Surface water monitoring for fecal indicator bacteria in high-use sites of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area incorporates 1.5 million acres, including Lake Mead and Lake Mohave. The abundance of recreational activities on Lakes Mead and Mohave can impact the contaminant levels in the water, potentially affecting the health of individuals in contact with the water. The purpose of this study was to review and synthesize information obtained for projects conducted by partner agencies from the Water 2025 Conservation Initiatives, specifically bacterial concentration in high-use areas. Surface water samples were collected between May and September, at 9 high-use sites from 2003 to 2007. Culture analysis was performed to determine the concentration of fecal coliforms, enterococci, fecal streptococci, and Escherichia coli. Test results of 324 water samples analyzed for E. coli showed only one instance of a concentration higher than the acceptable limit. Enterococci concentrations above the acceptable limit were found in 13% of the 165 samples. In addition, 9% of 317 samples exceeded the acceptable limit for fecal streptococci, and fecal coliforms were present in concentrations above the acceptable limit in 3% of the 324 samples analyzed. Throughout the five-year study, three sites, Middle Point Cove, Boxcar Cove, and 6-Mile Cove, were identified as those with the highest frequency of unacceptable levels of the indicator organisms monitored. The results of this study will be used to address the technical soundness of monitoring at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and will identify management recommendations to the National Park Service

Evaluation of quantitative polymerase chain reaction for measuring the concentration of total bacteria in environmental air samples

The air quality of both indoor and outdoor environments is a primary human health content, particularly for individuals that have asthma, respiratory ailments and immune disorders. Airborne microorganisms have been shown to cause a variety of diseases, allergic reactions, and irritations. Universal quantitative polymerase chain reaction (QPCR) was compared to the traditional methods of culture analysis and microscopy to determine if it was an effective method to quantitate total bacterial counts in environmental air samples. A composite standard curve was developed using four bacterial species and applied to laboratory cultures and environmental air samples. Two hypotheses were tested, (i) to determine if universal QPCR was a more sensitive method to analyze environmental air samples and (ii) if universal QPCR can provide a more accurate measurement of airborne bacteria than culture analysis or microscopy. A total of 22 air samples were collected with an SKC BioSamplerRTM and were analyzed by culture, microscopy and universal QPCR. Results showed microscopy being able to determine higher bacterial concentrations as compared to universal QPCR. However, microscopy may over-estimate those concentrations. It was concluded that universal QPCR was a more sensitive method than culture or microscopy when comparing the lower detection limit (LDL) of each method. Universal QPCR was determined to be a relatively accurate method to assess airborne microbial populations compared to microscopy. Culture analysis cannot determine total bacterial concentrations therefore it was not included when assessing accuracy of universal QPCR. It was also noticed that universal QPCR is not truly universal. Specificity testing revealed that some species did net amplify with universal QPCR. Further research needs be conducted to strengthen the method of universal QPCR

Why Trouble SEL? The Need for Cultural Relevance in SEL

With regards to efforts to imagine more equitable spaces of learning for all students, we are compelled to ask: How can SEL programs address the needs of marginalized, minoritized, and/or historically under-resourced students without deeply considering the cultured context of social interaction and school learning? Although evidence shows SEL programs yield benefits in multiple domains, most programs are based on monolithic approaches that often do not consider dynamics of power and oppression in the context of schooling. In this paper, we discuss the crucial role of culture in SEL frameworks. We propose adopting an interdisciplinary lens to integrate culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) and culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) into SEL programs to promote student well-being and academic achievement across contexts

Performance Assessment Practice as Professional Learning

While performance assessment (PA) is well aligned to project-based learning (PjBL), teachers find it challenging to design and implement PA that is faithful to the authentic context of their projects and viewed externally as rigorous. In contrast to standardizing PA tasks — thereby diminishing authenticity — we formed a research-practice partnership (Coburn, Penuel, & Geil, 2013) that developed and used a “shell” to guide teachers in planning, implementing, and engaging in rigorous dialogues that evaluate and elevate PA practice across four PjBL schools. Drawing from analysis of artifacts and audio-recorded professional development sessions, we highlight how the effort to standardize PA practice while maintaining fidelity to authentic context provided rich opportunities for teacher learning and fostered higher levels of teacher responsibility for assessment

Teaching from a place of hope in Indigenous education

The Council on Anthropology and Education’s Standing Committee on Indigenous Education has had a presence at the Annual Meetings of the American Anthropology Association over the past decade. The CAE Indigenous Education Standing Committee #7 is dedicated to the exploration of anthropology of education from an Indigenous perspective. Member activities focus on engaging in theoretical and methodological discussions central to the field of Indigenous education, particularly those related to power differentials, knowledge, identity, schooling, agency and appropriation, and persistence. Committee #7 is committed to understanding the experiences, perspectives, and epistemological frameworks of Indigenous peoples through their own words, and works to privilege Indigenous scholarship and collaborative research in the anthropology of education. The following article shares key highlights from a session at last year’s American Anthropological Association Meetings that was sponsored by the Standing Committee on Indigenous Education.Ye

Creating a modeling culture : supporting the development of scientific practice among teachers

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-153).This thesis describes the processes of teacher learning and explores the associated changes that take place in classrooms. It describes the Adventures in Modeling Workshops, which we designed and created to introduce teachers to the process of conceptualizing, building, and analyzing their own models of complex, dynamic systems. The Workshops facilitate the growth of a modeling culture among teachers by giving them the tools and the ability to pose, investigate, and answer their own questions. This research examines the development, sustainability, and impact of that culture. It describes how participation in a modeling culture can contribute to a scientific way of thinking, for both teachers and their students, and can help teachers bring authentic science practice into high school classrooms. Employing technological tools developed at the Media Lab, we crafted an introduction to scientific modeling for teachers. These tools, used in concert with a constructionist pedagogy of design and creation, enable teachers to become full-fledged practitioners of modeling. Our workshop structure supports teachers as they learn to act as scientists, creating and exploring models of phenomena in the world around them, evaluating and critiquing those models, refining and validating their own mental models, and improving their understandings. This work serves as a proof of concept for a structure and methodology that increases teachers' individual capacities and helps them integrate aspects of their learning into their own classes. It examines the role that new media plays in supporting new ways of thinking and enabling explorations of new domains of knowledge. It also serves as a platform for examining the details of three components of educational change: 1) the development of technology-enabled materials and activities for teacher and student learning, 2) the construction of a scientific culture among teachers through learning about, gaining fluency with, and exploring modeling technologies, and 3) the paths toward implementation of new content and educational approaches in teachers' classrooms. The results of this project provide one benchmark for evaluating the potential that new ideas and technologies hold for facilitating lasting change in America's classrooms.Vanessa Stevens Colella.Ph.D

Participatory simulations : building collaborative understanding through immersive dynamic modeling

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-59).Vanessa Stevens Colella.M.S

Grounded in Relationships of Support: Indigenous Teacher Mentorship in the Rural West

This article explores the power of Indigenous teacher mentorship as essential to address “the change in point of view” long called for in Indigenous education. Drawing from a longitudinal, ethnographic study of an Indigenous teacher education program in a predominantly rural, high need region, we examine the basic questions: What do Indigenous master teachers uniquely bring to teacher education? In what ways do Indigenous master teachers support the development of socially, culturally, linguistically, and place-responsive teachers? Using the theoretical frameworks of Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) and situated learning, our findings elucidate the importance of Indigenous mentorship for re-membering and re-claiming Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, and axiologies in relational and intergenerational learning—practices that interrupt coloniality in teacher education and school leadership. Discussion of Indigenous teacher mentorship centers the importance of relationships between people and place in teaching and learning and asks educators and school leaders to conceptualize Indigenous teacher education as a long-term project of tribal nation building and community wellbeing

“Show me the Data”: A Recipe for Quality Improvement Success in an Academic Surgical Department

Background Surgeons in academic medical centers have traditionally taken a siloed approach to reducing postoperative complications. We initiated a project focusing on transparency and sharing of data in order to engage surgeons in collaborative quality improvement. Its key features were the development of a comprehensive Department Quality Dashboard and the creation of a Clinical Operations Council that oversaw quality. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of those efforts. Study Design We compared inpatient outcomes before and after our intervention, allowing one quarter as the diffusion period. The outcomes analyzed were: risk-adjusted length of stay (LOS), mortality and direct cost and unadjusted incidence of complications and 30-day all-cause readmissions, as determined by the Vizient Clinical Database. We examined the outcomes of three groups: Group 1 (Surgery), Group 2 - all other surgical departments (Other Surgery) and Group 3 - all other patients (Non-Surgery). Two-tailed Students’s t-test was used for analysis and a p value of <0.05 considered statistically significant. Results Group 1 demonstrated statistically significant improvements in mortality (p=0.01), LOS (p=0.002), cost (p=0.0001) and complications (p=0.02) while the all-cause readmission rate was unchanged, resulting in mean decrease of 0.55 LOS days and direct cost savings of $2300 per surgical admission. The comparison groups had only modest decreases in some of the analyzed outcomes and an increase in complication rates. Conclusions These data suggest that a collaborative, data-driven and transparent approach to assessing the quality of surgical care can yield significant improvements in patient outcomes