From the Margins to the Center: A Qualitative Study Giving Voice to Black Women in Athletic Training Education Programs

Black women are dramatically underrepresented in the profession of athletic training. Failure to introduce Black women and their perspective to the profession and the literature may result in their continued exclusion. It may be theorized that one of the reasons more Black female students are not entering into the study of athletic training and matriculating through to the point of graduation and credentialing is that they do not have adequate mentors to successfully guide them. The purpose of this dissertation study was to examine the perceived effects of mentoring and other factors on the retention and credentialing of Black women athletic trainers in order to understand the impact of those factors on the academic success of Black women athletic training students (ATSs) enrolled in athletic training education programs. The theoretical framework utilized in this dissertation was a Black Feminist Theory, which recognizes and honors the unique perspective of Black women who are simultaneously situated in U.S. society at the intersection of race, gender and class. This dissertation was a qualitative study that utilized semi-structured, open-ended questions during interviews conducted with ten participants who were Black, female, certified athletic trainers. Follow-up case studies were conducted with three of the participants. Qualitative data was triangulated with a personal data survey. Data analysis was achieved through cyclical and constant comparative analysis. Thick description, member checks, and triangulation were used to ensure verification of the results. The findings revealed that (1) racism, sexism and classism persist as barriers to success, (2) mentoring promotes matriculation and successful college completion and credentialing of Black women ATSs, (3) mentoring also protects Black women ATSs against racism, sexism and classism, (4) although shared race and gender are favorable mentor characteristics, accessible and approachable mentors are more essential traits, and (5) several characteristics inherent to athletic training education contribute to successful college completion and credentialing of Black women ATSs. These findings have many implications that potentially offer athletic training educators ideas that may improve the athletic training educational experiences of Black women ATSs and lead to their increased participation in the athletic training profession

Integral Representations of Positive Linear Functionals

In this dissertation we obtain integral representations for positive linear functionals on commutative algebras with involution and semigroups with involution. We prove Bochner and Plancherel type theorems for representations of positive functionals and show that, under some conditions, the Bochner and Plancherel representations are equivalent. We also consider the extension of positive linear functionals on a Banach algebra into a space of pseudoquotients and give under conditions in which the space of pseudoquotients can be identified with all Radon measures on the structure space. In the final chapter we consider a system of integrated Cauchy functional equations on a semigroup, which generalizes a result of Ressel and offers a different approach to the proof

Carl R. Eklund (1909-1962)

Dr. Carl Robert Eklund, posthumous Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America, prominent in arctic and antarctic research, Chief of the Polar and Arctic Branch of the U.S. Army Research Office, died on November 3, 1962 at the age of 53. His gregarious friendly nature, good humour and knack of story-telling made him a cherished friend of all who knew him. For 23 years he was a leading American specialist in ornithology and geographic research in both the north and south polar regions. His U.S. Government service in the Department of the Interior and the Department of the Army was approaching 29 years. Carl was born in Tomahawk, Wisconsin on January 27, 1909. ... With solid training and experience he answered the lure of the polar regions. From 1939-41 he served as ornithologist at the East Base of the U.S. Antarctic Service. This was the first modern U.S. Government-sponsored expedition to Antarctica, and the third of Rear Admiral Richard E. Bird's Antarctic commands. In addition to his collection of animal life for the Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Carl made one of the longest antarctic dog sled journeys accompanying Finn Ronne in a landward encirclement of Alexander I Island from the Palmer Peninsula Station on Stonington Island. Islands sighted near the turning point of this journey were named the Eklund Islands in his honour by the Board of Geographical Names. From 1941 to 43 he returned to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as research biologist in charge of game conservation and education on Indian reservations at Minneapolis, Minnesota. During World War II he served as commissioned officer, advancing to Major in the U.S. Army Air Force. He served in the Arctic Section of the Arctic Desert Tropic Information Center. ... The call of the polar regions drew him south again. His skill and experience were needed by the IGY organizers of the National Academy of Sciences. He was appointed as the first Scientific Station Leader of the Wilkes Station, Antarctica. His field leadership was outstanding, and he vigorously pursued his own program of biological and ornithological research. His bird banding program became international in scope around the entire continent. His field studies provided a basis for his doctoral thesis on the south-polar skua. He received his Ph.D. in zoology and geography from the University of Maryland in 1959. To maintain an intimate pursuit of polar research he accepted in 1958 the position of Chief of the Polar and Arctic Branch, Environmental Research Division of the U.S. Army Research Office, Washington, D.C. In this capacity he directed an extensive inter-disciplinary research program in the Arctic, necessitating frequent visits to Greenland and Alaska. Meanwhile, he served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Polar Research advising on research for Antarctica. His national and international reputation grew rapidly and his service as a lecturer and consultant on polar matters were in constant demand. His selection as the first president of the Antarctican Society of Washington, D.C. was a natural one. Dr. Eklund's publications during the last 20 years, mostly on zoological and ornithological topics, number close to 30. His first book, co-authored with Joan Beckman, "Antarctica, Land of Science", was in draft form at the time of his death. ... In spite of average build, his warm human kindliness, his mischievous humorous blue eyes, broad smile, short-cropped hair, and ready wit interspersed with clearly thought out serious observations made him a colourful figure in the polar world at its critical transition from the days of hard-fought polar discoveries to the modern research area

Linear algebra teaching: traces of a research

Este estudo é um recorte da fase inicial de uma pesquisa de doutorado e tem por objetivo conhecer a prática de ensino de álgebra linear na Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina – UDESC e as dificuldades que os professores enfrentam no ensino dessa disciplina. Na procura de compreendermos o significado que os professores dão à sua prática de ensino, adotamos uma abordagem qualitativa e interpretativa. Os dados foram coletados a partir de entrevistas semiestruturadas com professores da instituição que ensinam ou já ensinaram a disciplina. Os resultados mostram que, embora a prática de ensino seja essencialmente expositiva, os professores utilizam abordagens diferenciadas para apresentar e sistematizar os conteúdos. As principais dificuldades relatadas são a abstração e a contextualização dos conteúdos. Esperamos que os resultados do estudo contribuam para a realização de propostas de práticas inovadoras de álgebra linear, que ajudem os professores a melhorar sua prática.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O GeoGebra na aprendizagem de transformações lineares

No estudo de tópicos de Álgebra Linear os alunos do ensino superior tendem a manifestar dificuldades devido à natureza abstrata de muitos dos seus conceitos, como se verifica na aprendizagem de transformação linear. Recorrendo ao GeoGebra, procuramos averiguar o seu contributo na aprendizagem de transformação linear de alunos dos cursos de Engenharia Elétrica e de Ciência da Computação. Os dados foram recolhidos através da resolução de duas questões de uma tarefa e de uma entrevista semiestruturada. Dos resultados obtidos, constata-se que os alunos utilizaram o GeoGebra para, através da manipulação dinâmica, efetuarem aplicações de transformações lineares no plano e no espaço. Nessas aplicações, a maior parte dos alunos estabeleceu conexões entre diferentes representações (algébrica, geométrica e matricial) e criou condições para generalizar a transformação efetuada em detrimento de recorrer somente a casos particulares, tal como aconteceu com alguns alunos. Os alunos que não estabeleceram a conexão entre as diferentes representações denotam ter uma conceção frágil do conceito de transformação linear. As maiores dificuldades ocorreram na implementação do cisalhamento no espaço. A utilização do GeoGebra contribuiu para visualizar as transformações realizadas, através da alteração dos valores dos parâmetros envolvidos, e para promover o raciocínio lógico-dedutivo na análise de propriedades dessas transformações.Agradecemos o apoio da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina (FAPESC) e dos grupos de pesquisa PEMSA e NEPesTEEM e ao grupo colaborativo de Ensino de Álgebra Linear - ECOA pelas discussões das atividades.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biocomplexity in Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) of Puget Sound, USA

Small-scale genetic and demographic diversity can stabilize populations on a larger scale. However, subpopulations of pelagic fish species can be difficult to distinguish. Here, we examine demographic diversity in 21 stocks of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) in Puget Sound, USA using a multivariate auto-regressive state-space (MARSS) model, and data from both acoustic surveys paired with trawls, and subtidal egg surveys to estimate population growth trends. Herring populations associated with individual spawning beaches are asynchronous, but share a common negative growth rate across the Puget Sound estuary. We found that both survey techniques observe the same underlying demographic processes, and that egg surveys are a more accurate estimator of total spawning biomass. We used states obtained from MARSS analysis to measure portfolio effects in Puget Sound herring, and found that the Puget Sound population as a whole is stabilized by the presence of several separate spawning subpopulations. Available environmental data was not sufficient to explain variations in spawning biomass; however, herring may respond to spawning site conditions that aren’t currently measured

Students' Motivation to Learn: An Evaluation of Perceptions, Pedagogy, and Design in One E-Learing Environment

The purpose of this initial study was to investigate secondary students' motivation to learn, mathematics attitudes, and perceptions of transactional distance and social presence as a framework for evaluating virtual high school online learning. The investigation began with a sample of size of 41 virtual high school students enrolled in a web-based Algebra I course that was taught by one teacher in an urban virtual high school. The dropout rate was high, which resulted in only 10 students participating in the study. The students' attitudes and perceptions were evaluated in light of their learner profiles and mathematics achievement in the course. Nine of the 10 students were considered in the study as academically at-risk. The students' ages ranged from 14 to 16 years, and they were enrolled in either 9th or 10th grade. Several students were repeating the course for recovery credits. Due to the small number of participants, this study offers only descriptive statistics and qualitative data what support strictly preliminary and speculative interpretations. Given this stipulation, this study may illuminate some potential relationships between the participants' attitudes and their academic performance. The students who passed the course appeared to possess positive mathematics attitudes, higher motivation, and lower perceptions of transactional distance than the students who failed the course. Social presence did not appear to be different between passing and failing students. Future studies should include larger sample sizes in multiple virtual school settings over a greater period of time so to shed greater light on the relationships of the virtual high school students' attitudes and perceptions to their academic achievement and learner profiles. As part of this study, a framework for evaluating e-learning high school mathematics courses was developed. This framework served as the foundation to develop and evaluation tool used in the study, the e-Learning Evaluation Tool for Algebra I Courses (e-LETAC). The evaluation of the course suggested that the design and pedagogy was in need of improvement. However, the e-LETAC did not include a concise rubric. In future studies, this tool should be expanded to include a solid and reliable rubric.Doctor of Educatio

Income tax: continuous function? An issue of calculus for both high school and higher education

Um conteúdo que gera debates entre professores e pesquisadores de Cálculo Diferencial e Integral (CDI) é a definição de continuidade de uma função real de uma variável real. Nesse sentido, este texto apresenta e discute a diferença entre duas definições de continuidade que aparentemente pode ser sutil, porém veremos que não é. Também apresentamos essa discussão numa atividade proposta aos alunos de um Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ensino de Ciências, Matemática e Tecnologia da Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (PPGECMT/UDESC) no contexto do imposto de renda. A metodologia utilizada para aplicação das atividades foi a Resolução de Problemas. Os resultados oriundos das discussões dessa atividade evidenciam que essas atividades poderão ser utilizadas tanto nas aulas de Matemática do Ensino Médio quanto nas aulas de CDI do Ensino Superior e poderão auxiliar um (futuro) professor de Matemática na percepção das conexões existentes entre os conteúdos estudados no Ensino Superior com os do Ensino Básico, pois muitas vezes esse elo entre esses dois níveis de ensino não é perceptível aos estudantes nem aos professores de CDI.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina (FAPESC)Grupos de pesquisa PEMSA e NEPesTEEMCIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT), PortugalFundos Nacionais através da FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) e cofinanciado pelo Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) através do COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) com a referência POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

DA UNIVERSIDADE À ESCOLA, DA ESCOLA À UNIVERSIDADE: Utilizando o software GeoGebra para o ensino de funções

Apresentamos nesse trabalho uma experiência desenvolvida num projeto de extensão envolvendo professores e alunos do curso de Licenciatura em Matemática da UDESC e professor e alunos de uma Escola Estadual de Joinville. Esse projeto tinha como objetivo principal a integração das tecnologias digitais no ensino de matemática, em especial, no ensino de funções afim e quadrática. Para isso, foram desenvolvidas atividades acerca desses conteúdos, utilizando o software GeoGebra, que foram aplicadas com alunos da escola em dois momentos. No primeiro momento, os alunos foram até a universidade e no segundo, a “universidade”, representada pelos participantes do projeto, foi até a escola. As atividades realizadas nesse projeto propiciaram aos alunos, além de divulgação e exploração dos laboratórios do curso de Licenciatura em Matemática, uma metodologia de ensino mediada pela tecnologia, evidenciando que a maioria dos alunos têm facilidade com a exploração dos recursos tecnológicos, mas apresentaram dificuldades inerentes ao conteúdo e outros desinteresse pela matemática