Vertically Aligned Professional Learning Communities as a Keystone for Elementary Science Teacher Professional Development, Growth, and Support.

Many school districts do not require science in the elementary school curriculum or place significantly more emphasis on the performance of students on the ELA and Math tests. With science education shifting to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), there is a critical need for high quality science instruction in elementary schools. This study examines the experiences of 28 elementary teachers engaged in a science education professional development program that was comprised of 60 kindergarten through twelve grade teachers. I examine the experiences of the 28 elementary teachers as they work in vertically aligned professional learning communities with middle and high school teachers. Findings in this study indicate that the model provides a supportive environment for elementary teachers to grow and develop both personally and professionally in their science teaching practice. Evidence is presented that shows how a learning community of elementary, middle and high school teachers can provide an opportunity for elementary teachers to socially construct knowledge of how to best support student success in science. Additionally, the findings show that elementary teachers are able to socially construct knowledge about effective teaching practices in science that support core science teaching practices. The findings also indicate that the nature of these learning communities also provided many structures that can support increased efficacy amongst elementary science teachers. Finally, the experiences of elementary teachers engaged in his study were overwhelmingly positive, leading to increased trust and respect amongst peers and improved confidence and motivation to teach science at the elementary level

Physical Activity, Aerobic Fitness and Academic Achievement

There is a growing body of literature investigating the relationship between physical activity (PA) and cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) with academic achievement (AA). This chapter presents new evidence on the relationship between PA, CRF and AA. Studies have shown no association or inconsistent association between objectively measured PA and AA. Nonetheless, despite inconsistent results, it may be concluded that, at a minimum, PA is not detrimental to AA. In comparison, results from studies employing self-reported PA have shown a positive association with AA. The results of these studies are more consistent with reports stemming from many different countries across the world. Similarly, CRF has also evidenced a positive association with AA, suggesting that increasing CRF is important for children and adolescents’ health, and further cognitive development and AA. Thus, promoting PA and improving CRF are important for maximizing children and adolescents’ health and AA. Because students spend much of their daily lives in school, school-based PA may result in improvements in AA

LMDA New & Noteworthy, December 2016

Contents include: A Note from the President; Dramaturgy/Publication Melissa Hillman, Part 1 of 2; Bridging TV + Theater Kelly Miller; LMDA Happenings; Odds & Ends.https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdanewsletter/1004/thumbnail.jp

Citizen participation in urban policy.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. Thesis. 1974. B.S.Bibliography: leaves 69-71.B.S

AN EXTENSION OF SOME RESULTS DUE TO JARDEN

This paper defines some generalized Fibonacci and Lucas sequences which satisfy arbitrary order linear recurrence relations and which answer a problem posed by Jarden in 1966 about generalizing an elegant result for a connection between even and odd subscripted Fibonacci and Lucas numbers

a systematic review in children and adolescents aged 6-18 years

© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.OBJECTIVE: This report aimed to systematically review the evidence for a differential association between objective and self-reported physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness on academic achievement. DESIGN: Systematic review. DATA SOURCES: Studies were identified from searches in Embase, Education Resources Information Center, PubMed, PsycINFO, SPORTdiscus and Web of Science databases from January 2000 to December 2016. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Eligibility criteria included cross-sectional, longitudinal and interventional study designs. Outcomes included students' school grade or a standardised test or measure of academic achievement. Explanatory variables were cardiorespiratory fitness and objective and self-reported physical activity. Inclusion criteria included school-aged children and adolescents aged-18 years (or students from primary to secondary school when student's participants age was not described) and articles published in English, Portuguese or Spanish. RESULTS: A total of 51 articles met inclusion criteria: 41 cross-sectional, 2 intervention and 8 longitudinal studies. Results from 11 studies were inconsistent regarding the relationship between objectively measured physical activity and academic achievement. Ten of the 16 articles reported positive associations between self-reported physical activity and academic achievement. From the 22 studies that analysed the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and academic achievement, it was verified that they all generally support the beneficial effect of cardiorespiratory fitness on students' academic achievement. CONCLUSION: Higher cardiorespiratory fitness may be important to enhance children and adolescents' health and, additionally, academic achievement. Due to a lack of consensus across studies, methodological issues associated with the assessment of physical activity should be considered when investigating physical activity and academic achievement.publishe

Some aspects of Fibonacci polynomial congruences

This paper formulates a definition of Fibonacci polynomials which is slightly different from the traditional definitions, but which is related to the classical polynomials of Bernoulli, Euler and Hermite. Some related congruence properties are developed and some unanswered questions are outlined. Keywords: Congruences, recurrence relations, Fibonacci sequence, Lucas sequences, umbral calculus

ARBITRARY ORDER RECURSIVE SEQUENCES AND ASSOCIATED CONTINUED FRACTIONS

The essential idea in this paper it to generalize and synthesize some of the pioneering ideas of Bernstein, Lucas and Horadam on generalizations of basic and primordial Fibonacci numbers and their arbitrary order generalizations and their relation to generalized continued fractions with matrices as the unifying elements

Effectiveness of a School-Based Physical Activity Intervention on Cognitive Performance in Danish Adolescents: LCoMotion-Learning, Cognition and Motion:A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND:Physical activity is associated not only with health-related parameters, but also with cognitive and academic performance. However, no large scale school-based physical activity interventions have investigated effects on cognitive performance in adolescents. The aim of this study was to describe the effectiveness of a school-based physical activity intervention in enhancing cognitive performance in 12-14 years old adolescents. METHODS:A 20 week cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted including seven intervention and seven control schools. A total of 632 students (mean (SD) age: 12.9 (0.6) years) completed the trial with baseline and follow-up data on primary or secondary outcomes (74% of randomized subjects). The intervention targeted physical activity during academic subjects, recess, school transportation and leisure-time. Cognitive performance was assessed using an executive functions test of inhibition (flanker task) with the primary outcomes being accuracy and reaction time on congruent and incongruent trials. Secondary outcomes included mathematics performance, physical activity levels, body-mass index, waist-circumference and cardiorespiratory fitness. RESULTS:No significant difference in change, comparing the intervention group to the control group, was observed on the primary outcomes (p's>0.05) or mathematics skills (p>0.05). An intervention effect was found for cardiorespiratory fitness in girls (21 meters (95% CI: 4.4-38.6) and body-mass index in boys (-0.22 kg/m2 (95% CI: -0.39-0.05). Contrary to our predictions, a significantly larger change in interference control for reaction time was found in favor of the control group (5.0 milliseconds (95% CI: 0-9). Baseline to mid-intervention changes in physical activity levels did not differ significantly between groups (all p's>0.05). CONCLUSIONS:No evidence was found for effectiveness of a 20-week multi-faceted school-based physical activity intervention for enhancing executive functioning or mathematics skills compared to a control group, but low implementation fidelity precludes interpretation of the causal relationship. TRIAL REGISTRATION:www.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02012881

Cognitive and Neural Architecture of Decision Making Competence

Although cognitive neuroscience has made remarkable progress in understanding the neural foundations of goal-directed behavior and decision making, neuroscience research on decision making competence, the capacity to resist biases in human judgment and decision making, remain to be established. Here, we investigated the cognitive and neural mechanisms of decision making competence in 283 healthy young adults. We administered the Adult Decision Making Competence battery to assess the respondent’s capacity to resist standard biases in decision making, including: (1) resistance to framing, (2) recognizing social norms, (3) over/under confidence, (4) applying decision rules, (5) consistency in risk perception, and (6) resistance to sunk costs. Decision making competence was assessed in relation to core facets of intelligence, including measures of crystallized intelligence (Shipley Vocabulary), fluid intelligence (Figure Series), and logical reasoning (LSAT). Structural equation modeling was applied to examine the relationship(s) between each cognitive domain, followed by an investigation of their association with individual differences in cortical thickness, cortical surface area, and cortical gray matter volume as measured by high-resolution structural MRI. The results suggest that: (i) decision making competence is associated with cognitive operations for logical reasoning, and (ii) these convergent processes are associated with individual differences within cortical regions that are widely implicated in cognitive control (left dACC) and social decision making (right superior temporal sulcus; STS). Our findings motivate an integrative framework for understanding the neural mechanisms of decision making competence, suggesting that individual differences in the cortical surface area of left dACC and right STS are associated with the capacity to overcome decision biases and exhibit competence in decision makingThe work was supported by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), through Contract 2014-13121700004 with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (PI: Barbey). Francisco J. Román and Roberto Colom are also supported by Grant PSI2017-82218-P (Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, Spain