The Blackboard and the Colorline Madeline Morgan and the Alternative Black Curriculum in Chicago Schools 1941-1945

On May 28, 1942, Chicago Public Schools adopted a new curriculum with the rather mundane title Supplementary Units for the Course of Study in Social Studies. Although the title was less than provocative, the content was revolutionary, both for Chicago and for the nation. The Supplementary Units marked one of the first times that a major American public school system had adopted African American history as part of its standard, citywide social studies curriculum. The story of the development, adoption, and implementation of this curriculum intersects issues of race, politics, history, and education. At its center are the efforts of an African American teacher, Madeline R. Morgan, later named Madeline Stratton Morris, whose passionate fight for the inclusion of African American experiences in Chicago\u27s schools resulted in the adoption of a curriculum that was hailed on a national and international level as a pioneering effort in intercultural education. Unfortunately, both the curriculum and the woman who acted as its catalyst have been almost completely ignored by historians of education and curriculum in the years since her efforts first gained notoriety. This dissertation examines how and why the Supplementary Units were developed, how they were implemented within Chicago classrooms, and what reactions they garnered from educators and students, both black and white, inside of Chicago and in other cities, in the period between 1941 and 1945. Because this curriculum has not, to date, been the subject of major scholarly inquiry, this research contributes greatly to our knowledge of curriculum history, and our perception of the agency of African American educators in challenging mainstream curricular discourses, and in developing their own ideologies and approaches

Varying Degrees of Difficulty in Melodic Dictation Examples According to Intervallic Content

Melodic dictation has long been a daunting task for students in aural skills training. Research has found that interval identification is a factor when taking melodic dictation. Research has also found that some intervals are easier to identify than other intervals. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether the difficulty of melodic dictation examples can be categorized by their intervallic content. A popular aural skills text was used as the source for the melodic dictation examples. The adjacent intervals in each melodic dictation example were counted and recorded by interval type. The analysis of the melodic dictation examples according to their intervallic content was then performed using an SPSS two-step cluster analysis. Two clusters emerged, proving that there were natural groupings within the data. Cluster 1 examples contained mostly conjunct motion, i.e., intervals of a m2 to M3, while cluster 2 examples were characterized by their disjunct intervallic content, i.e., intervals of a m6 to M7. Melodic dictation examples of both clusters were found to appear throughout the textbook organization, with the exception that no cluster 2 examples were found in the beginning units of the text. Other variables that were tracked were whether an example was composed (C) for the text or derived from music literature (L), the unit and melody number, and total number of intervals per melody. Rhythm was not observed

Fuel Estimation Using Dynamic Response

New regulations governing satellites in geostationary orbit require satellites to transfer into a parking orbit as part of the decommissioning process. These regulations increase the demand for accurate fuel estimation techniques for satellites. This study estimates the change in fuel mass from the dynamic response of the Air Force Institute of Technology\u27s simulated satellite (SimSAT) to known control inputs. With an iterative process, the moment of inertia of SimSAT about the yaw axis was estimated by matching a model of SimSAT to the measured angular rates. A change in fuel mass was then estimated from the known relation between the change in moment of inertia to the change in fuel mass. Fuel masses of 1, 2, and 3 kilograms were estimated. The fuel estimation process developed in this study was able to estimate the fuel as 1.5664 ? 3.7157 kg, 2.8880 ? 3.8875 kg, and 3.9114 ? 3.4648 kg respectively. While the theory behind the estimation process is sound, the implementation still requires work

LEGO Brick as Pixel: Self, Community, and Digital Communication

Over the last three years the authors attended Brickworld Conventions for adult and teen fans of LEGO in Chicago. Through interviews, observations, and research they conclude that the LEGO brick is a medium replete with possibilities for creative construction and playful design beyond the expectations of its corporate producers. The history of the brick as a toy infuses play throughout its use, and the Internet provides a forum for adult and teen fans to communicate, critique, and discuss their creations. Online communication is perhaps the most interesting facet of LEGO play. It demonstrates a model of social change with LEGO builders of all ages in dialogue amongst a community of equals. This paper presents a case description of LEGO fans for future research on the burgeoning use of technology for play, communication, and the development of community

The ‘I Am…’ Experience: Social Justice Art from Process to Product

Paulo Friere said, “We cannot enter the struggle as objects in order later to become subjects.” Freedom Players is one of the two ensembles within the Black Theatre and Dance Program at Wayne State University. As a group of young Detroit based artists met and interacted, challenges arose as they realized their birth was political. These artists explored how they can survive and thrive in a place where everything seems to be set up against them. As clashes built, their journey lead them on a path of discovery and renewal. The result was I Am…, a performance piece that illuminates for and engages audiences in current socio-political challenges, utilizing teaching artists through performance and conversation on race, gender, sexuality, and privilege as a means of bridging communities. This report documents the process used to create I Am… as a way of healing, empowerment, and discovery

Comparison of neuronal spike exchange methods on a Blue Gene/P supercomputer

For neural network simulations on parallel machines, interprocessor spike communication can be a significant portion of the total simulation time. The performance of several spike exchange methods using a Blue Gene/P (BG/P) supercomputer has been tested with 8–128 K cores using randomly connected networks of up to 32 M cells with 1 k connections per cell and 4 M cells with 10 k connections per cell, i.e., on the order of 4·1010 connections (K is 1024, M is 10242, and k is 1000). The spike exchange methods used are the standard Message Passing Interface (MPI) collective, MPI_Allgather, and several variants of the non-blocking Multisend method either implemented via non-blocking MPI_Isend, or exploiting the possibility of very low overhead direct memory access (DMA) communication available on the BG/P. In all cases, the worst performing method was that using MPI_Isend due to the high overhead of initiating a spike communication. The two best performing methods—the persistent Multisend method using the Record-Replay feature of the Deep Computing Messaging Framework DCMF_Multicast; and a two-phase multisend in which a DCMF_Multicast is used to first send to a subset of phase one destination cores, which then pass it on to their subset of phase two destination cores—had similar performance with very low overhead for the initiation of spike communication. Departure from ideal scaling for the Multisend methods is almost completely due to load imbalance caused by the large variation in number of cells that fire on each processor in the interval between synchronization. Spike exchange time itself is negligible since transmission overlaps with computation and is handled by a DMA controller. We conclude that ideal performance scaling will be ultimately limited by imbalance between incoming processor spikes between synchronization intervals. Thus, counterintuitively, maximization of load balance requires that the distribution of cells on processors should not reflect neural net architecture but be randomly distributed so that sets of cells which are burst firing together should be on different processors with their targets on as large a set of processors as possible

Breeding Ecology of Sympatric Greater and Lesser Scaup (Aythya marila and Aythya affinis) in the Subarctic Northwest Territories

We studied the breeding ecology of greater and lesser scaup on islands of the North Arm of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, and on the nearby mainland during 1990-98. The occurrence of nests of both species on the North Arm islands was determined primarily by the distribution of nesting gulls and terns and secondarily by habitat features. Nest parasitism was frequent on the islands, but not on the mainland. Average clutch size was 8.99 ± 0.12 (n = 169) for greater scaup and 9.20 ± 0.17 (n = 93) for lesser scaup on the North Arm, and 8.71 ± 0.18 (n = 55) for lesser scaup on the mainland. No greater scaup nests were found on the mainland. Apparent nest success on the islands was higher (greater scaup 75%, n = 271; lesser scaup 77%, n = 158) than on the mainland (lesser scaup 37%, n = 59). Apparent egg success was 63% (n = 1485) for greater scaup and 67% (n = 934) for lesser scaup on the islands, and 40% (n = 435) for lesser scaup on the mainland. Hatchability of eggs was 98% (n = 556) for greater scaup and 94% (n = 416) for lesser scaup on islands, and 98% (n = 435) for lesser scaup on the mainland. Our findings, when compared to those of previous studies, do not indicate that either clutch size or egg hatchability has declined in recent years. Therefore, it seems unlikely that broad changes in these reproductive parameters are responsible for local or continental declines in lesser scaup populations. However, nest success on our mainland study area may have been too low to maintain the local population.De 1990 à 1998, on a étudié l'écologie de reproduction du fuligule milouinan et du petit fuligule sur des îles situées dans le Bras-Nord du Grand Lac des Esclaves (Territoires du Nord-Ouest) ainsi que sur la terre ferme avoisinante. La présence, dans les îles du Bras-Nord, de nids appartenant aux deux espèces était surtout déterminée par la distribution des mouettes et des sternes, et en second lieu par les caractéristiques de l'habitat. Le piratage des nids était fréquent sur les îles, mais pas sur la terre ferme. La taille moyenne des couvées était de 8,99 ± 0,12 (n = 169) pour le fuligule milouinan et de 9,20 ± 0,17 (n = 93) pour le petit fuligule dans le Bras-Nord, et de 8,71 ± 0,18 (n = 55) pour le petit fuligule sur la terre ferme. On n'a pas trouvé de nids de fuligule milouinan sur la terre ferme. Le succès apparent de la nidification sur les îles était plus grand (fuligule milouinan: 75 p. cent, n = 271; petit fuligule: 77 p. cent, n = 158) que sur la terre ferme (petit fuligule: 37 p. cent, n = 59). Le succès apparent de la ponte était de 63 p. cent (n = 1485) pour le fuligule milouinan et de 67 p. cent (n = 934) pour le petit fuligule sur les îles, et de 40 p. cent (n = 435) pour le petit fuligule sur la terre ferme. L'éclosabilité était de 98 p. cent (n = 556) pour le fuligule milouinan et de 94 p. cent (n = 416) pour le petit fuligule sur les îles, et de 98 p. cent (n = 435) pour le petit fuligule sur la terre ferme. Quand on les compare à ceux d'études antérieures, nos résultats ne révèlent aucun déclin au cours des dernières années quant à la taille de la couvée ou l'éclosabilité. Il semble donc peu probable que des changements majeurs dans ces paramètres de reproduction soient responsables des déclins au niveau local ou continental dans les populations du petit fuligule. Le succès de la nidification dans la zone couverte par notre étude située sur la terre ferme peut toutefois avoir été trop faible pour maintenir le niveau de population locale