Digital Projects in the Romanticism Classroom: A Practical Guide to Student Use of WordPress

This collaborative essay explores some of the opportunities and challenges faced by instructors and students when digital projects are integrated into the Romantic classroom. It is based on our experience with two iterations of a course on literary manuscripts of the period, and is written by the instructor of course and two students, who returned for the second iteration of the course, a year later, as ‘digital coaches.’ We discuss the excitement and creativity afforded by working in a digital medium, as well as its utility when working with digitized objects like literary manuscripts. We also address the pitfalls, as some students struggle with the demands of mastering new technologies and with writing for digital dissemination. We found that student success was improved by explicit guidance, throughout the course, in how to construct a digital project. We share a set of how-to resources we have developed for other instructors wishing to integrate digital pedagogy into their classes, including video tutorials, assignments, grading rubrics, and links to student digital projects. We also address questions of platform selection, sustainability, assignment design and student evaluation

Letter, 1968 March 15, from Richard Morford to Eva Jessye

1 page, Morford was the Executive Director for the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc

The Name of the Game: Does a Person’s Name Contribute to Socio-Economic Success?

When a person is born, the first gift they receive is their name. Names are powerful. They represent family, culture, and personality. Names are as diverse and complex as the people who bear them. But do names really matter? Do different names establish a foundation for social and economic success in a child’s future? Furthermore, do people who possess traditionally ethnic names experience more discrimination than those who don’t? Academic literature identifies large amounts of discrimination against individuals who possess distinctively African-American or Hispanic names. However, this study tests the assumptions and behavioral economic theories associated with society’s view of Asian Americans. There are many assumptions about the character, work ethic, and intellect of Asian Americans. But this study will strictly focus on the discrimination linked to a person’s name. By comparing trends found in previous studies, we will draw conclusions about the perceived economic well-being of Asian Americans. For the purpose of this study, the following question will be addressed: Do others assume people with traditional American names are more successful than people with traditional Asian names? We will not determine if Asian Americans are more successful than other ethnic groups. Rather, this study is concerned with society’s perception of Asian Americans and their economic success. The following hypothesis was developed as part of this investigation: Asians who possess traditional Asian names are viewed as more successful than people who possess traditional American names. Therefore, an ethnic child with a traditional Asian name has various perceived social and economic advantages over ethnic children with traditional American names. This particular research project is designed to help fill the gap in literature and answer important questions facing Asian Americans today

The role and ontogeny of maps in long-distance animal navigation

Impressive feats of long-distance animal navigation raise questions relating to the proximate causes of such behaviours: what mechanisms facilitate long-distance animal navigation? What is the ontogeny of such behaviours? I focus on how animals determine their position in relation to their goals to determine goalward directions in the first step (the map step) of a two-step navigational process termed map and compass navigation. I begin by introducing a framework that deconstructs animal maps into three interlinked components: (1) map cues, (2) map structure, their organisation of spatial information, and (3) map navigation strategy, the way that animals approach goals and combine multiple map cues. I discuss the ontogeny of animal maps, clarifying the roles of inherited rules, imprinting and latent learning, and suggest that mechanisms for determining vectors of self-motion, known as path integration, could facilitate map learning by allowing animals to integrate changes in map cues with self-motion. I use two general approaches to examine animal maps. First, I employ artificial neural networks as simple computational models of animal learning. This allows me to investigate the possible ontogenies of navigational behaviours and make predictions about how animals might learn to navigate. Using this approach, I investigate how animals might learn to combine intersecting environmental gradients to navigate with a grid map. I find that neural networks adopt a mechanism of combining environmental gradient cues through first determining displacements in each gradient field independently, leading to predictable orientation errors in some environments. This work clarifies how such mechanisms might arise and change through learning, allowing me to make more nuanced predictions of how navigational mechanisms might develop through learning. Using a similar approach, I investigate how collective decision-making processes impact upon individual learning when animals navigate in groups. I find that leaders learn more quickly than followers, and that individuals in democratic groups, in which compromises are taken between individual preferences, learn by compensating for partner error unlike individuals in despotic groups and solo learners. My second general approach involves experiments on two model species of long-distance navigation. I attempt to investigate whether Manx shearwaters utilise olfactants as navigational map cues, while minimising impact on the birds, by manipulating their access to olfactory cues before release after long-distance displacement. However, I find no clear evidence that they utilise olfactory cues in their navigation, leaving the sensory basis of their navigational map an open question. I investigate navigational ontogeny in homing pigeons, examining whether passive exposure to a novel release site is sufficient for navigational learning. I find no evidence that passive exposure to the release site impacts upon initial navigational performance and hence no evidence that this is sufficient for learning. Overall, this work clarifies outstanding questions on the proximate causes of animal navigation, generates predictions on navigational learning, and produces incremental steps forward in our understanding of navigational mechanism and ontogeny in two model systems. Ultimately, advancing these theoretical and empirical approaches together will enable us to better identify and understand the proximate causes of long-distance animal navigation

The Jagori Rural Charitable Trust Model: Menstrual Education of Women and Adolescent Girls in The Villages of Rural Dharamsala

Reproductive rights and education of women in rural communities is of lesser importance in India’s patriarchal society. Reproductive health is a conversation that is rarely discussed, and the health status of women is of little priority behind that of men and children’s health. Education about the health and hygiene of menstruation allows for women and adolescent girls to play a role in their own health maintenance, as well as normalizes the discussion of menstruation and reproductive health. Studying Jagori Rural Charitable Trust’s efforts to disseminate knowledge about reproductive health, with specific focus on menstruation, allows for an understanding of the impact of NGO efforts being made to educate women and adolescent girls, as well as displays a model of how and what village women of Dharamsala are being taught about menstruation. Data collection from six different villages in Dharamsala was utilized to show the dissemination of menstrual knowledge originating from Jagori’s workshops, women’s collectives, Anganwadi partnerships, and adolescent girl groups. Discussions, interviews, and observations of the women, their lasting menstrual knowledge, and the workshop training materials and objectives, allowed for a developed conclusion about Jagori’s model, the menstrual knowledge among village women in Dharamsala, and how Jagori’s outputs are affecting the outcomes and creating impact within the community. Results find that retention of knowledge from the reproductive health workshops was low in remembering the root of menstrual ailments, but higher in the knowledge retention of home remedies and hygiene. Further, Jagori’s reproductive workshops alone have a lesser impact on the community, with workshop attendance being a privilege reserved mostly for the leaders of the village collectives and adolescent girl’s collectives. However, in combination with the women’s collectives, inschool gender and sex sessions for adolescents, and the supervision of monthly Anganwadi meetings, Jagori has set up a support system of groups to disseminate knowledge in which they rely on their own efforts of outreach and awareness promotion, as well as the contributions of the leaders they are encouraging in the communities, to create change, and empower the women to promote the discussion of health as an important right for women and girls

Direction and Production of Shakespeare\u27s Comedy Much Ado About Nothing

This project includes the selection, background research and documentation, direction, production, and post-production analysis of Sammamish High School\u27s production of William Shakespeare\u27s Much Ado About Nothing. Documentation includes research, analysis of the play, and an evaluation of the comedy as a production for Sammamish High School

Make Portable Buildings Last Longer

If you\u27ve done much moving of your portable farm building, you may have found weaknesses developing after several of such moves. Moving any building- portable or otherwise- develops severe vibration and racking stresses in the building. This eems to be one of the most important factors limiting the years of service of your portable buildings