Alignment or Detachment: College Educators’ Perceptions of Experiential Learning Pedagogy

The main purpose of this study was to investigate how college educators’ perceptions of experiential learning influence the design, implementation, and assessment of their courses. A second purpose of this study was to examine the way’s college educators use experiential learning in their classes. A final purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between a college educators’ prior experience with experiential learning and how they utilize that prior experiences to design, instruct, and assess their courses. A descriptive research design was used in this study. A randomized and anonymous survey containing 29 items was emailed out through Qualtrics to 3000 college educators across the world. The results of the study indicate that college educators develop aptitude in experiential learning in a wide variety of ways. The results of this study also show that college educators believe their prior experience/exposure to experiential learning has been influential to their educational practice. In addition, this study found that college educators believe students should have input in designing, modifying, or evaluating their learning experience. Finally, the results of this study found that college educators typically teach the way they were taught, and that they use a wide variety of assessment and instructional methods in their classrooms

Alignment or Detachment: College Educators’ Perceptions of Experiential Learning Pedagogy

The main purpose of this study was to investigate how college educators’ perceptions of experiential learning influence the design, implementation, and assessment of their courses. A second purpose of this study was to examine the way’s college educators use experiential learning in their classes. A final purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between a college educators’ prior experience with experiential learning and how they utilize that prior experiences to design, instruct, and assess their courses. A descriptive research design was used in this study. A randomized and anonymous survey containing 29 items was emailed out through Qualtrics to 3000 college educators across the world. The results of the study indicate that college educators develop aptitude in experiential learning in a wide variety of ways. The results of this study also show that college educators believe their prior experience/exposure to experiential learning has been influential to their educational practice. In addition, this study found that college educators believe students should have input in designing, modifying, or evaluating their learning experience. Finally, the results of this study found that college educators typically teach the way they were taught, and that they use a wide variety of assessment and instructional methods in their classrooms

Floatabilities of treated coal in water at room temperature. Annual topical report, September 1992--August 1993

This report contains a research paper entitled ``Floatability of Treated Coal in Water at Room Temperature.`` Experimental data on equilibrium adsorption loadings of probe compounds on coal, and flotation of raw coals as well as treated coal were obtained, using Illinois No. 6 coal (PSOC-1539), Adaville No. 1 coal (PSOC-1544), Wyodak coal (PSOC-1545) and Pittsburgh No. 8 coal (PSOC-1549). The raw data of this Annual Topical Report are also available in the Quarterly Progress Report for the period April--June 1993 and the Quarterly Progress Report July--September 1993

Manipulating Stress Responses during Spaceflight Training with Virtual Stressors

Virtual reality (VR) provides the ability to simulate stressors to replicated real-world situations. It allows for the creation and validation of training, therapy, and stress countermeasures in a safe and controlled setting. However, there is still much unknown about the cognitive appraisal of stressors and underlying elements. More research is needed on the creation of stressors and to verify that stress levels can be effectively manipulated by the virtual environment. The objective of this study was to investigate and validate different VR stressor levels from existing emergency spaceflight procedures. Experts in spaceflight procedures and the human stress response helped design a VR spaceflight environment and emergency fire task procedure. A within-subject experiment evaluated three stressor levels. Forty healthy participants each completed three trials (low, medium, high stressor levels) in VR to locate and extinguish a fire on the International Space Station (VR-ISS). Since stress is a complex construct, physiological data (heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure, electrodermal activity) and self-assessment (workload, stress, anxiety) were collected for each stressor level. The results suggest that the environmental-based stressors can induce significantly different, distinguishable levels of stress in individuals.</jats:p

Manipulating Stress Responses during Spaceflight Training with Virtual Stressors

Virtual reality (VR) provides the ability to simulate stressors to replicated real-world situations. It allows for the creation and validation of training, therapy, and stress countermeasures in a safe and controlled setting. However, there is still much unknown about the cognitive appraisal of stressors and underlying elements. More research is needed on the creation of stressors and to verify that stress levels can be effectively manipulated by the virtual environment. The objective of this study was to investigate and validate different VR stressor levels from existing emergency spaceflight procedures. Experts in spaceflight procedures and the human stress response helped design a VR spaceflight environment and emergency fire task procedure. A within-subject experiment evaluated three stressor levels. Forty healthy participants each completed three trials (low, medium, high stressor levels) in VR to locate and extinguish a fire on the International Space Station (VR-ISS). Since stress is a complex construct, physiological data (heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure, electrodermal activity) and self-assessment (workload, stress, anxiety) were collected for each stressor level. The results suggest that the environmental-based stressors can induce significantly different, distinguishable levels of stress in individuals

PETC review: A global role for energy. Issue 10, Summer 1994

This issue contains five feature articles. `Build It and They Will Come` describes the international reputation of the Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center which prompts professionals from around the world to come to PETC for training, technical expertise, and collaboration on research projects. `PETC`s Overseas Activities` reviews international projects with which PETC staff have helped. The most prestigious of all conferences dedicated solely to the timely international exchange of basic scientific information on coal is described in `The 7th International Conference on Coal Science`. `What is Coal?` attempts to present a true picture of the nature and complexity of coal. `NOx Reduction by SCR/SNCR` reviews technologies which may be required to meet new NOx compliance standards

Ancient and recent introgression shape the evolutionary history of pollinator adaptation and speciation in a model monkeyflower radiation (<i>Mimulus</i>section<i>Erythranthe</i>)

AbstractInferences about past processes of adaptation and speciation require a gene-scale and genome-wide understanding of the evolutionary history of diverging taxa. In this study, we use genome-wide capture of nuclear gene sequences, plus skimming of organellar sequences, to investigate the phylogenomics of monkeyflowers inMimulussectionErythranthe(27 accessions from seven species). Taxa withinErythranthe, particularly the parapatric and putatively sister speciesM. lewisii(bee-pollinated) andM. cardinalis(hummingbird-pollinated), have been a model system for investigating the ecological genetics of speciation and adaptation for over five decades. Across &gt;8000 nuclear loci, multiple methods resolve a predominant species tree in whichM. cardinalisgroups with other hummingbird-pollinated taxa (37% of gene trees), rather than being sister toM. lewisii(32% of gene trees). We independently corroborate a single evolution of hummingbird pollination syndrome inErythrantheby demonstrating functional redundancy in genetic complementation tests of floral traits in hybrids; together, these analyses overturn a textbook case of pollination-syndrome convergence. Strong asymmetries in allele-sharing (Patterson’s D-statistic and related tests) indicate that gene-tree discordance reflects ancient and recent introgression rather than incomplete lineage sorting. Consistent with abundant introgression blurring the history of divergence, low-recombination and adaptation-associated regions support the new species tree, while high-recombination regions generate phylogenetic evidence for sister status forM. lewisiiandM. cardinalis. Population-level sampling of core taxa also revealed two instances of chloroplast capture, with SierranM. lewisiiand Southern CalifornianM. parishiieach carrying organelle genomes nested within respective sympatricM. cardinalisclades. A recent organellar transfer fromM. cardinalis, an outcrosser where selfish cytonuclear dynamics are more likely, may account for the unexpected cytoplasmic male sterility effects of selferM. parishiiorganelles in hybrids withM. lewisii. Overall, our phylogenomic results reveal extensive reticulation throughout the evolutionary history of a classic monkeyflower radiation, suggesting that natural selection (re-)assembles and maintains species-diagnostic traits and barriers in the face of gene flow. Our findings further underline the challenges, even in reproductively isolated species, in distinguishing re-use of adaptive alleles from true convergence and emphasize the value of a phylogenomic framework for reconstructing the evolutionary genetics of adaptation and speciation.Author SummaryAdaptive radiations, which involve both divergent evolution of new traits and recurrent trait evolution, provide insight into the processes that generate and maintain organismal diversity. However, rapid radiations also generate particular challenges for inferring the evolutionary history and mechanistic basis of adaptation and speciation, as multiple processes can cause different parts of the genome to have distinct phylogenetic trees. Thus, inferences about the mode and timing of divergence and the causes of parallel trait evolution require a fine-grained understanding of the flow of genomic variation through time. In this study, we used genome-wide sampling of thousands of genes to re-construct the evolutionary histories of a model plant radiation, the monkeyflowers ofMimulussectionErythranthe. Work over the past half-century has established the parapatric and putatively sister speciesM. lewisii(bee-pollinated) andM. cardinalis(hummingbird-pollinated, as are three other species in the section) as textbook examples of both rapid speciation via shifts in pollination syndrome and convergent evolution of floral syndromes. Our phylogenomic analyses re-write both of these stories, placingM. cardinalisin a clade with other hummingbird-pollinated taxa and demonstrating that abundant introgression between ancestral lineages as well as in areas of current sympatry contributes to the real (but misleading) affinities betweenM. cardinalisandM. lewisii. This work illustrates the pervasive influence of gene flow and introgression during adaptive radiation and speciation, and underlines the necessity of a gene-scale and genome-wide phylogenomics framework for understanding trait divergence, even among well-established species.</jats:sec