Levels of Concern Relating to the Current Usage of the Teaching for Mastery Model in the Omaha Public Schools

In the last decade, public school systems across the nation have been made accountable for the student academic success (Block, 1977). Due to this public demand for higher student achievement, districts have had to look at their instructional models. What model can meet the needs of all students which the public schools must serve on a daily basis? What model can identify what the learner is to accomplish, present the material, check to be sure that he or she has learned it, and offer more instruction if he or she hasn\u27t

Notes on the Algae of Iowa

The first definite mention of Iowa Algae which has come to our notice is that published by Dr. C M. Hobby in the Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science. His list comprises some twenty-seven genera and seventy-four species and varieties. The list is prefaced as follows: The species given below were mainly collected in the immediate vicinity of Iowa City. I am greatly indebted to Rev. Francis Wolle, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for assistance in the study and identification of these plants. The classification used is that of Kirchner in Algen von Schlesien, Breslau, 1878. The list comprises an unusually long list of spirogyras, some eighteen species and one variety

The recursive process in and of critical literacy: Action research in an urban elementary school

This paper provides an overview of the recursive process of initiating an action research project on literacy for students-at-risk in a Canadian urban elementary school. As this paper demonstrates, this requires development of a school-wide framework, which frames the action research project and desired outcomes, and a shared ownership of this vision by school community and staff. Preliminary understandings provide information and considerations that serve to inform discussions about school/curriculum reform and related concerns about critical literacy.Cet article apporte un aperçu du processus récursif de l'initiation d'un projet de recherche-action en littératie pour des élèves à risque, dans une école élémentaire canadienne en ville. Comme le montre cet article, cela nécessite le développement d'un dispositif à l'échelle de l'école entière, qui encadre le projet de recherche-action et les résultats souhaités, ainsi qu'une appropriation de cette vision par la communauté scolaire et le personnel. Les interprétations préliminaires fournissent des informations et des pistes de réflexion qui servent à renseigner les discussions sur les réformes concernant l'école ou/et les programmes, et les préoccupations connexes au sujet de la littératie critique

Determination of the Global-Average Charge Moment of a Lightning Flash Using Schumann Resonances and the LIS/OTD Lightning Data

©2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. In this paper, we use (1) the 20 year record of Schumann resonance (SR) signals measured at West Greenwich Rhode Island, USA, (2) the 19 year Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS)/Optical Transient Detector (OTD) lightning data, and (3) the normal mode equations for a uniform cavity model to quantify the relationship between the observed Schumann resonance modal intensity and the global-average vertical charge moment change M (C km) per lightning flash. This work, by integrating SR measurements with satellite-based optical measurements of global flash rate, accomplishes this quantification for the first time. To do this, we first fit the intensity spectra of the observed SR signals to an eight-mode, three parameter per mode, (symmetric) Lorentzian line shape model. Next, using the LIS/OTD lightning data and the normal mode equations for a uniform cavity model, we computed the expected climatological-daily-average intensity spectra. We then regressed the observed modal intensity values against the expected modal intensity values to find the best fit value of the global-average vertical charge moment change of a lightning flash (M) to be 41 C km per flash with a 99% confidence interval of ±3.9 C km per flash, independent of mode. Mode independence argues that the model adequately captured the modal intensity, the most important fit parameter herein considered. We also tested this relationship for the presence of residual modal intensity at zero lightning flashes per second and found no evidence that modal intensity is significantly different than zero at zero lightning flashes per second, setting an upper limit to the amount of nonlightning contributions to the observed modal intensity

Analysis of the Rhode Island schumann resonance daily-average data

© International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity, ICAE 2014 A variety of putative influences upon Schumann resonance (SR) signals have been evaluated for the case of a 20 year record of measurements of two magnetic-field detectors and one electric-field detector located at West Greenwich Rhode Island, U.S.A. (71.6?W, 41.6?N). The detector-specific SR signals considered are the values of the parameters of the first six modes of an eight-mode, three-parameter, Lorentzian-line-shape model. The three parameters of the model are peak-center frequency, peak-quality factor, and peak intensity. This model was used to fit the daily-average Fourier-transform intensity spectra spanning the frequency range 3 Hz - 56 Hz. This results in 54 SR signals: 3 channels × 6 modes / channel × 3 parameters / mode. We also computed an expected climatological-daily-average intensity spectra for each day and detector and fit these spectra to the above mentioned Lorentzian model. A linear regression of the observed parameters to the expected parameters finds that on average the climatological-daily-average data account for 35% of the variance (R2 = 0.35) of the original SR series, with the best fits obtained for the Lorentzian-fit parameter peak-intensity where 70% of the variance of the original series was explained. Averaging across channels and parameters, the second and third modes were best modeled by the climatological-average data, explaining 50% of the total variance; all above results are significant at the p = 0.001 level. We then subtracted the observed SR signals from the expected SR signals to generate residual SR signals. The residual SR time series display a systematic variation following the 11-year sunspot cycle. A linear regression of a nominal sunspot cycle with the residual time series averaged across all modes and channels, finds R2 values for peak-center frequency = 0.59, peak-quality factor = 0.31, and peak intensity = 0.0. Averaging the residual time series across all modes and fit parameters, the sunspot cycle is found in each channel; the R2 value for the E/W channel = 0.30, the R2 for the N/S channel = 0.37, and the R2 value for the Ez channel = 0.24 The sunspot-cycle pattern is strongest the mode 1 data (R2 = 0.48) and decreases with increasing mode number; the R2 for mode 6 = 0.15; all significant at the p = 0.001 level. We then examined various putative influences upon these residual SR signals using a variety of techniques. The results indicate that direct measures of solar activity (e.g. sunspot number and area) most strongly influence peak-center frequency and peak-quality factor (median R2 = 0.50) and less so the peak-intensity (median R2 = 0.02). Terrestrial temperature signals (e.g. Ocean temperature anomalies) influence peak-intensity (median R2 = 0.15) but not peak-center frequency nor peak-quality factor (median R2 = 0.01). We also examined the spectral characteristics of the residual SR signals. Both the peak-center frequency and peak-quality factor parameters, averaged over all of the modes and channels, display strong peaks at 11 years, 365 days, 180 days; in contrast, the peak-intensity parameter displays no similar features. This indicates that the values of the peak intensity parameter are well predicted by the global total lightning and the uniform-cavity model, while the peak-center frequency and peak-quality factor parameters are not. The values of these two parameters have a significant variation over the sunspot cycle unaccounted for by the global total lightning and the uniform-cavity model

Physical Processes for Driving Ionospheric Outflows in Global Simulations

We review and assess the importance of processes thought to drive ionospheric outflows, linking them as appropriate to the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field, and to the spatial and temporal distribution of their magnetospheric internal responses. These begin with the diffuse effects of photoionization and thermal equilibrium of the ionospheric topside, enhancing Jeans' escape, with ambipolar diffusion and acceleration. Auroral outflows begin with dayside reconnexion and resultant field-aligned currents and driven convection. These produce plasmaspheric plumes, collisional heating and wave-particle interactions, centrifugal acceleration, and auroral acceleration by parallel electric fields, including enhanced ambipolar fields from electron heating by precipitating particles. Observations and simulations show that solar wind energy dissipation into the atmosphere is concentrated by the geomagnetic field into auroral regions with an amplification factor of 10-100, enhancing heavy species plasma and gas escape from gravity, and providing more current carrying capacity. Internal plasmas thus enable electromagnetic driving via coupling to the plasma, neutral gas and by extension, the entire body " We assess the Importance of each of these processes in terms of local escape flux production as well as global outflow, and suggest methods for their implementation within multispecies global simulation codes. We complete 'he survey with an assessment of outstanding obstacles to this objective