Involve Me: Using the Orff Approach within the Elementary Classroom

Musical independence, improvisation, and composition are important skills that teachers should include within an elementary music curriculum. The musical concepts that accompany these skills can be difficult for teachers to convey and for students to understand due to the difficulty and complexity of teaching musical independence. This study consists of a literature review pertaining to the history and development of the Orff Approach, application of Orff concepts to the creation of lesson plans and classroom activities, action research with elementary students, and conclusions. Three different lesson plans were created implementing Orff techniques specific to the following grade ranges: two-four, four-six, five-eight. Two lessons were taught to students in a local public school and were video-taped for later reflection and analysis. Participants consisted of students in two elementary general music classes, grades four and six. The students and the classroom teacher responded positively to the activities designed using the Orff Approach. Every student successfully participated in the rhythmic and melodic musical opportunities, learning and demonstrating musical independence. Being directly involved with the creative musical process at an elementary level helps foster the musical learning process. When developed at a young age, creativity and musical independence are very helpful skills to utilize during musical performing in later musical training. The Orff Approach naturally fosters musical creativity and independence and highlights individual student success. The Orff Approach is a beneficial teaching methodology that helps to successfully implement improvisation and better teach composition. It also promotes active participation in musical activities that will aid students in applying the skills in later musical experiences

Autism Resources in Rural America

The topic of this final project centers around the lack of services that are available to autistic children and adults in rural America and the steps that should be taken the ensure services are available as the growing population of children grow older and need full-time care. Our modern society as well as the current healthcare system are not prepared for the growing need of an ageing disabled population. Will these disabled children and young adults flood the current long-term care facilities that are already established? Will the already stretched thin Medicare and Medicaid system cover the costs associated with the permanent placement of this growing population? This project will also fully explain and compare the seemingly endless options that are in more urban areas that may or may not have years long waiting lists. This project will also provide an overview of the definitions of autism and the challenges that can present itself with a diagnosis and the overwhelming need for early intervention which is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain with the growing numbers of diagnosis. The present number of children diagnosed in the year 2023 with the same age groups 30 years ago will be compared to highlight the growing number of children and adults being diagnosed with this life altering diagnosis. Many practitioners in a clinic setting are getting limited training on the treatment of autistic patients in their formal education and are ill-equipped to deal with challenging patients, this is even more so attributed to children and adults with an autism diagnosis. After this final project the reader should have a better understanding of the challenges facing the Healthcare system relating to autism

Using Blogs to Teach Strategies for Inquiry into the Construction of Lived and Text Worlds

This paper describes a teacher-researcher collaboration aimed at teaching students strategies for inquiry into the constructed nature of lived and text worlds – a pedagogical objective consistent with goals of media literacy. As an introduction to these strategies, students were asked to engage in a commonly used media literacy tool – a blog – to explore the socially and culturally constructed aspects of their own lived worlds. As students blogged, they were also asked to examine the represented worlds in a literary text – To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee 1960). Research discussed in this paper examines the specific affordances of blogs for helping students acquire these new strategies for critical inquiry

Thinking Through the Chemo-Fog: Occupational Therapy’s Role in Promoting Participation in Adults with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is currently the most common type of cancer in women (American Cancer Society, 2012). In 2012, 2,971,610 women in the United States were breast cancer survivors (American Cancer Society, 2012). Chemotherapy is often used to effectively treat breast cancer but can cause chemobrain, or chemotherapy-related cognitive impairments (CRCI), including decreased attention, concentration, memory, and difficulty learning new skills and completing routine tasks (American Cancer Society, 2013). CRCI can persist for years and may impact an individual’s occupational performance in daily activities and occupations. Occupational therapy practitioners currently work with this population in other areas including cancer-related fatigue management, lymphedema, physical limitations post-surgery, and psychosocial distress. However, the increasing number of breast cancer survivors and prevalence of CRCI highlight the importance for expanding and defining occupational therapy’s role with this population. The purpose of this presentation is to present the results of a systematic review on interventions within occupational therapy’s scope of practice that can be used to improve CRCI in adults with breast cancer, and to discuss the implications for clinical practice. A comprehensive literature review was performed to understand the role of occupational therapy in treating individuals with chemobrain. CINAHL, Medline and Cochrane databases were used to conduct the review following inclusion criteria (literature published after 2003, and adults with breast cancer who have received chemotherapy) and exclusion criteria. To minimize bias, all articles were critiqued by a primary and secondary reviewer. Thirteen articles were reviewed. The literature review determined health professionals tend to not acknowledge the presence of CRCI, and there is a need for health care professionals to address the symptoms of CRCI. Current interventions that fit within the scope of occupational therapy are being implemented primarily by other disciplines, such as memory strategies and training, and running support groups. The lack of high quality evidence supporting the role of occupational therapy highlights the need for further research and the development of evidence-based interventions that include using compensatory, remedial, psychosocial, and patient education interventions. References: American Cancer Society. (2012). Cancer treatment and survivorship facts & figures 2012-2013. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@epidemiologysurveilance/documents/document/acspc-033876.pdf. American Cancer Society. (2013). Chemo brain. Retrieved from http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/physicalsideeffects/chemotherapyeffects/chemo-brai

When the United States says you do not belong: Suicide-related thoughts and behaviors among immigrant young adults varying in immigration legal status

Background: The number of immigrants in the United States and the risk of suicide among minoritized individuals have increased. Little research has examined the impact of immigration legal status on suicide-related thoughts and behaviors (SRTB), despite theoretical and empirical work suggesting that feelings of burdensomeness and failure to belong (prominent among immigrants) are risk factors. Methods: We examined a diverse sample of foreign-born young adults (18–25; N = 366). Data collection utilized the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire Revised and items probing belongingness and immigration status (undocumented/Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), permanent, and citizen). Results: DACA/undocumented status was associated with increased SRTB compared with permanent and citizen categories. Increased SRTBs were associated with reduced feelings of acceptance in the United States, increased deportation fears, and increased fear of being harassed or hurt. Of these belongingness variables, only the interpersonal—not feeling welcome in the United States—partially mediated the risk relation between DACA/undocumented immigration legal status and SRTBs, whereas physical and legal threat, like deportation, did not. Conclusions: Our results highlight the interpersonal nature of SRTB risk in DACA/undocumented immigrants and the need for targeted culture and context-appropriate interventions, as well as advocacy and policy to reduce risk in this historically marginalized population

Evidence for shallow implantation during the growth of bismuth nanocrystals by pulsed laser deposition

The shallow implantation of Bi species was analyzed for energy densities above 2 Jcm-2. The implantation range was shown to depend on the energy density used for ablation, which was related to the velocity of the Bi atoms and ions in the plasma. The kinetic energy of the Bi species in the plume generated at laser energy densities above 2 J cm-2 was estimated to be around 200 eV.This work has been partially supported by project TIC99-0866, CICYT (Spain). One of the authors (J.-P.B.) acknowledges support by the EPSRC and a Marie Curie Fellowship of the EC under Contract No. HPMT-CT-2000-00064.Peer Reviewe