Understanding What the 2% Know: A Mixed Methods Study on Grit, Growth Mindset and Vulnerability Among Thriving Community College Students

Currently, the California Community College system is graduating 2.83% of its first-time freshmen from these two-year institutions in a two-year period of time (CCCCO, 2017). In addition, less than 40% of this same group are graduating in a six-year period of time. This study sought to find commonalities between the students who were in the 2.83%, as well as to learn if these thriving students’ experiences centered on possessing the skill sets of grit (Duckworth, 2007), growth mindset (Dweck, 2006), and vulnerability (Brown, 2006). For this study, thriving students were defined as first-time college students during the fall of 2017, who had a GPA equal to or greater than 3.0 on a 4.0 scale, and who had obtained a minimum of 30 units towards graduation and/or transferring at the time of the study. A sequential explanatory mixed methods approach was used to identify skill sets obtained by thriving community college students who were on track to graduate and transfer in a two-year period of time. First, a 58-question quantitative survey was sent to thriving community college students in a three-college district in southern California. The survey combined questions on the topic of grit, growth mindset, and vulnerability. Three weeks after the online survey closed, 10 students participated in a three-hour focus group based on the same topics. The goal for the focus group was to better understand from the thriving students’ perspective the primary skill sets they possess for academic success. In addition, the participants were asked if these skills could be learned by other students. The results from the survey revealed that grit, growth mindset, and vulnerability were non-significant skill sets in the students’ journey towards graduation and transferring to a four-year school. Conversely, the focus group revealed that all three were major factors in contributing to the academic success of the participants. While the quantitative data was not statistically significant, there were four key elements within the survey which did reveal significance. These key elements aligned with the findings of the qualitative data from the focus group, which revealed eight additional elements thriving students consider significant. The contradictory results were interpreted by the researcher to mean more research on grit, growth mindset, and vulnerability needs to be done at the community college level. However, it is clear that there are key elements embedded within grit, growth mindset, and vulnerability, which could positively impact students towards achieving higher graduation and transfer rates

Field Trip! Assessing Business Student Interest in Plant Tours and Their Product Categories

Business educators are challenged daily to provide fresh ideas in the classroom and to use new methods to stimulate active learning. One option is to use manufacturing plant tours, company museums, and company visitor centers to supplement traditional classroom activities. This manuscript details this growing type of tourism (known as Consumer Experience Tourism) and identifies the product categories of greatest interest to today’s students in Business and Economics. Business educators are encouraged to more fully embrace this under-utilized resource to promote active student learning and to select those destinations of greatest interest to their particular student audiences

Patterns of neural response in scene-selective regions of the human brain are affected by low-level manipulations of spatial frequency

Neuroimaging studies have found distinct patterns of response to different categories of scenes. However, the relative importance of low-level image properties in generating these response patterns is not fully understood. To address this issue, we directly manipulated the low level properties of scenes in a way that preserved the ability to perceive the category. We then measured the effect of these manipulations on category-selective patterns of fMRI response in the PPA, RSC and OPA. In Experiment 1, a horizontal-pass or vertical-pass orientation filter was applied to images of indoor and natural scenes. The image filter did not have a large effect on the patterns of response. For example, vertical- and horizontal-pass filtered indoor images generated similar patterns of response. Similarly, vertical- and horizontal-pass filtered natural scenes generated similar patterns of response. In Experiment 2, low-pass or high-pass spatial frequency filters were applied to the images. We found that image filter had a marked effect on the patterns of response in scene-selective regions. For example, low-pass indoor images generated similar patterns of response to low-pass natural images. The effect of filter varied across different scene-selective regions, suggesting differences in the way that scenes are represented in these regions. These results indicate that patterns of response in scene-selective regions are sensitive to the low-level properties of the image, particularly the spatial frequency content

Perceptions of New Member Academic Engagement: A Mixed Methods Case Study

A mixed methods case study was conducted to triangulate a comprehensive assessment of the perceptions of fraternity/sorority life from three different stakeholders on a liberal arts campus. Three electronic surveys were sent to selected groups that asked respondents to provide perceptions of the academic engagement of affiliated students on the campus. In addition, affiliated student’s grade point averages were monitored across three semesters to determine if there was a marked change in academic performance while going through the new member education process. Results showed that new member academic performance was similar across the semester prior to, during, and after the new member experience. Survey results showed differences in perception of affiliated students’ academic engagement by group surveyed, and provided sources of common interest to promote greater understanding between stakeholder groups

The friability of nuclear graphite

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:DXN013180 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

A data driven approach to understanding the organization of high-level visual cortex

The neural representation in scene-selective regions of human visual cortex, such as the PPA, has been linked to the semantic and categorical properties of the images. However, the extent to which patterns of neural response in these regions reflect more fundamental organizing principles is not yet clear. Existing studies generally employ stimulus conditions chosen by the experimenter, potentially obscuring the contribution of more basic stimulus dimensions. To address this issue, we used a data-driven approach to describe a large database of scenes (>100,000 images) in terms of their visual properties (orientation, spatial frequency, spatial location). K-means clustering was then used to select images from distinct regions of this feature space. Images in each cluster did not correspond to typical scene categories. Nevertheless, they elicited distinct patterns of neural response in the PPA. Moreover, the similarity of the neural response to different clusters in the PPA could be predicted by the similarity in their image properties. Interestingly, the neural response in the PPA was also predicted by perceptual responses to the scenes, but not by their semantic properties. These findings provide an image-based explanation for the emergence of higher-level representations in scene-selective regions of the human brain

The age of CO2 released from soils in contrasting ecosystems during the arctic winter

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier. NOTICE: This is the author’s version of a work accepted for publication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 63, pp. 1 – 4 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2013.03.011In arctic ecosystems, winter soil respiration can contribute substantially to annual CO2 release, yet the source of this C is not clear. We analysed the 14C content of C released from plant-free plots in mountain birch forest and tundra-heath. Winter-respired CO2 was found to be a similar age (tundra) or older (forest) than C released during the previous autumn. Overall, our study demonstrates that the decomposition of older C can continue during the winter, in these two contrasting arctic ecosystems

No evidence for compensatory thermal adaptation of soil microbial respiration in the study of Bradford et al. (2008)

Bradford et al. (2008) conclude that thermal adaptation will reduce the response of soil microbial respiration to rising global temperatures. However, we question both the methods used to calculate mass-specific respiration rates and the interpretation of the results. No clear evidence of thermal adaptation reducing soil microbial activity was produced

Elements of construction: Minecraft and the periodic table

Minecraft is a popular computer game that allows the construction of almost limitless creations, and is used in learning contexts around the world. The widespread appeal and familiarity of the game makes it ideal for engaging children and young people with topics that might not otherwise interest them. With this in mind, the Science Hunters project, with support from a Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Outreach Fund grant, developed five Minecraft-based informal learning and engagement sessions about the periodic table, carbon, helium, uranium and gold, as part of the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT)