The Impact of Self-Assessments Used with Formative Assessments on Student Achievement

Educators strive to create engaging and impactful strategies that not only improve student achievement but also instill 21st-century career readiness skills. Research has implied that through self-assessments, both student achievement and 21st-century skills are impacted in a positive way. Self-assessments can be used within the classroom as a form of formative assessments or feedback. The objective of self-assessments involves students analyzing their own work, identifying errors, and reflecting on their thinking. Student achievement, grit, and overall learning has been shown to improve through the implementation of self-assessments. For self-assessments to be successful, specific criteria needs to be implemented. The criteria includes time to understand the process, student involvement in creating rubrics, direct instruction when using the rubrics, and purposeful learning. This action research project was conducted to determine if student achievement is impacted in the 7th- and 8th-gradmathematics classroom when self-assessments are paired with formative assessments

Seasonality, variation in species prevalence, and localized disease for Ranavirus in Cades Cove (Great Smoky Mountains National Park) amphibians

World-wide amphibian declines sparked concern and encouraged investigation into potential causes beginning in the 1980’s. Infectious disease has been identified as one of the major potential contributors to amphibian declines. For example, Ranavirus has caused amphibian die-offs throughout the United States. Investigators isolated Ranavirus from dead or moribund amphibians during large-scale die-offs of amphibians in the Cades Cove area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1999-2001. In 2009, after nearly a decade without follow-up monitoring, I undertook an investigation to determine if the virus persisted in the area, and if so, to assess spatial, temporal, and taxonomic patterns in prevalence. Three amphibian breeding ponds, including Gourley Pond, the site of these earlier mortality events, were monitored for Ranavirus during the 2009 amphibian breeding season. A peak in prevalence occurred at Gourley Pond corresponding to a massive amphibian die-off. Prevalence varied among three different taxonomic groups during this mortality event with the highest prevalence, 84%, detected in larval Ambystomatids, 44.4% prevalence in adult Newts, and no virus detected in adult Plethodontids. I did not detect virus at either of the other two breeding ponds despite equivalent sampling effort, similar community composition, and close proximity to Gourley Pond. These results suggest that the severity and spatial extent of Ranavirus in Cades Cove remains unchanged since its initial detection a decade ago. Also, despite the observed massive die-offs there is no evidence of local amphibian extinction at Gourley Pond

Towards a healthier cannabis? Examining neurobehavioural interactions between THC and CBD in mice

Abstract Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the world, however over the past decade there has been increasing interest in its utility as a potential therapeutic. Despite the reported beneficial effects of cannabis constituent Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), its psychoactivity has curtailed its therapeutic use. There has been increasing interest in combining non-psychoactive cannabis constituent cannabidiol (CBD with THC to inhibit THC’s adverse effects, leading to generation of medications which contain ~1:1 CBD to THC dose ratios which are currently used for the treatment of spasticity in multiple sclerosis and pain relief. However there is a limited evidence base regarding to what extent CBD might modulate the pharmacological effects of THC at equal doses. The scientific examination of pharmacological interactions between these chemicals is therefore of major medical and public health significance. This thesis examines whether an equivalent dose of CBD is able to ameliorate the neuropharmacological effects of THC in mice following acute and repeated dosing in adulthood and adolescence, using doses relevant to human consumption. We report that CBD acutely inhibited some (but not all) of the neurobehavioural measures taken, suggesting potential benefits of CBD in reducing the unwanted effects of THC. However, the unexpected activation of mesolimbic circuitry when THC and CBD were combined suggests enthusiasm should be tempered until these effects are better understood. Adolescent mice exposed to a modest THC dose equivalent to most recreational and medicinal users did not display long-term behavioural deficits, and hence no reversal of negative outcomes by CBD could be measured. CBD alone produced no behavioural changes following acute or repeated exposure in adult mice, although adolescent CBD exposure reduced depression-like behaviour in adult mice, an intriguing effect warranting further study

Historical Inquiry: Who has the Power? Using Film to Introduce Students to Medieval Social Class Structures

Using film in the classroom to teach history has long been endorsed as an effective pedagogical method when the lessons’ purposes and goals are clearly supported with facts. This article, which includes a National Council for the Social Studies C3 inquiry-based lesson plan, is targeted for educators who aspire to help students understand basic European Medieval history and engage in critical thinking. Medieval history is listed in many U.S. state curriculum standards and international teaching benchmarks; thus, this lesson contributes a teaching-ready source, particularly to introduce students to historical concepts, geographies, and politics (i.e., power structures). Clips from A Knight’s Tale (2001) were selected because they convey, to the modern audience, various social hierarchies. This lesson was created for upper elementary and middle school grades, though it can be adapted for other grade levels, including social studies pre-service teacher education. All resources for teachers and students are provided, and suggestions for digital tools are inserted throughout the lesson plan

Economic Contribution of Colleges and Universities in Maine

Maine has 38 colleges and universities that educate 72,605 students, employ a combined 14,621 nonstudent workers, and generate about $2.2 billion in annual revenue. Colleges and universities in Maine generate a total annual economic contribution—including the spending of students and visitors, and multiplier effects—of an estimated$4.5 billion in output, 31,267 full- and part-time jobs, and $1.7 billion in labor income. Maine’s colleges and universities support at least ten jobs in 125 Maine sectors, and there are statewide employment impacts of twenty jobs or more in 108 industries. This report examines the statewide economic contribution of colleges and universities in Maine. Economic contribution is defined as the direct revenue generated by these institutions and the spending of their students and visitors; employment and employee compensation in Maine’s colleges and universities and the jobs and earnings supported by the spending of students and visitors; and the multiplier effects associated with the spending of workers (i.e., induced effects) and companies (i.e., indirect effects) connected to Maine’s institutions of higher learning (and the workers and businesses supported by the spending of students and visitors). The economic impact analysis includes 38 institutions of postsecondary education (e.g., private colleges, public universities, community colleges) and uses data from the U.S. Department of Education (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, National Center for Education Statistics), surveys of student expenditures, past economic impact studies, and information collected from the websites of Maine’s colleges and universities. The multiplier effects and some of the direct impacts (e.g., labor income) are estimated by a Maine input-output model (IMPLAN)

Virtual Violence: Cyberspace, Misogyny and Online Abuse

As the twenty-first century continues its steady march, the Internet has become an important part of daily life for much of the globe. Many of us shop, organise our finances, conduct our working lives, meet our intimate partners and maintain our relationships online. Technology has become increasingly affordable: tablets, smartphones and laptops are enabling more and more people in ever-remote areas to become ‘switched on’. This has brought us to an interesting moment, where the issue of sexualised threats in online public spaces is a concern facing more and more women, yet it is drastically under-theorised. This chapter offers some ways to think through the issue

Economic Contributions of Colleges and Universities in Maine

This report shows the following: Maine has 38 colleges and universities that educate 72,605 students, employ a combined 14,621 non-student workers, and generate about $2.2 billion in annual revenue. Colleges and universities in Maine generate a total annual economic contribution— including the spending of students and visitors, and multiplier effects—of an estimated$4.5 billion in output, 31,267 full- and part-time jobs (not including student workers), and $1.7 billion in labor income. Maine’s colleges and universities support at least ten jobs in 125 Maine sectors, and there are statewide employment impacts of twenty jobs or more in 108 industrie

Trigger point dry needling for musculoskeletal pain and disability: a systematic review of comparative effectiveness research

Background: Dry needling (DN) has been proposed to reduce pain and improve function related to myofascial trigger points (MTrPs). Several primary studies and systematic reviews have been conducted to examine the effect of DN versus placebo. However the comparative effectiveness of DN and established interventions has yet to be established. Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review was to determine whether DN was more effective than other established therapies to treat MTrPs. Data Sources: MEDLINE Complete, EBSCO, CINAHL, Sport Discus and Cochrane library databases were searched. Study Selection: Randomized controlled trials that used DN directed to MTrPs and used at least one other intervention method were included. Studies that had a placebo or sham group were excluded. Data Extraction: Of 394 records screened, 8 studies met the established criteria. The quality of each study was assessed using the PEDro scale. Data Synthesis: When DN was compared to standard therapy programs, 3 of the 4 studies found that DN was more effective in reducing pain and 1 found no difference. When DN was compared to stretching, DN reduced pain more effectively. Dry needling was not significantly more effective than high-power pain threshold ultrasound (US), laser, non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs, and percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (PENS). Limitations: Included studies were relatively small and some lacked sound methodology. Conclusions: The results are mixed on the effectiveness of DN over standard rehab. More large scale, high quality studies are needed before definitive decisions can be made about the role of DN in physical therapy practice

Resistance of Kansas Sclerotinia homoeocarpa isolates to thiophanate-methyl and determination of associated β-tubulin mutation

Citation: Ostrander, J., Todd, R., & Kennelly, M. (2014). Resistance of Kansas Sclerotinia homoeocarpa Isolates to Thiophanate-Methyl and Determination of Associated β-Tubulin Mutation. Plant Health Progress, 15(2), 23-27. https://doi.org/10.1094/PHP-RS-13-0120.Eighty-two isolates of Sclerotinia homoeocarpa from 12 sites in Kansas were evaluated for in vitro sensitivity to the methyl benzimidazole carbamate (MBC) fungicide thiophanate-methyl at the discriminatory dose of 10 μg/ml. Seventeen isolates were sensitive to thiophanate-methyl and the remaining isolates were resistant. Of the 65 isolates from golf course putting greens, two isolates were sensitive and the remaining 63 isolates were resistant. Six resistant and five sensitive isolates were also evaluated in greenhouse assays on fungicide-treated plants. The isolates that were sensitive to thiophanate-methyl in vitro did not cause any disease on thiophanate-methyl-treated plants, and those that were resistant in vitro caused blighting on treated plants equivalent to the nontreated controls. The entire β-tubulin gene was sequenced for four resistant and four sensitive isolates. The resistant isolates all harbored a substitution of alanine for glutamic acid at codon 198 (E198A). These results provide a starting point for further surveys and monitoring of fungicide sensitivity