The Use of Traditional and Contemporary Instructional Strategies and Materials in the Elementary Mathematics Classroom

Elementary school teachers were surveyed about the strategies and materials they use to teach elementary school mathematics. A list of twenty strategies and materials derived from the Changes in Content and Emphasis sections of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics were examined [1]. These strategies represent both contemporary and traditional approaches to the teaching of mathematics. Teachers were asked to respond to each survey item by indicating how often these strategies were used in their classrooms. The findings were compared to the goals of the NCTM Standards to assess how much progress has been made in the effort to influence elementary school mathematics instruction. Compared to these goals and the call for change in instructional strategies by the Standards, results seem to be mixed with progress in some areas and not in others. Teacher-centered, whole-group instruction remains the dominant pedagogical form, but approaches using concrete materials seem to be on the increase

An Investigation into the Economic Thought of Medieval Arab-Islamic Scholars and Enlightenment Philosophers

This student-faculty collaborative research project focused on the contributions to economic thought of two distinct groups: medieval Arab-Islamic scholars and Enlightenment philosophers. The primary goal of the project was to generate two new chapters to supplement the Evolution of Economic Thought text. It looked to answer the research question, “How did the intellectual activity of medieval Arab-Islamic scholars and Enlightenment philosophers reflect and/or contribute to the development of modern economic thought?” The medieval Arab-Islamic chapter produced findings including a centrality of religion to economic life, the importance of specialization for increased efficiency, and an understanding of just price. Ibn Khaldūn, a prominent scholar of the medieval Arab-Islamic era, recognized a need for the division of labor, as individuals lack the capability of providing sufficient goods on their own to subsist. A holistic approach to thinking and an emphasis on rational methodology and objectivity were major contributions from the research on Enlightenment philosophers. Thomas Hobbes’s social contract theory is a philosophical idea that underlies modern economic theory, discussed at length in the Enlightenment chapter. Both chapters will be accessible online and available for instructors to use separately or in conjunction with existing online chapters as precursors to the main, physical text

Atlas and checklist of the bark and ambrosia beetles of Texas and Oklahoma (Curculionidae: Scolytinae and Platypodinae)

180 species of bark and ambrosia beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae and Platypodinae) are known to occur in Texas and Oklahoma. 175 species are known from Texas, 35 of which are reported here for the first time. 78 species are known from Oklahoma, 47 of which are new records for the state. Based on overall distribution patterns the largest group of species found in Texas and virtually all known from Oklahoma are widely distributed in eastern and southeastern North America, reaching their southwestern limits here. In the case of Texas other large elements include Neotropical elements shared with Mexico and a large number found in southwestern North America. New distribution and significant new host records are discussed. Distribution maps are included for most species and a checklist is provided as an appendix

Visitors' Interpretive Strategies at Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Making Meaning in Art Museums is one of two research projects on the theme of art museums and interpretive communities. The first was published as Making Meaning 1:Visitors' Interpretive Strategies at Wolverhampton Art Gallery (RCMG 2001). Making Meaning in Art Museums 2 is the second of two research projects on the theme of art museums and interpretive communities. The Long Gallery at the Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery was selected as the research site for this second study. Both studies have explored the ways in which visitors talked about their experience of a visit to the art museum-both what they said about the paintings and the whole of the visit.The research questions on which this project is based are: What interpretive strategies and repertories are deployed by art museum visitors? Can distinct interpretive communities be identified? What are the implications for the communication policies within art museums? This research is an ethnographic study, using qualitative methods.This research project was funded through a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Boar

A pitfall of piecewise-polytropic equation of state inference

The only messenger radiation in the Universe which one can use to statistically probe the Equation of State (EOS) of cold dense matter is that originating from the near-field vicinities of compact stars. Constraining gravitational masses and equatorial radii of rotating compact stars is a major goal for current and future telescope missions, with a primary purpose of constraining the EOS. From a Bayesian perspective it is necessary to carefully discuss prior definition; in this context a complicating issue is that in practice there exist pathologies in the general relativistic mapping between spaces of local (interior source matter) and global (exterior spacetime) parameters. In a companion paper, these issues were raised on a theoretical basis. In this study we reproduce a probability transformation procedure from the literature in order to map a joint posterior distribution of Schwarzschild gravitational masses and radii into a joint posterior distribution of EOS parameters. We demonstrate computationally that EOS parameter inferences are sensitive to the choice to define a prior on a joint space of these masses and radii, instead of on a joint space interior source matter parameters. We focus on the piecewise-polytropic EOS model, which is currently standard in the field of astrophysical dense matter study. We discuss the implications of this issue for the field.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Low-speed Wind-Tunnel Study of Reaction Control-jet Effectiveness for Hover and Transition of a STOVL Fighter Concept

A brief wind-tunnel study was conducted in the Langley 12-Foot Low-Speed Tunnel to determine reaction control-jet effectiveness and some associated aerodynamic characteristics of a 15 percent scale model of the General Dynamics E-7A STOVL fighter/attack aircraft concept applicable to hover and transition flight. Tests were made with the model at various attitude angles in the tunnel test section and at various tunnel airspeeds for a range of control-jet nozzle pressure ratios. Eight reaction control-jets were tested individually. Four jets were at the design baseline locations providing roll, pitch, and yaw control. Comparisons of measured data with values calculated using empirical methods were made where possible

Diagnostics of Coronal Magnetic Fields Through the Hanle Effect in UV and IR Lines

The plasma thermodynamics in the solar upper atmosphere, particularly in the corona, are dominated by the magnetic field, which controls the flow and dissipation of energy. The relative lack of knowledge of the coronal vector magnetic field is a major handicap for progress in coronal physics. This makes the development of measurement methods of coronal magnetic fields a high priority in solar physics. The Hanle effect in the UV and IR spectral lines is a largely unexplored diagnostic. We use magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to study the magnitude of the signal to be expected for typical coronal magnetic fields for selected spectral lines in the UV and IR wavelength ranges, namely the H I Ly-$\alpha$ and the He I 10830 {\AA} lines. We show that the selected lines are useful for reliable diagnosis of coronal magnetic fields. The results show that the combination of polarization measurements of spectral lines with different sensitivities to the Hanle effect may be most appropriate for deducing coronal magnetic properties from future observations.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 201

Enhanced active swimming in viscoelastic fluids

Swimming microorganisms often self-propel in fluids with complex rheology. While past theoretical work indicates that fluid viscoelasticity should hinder their locomotion, recent experiments on waving swimmers suggest a possible non-Newtonian enhancement of locomotion. We suggest a physical mechanism, based on fluid-structure interaction, leading to swimming in a viscoelastic fluid at a higher speed than in a Newtonian one. Using Taylor's two-dimensional swimming sheet model, we solve for the shape of an active swimmer as a balance between the external fluid stresses, the internal driving moments, and the passive elastic resistance. We show that this dynamic balance leads to a generic transition from hindered rigid swimming to enhanced flexible locomotion. The results are physically interpreted as due to a viscoelastic suction increasing the swimming amplitude in a non-Newtonian fluid and overcoming viscoelastic damping.We thank R. E. Goldstein and T. J. Pedley for useful discussions. This work was funded in part by the European Union (CIG grant to EL).This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IOP Science via : http://dx.doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/108/3400