Understanding teacher preparation of the past: The student teaching block in agricultural education

The preparatory experiences leading up to student teaching vary greatly. Understanding the evolution of the student teaching block can provide key guidance on what is needed for the student teacher of today and the student teacher of tomorrow. A historical narrative approach was used to understand the student teaching block as it has been developed and implemented historically in agricultural education. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants who were current faculty at the rank of Professor in agricultural education and had been involved in agricultural education for at least 25 years. Four themes emerged through our analysis: (a) origins, (b) purpose and philosophy, (c) structural elements of the block, and (d) limitations and forward-thinking. Based on the findings, the purpose of the block as it relates to the agricultural education profession is to provide an intensive, immersive experience to prepare soon-to-be student teachers in an environment that provides an opportunity for practice and reflection before entering the classroom. It is recommended that periodic check-ins or seminars with student teachers be done to ensure they can reflect, share experiences, exchange ideas, discuss best practices, and learn from each other as they experience student teaching

FIRST-SPIRE spectrometer: a novel imaging FTS for the submillimeter

The SPIRE instrument for the FIRST mission will consist of a three band imaging submillimeter photometer and a two band imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) optimized for the 200 - 400 micrometers range, and with extended coverage out to 670 micrometers. The FTS will be used for follow-up spectroscopic studies of objects detected in photometric surveys by SPIRE and other facilities, and to perform medium resolving power (R approximately 500 at 250 micrometers ) imaging spectroscopy on galactic and nearby extra-galactic sources