Enhancing Education through Digitization

As technology becomes more a part of everyday life, it is increasingly important that future and current educators learn how to integrate the use of technology into day-to-day classroom activities. Teachers must learn to embrace the fact that computers and other aspects of technology are used by children everyday; the classroom needs to incorporate new and emerging technology. In this essay, I describe my experiences as an education major working in a research laboratory in Computer Science at the University of Kentucky. My work in the lab taught me how to digitize, process, and prepare on-line presentations of a variety of artwork. This experience has given me a first-hand glimpse of what it will take to incorporate technology into my classroom in the future. The possibilities and learning opportunities that exist for teachers who are adept at using and integrating technologies are exciting

“Checking Off Boxes”: Teachers Describe Civic Education in World History: A Mixed Methods Study

Scholars have long identified fostering democratic citizenship as a primary purpose of public schooling in the United States, meaning schools should intentionally prepare students with the knowledge and skills needed for active, informed democratic civic life. Furthermore, global interconnectedness has reshaped needed knowledge to participate in civic life. History is often identified as subject content well suited to address civic education and prepare students for citizenship. Though scholars point to a connection between world history and civic education, there is little empirical research studying how civic education informs teachers’ curriculum and instruction in world history. The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was to address how world history teachers see civic education’s role in world history curriculum and instruction. It assessed the ways in which world history civic learning reflects different dimensions of civic education and global citizenship constructs. A framework of best practices for effective civic education was developed and employed in this study. In the first, quantitative phase of the study, a survey was administered to assess if teachers believe there to be a civic purpose within world history and whether or not teachers believe they incorporate civic education into curriculum. The second, qualitative phase, involved interviews to explore manifestations and conceptualizations of world history civics in more depth. Results indicated that participants believe civics has an important role in world history. Teachers’ descriptions of civics in world history aligned with best practices of world history civic learning. However, though teachers described world history civic education as present throughout their courses, intentional integration of civics in world history curriculum and instruction was uneven

Novel Precursors for Boron Nanotubes: The Competition of Two-Center and Three-Center Bonding in Boron Sheets

We present a new class of boron sheets, composed of triangular and hexagonal motifs, that are more stable than structures considered to date and thus are likely to be the precursors of boron nanotubes. We describe a simple and clear picture of electronic bonding in boron sheets and highlight the importance of three-center bonding and its competition with two-center bonding, which can also explain the stability of recently discovered boron fullerenes. Our findings call for reconsideration of the literature on boron sheets, nanotubes, and clusters.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Recentering Civics: A Framework for Building Civic Dispositions and Action Opportunities

Many civic education initiatives have developed across the United States in order to help prepare students for civic engagement in school-based settings. At the same time, research shows that quality of school-based civic learning opportunities remains insufficient, inconsistent, and inequitable. In this article, we propose a framework of civic learning dispositions based upon current social studies curricular resources from C3 Teachers. Based on a thematic review of civic dispositions embedded within this C3 Framework-aligned curriculum, we offer a framework to demonstrate how civic dispositions and the application of social studies learning (i.e., civic action) can be used in curriculum design to support a reinvigorated application of social studies learning. The framework, then, provides a theoretically informed, practical heuristic for teachers, researchers and curricular designers to both better understand and subsequently support their students’ high-quality civic learning in the context of social studies teaching and learning

Metals Additive Manufacturing Powder Aging Characterization

The metallic additive manufacturing process known as selective laser melting requires highly spherical, normally distributed powder with diameters in the range of 10 to 50 microns. Previous observations have shown a degradation in powder quality over time, resulting in unwanted characteristics in the final printed parts. 21-6-9 stainless steel powder was used to fabricate test parts, with leftover powder recycled back into the machine. Powder samples and test specimens were characterized to observe changes across build cycles. Few changes were observed in the physical and mechanical properties of the specimens, however, there were indications of chemical changes across cycles. Potential areas of research were identified for future investigation into this subject

Is Li2_2Pd3_3B a self-doped hole superconductor ?

We propose that the electrons responsible for superconductivity in Li2Pd3B come from the palladium 4d-electrons. So, its electronic properties are likely to be dominated by strong electronic correlations. The basic unit in this material are Pd$_6$B octahedra which share vertices to form a 3-dimensional network. Due to the highly distorted nature of the Pd$_6$B octahedron, one far stretched Pd atom per octahedra becomes almost inactive for electronic conduction. Thus, the material escapes the fate of becoming a half- filled insulating Mott antiferromagnet by hiding extra charges at these inactive Pd sites and becomes a self-doped correlated metal. We propose a 3-dimensional single band t-J model which could be the correct minimal model for this material.Comment: 4 pages Revtex, 2 figures included in the text, some typos corrected, some text and references adde

Cluster Chemistry

Metal cluster chemistry is one of the most rapidly developing areas of inorganic and organometallic chemistry. Prior to 1960 only a few metal clusters were well characterized. However, shortly after the early development of boron cluster chemistry, the field of metal cluster chemistry began to grow at a very rapid rate and a structural and a qualitative theoretical understanding of clusters came quickly. Analyzed here is the chemistry and the general significance of clusters with particular emphasis on the cluster research within my group. The importance of coordinately unsaturated, very reactive metal clusters is the major subject of discussion

Beyond Eliashberg superconductivity in MgB2: anharmonicity, two-phonon scattering, and multiple gaps

Density-functional calculations of the phonon spectrum and electron-phonon coupling in MgB$_2$ are presented. The $E_{2g}$ phonons, which involve in-plane B displacements, couple strongly to the $p_{x,y}$ electronic bands. The isotropic electron-phonon coupling constant is calculated to be about 0.8. Allowing for different order parameters in different bands, the superconducting $\lambda$ in the clean limit is calculated to be significantly larger. The $E_{2g}$ phonons are strongly anharmonic, and the non-linear contribution to the coupling between the $E_{2g}$ modes and the p$_{x,y}$ bands is significant.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Bis(dicyclo­hexyl­phenyl­phosphine)silver(I) nitrate

The title compound, [Ag(C18H27P)2]NO3, is a mononuclear salt species in which the Ag atom is coordinated by two phosphine ligands, forming a cation, with the nitrate as the counter-anion, weakly inter­acting with the Ag atom, resulting in Ag⋯O distances of 2.602 (6) and 2.679 (6) Å. The cationic silver–phosphine complex has a non-linear geometry in which the P—Ag—P angle is 154.662 (19)°. The Ag—P bond lengths are 2.4303 (6) and 2.4046 (5) Å