Community-Campus Partnerships and Student Learning: Using Lessons Learned to Chart a Path for the Future

This article was first published in the Jesuit Higher Education Journal under a Creative Commons Attribution, noncommercial, no derivative 3.0 license. Copyright of the article is retained by the authors.Institutions of higher learning are being called upon more than ever to establish and nurture sustainable partnerships with local communities. In particular, the language of Jesuit mission and identity lends itself to community engagement work and developing the civic skills of our students. These efforts can provide transformative experiences for campus communities, fundamentally altering and perforating the boundaries between campus and community. Yet partnerships present significant challenges. Mission differences, variations in institutional capacity, and divergent cultures can all potentially stand in the way of long-lasting partnerships, particularly when many actors are involved. After trial and error, reviewing best practices in campus-community partnerships, and relying on the rich heritage of Jesuit educational pedagogy and practice, educators at Loyola University Maryland developed a set of take-away principles. These lessons learned now serve as a guide for conversations about entering into both transactional and transformational partnerships on campus. The principles act as a type of roadmap for future engagement with the local community in order to provide high-quality civic learning opportunities for students

Influence of the Soret effect on convection of binary fluids

Convection in horizontal layers of binary fluids heated from below and in particular the influence of the Soret effect on the bifurcation properties of extended stationary and traveling patterns that occur for negative Soret coupling is investigated theoretically. The fixed points corresponding to these two convection structures are determined for realistic boundary conditions with a many mode Galerkin scheme for temperature and concentration and an accurate one mode truncation of the velocity field. This solution procedure yields the stable and unstable solutions for all stationary and traveling patterns so that complete phase diagrams for the different convection types in typical binary liquid mixtures can easily be computed. Also the transition from weakly to strongly nonlinear states can be analyzed in detail. An investigation of the concentration current and of the relevance of its constituents shows the way for a simplification of the mode representation of temperature and concentration field as well as for an analytically manageable few mode description.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figure

Influence of the Dufour effect on convection in binary gas mixtures

Linear and nonlinear properties of convection in binary fluid layers heated from below are investigated, in particular for gas parameters. A Galerkin approximation for realistic boundary conditions that describes stationary and oscillatory convection in the form of straight parallel rolls is used to determine the influence of the Dufour effect on the bifurcation behaviour of convective flow intensity, vertical heat current, and concentration mixing. The Dufour--induced changes in the bifurcation topology and the existence regimes of stationary and traveling wave convection are elucidated. To check the validity of the Galerkin results we compare with finite--difference numerical simulations of the full hydrodynamical field equations. Furthermore, we report on the scaling behaviour of linear properties of the stationary instability.Comment: 14 pages and 10 figures as uuencoded Postscript file (using uufiles

HABITAT CHARACTERISTICS AROUND FALL BLACKBIRD ROOSTS

In the fall, blackbirds form large flocks and roost overnight in cattail marshes. These blackbirds cause millions of dollars in damage to ripening sunflower fields in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. By knowing the habitat characteristics around fall blackbird roosts sites, management officials may be able to predict future roost locations and then implement control techniques to help reduce blackbird damage to sunflower fields. We present data on the available habitat around blackbird roosts to determine if there is a relationship between the habitat and fall roost sites

THE INFLUENCE OF BREEDING EXPERIENCE ON NEST SUCCESS IN RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD

The Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is a polygynous species, and females are typically responsible for the majority of parental care. Despite their limited involvement, males can contribute to reproduction through nest defense and the feeding of nestlings. Some aspects of nest defense may be learned, and older males are more likely to feed young, suggesting that males with previous breeding experience may enjoy higher nest success than their naïve counterparts. We manipulated territory ownership on 10 wetlands in central North Dakota in order to examine the influence of breeding experience on reproductive success. We found no evidence that breeding experience increased nest survival (x– = 23.0%) or increased the number of fledglings per nest (x– = 2.2). In this population, territory quality may contribute more to nesting success than male parental contributions

Educating engaged citizens through service: Innovative models for reflection and dialogue

Community service, accompanied by regular, guided reflection, provides a highly effective tool for engaging students in democratic practices within their communities (Astin, 1998; Kolb, 1984; Kuh, 1995). Community service programs must include components that develop greater identification with the community, promote civil dialogue and critical thought, and teach communication skills. Reflection practices can teach students about a range of social issues and also deepen their understanding of the common good. Engagement in the community through service provides an ideal vehicle for sparking conversation about previously unexamined concepts of self in relation to society, and the notion of a common good that weaves through the tapestry of society. After a yearlong process that included a literature review, examination of models implemented at other universities, and self�evaluation of education and reflection practices, staff from the Center for Community Service and Justice developed an innovative model designed to raise the quality of and participation in structured reflection sessions proceeding and following co�curricular community service experiences. The new model is structured around three key components ��Commitment, Training, and Curriculum ��that address both the weaknesses of the previous model and further the goals of experiential education. To assess the effectiveness of the new model in accomplishing the goals for reflection, qualitative and quantitative data have been collected and evaluated for both student participants and student leaders

A New Galactic 6cm Formaldehyde Maser

We report the detection of a new H2CO maser in the massive star forming region G23.71-0.20 (IRAS 18324-0820), i.e., the fifth region in the Galaxy where H2CO maser emission has been found. The new H2CO maser is located toward a compact HII region, and is coincident in velocity and position with 6.7 GHz methanol masers and with an IR source as revealed by Spitzer/IRAC GLIMPSE data. The coincidence with an IR source and 6.7 GHz methanol masers suggests that the maser is in close proximity to an embedded massive protostar. Thus, the detection of H2CO maser emission toward G23.71-0.20 supports the trend that H2CO 6cm masers trace molecular material very near young massive stellar objects.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

Functional Value of Elytra Under Various Stresses in the Red Flour Beetle, \u3cem\u3eTribolium castaneum\u3c/em\u3e

Coleoptera (beetles) is a massively successful order of insects, distinguished by their evolutionarily modified forewings called elytra. These structures are often presumed to have been a major driving force for the successful radiation of this taxon, by providing beetles with protection against a variety of harsh environmental factors. However, few studies have directly demonstrated the functional significance of the elytra against diverse environmental challenges. Here, we sought to empirically test the function of the elytra using Tribolium castaneum (the red flour beetle) as a model. We tested four categories of stress on the beetles: physical damage to hindwings, predation, desiccation, and cold shock. We found that, in all categories, the presence of elytra conferred a significant advantage compared to those beetles with their elytra experimentally removed. This work provides compelling quantitative evidence supporting the importance of beetle forewings in tolerating a variety of environmental stresses, and gives insight into how the evolution of elytra have facilitated the remarkable success of beetle radiation

An H2CO 6cm Maser Pinpointing a Possible Circumstellar Torus in IRAS18566+0408

We report observations of 6cm, 3.6cm, 1.3cm, and 7mm radio continuum, conducted with the Very Large Array towards IRAS18566+0408, one of the few sources known to harbor H2CO 6cm maser emission. Our observations reveal that the emission is dominated by an ionized jet at cm wavelengths. Spitzer/IRAC images from GLIMPSE support this interpretation, given the presence of 4.5um excess emission at approximately the same orientation as the cm continuum. The 7mm emission is dominated by thermal dust from a flattened structure almost perpendicular to the ionized jet, thus, the 7mm emission appears to trace a torus associated with a young massive stellar object. The H2CO 6cm maser is coincident with the center of the torus-like structure. Our observations rule out radiative pumping via radio continuum as the excitation mechanism for the H2CO 6cm maser in IRAS18566+0408.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, ApJ (in press

Herschel observations of gamma-ray burst host galaxies: implications for the topology of the dusty interstellar medium

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are indisputably related to star formation, and their vast luminosity in gamma rays pin-points regions of star formation independent of galaxy mass. As such, GRBs provide a unique tool for studying star forming galaxies out to high-z independent of luminosity. Most of our understanding of the properties of GRB hosts (GRBHs) comes from optical and near-infrared (NIR) follow-up observations, and we therefore have relatively little knowledge of the fraction of dust-enshrouded star formation that resides within GRBHs. Currently ~20% of GRBs show evidence of significant amounts of dust along the line of sight to the afterglow through the host galaxy, and these GRBs tend to reside within redder and more massive galaxies than GRBs with optically bright afterglows. In this paper we present Herschel observations of five GRBHs with evidence of being dust-rich, targeted to understand the dust attenuation properties within GRBs better. Despite the sensitivity of our Herschel observations, only one galaxy in our sample was detected (GRBH 070306), for which we measure a total star formation rate (SFR) of ~100Mstar/yr, and which had a relatively high stellar mass (log[Mstar]=10.34+0.09/-0.04). Nevertheless, when considering a larger sample of GRBHs observed with Herschel, it is clear that stellar mass is not the only factor contributing to a Herschel detection, and significant dust extinction along the GRB sightline (A_{V,GRB}>1.5~mag) appears to be a considerably better tracer of GRBHs with high dust mass. This suggests that the extinguishing dust along the GRB line of sight lies predominantly within the host galaxy ISM, and thus those GRBs with A_{V,GRB}>1~mag but with no host galaxy Herschel detections are likely to have been predominantly extinguished by dust within an intervening dense cloud.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in A&