Using Authentic Online Resources in Russian for STEM Coursework for Novice through Superior Level Learners

This article makes a case for incorporating STEM content into Russian language courses at the Novice through Superior levels of proficiency. The author presents models of asynchronous learning activities based on authentic online resources developed for a Russian for STEM pilot course taught during the COVID-19 pandemic. These lessons can be employed in online or face-to-face courses to prepare students to speak, read, write, and understand the language of STEM fields in Russian

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991: Adapting an “Odd” Law

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) was introduced in 1991 before the rise of the cell phone, text messages, and broadband internet. It placed restrictions on then-contemporary technology used to reach consumers in an automated way and its primary purpose was to protect consumer’s privacy interests and public safety. Yet, it has proven to be an odd and increasingly outdated law. The federal government has made a good-faith effort to maintain the TCPA’s relevancy. However, evolving technology and inconsistent interpretations of the law’s fundamental elements have resulted in harm to consumers and businesses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the law also interfered with efforts to disseminate information quickly and efficiently to the public at the detriment of consumers. Last year, the Supreme Court brought some relief to businesses after it issued its highly anticipated decision in Facebook v. Duguid. The Court held that the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator to either store or produce phone numbers is a necessary feature of an Autodialer, rather than technology only needing the capacity to store phone numbers to be called and to dial such phone numbers automatically, a definition that once reached every American using a smartphone. Unfortunately, the Court was unable to modernize the law. With innovative technologies and government-enabled programs directed at protecting consumers’ privacy and economic interests, restrictions on the type of technology used to make the calls are no longer necessary today. The government can effectively accomplish its goal by regulating the contents of the call, not the technology used to make the call

Postcard: Men Cutting and Moving Wood

This black and white photographic postcard features a group of men at a machine that cuts large logs mechanically. The man on the left is carrying a cut log over to the log pile in the foreground. Four men are behind the machine. The man on the left is closest to the table saw and is holding the uncut log. The three men to the right of him are watching the process. The man on the right holds a large branch. Handwriting is on the back of the card.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/tj_postcards/1967/thumbnail.jp

Qualitative, Tiered, iClicker Recitation Introductions

Interactively engaging students can significantly help them understand key concepts [Hake 1998]. Additionally, students are most likely to recall the first five minutes of a presentation [Burns 1985]. Capitalizing on both of these, we altered the beginning of PHYS 272 (ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC INTERACTIONS) recitation to include a series of qualitative, “tiered,” iClicker questions that interactively engage students and socratically teach fundamental principals in electricity and magnetism. The series begin with a question that most students comfortably and correctly answer. Successive questions increase in difficultly and the series stops with most students struggling to identify the correct answer. Along the way, the teaching assistant explains the validity of the correct answer and the shortcomings of the wrong answers. Thus tiered questions are valuable to a wider range of the different levels of conceptual understandings present in the students of each recitation [Keller 2007]. Students who struggle benefit at the beginning and experts at the end. After the iClicker introduction, and now armed with a fuller qualitative understanding, the students work collaboratively in small groups on quantitative problems that employ the same principals. PHYS 272 is a foundational course with a typical yearly enrollment over 500. It’s our goal to demonstrate that qualitative, tiered introductions coupled with quantitative collaborative work positively impacts student’s overall learning gain measured by the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment. If successful, linking qualitative with quantitative instruction could benefit the thousands of students who take PHYS 272 in the years to come. References: Burns, R. A. (1985). Information Impact and Factors Affecting Re- call. Presented at Annual National Conference on Teaching Excel- lence and Conference of Administrators, Austin, TX, May 22–25, 1985. (ERIC Document No. ED 258 639) Hake, R. R. (1998). Interactive-engagement versus traditional methods : A six-thousand-student survey of mechanics test data for introductory physics courses. American Journal of Physics, 66 (May 1996), 64–74. Keller, C., Finkelstein, N., Perkins, K., Pollock, S., Turpen, C., Dubson, M., … McCullough, L. (2007). Research-based Practices For Effective Clicker Use. AIP Conference Proceedings, 128–131. doi:10.1063/1.282091

Recent Greenhouse Gas Concentrations

Gases typically measured in parts per million (ppm), parts per billion (ppb) or parts per trillion (ppt) by volume are presented separately to facilitate comparison of numbers