Birch Hill Park: A Case Study of Interpretive Planning

The Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Department is responsible for the planning, acquisition, development, improvement, and maintenance of lands and facilities to meet the community's needs for park and open space lands in accordance with established standards. 1 Current department emphasis is on sports facilities and programs. Some small neighborhood parks and the Growden Park and Picnic Area are the only significantly developed areas in which organized sports are not emphasized. Birch Hill Park was acquired to expand the spectrum of recreational resources and opportunities available to borough residents. Cross-country skiing, both competitive and recreational, is an important winter activity, but the area's size and its natural environment provide for a variety of other uses. The park has a summer youth camp, and planned developments will enhance the opportunities for visitors of all ages to picnic, hike, and study nature. This paper presents a direct contribution to the diversification of the borough's recreational program by highlighting the interpretive resources and opportunities of the park and by making specific recommendations for the implementation of an interpretive program. The interpretive plan proposed here can be integrated with the comprehensive development planning for Birch Hill Park now underway at the Parks and Recreation Department. Preliminary research for this study was done as a University of Alaska class project in the spring semester of 1976. The students in LR 493, Interpretive Services, developed basic information on the natural and cultural resources of Birch Hill and its surrounding region. They also identified policy gaps and provided general guidance for interpretation in the park.2 The plan presented here is a fo llow-up to that work. Additional fieldwork and library research have been done to supplement the earlier effort, and the implementation aspects have been made more specific with regard to the trail and visitor center recommendations. The process followed in this study is adapted from Perry J. Brown's Procedures for Developing an Interpretive Master Plan

Policing the Campus: Academic Repression, Surveillance, and the Occupy Movement

Book review of Policing the Campus: Academic Repression, Surveillance, and the Occupy Movement, edited by Anthony J. Nocella II and David Gabbard (2013)

Visualizing the semantic content of large text databases using text maps

A methodology for generating text map representations of the semantic content of text databases is presented. Text maps provide a graphical metaphor for conceptualizing and visualizing the contents and data interrelationships of large text databases. Described are a set of experiments conducted against the TIPSTER corpora of Wall Street Journal articles. These experiments provide an introduction to current work in the representation and visualization of documents by way of their semantic content

Writing with Discipline: A Call for Avoiding APA Style Guide Errors in Manuscript Preparation

The education community in the United States—as in many countries—is extremely large and diverse. Indeed, as documented by Mosteller, Nave, and Miech (2004), The United States has more than 3.6 million teachers in elementary and secondary education, more than 100,000 principals, and about 15,000 school districts, each with its own set of district administrators, school board members, and concerned citizens. The parents and family members of the 60 million students in elementary and secondary education represent another constituency, as do the policymakers and legislators in the 50 states (along with the District of Columbia) and at the federal level. Postsecondary education represents another 1 million faculty members, along with an enrollment of 15 million undergraduates and 1.8 million graduate students. (p. 29) Indeed, with the number of individuals involved in the educational system, educational research has the potential to play a pivotal role in improving the quality of education—from Kindergarten through primary, through secondary, through tertiary education. Yet, for educational research to play such a role, its findings must be disseminated to individuals (e.g., educators, administrators, stakeholders, policymakers) and groups (e.g., teacher associations) who can most effectively use them (Mosteller et al., 2004; Onwuegbuzie, Leech, & Whitmore, 2008). Unfortunately, research findings do not disseminate themselves, regardless of how statistically, practically, clinically, or economically significant they are for the field of education. Rather, it is educational researchers in general and practitioner-researchers in particular who must convey these findings

Virtual in situs: Sequencing mRNA from cryo-sliced Drosophila embryos to determine genome-wide spatial patterns of gene expression

Complex spatial and temporal patterns of gene expression underlie embryo differentiation, yet methods do not yet exist for the efficient genome-wide determination of spatial expression patterns during development. In situ imaging of transcripts and proteins is the gold-standard, but it is difficult and time consuming to apply to an entire genome, even when highly automated. Sequencing, in contrast, is fast and genome-wide, but is generally applied to homogenized tissues, thereby discarding spatial information. It is likely that these methods will ultimately converge, and we will be able to sequence RNAs in situ, simultaneously determining their identity and location. As a step along this path, we developed methods to cryosection individual blastoderm stage Drosophila melanogaster embryos along the anterior-posterior axis and sequence the mRNA isolated from each 25 micron slice. The spatial patterns of gene expression we infer closely match patterns previously determined by in situ hybridization and microscopy. We applied this method to generate a genome-wide timecourse of spatial gene expression from shortly after fertilization through gastrulation. We identify numerous genes with spatial patterns that have not yet been described in the several ongoing systematic in situ based projects. This simple experiment demonstrates the potential for combining careful anatomical dissection with high-throughput sequencing to obtain spatially resolved gene expression on a genome-wide scale.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 7 supplemental figures (available on request from [email protected]

Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc.: Economic Impact of a Dairy Cooperative [This report is now at http://purl.umn.edu/180971]

This report is now at http://purl.umn.edu/180971Dairy cooperative, fluid milk, processing, distribution, history, economic impact., Livestock Production/Industries,

Barriers to Pursuing STEM-Related Careers: Perceptions of Hispanic Girls Enrolled in Advanced High School STEM Courses

Researchers indicate that the United States has fallen behind other nations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education (President\u27s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, 2010, 2012). A declining interest in the field of engineering as demonstrated by students who pursue degrees in STEM fields also threatens the U.S. competitive edge (National Science Foundation, 2013; Schneider, Judy, & Mazuca, 2012). Although some students perform successfully in STEM courses, an achievement gap between school-aged boys and girls is well-documented in the literature (e.g., College Board, 2007). Moreover, Hispanic students are underrepresented in science-related courses and careers (Hanley & Noblit, 2009) and even fewer Hispanic girls are attracted to the STEM areas despite the increase in the Hispanic population in general and in higher education (Dolan, 2009). In fact, few studies were located that addressed perspectives of Hispanic girls about their experiences and perceptions related to science and engineering (Crisp, Nora, & Taggart, 2009; Moller et al., 2015; O\u27Shea, Heilbronner, & Reis, 2010). Specifically, there is a need to attract girls and Hispanic students to mathematics and science coursework and careers. Therefore, the purpose of this collective case study was to explore and identify potential barriers and supports related to select Hispanic high school girls\u27 decisions to pursue advanced coursework and future careers in STEM. By increasing awareness of these potential barriers, school leaders will be better positioned to develop strategies and support systems to encourage Hispanic girls to take advanced science courses and seek out postsecondary studies and careers in STEM fields