Kitsugi, the Dish, and Me

Susan Nichols is an undergraduate English/Creative Writing major. She has written several children’s books and recently developed a love of poetry. She is currently a member of the Devotional Writers Team at Fellowship NWA in Rogers, AR. She lives in Springdale, AR with her kids and two crazy dogs

A Cross-Age Study of Students\u27 Knowledge of Insect Metamorphosis: Insights Into Their Understanding of Evolution.

Insect metamorphosis is relatively easy to explain at a superficial level, but a deep understanding of the concept reveals a complex array of interrelationships, most importantly those that address evolution. This is significant because, in biology, evolution is considered to be a central theme. Participants for this study were selected from grades 5, 7, 9, and 11 according to low, middle, or high achievement levels in their science classes, and to scores on a national achievement test. The research incorporated a three-level response strategy in order to ascertain more completely students\u27 knowledge of insect metamorphosis, and to better suggest how that knowledge could give insight into their understanding of evolution. First, a series of scientifically accurate line drawings depicting grasshopper and butterfly metamorphic stages probed understanding of basic concepts. Second, concept circle diagrams identified and explored students\u27 concept clusters involving insect metamorphosis. Third, clinical interviews involving direct observation of insect metamorphosis in vivo assessed the degree of integration of two clusters of insect metamorphosis concepts; metamorphic and evolutionary. In formulating this study\u27s research questions, the theoretical bases of prescientific conceptions and meaningful learning, as well as histories of science and entomological literature were accessed. Specific questions addressed by this research were: (1) What major alternative conceptions do students hold concerning insect metamorphosis? (2) How does students\u27 understanding of insect metamorphosis change across grade levels? (3) Are students able to give evolutionary explanations for insect metamorphosis? The major alternative conceptions of public school students taking part in this study about insect metamorphosis fell into five major categories: visual stage recognition, stage terminology, characteristics of stages, factors influencing insect metamorphosis, and types of metamorphosis. No increase in student understanding of insect metamorphosis across grade levels was evidenced from the stage picture data. The concept circle diagram data, however, showed an increase in understanding from grade five to grade eleven. The vast majority of the students were unable to give an evolutionary explanation for insect metamorphosis. Findings suggest that direct entomological experiences may increase pupils\u27 understanding of both insect metamorphosis and evolution

Dual audiences, double pedagogies : representing family literacy as parental work in picture books

Narrative for a dual audience of children and adults is a field of expanding interest among children’s literature scholars. A great deal of the extant research is implicitly or explicitly informed by longstanding anxieties about the status of children’s fiction, a context that shifts the parameters of the analysis to questions of literary sophistication. Whilst some attention is paid to the readersubject position of the child reader, rather less is given to the positioning of the adult reader in relation to the pedagogical agendas of such texts. This article examines picture books featuring parents reading to preschool children. In the context of family literacy, it is an instance in which the pedagogical address to the adult reader is as significant as the address to the child. Drawing on distinctions between double and dual address, the article examines the ways in which representations of parents

The Vigo County, Indiana, War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee: Supporting community engagement through public programming

The Vigo County, Indiana, War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee: Supporting community engagement through public programmingMay, C., Frey, S, & Nichols, D. (2011, February 20). The Vigo County, Indiana, War of 1812 Bicentennial Committee: Supporting community engagement through public programming. Peer reviewed poster presented at the Scholar Collaboration and Prospective Faculty symposium, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana

Glacial History and Palaeoecology of Northeastern Nouveau-Québec and Northern Labrador

Between mid-July and mid-August 1975, a reconnaissance was made of a large tract of subarctic and arctic terrain bounded by Schefferville, Fort Chimo and the Torngat Mountains north to latitude 59°31' N. A float-plane was used for the purpose. Three main areas received special attention: the southern and central Torngat Mountains between Hebron Fiord and Ryans Bay; the lower George River between Wedge Hill and Port Nouveau Québec, and the Quebec-Newfoundland boundary area north of Schefferville. This work was designed to provide radiometric dating control for earlier studies in the same region carried out between 1955 and 1965. It was intended to lay a foundation for future detailed investigations of Holocene climatic and ecological history, including fluctuations in the position of the northern treeline, final disappearance of the late-Wisconsin Laurentide Ice Sheet, and the early development of human occupation of the area. Specific objectives included: 1. confirmation that three distinct rock weathering zones, related to discrete glacial stades, were indeed correlative with rock weathering zones recognized in Baffin Island through quantitative studies; 2. resolution of the questions of the existence of ice-free areas during the Wisconsin Maximum (Saglek Glaciation) and of the earlier total glacial inundation of the Torngat Mountains. The second question hinges on the interpretation of anomalous blocks on high mountain tops as glacial erratics; 3. dating of the major glacial lake shorelines in the George River basin (Naskaupi and McLean glacial lakes) and location of other suspected glacial lake systems; 4. determination of the date of final disappearance of late-Wisconsin ice in the central region of Labrador-Ungava; 5. study of the fluctuations in the position of the forest-tundra ecotone over the last 8,000 years and comparison with those in the Districts of Keewatin and Mackenzie, N.W.T.; 6. analysis of Holocene climatic and environmental fluctuations affecting plant communities and human occupancy