Mathematics Education for Gifted Students

Three Minnesotans were among the 25 secondary students invited to a special training session held on the campus of the Naval Academy at Annapolis this past summer. This program, designed for students who represent an important national resource in a technologically competitive world, is held each summer. Students qualify for invitation on the basis of a series of examinations conducted by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). The over-representation of Minnesota is noteworthy because it reverses a long-standing pattern in which our best students have been underrepresented in the MAA program to identify outstanding students of mathematics. The results in 1990 do not themselves signal a reversed trend, but taken together with other indicators, they do encourage those of us who have worked over the past ten years to improve opportunities for Minnesota math students. Before beginning this review, it is important to stress that specific efforts to improve mathematics education in Minnesota have always recognized the importance of context. A program for gifted students is short-sighted if it is not developed in a way that recognizes the plethora of problems we face and also strengthens mathematics education for all students

Evaluative criteria for the elementary school plant.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

An Analysis of East Tennessee Dalton Projectile Points

East Tennessee projectile points, previously described as the Early Woodland period Candy Creek type, are analyzed. Through the intensive examination of 17 continuous attributes and three discrete attributes reflecting morphology, function and manufacturing techniques, 112 of these East Tennessee projectile points are compared with 46 Dalton and Quad projectile points from northern Alabama and 37 Hardaway-Dalton projectile points from the Piedmont of North Carolina. As a result of the observations and a linear discriminant function program, it is determined that the Candy Creek projectile point is a regional variant of the Dalton projectile point type. Dalton manifestations described in the literature and the significant of the newly identified East Tennessee Dalton projectile point variant are summarized

Little Brother is Watching and Recording You: Social Control in a Deviant Group

Since the 1950s social control has mostly been explained from the counteraction of deviance perspective. In this research I examine social control in a broader context, what I call social control as the furtherance of action perspective. In order to accomplish this, I conducted a digital ethnography with a group engaged in deviant behavior. The group has no formal name, but individuals are known by the deviant act they engage in. The act is referred to as capping , but is best explained as individuals or a group of individuals making screen recordings of live web cam feeds from websites designed to allow interaction through a webcam/chat room interface. These screen recordings are then converted into various video formats and used by the community of cappers in numerous ways. The content of these recorded videos is sexual in nature and often times involves females between the ages of 13-24 years of age. In order to conduct this research I observed interactions in a public capper chat room, conducted in depth interviews with individuals connected to the capping world and analyzed postings and documents related to a capping message board. From my research I was able to determine an extensive network of social control present among this deviant group. Additionally, this was the first time the capping phenomenon has been researched and light was shined upon this group

The Best Undergraduate Marketing Education Programs: An Assessment

The purpose of this research was to determine the content and structure of the best undergraduate marketing programs, as identified by U.S. News and World Report for 2002 and 2003. Results show there are basically two types of programs. The first type does not have a marketing major program. Rather, the student’s program reflects the elective courses taken beyond the common core requirements. The second, more common, type requires students to take some set of courses, after which a marketing credential, e.g., a marketing major degree, is awarded. Among these schools anywhere from 3 to 7 marketing courses beyond the core are required, with 1 to 4 courses consisting of marketing electives. The most commonly required courses beyond the common core were marketing research, marketing management/strategy, and consumer behavior, in that order. This competitive information can be usefully employed in various ways for curriculum planning and assessment purposes

GIS and Introductory Environmental Engineering: A Way to Fold GIS into an Already-Existing Course

The use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) was implemented in the upper-division undergraduate technical elective Introduction to Environmental Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. Students integrated technical engineering skills, newly-learned geographical information system (GIS) skills, and the engineering design process, all in the context of the design of a debris flow barrier for a wilderness land parcel acquired by a local conservancy group. Junior and senior general engineering students, the majority of whom had no experience with GIS, were taught ArcGIS (a GIS mapping program) in the context of an Introductory Environmental Engineering course. Students learned how to map locations, find and download geo-encoded data, and join data layers, in order to graphically present toxic release hazards near their home towns. ArcGIS skills and knowledge were assessed through completion of homework problems, and through the students’ use of GIS data, software, and mapping during the design of a debris flow barrier for a local wilderness land parcel. Assignment #1 consisted of students learning how to map and characterize toxic releases near their hometowns; these data were downloaded into a spreadsheet for later use in the ArcGIS software package. In Assignment #2, the students used ArcGIS to analyze these data for the potential of water, soil, and atmospheric transport. In addition to the homework assignments, the student team completed a team-based design project involving the characterization of the wilderness site; acquiring relevant GIS data; and studying the physics of debris flow. The team produced alternative designs for the barrier and chose the best design by applying design metrics. The alternative designs and rationale for the chosen design were presented to the board of directors of the local conservancy group. Pre- and post-assessment data were gathered to analyze the success of the learning objectives. The design project in particular was useful in evaluating the students’ skill, knowledge and ease in using the GIS tools for analysis of the wilderness land parcel