Perceived Indicators of Support Leading to the Successful Attainment of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification.

There has been limited research completed to identify supports or supporting behaviors that assisted candidates while they were completing the national board certification process. Identifying support factors that assisted national board certified teachers to the successful completion of the process was the primary focus of this study. A qualitative research method was used to interview national board certified teachers, their teaching colleagues, and their administrators. Questions were posed from the interview guides developed for each of the three targeted groups. Information derived from the interviews focused on the perceived supports that lead to the successful attainment of the national board certification. Each interview was audio taped and transcribed verbatim and then systematically coded and analyzed. The thick and rich descriptions provided an opportunity for professionals to identify with the study\u27s participants and therefore established the applicability of the study. The specific findings were organized and clustered around the research questions. Subtopics that emerged from the data analysis process were also addressed as they related to the five researched topics. The information that accumulated prompted the formation of specific recommendations. This study should be of interest to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) as they continue to revisit their set of rigorous standards and the certification process. It should also be of interest to prospective teachers seeking the certification along with their administrators as supporters. The study could also be of interest to school system administrators who seek to promote staff development experiences for their teachers or to those individuals who desire to assist teachers in becoming highly qualified. Prompted by the No Child Left Behind legislation, our nation began to focus on the effects of teacher quality and students\u27 achievement. The national board certification provided by the NBPTS is one means of meeting the criteria set forth to be deemed highly qualified

AMCIS 2002 Panels and Workshops III: How Will Media Technology Evolve as an Academic Discipline?

Media Technology (MT) is a new, multidisciplinary field that integrates the knowledge, expertise, resources, and creativity of diverse, established, fertile artistic disciplines (visual design, art, music, radio, television) with new technological disciplines (digital media, information systems, information technology, computer science, network engineering) through rapidly-evolving technologies. Its application in electronic commerce into what will become a full synthesis of information technology and sensory interaction will be made possible by approaches to presenting and exchanging information visually, aurally--and eventually in combination with all of the senses. This article reports on a panel held at AMCIS 2002 in Dallas TX. The panel discussed the need to develop a literacy and understanding in the IT discipline of the MT and its importance in keeping IT research relevant. The panel also discussed strategies for attaining MT literacy, integrating MT into the IT curriculum, and discussed two universities where it is being done

Sensitivity of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and formaldehyde (HCHO) preservation in snow to changing environmental conditions: Implications for ice core records

Sensitivity studies with physically based numerical air–snow–firn transfer models for formaldehyde (HCHO) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) show that even though nonlinear processes determine the preservation of HCHO and H2O2 in snow and firn, changes in atmospheric mixing ratios are linearly recorded in ice cores under otherwise constant environmental conditions. However, temperature, snowpack ventilation, and rate and timing of snow accumulation also affect the ice core records of reversibly deposited species and must be considered when inferring past atmospheric mixing ratios. The results of the sensitivity studies allow quantitative separation of these factors in ice core records. Past temperatures and accumulation rates are generally determined in ice cores and the preservation of HCHO and H2O2 is not highly sensitive to snowpack ventilation, leaving changes in seasonality of snow accumulation as the main source of uncertainty in a reconstruction of past atmospheric mixing ratios

A spatially calibrated model of annual accumulation rate on the Greenland Ice Sheet (1958-2007)

Past estimates of Greenland Ice Sheet accumulation rates have been multiyear climatologies based on ice/firn cores and coastal precipitation records. Existing annually resolved estimates have incompletely quantified uncertainty, owing primarily to incomplete spatial coverage. This study improves upon these shortcomings by calibrating annual (1958-2007) solid precipitation output from the Fifth Generation Mesoscale Model modified for polar climates (Polar MM5) using firn core and meteorological station data. The calibration employs spatial interpolation of regionally derived linear correction functions. Residual uncertainties exhibit coherent spatial patterns, which are modeled via spatial interpolation of root mean squared errors. Mean 1958-2007 Greenland Ice Sheet annual accumulation rate is 337 ± 48 mm/yr water equivalent (w.e.) or 591 ± 83 Gt/yr. Annual estimates contain one standard deviation uncertainties of 74 mm/yr w.e., 22%, or 129 Gt/yr. Accumulation rates in southeast Greenland are found to exceed 2000 mm/yr w.e. and to dominate interannual variability in Greenland Ice Sheet total accumulated mass, representing 31% of the whole. Accumulation rates in the southeast are of sufficient magnitude to affect the sign of Greenland mass balance during some years. The only statistically significant temporal change in total ice sheet accumulation in the 1958-2007 period occurred between 1960 and 1972, when a simultaneous accumulation increase and decrease occurred in west and east Greenland, respectively. No statistically significant uniform change in ice sheet-wide accumulation is evident after 1972. However, regional changes do occur, including an accumulation increase on the west coast post-1992. The high accumulation rates of 2002-2003 appear to be confined to the southeast. Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union