Buddy Reading: A Literacy Activity to Support First Graders\u27 Academic, Social and Emotional Development

The purpose of this study was to observe what happened when my first grade students utilized the buddy reading activity over the course of six weeks. I was curious to see how the process enhanced my students\u27 reading ability, enabled them to gain confidence and motivation while reading as well as enhanced their social and emotional development. Specifically, I will be researching the questions: 1. How does buddy reading help enhance a first graders\u27 literacy abilities and skills? 2. How does buddy reading help to enhance the social and emotional development of first graders? During the study, I focused on my first grade students\u27 buddy reading with peers from the same age group within our classroom. I conducted whole group discussions with the class to see how their feelings about buddy reading changed or stayed the same. I had student\u27s complete quick writes as a way to understand their individual thoughts/questions/concerns/input about their experiences. I used a teacher checklist (see Appendix B) during my observations of five case study students. I also videotaped my students during the buddy reading sessions. These various methods of data collection enabled me to capture the most authentic view of buddy reading from my students

Method of Tolerance Allocation to Maintain Rotary Balance of Multi-Component Bodies

Vibration of rotating machinery caused by mass imbalance is the most frequent source of unwanted disturbing forces and also the most preventable. In the case of a CT scanner, unwanted vibration in the equipment causes artifacts to the X-ray image, and therefore all measures are taken to eliminate imbalance. The CT scanner is a multi-component rotating body, therefore making it a challenge to account for many discrete components, each with unique variation. This research developed the equations for static and dynamic balance including considerations for inertia. The variation of the components was studied using two models: a sensitivity analysis and a statistical approach. A method was developed to allocate tolerances for mass and center of gravity to the discrete components in order to produce a system capable of being balanced yet manufacturable

Effects of Distance and Sex on Verbal Productivity and Anxiety

The present study was designed to determine whether physical distance between male and female interviewees and a female interviewer affected verbal productivity and anxiety level when interviewees discussed academic, social, and personal topics. The interview was conceptualized as an information-gathering interview. Crucial variables in such interviews are client participation and information flow. Client verbal productivity appears to be directly related to these variables, and was used as one dependent variable to measure the impact of distance on interviewee verbal behavior. A self-report measure of anxiety, the Fear Thermometer was used as a second dependent variable. The experimental distances used in this investigation were, 2 feet (.6m), 5 feet (1.5m), and 9 feet (2.7m). For purposes of this study, these distances were labeled close, intermediate, and far, respectively. It was hypothesized that an intermediate distance would result in decreased interviewee anxiety and increased verbal productivity when interviewees discussed personal topics. Results indicated that an intermediate distance did not result in increased verbal productivity, but did result in decreased interviewee anxiety level. Other significant effects were found for Fear Thermometer: (a) female interviewees reported higher anxiety levels than males across all condition, (b) interviewees reported less discomfort in the social-academic-personal topic sequence condition than they did in both the other two topic sequence conditions, (c) interviewees reported higher anxiety levels when discussing personal topics than when discussing academic topics, (d) female interviewees reported higher anxiety levels than males when discussing personal and academic topics. Significant effects for verbal productivity revealed were: (e) male interviewees talked longer than females across all conditions, (f) interviewees talked longer about academic topics than they did about both personal and social topics, and (g) interviewees talked longer as the interview progressed, regardless of topic order. Anxiety as measured by the Fear Thermometer was correlated with verbal productivity, r = -.49. Discussion includes possible theoretical explanations and limitations of the study, with implications for the initial interview

An analysis of the lifeloads of first year engineering students

Professional degree programs, such as Engineering, are notorious for placing considerable demands upon their students. Balancing study and work is a challenge faced by an increasing number of undergraduate students. In order to assist students to manage this balance it is important to know how this compromise varies from student to student. This paper presents data gathered from first year engineering students regarding the hours they spend each week in study, paid employment and volunteer work. A substantial variation across the cohort is shown for all three factors. The data also shows variation in these factors with respect to the week of semester, with time commitments growing independently early in semester, and study somewhat taking the place of paid employment later in the semester

Temperature Change in New England: 1895-2012

Over the past century, the globe’s temperature has been increasing at a higher rate than in the past. Over the last century increasing temperature is due to higher levels of human-generated greenhouse gases. Global warming has a dominating effect and will cause changes in climates all over the world. Since 1895 air temperature data have been collected from stations across the United States and the data have been aggregated in the U.S. Historical Climatological Network (USHCN) data set with temperatures for the New England states. To determine if there has been a change in temperature in New England between the years 1895 until 2012, we calculated the USHCN data into annual, seasonal annual, decadal, and seasonal decadal anomalies for each state and New England as a whole. We then analyzed the anomalies using temperature change measurements. The decadal and annual temperature change values for each state were mapped so the data could be spatial analyzed. We also compare temperature change in New England to Global and Northern Hemisphere (44°N to 64°N) change. We did this by comparing the USHCN data to the Goddard Institute Space Studies (GISS) Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP) data set.Faculty Sponsor: Stephen Youn

Study of porous wall low density wind tunnel diffusers

Porous wall wind tunnel diffusers used with low density hypersonic nozzl