The effects of argumentation on student motivation in mathematics

As a future educator, I am going to need to motivate my students to learn mathematics and be engaged deeply with the material. Because mathematics is a required subject for students, mathematics teachers must employ various strategies to motivate their students. Something that has motivated me in past mathematics courses has been the chance to form arguments and defend them in class. Argumentation in mathematics classrooms has been included in the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice as Practice Standard 3: “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others” (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). I would like to use argumentation extensively in my future classroom, because I enjoyed it as a student and it helped me learn and engage with mathematical concepts. However, I do not know if it will be a motivator for my students like it was for me, and I would like to see evidence before I use it extensively in my future classroom. The purpose of this research is to inform my future practice by studying the effects of argumentation, specifically the implementation of the Common Core Standard for Mathematical Practice, related to constructing viable arguments and critiquing the reasoning of others (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), on student motivation in secondary mathematics classrooms. I also hope that I can draw attention to this topic so that those who are interested can help contribute to the literature concerning a substantive connection between the two ideas of argumentation and motivation. To focus my research, I have developed the following research question: Does meeting Common Core Standard for Mathematical Practice 3, “Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others,” affect student motivation in mathematics classrooms

Key Finding of the 2022 Nebraska End-of-Life Survey: A Report for Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Association

The 2022 End-of-Life survey is a continuation by the Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Association (NHPCA) to understand the knowledge, beliefs, and actions of Nebraskans and their end-of-life (EOL) wishes. Previous surveys conducted in 2003, 2006, 2010, and 2017 helped to inform the 2022 survey. Results of previous surveys can be found on the NHPCA website. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Bureau of Sociological Research contracted with NHPCA to prepare, distribute, and enter survey data for a random sample of Nebraskans 19 years of age and older. Survey invitations were sent to 3,000 Nebraskans 19 years of age and older in one of six regions to ensure adequate representation across the state. Weighting was used to make certain of adequate representation by age and sex. Weighting was not used for oversampling for race or ethnicity. Behavioral health regions are shown on page five highlighting the statewide nature of this survey. Surveys were evenly distributed and completed throughout these regions. Respondents were provided with two options for completing the survey: online using a Qualtrics survey or on paper. 635 adults completed the survey. 490 were completed on paper and 145 surveys were completed online. The response rate for the 2022 survey was 21%. Secondary analysis of the data was completed by University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University, and University of Nebraska Medical Center faculty, staff, and doctoral students. Findings from this analysis are on the pages that follow. Included in this report are key findings from the 2022 survey. Respondent demographics, knowledge of hospice care and knowledge of palliative care are presented separately. Also presented are respondents’ desired preference for where to receive hospice care, knowledge of payment sources for hospice care and palliative care, and their interest in learning more about hospice care and palliative care. We also include highlights of respondents’ attitudes about death and illness along with the completion of EOL planning documents. Information about income is presented based on a combination of Internal Revenue Service Tax Brackets from 2022, the 2022 Federal Poverty level, and average Social Security payments for 2022. Because the 2022 survey took place at the end of a global pandemic, we have included select items from the 2017 survey to compare with the 2022 results. The purpose for including this additional information is to see if any changes in awareness of services and/or usage occurred between the two time periods. This issue, raised by a member of this team and the nursing community, emphasizes the importance of EOL care in relation to the pandemic. What do people know and how does this influence their attitudes about EOL care? While no definitive conclusions can be drawn from these results, they do offer insight into the attitudes of responding Nebraskans to the state of hospice care and palliative care and provide a roadmap for future survey questions

Evaluation of Harmful Algal Bloom Outreach Activities

With an apparent increase of harmful algal blooms (HABs) worldwide, healthcare providers, public health personnel and coastal managers are struggling to provide scientifically-based appropriately-targeted HAB outreach and education. Since 1998, the Florida Poison Information Center-Miami, with its 24 hour/365 day/year free Aquatic Toxins Hotline (1–888–232–8635) available in several languages, has received over 25,000 HAB-related calls. As part of HAB surveillance, all possible cases of HAB-related illness among callers are reported to the Florida Health Department. This pilot study evaluated an automated call processing menu system that allows callers to access bilingual HAB information, and to speak directly with a trained Poison Information Specialist. The majority (68%) of callers reported satisfaction with the information, and many provided specific suggestions for improvement. This pilot study, the first known evaluation of use and satisfaction with HAB educational outreach materials, demonstrated that the automated system provided useful HAB-related information for the majority of callers, and decreased the routine informational call workload for the Poison Information Specialists, allowing them to focus on callers needing immediate assistance and their healthcare providers. These results will lead to improvement of this valuable HAB outreach, education and surveillance tool. Formal evaluation is recommended for future HAB outreach and educational materials

Exposure and Effect Assessment of Aerosolized Red Tide Toxins (Brevetoxins) and Asthma

addresses: National Science Foundation National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Oceans and Human Health Center, University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Miami, Florida 33136, USA. [email protected]: PMCID: PMC2717136types: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.'Reproduced with permission from Environmental Health Perspectives'Copyright © 2009 National Institute of Environmental Health SciencesIn previous studies we demonstrated statistically significant changes in reported symptoms for lifeguards, general beach goers, and persons with asthma, as well as statistically significant changes in pulmonary function tests (PFTs) in asthmatics, after exposure to brevetoxins in Florida red tide (Karenia brevis bloom) aerosols

The impact of mental health recovery narratives on recipients experiencing mental health problems: Qualitative analysis and change model.

BACKGROUND: Mental health recovery narratives are stories of recovery from mental health problems. Narratives may impact in helpful and harmful ways on those who receive them. The objective of this paper is to develop a change model identifying the range of possible impacts and how they occur. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with adults with experience of mental health problems and recovery (n = 77). Participants were asked to share a mental health recovery narrative and to describe the impact of other people's recovery narratives on their own recovery. A change model was generated through iterative thematic analysis of transcripts. RESULTS: Change is initiated when a recipient develops a connection to a narrator or to the events descripted in their narrative. Change is mediated by the recipient recognising experiences shared with the narrator, noticing the achievements or difficulties of the narrator, learning how recovery happens, or experiencing emotional release. Helpful outcomes of receiving recovery narratives are connectedness, validation, hope, empowerment, appreciation, reference shift and stigma reduction. Harmful outcomes are a sense of inadequacy, disconnection, pessimism and burden. Impact is positively moderated by the perceived authenticity of the narrative, and can be reduced if the recipient is experiencing a crisis. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that incorporate the use of recovery narratives, such as peer support, anti-stigma campaigns and bibliotherapy, can use the change model to maximise benefit and minimise harms from narratives. Interventions should incorporate a diverse range of narratives available through different mediums to enable a range of recipients to connect with and benefit from this material. Service providers using recovery narratives should preserve authenticity so as to maximise impact, for example by avoiding excessive editing

A global model of the response of tropical and sub-tropical forest biodiversity to anthropogenic pressures

Habitat loss and degradation, driven largely by agricultural expansion and intensification, present the greatest immediate threat to biodiversity. Tropical forests harbour among the highest levels of terrestrial species diversity and are likely to experience rapid land-use change in the coming decades. Synthetic analyses of observed responses of species are useful for quantifying how land use affects biodiversity and for predicting outcomes under land-use scenarios. Previous applications of this approach have typically focused on individual taxonomic groups, analysing the average response of the whole community to changes in land use. Here, we incorporate quantitative remotely sensed data about habitats in, to our knowledge, the first worldwide synthetic analysis of how individual species in four major taxonomic groups—invertebrates, ‘herptiles’ (reptiles and amphibians), mammals and birds—respond to multiple human pressures in tropical and sub-tropical forests. We show significant independent impacts of land use, human vegetation offtake, forest cover and human population density on both occurrence and abundance of species, highlighting the value of analysing multiple explanatory variables simultaneously. Responses differ among the four groups considered, and—within birds and mammals—between habitat specialists and habitat generalists and between narrow-ranged and wide-ranged species

Genetic susceptibility to chronic wasting disease in free-ranging white-tailed deer: Complement component C1q and Prnp polymorphisms

The genetic basis of susceptibility to chronic wasting disease (CWD) in free-ranging cervids is of great interest. Association studies of disease susceptibility in free-ranging populations, however, face considerable challenges including: the need for large sample sizes when disease is rare, animals of unknown pedigree create a risk of spurious results due to population admixture, and the inability to control disease exposure or dose. We used an innovative matched case–control design and conditional logistic regression to evaluate associations between polymorphisms of complement C1q and prion protein (Prnp) genes and CWD infection in white-tailed deer from the CWD endemic area in southcentral Wisconsin. To reduce problems due to admixture or disease-risk confounding, we used neutral genetic (microsatellite) data to identify closely related CWD-positive (n = 68) and CWD-negative (n = 91) female deer to serve as matched cases and controls. Cases and controls were also matched on factors (sex, location, age) previously demonstrated to affect CWD infection risk. For Prnp, deer with at least one Serine (S) at amino acid 96 were significantly less likely to be CWD-positive relative to deer homozygous for Glycine (G). This is the first characterization of genes associated with the complement system in white-tailed deer. No tests for association between any C1q polymorphism and CWD infection were significant at p \u3c 0.05. After controlling for Prnp, we found weak support for an elevated risk of CWD infection in deer with at least one Glycine (G) at amino acid 56 of the C1qC gene. While we documented numerous amino acid polymorphisms in C1q genes none appear to be strongly associated with CWD susceptibility