Promoting Awareness of the Opioid Epidemic in Rural Vermont

Vermont is in the middle of an opioid epidemic. Heroin use fatalities are on the rise and the number of people in treatment for opioid use disorder in Rutland County has tripled in recent years. Despite this widespread problem, community members of Rutland County feel that there is reluctance to talk about opioid misuse and lack of awareness. This project aims to bring awareness, provide resources, and encourage people struggling with opioid use disorder to seek treatment.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1258/thumbnail.jp

A Review: The Association of Asthma and the Microbiome

The microbiome gut-lung axis has been associated with asthma. Asthma is a respiratory disease that presents itself in many different ways. The microbiome is the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses found in a particular environment. The association of the microbiome gutlung axis in an asthmatic individual compared to a healthy individual has shown that different types and/or concentrations of bacterial genera are present in an asthmatic individual compared to a healthy individual. A causal relationship between the microbiome and asthma has not yet been identified. The aim of this review is to present the association of asthma and the microbiome and present developing prevention and therapeutic treatment methods for asthma that include aspects of the microbiome. As the microbiome association with asthma knowledge increases, the microbiome prevention and therapeutic treatment options can lead to its use in more targeted medicinal approaches

Let\u27s Get Real: Problematizing the Use of the Real Food Calculator in Large-Scale Food Systems and Exploring Alternatives

Food is an essential part of the human existence, because of both nutritional necessity and cultural relevance. Recently, food systems have shifted from their historically local scale to an industrial, global market. In light of shifting consumer consciousness and subsequent demands, there has been an ongoing effort on the part of universities across the United States to make campus food systems more sustainable and just. In 2014, the California State University enacted a system-wide goal of spending 20 percent of campus food procurement budgets on sustainable food by 2020 as per the guiding principles of the Real Food Challenge. This research sought to examine the implementation of this policy at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and qualitative research findings reveal that the campus is struggling due to a lack of ownership, oversight, transparency, and education. Nonetheless, quantitative research findings demonstrate the Cal Poly community’s interest in making campus food procurement more sustainable. Thus, the use of the Real Food Calculator is problematized within the context of large-scale food systems. Comparative case studies are used to explore alternatives and to make suggestions for improvement moving forward

Speaking the language of integration: a case study of South Boulevard Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet

Racial segregation and an achievement gap persist despite the promises of Brown vs. Board of Education (1954). In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, public schools are 83% Black, while nearly one-third of all children attend private schools which are 86% White. South Boulevard (SB) Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet Elementary is a counterexample because it has achieved integration and academic achievement well above district and state averages on high stakes tests. This research explores the culture of SB’s immersion magnet program in relation to its success as an integrated public school with high student achievement and explores the factors that motivated a diverse set of parents to choose public education over private education. This one-year ethnographic case study of SB is based on document analysis, interviews, and participant observation. In-depth interviews were conducted with 53 students, parents, school faculty, district administrators, and school board members. Using purposeful sampling, participants were selected who represented diverse backgrounds and perspectives. On-site participant observation (including classes, recess, lunch, PTO activities and meetings, and school board meetings) was conducted for one academic semester and follow-up observations the following semester. The data were broken down into units of meaning that served as themes that were first subjected to a systematic content analysis and then the constant comparative method. SB’s achievement of integration and academic achievement is a counternarrative to dominant narratives that focus on the achievement gap and deficit models of minority culture. The primary explanation for SB’s success is the unique culture created by the immersion curriculum. SB has a culture of academic rigor in which teachers have high expectations of all students. The second language creates a new culture of power that equalizes cultural and linguistic differences that may privilege or marginalize students elsewhere. SB has a culture of multiplicity that values diverse perspectives and includes a unique immersion subculture in which all students are equal participants. SB has a culture of community characterized by trusting relationships between members of the school community that emerge out of commitment to the immersion curriculum rather than geographical boundaries

Can I teach mathematics? A study of preservice teachers’ self-efficacy and mathematics anxiety

This paper presents two studies (qualitative and quantitative) with the shared goal of exploring preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) experiences of mathematics anxiety and self-efficacy for mathematics teaching. Findings indicate that PSTs experience high levels of mathematics anxiety, impacting current learning and preference for teaching the content, as well as the development of self-efficacy for teaching mathematics and conceptions of ideal teaching. Findings regarding anxiety (fear) of evaluation and concern about being able to inspire students in their future classrooms converged across studies

Elementary prospective teachers’ visions of moving beyond mathematics anxiety

Previous studies of prospective elementary mathematics teachers’ mathematics anxiety have documented that many prospective teachers often worry about managing their repeated experiences of anxiety while developing their pedagogical and content knowledge to teach mathematics. The literature further indicates the importance of developing learning opportunities for prospective teachers to confront their past experiences while they (re)learn and learn to teach mathematics during methods courses. This study is situated within one such learning opportunity and seeks to analyze potential mathematics anxiety coping strategies generated by forty-eight prospective elementary teachers enrolled in a mathematical methods course. Written responses generated by the prospective teachers were subjected to qualitative thematic analysis to identify patterns of key ideas related to lesson planning for content they felt anxious and/or not confident about teaching and patterns focused on episodes of mathematics anxiety they might experience in the moment of teaching mathematics. Findings indicate that prospective teachers envision using between two and seven strategies grouped across eight coping strategy themes when given the opportunity to reflect on how they might deal with future instances of anxiety when they are tasked with teaching mathematics to their students. We highlight how some of the coping strategies that the prospective teachers envisioned as a means to cope with mathematics anxiety may have more potential to be helpful than others and present implications of our research for mathematics teacher educators

From numbers to narratives: Preservice teachers experiences’ with mathematics anxiety and mathematics teaching anxiety

This paper presents qualitative and quantitative approaches to exploring teachers’ experiences of mathematics anxiety (for learning and doing mathematics) and mathematics teaching anxiety (for instructing others in mathematics), the relationship between these types of anxiety and test/evaluation anxiety, and the impacts of anxiety on experiences in teacher education. Findings indicate that mathematics anxiety and mathematics teaching anxiety may be similar (i.e., that preservice teachers perceive a logical continuity and cumulative effect of their experiences of mathematics anxiety as learners in K–12 classrooms that impacts their work as teachers in future K–12 classrooms). Further, anxiety is not limited to occurring in evaluative settings, but when anxiety is triggered by thoughts of evaluation, preservice teachers may be affected by worrying about their own as well as their students\u27 performances. The implications for preservice experiences within a teacher education program and for impacting future students are discussed

Clothing Comparisons Across Countries

Students will be able to research the appropriate clothing used for various professions in other countries. Students will be able to prepare/locate the professional clothing using their research information with materials given. Students will be able to give an oral presentation of their clothing research