Daily strategies to improve music literacy in the band classroom

Master of MusicDepartment of Music, Theatre, and DanceFrank C TraczIn my videos you will see three different activities featuring a high school band ensemble. Through these activities I have attempted to better equip my students with music literacy strategies to address what I have perceived as a deficiency in my pedagogy and to set up the students to have more efficacy and independence in their own musical learning. In the first lesson and video, I aim to equip the students with a structured sight-reading system to enable them to decode musical passages and composer intent in hopes of a stronger initial performance. Highlighted in the second video, I have the students put this sight-reading system to practice in small ensembles, while under a time limit and before a classroom performance and review. Lastly, in the third lesson and video, I introduce the first iteration of a daily “literacy ritual,” inspired by Robert Sheldon. I endeavor to strengthen the music literacy of the entire ensemble through new approaches via the above activities. My time working on my Master’s degree at Kansas State University has inspired me to critically consider my instructional methods and the needs of the students entrusted to me. Am I teaching the way I do because it worked for me as a student, that is how I have seen others do it, or am I truly considering the needs of the students in front of me and adjusting my practice to meet them where they are? As a result of deep self-reflection throughout my studies, I uncovered a habit of not reviewing key concepts, instead teaching by rote to the detriment of a number of students. Similarly, I was inspired to consider my daily activities, such as warmups. Are the warmups I assign connecting to the content I deliver or are they just another stale and time-consuming routine while I complete the attendance roll for the main office? By thoughtfully crafting and customizing daily warmup activities, I discovered how I can still check the box of basic skill development while also setting students up for greater success with the ensemble literature to follow. In these ways and more, I have become better equipped as an educator to serve my students

Global heat flow trends resolved from multiple geological and geophysical proxies

International audienceBecause global coverage of heat flow measurements is still poor in many areas, empirical estimators based on the geology, the thermotectonic age or the velocity structure of the upper mantle have often been used to affect an estimate to regions where such measurements are absent. On the basis of the assumption that heat flow is strongly related to its geodynamic environment, one may integrate multiple proxies derived from a large body of global geo- logical and geophysical data sets assembled during the past decades; these should help to better capture the variety of present-day settings. This idea is illustrated through two simple empirical methods: both of them are based on a set of examples, where heat flow measure- ments are associated with relevant terrestrial observables such as surface heat production, upper-mantle velocity structure, tectono-thermal age, on a 1◦ × 1◦ grid. To a given target point owning a number of observables, the methods associate a heat flow distribution rather than a deterministic value to account for intrinsic variability and uncertainty within a defined geodynamic environment. The 'best combination method' seeks the particular combination of observables that minimizes the dispersion of the heat flow distribution generated from the set of examples. The 'similarity method' attributes a weight to each example depending on its degree of similarity with the target point. The methods are transparent and are able to handle sets of observables that are not available over the whole Earth (e.g. heat production). The resulting trends of the mean heat flow deduced from the two methods do not differ strongly, but the similarity method shows a better accuracy in cross-validation tests. These tests suggest that the selected proxies have the potential to recover at least partly medium- to large-scale features of surface heat flow. The methods depict the main global trends of low heat flow in stable and ancient regions, and thermal high in active orogens and rift zones. Broad thermal anomalies are outlined in the Sahara and in the tectonically active eastern part of Antarctica. The similarity method estimates a continental heat loss of 13.6 ± 0.8 TW (2σ uncertainty), which is consistent with previous estimates

Lago Mare and the Messinian Salinity Crisis: Evidence from the Alboran Sea (S. Spain)

International audienceThis paper provides a new environmental, sedimentological and stratigraphic context of the Lago Mare deposits from the North Alboran region and clarifies their chronologic location with respect to the Messinian Salinity Crisis. We present new micropaleontological data (dinoflagellate cysts, calcareous nannoplankton, planktonic foraminifers), correlated with field observations and offshore seismic interpretations. We show that the Lago Mare event known in three onshore localities (Río Mendelín near Malaga, Zorreras near Sorbas, Gafares near Níjar) follows the marine reflooding of the Mediterranean Basin which ended the Messinian Salinity Crisis. Chronologically, these Lago Mare deposits last from the latest Messinian to the early Zanclean. In fact, the first influx of Paratethyan- organisms is revealed by the dinoflagellate cyst record from near Malaga within a Gilbert-type fan delta overlying the Messinian Erosional Surface. Invading molluscs and/or ostracods may have persisted in lagoonal coastal areas more or less affected by discontinuous marine influxes (Sorbas and Níjar). The Malaga area is convenient for a paleogeographic and sedimentary reconstruction which shows the prevalent forcing of sea level changes during the time-interval 5.600-5.332 Ma at the difference of the usually solicited prevalent tectonics. The studied Lago Mare event is the third episode resulting in such a paleobiological assemblage in the Mediterranean region and corresponds to the final two-way water exchange at high sea level between the Mediterranean and the former Paratethys. It documents the onset of the modern marine circulation in the Mediterranean after the reflooding ending the Messinian Salinity Crisis

Report and preliminary results of SONNE cruise SO175, Miami - Bremerhaven, 12.11 - 30.12.2003 : (GAP, Gibraltar Arc Processes)

Expedition SO175 using FS Sonne aimed for a multidisciplinerary geoscientific approach with an international group of researchers. Methods covered the entire span from geophysical data acquisition (seafloor mapping, echography, seismic reflection), sediment coring at sites of active fluid venting, in situ heat flow measurements across the entire length of the Gibraltar thrust wedge, the deformation front, landslide bodies, and mud volcanoes, and finally the deployment of a long-term pore pressure probe. Video-supported operations helped to identify fluid vent sites, regions with tectonic activity, and other attractive high priority targets. Qualitative and quantitative examinations took place on board and are continued on land with respect to pore pressure variation, geomicrobiology, sediment- and fluid mobilization, geochemical processes, faunal assemblages (e.g. cold water corals), and gas hydrates (flammable methane-ice-crystals). Main focus of the expedition has been a better understanding of interaction between dynamic processes in a seismically active region region with slow plate convergence. In the context of earthquake nucleation and subduction zone processes, the SO175 research programme had a variety of goals, such as: • To test the frictional behaviour of the abyssal plain sediments. • To explore the temperature field of the 1755 thrust earthquake event via heat flow measurements. • To assess the role of fluid venting and gas hydrate processes control slope stability and mud volcanic activity along the Iberian continental margin. • To measure isotope geochemistry of pore waters and carbonates of deep fluids. • To quantify microbial activity in Gibraltar wedge sediments. • To test whether microseismicity in the area corresponds to in situ pore pressure changes. • To find out if enhanced heat flow max be indicative of active subduction. Initial tentative results during the cruise suggest that there is a component of active thrusting at the base of the wedge, as attested by heat flow data. Based on mostly geochemical evidence, mud volcanism was found less active than previously assumed. Highlights from post-cruise research include the successful deployment of the long-term station and high frictional resistance of all incoming sediment on the three abyssal plains

A new database structure for the IHFC Global Heat Flow Database

Periodic revisions of the Global Heat Flow Database (GHFD) take place under the auspices of the International Heat Flow Commission (IHFC) of the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's Interior (IASPEI). A growing number of heat-flow values, advances in scientific methods, digitization, and improvements in database technologies all warrant a revision of the structure of the GHFD that was last amended in 1976. We present a new structure for the GHFD, which will provide a basis for a reassessment and revision of the existing global heat-flow data set. The database fields within the new structure are described in detail to ensure a common understanding of the respective database entries. The new structure of the database takes advantage of today's possibilities for data management. It supports FAIR and open data principles, including interoperability with external data services, and links to DOI and IGSN numbers and other data resources (e.g., world geological map, world stratigraphic system, and International Ocean Drilling Program data). Aligned with this publication, a restructured version of the existing database is published, which provides a starting point for the upcoming collaborative process of data screening, quality control and revision. In parallel, the IHFC will work on criteria for a new quality scheme that will allow future users of the database to evaluate the quality of the collated heat-flow data based on specific criteria

The last glacial maximum Balearic Abyssal Plain megabed revisited

Megabeds are thick sedimentary layers extending over thousands square kilometres in deep sea basins and are thought to result from large slope failures triggered by major external events. Such deposits have been found in at least three areas of the Mediterranean Sea. Although their discovery dates back to the early 1980s, many questions remain, concerning their initiation, source area, extent, and the nature of their emplacement. One of the largest previously documented megabeds was emplaced during the Last Glacial Maximum across the Balearic Abyssal Plain with a thickness of 8-10 m in water depths of up to 2800 m. New 3.5 kHz sub-bottom profiles and sediment cores provide greater constraint on the lateral variability of the megabed and allow to map it beyond previous estimates, with a revised areal extent up to 90,000-100,000 km2. Megabed terminations show gradual pinch-out to the West and an abrupt eastward termination against the Sardinia steep margin. The megabed presents both in seismic profiles and in sediment cores a tripartite subdivision likely corresponding to changes in flow regimes across the basin with a central area of sandy facies and erosional base oriented NNE-SSW allowing renewed discussions about sources and trigger of the megabed