Building a Community of Christ in a Mathematics Classroom

The prevalence of mathematics anxiety and math phobia is an accepted phenomenon in our culture today (Boaler, 2013; Kimball & Smith, 2013). Multiple research studies have been conducted investigating the levels of mathematics anxiety present in both preservice and in-service elementary education teachers (Bekdemir, 2010; Mizala, Martínez, & Martínez, 2015). This article describes how the creation of a learning community within a two-course sequence of mathematics content courses for elementary teachers addressed the fears and anxieties of a cohort of prospective female teachers. The learning community was founded on three perspectives: Palmer’s (1989) community of truth, Paul’s description of the church as a human body in 1 Corinthians 12, and Jolliff’s (2009) reinterpretation of Guthrie’s (1963) lonesome valley experience by a solitary traveler. Themes expressed by the students in their reflections after the second course included greater conceptual understanding, an emphasis on both individual and community learning, reduced anxiety, attention to multiple perspectives, and the ability to learn as both a teacher and a student

The action of the plant growth hormone

Although the control of cell elongation in plant tissues by a special growth-promoting substance or substances has been well established for some time, the processes by which this substance is able to bring about growth have remained obscure. Since the general properties of the response to growth substance by plant tissues, in particular of the Arena coleoptiles which have been most extensively studied, have been recently summarized by Thimann and Bonner (1933), only the principal points of interest for the present discussion need be given. These are briefly as follows: (a) The growth-promoting substance of the Avena coleoptile is produced only in the coleoptile tip and passes from there downward (Went, 1928). After removal of the tip new growth substance is formed by the uppermost cells of the stump ("physiological regeneration," Dolk, 1926). (b) The growth of the Avena coleoptile is for some time proportional to the amount of growth substance supplied to it (Thimann and Bonner, 1933). (c) The growth substance which enters the plant and causes growth cannot be recovered; i.e., is used up (Went, 1928). (d) Growth substance is an unsaturated acid of empirical formula C18H32O5 (Kögl, Haagen-Smit and Erxleben, 1933) and readily loses its growth-promoting activity by oxidation. (e) The growth substance is a true hormone, i.e., it acts in minute amounts and bears no direct stoichiometrical relationship to the number of molecules of soluble substance transformed during growth into, for example, cell walls. Thus one molecule of growth substance causes an amount of growth of the Avena coleoptile at 27°C. which requires the changing of 3 X 10^5 molecules of hexose to cellulose in cell walls (Thimann and Bonner, 1933). The changes in the physical properties of coleoptiles under the influence of growth substance have been studied to some extent. Heyn (1931), and independently, Söding (1931, 1932) have shown that the plasticity, and also to a considerable extent the elasticity, of the coleoptile is increased after action of growth substance, and that this increase is independent of whether growth has occurred or not; i.e., this action of growth substance is preliminary to active elongation. Heyn also found an increase in extensibility in coleoptiles which had been plasmolyzed after growth substance action, so that it is the physical properties of the cell wall, and not of the protoplasm, which are changed. The action of growth substance has now been further studied, and a few of the results will be described in the present paper. This study has been made easier by discovery of the fact that short sections of coleoptiles grow at a rapid rate if immersed in a growth substance solution of suitable concentration. This method of using coleoptiles is convenient because, under proper conditions, a large amount of growth takes place in a relatively short time, and the "physiological regeneration" mentioned in (a) occurs slightly or not at all. It has the added advantage that the effect of known concentrations of growth substance upon the growth of younger and older portions of the same coleoptile may be examined independently

The growth and respiration of the Avena coleoptile

In a previous paper (1) a relation was shown to exist between the respiration of the plant cell and its elongation under the influence of the plant growth hormone. A more extensive investigation of this relation was therefore undertaken with the hope that elongation would exhibit a close correlation with some relatively accessible property of the respiration, for example with the magnitude or the respiratory quotient of the latter. It may be said at once, however, that this was not the case, and that the work reported in the present paper, while revealing several points of interest and defining more clearly the dependence of elongation upon respiration, has not resulted in any explanation of the way in which respiration is essential to growth

Promoting Justice in the Classroom: Looking Beyond the Label to See the Individual

Christian educators are faced with the task of promoting and encouraging justice from the viewpoint of Christ as they encounter the broad strokes of diversity within their classrooms and schools. Following Christ means that the Christian educator must look beyond the labels that have been applied by the religious and secular to see each student as made in the image of God. This article presents a paradigm that recognizes the worth of each individual within the context of the student’s background knowledge, language abilities, academic achievement, and behavior (BLAB) instead of the singularly focused labels that marginalize students

Plant tissue cultures from a hormone point of view

A botanist, Haberlandt,(1) first pointed out the possibilities of the culture of isolated tissues. He suggested that not only could the potentialities of individual cells be determined, but that also some insight might be gained as to the reciprocal influences of tissues upon one another, that is, as to "correlation.

Ceiling and visibility instrumentation within government agencies

The key systems requirements for ceilometer systems are described. The following items are included: range must be 10,000 ft.; laser emission must conform to the bureau of radiological health class I performance; system must detect two lowest cloud layers; display must be in either English or metric units; and system must be capable of self monitoring and testing performance. Based upon the requirements competitive prototype cloud height indicator systems are to be built

Transonic aerodynamic design experience

Advancements have occurred in transonic numerical simulation that place aerodynamic performance design into a relatively well developed status. Efficient broad band operating characteristics can be reliably developed at the conceptual design level. Recent aeroelastic and separated flow simulation results indicate that systematic consideration of an increased range of design problems appears promising. This emerging capability addresses static and dynamic structural/aerodynamic coupling and nonlinearities associated with viscous dominated flows