Developing Effective Mathematics Teachers through National Science Foundation Funded Math and Science Partnership Grants

Every year the National Science Foundation (NSF) gathers together leadership teams of funded Math and Science Partnership programs (MSP) at a Learning Network Conference in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the annual conference is to bring together teams of MSP leaders who represent institution higher education (IHE) faculty from STEM disciplines, IHE education faculty, school partners, and project evaluators, to give them an opportunity to learn across projects, and provide opportunities for individual projects to reflect on their progress. For the last two years, 2011 and 2012, we were part of the conference’s organizing committee. During the two‐day conference, project teams were invited to articulate their theories of action for preparing teachers to be effective STEM teachers and to describe in broad strokes or in fine grain detail what was happening within their projects’ professional development opportunities. Projects also had the opportunity to share within a public forum the preliminary, incomplete, or final results emerging from projects’ evaluations or research efforts aiming to determine whether the MSP projects were deepening teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge, changing teachers’ practices, and, ultimately, positively impacting students’ success

Heterogeneity in pure microbial systems: experimental measurements and modeling

Cellular heterogeneity influences bioprocess performance in ways that until date are not completely elucidated. In order to account for this phenomenon in the design and operation of bioprocesses, reliable analytical and mathematical descriptions are required. We present an overview of the single cell analysis, and the mathematical modeling frameworks that have potential to be used in bioprocess control and optimization, in particular for microbial processes. In order to be suitable for bioprocess monitoring, experimental methods need to be high throughput and to require relatively short processing time. One such method used successfully under dynamic conditions is flow cytometry. Population balance and individual based models are suitable modeling options, the latter one having in particular a good potential to integrate the various data collected through experimentation. This will be highly beneficial for appropriate process design and scale up as a more rigorous approach may prevent a priori unwanted performance losses. It will also help progressing synthetic biology applications to industrial scale

The Gut Microbiota and Mucosal T Cells

It is intuitive that immune cells in the gut may require microbiota-derived cues for their differentiation. The proximity between host and microbe in the intestine would seemingly necessitate co-adaptation. However, it has been challenging to determine the members and features of the gut microbiota that influence immune system development and function. The recent identification of immunomodulatory members of the commensal microbiota is providing insight into the dependence of select, intestinal immune cell subsets on specific microbial species. In this review, we focus on the gut microbiota's influence on the development and function of mucosal T cells subsets, specifically intraepithelial lymphocytes and lamina propria CD4 T cells

Creating Interdisciplinary Collaborations to Support and Understand Mathematics Teaching and Learning

Teaching mathematics is a complex endeavor and requires a deep understanding of content and pedagogy. Helping teachers learn what they need to know requires the expertise of disciplinary area faculty as well as those with pedagogical expertise. Similarly, understanding the learning of teachers or their students requires complex analyses of messy data by teams of researchers representing differing but complementary perspectives. Cases describing the nature and process of interdisciplinary teaching and research collaborations in mathematics education will be presented and analyzed for lessons learned

ENSURING MATHEMATICAL LEARNING IN RURAL SCHOOLS Investing in Teacher Knowledge

In this research article we share our vision of how to improve student mathematics success in rural districts. Good teaching matters. We have found two recurring features that can support teachers\u27 success in effectively teaching students mathematics: high-quality, longitudinal professional development and professional connections. We partner with rural districts and master teachers to offer local high-quality professional development for mathematics teachers to strengthen their mathematical knowledge for teaching. We have substantial evidence that participation in longitudinal, high-quality professional development significantly increases teachers\u27 mathematical knowledge for teaching, as well as improves their confidence in teaching. Bringing teachers together for professional development helps teachers develop professional connections. Such connections are necessary for teachers to have regular conversations about mathematics teaching and learning with peers. University-district partnerships can provide infrastructure to allow teachers to develop connections with each other, to collectively support each other, and to collaborate in teaching mathematics more effectively. Investing in professional development for rural teachers and supporting professional connections among teachers will help us achieve the common goal of increasing student success in mathematics

Factors Influencing Instructors’ Adoption and Continued Use of Computing Science Technologies: A Case Study in the Context of Cell Collective

Acquiring computational modeling and simulation skills has become ever more critical for students in life sciences courses at the secondary and tertiary levels. Many modeling and simulation tools have been created to help instructors nurture those skills in their classrooms. Understanding the factors that may motivate instructors to use such tools is crucial to improve students’ learning, especially for having authentic modeling and simulation learning experiences. This study designed and tested a decomposed technology acceptance model in which the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use constructs are split between the teaching and learning sides of the technology to examine their relative weight in a single model. Using data from instructors using the Cell Collective modeling and simulation software, this study found that the relationship between perceived usefulness– teaching and attitude toward behavior was insignificant. Similarly, all relationships between perceived ease of use–teaching and the other variables (i.e., perceived usefulness– teaching and attitude toward behavior) became insignificant. In contrast, we found the relationships between perceived ease of use–learning and the other variables (i.e., perceived usefulness–teaching, perceived usefulness–learning, and attitude toward behavior) significant. These results suggest that priority should be given to the development of features improving learning over features facilitating teaching. Supplement attached below

Developing and supporting professional communities of mathematics teachers in Nebraska

For a number of years, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has focused on building a statewide partnership with mathematics teachers, schools, districts, and educational service units, to raise K-12 student achievement in mathematics. During this session, we will share a variety of our efforts to build professional communities of educators, including the NSF-funded grants NebraskaNOYCE, NebraskaMATH, and the Math in the Middle Institute Partnership. We will engage participants in a discussion of necessary and sufficient conditions to support such professional communities, and how such conditions can be created or worked around

Differential gene expression in multiple neurological, inflammatory and connective tissue pathways in a spontaneous model of human small vessel stroke

Aims: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) causes a fifth of all strokes plus diffuse brain damage leading to cognitive decline, physical disabilities and dementia. The aetiology and pathogenesis of SVD are unknown, but largely attributed to hypertension or microatheroma. Methods: We used the spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat (SHRSP), the closest spontaneous experimental model of human SVD, and age-matched control rats kept under identical, non-salt-loaded conditions, to perform a blinded analysis of mRNA microarray, qRT-PCRand pathway analysis in two brain regions (frontal and midcoronal) commonly affected by SVD in the SHRSP at age five, 16 and 21 weeks. Results: We found gene expression abnormalities, with fold changes ranging from 2.5 to 59 for the 10 most differentially expressed genes, related to endothelial tight junctions (reduced), nitric oxide bioavailability (reduced), myelination (impaired), glial and microglial activity (increased), matrix proteins (impaired), vascular reactivity (impaired) and albumin (reduced), consistent with protein expression defects in the same rats. All were present at age 5 weeks thus pre-dating blood pressure elevation. ‘Neurological’ and ‘inflammatory’ pathways were more affected than ‘vascular’ functional pathways. Conclusions: This set of defects, although individually modest, when acting in combination could explain the SHRSP's susceptibility to microvascular and brain injury, compared with control rats. Similar combined, individually modest, but multiple neurovascular unit defects, could explain susceptibility to spontaneous human SVD

Review of United States and International Formaldehyde Emission Regulations for Interior Wood Composite Panels

This article compares and contrasts formaldehyde emission regulations for interior wood composite panels in the US, the European Union, Japan, and China. Historical context, product-specific emission limits, test methods, and product certification requirements are detailed for each emission standard. In particular, the recently enacted California Air Resources Board (CARB) formaldehyde regulation is compared with established international formaldehyde regulations and differences in four key areas, emission limits, documentation, deconstructive testing, and enforcement, are highlighted. Implications of CARB and US Environmental Protection Agency regulatory actions are discussed, and future work is suggested in the rapidly evolving and highly debated arena of formaldehyde emission policy

Siting of HIV/AIDS diagnostic equipment in South Africa: a case study in locational analysis

This paper describes a practical application of locational analysis to the siting of HIV/AIDS diagnostic equipment in laboratories across South Africa. Classical location analytical techniques were extended to ensure that laboratories are sited as close as possible to major centres of demand from hospitals and clinics. A particular advantage of the modified set covering algorithm developed is that choices between laboratory sites are made in a transparent manner. In order to find appropriate numbers and ideal placement of CD4 laboratories, runs were undertaken for various scenarios based on maximum travel time from health facilities to laboratory sites. Results demonstrated to decision makers showed close comparisons with pilot review projects undertaken in four health districts of South Africa. The research has potential to impact health care delivery to HIV sufferers in the poorest rural regions of the country