Addressing Prospective Elementary Teachers\u27 Beliefs about the Nature of Mathematics: A Case for Exploring Students\u27 Conceptions of Mathematics in a Math Education Course

Our challenge in preparing Virginia’s K-8 teachers in mathematics is a complex one. Additional requirements, including more challenging math content courses or more innovative pedagogical courses, may provide part of the solution. It is the premise of this paper, however, that additional knowledge and skills are not enough. In order to prepare teachers who will engage in current best practice pedagogy, we must also address teachers’ attitudes and dispositions, their beliefs and conceptions of mathematics itself. This paper will attempt to justify this position. It will also describe strategies used in the Inquiry in Mathematics course in Mary Baldwin’s MAT program intended to elicit and address graduate students’ current, sometimes limited (if not erroneous), notions about what mathematics is really about

Mobility and Saturation Velocity in Graphene on SiO2

We examine mobility and saturation velocity in graphene on SiO2 above room temperature (300-500 K) and at high fields (~1 V/um). Data are analyzed with practical models including gated carriers, thermal generation, "puddle" charge, and Joule heating. Both mobility and saturation velocity decrease with rising temperature above 300 K, and with rising carrier density above 2x10^12 cm^-2. Saturation velocity is >3x10^7 cm/s at low carrier density, and remains greater than in Si up to 1.2x10^13 cm^-2. Transport appears primarily limited by the SiO2 substrate, but results suggest intrinsic graphene saturation velocity could be more than twice that observed here

To Rise Again, Revising The Republic

If we situate the Irish struggle for independence, and the eventual emergence of the Irish Republic, in a lineage of Republics achieved by revolution, we think naturally of the French and American republics as predecessors. Unless we examine the matter carefully, it is fatally easy to consider that the Irish Republic, like its antecedents, was the outcome of a successful revolutionary process. This is to risk glossing over the not inconsiderable difficulty that Ireland, to my way of thinking,..

The Truth About the Surrender of My Foster Child

Excerpt: My best efforts at parenting weren’t enough to make him stay. My son no longer wanted to call me “Mom.

Taking Care

Excerpt: It’s July 26, 2010, late. I’ve sunk onto the edge of the bed in my childhood home. The bedroom reminds me of one of those cozy, pretty Valentine’s Day shoeboxes I made back in elementary school: small, pink, white, flowery