Satire and Science: Some Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Links

Linking satire and science evokes the standard response that late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century satirists, individually and practically in chorus, attacked the foolishness and the excess of scientific experimentation, especially that demonstrated by the Royal Society. Satirists, so conventional wisdom holds, argue that the so-called natural philosophers\u27 farfetched projects have nothing to do with the understanding of human beings, the strengthening of a wise society, or the improvement of the moral state. The third book of Gulliver\u27s Travels and the last book of the Dunciad confirm this view and in treatise after treatise appear as the supporting examples. Another approach—one that offers similarity rather than antagonism, stresses mutuality of method, recognizes simultaneous evolution, and results in greater understanding—may be preferable. Satire and science have much in common. From origins and development to objectives and methods, the two show a striking similarity. Understanding that similarity illuminates both subjects and their practitioners

Eureka! A Yurt! Integrating Mathematics, Cooperative Learning, and Community Service

The significance of Eureka! in the title derives from the exhilaration of discovery that took place through a project in which a class of sixth graders built a Yurt.1 There was a Wow! sense of awe and achievement akin to completing one\u27s first rockclimb or a thousand-piece puzzle. In the words of many of the sixth graders who participated- I can\u27t believe we did it! They built a scaled-down Yurt (see photo], a circular building having walls that slant upward and outward from a round base, with an overhanging, cone-like roof. The roof has a skylight in the middle, capping the top of the walls. After a fresh four-inch snowfall, the Yurt looks like a frosted cupcake. This wooden Yurt has a folded roof which resembles the folds in cupcake papers

3D PRINTING OF THE PROXIMAL RIGHT FEMUR: IT’S IMPLICATIONS IN THE FIELD OF FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY AND BIOARCHAEOLOGY

3D scanning and Printing have become useful in many scientific fields over the last few years, and Physical Anthropology/ Archaeology is not an exception. With skeletal collections decreasing all over the globe and the question of preservation on the rise, it has become necessary to look towards different methods in which one can obtain important information. 3D scanning has become useful over the last few decades and therefore it is important to establish where this new technology can be of use. This paper will bring 3D scanning and printing into question and determine whether this technology should be used in certain contexts in physical anthropology, such as forensic anthropology and the preservation of archaeological remain. This research will attempt to answer the question of whether a 3D scan and 3D print out of the proximal right femur will be identical to the original. This research will examine 11 proximal right femoral ends, all of which will come from the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University. These femora will be hand measured before they are 3D scanned and printed. After the final printouts are made, an error rate will be established to determine if this technology can be utilized in scientific fields that require quantitative accuracy to gather information

Extractable nitrogen and microbial community structure respond to grassland restoration regardless of historical context and soil composition.

Grasslands have a long history of invasion by exotic annuals, which may alter microbial communities and nutrient cycling through changes in litter quality and biomass turnover rates. We compared plant community composition, soil chemical and microbial community composition, potential soil respiration and nitrogen (N) turnover rates between invaded and restored plots in inland and coastal grasslands. Restoration increased microbial biomass and fungal : bacterial (F : B) ratios, but sampling season had a greater influence on the F : B ratio than did restoration. Microbial community composition assessed by phospholipid fatty acid was altered by restoration, but also varied by season and by site. Total soil carbon (C) and N and potential soil respiration did not differ between treatments, but N mineralization decreased while extractable nitrate and nitrification and N immobilization rate increased in restored compared with unrestored sites. The differences in soil chemistry and microbial community composition between unrestored and restored sites indicate that these soils are responsive, and therefore not resistant to feedbacks caused by changes in vegetation type. The resilience, or recovery, of these soils is difficult to assess in the absence of uninvaded control grasslands. However, the rapid changes in microbial and N cycling characteristics following removal of invasives in both grassland sites suggest that the soils are resilient to invasion. The lack of change in total C and N pools may provide a buffer that promotes resilience of labile pools and microbial community structure

Design, validation and dissemination of an undergraduate assessment tool using SimMan® in simulated medical emergencies

Background: Increasingly, medical students are being taught acute medicine using whole-body simulator manikins. Aim: We aimed to design, validate and make widely available two simple assessment tools to be used with Laerdal SimMan (R) for final year students. Methods: We designed two scenarios with criterion-based checklists focused on assessment and management of two medical emergencies. Members of faculty critiqued the assessments for face validity and checklists revised. We assessed three groups of different experience levels: Foundation Year 2 doctors, third and final year medical students. Differences between groups were analysed, and internal consistency and interrater reliability calculated. A generalisability analysis was conducted using scenario and rater as facets in design. Results: A maximum of two items were removed from either checklist following the initial survey. Significantly different scores for three groups of experience for both scenarios were reported (p0.90). Internal consistency was poor (alpha<50.5). Generalizability study results suggest that four cases would provide reliable discrimination between final year students. Conclusions: These assessments proved easy to administer and we have gone some way to demonstrating construct validity and reliability. We have made the material available on a simulator website to enable others to reproduce these assessments

Effective teaching

This initiative focuses on providing an understanding of both students’ and teachers’ perceptions of effective teaching in a modern UK University. Through utilising a phenomenographical perspective, the research identifies that teacher effectiveness is a combination of providing a supportive environment and including students in the process of developing understanding. This research has been carried out in four schools within the University of Wolverhampton and five constituents of effective teaching have been identified.HEFC

NASA Astronaut Photography of Earth: A Resource to Facilitate Students’ Learning and Using Geospatial Concepts

Spatial thinking is considered a fundamental cognitive skill and there has been more focus on it in recent years due to improved geospatial technologies. Teaching spatial concepts to students by using publicly available resources is an appropriate method to increase spatial thinking ability. More than 1.5 million photographs are publicly available through the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth website. We wanted to explore the effectiveness of using photographs to improve students’ spatial thinking by using a set of these photographs. In this research, we selected uncataloged photographs from the International Space Station astronauts’ collection and asked undergraduate students in the “Principles of Remote Sensing” course to interpret each photograph and locate it on the Earth by using “Google Earth”. They used different spatial primitives, simple-spatial, and complex spatial concepts in their interpretation. We recognized and analyzed the concepts used in three assignments during a semester by using the chi-square goodness of fit test and assessed how significantly students increased or decreased their ability to used different types of spatial concepts. We tested the utility of astronaut photographs for the acquisition and practice of spatial concepts knowledge and examined whether the use of astronaut photographs in a remote sensing course would support students’ understanding and use of higher level spatial concepts. An additional outcome of this research is a guide to select appropriate photographs for teaching specific spatial concepts. The results show that students made progress in spatial thinking skills through their work with half of the photographs. We concluded that by selecting a proper photograph for teaching a specific spatial concept, we can see improvement in spatial thinking skills among students

What Would the Nautilus Say? Unleashing Creativity in Mathematics!

While the nautilus shell is often represented in popular culture as an example of a golden spiral, according to many mathematicians it is not. In this paper we examine multiple arguments for and against considering the nautilus as a “golden” spiral and offer a semi-structured task that is accessible to middle school students and beyond to begin their own investigation. Our hope is that asking, what would the nautilus say, can serve as a starting point for children and adults alike to push against the walls we so often draw around mathematical questions and begin to see where their creativity takes them as they venture outside of the maths box

Developing a Clinical Literacy Experience That Improves Outcomes for Students and Preservice Teachers

Improving literacy outcomes so more students graduate from high school career- and college- ready is critical in today\u27s society. There is a wealth of evidence-based practices for teachers to utilize and yet student literacy outcomes fail to improve. This article provides an example of how a clinical model literacy clinic, housed in a partner elementary school, improved learning outcomes for preservice teachers and the at-risk students they instructed. During this twice weekly, semester-long literacy clinic, the preservice teachers explicitly taught all five critical literacy components to support struggling readers with the focus on using high-leverage practices for instruction. This taught the preservice teachers both the what and how to teach struggling readers. This program supported the needs of a partner school while developing new teachers confident and prepared to meet the literacy needs of struggling readers