Secondary Teachers and Their Quest to Prepare College- and Career-Ready Students through Project-Based Learning in a Small, Rural High School District

With the shift in the focus of education to preparing all students to be college and career ready, there is little research that explores how teachers in small, rural schools are preparing students through project-based learning (PBL) for college and careers. Research suggests that rural adolescents contend with greater challenges in college and career development and preparedness as they move into "post-high school transitions" and that rural adolescents may have lower career aspirations and greater expectations for entering the workforce immediately after high school than adolescents who live in other settings. The purpose of this research study was to explore how teachers in small, rural schools are preparing students through PBL for college and careers. This study sought to understand small, rural high school district teachers' experiences with implementing curricula that integrates college and career readiness (CCR) with PBL. Further, teachers described how they view their role in preparing students for 21st-century college and careers and the challenges they experienced in a small, rural high school district. Data were gathered through a series of in-depth interviews, observations, and artifact review and analyzed for emergent codes, themes and trends. The study's conclusions indicated the role of education and professional development in participants' understanding (or lack thereof) of PBL and CCR along with relevancy is a primary catalyst for participants to integrate PBL and CCR. PBL provides relevance, thus increasing student engagement through an understanding of the purpose for what students are being asked to do. In addition, the value of PBL in preparing students for CCR include CTE and core integration, technology, Habits of Mind, challenges of rural schools, and success in life. Participant perceptions revealed that administrative expectations were unattainable because administration expects teachers to learn, implement, and have students successful with PBL and CCR overnight, resulting in teacher frustration. A lack of support after training and through the implementation process results in participants' frustration and the PBL concept being dropped by teachers. Lastly, teacher participants faced rural school challenges with respect to community resources available to support PBL and CCR in the classroom. Major recommendations from the study include supporting teachers with initial and continuous professional development for PBL, CCR, and grading strategies; develop district-wide best practices in supporting interdisciplinary PBL and CCR; and provide ongoing, regularly scheduled planning time and PBL experts within the contract day. Further, provide teachers with ongoing current community business and industry databases or websites to access guest speakers, mentors, paid/unpaid internships and externships and job shadow experiences as well as district-wide short- and long-term action plans that outline how administration is going to provide ongoing PBL and CCR support for teachers.Ed.D., Educational Leadership and Management -- Drexel University, 201

Moderation of the effects of discrimination-induced affective responses on health outcomes

Objective: The goal of the study was to examine differential mediation of long-term effects of discrimination on health behaviour and health status by internalising (anxiety and depression) and externalising (hostility and anger), and to explore moderation of these effects, specifically, by the presence of support networks and coping tendencies. Design: The current analyses employed structural equation modelling of five waves of data from Black female participants of the Family and Community Health Study over 11 years (M age 37–48). Main Outcomes Measures: The main outcome variables were health status and alcohol use (frequency and problematic consumption). Results: Perceived racial discrimination was associated with increases in internalising and externalising. In addition, internalising reactions to discrimination were associated with deterioration in health status and increases in problematic drinking; externalising reactions were associated with increases in frequency of drinking. These relations were attenuated by availability of support networks, and exacerbated by use of avoidance coping. Conclusion: The current study (a) replicated previous research suggesting that two different types of affective reactions mediate the relations between perceived racial discrimination and physical health status vs. health-impairing behaviours: internalising and externalising, and (b) revealed moderation of these effects by coping mechanisms

Does the Association between Depressive Symptomatology and Physical Activity Depend on Body Image Perception? A Survey of Students from Seven Universities in the UK

This cross-sectional study assessed the association between depression and PA in university students of both genders and the role of body image perception as a potential effect modifier. Undergraduate students (N = 3706) from seven universities in the UK completed a self-administered questionnaire that assessed sociodemographic information; a range of health, health behaviour and health awareness related factors; the modified version of Beck’s Depression Inventory (M-BDI); educational achievement, and different levels of physical activity (PA), such as moderate PA (at least 5 days per week moderate exercise of at least 30 minutes), and vigorous PA (at least 3 days per week vigorous exercise of at least 20 minutes). Only 12.4% of the sample achieved the international recommended level for moderate PA, and 33.1% achieved the recommendations for vigorous PA. Both moderate and vigorous PA were inversely related to the M-BDI score. Physically active students, regardless of the type of PA, were significantly more likely to perceive their health as good, to have higher health awareness, to perform strengthening exercises, and to be males. The stratified analyses indicated that the association between depression and PA differed by body image. In students perceiving their body image as ‘just right’, moderate (>4th percentile) and high (>5th percentile) M-BDI scores were inversely related to vigorous PA. However, in students who perceived their body image as ‘overweight’, the inverse association was only significant in those with high M-BDI scores. We conclude that the positive effect of PA on depression could be down modulated by the negative impact of a ‘distorted’ body image on depression. The practical implications of these findings are that PA programmes targeting persons with depressive symptoms should include effective components to enhance body image perception

Climate-adjusted provenancing: A strategy for climate-resilient ecological restoration

Investments in ecological restoration are estimated at $US 2 trillion per annum worldwide and are increasing rapidly (Cunningham, 2008; Williams et al., 2014). These investments are occurring in an environment of accelerated climate change that is projected to continue into the next century, yet they currently take little account of such change. This has significant implications for the long-term success of restoration plantings across millions of hectares, with germplasm used in current restoration efforts potentially poorly-adapted to future climates. New approaches that optimize the climate-resilience of these restoration efforts are thus essential (Breed et al., 2013; Williams et al., 2014; Havens et al., 2015)..

Indo-Brazilian Late Palaeozoic wildfires: an overview on macroscopic charcoal

Carvão vegetal macroscópico é amplamente aceito como um indicador direto da ocorrência de paleo-incêndios vegetacionais, sendo relativamente bem estudado e distribuído de forma homogênea em depósitos do Paleozoico Superior da Euramérica e Cataísia. Por outro lado, apenas alguns registros deste tipo de material foram publicados para o Paleozoico Superior do Gondwana e, somente recentemente foi demonstrado que carvão vegetal macroscópico (e, portanto, incêndios) também é comum no continente meridional. Os mais importantes registros do Gondwana se constituem em fragmentos carbonizados de lenhos gimnospérmicos e estão associados, principalmente, a depósitos de carvão mineral. Registros de macro-charcoal (carvão vegetal macroscópico) foram descritos para níveis do Paleozoico Superior da Bacia Damodar (Índia) e da Bacia do Paraná (Brasil), demonstrando que paleo-incêndios vegetacionais ocorriam em sequências e intervalos estratigráficos variados no Gondwana durante esse período. Com base nos registros publicados até o momento e em novos exemplares provenientes do nível de carvão Seam-IV, Formação Raniganj, Bacia Damodar (Lopingiano da Índia), uma revisão acerca dos registros indo-brasileiros de carvão vegetal macroscópico em níveis do Paleozoico Superior são apresentados. O material inédito foi analisado sob Microscópio Eletrônico de Varredura para a definição de características anatômicas, sendo estabelecida uma afinidade gimnospérmica para os fragmentos. Os dados apresentados reforçam a importância dos paleo-incêndios vegetacionais como elemento perturbador dos diferentes paleoambientes gondvânicos durante o Paleozoico Superior.Sedimentary charcoal is widely accepted as a direct indicator for the occurrence of paleo-wildfires and, in Upper Paleozoic sediments of Euramerica and Cathaysia, reports on such remains are relatively common and (regionally and stratigraphically) more or less homogeneously distributed. On the contrary, just a few reliable records have been published for the Late Paleozoic of Gondwana and only recently it has been demonstrated that macroscopic charcoals (and thus fires) were also common in the southern continent during this period. The most important Gondwanan records are predominantly charred gymnosperm woods mainly related to coal bearing strata. Late Paleozoic macro-charcoal occurs in both, the Damodar Basin (India) and the Paraná Basin (Brazil), demonstrating that paleo-wildfires were spread out in different sequences and distinct stratigraphic intervals during this period in Gondwana. Based on the so far published records as well as new samples from the Seam-VI coalfield, Raniganj Formation (Damodar Basin – Lopingian of India), an overview of the Late Paleozoic Indo‑Brazilian macro-charcoal remains is presented. The hitherto unpublished samples were anatomically analyzed under Scanning Electron Microscope and a gymnosperm affinity could be established. The data presented here reinforce the relevance of paleo-wildfire as a source of environmental disturbance over large areas of Gondwana during the Late Paleozoic

Feeling Healthy? A Survey of Physical and Psychological Wellbeing of Students from Seven Universities in the UK

University students’ physical and psychological health and wellbeing are important and comprise many variables. This study assessed perceived health status in addition to a range of physical and psychological wellbeing indicators of 3,706 undergraduate students from seven universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We compared differences in these variables across males and females, and across the participating universities. The data was collected in 2007–2008. A self-administered questionnaire assessed socio-demographic information (e.g., gender, age), self-reported physical and psychological health data, as well as questions on health awareness, health service use, social support, burdens and stressors and university study related questions. While females generally reported more health problems and psychological burdens, male students felt that they received/had fewer persons to depend on for social support. The comparisons of health and wellbeing variables across the different universities suggested some evidence of ‘clustering’ of the variables under study, whereby favourable situations would be exhibited by a cluster of the variables that is encountered at some universities; and conversely, the clustering of less favourable variables as exhibited at other universities. We conclude that the level of health complaints and psychological problems/burdens is relatively high and calls for increased awareness of university administrators, leaders and policy makers to the health and well-being needs of their students. The observed clustering effects also indicated the need for local (university-specific) health and wellbeing profiles as basis and guidance for relevant health promotion programmes at universities