A Conversation with Joan Countryman and Allyson Sgro

Early College Folio Editor-in-Chief John B.\ Weinstein had the pleasure of a conversation with esteemed STEM educators, researchers, and authors Joan Countryman and Allyson Sgro, to reflect on core topics within the theme of this issue. Their conversation has been edited slightly for clarity

Nonmilitary Threats to Soviet National Security

Except, perhaps, in the view of the most brazen martinet, national power is not an end in itself. Rather, it is a means to an end set of ends which usually include such goals as the survival of the nation-state, its culture and its way of life, the improvement in the quality of life of its citizens; and the state\u27s continued ability to increase its infuence with other states in the pursuit of these goals. From this broader perspective, the national security of the Soviet Union is vulnerable to serious structured and systematic industrial and agricultural problems as well as demographic demographic trends which threaten to tear apart from with in the last of the world\u27s great multinational empires

Scaffolding Independence: Inside the Classroom, Outside the Classroom, and in the Spaces in Between

This piece outlines the author\u27s educational concept, Scaffolding Indpendence, and its applications in early college classrooms over nearly a decade. The author also introduces the works of other dynamic, innovative educators—The Scaffolding Indpendence Team—who created educational modules to codify early college teaching practices

On symplectic fillings

In this note we make several observations concerning symplectic fillings. In particular we show that a (strongly or weakly) semi-fillable contact structure is fillable and any filling embeds as a symplectic domain in a closed symplectic manifold. We also relate properties of the open book decomposition of a contact manifold to its possible fillings. These results are also useful in proving property P for knots [P Kronheimer and T Mrowka, Geometry and Topology, 8 (2004) 295-310, math.GT/0311489] and in showing the contact Heegaard Floer invariant of a fillable contact structure does not vanish [P Ozsvath and Z Szabo, Geometry and Topology, 8 (2004) 311-334, math.GT/0311496].Comment: Published electronically at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/agt/AGTVol4/agt-4-5.abs.htm

Where Do Riders Park Dockless, Shared Electric Scooters? Findings from San Jose, California

Dockless, shared, electric kick-scooters started popping up on U.S. city streets without warning in 2017. Reaction to the shared scooters came swiftly and strongly. On the one hand, the scooters have proven popular with riders, attracting investment capital and expanding service to additional cities. But others have been less enthusiastic, with a central complaint being how shared scooters are parked. This perspective explores the extent to which parked shared scooters pose a problem to others on streets, sidewalks, and public spaces, using empirical evidence documenting where scooters have been parked in downtown San Jose, California