The Effects of Inquiry Project-Based Learning on Student Reading Motivation and Student Perceptions of Inquiry Learning Processes

Inquiry-based learning approaches have been promoted as an instructional method for students at all levels. An inquiry approach requires students to discover or construct knowledge through relevant activities and personal investigations. Due to the student driven nature of inquiry learning, it is reasonable to believe that students will become more motivated to read and to engage in critical thinking after participating in the inquiry approach. This quantitative study observes the effects of inquiry project based learning (PBL) on reading motivation and students’ perceptions of higher order thinking processes in a middle school language arts classroom. By comparing inquiry project based learning to fully guided instruction using an experimental study design, it was hypothesized that reading motivation and perceptions of inquiry thinking processes would increase after eight weeks of implementing the inquiry PBL model. The control and treatment group’s reading motivation was compared using pre-tests and post-tests of the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) (Wigfield and Guthrie 1997), and student perception of the type of learning and the learning processes they have experienced in the class was measured with an instrument created by Spronken-Smith, Walker, Batchelor, O’Steen, & Angelo (2012). An Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was run to determine any change in groups after the treatment, and Pearson Correlations were run to examine relationships between motivation constructs and perceptions of learning processes. There was no indication that inquiry PBL had any significant effects on the treatment group in terms of reading motivation or perceptions of critical thinking

School Counselors Applying the ASCA 2016 Ethical Standards

As the student population becomes more diverse in the United States (Human Rights Campaign, 2018; National Center for Education Statistics, 2018), school counselors (SCs) are also called upon to provide comprehensive school counseling programs to meet the needs of all students (ASCA, 2019). In addition to following the profession’s national model, the American School Counseling Association’s Ethical Standards (2016) provide a set of guidelines including specific language aimed at providing culturally competent counseling services to students and stakeholders. With this in mind, the purpose of this manuscript is twofold. The first goal is to provide SCs with strategies for use when providing services to diverse students. Next, the authors will highlight sections of the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors (ASCA, 2016) that specifically address diverse students’ needs. Case scenarios will also be provided

Associations between Financial Avoidance, Emotional Distress, and Relationship Conflict Frequency in Emerging Adults in College

Some research shows that college students are not aware of their financial situation and even avoid engaging with their finances. Research has yet to investigate how this financial avoidance is associated with emotional and relational health for college students in romantic relationships. As such, the purpose of this study was to identify the associations between financial avoidance and conflict frequency. Emotional distress was included as a possible mediator of the association. Results revealed that for both men and women, higher financial avoidance was indirectly associated with increased conflict frequency with their partner through increased emotional distress. A direct association was found for men. These results are important as they may give insight into increased mental health issues and relational distress in college students. Implications for practice are discussed

Individual variation evades the Prisoner's Dilemma

BACKGROUND: The Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) is a widely used paradigm to study cooperation in evolutionary biology, as well as in fields as diverse as moral philosophy, sociology, economics and politics. Players are typically assumed to have fixed payoffs for adopting certain strategies, which depend only on the strategy played by the opponent. However, fixed payoffs are not realistic in nature. Utility functions and the associated payoffs from pursuing certain strategies vary among members of a population with numerous factors. In biology such factors include size, age, social status and expected life span; in economics they include socio-economic status, personal preference and past experience; and in politics they include ideology, political interests and public support. Thus, no outcome is identical for any two different players. RESULTS: We show that relaxing the assumption of fixed payoffs leads to frequent violations of the payoff structure required for a Prisoner's Dilemma. With variance twice the payoff interval in a linear PD matrix, for example, only 16% of matrices are valid. CONCLUSIONS: A single player lacking a valid PD matrix destroys the conditions for a Prisoner's Dilemma, so between any two players, PD games themselves are fewer still (3% in this case). This may explain why the Prisoner's Dilemma has hardly been found in nature, despite the fact that it has served as a ubiquitous (and still instructive) model in studies of the evolution of cooperation

Lift Switch

If you have ever been snowboarding before, you know how uncomfortable and painful your front ankle can feel while on a chairlift, or having to push sideways in flat areas. Most of the time it can even cause pain in your knee and ankle. And worst case scenario you go off trail and get hurt somewhere where GPS can’t find you. Well if you have ever been in either situation or want to be safe on the slopes, we have the solution for you. Here at lift switch, we have created a solution to snowboarders ankle by allowing 90 degrees of rotation so the board can hang like a ski and you can ride it like a skateboard when you’re not on a run. At the same time, we have included a real time data tracking system that uses IMU technology and a user interface where you can track your data and share it with friends from the slopes. We hope to improve the snowboarding experience with built in safety features so you can always be tracked on the slopes wherever you are regardless of GPS connection

Junior Recital: Zachary Opitz

A junior recital featuring Zachary Opitz, Tyrone Jackson, Piper Johnson, and Josh Baffour.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2416/thumbnail.jp

Digital Weapons of Mass Destablization

In the coming decade, a global proliferation of networked technologies will widen the cyber threat landscape. Pairing new and unforeseen cyber vulnerabilities with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) increases the secondary threats that cyber attacks bring and also necessitates a shift in definitions. WMD will become weapons of mass destabilization, allowing adversaries to gain strategic advantage in novel ways. Altering this definition provides clarity and specific actions that can be taken to disrupt, mitigate and recover from this combined threat. Additionally, a new class of Digital WMD (DWMD) will emerge, threatening military, government, and civilian targets worldwide. These combined and new threats will require the expansion of current defensive or mitigation activities, partnerships, and preparationhttps://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/aci_books/1035/thumbnail.jp

Scan Sampling Techniques for Behavioral Validation in Nursery Pigs

Behavioral observations are a type of “assay” that is used to quantify animal biological responses. As with physiological measurements, methods of behavioral observation should be validated and selected based on the objectives of the particular study. The objective of this study was to validate the accuracy of scan samples at various predetermined intervals for confined nursery pigs. Twenty, 35 day old, crossbred PIC (USA) nursery pigs were housed in five pens within a confinement building. Eight scan sample treatments (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, and 60 minutes) were individually compared to continuous observation. Scan sample was defined as the first second for each scan interval (1 minute scan sample intervals provided 60 selected scans of one second duration per pig per hour). The percentage of the total time observed for each behavior and posture then calculated for each pen. Drinking differed (P = 0.0019) from the continuous data at intervals greater than 5 minutes or more. For all other behaviors and postures there were no (P \u3e 0.05) differences between scan treatments and the continuous data. In conclusion, scan samples under these experimental conditions were accurate for all behaviors and postures except drinking

Banner News

https://openspace.dmacc.edu/banner_news/1049/thumbnail.jp