Teaching Information Literacy Using the Short Story

Stories are powerful teaching tools because of their potential to stimulate the imagination of students and engage them with the material. The short story gives meaning to abstract concepts, aids memory, makes learning fun, and is time efficient. This article explains the approach to teaching information literacy through the use of short stories, including how to create vivid connections to the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Provides course instructors with examples of how the short story can be used as a platform to discuss information literacy standards

Next Slide, Please : An Analysis and Conversation on the Uses and Misuses of Microsoft PowerPoint at Library Instruction Conferences

At professional library conferences, the standard method for making a presentation is to talk about a list of points organized into Microsoft PowerPoint slides projected up on the wall. Critics of PowerPoint have argued that it induces stupidity, turns everyone into bores, wastes time, and degrades the quality and credibility of communication. Yet, PowerPoint remains the primary tool for communicating ideas among librarians specializing in instruction. Instruction librarians have an ongoing concern on understanding and using technology to enhance student learning. This presentation, however, flips that focus and concentrates on how technology is used to enhance and impede librarian learning. Drawing on a variety of academics and presentation consultants, it introduces the major ideas and discussions on the strengths and limitations of PowerPoint presentation software. Through the use of content analysis, it examines and describes the PowerPoint presentations delivered at library instruction conferences such as LOEX, LOEX-of-the-West, and WILU. Some questions raised will be: Does PowerPoint make us stupid? How and why we use PowerPoint? What do we find annoying about PowerPoint presentations? What types of information are best conveyed through PowerPoint? How can we energize our PowerPoint presentations? How can we make slides more readable and effective? What makes a good presentation and conference experience? The program invites all those who use PowerPoint and others concerned with communicating effectively to consider the question: “To what extent, if any, is PowerPoint the right tool for my presentation?” Ideally, participants will improve their skills with this useful but confounding technology and thereby improve their instructional and conference presentation skills

The Grizzly, November 2, 2023

Homecoming Recap • Berman Receives Grant for Upcoming Exhibition • Midweek Meditation • Brave in Season: Jon Volkmer\u27s New Novel is a Damn Good Read • Victims of Duty: Absurdism and Ambiguity • Diving All in on Troubles End Brewing • Weekly Crossword Puzzle • From North Carolina to Southeast PA: The Future of Ursinus Basketball • UC Cross Country Chasing Historyhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/2020/thumbnail.jp

Increasing the proportion of healthier foods available with and without reducing portion sizes and energy purchased in worksite cafeterias:protocol for a stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Overconsumption of energy from food contributes to high rates of overweight and obesity in many populations. A promising set of interventions tested in pilot studies in worksite cafeterias, suggests energy intake may be reduced by increasing the proportion of healthier - i.e. lower energy - food options available, and decreasing portion sizes. The current study aims to assess the impact on energy purchased of i. increasing the proportion of lower energy options available; ii. combining this with reducing portion sizes, in a full trial. METHODS: A stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial in 19 worksite cafeterias, where the proportion of lower energy options available in targeted food categories (including main meals, snacks, and cold drinks) will be increased; and combined with reduced portion sizes. The primary outcome is total energy (kcal) purchased from targeted food categories using a pooled estimate across all sites. Follow-up analyses will test whether the impact on energy purchased varies according to the extent of intervention implementation. DISCUSSION: This study will provide the most reliable estimate to date of the effect sizes of two promising interventions for reducing energy purchased in worksite cafeterias. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was prospectively registered on ISRCTN (date: 24.05.19; TRN: ISRCTN87225572; doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN87225572)

Defining principles for mobile apps and platforms development in citizen science

Apps for mobile devices and web-based platforms are increasingly used in citizen science projects. While extensive research has been done in multiple areas of studies, from Human-Computer Interaction to public engagement in science, we are not aware of a collection of recommendations specific for citizen science that provides support and advice for planning, design and data management of mobile apps and platforms that will assist learning from best practice and successful implementations. In two workshops, citizen science practitioners with experience in mobile application and web-platform development and implementation came together to analyse, discuss and define recommendations for the initiators of technology based citizen science projects. Many of the recommendations produced during the two workshops are applicable to citizen science project that do not use mobile devices to collect data. Therefore, we propose to closely connect the results presented here with ECSA’s Ten Principles of Citizen Science

Dynamics of chromosome organization in a minimal bacterial cell

Computational models of cells cannot be considered complete unless they include the most fundamental process of life, the replication and inheritance of genetic material. By creating a computational framework to model systems of replicating bacterial chromosomes as polymers at 10 bp resolution with Brownian dynamics, we investigate changes in chromosome organization during replication and extend the applicability of an existing whole-cell model (WCM) for a genetically minimal bacterium, JCVI-syn3A, to the entire cell-cycle. To achieve cell-scale chromosome structures that are realistic, we model the chromosome as a self-avoiding homopolymer with bending and torsional stiffnesses that capture the essential mechanical properties of dsDNA in Syn3A. In addition, the conformations of the circular DNA must avoid overlapping with ribosomes identitied in cryo-electron tomograms. While Syn3A lacks the complex regulatory systems known to orchestrate chromosome segregation in other bacteria, its minimized genome retains essential loop-extruding structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) protein complexes (SMC-scpAB) and topoisomerases. Through implementing the effects of these proteins in our simulations of replicating chromosomes, we find that they alone are sufficient for simultaneous chromosome segregation across all generations within nested theta structures. This supports previous studies suggesting loop-extrusion serves as a near-universal mechanism for chromosome organization within bacterial and eukaryotic cells. Furthermore, we analyze ribosome diffusion under the influence of the chromosome and calculate in silico chromosome contact maps that capture inter-daughter interactions. Finally, we present a methodology to map the polymer model of the chromosome to a Martini coarse-grained representation to prepare molecular dynamics models of entire Syn3A cells, which serves as an ultimate means of validation for cell states predicted by the WCM. </p

Impact of decreasing the proportion of higher energy foods and reducing portion sizes on food purchased in worksite cafeterias: A stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial.

BackgroundOverconsumption of energy from food is a major contributor to the high rates of overweight and obesity in many populations. There is growing evidence that interventions that target the food environment may be effective at reducing energy intake. The current study aimed to estimate the effect of decreasing the proportion of higher energy (kcal) foods, with and without reducing portion size, on energy purchased in worksite cafeterias.Methods and findingsThis stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluated 2 interventions: (i) availability: replacing higher energy products with lower energy products; and (ii) size: reducing the portion size of higher energy products. A total of 19 cafeterias were randomised to the order in which they introduced the 2 interventions. Availability was implemented first and maintained. Size was added to the availability intervention. Intervention categories included main meals, sides, cold drinks, snacks, and desserts. The study setting was worksite cafeterias located in distribution centres for a major United Kingdom supermarket and lasted for 25 weeks (May to November 2019). These cafeterias were used by 20,327 employees, mainly (96%) in manual occupations. The primary outcome was total energy (kcal) purchased from intervention categories per day. The secondary outcomes were energy (kcal) purchased from nonintervention categories per day, total energy purchased per day, and revenue. Regression models showed an overall reduction in energy purchased from intervention categories of -4.8% (95% CI -7.0% to -2.7%), p ConclusionsDecreasing the proportion of higher energy foods in cafeterias reduced the energy purchased. Decreasing portion sizes reduced this further. These interventions, particularly in combination, may be effective as part of broader strategies to reduce overconsumption of energy from food in out-of-home settings.Trial registrationISRCTN registry ISRCTN87225572