Knowledge for teaching, knowledge about teaching: exploring the links between education research, scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL) and scholarly teaching

AbstractThe relationship between education research and the scholarship of teaching and learning(SOTL) is still debated, while a distinction has been made between scholarly teaching andSOTL. This study compares and contrasts two programmes of work that took place in aparticular 2nd year engineering course, both led by the author. The first programme was aneducational research project investigating student learning in the course. The secondprogramme was a period of teaching, leading to some SOTL output. Analysis of theknowledge drawn on in teaching, confirms that good university teaching is not a directapplication of research findings but rather draws on a broad and largely tacit practical baseof knowledge. The article also offers a deliberation on whether it is productive to maintainthe distinction between education research and SOTL

Place-Based Pedagogy and the Creative Writing Classroom

Although compositionists have long appropriated and discussed place-based pedagogy’s ability to encourage environmental awareness and engage community issues, creative writing as a discipline has largely ignored place-based philosophies and environmental education. In fact, creative writing pedagogy often undermines place-based pedagogy by encouraging students to “write what they know” while simultaneously encouraging work with national rather than regional appeal. This article takes the first major step toward addressing this oversight by exploring the field’s assumptions about “place,” how these assumptions are influencing our classrooms, and how place-based composition and pedagogy could—and should—challenge and expand the ways we teach creative writing

Gold catalysts prepared by ion exchange for use in ethylene glycol oxidation: An exploratory study

Heterogeneous catalysis using supported gold nanocrystallites has attracted increasing attention over the last two decades for its applicability to a wide range of reactions, offering activity under ambient conditions, as well as high selectivities towards particular products. This study focuses on a relatively uncommon method of gold catalyst preparation, ion exchange, which involves the suspension of the support in a solution containing cationic or anionic gold complex precursors at a fixed pH, followed by separation of the solid catalyst from this solution, drying and calcination. Theoretically, ion exchange preparation offers the possibility of highly dispersed gold crystallites, which are desirable in gold catalysis. A series of catalysts was prepared using both anionic and cationic exchange, with [AuCl4]- and [Au(NH3)4]3+ respectively as gold precursors, with such solution concentrations that maximum loadings in the region of 3 to 4 wt-% Au could be obtained. Activated carbon and γ-alumina were used as supports. Catalysts were prepared at different pHs theorised to influence electrostatic adsorption differentially. Calcination was conducted at 300ºC in hydrogen. Gold loading was established using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). Loading to full capacity was noted in a number of instances with the carbon supported catalysts. Most of the gold uptake took place in the first two hours of aging. In many but not in all cases higher loadings were noted at pHs further away from the iso-electric point (IEP), in the region where the support is oppositely charged to the complexed gold ion, thus confirming the electrostatic adsorption theory for ion exchange. The size of gold crystallites was determined using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and oxygen chemisorption. TEM results were used to calculate average crystallite sizes as well as to give an indication of size distributions. Measurable XRD gold peaks were only visible for supported carbon catalysts, and the crystallite sizes estimated using this technique were notably lower than average crystallite sizes from TEM for these catalysts. The carbon supports showed a large uptake of oxygen in the chemisorption process, and thus this technique was only used as a method for crystallite size determination for alumina supported catalysts. These crystallite sizes showed general iii agreement with the average sizes derived from TEM. In summary, the carbon supported catalysts had average crystallite sizes greater than 10 nm with wide size distributions, while the alumina catalysts had average crystallite sizes nearly all under 10 nm and narrow size distributions. Ethylene glycol oxidation under atmospheric pressure was employed as a test reaction, using 0.05 M ethylene glycol at a temperature of 60 ºC and at a pH of 11. Only the alumina supported catalysts displayed activity under these conditions, with initial reaction rates in the range of 2 to 15 mmol EG / g Au . min which are comparable to those reported in the literature. Across the range of crystallite sizes represented in these catalysts there was no evidence of dependency of activity on crystallite size

EXTRA! Read All About It: Why Notice by Newspaper Publication Fails to Meet Mullane\u27s Desire-to-Inform Standard and How Modern Technology Provides a Viable Alternative

Decades ago the Supreme Court articulated that dueprocess requires adopting a means of service that onewould naturally adopt if he actually desired to informanother. For generations newspaper publication has beenallowed where the party to be notified is not known orcannot be located. But, given the rapid transformation of information dissemination over our country\u27s recenthistory, are newspapers a method that anyone would use ifthey truly wanted to relay information to another person?This Note examines the shift in how American\u27s receivenews and information in our modern society. It exploresthe decline in newspaper readership, the rise of Internetcommunication, and the historical mobility of our society.Based on the continuous decline in newspaper use and theunstoppable expansion of the Internet, this Note concludesthat newspapers are not a method of communication thatanyone desiring to notify another party would reasonablyuse. Therefore, notice by newspaper publication no longermeets the constitutional standard for due process.This Note concludes by proposing a method ofnotification that embraces the new ways in which societycommunicates and emboldens proactive citizens to harnessthe power of electronic applications and services tomonitor challenges to their property rights. Given the efficacy of modern-day technology in reaching people, thisNote encourages the Court to modify the Federal Rulesand leverage modern advancements to better protect eachcitizen\u27s constitutional right to notification and anopportunity to be heard

Analysis of Sample Acquisition Dynamics Using Discrete Element Method

The analysis presented in this paper is conducted in the framework of the Ocean Worlds Autonomy Testbed for Exploration Research and Simulation (OceanWATERS) project, currently under development at NASA Ames Research Center. OceanWATERS aims at designing a simulation environment which allows for testing autonomy of scientific lander missions to the icy moons of our solar system. Mainly focused on reproducing the end effector interaction with the inherent terrain, this paper introduces a novel discrete element method (DEM)-based approach to determine forces and torques acting on the landers scoop during the sample acquisition process. An accurate force feedback from the terrain on the scoop is required by fault-detection and autonomous decision-making algorithms to identify when the requested torque on the robotic arms joints exceeds the maximum available torque. Knowledge of the terrain force feedback significantly helps evaluating the arms links structural properties and properly selecting actuators for the joints. Models available in literature constitute a partial representation of the dynamics of the interaction. As an example, Balovnev derived an analytical expression of the vertical and horizontal force acting on a bucket while collecting a sample as a function of its geometry and velocity, soil parameters and reached depth. Although the model represents an adequate approximation of the two force components, it ignores the direction orthogonal to the scoop motion and neglects the torque. This work relies on DEM analysis to compensate for analytical models deficiencies and inaccuracies, i. e. provide force and torque 3D vectors, defined in the moving reference (body) frame attached to the scoop, at each instant of the sample collection process. Results from the first presented analysis relate to the specific OceanWATERS sampling strategy, which consists of collecting the sample through five consecutive passes with increasing depth, each pass following the same circularlinear- circular trajectory. Data is collected given a specific scoop design interacting with two types of bulk materials, which may characterize the surface of icy planetary bodies: snow and ice. Although specifically concerned with the OceanWATERS design, this first analysis provides the expected force trends for similar sampling strategies and allows to deduce phenomenological information about the general scooping process. In order to further instruct the community on the use of DEM tools as a solution to the sampling collection problem, two more analyses have been carried out, mainly focused on reducing the DEM computation time, which increases with a decrease in particle size. After running a set of identical simulations, where the only changing parameter is the size of the spherical particle, it is observed that the resulting force trajectories, starting from a given particle size, converge to the true trend. It is deducible that a further decrease in size yields negligible improvements in the accuracy, while it sensibly increases computation time. A final analysis aims at discussing limitations of approximating bulk material particles having a complex shape, e. g. ice fragments, with spheres, by comparing force trends resulting in the two cases for the same simulation scenario

Bringing together knowledge and capabilities: a case study of engineering graduates

In contemporary times there is a renewed focus on the purposes of university education in science or engineering, especially inemerging economycontexts like South Africa where the massification of higher education is in its early stages. The contributions by Muller (High Educ 70(3):409–416, 2015) and Walker (High Educ 70(3):417–425,2015) both recognise the crucial importance of expanding epistemological access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but their visions offer different emphases on howto proceed.Muller (2015) argues for the centring of disciplinary knowledge, while forWalker (2015) it is the concerns of society that should be central. In this article we argue that both of these are partial answers.We draw on a longitudinal study with ten South African engineering graduates, who were interviewed both in their third year and then approximately a decade later. Our analysis shows how the engagement with disciplinary knowledge is at the heart of the shaping of ‘graduateness’. Thus we argue for a coming together of the two perspectives in this issue towards a nuanced perspective on graduateness that recognises the significance of disciplinary knowledge but that also holds a space for the development of student agency in higher education.IBSS, ISI & Scopu

Family Medical Leave Act: The Impacts on Family Relationships

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) authorizes eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons (H.R. 1, 1993). This policy allows for a total of 12-weeks of leave within a 12-month period. While this may be sufficient in terms of time off, it is still unpaid. Compared to other nations, the United States still lags behind on providing benefits and protections for employees who have taken on the role of caretaker (Arellano, 2015). This white paper will explain how employees benefit from paid maternity/paternity and family medical leave

Materials for soft robotic applications

Soft robotics has been recently gaining interest and momentum, as soft, functional systems offer levels of flexibility, robustness, wearability, and safety that their rigid counterparts cannot match. To date, most soft robots are made from polymers that exhibit nonlinear behaviors and viscoelastic creep. However, the most common polymers -employed in soft robotic applications have not been critically evaluated in high-strain environments over many cycles. We have performed tension experiments on representative material samples, including stress/strain relations up to rupture and cyclic loading. We also demonstrate a unique relaxation effect in polymer systems, where material properties change significantly from the first stress cycle to the subsequent cycles. Our experimental results are useful for creating material models for soft robot designers. We demonstrate that the unique properties of soft materials cannot be captured with linear models and that failing to account for these complex effects can significantly affect the design performance