14,150 research outputs found

    The envenomation of general physiology throughout the last century.

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    Toxins are the poisonous products of organisms. Toxins serve vital defensive and offensive functions for those that harbor them: stinging scorpions, pesticidal plants, sanguinary snakes, fearless frogs, sliming snails, noxious newts, and smarting spiders. For physiologists, toxins are integral chemical tools that hijack life's fundamental processes with remarkable molecular specificity. Our understanding of electrophysiological phenomena has been transformed time and time again with the help of some terrifying toxins. For this reason, studies of toxin mechanism are an important and enduring facet of The Journal of General Physiology (JGP). This Milestone in Physiology reflects on toxins studied in JGP over its first 100 years, what they have taught us, and what they have yet to reveal

    The Impact of the Lead Teacher Professional Learning Community within the Rice University Mathematics Leadership Institute

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    Now in its fourth year, Rice Universityā€™s Mathematics Leadership Institute (MLI) has developed over sixty high school mathematics Lead Teachers. We focus on how membership in MLI has impacted participant teachersā€™ professional lives. The Lead Teacher community that emerged during MLlā€™s ļ¬rst Summer Leadership Institute embodies the characteristics of a sustaining and coherent knowledge community where teachers are able to share their secret ā€œstories of practice in safe places . . . in order to make their personal practical knowledge explicit to themselves and to othersā€ [1]. This article includes stories of individual teachers who refused to sacriļ¬ce hours of instructional time for mandated curriculum testing, who encouraged and supported a large group of MLI teachers to participate in a grueling advanced certiļ¬cation program, and who challenged the local administrationā€™s expectation to compromise personal professional standards. These stories may not have emerged in their particular ways had these teachers and their supporting co-manager not been members of this coherent and sustained knowledge community. This knowledge community has enabled the achievement of MLI goals with respect to teachersā€™ increased mathematics content knowledge, leadership development, and student achievement. We also include focus group comments and quantitative data
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