Teaching Physical Science Through Technology: Middle School VCU PHY 591

Teaching Physical Science through Technology is a new 3-credit laboratory-and-lecture based course designed to serve as an introduction to the teaching of physical science concepts at the middle school level. Physical science phenomena are presented through investigations of commonly known applications of technology and focus on the Virginia Science Standards of Learning for 6th Grade Science and the Physical Science courses. Topics include matter, gravity, mechanics, heat, optics, electricity and magnetism, and computers as seen in their roles in common devices. The development of the course includes assessment from six semesters, collaboration with other institutions including the Science Museum of Virginia, and an 800 page text written by Adam Niculescu

Progress through partnership: Providing Holistic Services VIA SERVICE LEARNING to Benefit Students, the University and the Community

poster abstractIn 2012, the presenters developed a new service learning opportunity through an interdisciplinary partnership between the schools of Law and Social Work. The purpose of the project was to enhance the joint JD/MSW program, as well as the experiences of JD and MSW students respectively. The presenters redesigned a Civil Practice Clinic, which had formerly involved only law students, to now pair law students and social work students in order to serve the holistic needs of clients. Referrals for the clinic are obtained through a variety of partner referrals. All of the clinic’s clients do not have the resources to retain legal counsel or services by other means. The law students address the clients’ legal issues and the social work students ensure the clients are connected with appropriate social services, such as domestic violence counseling and social welfare benefits. The teamwork between students increases law students’ aptitude in client-centered lawyering, and familiarizes social work students with the legal rights and resources available to clients. The presenters have adapted pedagogies of engagement, most notably through problem-based and peer-led interdisciplinary team teaching and learning. Students more effectively and efficiently serve community members in need of legal counsel and social services, resulting in a clinic that is beneficial for both students and community members. The partnership resulted after years of witnessing law students struggle with interpersonal skills how to handle client emotions (and a perceived inability to help connect to services) while social work students struggled with an awareness of the law, litigation process/strategy and the roles/responsibilities involved in legal case management. Key to this partnership was not only the development of the interdisciplinary model and structure, but also assessing both disciplines and the success of the pairings. Quantitative data is gathered through an interpersonal skills survey pretest and posttest research design, and qualitative data is gathered through a survey of open ended questions. All students were given the same questions, and responses were anonymous, with surveys administered by a third party. Using the generated responses, the presenters reformat the course each semester based upon feedback, as well as promote the use of this sort of model to other institutions and at various conferences. Other interdisciplinary partnerships are also explored based on student feedback, client and clinic needs. The initial surveys focused on a main goal of increasing law students’ interpersonal skills – as far too often law students’ focus is on the legal tasks and not the human components of interactions with clients. Data analysis found a statistically significant improvement in law students’ interpersonal skills, and level of comfort in dealing with clients in emotional situation. The second round of surveys have been submitted to both disciplines and hope to show two increases: 1) that the law students’ interpersonal skills maintain improvement; and 2) that social work students have a better understanding of the law and legal processes via their participation in the interdisciplinary clinic

Social Work and Law: The Educational Benefits of Collaboration

poster abstractLow income clients seeking civil legal services are rarely in need of only legal assistance. Instead, the issues that drove them to seek an attorney typically overlap into multiple mental health and social service needs. The poster will explain how a newly piloted clinical partnership between the School of Social Work and the School of Law improved the educational outcomes of students, and also enhanced the services offered to clients. The clinic historically served the legal needs of low income clients in Indianapolis. In 2012, an interdisciplinary collaboration involving law and social work students and faculty from both fields was implemented in order to provide holistic services to clients. The poster will describe the model, including how the clinic is structured and the roles for students and faculty. Preliminary data on the educational benefits for both law and social work students will be provided. The clinic has been found to address both student learning needs and the needs of clients in the local community

Defect-mediated turbulence in systems with local deterministic chaos

We show that defect-mediated turbulence can exist in media where the underlying local dynamics is deterministically chaotic. While many of the characteristics of defect-mediated turbulence, such as the exponential decay of correlations and a squared Poissonian distribution for the number of defects, are identical to those seen in oscillatory media, the fluctuations in the number of defects differ significantly. The power spectra suggest the existence of underlying correlations that lead to a different and non-universal scaling structure in chaotic media.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure