A Common Soldier: William H. P. Ivey

When I set out to pick a soldier for my first Killed at Gettysburg project, I did not know what I would find. I chose to research a Confederate soldier named William H. P. Ivey simply because he was born and raised on a farm, like me. As I did my research, I realized that Ivey’s life tells us a lot about the motivations and thoughts of a common southern soldier in the Civil War. Like most Confederate infantrymen, Ivey’s family was of the lower class and they were not slaveholders. Ivey, along with his brother Hinton, enlisted in the 8th Alabama on May 8th, 1861. [excerpt

Fact or Fiction: African American Confederate Veterans

As an intern this past summer at The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I came across many intriguing artifacts. One of the artifacts that stood out to me most was the photo above, which I discovered when the museum’s CEO conducted a behind-the-scenes tour. When I look at this photo, I see, on the surface at least, a group of 13 African American men who are presumably Confederate veterans. Several of these men are dressed up for the occasion. Many are wearing ribbons, one man has a Confederate flag, and another has a trumpet. There are also two white men standing on the right side. Looking at this photo, I was fascinated by the possibility that Africans Americans would fight for the South. [excerpt

Ambystoma talpoideum

Number of Pages: 2Place of Publication: Kensington, MarylandIntegrative BiologyGeological Science

Automation of State Climate Office Processes & Products: Developing Efficient Approaches for Data Dissemination

State Climate Offices (SCO’s) in the United States are critical conduits for improving weather and climate data in local communities. Two states do not have a state-recognized SCO: Tennessee and Massachusetts. Efforts are underway at East Tennessee State University to develop the Tennessee Climate Office (TCO). Currently, climate services and products are severely lacking across Tennessee. This thesis provides an improved methodology for an existing TCO product and outlines the development of a new product using Python scripting. Daily storm reports within the monthly climate report are automated and a Weather Forecasts Hazard Index (WFHI) web application is developed. Both products utilize data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with the automated daily storm reports providing substantial time savings and the WFHI providing a high resolution web application for emergency managers and others to interpret potentially hazardous forecasts for extreme temperatures, high winds, snowfall/ice accumulation, and tornado/hail events

Reading Aloud to Students: Questioning Strategies to Listening Comprehension

Almost all children throughout the elementary grades respond positively to being read to (Mendoza, 1985). Many teachers consider reading aloud an important part of their daily routine, primarily so students can enjoy a good story. Being read to provides students with an opportunity to be transported across distance and time, to imagine, and to vicariously take part in experiences beyond the realm of the listener. Through such positive reading aloud experiences a variety of additional benefits are often achieved with little overt instructional support; reluctant readers may be turned on to reading, students may be exposed to literature beyond their reading ability and outside their typical reading interests, aural exposure to more complex and formal written syntactic patterns prepares listeners to predict these structures in future print experiences, schema IS expanded through vicarious experiences, and vocabulary is increased. For the pure enjoyment derived, and these additional benefits, reading aloud to students is an invaluable activity

Uncovering the Hidden Crime of Human Trafficking by Empowering Individuals to Respond

This Note will examine current state law promoting awareness of human trafficking and identification of trafficking survivors in the United States and make recommendations as to what further measures, if any, state legislators should take to increase awareness, identification, and reporting of human trafficking. Part I explains the history and development of human trafficking legislation at the federal and state levels. Part II analyzes the methods that states currently use to promote public awareness and identification. Part III discusses a proposal for amending current state law to better encourage and facilitate awareness of human trafficking and the identification and reporting of trafficking survivors

An Attitude Study of Listening as a Communication Skill and its Role of Importance to Selected Secondary Teachers, Student Teachers, Principals and Students in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

The purpose of this study was to survey attitudes by secondary teachers, secondary student teachers, secondary school principals and secondary students regarding listening as a communication skill and its importance. A questionnaire was used to survey the attitudes of those four populations (totaling 337 individuals) in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Students and principals estimated they spent most of their communication time on listening, yet they had no major training in developing that skill. The majority of the four survey populations had not received training in developing listening skills nor teaching of those paramount skills. All four populations tended to agree about the neglected role of listening as a communication skill, yet nearly 20 years after the Markgraf survey, the problem of providing enough training in listening skills for educators continues to be neglected with little actual change