Developing a multi-metric habitat index for wadeable streams in Illinois (T-25-P-001). Annual Segment Report to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources Grant/Contract No: (T-25-P-001)This project was initiated to describe key aquatic habitat characteristics and their association to anthropogenic disturbance by developing a field based, rapid assessment method for qualitatively monitoring instream conditions using a multi-metric habitat index. We have developed and applied a method for rating disturbance in wadeable streams throughout Illinois and collected information on physical habitat at 299 sites to date. Index development is in the preliminary stages with field work to continue during the summer of 2008. This report summarizes work performed for the period ending April 30, 2008 (Appendix A contains Eastern Illinois University subcontract annual report).INHS Technical Report Prepared for Illinois Department of Natural Resource

What might it mean to democratize school reform?

Celem edukacji jest przygotowanie jednostek do życia w nowym świecie globalnych połączeń, konkurencji i rynku pracy za pomocą procesów edukacyjnych, które umożliwiają studentom bycie przygotowanymi do aktywności, odpowiedzialności i deliberacji. Z tego to powodu szkoły i nauczyciele są w centrum uwagi. Wiele reform polega na ograniczaniu autonomii szkół. Odbieranie nauczycielom prawa do decydowania, patrzenie na poprawę szkoły z perspektywy programów, które ograniczają nauczycieli do osób odczytujących polecenia i scenariusze oraz nakazują kolejne działania, a także w coraz większym stopniu przekazują kontrolę do urzędów centralnych, to nie nowe zjawiska. Ostatnio coraz silniej nauczyciele rozpoznawani są jako niezbędni liderzy szkolnych zmian. W jaki sposób osoby pracujące na uniwersytetach mogą podjąć wysiłek dla zmiany sytuacji w szkołach. Zamiast krótkich i prostych reform i programów, które znane są z tego, że w porównaniu z programami długofalowymi mają niewielki wpływ, nasza praca ze szkołami powinna opierać się na relacjach profesjonalnych. Demokratyczna reforma szkoły jest możliwa. Pracując, aby połączyć szkoły, uniwersytety i społeczności w zaangażowane sieci wsparcia, możemy doprowadzić do wzmocnienia efektów i sukcesu reform w sposób, który umożliwi inspirowanie uczniów, nauczycieli, uniwersytetów i całych społeczeństw.The goal of education is to prepare individuals for the new world of global connections, competition and the labor market by means of an educational process that works to get students ready for activity, responsibility and deliberation. Within these issues schools and teachers are the focus of much concern. Many reform efforts work to remove autonomy from the school. “Deskilling,” viewing school improvement through the lens of packaged programs that work to script teachers, prescribe what they should do in their context, and pull more and more control to central authorities, is not a new phenomenon. Recently, however, teachers have been recognized as necessary leaders in school reform. How might those based in universities proceed to work and change the situation we find in schools? Rather than one-shot, one-way school reform efforts and programs which are known to have little impact compared to long-term, collegial work, our work with schools should be based on building professional relationships. Democratic school reform is possible. By working (as it was mentioned) to link schools, universities and communities in engaged, reciprocal, networks of support we can strengthen the outcomes and the success of school reform in ways that lift up students, teachers, communities, universities and democratic societies themselves

Newly-Discovered Planets Orbiting HD~5319, HD~11506, HD~75784 and HD~10442 from the N2K Consortium

Initially designed to discover short-period planets, the N2K campaign has since evolved to discover new worlds at large separations from their host stars. Detecting such worlds will help determine the giant planet occurrence at semi-major axes beyond the ice line, where gas giants are thought to mostly form. Here we report four newly-discovered gas giant planets (with minimum masses ranging from 0.4 to 2.1 MJup) orbiting stars monitored as part of the N2K program. Two of these planets orbit stars already known to host planets: HD 5319 and HD 11506. The remaining discoveries reside in previously-unknown planetary systems: HD 10442 and HD 75784. The refined orbital period of the inner planet orbiting HD 5319 is 641 days. The newly-discovered outer planet orbits in 886 days. The large masses combined with the proximity to a 4:3 mean motion resonance make this system a challenge to explain with current formation and migration theories. HD 11506 has one confirmed planet, and here we confirm a second. The outer planet has an orbital period of 1627.5 days, and the newly-discovered inner planet orbits in 223.6 days. A planet has also been discovered orbiting HD 75784 with an orbital period of 341.7 days. There is evidence for a longer period signal; however, several more years of observations are needed to put tight constraints on the Keplerian parameters for the outer planet. Lastly, an additional planet has been detected orbiting HD 10442 with a period of 1043 days.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap