Inquiries into inquiry projects

The projects developed by the research teams foster inquiry and leadership for the improvement of student learning and reflective teaching. They expand conceptions of learning and teaching by linking to the community, crossing disciplinary boundaries, or involving teachers and students in new roles.unpublishe

Placentophagia in Nonpregnant Rats:\ud Influence of Estrous Cycle Stage and Birthplace

Prior parturitional experience and genotype have previously been found to affect the proportion of nonpregnant female rats and mice that will eat foster placenta. The present series of experiments was designed to investigate the influence of estrous cycle stage on placentophagia in rats. Foster placenta was presented to nonpregnant Long-Evans females, purchased from a commercial breeder, for 15 min on 5 consecutive days. We found that virgin placentophages were most likely to have eaten placenta on the first presentation, unless the first presentation occurred during proestrus. In fact, virgins would not eat placenta for the first time during proestrus, regardless of test-day. However, once they had eaten placenta, either in a nonproestrus stage, or, in the case of primiparae, during parturition, they would eat placenta during proestrus. Long-Evans rats born in our laboratory differed from the purchased rats, manifesting an incidence of placentophagia that was too low to be analyzed by stage of the estrous cycle; when tested as primiparae, however, there were no differences between the two groups

Generalized boundary strata classes

We describe a generalization of the usual boundary strata classes in the Chow ring of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$. The generalized boundary strata classes additively span a subring of the tautological ring. We describe a multiplication law satisfied by these classes and check that every double ramification cycle lies in this subring.Comment: For the Proceedings of the 2017 Abel Symposium, 10 page

A Campus Model for Student Development: Program Review and Prioritization

The current financial climate for higher education is one of constrained and declining resources, causing many institutions to turn towards a retrenchment strategy that often includes reducing expenses and, in more extreme cases, eliminating programs. A review of existing literature reveals few models colleges can utilize in conducting comprehensive analyses of programs to determine how to proceed with these cost cutting measures. Additionally, the authors could not find any existing approaches focused on student development or other nonacademic programs. In this article, the authors provide a review of relevant literature, a review of the Dickeson Model (2010), and build the case for an assessment-based program review and prioritization model designed to specifically address the nuanced needs of student development programs. This model is presented in a three-step process that should enable student development professionals to assess their programs and make prioritization decisions within a framework pertaining to student development professional standards as well as aligning with individual institutional contexts