Musical Excellence and Faith: A Study of Service-Learning as Pedagogy for Instrumental Ensembles at Northwest University

Despite several studies indicating its importance, there is a lack of information regarding service-learning as a pedagogical tool for instrumental ensembles. Existing studies suggest service-learning creates culturally sensitive music teachers who are apt to create inclusive classrooms with a mind to diversity. Incorporating service-learning techniques into instrumental ensemble courses could be a helpful tool in combining faith and musical excellence. This hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study explores student experience and director observations concerning service-learning use to increase musical excellence and faith integration into performance-based instrumental ensemble courses at one Christian university. It is essential to consider both student and instructor experiences. In service-learning research on preservice music education students, themes surrounding community music, inclusive classrooms, and faith integration have appeared. The success or failure of incorporating service learning into instrumental ensembles of Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington, will be determined by compilations of student surveys taken at the beginning and end of a semester and director observations. Music and service are both forms of worship, as stated in Romans 12:1. Incorporating service into the instrumental ensembles at Northwest University could advance pedagogical methods in the classroom and encourage students toward musical excellence. This study could inspire further research in service-based pedagogy for disciplines outside of music, team-building considerations for ensembles and their effect on musical excellence, and missional work for instrumental ensembles of Christian universities

Distribution of the globin gene in active and inactive chromatin fractions from friend erythroleukemia cells

Stimulation of the T3C12 clone of Friend erythroleukemia cells with 1.2% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) results in progressive increase in the concentration of globin mRNA sequences in the total cellular RNA of treated cells, as measured by nucleic acid hybridization employing a globin cDNA probe. The greatest increment in the content of globin RNA occurs between 30 and 40 h after addition of DMSO. Globin cDNA was also used to measure the concentration of globin-specific sequences in the DNA and RNA of transcriptionally active and inactive chromatin fractions prepared from these cells by the DNase II-MgCl2 procedure of Gottesfeld et al. [16]. Essentially equal concentrations of globin sequences are present in the DNA isolated from active and inactive chromatin fractions of cells grown in the presence of 1.2% DMSO for 50 h (the time of initiation of hemoglobin synthesis). Furthermore, there are no significant differences in the globin gene concentrations between the active chromatin fractions from DMSO-treated and control cultures at either 50 or 120 h after initiation of DMSO treatment. However, chromatin-associated RNA isolated from the active chromatin of cells synthesizing maximum amounts of hemoglobin (120 h) contains a higher concentration of globin sequences than RNA from the active chromatin of control cells. Chromatin fractions from untreated cells also contain a significant amount of RNA which hybridizes to the globin cDNA probe. These observations suggest that both transcriptional and post-transcriptional control mechanisms are involved in hemoglobin gene expression in T3C12 erythroleukemia cells.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22672/1/0000225.pd