Fundamentals that result in a well-managed school : a reflective essay

Educational leadership takes on many roles. In this paper I will reason in areas of collaboration, discipline, and planning, while exploring the relationship that they have on a well managed school. I will address the six Iowa Leadership Standards of: Professional Leadership, Visionary Leadership, Instructional Leadership, Collaborative Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Ethical Leadership, and Political Leadership; and make some parallels to my future success as an administrator using these standards

The role of pragmatic and epistemic agency in supporting engagement in computational physics practices

Computational and project-based physics courses have been demonstrated to provide opportunities for students to engage in practices that mirror those of professional physicists (Holubova, 2008; Pawlak, Irving, & Caballero, 2020; Graves & Light, 2020). Similarly, researchers have studied how designing laboratories that support student agency and decision making can similarly support students engaging in the physics practices (Holmes, Keep, & Wieman, 2020). In this presentation, we discuss a project-based computational physics course for which agency is a core design principle: class activities and assignments are designed to provide students with a very high degree of authority over what and how to model computationally (Burke & Atherton, 2017; Phillips, Gouvea, Gravel, Beauchemin, & Atherton, 2022). We identify two forms of agency relevant to students’ engagement: pragmatic agency, or agency over practical decisions (Hitlin & Elder, 2007), and epistemic agency, or agency over what knowledge is created and how it is created (Miller, Manz, Russ, Stroupe, & Berland, 2018). For example, a group that built a small ramp and modeled the motion of a dowels rolling on the ramp exercised agency in a variety of ways over the course of their project. In exercising pragmatic agency, they revised their ramp design to make it longer and shallower in order to make the motion of the dowel easier to capture with video analysis tools. They seemed to view this decision as not impacting their target knowledge of understanding how a dowel would move on a ramp—the particular shape was not of interest. In exercising epistemic agency, they decided it was sufficient that their computational model qualitatively fit the rate of energy dissipation, even though the precise trajectory of the dowel did not match. In doing so, they not only exercised agency over what knowledge they created, but also the standards by which that knowledge should be evaluated. These types of decisions mirror those of experimental physicists in research. Through analysis of students’ end of project reports and code (written in Jupyter notebooks) from this group and others, we can identify a wide range of computational physics practices. We show that many of these practices arise naturally in this agency-centered classroom, without specific instructional intervention. We conclude with further questions for research, as well as hypotheses about how these principles may apply in other learning environments. REFERENCES Burke, C. J., & Atherton, T. J. (2017). Developing a project-based computational physics course grounded in expert practice. American Journal of Physics, 85(4), 301-310. Graves, A. L., & Light, A. D. (2020). Hitting the ground running: Computational physics education to prepare students for computational physics research. Computing in Science & Engineering, 22(4), 50-60. Hitlin, S., & Elder Jr, G. H. (2007). Time, self, and the curiously abstract concept of agency. Sociological theory, 25(2), 170-191. Holmes, N. G., Keep, B., & Wieman, C. E. (2020). Developing scientific decision making by structuring and supporting student agency. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 16(1), 010109. Holubova, R. (2008). Effective Teaching Methods--Project-based Learning in Physics. Online Submission, 5(12), 27-36. Miller, E., Manz, E., Russ, R., Stroupe, D., & Berland, L. (2018). Addressing the epistemic elephant in the room: Epistemic agency and the next generation science standards. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55(7), 1053-1075. Pawlak, A., Irving, P. W., & Caballero, M. D. (2020). Learning assistant approaches to teaching computational physics problems in a problem-based learning course. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 16(1), 010139. Phillips, A. M., Gouvea, E. J., Gravel, B. E., Beauchemin, P. H., & Atherton, T. J. (2022). Physicality, Modeling and Making in a Computational Physics Class. arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.04134. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.0413

More than Mechanisms: Shifting Ideologies for Asset-Based Learning in Engineering Education

Learning spaces, the practices in which people engage, and the representations they use are ideological. Ideologies are coherent constellations of values, beliefs, and practices that impose order on how disciplines like engineering operate. Historically, engineering spaces have been dominated by a relatively technocratic, rationalistic, and exclusionary ideology, but more recent attention to asset-based approaches to engineering education offers transformative promise. Asset-based ideologies can reshape images of legitimized engineering practice, recasting engineering education to disrupt dominant exclusionary ideologies. This paper describes an assets-based learning space, SETC, that recaptures the imagination of engineering for technological and social change. Drawing from extensive ethnographic observational data, interviews, and artifacts produced in SETC, we describe aspects of this learning space, including the use of representations and practices that specifically support expansive forms of engineering practiced by youth of color. We also explore how SETC’s commitment to antiracist and liberatory practices, including shifting relationships to technology and engineering design in service of enhancing life, manifests in its transformative mission to design programs and activities for youth that disrupt dominant ideologies. SETC centers making and tinkering as legitimate expressions of engineering, and we present a case of a youth participant to illustrate the rich engineering learning that the space makes possible. The case features Naeem engineering a gear-based project that expresses his interpretation of Black Lives Matter. Situated in his long history in the learning space, we explore how youth’s interactions with conventionalized representations—which serve to maintain dominant ideologies—are enhanced by asset-based commitments. This paper contributes specific recommendations for designing spaces for new ideologies, making engineering education more equitable for youth of color while also expanding notions of what engineering is and the forms that it can take

More than mechanisms: shifting ideologies for asset-based learning in engineering education

Learning spaces, the practices in which people engage, and the representations they use are ideological. Ideologies are coherent constellations of values, beliefs, and practices that impose order on how disciplines like engineering operate. Historically, engineering spaces have been dominated by a relatively technocratic, rationalistic, and exclusionary ideology, but more recent attention to asset-based approaches to engineering education offers transformative promise. Asset-based ideologies can reshape images of legitimized engineering practice, recasting engineering education to disrupt dominant exclusionary ideologies. This paper describes an assets-based learning space, SETC, that recaptures the imagination of engineering for technological and social change. Drawing from extensive ethnographic observational data, interviews, and artifacts produced in SETC, we describe aspects of this learning space, including the use of representations and practices that specifically support expansive forms of engineering practiced by youth of color. We also explore how SETC’s commitment to antiracist and liberatory practices, including shifting relationships to technology and engineering design in service of enhancing life, manifests in its transformative mission to design programs and activities for youth that disrupt dominant ideologies. SETC centers making and tinkering as legitimate expressions of engineering, and we present a case of a youth participant to illustrate the rich engineering learning that the space makes possible. The case features Naeem engineering a gear-based project that expresses his interpretation of Black Lives Matter. Situated in his long history in the learning space, we explore how youth’s interactions with conventionalized representations—which serve to maintain dominant ideologies—are enhanced by asset-based commitments. This paper contributes specific recommendations for designing spaces for new ideologies, making engineering education more equitable for youth of color while also expanding notions of what engineering is and the forms that it can take.Published versio

Trait positions for elevated invasiveness in adaptive ecological networks

Our ability to predict the outcome of invasion declines rapidly as non-native species progress through intertwined ecological barriers to establish and spread in recipient ecosystems. This is largely due to the lack of systemic knowledge on key processes at play as species establish self-sustaining populations within the invaded range. To address this knowledge gap, we present a mathematical model that captures the eco-evolutionary dynamics of native and non-native species interacting within an ecological network. The model is derived from continuous-trait evolutionary game theory (i.e., Adaptive Dynamics) and its associated concept of invasion fitness which depicts dynamic demographic performance that is both trait mediated and density dependent. Our approach allows us to explore how multiple resident and non-native species coevolve to reshape invasion performance, or more precisely invasiveness, over trait space. The model clarifies the role of specific traits in enabling non-native species to occupy realised opportunistic niches. It also elucidates the direction and speed of both ecological and evolutionary dynamics of residing species (natives or non-natives) in the recipient network under different levels of propagule pressure. The versatility of the model is demonstrated using four examples that correspond to the invasion of (i) a horizontal competitive community; (ii) a bipartite mutualistic network; (iii) a bipartite antagonistic network; and (iv) a multi-trophic food web. We identified a cohesive trait strategy that enables the success and establishment of non-native species to possess high invasiveness. Specifically, we find that a non-native species can achieve high levels of invasiveness by possessing traits that overlap with those of its facilitators (and mutualists), which enhances the benefits accrued from positive interactions, and by possessing traits outside the range of those of antagonists, which mitigates the costs accrued from negative interactions. This ‘central-to-reap, edge-to-elude’ trait strategy therefore describes the strategic trait positions of non-native species to invade an ecological network. This model provides a theoretical platform for exploring invasion strategies in complex adaptive ecological networks

Stronger and More Vulnerable: A Balanced View of the Impacts of the NICU Experience on Parents

For parents, the experience of having an infant in the NICU is often psychologically traumatic. No parent can be fully prepared for the extreme stress and range of emotions of caring for a critically ill newborn. As health care providers familiar with the NICU, we thought that we understood the impact of the NICU on parents. But we were not prepared to see the children in our own families as NICU patients. Here are some of the lessons our NICU experience has taught us. We offer these lessons in the hope of helping health professionals consider a balanced view of the NICU's impact on families

Reconstructing Native American Migrations from Whole-Genome and Whole-Exome Data

There is great scientific and popular interest in understanding the genetic history of populations in the Americas. We wish to understand when different regions of the continent were inhabited, where settlers came from, and how current inhabitants relate genetically to earlier populations. Recent studies unraveled parts of the genetic history of the continent using genotyping arrays and uniparental markers. The 1000 Genomes Project provides a unique opportunity for improving our understanding of population genetic history by providing over a hundred sequenced low coverage genomes and exomes from Colombian (CLM), Mexican-American (MXL), and Puerto Rican (PUR) populations. Here, we explore the genomic contributions of African, European, and especially Native American ancestry to these populations. Estimated Native American ancestry is 48% in MXL, 25% in CLM, and 13% in PUR. Native American ancestry in PUR is most closely related to populations surrounding the Orinoco River basin, confirming the Southern America ancestry of the Taíno people of the Caribbean. We present new methods to estimate the allele frequencies in the Native American fraction of the populations, and model their distribution using a demographic model for three ancestral Native American populations. These ancestral populations likely split in close succession: the most likely scenario, based on a peopling of the Americas 16 thousand years ago (kya), supports that the MXL Ancestors split 12.2kya, with a subsequent split of the ancestors to CLM and PUR 11.7kya. The model also features effective populations of 62,000 in Mexico, 8,700 in Colombia, and 1,900 in Puerto Rico. Modeling Identity-by-descent (IBD) and ancestry tract length, we show that post-contact populations also differ markedly in their effective sizes and migration patterns, with Puerto Rico showing the smallest effective size and the earlier migration from Europe. Finally, we compare IBD and ancestry assignments to find evidence for relatedness among European founders to the three populations.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y MuseoInstituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Celula

Clinical risk score for persistent postconcussion symptomsamong children with acute concussion in the ED

IMPORTANCE Approximately one-third of children experiencing acute concussion experience ongoing somatic, cognitive, and psychological or behavioral symptoms, referred to as persistent postconcussion symptoms (PPCS). However, validated and pragmatic tools enabling clinicians to identify patients at risk for PPCS do not exist. OBJECTIVE To derive and validate a clinical risk score for PPCS among children presenting to the emergency department. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Prospective, multicenter cohort study (Predicting and Preventing Postconcussive Problems in Pediatrics [5P]) enrolled young patients (aged 5-\u3c18 years) who presented within 48 hours of an acute head injury at 1 of 9 pediatric emergency departments within the Pediatric Emergency Research Canada (PERC) network from August 2013 through September 2014 (derivation cohort) and from October 2014 through June 2015 (validation cohort). Participants completed follow-up 28 days after the injury. EXPOSURES All eligible patients had concussions consistent with the Zurich consensus diagnostic criteria. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcomewas PPCS risk score at 28 days, which was defined as 3 or more new or worsening symptoms using the patient-reported Postconcussion Symptom Inventory compared with recalled state of being prior to the injury. RESULTS In total, 3063 patients (median age, 12.0 years [interquartile range, 9.2-14.6 years]; 1205 [39.3%] girls) were enrolled (n = 2006 in the derivation cohort; n = 1057 in the validation cohort) and 2584 of whom (n = 1701 [85%] in the derivation cohort; n = 883 [84%] in the validation cohort) completed follow-up at 28 days after the injury. Persistent postconcussion symptoms were present in 801 patients (31.0%) (n = 510 [30.0%] in the derivation cohort and n = 291 [33.0%] in the validation cohort). The 12-point PPCS risk score model for the derivation cohort included the variables of female sex, age of 13 years or older, physician-diagnosed migraine history, prior concussion with symptoms lasting longer than 1 week, headache, sensitivity to noise, fatigue, answering questions slowly, and 4 or more errors on the Balance Error Scoring System tandem stance. The area under the curve was 0.71 (95%CI, 0.69-0.74) for the derivation cohort and 0.68 (95%CI, 0.65-0.72) for the validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE A clinical risk score developed among children presenting to the emergency department with concussion and head injury within the previous 48 hours had modest discrimination to stratify PPCS risk at 28 days. Before this score is adopted in clinical practice, further research is needed for external validation, assessment of accuracy in an office setting, and determination of clinical utility

Additive genetic variation in schizophrenia risk is shared by populations of African and European descent

Previous studies have emphasized ethnically heterogeneous human leukocyte antigen (HLA) classical allele associations to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) risk. We fine-mapped RA risk alleles within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in 2782 seropositive RA cases and 4315 controls of Asian descent. We applied imputation to determine genotypes for eight class I and II HLA genes to Asian populations for the first time using a newly constructed pan-Asian reference panel. First, we empirically measured high imputation accuracy in Asian samples. Then we observed the most significant association in HLA-DRβ1 at amino acid position 13, located outside the classical shared epitope (Pomnibus = 6.9 × 10(-135)). The individual residues at position 13 have relative effects that are consistent with published effects in European populations (His > Phe > Arg > Tyr ≅ Gly > Ser)--but the observed effects in Asians are generally smaller. Applying stepwise conditional analysis, we identified additional independent associations at positions 57 (conditional Pomnibus = 2.2 × 10(-33)) and 74 (conditional Pomnibus = 1.1 × 10(-8)). Outside of HLA-DRβ1, we observed independent effects for amino acid polymorphisms within HLA-B (Asp9, conditional P = 3.8 × 10(-6)) and HLA-DPβ1 (Phe9, conditional P = 3.0 × 10(-5)) concordant with European populations. Our trans-ethnic HLA fine-mapping study reveals that (i) a common set of amino acid residues confer shared effects in European and Asian populations and (ii) these same effects can explain ethnically heterogeneous classical allelic associations (e.g. HLA-DRB1*09:01) due to allele frequency differences between populations. Our study illustrates the value of high-resolution imputation for fine-mapping causal variants in the MHC

A global biodiversity observing system to unite monitoring and guide action

The rate and extent of global biodiversity change is surpassing our ability to measure, monitor and forecast trends. We propose an interconnected worldwide system of observation networks — a global biodiversity observing system (GBiOS) — to coordinate monitoring worldwide and inform action to reach international biodiversity targets.acceptedVersio