Examining Student Motivation in Saudi Arabia

Every year, thousands of people from all over the world travel to Saudi Arabia to teach English. As well, yearly, thousands of Saudi students receive a large portion of their English education from these expatriate teachers. Despite the millions of dollars spent on this educational process, the linguistic impact suffers greatly from a lack of understanding between teacher and student, often caused by undiscussed misconceptions. This paper is written in an effort to open a dialogue about the problems of motivation in the Saudi college and university prep-year programs. It analyzes student motivation using three different research techniques, and posits solutions to increase student performance at both the institutional and classroom level. In particular this paper asks the question of how much effect a foreign teacher can have on any one student given the vast differences that can exist between them. It seeks to situate the effect of a teacher on a student’s life amongst the effect of other factors that come into play including friends, family, educational background, socioeconomic class and religion. The results of the research are both expected and surprising, and imply a number of adjustments that can improve the educational experience for all stakeholders

Examining Climate Change Effects on Flowering in Moss Campion

Examining the variation in the collection date of herbarium specimens is a common method for studying the phenological effects of climate change on a flowering plant species. We used herbarium data to examine how warming temperatures have affected flowering time in Silene acaulis in the state of Colorado. Silene acaulis, commonly known as moss campion and cushion pink, is an alpine tundra plant. Using ordinal date of collection as a proxy for flowering date and year collected as a proxy for increasing average temperature, a linear regression test found that there was no significant relationship between increasing temperatures and flowering time. Further examination of the herbarium data revealed a pattern of summertime specimen collection for Silene acaulis. As a species that flowers in response to snow melt, the collection pattern indicates that herbarium data is insufficient for assessing the phenological effects of climate change on Silene acaulis. More intensive research on the relationship between snow melt and flowering time is needed to understand the impacts of climate change on Silene acaulis

Land Use and Socioeconomic Influences on a Vulnerable Freshwater Resource in Northern New England, United States

Land use and cover conversions as well as climatic factors drive current and future threats to freshwater systems. Research from the United States and across the globe has focused on already threatened and degraded freshwater systems, whose recovery requires significant investments. Attention must also be directed to monitoring freshwater systems that may appear robust, yet are likely to face enhanced vulnerabilities in the future due to climate and land use and cover changes. Such proactive monitoring can help identify problems early and provide potential solutions. In this study, we consider the case of Sebago Lake and its watershed in southern Maine; a region that has experienced significant population growth and development activity. Land use, socioeconomic change and water quality trends are monitored over a 20-year period using Landsat imagery, census, water quality and precipitation data. Our results indicate that Developed Land within the watershed has increased from 5.4 % of the total land area in 1987 to 8.9 % in 2009 with associated increases in population and housing activity. Sebago Lake’s water quality indicators from 1990 to 2010 show a directional trend concomitant with this change. The increase in Developed Land is likely to place additional pressures on water quality in the future. The analysis also indicates that precipitation trends play an important role in water quality variability for Sebago Lake. Predicted changes to climatic factors including enhanced spring time precipitation or earlier ice-out conditions combined with further land use change may play an influential role in determining water quality. The analysis highlights emerging areas of concern and reiterates the essential role of proactively monitoring vulnerable systems to help mitigate future threats

Fail Forward! Perspectives on Failure in the Writing Classroom

In this inaugural Teacher-to-Teacher column, three classroom teachers discuss how they approach failure to normalize it and help students work toward problem solving rather than answer getting in their own classrooms. Missy Springsteen-Haupt explains how sharing her own authentic writing failures helps students see the natural emotional connection to their writing as normal and also to prove to them, as Shirley Rose notes, that \u27all writers always have more to learn about writing\u27 (59). Framing student writing in terms of growth mindsets, Stacy Stosich discusses a practical strategy for allowing for ugly drafts and redefining success and failure. Finally, Nora K. Rivera delineates a system of peer review and weekly sentence work designed to allow for experimentation without penalty; her methods not only pushed students to carefully evaluate their own and others’ work, but also resulted in a reduced grading load and student success in district testing

Di-μ-sulfato-bis­{[bis­(3,5-dimethyl­pyrazol-1-yl)methane]copper(II)}

The mol­ecule of the title compound, [Cu2(SO4)2(C11H16N4)2], sits on a center of symmetry. The CuII atom has a distorted trigonal–bipyramidal coordination geometry comprising three O atoms of the two symmetry-related SO4 2− anions and two N atoms from one bis­(3,5-dimethyl­pyrazol-1-yl)methane ligand

Discrimination of tomato plants (solanum lycopersicum) grown under anaerobic baffled reactor effluent, nitrified urine concentrates and commercial hydroponic fertilizer regimes using simulated sensor spectral settings

We assess the discriminative strength of three different satellite spectral settings (HyspIRI, the forthcoming Landsat 9 and Sentinel 2-MSI), in mapping tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Linnaeus) plants grown under hydroponic system, using human-excreta derived materials (HEDM), namely, anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) effluent and nitrified urine concentrate (NUC) and commercial hydroponic fertilizer mix (CHFM) as main sources of nutrients. Simulated spectral settings of HyspIRI, Landsat 9 and Sentinel 2-MSI were resampled from spectrometric proximally sensed data. Discriminant analysis (DA) was applied in discriminating tomatoes grown under these different nutrient sources. Results showed that the simulated spectral settings of HyspIRI sensor better discriminate tomatoes grown under different fertilizer regimes when compared to Landsat 9 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI spectral configurations. Using the DA algorithm, HyspIRI exhibited high overall accuracy (OA) of 0.99 and a kappa statistic of 0.99 whereas Landsat OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI exhibited OA of 0.94 and 0.95 and 0.79 and 0.85 kappa statistics, respectively. Simulated HyspIRI wavebands 710, 720, 690, 840, 1370 and 2110 nm, Sentinel 2-MSI bands 7 (783 nm), 6 (740 nm), 5 (705 nm) and 8a (865 nm) as well as Landsat bands 5 (865 nm), 6 (1610 nm), 7 (2200 nm) and 8 (590 nm), in order of importance, were selected as the most suitable bands for discriminating tomatoes grown under different fertilizer regimes. Overall, the performance of simulated HyspIRI, Landsat 9 OLI-2 and Sentinel-2 MSI spectral bands seem to bring new opportunities for crop monitoring