Asynchronous student engagement in analysis of climate data achieves learning objectives related to climate change understanding, statistical competence, and climate anxiety

Learning in asynchronous online environments has gained importance over the last several decades, and educational environment shifts from the COVID-19 pandemic appear to have increased this need. Science educators and students need information about which approaches work in the asynchronous environment where informal feedback tends to be reduced, compared to other teaching modalities. In this study, we asynchronously implemented a learning module across 5 institutions that guided students (N = 199) from prescriptive data analysis through guided inquiry and eventually to open inquiry. The module focuses on the science behind climate change. Students work with the same authentic data sets used by professional scientists to examine geologic history and causes of climate change. By analyzing contemporary atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature data and then using the 800,000-year record available from the Vostok ice core proxy record of atmospheric properties, students identify the causes of climate change and discover the unprecedented nature of recent atmospheric changes. Using a pre/post-module assessment, we demonstrate improvement in students’ understanding of climate change processes and statistical methods used to analyze data. However, there was no evidence that the module develops students’ scientific reasoning about the relationship between causation and correlation. Students maintained that correlation is not causation, even when a robust causal mechanism (i.e., the greenhouse effect) explains the link between atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature. Finally, our analysis indicated that generally, anxiety about climate change was reduced during the module, such that students become less anxious about the climate change the more they learn about it. However, science-denying students experienced much higher anxiety about climate change than students who accepted the scientific consensus about climate change. Climate science-dissenting students were so few in this study that a statistical comparison was not possible, but this intriguing finding warrants further investigation of the role of anxiety in science denial. Mainly, this study demonstrates how asynchronous online learning environments can indeed support the achievement of learning objectives related to conducting authentic science, such as increasing understanding of climate change and statistical concepts, all while not provoking anxiety about climate change

Factors Contributing to the Hydrologic Effectiveness of a Rain Garden Network (Cincinnati OH USA)

Infiltrative rain gardens can add retention capacity to sewersheds, yet factors contributing to their capacity for detention and redistribution of stormwater runoff are dynamic and often unverified. Over a four-year period, we tracked whole-system water fluxes in a two-tier rain garden network and assessed near-surface hydrology and soil development across construction and operational phases. The monitoring data provided a quantitative basis for determining effectiveness of this stormwater control measure. Based on 233 monitored warm-season rainfall events, nearly half of total inflow volume was detained, with 90 percent of all events producing no flow to the combined sewer. For the events that did result in flow to the combined sewer system, the rain garden delayed flows for an average of 5.5 h. Multivariate analysis of hydrologic fluxes indicated that total event rainfall depth was a predominant hydrologic driver for network outflow during both phases, with average event intensity and daily evapotranspiration as additional, independent factors in regulating retention in the operational phase. Despite sediment loads that can clog the rooting zone, and overall lower-than-design infiltration rates, tradeoffs among soil profile development and hydrology apparently maintained relatively high overall retention effectiveness. Overall, our study identified factors relevant to regulation of retention capacity of a rain garden network. These factors may be generalizable, and guide improvement of new or existing rain garden designs

Diaryl ureas as an antiprotozoal chemotype

We now describe the physicochemical profiling, in vitro ADME, and antiparasitic activity of eight N,N'-diarylureas to assess their potential as a broad-spectrum antiprotozoal chemotype. Chromatographic LogD7.4 values ranged from 2.5 to 4.5; kinetic aq. solubilities were /=10. One N,N'-diarylurea had demonstrable activity in mouse models of malaria and toxoplasmosis