Understanding the rules of the game: marking peer assessment as a medium for developing students' conceptions of assessment

Students need to understand assessment processes in order to succeed in higher education. However, recent research has identified how difficult it is for students to become absorbed into the assessment culture of their disciplines, with a recognition that providing written criteria and grade descriptors is not enough to make this tacit ‘knowledge’ transparent to novice students. This paper reports on an experiment where sports studies students used assessment criteria to mark their peers work coupled with an assessment of their peer marking and feedback comments. The latter was included to encourage students to engage with the peer assessment in some depth. Analysis of the data indicates considerable benefits for the students in terms of use of criteria, awareness of their achievements and ability to understand assessment feedback

Evaluating risk for current and future Bromus tectorum invasion and large wildfires at multiple spatial scales in Colorado and Wyoming, USA

Includes bibliographical references.2015 Summer.The Western United States is experiencing rapid ecologic change. These changes are driven largely by anthropogenic factors including introduction of alien invasive species, wildfire ignition and suppression, climate change, and feedbacks between these occurrences. Average temperatures in some areas of the Western U.S. increased as much as 1.1 °C between 2000 and 2006. The advancement of spring also provides evidence for climate change in the region; earlier snowmelt and runoff has been documented in recent decades for areas of the Intermountain West. These rapid changes will certainly affect the distribution of the alien invasive B. tectorum and large wildfires in Colorado and Wyoming as well as their associated feedbacks and cascading ecosystem effects. Prompted and inspired by natural resource manager concerns, this research evaluates these ecological phenomena at three spatial scales: Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado; a wildfire disturbance in Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming; and the area encompassed by these two states. The products from this research are maps that can be incorporated into decision support systems for land management and vulnerability assessments for climate change preparedness. An evaluation of the current and future suitable habitat for B. tectorum in Rocky Mountain National Park was conducted at a 90 m² spatial resolution using a MaxEnt model fit with climatic, vegetation cover, and anthropogenic covariates (i.e. distance to roads as a surrogate for propagule pressure). One of the important considerations of this research was spatial scale; 250 m² and 1 km² resolution climate surfaces cannot capture climate refugia in a small area such as Rocky Mountain National Park (1,076 km²) with high topographic heterogeneity (2,300 m to 4,345 m elevation). Based on model results, the suitable habitat for B. tectorum in the Park increases more than 150 km2 through the year 2050. Four multi-temporal and multiscale species distribution models were developed for B. tectorum in the Squirrel Creek Wildfire post-burn area of Medicine Bow National Forest using eight spectral indices derived from five months of 30 m² Landsat 8 imagery corresponding to changes in species phenology and time of field data collection. These models were improved using an iterative approach in which a threshold for abundance (i.e. ≥40% foliar cover) was established from an independent dataset, and produced highly accurate maps of current B. tectorum distribution in Squirrel Creek burn with independent AUC values of 0.95 to 0.97. The most plausible model based on field observations showed the distribution of B. tectorum has increased 30% from pre-disturbance observations in the area. This model was incorporated in a habitat suitability model for B. tectorum in the same area using topographic covariates with inclusion of propagule dispersal limitations to provide an estimate of future potential distribution. Three historic (years 1991 – 2000) environmental suitability models for large wildfires (i.e. > 400 ha) in Colorado and Wyoming were developed at a 1 km² spatial resolution and tested using an independent dataset of large wildfire occurrence in the same area from the subsequent decade (years 2001 – 2010). The historic models classified points of known fire occurrence exceptionally well using decadal climate averages corresponding to the temporal resolution of wildfire occurrence and topographic covariates. When applied to an independent dataset, the test sensitivity was 0.91 for the best model (i.e. MaxEnt). We then applied the model to future climate space for the 2020s (years 2010-2039) and 2050s (years 2040-2069) using two future climate ensembles (i.e. two representative concentration pathways; RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 with ensemble average projections from 15 global circulation models) to rank areas for large wildfire risk in the future

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe trafficking of children in the United States for both sex and labor is a growing phenomenon. The trafficking of humans in general is a profitable business rivaling that of the drug trade in its depth and breadth. The impact of trafficking can have se

Metocean data management and modeling to support U.S. offshore wind power development in the Mid-Atlantic

Efforts to encourage more conservative electricity consumption, through public awareness campaigns and government-mandated energy efficiency standards, have consistently been overshadowed by population increase and increased standards of living, leading to higher electricity demand, year after year. Sufficient resources and technology exist to support the development of a robust offshore wind industry to help meet this rising demand, but a number of barriers unique to the U.S. have hindered progress. Addressing many of these obstacles involves resolving uncertainty issues related to development. Not only is there a general lack of data to provide stakeholders, developers, and governing authorities with sufficient information for informed decision-making for offshore wind projects, but the data that do exist are often fragmented or isolated within a particular project or application. There is an immediate need to improve the reliability of metocean data as it pertains to characterizing the offshore wind resource, and to share that and other related information in a standard format that promotes and encourages interoperability across multiple platforms associated with offshore wind development. The methodology for addressing some of these data challenges began with the evaluation of a proposed improvement to a particular atmospheric modeling system being utilized to provide wind resource data within the “Virginia Offshore Wind Advanced Technology Demonstration Site Development” project. By considering the current limitations associated with SST data acquisition and initial analyses, it was determined that the integration of higher resolution SST data would be valuable only if latency issues in the data were resolved, which would require the development of an SST forecasting mode to be coupled with the operational model. This did not prove justifiable due to the lack of significant improvements in wind speed forecasting capability. Data accessibility issues were then addressed in the development of a web mapping portal designed to dynamically display geo-referenced project results and integrate publicly-available metocean data. By utilizing best practices for data sharing and information dissemination, optimum interoperability was established through smart design and the use of standard web service protocols

Teaching English to North Korean Refugees at Banseok School in South Korea: An Interview with Amanda DeCesaro

This interview addresses teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to young-adult North Korean refugees at Banseok School (Pansŏk Hakkyo) in Seoul. A Christian institution supported by Sarang Church (Sarang ŭi Kyohoe), the school offers education, mentorship, and volunteer services in preparation for university admission in South Korea and for the anticipated reunification of the two Koreas. Amanda DeCesaro discusses her volunteer conversation class and methods, student learning needs and social hierarchies, emotions in the language classroom, attitudes toward English, interactions with other learners, and how educators should knowledgeably and compassionately engage North Korean refugee students. The interview was conducted electronically by Alzo David-West

Life cycle analysis for the cultivation and combustion of miscanthus for biofuel compared with natural gas

As negative environmental and economic impacts of fossil fuels have escalated, so has the importance of renewable bioenergy crops whose feedstocks are noncompetitive with food supplies. Compared with fossil fuels, use of lignocellulosic feedstocks offers potential for greenhouse gas reduction and highly positive net energy returns because of low input demand and high yields per unit of land area, thus making them advantageous for the emerging biofuel industry. The aim of this study was to simulate environmental impacts of producing a biofuel grass for combustion use based on the inventory of inputs and their effects on eutrophication of surface waters; acidification of land and water; photochemical ozone-creation potential (i.e. smog); global atmospheric warming; and nonrenewable resource depletion (mainly fossil fuels). Hybrid miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus, or giant miscanthus), a perennial C4 grass originating from East Asia, was compared with natural gas by using a life-cycle analysis model for biomass production in France. The analysis showed a trade-off between natural gas and miscanthus. The latter had a lower global-warming potential and consumed less primary nonrenewable energy but produced more emissions that promote acidification and eutrophication than did natural gas

Chapter 6: Essays from the Courage and Moral Choice Project

In this chapter, participants from the Courage and Moral Choice Project share personal essays about their experiences with the project. Teachers describe the ways in which they sought to connect the stories of moral courage with a deepened awareness of the needs and challenges in the school and wider community. One teacher described the stories as “reminders” that courage and goodness exist in the world, a world often filled with stories of despair. Another teacher, who was once described as an “at risk” student herself, also noted that the stories provide a perspective of hope. One student described how meaningful it was for her to hear stories about the many Danish citizens to shelter and transport their neighbors during the Nazi occupation. She notes, “I think more people need to be like that.