Sports-based text sets: Fostering critical literacy at the intersections of sport and society

Sports culture is central to the lives of many students, whether they participate in athletic competitions or sports fandom. Unfortunately, sports culture also reflects many sociopolitical issues and inequities that impinge upon our greater society in the present day (e.g., domestic violence, racism). For those reasons, sports-based text sets—diverse collections of texts about figures, events, and happenings in sports culture—stand to support teachers in honoring students’ knowledge of and interests in sports culture while also facilitating critical literacy practices through the investigation of inequities that ail both sport and society. This article introduces the notion of a sports-based text set, addresses the types of texts that might be featured in such a set, and presents ideas for exploring specific texts with students, using the issue of inequitable compensation for male and female athletes as an example

Liar, Liar, Tweets on Fire! Online Deception Across Four Venues

Most adults report self-dishonesty across different online venues (e.g., social media, online dating, anonymous chat rooms, and sex sites), they believe others are less honest than they are within each of these online venues, and they expect different types of lies (e.g., lies about age or appearance) across different venues

Too Drunk to Drive, Too Drunk to Consent?

Our naturalistic study of bargoers showed that many intoxicated individuals consider themselves and their intoxicated friends too impaired to drive; however, few, especially men, consider themselves or their friends too drunk to consent to sex. This has implications for consent promotion and bystander models of sex assault prevention

Trackways of the American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) in Northwestern Costa Rica: Implications for Crocodylian Ichnology

We documented trackways of free-living Crocodylus acutus on beaches at the mouths of Tamarindo and Ventanas estuaries, Costa Rica. Our crocodiles had estimated total lengths of 1–3 meters or more. Manus prints have five digits, with digits I–III bearing claw marks. Pes prints have four digits, with claw marks on digits I–III. The pes is plantigrade. Claws generally dig into the substrate. Apart from claw marks, digit I and the heel of the pes are usually the most deeply impressed parts of footprints. Trackways are wide-gauge. Pes prints are usually positioned just behind ipsilateral manus prints of the same set and may overlap them. Manus and pes prints angle slightly outward with respect to the crocodile\u27s direction of movement. Claw-bearing digits of both the manus and pes may create curved, concave-toward-the-midline drag marks as the autopodium is protracted. The tail mark varies in depth and clarity, and in shape from nearly linear to markedly sinuous. Sometimes the tail mark hugs the trackway midline, but sometimes it is closer to, or even cuts across, prints of one side. American crocodile footprints and trackways are similar to those observed in other extant crocodylian species, indicating substantial trackway conservatism across the group

Risk Sensitivity and the Sikh Uprising in the Punjab

Risk sensitivity combined with prospect theory and framing concepts can be quite useful in explaining which individuals and groups can become radicalized and more likely to resort to terrorism to achieve their political and economic objectives. Such radicalization can occur with groups willing to use violence for major gains and for groups seeking to prevent significant losses of status or wealth. The Sikh uprising in the Punjab in the latter part of the twentieth century is an example of terrorism based not on poverty but as part of an effort to preserve or regain a relatively advantageous position. The Sikhs were in a somewhat advantageous situation in India but faced increasing challenges to their economic, political, and social position in the Punjab and in India in general. The counterterrorism policies of the government contributed to the perception of threat that further radicalized the Sikh community.Risk sensitivity combined with prospect theory and framing concepts can be quite useful in explaining which individuals and groups can become radicalized and more likely to resort to terrorism to achieve their political and economic objectives. Such radicalization can occur with groups willing to use violence for major gains and for groups seeking to prevent significant losses of status or wealth. The Sikh uprising in the Punjab in the latter part of the twentieth century is an example of terrorism based not on poverty but as part of an effort to preserve or regain a relatively advantageous position. The Sikhs were in a somewhat advantageous situation in India but faced increasing challenges to their economic, political, and social position in the Punjab and in India in general. The counterterrorism policies of the government contributed to the perception of threat that further radicalized the Sikh community

Promoting Civic Engagement, Cultivating Human Agency and Stimulating Environmental Justice

We are providing residents surrounding the Hartford Iron \u26 Metal (HI\u26M) facility with groundwater contamination results, distributing hand soap labeled with contact information for reporting violations to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), and collecting nine upwind/downwind moss samples to analyze for possible air contamination. Located in Blackford County, HI\u26M sits in the middle of a low SES residential neighborhood where many residents rent; it lacks a neighborhood association. Blackford County Concerned Citizens (BCCC) is investigating the concerns of residents in relation to the industrial history of the county in an attempt to improve public health. Statistics indicate that Blackford County has significantly higher levels of three types of cancers – colon, thyroid, bladder – in Indiana. HI\u26M, IDEM and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entered an agreement in 2009 and a 2010 site assessment showed soil samples that were contaminated with heavy metals and organic compounds. HI\u26M had not complied with the court order as of 2015 and IDEM is responsible for enforcement of that order and has been slow to force remediation. Recent remediation efforts have been focused on groundwater contamination and municipality entities and have ignored other avenues of contamination, including air pollutants surrounding HI\u26M. The goal of this service learning course is to cultivate human agency by development of collective consciousness that seeks to address the concerns of affected residents. We aim to address HI\u26M’s ecological impact on the surrounding neighborhood by empowering residents in light of institutional deficiencies.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1030/thumbnail.jp

Sedimentology and Geochemistry of the St Joseph River, Allen County

The St. Joseph River Watershed is one of eight watersheds that make up the Maumee Watershed. This river was originally carved by the Huron-Erie Glacial Lobe approximately 22,000 years ago. Formation of this watershed ended approximately 12,000 years ago with the final retreat of the Erie Lobe. Over time, anthropogenic activity has altered the watershed by draining wetlands and turning the land into farm and cropland. Prior studies found that pesticides, pollutants, and nutrient loading were the main concerns in water quality, and that erosion and flooding were the largest overall concerns. Our study aims to analyze the St. Joseph River along four transects ranging from southeast DeKalb County to Allen County. Coarsest sediments were found near the center of the channel, while sediments fined toward the inner part of meanders. Longitudinally, the highest abundance of coarse grains was found toward the northernmost sample site (upstream). Based on our data, the grain size distribution depends on the geometry of the channel. Geochemical analyses of the water during a time span of five months (October-February) show a general decrease in the concentration of NO3, PO4, and SO4, and a slight increase in the concentration of Fe2+ and Cl2. In the same months, while pH and dissolved oxygen readings were stable, total dissolved solids showed a general decrease

Diving behavior and thermal habitats of gravid hawksbill turtles at St. Croix, USA

Knowledge of an animal’s behavior during particular life history stages can provide insights into habitat selection, and this can have important conservation implications. Gravid hawksbill turtles spend the internesting interval resting on the seafloor, but their diving behavior has only been previously examined in shallow-water habitats. We examined depth use of gravid hawksbills in a location of variable bathymetry to determine if hawksbills engage in deeper diving if deeper waters are available. We attached archival time-depth recorders onto hawksbills nesting at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, where the neritic zone ends within 500 m of the shoreline. We recorded seven internesting intervals from five individuals. Internesting intervals were characterized by long dives (mean 24.2 ± SD 22.3 min) to a constant depth, consistent with seafloor resting in a spatially restricted residence area. There was little variation in the water temperatures at all depths occupied (mean 29.06 ± SD 0.43 °C). Two turtles attained the deepest recorded dives for gravid hawksbills (95.1 and 84.4 m) and sometimes remained at depths greater than 60 m for up to 30 min. Although we recorded instances of relatively deep diving for the species, the overall pattern of seafloor resting and infrequent diving was consistent with hawksbills in other ocean basins with different offshore habitats. We propose that benthic resting is common behavior for gravid hawksbills globally, and protection of benthic habitats near the nesting beach should be a management priority