Learning Through Serving: Learning Service-Learning Pedagogy to Enhance your Teaching

This workshop is geared toward faculty and staff at universities who would want to integrate service learning into their courses as well as community partners who would like to explore a service-learning opportunity with a campus partner. The definition of service learning and how it is different from other forms of experiential learning will be discussed. Concepts will be illustrated using a short video clip and other real life examples. The service learning criteria of Meaningful Service, Enhanced Academic Learning, and Purposeful Civic Learning will be identified. The application of these criteria will be illustrated through BGSU service-learning courses - the Listening Post and Small Group Communication are two courses that have integrated older adults into the curriculum. Specific examples and strategies will be described. The role and importance of continuous reflection will be described. Participants will receive handouts on the What, So What, Now What model and the DEAL Model of Critical Reflection. Emphasis on the mutual benefit for community partners will be shared along with best practices in Community Partnerships.Participants will have the opportunity to brainstorm potential courses and community partnerships for service-learning. Using an Action Plan handout, faculty and staff participants will identify new or existing courses at their institutions to apply service-learning pedagogy, identify one learning objective related to each criteria, list potential community partner to support learning objectives, and list potential challenges. Community partner participants and practitioners will have the opportunity to develop a partnership action plan. They will receive a similar Action Plan handout to brainstorm how their organization might be able to utilize a service-learning partnership; identifying potential projects, why they would fit as service-learning, and what action steps they could take to initiate a partnership with a local campus. Additional resources for service-learning will be identified including Ohio Campus Compact (funding, program models), Campus Compact syllabi database, and Offices of Service-Learning on various campuses

Searching for stochastic gravitational waves using data from the two colocated LIGO Hanford detectors

Searches for a stochastic gravitational-wave background (SGWB) using terrestrial detectors typically involve cross-correlating data from pairs of detectors. The sensitivity of such cross-correlation analyses depends, among other things, on the separation between the two detectors: the smaller the separation, the better the sensitivity. Hence, a colocated detector pair is more sensitive to a gravitational-wave background than a noncolocated detector pair. However, colocated detectors are also expected to suffer from correlated noise from instrumental and environmental effects that could contaminate the measurement of the background. Hence, methods to identify and mitigate the effects of correlated noise are necessary to achieve the potential increase in sensitivity of colocated detectors. Here we report on the first SGWB analysis using the two LIGO Hanford detectors and address the complications arising from correlated environmental noise. We apply correlated noise identification and mitigation techniques to data taken by the two LIGO Hanford detectors, H1 and H2, during LIGO’s fifth science run. At low frequencies, 40–460 Hz, we are unable to sufficiently mitigate the correlated noise to a level where we may confidently measure or bound the stochastic gravitational-wave signal. However, at high frequencies, 460–1000 Hz, these techniques are sufficient to set a 95% confidence level upper limit on the gravitational-wave energy density of Ω(f) < 7.7 × 10[superscript -4](f/900  Hz)[superscript 3], which improves on the previous upper limit by a factor of ~180. In doing so, we demonstrate techniques that will be useful for future searches using advanced detectors, where correlated noise (e.g., from global magnetic fields) may affect even widely separated detectors.National Science Foundation (U.S.)United States. National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationCarnegie TrustDavid & Lucile Packard FoundationAlfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M&gt;70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0&lt;e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Using Technology to Teach the Life Course Perspective

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the use of an online technology program, Dipity to teach the principles of timing and historical context of the life course perspective to students. In an advanced undergraduate and introductory graduate gerontology courses, students are taught the basics of the life course perspective as a theoretical lens. While the basic concepts of trajectory and transitions seem easily understood, the principles of historical context, timing, sequencing, and culture (Elder, 1998; Hagstead & Call, 2007) seem abstract and more challenging for students to comprehend. Using the life story interview methodology development by Dan McAdams (2008) and the online program, Dipity (http://www.dipity.com/), a Transitions and Trajectory assignment has been integrated into the courses. The life story interview methodology outlines 8 life transition events integrating a turning point, peak experience, nadir experience, and other transitions. After describing the 8 transitions, students utilize the online program, Dipity to illustrate the impact of historical and cultural contexts. Dipity is a free online website that allows students to create a timeline integrating video, images, links, social media, and other interactive technologies that become embedded on the trajectory. Dipity brings to life the historical context (e.g., timing of historical events) utilizing technology. Developing an event-based timeline with technology has been found to meet the developmental needs of traditional age college students and effective in the application of course concepts (Landry-Meyer & Roe, 2013). Assignment description, rubrics, and examples of timelines in Dipity will be shared with participants

An exploration of the grandparent caregiver role

Using role theory to guide a qualitative analysis of 26 grandparents raising grandchildren, the role transition from grandparent to grandparent caregiver was explored. Participants were predominantly female, low income, married, with an average age of 53. On average, participants were raising 1.7 grandchildren for 4 years and at the time of interview had legal custody of the grandchildren. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were used. With a 92% interrater reliability, themes focused on the grandparent caregiver role being off-time or unexpected, achieving a sense of role clarity, and the experience of role conflict