Student-Centered, Interaction-Based, Community-Driven Language Teaching

This portfolio is a compilation that highlights some of the author’s accomplished work while in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). Organized into sections that reflect the author’s teaching and research perspectives as a MSLT graduate student and instructor, who taught intensive English reading, writing, and conversation courses for the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI). In the first section, teaching perspectives, the author describes her desired professional environment, shares her personal teaching philosophy statement, and accounts for her professional development through classroom observations. In the second section, research perspectives, two research papers and an annotated bibliography demonstrate the author’s interests, especially in regard to the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms

Chapter 13- Habits of Mind Courses for College Success: Empowering Students to Plan and Read

Ana takes a deep breath as her professor hands back her midterm. To her chagrin, she sees a red F at the top of the page. As she wonders where things went awry, her mind replays the events leading up to her arrival at the testing center where she took the exam. Poor time management coupled with little to no interest in the assigned readings seemed to be the compounding culprits of her failed exam. Now, in place of the A she had envisioned herself earning, an unsettling feeling sets in. Ana wonders whether she can still pass the class

Habits of Mind: Designing Courses for Student Success

Although content knowledge remains at the heart of college teaching and learning, forward-thinking instructors recognize that we must also provide 21st-century college students with transferable skills (sometimes called portable intellectual abilities) to prepare them for their futures (Vazquez, 2020; Ritchhart, 2015; Venezia & Jaeger, 2013; Hazard, 2012). To “grow their capacity as efficacious thinkers to navigate and thrive in the face of unprecedented change” (Costa et al., 2023), students must learn and improve important study skills and academic dispositions throughout their educational careers. If we do not focus on skills-building in college courses, students will not be prepared for the challenges that await them after they leave institutions of higher education. If students are not prepared for these postsecondary education challenges, then it is fair to say that college faculty have failed them

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Funerary practices or food delicatessen? Human remains with anthropic marks from the Western Mediterranean Mesolithic

The identification of unarticulated human remains with anthropic marks in archaeological contexts normally involves solving two issues: a general one associated with the analysis and description of the anthropic manipulation marks, and another with regard to the interpretation of their purpose. In this paper we present new evidence of anthropophagic behaviour amongst hunter-gatherer groups of the Mediterranean Mesolithic. A total of 30 human remains with anthropic manipulation marks have been found in the Mesolithic layers of Coves de Santa Maira (Castell de Castells, Alicante, Spain), dating from ca. 10.2-9 cal ky BP. We describe the different marks identified on both human and faunal remains at the site (lithic, tooth, percussion and fire marks on bone cortex). As well as describing these marks, and considering that both human and faunal remains at the site present similar depositional and taphonomic features, this paper also contextualizes them within the archaeological context and subsistence patterns described for Mesolithic groups in the region. We cannot entirely rule out the possibility that these practices may be the result of periodic food stress suffered by the human populations. These anthropophagic events at the site coincide with a cultural change at the regional Epipalaeolithic-Mesolithic transition

A Spatial Distribution Study of Faunal Remains from Two Lower Magdalenian Occupation Levels in El Mirón Cave, Cantabria, Spain

Abstract: Human behaviour can be reconstructed by analysing specific activities and campsite organization using spatial analysis. The dense occupation layers of the Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian in the Northern Spain reveal varied aspects of Upper Palaeolithic lifeways, including evidence of specific localized activities. The outer vestibule of El Mirón cave has a particularly rich and intact Lower Magdalenian occupation horizon, Levels 15–17. The excavations in the outer vestibule “Cabin” area of the site revealed excellent bone preservation. Artefacts and faunal remains were individually recorded and sediments water-screened to yield a large sample of archaeological finds and spatial data. Zooarchaeological analysis provided the taxonomic, anatomic and taphonomic determination of the faunal individual finds. Smaller animal remains were categorized and counted; special attention was given to the identification of anthropogenic modifications such as burnt bones or bone flakes. These small refuse items are considered to be useful, in situ indicators of localized activities. The spatial distribution analysis of this dense and complex palimpsest of El Mirón Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian layers required GIS based methods including density analysis, heatmaps and cluster analysis. Based on the spatial distribution of Level 15 and 16 faunal remains, different activity areas were identified comprising hearth, working and dropping zones. These results imply the deliberately segregated use of space within the Lower Cantabrian Magdalenian site area, in which bone-processing activities played a central rol

Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research Consortium: Accelerating Evidence-Based Practice of Genomic Medicine

Despite rapid technical progress and demonstrable effectiveness for some types of diagnosis and therapy, much remains to be learned about clinical genome and exome sequencing (CGES) and its role within the practice of medicine. The Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) consortium includes 18 extramural research projects, one National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) intramural project, and a coordinating center funded by the NHGRI and National Cancer Institute. The consortium is exploring analytic and clinical validity and utility, as well as the ethical, legal, and social implications of sequencing via multidisciplinary approaches; it has thus far recruited 5,577 participants across a spectrum of symptomatic and healthy children and adults by utilizing both germline and cancer sequencing. The CSER consortium is analyzing data and creating publically available procedures and tools related to participant preferences and consent, variant classification, disclosure and management of primary and secondary findings, health outcomes, and integration with electronic health records. Future research directions will refine measures of clinical utility of CGES in both germline and somatic testing, evaluate the use of CGES for screening in healthy individuals, explore the penetrance of pathogenic variants through extensive phenotyping, reduce discordances in public databases of genes and variants, examine social and ethnic disparities in the provision of genomics services, explore regulatory issues, and estimate the value and downstream costs of sequencing. The CSER consortium has established a shared community of research sites by using diverse approaches to pursue the evidence-based development of best practices in genomic medicine

FLIGHT CONTROL AS A GOOSE DETERRENT AT PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Geese pose a threat to aircraft worldwide. The anthraquinone formula “Flight Control” (FC) is marketed as a deterrent to grazing geese, through an ultraviolet and post-ingestional repellency. The Port of Portland conducted a test to address six objectives regarding the effectiveness of Flight Control. A field with heavy goose activity was divided into five transects, two of which had goose activity 65 percent of the 22 days monitored. These two plots were sprayed using a mixture of one-half gallon of FC, five gallons of water, and eight ounces of an agricultural sticker. This was applied at a rate of one-half gallon per acre. Geese were not observed in the treated areas for the first 10 days. After 10 days, geese were present in the treated plots five of the next 11 days, or 21 percent of monitoring events. At the end of six weeks, treated areas had goose activity in 13 percent of monitoring events, compared to 32 percent in untreated areas. We concluded that Flight Control was an effective goose deterrent on turf with total avoidance for the first 10 days. However, geese did not avoid the entire project site, only the treated plots. Geese also did not learn to avoid treated areas and returned to treated plots as soon as the product had decreased in concentration. There were no adverse effects to non-target birds, or to treated grass. Therefore, FC is an effective temporary goose deterrent for specific areas

Demystifying Ungrading: How to Empower Student Learning Beyond Grades

The appeal of an “ungrading” approach can be irresistible: studies show that students pay less attention to feedback accompanied by a letter grade than feedback given without a grade attached. In addition, ungrading techniques can minimize the gatekeeping or punitive side-effects of grades that unfairly limit first-generation and marginalized students. However, implementing a strategy that asks students to reorient their relationship with grades can be–putting it mildly–daunting. In this session, four USU instructors reflect on their ungrading experiences and share implementable techniques and philosophical rationale for the approach. One of the challenges of ungrading can be the disciplinary specificities of grading norms. When academia shut down and went virtual in March 2020, instructors had to reconsider their grading practices. Our panel explores how four instructors reimagined our instructional technique; what we learned, what we kept, and the future of ungrading. Through a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods, we examine four ungrading perspectives. We discuss ungrading techniques that empower student autonomy, free instructors from unnecessary restrictions, enable collaboration, and reward students for fostering curiosity over rote memorization. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies for implementing ungrading, communicating ungrading to students, and familiarity with ungrading’s social justice approach to assessment