruction are discussed.

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