Status, Maintenance of Security, and Militarized Foreign Policy

How does status affect foreign policy outcomes? Scholars have long argued that status is a salient foreign policy driver and that states even fight for status, but there is no consensus on how to think about this relationship. I propose that unpacking the link between status and role in international relations can help scholars analyze how status shapes national security outcomes. I illustrate the usefulness of this framework on the processes leading to Australia’s intervention in the Solomon Islands. An analysis of speeches by Australia’s leaders reveals that concern for maintaining Australia’s status as the leader of the Pacific and the role of maintainer of regional order and security affected the decision to dispatch an intervention

Perceptions of the Nature of Science by Geoscience Students Experiencing Two Different Courses of Study

Student knowledge of the Nature of Science (NOS) is critical to their understanding of science. NOS encapsulates the tenets of how science is regarded and the heuristics by which science is judged to be valid and appropriate. The importance of NOS to science education has lead to curricular and policy development that mandate the construct be taught throughout the K-12 science curriculum. If this curriculum is effective there is an expectation that students would enter post-secondary with foundational knowledge of NOS. Our research examined the perspectives of NOS among two different cohorts of undergraduate geoscience students, one of lower division students beginning their study of geoscience and a second of upper division students nearing the completion of their degree. We assessed their intellectual and emotional perceptions of NOS at the beginning of the semester. At the end of the semester we again assessed their perceptions of NOS and their conceptual understanding of geoscience. Our results indicate there was not a significant difference between the two cohorts and there was a significant drop in the emotional perceptions of NOS over the semester (p \u3c .05). Conceptual understanding of geoscience was found to be significantly correlated with emotional perceptions of NOS. The results, implications, and directions for future research are discussed

Japan as China\u27s \u27other\u27: China\u27s identity and policy towards Diaoyu/Senkaku islands

This thesis examines contemporary Sino-Japanese relations, in particular the Chinese policy towards the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands following the end of the Cold War. It answers the puzzle of why the territorial dispute emerged as such a divisive issue in the bilateral relations between China and Japan. This thesis embraces a constructivist perspective of international relations and puts forward the concept of identity. Identity is understood here as the image of individuality and distinctiveness held by a state in international relations and by having an identity is to live and act according to the defining features of identity. Drawing upon discourse analysis of high politics in China, the thesis maps the changes of China’s self-understanding after 1989. Utilizing the Self/Other framework it emphasizes the role of Japan as the main Other against which the Chinese identity became defined. The empirical part of the thesis maps the developments in the Chinese policy vis-a-vis Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, particularly the meanings attached to the disputed islands in China. Applying the Self/Other framework, it demonstrates a strong link between representations of China’s identity and policy towards the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands. China’s ‘hard-line’ policy vis-a-vis the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands could be understood as being driven by its ‘victimized’ identity. A strong response to the 2010 Incident including a continuous demand for apology, even though it damaged economic interests, was justified as in order to prevent further humiliations. The findings of this research demonstrate that states are social actors, and that foreign policies cannot be reduced solely to the rational pursuit of material interests. By emphasizing the concept of identity, this thesis contributes to the constructivist scholarship in international relations as well as to literatures on territorial disputes and Sino-Japanese relations

Analysis of Skills Sought by Employers of Bachelors-Level Geoscientists

Bachelors-level geoscientists make up the majority of the geoscience workforce, and positions for entry-level geoscientists are expected to grow rapidly over the next decade, with some jobs anticipating upward of 10% growth (National Center for O*NET Development, 2021). Are geoscience departments adequately preparing undergraduate students to succeed in these positions

Critical Workforce Skills for Bachelor-Level Geoscientists: An Analysis of Geoscience Job Advertisements

Understanding the skills bachelor-level geoscientists need to enter the workforce is critical to their success. The goal of this study was to identify the workforce skills that are most requested from a broad range of geoscience employers. We collected 3668 job advertisements for bachelor-level geoscientists and used a case-insensitive, code-matching function in Matlab to determine the skills geoscience employers seek. Written communication (67%), field skills (63%), planning (53%), and driving (51%) were most frequently requested. Field skills and data collection were frequently found together in the ads. Written communication skills were common regardless of occupation. Quantitative skills were requested less frequently (23%) but were usually mentioned several times in the ads that did request them, signaling their importance for certain jobs. Some geoscience-specific skills were rarely found, such as temporal understanding (5%) and systems thinking (0%). We also subdivided field skills into individual tasks and ranked them by employer demand. Site assessments and evaluations, unspecified field tasks, and monitoring were the most frequently requested field skills. This study presents the geoscience community with a picture of the skills sought by employers of bachelor-level geoscientists and provides departments and programs with data they can use to assess their curricula for workforce preparation

Adapting the CACAO Model to Support Higher Education STEM Teaching Reform

Background: Efforts to achieve improved student outcomes in STEM are critically reliant on the success of reform efforts associated with teaching and learning. Reform efforts include the transformation of course-based practices, community values, and the institutional policies and structures associated with teaching and learning in higher education. Enacting change is a complex process that can be guided by change theories that describe how and why a desired change takes place. We analyzed the utility of a theory-based change model applied in a higher education setting. Our results provide guidance for change efforts at other institutions. Results: Use of the CACAO model to guide the transformation of STEM instruction at a large public university resulted in changes to faculty teaching practices and department culture consistent with the vision defined for the project. Such changes varied across STEM departments in accordance with the emergent nature of project activities at the department level. Our application of the CACAO model demonstrates the importance of (1) creating a vision statement (statement of desired change or end-state); (2) attending to different levels of the organization (e.g., individuals, departments, and colleges); (3) working with change agents who are situated to be effective at different organizational levels; and (4) employing strategies to meet the needs and interests of faculty at different stages of adoption with respect to the desired change. Conclusion: Our work, which demonstrates the utility of the CACAO model for change and captures its key elements in a matrix, provides a potential foundation for others considering how to frame and study change efforts. It reinforces the value of using change theories to inform change efforts and creates a structure that others can build on and modify, either by applying our CACAO matrix in their own setting or by using the matrix to identify elements that connect to other change theories. We contribute to the growing body of literature which seeks to understand how change theories can be useful and generalizable beyond a single project

Crustal melting in the Himalayan orogen : field, geochemical and geochronological studies in the Everest region, Nepal

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, 2003.Includes bibliographical references.A combination of field studies and geochemical techniques were used to investigate the timing and processes involved in leucogranite generation in the Everest region of the Himalayan orogen. Geochemical investigations focused on samples from three outcrops at different structural levels in the Himalayan metamorphic core where in situ crustal melting and multiple generations of leucogranite intrusions were observed. Accessory phase thermochronological and U-Pb geochronological studies were combined to determine the timing of anatexis in a migmatite at the structurally lowest outcrop. Quantitative measurement of REE and Y in monazites and xenotimes, that were later dissolved and dated by U-Pb IDTIMS, revealed monazite growth at temperatures appropriate for crustal melting (>650⁰C) between 25.4 and 24.8 Ma, suggesting that anatexis was ongoing at that time. Further constraints were placed on the timing of crustal melting, granite crystallization and cooling with a detailed U-Pb IDTIMS and 40Ar/39Ar study of leucogranite dikes, sills, and the metamorphic rocks they intrude. Backscattered electron imaging of accessory minerals provided important insights into the petrogenesis of monazite, xenotime and zircon, and guided efforts to isolate accessory phase growth domains. In two granitic sills, extensive accessory phase crystallization between ca. 26 and ca. 23 Ma was interpreted to be the result of episodic to semi-continuous melt generation and crystallization at least between those times. These melt products were later entrained in melts that crystallized as syntectonic sills at 21-22 Ma. Younger crosscutting dikes crystallized between 17.5 and 18.3 Ma.(cont.) The range in accessory phase dates from these dikes and sills that represent magmatic crystallization ages spans from 26.2 to 17.5 Ma, providing evidence for melt generation in one region over roughly 9 million years. Neodymium isotopic signatures of the same monazite and xenotime grains dated by U-Pb IDTIMS were used to investigate melting processes and granite source-rock characteristics. The dominant control of monazite on the Nd isotopic composition of its host rock was clearly demonstrated. Some Nd isotopic heterogeneities recorded in monazite and in xenotime support a model for melt generation where accessory phases grow from locally derived sources in an isotopically heterogeneous melt.by Karen M. Viskupic.Ph.D

Applying the CACAO Change Model to Promote Systemic Transformation in STEM

Since its inception in the Middle Ages, the university classroom can be characterized by students gathered around a sage who imparts his or her knowledge. However, the effective classroom of today looks vastly different: First-year engineering students not only learn basic engineering principles, but are also guided to consider their own inner values and motivations as they design and build adaptive devices for people with disabilities; students in a large chemistry lecture work animatedly together in small groups on inquiry-based activities while an instructor and teaching assistants circulate and guide their learning; students learning differential equations practice explicit metacognitive skills while problem-solving in class. Even though educational research, especially research that is targeted at STEM disciplines, demonstrates what most effectively engages students and supports their learning, many of today\u27s classrooms look much like they did a century ago, with a professor delivering a primarily one-way lecture and students passively sitting in seats bolted to the floor. At this juncture in history, colleges and universities face a public call to engage a more diverse representation of students in effective learning, persistence, and degree attainment, and to do so economically and efficiently. It is essential that institutions draw upon methods demonstrated to effectively increase student learning and success. Educational researchers have thoroughly explored the basic science in this area, and a body of literature documents effective evidence-based instructional practices, hereafter referred to as EBIPs

Critical workforce skills for bachelor-level geoscientists: An analysis of geoscience job advertisements

Understanding the skills bachelor-level geoscientists need to enter the workforce is critical to their success. The goal of this study was to identify the workforce skills that are most requested from a broad range of geoscience employers. We collected 3668 job advertisements for bachelor-level geoscientists and used a case-insensitive, code-matching function in Matlab to determine the skills geoscience employers seek. Written communication (67%), field skills (63%), planning (53%), and driving (51%) were most frequently requested. Field skills and data collection were frequently found together in the ads. Written communication skills were common regardless of occupation. Quantitative skills were requested less frequently (23%) but were usually mentioned several times in the ads that did request them, signaling their importance for certain jobs. Some geoscience-specific skills were rarely found, such as temporal understanding (5%) and systems thinking (0%). We also subdivided field skills into individual tasks and ranked them by employer demand. Site assessments and evaluations, unspecified field tasks, and monitoring were the most frequently requested field skills. This study presents the geoscience community with a picture of the skills sought by employers of bachelor-level geoscientists and provides departments and programs with data they can use to assess their curricula for workforce preparation

Teaching Geophysics with a Vertical-Component Seismometer

Earthquakes are some of the more dramatic expressions of the dynamics of our planet. The sudden release of stress built up slowly by tectonic or volcanic processes often has far-reaching consequences, and can be measured (in classrooms) around the world. This is one reason why designing and building seismometers has been a popular activity,1,2 and why different versions of “Seismometer in Schools” projects thrive in the United States, Australia, and Europe. We present a cheap, robust, and easy-to-build seismometer—called the TC1 —to measure seismic displacements in the vertical direction. Its components are easy to obtain and assemble, yet the resulting instrument is accurate enough to record earthquakes from around the globe. The parts list and building instructions of the TC1 seismometer are freely available online. Alternatively, a complete kit can be purchased for around US$300. Assembling the system naturally introduces students to a number of concepts in physics and engineering, while upon completion seismic recordings trigger discussions about the dynamics and internal structure of the Earth. The discussions are fostered by service learning and shared in the network of TC1s called the Z-NET