Can Sweet Sorghum and Sweetpotato Ethanol Contribute to Self-Sufficiency of Small Farms?

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) and sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) are promising crops for advanced biofuel production because they are better suited than corn (Zea mays L.) to low input production on small farms in the south. They can be considered advanced feedstocks only if lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are less than 50% of basoline baseline emissions. Both sweet potato and sweet sorghum are multifunctional crops, with potential to simultaneously produce human food, animal feed, and biofuel feedstock. Kentucky State University is exploring the potential for organic production techniques and decentralized processing systems to reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of energy produced from these crops at a range of small farm scales. In 2009 biointensive production - a garden-scale strategy relying entirely on human labor - gave the greatest return to energy investment among the farm scales tested. Tractor-based small farm systems gave an inferior energy return in 2009, but a superior return to human labor in 2008 and 2009. A farmer’s decision to dedicate a portion of small-scale organic crop yield to on-farm ethanol production might be justified as a means of promoting self-sufficiency, resource cycling, or use of waste products, but ethanol feedstock production would be a poor economic choice as a principal means of income for the small organic farmer

More Efficient High Schools in Maine: Emerging Student-Centered Learning Communities

American K-12 public education all across the nation is at a difficult and critical crossroads. We are at a time when keen global competition underscores the need for exceptional performance in our primary and secondary schools. Yet, state and federal governments face unprecedented budget deficits and limited resources for the foreseeable future. Additionally, our schools are being called upon to do an even better job of preparing students for the 21st century. There is growing evidence that success in the 21st Century requires more than what has traditionally been the content of schooling. It requires more and different types of knowledge, skills, and learning. To help students acquire this knowledge base and skills, many educators and leaders are calling for transformative changes in our schools and changes in how we help students learn. This transformative change is called by many names: performance-based learning, standards-based learning, and student-centered learning. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation (NMEF) describes this transformation to more student-centered learning as the need for:... growing a greater variety of higher quality educational opportunities that enable all learners -- especially and essentially underserved learners -- to obtain the skills, knowledge and supports necessary to become civically engaged, economically self-sufficient lifelong learners. (2011) Can our schools be transformed to meet these challenges? More importantly, can they be high performing, efficient, and student-centered at the same time? To explore these questions, the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine conducted a study in 2010-2011 of a sample of Maine high schools. Funded in part by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the study examined the degree to which these More Efficient high schools were also student-centered. In 2010, NMEF identified some of the key principles and attributes of studentcentered learning. The principles are that: Student-centered education systems provide all students equal access to the skills and knowledge needed for college and career readiness in today's world. Student-centered education systems align with current research on the learning process and motivation. Student-centered education systems focus on mastery of skills and knowledge. Student-centered education systems build student's identities through a positive culture with a foundation of strong relationships and high expectations. Student-centered education systems empower and support parents, teachers, administrators, and other community members to encourage and guide learners through their educational journey. The key attributes are that: Curriculum, instruction and assessment embrace the skills and knowledge needed for success. Community assets are harnessed to support and deepen learning experiences. Time is used flexibly and includes learning opportunities outside the traditional school day and year. Mastery-based strategies are employed to allow for pacing based on proficiency in skills and knowledge. The goal of the study reported here was to determine to what extent these principles and attributes may be found in the high schools. To that end, once a sample of More Efficient high schools was identified, the beliefs, strategies, and practices found in these schools were examined in light of the 2010 NMEF key principles and attributes

Elucidating the behavioral response of stored product insects to fungal volatiles in the wind tunnel and simulated warehouses

Post-harvest pest insects can cause significant amounts of damage to stored products in and around food facilities, reducing quantity and quality of grains. Post-harvest insects have been attributed to billions of dollars in agricultural loss via yield loss and the cost of mitigation measures. Early detection of insect pests is crucial to preventing infestations and losses since some species of stored product pests are becoming resistant to common control options. Numerous detection methods are available, but many are time consuming and ineffective, leading to a need for more effective and practical monitoring methods. Grain oils have been used to induce behavioral responses in the red flour beetle (Triboliumcastaneum) and the lesser grain borer (Rhyzoperthadominica), but fungal volatiles may be an even stronger attractant to these species

Identification of Higher and Lower Performing Maine Schools-School Profiles and Characteristics

Identifying Maine\u27s higher and lower performing schools may be useful for many purposes, but two are particularly important. Identifying these schools is important for developing and refining Maine\u27s new funding formula. Maine\u27s Essential Programs and Services (EPS) school funding formula is what is known nationally as a cost-based adequacy model. The underlying premise of the formula is that all schools should have adequate resources to ensure that all children may achieve high standards of learning. In the case of Maine, these high standards are the Learning Results. What are adequate levels of resources needed to achieve the Learning Results? From the very beginning of the development of the new funding model, the goal has been to define adequate levels of resources as those resources found in higher achieving Maine schools. To that end, and for the last two years, the Maine Education Policy Research Institute, at the request of the Joint Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs of the Maine Legislature, has been analyzing achievement results for Maine\u27s schools. The Joint Committee has received and reviewed these analyses, and has requested that the findings be more widely disseminated for a second purpose; that is, to help schools begin to examine themselves more closely and learn from each other strategies for improving student achievement. Appended are (1) Higher Performing Maine Public Schools; and (2) instructions on how to access individual school performance profiles at the CEPARE website. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.

Increasing Postsecondary Enrollments in Maine: Changes Needed in Higher Education Policies

Why does Maine rank so low in higher education participation? What factors may be influencing whether Maine citizens pursue education beyond high school? Much of the debate to answer these questions has focused on students and described the problem as a lack of aspirations. David Silvernail provides another look at this issue. While student aspirations are important, Silvernail suggests that factors related to Maine\u27s higher education system also may contribute to the problem of low enrollment. He compares Maine to six peer states and finds that for a number of factors such as cost and program accessibility, Maine ranks poorly. He concludes that a part of the solution lies in changes to higher education, and offers his perspective on what changes might make a difference

A comparison of teacher interaction patterns with high-skilled and low-skilled middle school students during an instructional unit

This investigation was conducted to compare the teacher interaction patterns of a female and male middle school physical educator with low-skilled and high-skilled students during an instructional volleyball unit. [This is an excerpt from the abstract. For the complete abstract, please see the document.