Investigating an Instructional Model for Integrated STEM in Teacher Education

Active learning experiences that incorporate technology, design, and making combine to form an important and necessary pedagogical approach that supports the 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, digital literacies, and computational thinking as a problem-solving framework. Active learning experiences in teacher preparation serve as a model for future educators to follow, while building the educators\u27 efficacy to conduct future implementations with their own students. In this study, a multidisciplinary Pop-Up Makerspaces activity was conducted as an active hands-on approach to interdisciplinary STEM education. The intersectionality of English language arts with integrated STEM through design and making included: (a) enriching language and integrated STEM literacy, (b) scaffolding and supporting pre- and inservice educators through well-designed active learning as these opportunities help to develop self-efficacy, and (c) exploring new models and frameworks for transdisciplinarity

Counseling Practicum Students’ Experiences Working with Children with Learning Exceptionalities

School-based practicums provide opportunities for counselors-in-training to provide supervised counseling services to youth while providing authentic, immersive counseling experiences for the counselor. Children counseled may identify with or without exceptionalities. The researchers sought to understand the experiences of five counselors-in-training who counseled children with exceptionalities during a semester-long school-based practicum. In this phenomenological study, researchers thematically coded transcripts from a focus group about counseling children with exceptionalities. Three themes were identified: (a) counselors-in-training identity inclusive of anticipated counselor identity versus their practical identity, (b) acceptance inclusive of acceptance of self and acceptance of clients, and (c) worldview inclusive of culture shaping, personal experiences, and biases. The findings are relevant to counselor educators, counselors-in-training, and exceptional education departments

Learner development through serial concept mapping

In this study, individual serial concept mapping was employed as a learning approach to demonstrate learner development over time. Participants (n = 22) individually completed serial concept maps consisting of five iterations. A highly structured peer feedback process was employed to support interaction within learners’ zone of proximal development. Learners’ perceptions regarding the development of personal knowledge, process knowledge, and content knowledge were discussed, indicating positive growth in all types of knowledge. Concept mapping with a highly structured feedback loop promoted higher-order thinking skills such as analyzing, evaluation, reflection, and creative thinking. The highly structured peer reviewed process was noted by the learners as influencing learners’ conceptual understanding and development of their serial concept map

Who Took “Counseling” out of the Role of Professional School Counselors in the United States?

The rates of mental health concerns among school-aged youth are increasing and the growing rates of students considering or planning for suicide is alarming. Although school counselors are often the only professionals with the training to support students’ mental health needs in schools, they are often inaccessible to students to receive long-term mental health counseling services. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) advocates for school counselors to focus on prevention, short-term intervention, and crisis work rather than long-term counseling given their primary role in other activities such as student planning and systems support (ASCA, 2019). However, the role of school counselors advocated by ASCA is insufficient to meet students’ growing mental health concerns. This article (a) reviews the increasing mental health needs of youth in the United States and (b) presents an appropriate role for school counselors in addressing students’ mental health needs with implications for policy and practice in the United States and abroad

Manual / Issue 5 / Unfinished

Manual, a journal about art and its making. Unfinished.The fifth issue. Loose threads unknotted. Ideas unrealized. Outlines left bare. Function unperformed. Patterns uncut. Luster removed with time and wear. We rarely examine unfinished things. The unfinished is easily overlooked in favor of the fully rendered and complete, but consider those sketchy lines, those fraying ends: the unfinished has potency. The unfinished offers evidence of process, reveals traces of technique, trembles with latent possibility. The essays, images, and projects presented in the fifth issue of Manual attend to the fluid potential of objects that are in some way incomplete. Softcover, 68 pages. Published 2015 by the RISD Museum. Manual 5 (Unfinished) contributors include Jen Bervin, Jean Blackburn, Gina Borromeo, Laurie Brewer, A. Will Brown, Bolaji Campbell, Dennis Congdon, Jeremy Deller, Jan Howard, Kate Irvin, Maureen C. O’Brien, Emily J. Peters, Siebren Versteeg, Elizabeth A. Williams, and C. D. Wright.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/1004/thumbnail.jp

Engineering bacteria to solve the Burnt Pancake Problem

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We investigated the possibility of executing DNA-based computation in living cells by engineering <it>Escherichia coli </it>to address a classic mathematical puzzle called the Burnt Pancake Problem (BPP). The BPP is solved by sorting a stack of distinct objects (pancakes) into proper order and orientation using the minimum number of manipulations. Each manipulation reverses the order and orientation of one or more adjacent objects in the stack. We have designed a system that uses site-specific DNA recombination to mediate inversions of genetic elements that represent pancakes within plasmid DNA.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Inversions (or "flips") of the DNA fragment pancakes are driven by the <it>Salmonella typhimurium </it>Hin/<it>hix </it>DNA recombinase system that we reconstituted as a collection of modular genetic elements for use in <it>E. coli</it>. Our system sorts DNA segments by inversions to produce different permutations of a promoter and a tetracycline resistance coding region; <it>E. coli </it>cells become antibiotic resistant when the segments are properly sorted. Hin recombinase can mediate all possible inversion operations on adjacent flippable DNA fragments. Mathematical modeling predicts that the system reaches equilibrium after very few flips, where equal numbers of permutations are randomly sorted and unsorted. Semiquantitative PCR analysis of <it>in vivo </it>flipping suggests that inversion products accumulate on a time scale of hours or days rather than minutes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The Hin/<it>hix </it>system is a proof-of-concept demonstration of <it>in vivo </it>computation with the potential to be scaled up to accommodate larger and more challenging problems. Hin/<it>hix </it>may provide a flexible new tool for manipulating transgenic DNA <it>in vivo</it>.</p

Genetic association study of QT interval highlights role for calcium signaling pathways in myocardial repolarization.

The QT interval, an electrocardiographic measure reflecting myocardial repolarization, is a heritable trait. QT prolongation is a risk factor for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD) and could indicate the presence of the potentially lethal mendelian long-QT syndrome (LQTS). Using a genome-wide association and replication study in up to 100,000 individuals, we identified 35 common variant loci associated with QT interval that collectively explain ∼8-10% of QT-interval variation and highlight the importance of calcium regulation in myocardial repolarization. Rare variant analysis of 6 new QT interval-associated loci in 298 unrelated probands with LQTS identified coding variants not found in controls but of uncertain causality and therefore requiring validation. Several newly identified loci encode proteins that physically interact with other recognized repolarization proteins. Our integration of common variant association, expression and orthogonal protein-protein interaction screens provides new insights into cardiac electrophysiology and identifies new candidate genes for ventricular arrhythmias, LQTS and SCD

Integrating data types to estimate spatial patterns of avian migration across the Western Hemisphere

For many avian species, spatial migration patterns remain largely undescribed, especially across hemispheric extents. Recent advancements in tracking technologies and high-resolution species distribution models (i.e., eBird Status and Trends products) provide new insights into migratory bird movements and offer a promising opportunity for integrating independent data sources to describe avian migration. Here, we present a three-stage modeling framework for estimating spatial patterns of avian migration. First, we integrate tracking and band re-encounter data to quantify migratory connectivity, defined as the relative proportions of individuals migrating between breeding and nonbreeding regions. Next, we use estimated connectivity proportions along with eBird occurrence probabilities to produce probabilistic least-cost path (LCP) indices. In a final step, we use generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs) both to evaluate the ability of LCP indices to accurately predict (i.e., as a covariate) observed locations derived from tracking and band re-encounter data sets versus pseudo-absence locations during migratory periods and to create a fully integrated (i.e., eBird occurrence, LCP, and tracking/band re-encounter data) spatial prediction index for mapping species-specific seasonal migrations. To illustrate this approach, we apply this framework to describe seasonal migrations of 12 bird species across the Western Hemisphere during pre- and postbreeding migratory periods (i.e., spring and fall, respectively). We found that including LCP indices with eBird occurrence in GAMMs generally improved the ability to accurately predict observed migratory locations compared to models with eBird occurrence alone. Using three performance metrics, the eBird + LCP model demonstrated equivalent or superior fit relative to the eBird-only model for 22 of 24 species–season GAMMs. In particular, the integrated index filled in spatial gaps for species with over-water movements and those that migrated over land where there were few eBird sightings and, thus, low predictive ability of eBird occurrence probabilities (e.g., Amazonian rainforest in South America). This methodology of combining individual-based seasonal movement data with temporally dynamic species distribution models provides a comprehensive approach to integrating multiple data types to describe broad-scale spatial patterns of animal movement. Further development and customization of this approach will continue to advance knowledge about the full annual cycle and conservation of migratory birds