The Washington State Campus Compact History and Highlights

Campus Compact is a national coalition of college and university presidents who believe that higher education has a responsibility to foster in students a sense of civic responsibility. The Compact consists of a widespread and highly diverse network of over 400 member institutions, thirteen state-level Campus Compacts, a Campus Compact Center for Community Colleges, and a Historically Black Colleges and Universities Network

Service Learning in an Age of Standards

The new standards have to do with application of basic learning. Students take things that at one time they simply memorized and instead take them into real-life settings. The graduation standards offer the opportunity for every student and teacher to bring learning to a higher level. Application, synthesis, analysis and integration of information are what real learning is all about. Jim Grimmer, a teacher of philosophy at Richfield High School in Richfield, Minn., articulates one view of the connection between service learning and academic standards. At a time when academic standards, along with assessments and accountability, represent the big-dog reform across the country, educators would do well to follow Grimmer\u27s example in identifying and articulating those connections

Challenges and Strategies for Success With Service-Learning in Preservice Teacher Education

This study examined challenges to the use of service-learning in preservice teacher education and also strategies used to overcome those challenges. We surveyed 123 teacher educators, education deans, and state department of education service-learning coordinators to gain their perspective regarding challenges most critical to the use of service-learning in teacher education. We then interviewed 42 of the survey respondents to obtain detailed descriptions of specific strategies used to overcome challenges. Results indicate the most critical challenges relate to lack of time for teacher educators to plan and implement service-learning, an already overcrowded curriculum, and a lack of alignment of service-learning with faculty roles, rewards, and institutional priorities. Results include 155 specific strategies that address the most critical challenges as well as advice for teacher educators new to service-learning. The study provides evidence that teacher educators are able to devise and implement strategies that can surmount some of the barriers to the use of service-learning in preservice teacher education. It also provides a rich source of ideas to stimulate the thinking of teacher educators grappling with obstacles to the use of service-learning

Stabilization of a roll-tilt camera on an autonomous quadrotor helicopter

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2011.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 47).Harmful algal blooms are becoming an increasingly difficult problem to deal with, particularly in Singapore. The Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling (CENSAM) has developed a network of autonomous vehicles to nd blooms when they occur. The problem is that finding blooms, which are often transient in nature, can be difficult, particularly with slow-moving underwater and surface vehicles. Autonomous "quadrotor" helicopters are being utilized to visually survey large areas to spot these blooms while they are occurring. Here we develop a model for implement- ing servo motor controlled camera stabilization on these autonomous vehicles. The need for camera stabilization arises because video footage is monitored continuously while the onboard GPS is controlling the motion of the quadrotor. The operator of the quadrotor may not want to look in the direction that the GPS controller would like to guide the vehicle. We explore implementing a system that gives the operator the ability to control the camera, yet maintain the autonomous nature of the quadrotor. We develop two models for the rotations involved in stabilizing the position and orientation of the camera against the motion of the vehicle it is mounted on. We use these models to investigate the limitations this type of active stabilization would im- pose on our quadrotor and GPS controller, and discuss the next steps in integrating it into our system.by William Nathan Pickeral.S.B

Community Partnerships: Collaboration for Youth Service Learning

On behalf of the Alaska State Community Service Commission, I would like to welcome you to a series of training, forums, and workshops on Learn & Serve America programs. These programs have great potential to impact the youth and adults of our community. We are pleased to have Terry Pickeral and Rachael Vaughn with us for the week and hope to learn from them additional ways that the people of Alaska can help to create collaborative relationships for youth service, volunteerism, educational reform, and community involvement. The Alaska State Community Service Commission has been developing a State Pan that proposes strategies by which all generations of Alaskans in communities across the State can become more directly involved in meeting the social, educational, environmental, and public safety needs unique to their own areas. By building community support with parents, schools, youth, agencies, and schools, our youth in Alaska can become increasingly better citizens who are actively improving life in our communities while also preparing themselves for future careers. Thank you for attending this session on the National and Community Service Act. We are confident that the good things which come through this session will help us to continue to build successful community service opportunities

A DIGITAL STORYTELLING INTERVENTION: HOW IT AFFECTS PARTICIPATION IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

Research indicates that physical activity can increase health benefits in a variety of ways (Plotnikoff et al., 2015), including maintenance of overall body function, mental well-being, increased attention span, cognitive functioning among students, and reduction of risk for chronic diseases (Aaltonen et al., 2013). The purpose of this mixed methods study was to gain insight as to how a digital storytelling intervention could affect college students relative to physical activity from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective. Using prior literature and a theoretical framework focusing on achievement goal theory, a digital storytelling intervention was implemented with students in a Kinesiology 1100 Personal Fitness and Wellness class. Participants were responsible for creating a digital story based on the physical activity they participated in over an 8-week study. Quantitative data were collected based on pre- and post-assessments of Push--up test, PACER test, height, and weight. Qualitative data was gathered via face-to-face semi-structured interviews with five participants. Findings from this study concluded that there was a positive change based on physical assessment scores within the group who utilized the digital storytelling intervention. Additionally, participants indicated that, although they were not familiar with the concept of digital storytelling, they had a positive experience using digital storytelling as an effort to increase their overall participation in and perception of physical activity. Participants reported improvement in feelings of motivation and accountability, as well as an increase in physical activity and strength at the conclusion of the study

Identifying related L1 retrotransposons by analyzing 3' transduced sequences

BACKGROUND: A large fraction of the human genome is attributable to L1 retrotransposon sequences. Not only do L1s themselves make up a significant portion of the genome, but L1-encoded proteins are thought to be responsible for the transposition of other repetitive elements and processed pseudogenes. In addition, L1s can mobilize non-L1, 3'-flanking DNA in a process called 3' transduction. Using computational methods, we collected DNA sequences from the human genome for which we have high confidence of their mobilization through L1-mediated 3' transduction. RESULTS: The precursors of L1s with transduced sequence can often be identified, allowing us to reconstruct L1 element families in which a single parent L1 element begot many progeny L1s. Of the L1s exhibiting a sequence structure consistent with 3' transduction (L1 with transduction-derived sequence, L1-TD), the vast majority were located in duplicated regions of the genome and thus did not necessarily represent unique insertion events. Of the remaining L1-TDs, some lack a clear polyadenylation signal, but the alignment between the parent-progeny sequences nevertheless ends in an A-rich tract of DNA. CONCLUSIONS: Sequence data suggest that during the integration into the genome of RNA representing an L1-TD, reverse transcription may be primed internally at A-rich sequences that lie downstream of the L1 3' untranslated region. The occurrence of L1-mediated transduction in the human genome may be less frequent than previously thought, and an accurate estimate is confounded by the frequent occurrence of segmental genomic duplications

Workforce 2000: Reshaping for School-Work-Career Transitions

This document discusses: Definitions and Elements; Program Development; Narratives and Articles; Curriculum Resoures; Reflection; and Assessment

Novice teachers\u27 experiences of community service-learning

This study focuses on beginning teachers\u27 experiences with a currently popular curriculum strategy in the US: community service-learning. To determine the personal and contextual factors influencing novice teachers\u27 experiences, we surveyed over 300 early career teachers and interviewed 30 of the larger sample. The study provides evidence that some beginning teachers are willing to implement strategies they learned in their teacher education programs, and can do so successfully, in spite of being busy and unsupported. Results indicate that specific preparation features and school characteristics may play a large role in whether novice teachers implement service-learning activities in their classrooms