Resilience characteristics of the urban agriculture system in Lansing, Michigan: Importance of support actors in local food systems

Urban agriculture is a growing movement in cities across the United States, including the post-industrial Midwest. Maintaining a resilient local food system is a challenge given the environmental, resource, and institutional barriers facing urban farmers. In this descriptive correlational study, we take an in-depth look at the demographics, farm characteristics, motivations, barriers, and resilience indicators of individuals in the urban agriculture system in Lansing, Michigan, a city of the US Midwest with a growing urban agriculture system. Survey responses (n = 92) revealed that support actors, community gardeners, and farmers have descriptive differences in their motivations, with support actors (e.g. non-profits, university extension, or municipalities) being most strongly motivated by social and environmental justice. Community gardeners reported the lowest barriers to engaging in urban agriculture. Individuals who reported stronger motivations for building community and social and environmental justice showed significant correlations to several resilience indicators, indicating that those motivations may be important to system resilience. Urban agriculture support agencies report high barriers and are most often consulted for informational and social support. These results can inform recommendations for organizations, local governments, and researchers working in midwestern urban agriculture initiatives to better assess and promote a thriving system into the futur

Rise of the Andes

The surface uplift of mountain belts is generally assumed to reflect progressive shortening and crustal thickening, leading to their gradual rise. Recent studies of the Andes indicate that their elevation remained relatively stable for long periods (tens of millions of years), separated by rapid (1 to 4 million years) changes of 1.5 kilometers or more. Periodic punctuated surface uplift of mountain belts probably reflects the rapid removal of unstable, dense lower lithosphere after long-term thickening of the crust and lithospheric mantle

Elementary children’s retrodictive reasoning about earth science

We report on interviews conducted with twenty-one elementary school children (grades 1-5) about a number of Earth science concepts. These interviews were undertaken as part of a teacher training video series designed specifically to assist elementary teachers in learning essential ideas in Earth science. As such, children were interviewed about a wide array of earth science concepts, from rock formation to the Earth’s interior. We analyzed interview data primarily to determine whether or not young children are capable of inferring understanding of the past based on present-day observation (retrodictive reasoning) in the context of Earth science. This work provides a basis from which curricula for teaching earth and environmental sciences can emerge, and suggests that new studies into the retrodictive reasoning abilities of young children are needed, including curricula that encourage inference of the past from modern observations

Research Methodolgies in Science Education: Gender and the Geosciences

This installment looks at whether gender does have an affect on who becomes tenured faculty at colleges and universities. The authors examine the gender balance of undergraduate and graduate students and then discuss the perceived disparity when these are compared to the number of geoscience faculty who are women

Vorstellungen von College-Studenten über Veränderungen der Erde und des Lebens im Laufe der Zeit

Während die interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit unter Forschern erwünscht ist, führt der traditionelle naturwissenschaftliche Unterricht im Allgemeinen dazu, dass naturwissenschaftliche Disziplinen als separate Einheiten unterrichtet werden. Diese Studie konzentriert sich auf das studentische Verständnis von Konzepten an der Schnittstelle zweier isolierter Disziplinen – Geowissenschaften und Biowissenschaften – bei zwei gezielten Stichproben von Studenten im College-Alter (USA, Deutschland). Insbesondere untersuchten wir: 1) wie Studenten großräumige biologische und geologische Veränderungen auf der Erde im Laufe der Zeit konzipieren; 2) die Beziehung zwischen den Vorstellungen der Schüler und ihrem Verständnis evolutionärer und geologischer Theorien; und 3) wie diese Konzeptualisierungen die Notwendigkeit der Integration von Konzepten in Schullehrpläne erläutern. Die Schüler wurden gebeten, Fragen zu sieben wichtigen evolutionären Ereignissen in der Erdgeschichte (Biowissenschaften) und wahrgenommenen Veränderungen der Erdgröße und der Kontinentalpositionen im Laufe der Zeit (Geowissenschaften) zu beantworten. Beide Gruppen zeigten Schwierigkeiten, absolute Zeitalter in der tiefen Zeit zu verstehen, obwohl Young Earth- und Young Life-Perspektiven in der US-Gruppe vorhanden und in der deutschen Gruppe nicht vorhanden waren. Die Vorstellungen über Veränderungen der Erdgröße und der kontinentalen Positionen im Laufe der Zeit waren in beiden Gruppen konsistent. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen den Bedarf an einer inhaltlich interdisziplinären naturwissenschaftlichen Bildungsvermittlung in beiden Ländern. Gruppe und fehlt in der deutschen Gruppe. Die Vorstellungen über Veränderungen der Erdgröße und der kontinentalen Positionen im Laufe der Zeit waren in beiden Gruppen konsistent. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen den Bedarf an einer inhaltlich interdisziplinären naturwissenschaftlichen Bildungsvermittlung in beiden Ländern. Gruppe und fehlt in der deutschen Gruppe. Die Vorstellungen über Veränderungen der Erdgröße und der kontinentalen Positionen im Laufe der Zeit waren in beiden Gruppen konsistent. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen den Bedarf an einer inhaltlich interdisziplinären naturwissenschaftlichen Bildungsvermittlung in beiden Ländern

Disgust in response to some arthropods aligns with disgust provoked by pathogens

Insects are widely disliked by the public, despite the fact that they provide valuable ecosystem services and are vital components of ecosystems. Public support toward wildlife conservation is influenced by attitudes toward different taxa, thus, the widespread negativity toward insects shown by the general public almost certainly detracts from conservation efforts for them. Negative attitudes toward insects and other invertebrates take many forms, one of which is the feeling of disgust. Disgust has been widely researched and is typically divided into distinct domains (e.g., moral disgust). In order to determine whether insect-specific disgust is unique from other domains of disgust, we conducted a survey of 704 incoming freshmen at a major Midwestern university with questions pertaining to Moral, Pathogen, and Insect-specific Disgust. Factor analyses indicate that Insect Disgust and Pathogen Disgust are part of the same construct, unique from Moral Disgust. Our results suggest that survey respondents perceived insects in the same way as they would pathogens, at least in regard to disgust. This research provides insight into how the public views insects, and will facilitate educational interventions aimed at challenging negative attitudes toward insects. The Insect Disgust Scale will be a useful measure of insect-related disgust in future studies. Keywords: Insects, Disgust, Survey, Invertebrate conservatio

Helping to Improve Non-Science Students Conceptual Understanding of the Greenhouse Effect

Student misconceptions about complex Earth processes are common, in particular the greenhouse effect. Students often misunderstand the processes involved and therefore misrepresent the phenomena in drawings. For example, drawings may include the Sun but lack a connection between the greenhouse effect and the Sun; may include a physical greenhouse; or may include holes in the atmosphere. This study tracked 48 non-science elementary education students through pre-, post-, and end of semester conceptual drawings of the greenhouse effect to examine longer-term retained conceptual understanding. Using a model analysis developed in an earlier study, we looked for common features in the drawings, as well as integration between features. Analyzed features were based on common student ideas and included the Sun, incoming energy, a gas layer, and ozone. We also looked for processes such as energy change and or absorption at the Earths surface, the distribution of gases throughout the atmosphere, and energy being re-emitted by greenhouse gases. Pre-tests of these non-science elementary education students showed that less than half of them understood that the greenhouse effect did not involve an actual greenhouse. In order to help support sustained conceptual understanding of climate change, the course instructor explicitly broke down student misconceptions and addressed them one-by-one with the class multiple times. This included working in groups and as individuals to incorporate new knowledge through the use of student drawings, professional drawings and animations, in-depth discussions, peer-teaching, and peer-evaluations. Post-tests showed considerable improvement among their conceptual understanding, with inclusion of accurate features to express the greenhouse effect as well as interactions among these features. An additional post-test was included at the end of the semester, eight weeks later, to examine students longer-term retention, and indicates significant retention. Taken together, these data suggest that addressing student alternative conceptions is a useful approach to sustained student understanding

Types of urban agricultural stakeholders and their understandings of governance

Urban agriculture is a significant driver of urban sustainability and resilience, yet the contribution of urban agriculture to resilience is complicated by governance systems that require further investigation. This study deploys a mixed-methods approach to investigate the agricultural values and understandings of urban agricultural governance among farmers, garden leaders, and other actors in urban agriculture in Lansing, Michigan. Drawing from semistructured interviews and Q-methodology, agricultural values are used to identify four types of urban agriculture stakeholders: urban agricultural stewards, risk managers, food desert irrigators, and urban agricultural contextualists. These groups differ in terms of their agricultural values as well as their participation in local governance and general understandings of the purpose of governance. Urban agricultural stewards place comparatively higher priority on community building, environmental sustainability, and food sovereignty; they participate in the city's formal governance systems and view governance as an opportunity to codify shared norms. Risk managers place comparatively higher priority on safety, and they largely view governance in the traditional mold of state-legislated regulations to which stakeholders should comply. Food desert irrigators place comparatively higher priority on environmental sustainability, health, food access, and convenience; they expect governance to support stakeholders with the greatest needs, and though not active in formal governance, work to craft empathetic policies in their particular organizations. Urban agricultural contextualists place comparatively higher priority on community building and health, and hold that the prioritization of additional values should be determined through local and inclusive governance. The coupling of agricultural values with understandings of governance can support effective and legitimate policy making attentive to the process through which, and scale at which, stakeholders expect their values to inform decision making

Invisible Misconceptions: Student Understanding of Ultraviolet and Infrared Radiation

The importance of nonvisible wavelengths for the study of astronomy suggests that student understanding of nonvisible light is an important consideration in astronomy classrooms. Questionnaires, interviews, and panel discussions were used to investigate 6–12 student and teacher conceptions of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR). Alternative conceptions about the characteristics and human sensual perception of visible light, UV and IR, were observed in many students and in a subset of teachers. Instruction involving electromagnetic radiation should first address preexisting alternative conceptions, and conceptual questionnaires such as the one used here can help teachers to identify student ideas prior to instruction