A Case for Proof Making for Prospective Middle School Teachers

In this article, we discuss how we, as mathematics teacher educators, might help our prospective middle school teachers develop a disposition toward mathematics that involves making sound arguments and, more generally, making proofs about mathematical ideas. First, we illustrate what we mean by making sound mathematical proofs. We then use this definition to characterize what ninety-two prospective middle school teachers consider to be proof making, based on a survey that we administered in their first mathematics course. Following our findings, we discuss how we, as teacher educators, might realign our instruction to provide opportunities for prospective teachers to develop new understandings about proof making

K-5 Mathematics Specialists\u27 Teaching and Learning about Fractions

This paper describes the fraction-based mathematical activities of two teachers who are part of 3 Mathematics Specialist preparation program. Their work with fractions is traced from two perspectives: 1) their interactions with students as they struggle with fraction concepts; and, 2) their personal journeys to develop deeper understandings of fractions as participants in the Rational Numbers course that is part of their degree program. Through their stories, we gain a better understanding of the complex nature of their work with students and how their participation in the Mathematics Specialist program helps support their work in the school buildings

Supporting Middle School Mathematics Specialists’ Work: A Case for Learning and Changing Teachers’ Perspectives

In this paper, we highlight one whole‐class discussion that took place in a middle school mathematics Rational Number and Proportional Reasoning course, one of the six mathematics courses teachers take to complete our state‐wide middle school mathematics specialist program. Statistical measures indicate that teachers made gains in their understanding of concepts and substantial gains in their views of teaching and preparedness. We provide a microanalysis of one of the lessons, to explain, in part, how they might have made this progress. To develop our argument, we coordinate a social analysis with an analysis of the types of specialized mathematical knowledge that teachers might have considered as they engaged in these discussions. As we will illustrate, these types of classroom discussions provided teachers opportunities to consider new visions for mathematics learning and teaching

Integrating the little talks intervention into Early Head Start: An experimental examination of implementation supports involving fidelity monitoring and performance feedback

Enriching home visiting services by incorporating scientifically-supported interventions is a means for improving their effectiveness in promoting child development. However, deliberate efforts to ensure that home visitors are fully knowledgeable and supported to implement interventions with parents of young children are necessary. In this experimental study, a randomly-assigned group of Early Head Start home visitors monitored the fidelity of their provision of a scientifically-based intervention, Little Talks, and the program\u27s general child development services. On a bi-weekly basis, home visitors received performance feedback specific to their implementation of Little Talks and based upon the fidelity data. Findings demonstrated that home visitors showed immediate and consistent mastery of the Little Talks content, while the quality of their implementation, including their clinical decision-making and collaborative processes, improved to adequate levels over time. The Little Talks home visitors showed generalized improvements in their ability to obtain Parent Input while providing the program\u27s typical child development services were detected. In fact, Little Talks home visitors\u27 were superior in obtaining Parent Input relative to comparison home visitors. Further, parents for whom low-quality intervention implementation was observed discontinued their enrollment in home visiting prematurely, while high-quality implementation was associated with sustained enrollment. Limitations for this study are identified, leading to future directions for advancing home visitors\u27 incorporation of evidence-based practices

Neuropathology-based APOE genetic risk score better quantifies Alzheimer's risk

Introduction: Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4-carrier status or ε4 allele count are included in analyses to account for the APOE genetic effect on Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, this does not account for protective effects of APOE ε2 or heterogeneous effect of ε2, ε3, and ε4 haplotypes. Methods: We leveraged results from an autopsy-confirmed AD study to generate a weighted risk score for APOE (APOE-npscore). We regressed cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid and tau biomarkers on APOE variables from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention (WRAP), Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (WADRC), and Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Results: The APOE-npscore explained more variance and provided a better model fit for all three CSF measures than APOE ε4-carrier status and ε4 allele count. These findings were replicated in ADNI and observed in subsets of cognitively unimpaired (CU) participants. Discussion: The APOE-npscore reflects the genetic effect on neuropathology and provides an improved method to account for APOE in AD-related analyses

Trends in Chondrichthyan Research: An Analysis of Three Decades of Conference Abstracts

Given the conservation status and ecological, cultural, and commercial importance of chondrichthyan fishes, it is valuable to evaluate the extent to which research attention is spread across taxa and geographic locations and to assess the degree to which scientific research is appropriately addressing the challenges they face. Here we review trends in research effort over three decades (1985–2016) through content analysis of every abstract (n = 2,701) presented at the annual conference of the American Elasmobranch Society (AES), the oldest and largest professional society focused on the scientific study and management of these fishes. The most common research areas of AES abstracts were reproductive biology, movement/telemetry, age and growth, population genetics, and diet/feeding ecology, with different areas of focus for different study species or families. The most commonly studied species were large and charismatic (e.g., White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias), easily accessible to long-term established field research programs (e.g., Lemon Shark, Negaprion brevirostris, and Sandbar Shark, Carcharhinus plumbeus), or easily kept in aquaria for lab-based research (e.g., Bonnethead Shark, Sphyrna tiburo). Nearly 90% of all described chondrichthyan species have never been mentioned in an AES abstract, including some of the most threatened species in the Americas. The proportion of female* first authors has increased over time, though many current female* Society members are graduate students. Nearly half of all research presented at AES occurred in the waters of the United States rather than in the waters of developing nations where there are more threatened species and few resources for research or management. Presentations based on research areas such as paleontology and aquarium-based research have declined in frequency over time, and identified research priorities such as social science and interdisciplinary research are poorly represented. Possible research gaps and future research priorities for the study of chondrichthyan fishes are also discussed

WhitenackMottaSheepPunct.pdf

PDFs contain force-displacement traces for all successful performance testing trials. Methods can be found in the original publication (Whitenack & Motta 2010. “Performance of shark teeth during puncture and draw: implications for the mechanics of cutting.” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society). “WhitenackMottaSheepPunct.pdf” – contains all graphs for puncture tests on sheepshead Archosargus probatocephalus. Each tooth is represented by a color group (blues, reds, or greens), while individual colors within each color group represents a separate trial