Picturing Teacher Agency: Developing Upstanding Heuristics in a Middle Grades Social Studies Methods Course

This paper presents a multi-case study of teacher candidates in a pre-service middle grades social studies methods course. The research aimed to understand how the middle grades teacher candidates viewed their future as upstanders with agency in middle grades settings. The focus of the research was on heuristic representations that the teacher candidates created to illustrate how they understood their role in supporting the democratic aims of middle grades social studies. Qualitative data was collected and analyzed through chordal triad of agency theory (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). The findings indicate that preservice teachers best understand their future as change agents through their role of curriculum and instruction and their impact on students, additionally their conceptualizations of their intended agency were influenced by their past and present experiences as well as their projected goals for the future. This research also suggests that heuristics may be a powerful tool in the preparation of teacher candidates, helping them to think through their role in supporting the democratic aims of social studies, middle grades education and social justice education. Important constraints about teacher candidates’ perceptions (or lack thereof) of oppressive structures within middle schools settings are considered

On stability and spiral patterns in polar disks

To investigate the stability properties of polar disks we performed two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations for flat polytropic gaseous self-gravitating disks which were perturbed by a central S0-like component. Our disk was constructed to resemble that of the proto-typical galaxy NGC 4650A. This central perturbation induces initially a stationary two-armed tightly-wound leading spiral in the polar disk. For a hot disk (Toomre parameter Q>1.7), the structure does not change over the simulation time of 4.5 Gyr. In case of colder disks, the self-gravity of the spiral becomes dominant, it decouples from the central perturbation and grows, until reaching a saturation stage in which an open trailing spiral is formed, rather similar to that observed in NGC4650A. The timescale for developing non-linear structures is 1-2 Gyr; saturation is reached within 2-3 Gyr. The main parameter controlling the structure formation is the Toomre parameter. The results are surprisingly insensitive to the properties of the central component. If the polar disk is much less massive than that in NGC4650A, it forms a weaker tightly-wound spiral, similar to that seen in dust absorption in the dust disk of NGC2787. Our results are derived for a polytropic equation of state, but appear to be generic as the adiabatic exponent is varied between \gamma = 1 (isothermal) and \gamma = 2 (very stiff).Comment: 14 pages including 23 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Who Are the Givers? Briefing Paper on British Social Attitudes to Charitable Giving

This Institute for Philanthropy paper summarizes the findings of the annual British Social Attitudes Survey on the attitudes and values of Britons regarding charitable giving and philanthropy, and on their behavior. The authors differentiate the target group by age, education, religion, income, political affiliation, and newspaper readership, and determines that there are broadly three groups in British society: contributors, bystanders, and investors

Telescience Testbed Pilot Program

The Telescience Testbed Pilot Program is developing initial recommendations for requirements and design approaches for the information systems of the Space Station era. During this quarter, drafting of the final reports of the various participants was initiated. Several drafts are included in this report as the University technical reports

Cyclically controlled welding purge chamber

An arrangement for butt-welding cylindrical sections of large, thin-wall tanks includes a rotatable mandrel with side-by-side sets of radial position adjusters. Each set of adjusters bears on one of the tank sections adjacent the seam, to prevent the sections from sagging out-of-round. The mandrel rotates relative to the welder, so that a continuous seam is formed. A purge chamber is fixed in position behind the seam at the weld head, and is flushed with inert gas. The purge chamber includes a two-sided structure which is contiguous with the cylindrical sections and a circumferential vane to form an open-ended tube-like structure, through which the radial position adjusters pass as the mandrel and cylindrical workpiece sections rotate. The tube-like structure is formed into a chamber by a plurality of movable gates which are controlled to maintain a seal while allowing adjusters to progress through the purge chamber

Near-IR Spectroscopy of a Young Super-Star Cluster in NGC 6946: Chemical Abundances and Abundance Patterns

Using the NIRSPEC spectrograph at Keck II, we have obtained H and K-band echelle spectra for a young (10-15 Myr), luminous (MV=-13.2) super-star cluster in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 6946. From spectral synthesis and equivalent width measurements we obtain for the first time accurate abundances and abundance patterns in an extragalactic super-star cluster. We find [Fe/H]=-0.45+/-0.08 dex, an average alpha-enhancement of +0.22+/-0.1 dex, and a relatively low 12C/13C~ 8+/-2 isotopic ratio. We also measure a velocity dispersion of ~9.1 km/s, in agreement with previous estimates. We conclude that integrated high-dispersion spectroscopy of massive star clusters is a promising alternative to other methods for abundance analysis in extragalactic young stellar populations.Comment: 5 pages, incl. 2 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. The definitive version will be available at http://www.blackwell-synergy.co