Digital Commons Network^™

“Voices From The Field” Overview, Call For Papers, And Section Introduction, Michael M. Grant

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

No abstract provided.

Using Problem-Based Learning To Explore Unseen Academic Potential, Shelagh A. Gallagher, James J. Gallagher

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

One goal of the US Department of Education-funded Project Insights was to see if the use of Problem-based Learning (PBL) would encourage students to reveal previously unseen academic potential. Two PBL units were taught to 271 sixth grade students in 13 classrooms. Afterwards, teachers identified students who demonstrated previously unseen academic potential during the PBL units. This advanced academic potential group was compared with students identified as gifted using district criteria and the remaining sixth grade students. Measures included standardized achievement test scores, teacher ratings of students’ engagement in PBL, and independent ratings of students’ performance on specific PBL assignments. …

Problem-Based Learning Across The Curriculum: Exploring The Efficacy Of A Cross-Curricular Application Of Preparation For Future Learning, Karen Swan, Philip Vahey, Mark Van 'T Hooft, Annette Kratcoski, Ken Rafanan, Tina Stanford, Louise Yarnall, Dale Cook

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

The research reported in this paper explores the applicability and efficacy of a variant of problem-based learning, the Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) approach, to teaching and learning within the context of a cross-curricular, middle school data literacy unit called Thinking with Data (TWD). A quasi-experimental design was used to compare pre-to-post-test data literacy gains of seventh grade students participating in the TWD unit with other seventh graders in two middle schools in northeast Ohio. Results show statistically significant differences between the two groups. Taken together with participant comments, the findings suggest that the PFL approach can be effectively implemented …

Promoting Positive Academic Dispositions Using A Web-Based Pbl Environment: The Globaled 2 Project, Scott W. Brown, Kimberly A. Lawless, Mark A. Boyer

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional design approach for promoting student learning, understanding and knowledge development in context rich settings. Previous PBL research has primarily focused on face-to-face learning environments, but current technologies afford PBL designers the opportunities to create online, virtual, PBL environments. The GlobalEd 2 Project is an example of a PBL environment that combines the positive characteristics of both face-to-face and online environments in a 14-week simulation of international negotiations of science advisors on global water resource issues. The GlobalEd 2 PBL environment is described examining the impact it has had on middle school students’ interest in …

Exploring The Relationships Between Tutor Background, Tutor Training, And Student Learning: A Problem-Based Learning Meta-Analysis, Heather Leary, Andrew Walker, Brett E. Shelton, M. Harrison Fitt

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Despite years of primary research on problem-based learning and literature reviews, no systematic effort has been made to analyze the relationship between tutor characteristics and student learning outcomes. In an effort to fill that gap the following meta-analysis coded 223 outcomes from 94 studies with small but positive gains for PBL students (g = 0.24). Specific sub-group analyses indicate randomly controlled designs may be more sensitive to differences that favor PBL students, even while there is no relationship between tutor content expertise and student learning. Perhaps surprisingly, student learning decreases as tutor experience increases. Limitations and future work are …

Editor's Introduction, Michael M. Grant

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

No abstract provided.

The Duality Of Multiculturalism In 1500’S And Contemporary Germany: Between Political And Curated Cultural Capital, Courtney Dorroll

Artl@s Bulletin

My research analyzes the hegemonic power of museums through the use of Jean Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra and Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital. I analyze museum objects and museum signage in Berlin’s temporary exhibit in the Humboldt Box and the permanent Ottoman collection on display in the Pergamon’s Museum of Islamic Art juxtaposed with anti-Turkish rhetoric as seen as early as the 16th century in Edward Schoen’s woodblock prints as well as political speeches that have taken place within the last five years in Germany.

Mapping Dutch Nationalism Across The Atlantic, Elizabeth Sutton

Artl@s Bulletin

1648 witnessed the legal birth of the Dutch Republic, and Claes Jansz Visscher capitalized on Dutch nationalism by publishing maps of Dutch-controlled territories in Brazil and New Netherland. The maps presented a unified image of possession in both arenas and featured them as secure and stable locations worthy of investment amidst tensions in the Republic c. 1650. These maps contributed to shape a global and historical Dutch national consciousness at this critical moment of their so-called Golden Age.

One-Shot Or Embedded? Assessing Different Delivery Timing For Information Resources Relevant To Assignments, Amy S. Van Epps, Megan R. Sapp Nelson

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Objective – This study aims to determine if the timing of library in-class presentations make a difference in the type and quality of resources students use for each of four assignments in an introductory speech class. This comparison of content delivery timing contrasts a single, 50-minute lecture early in the semester with four, approximately 12-minute lectures offered just before each assignment.

Methods – First-year engineering students taking Fundamentals of Speech Communication provide the study group. Each speech assignment requires students to turn in an outline and list of references. The list of references for each student was given to the …

Roundabout Public Outreach Campaigns, Aimee Bennett, David Buck

Purdue Road School

As roundabouts continue to gain popularity in Indiana, it becomes important to help the public understand their function. This session discusses recent outreach efforts by the City of West Lafayette and INDOT.

Buying And Selling Surplus Government Construction Equipment, Mark Domeier

Purdue Road School

Purchasing and selling of surplus construction equipment has become more cost effective with the development of online auctions and surplus stores. Local government can benefit from using third party online equipment purchasing and receiving good appraisals on their used equipment. This session explains the details of this methodology.

Harnessing The Power Of Media Relations And Social Media And Public Outreach, Andrea Farmer, Jim Pinkerton, Erin Pipkin, Nathan Riggs

Purdue Road School

This presentation discusses strategies for launching a simple, yet effective, campaign through media relations and social media for public outreach. Key points regarding protocol and time management will be covered.

Using The Cloud To Store And Save Files, Rod Rudd

Purdue Road School

Secure Clouds exist that allow sharing of files between collaborators without having to email those files as attachments. This session demonstrates how to setup a secure environment and how to use the facilities available to activate your cloud storage environment.

Canonical Wnt Signaling Induces Bmp-4 To Specify Slow Myofibrogenesis Of Fetal Myoblasts, Kazuki Kuroda, Shihuan Kuang, Makoto M. Taketo, Michael A. Rudnicki

Department of Animal Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

The Wnts are secreted proteins that play important roles in skeletal myogenesis, muscle fiber type diversification, neuromuscular junction formation and muscle stem cell function. How Wnt proteins orchestrate such diverse activities remains poorly understood. Canonical Wnt signaling stabilizes β-catenin, which subsequently translocate to the nucleus to activate the transcription of TCF/LEF family genes.

Methods

We employed TCF-reporter mice and performed analysis of embryos and of muscle groups. We further isolated fetal myoblasts and performed cell and molecular analyses.

Results

We found that canonical Wnt signaling is strongly activated during fetal myogenesis and weakly activated in adult muscles limited to …

Towards A Framework Of A Semiotics Of Dance, Nikoleta Popa Blanariu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Towards a Framework of a Semiotics of Dance" Nicoleta Popa Blanariu constructs a framework of based on de Saussure's, Peirce's, and Barthes's thought. She applies Ferdinand de Saussure's concept of semiosis defined as a cultural system of conventions. In dance this occurs when choreographic signs are encoded, for example in magic, ritual, or religious expressions of movement. Further, Charles Sanders Peirce's concept of the role of "intelligent consciousness" is crucial for the engendering of signification and thus to dance. In dance, the choreographer "interprets" the world and by means of selection and interpretation, the choreographic sign …

Ambanasom's Son Of The Native Soil And The Western Concept Of The Tragic Hero, Denis Fonge Tembong

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ambanasom's Son of the Native Soil and the Western Concept of the Tragic Hero" Denis Fonge Tembong discusses the view that although African and Western literatures are fundamentally different as they exhibit or represent distinct cultural values, they nevertheless share some common notions. The concept of a tragic hero is one of those convergent loci where the two literatures meet. With this in mind, Tembong examines in Aristotle's and Shakespeare's concepts of the tragic hero and demonstrates how the ideas exploited in Macbeth are similarly used in Shadrach A. Ambanasom's Son of the Native Soil against the …

2013 Directory Of Indiana State, County, City And Town Officials Responsible For Road And Street Work, Indiana Ltap

Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) Directory

Contact information for local agency officials and employees responsible for Indiana’s local road infrastructure.

Recognizing A Collective Inheritance Through The History Of Women In Computing, Erika E. Smith

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Recognizing a Collective Inheritance through the History of Women in Computing" Erika E. Smith engages with the following question: how might we create the space for women in the history of computing that is deserved? Even with the proliferation of social, political, and historical engagement with feminist theory and computing technology, there remains a lack of scholarship on the topic of women in the history of computing. Given the dearth of historical accounts on the role of women in computing, the task of delving into such history becomes necessary, although difficult. Smith's objective is to examine a …

Bibliography For Work In Digital Humanities And (Inter)Mediality Studies, Steven Tötösy De Zepetnek

CLCWeb Library

No abstract provided.

The Father's Power In Breitbach's Report On Bruno And Achebe's A Man Of The People, Amechi N. Akwanya

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The Father's Power in Breitbach's Report on Bruno and Achebe's A Man of the People" Amechi N. Akwanya analyses Joseph Breitbach's Report on Bruno and Chinua Achebe's No Longer at Ease in order to lay bare the underlying processes of these texts. Undoubtedly the patterns of struggle in the two texts are political, but reading them in exclusively political terms has the consequence that the works are of no further interest once the putative political agenda is identified and described. Akwanya's analysis discloses shared features in the two texts published within two years of each other. …

The Dilemma Of Western Education In Aidoo's Changes: A Love Story, Naylor's The Women Of Brewster Place, And Morrison's Beloved, Solomon Omatsola Azumurana

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The Dilemma of Western Education in Aidoo's Changes: A Love Story, Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place, and Morrison's Beloved" Solomon Omatsola Azumurana examines the problematics of Western education with regard to Black Africans and African Americans through the creative lens of three prose fictions written by African and African American women. While Ama Ata Aidoo is a West African writer from Ghana, Gloria Naylor and Toni Morrison are African American writers. Azumurana argues that Western education poses issues whether for African Americans of Black Africans and whether educated and literate or not, there …

Ecocriticism In An Age Of Terror, Simon C. Estok

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Ecocriticism in an Age of Terror" Simon C. Estok argues that we cannot ignore the context of terror in and through which ecocriticism works and that the relationships between the imagining of terror on the one hand and the conceptualizing of hostile environments on the other is in very serious need of critical analysis. Changes in how we think about nature are also long overdue, as are changes in how we think about doing ecocriticism. Working toward these changes now in our scholarship will take us leaps and bounds closer to the activist intervention about which ecocriticism …

The Egyptian Enlightenment And Mann, Freud, And Freund, Rebecca C. Dolgoy

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "The Egyptian Enlightenment and Mann, Freud, and Freund" Rebecca C. Dolgoy discusses various ways in which ancient Egypt is used in three works from the 1930s: Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, Sigmund Freud's Moses and Monotheism, and Karl Freund's film The Mummy. By showing the similarities and differences in how these works use Egypt, Dolgoy develops the concept that memory is the way in which the past is used. Dolgoy follows the structure of a cinematic shot casting: The Mummy as the long shot which both sets up the general Egyptomania characteristic of …

Text, Textile, And The Body In Baudelaire's 'A Une Mendiante Rousse' And Devi's Indian Tango, Michelle C. Lee

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Text, Textile, and the Body in Baudelaire's 'A une mendiante rousse' and Devi's Indian Tango," Michelle C. Lee aims to rethink the post-romantic division between aesthetics and politics through a reconsideration of the idea of complicity in Charles Baudelaire's poem and Ananda Devi's novel. Lee argues against the claim that aesthetics needs to remain autonomous in order to be able to radically critique bourgeois society. Through a reading of the trope of clothing in each of the texts, Lee re-evaluates the formation of autonomous modernist aesthetics and attempts to show that avant-garde self-reflexivity engages in the …

An Argument For Gender Equality In Africa, Cyril-Mary P. Olatunji

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "An Argument for Gender Equality in Africa" Cyril-Mary P. Olatunji addresses the problematics of gender inequality in Black African society. Many scholars working on African Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures have had something to say about the treatment of women and the topic of gender inequality in Africa. Some suggest(ed) that the roots of women's oppression are to be sought in customs and traditions and so despite of a legal system that guarantees women rights in Africa. Olatunji's objective is to advance the current discussion on the issue using the method of simple philosophical analysis, an argument from …

Frye's Thought And Its Implications For The Interpretation Of Nigerian Narratives, Ignatius Chukwumah

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Frye's Thought and Its Implications for the Interpretation of Nigerian Narratives" Ignatius Chukwumah applies Northrop Frye's theoretical work on archetypes, mythos, and modes for the analysis of Nigerian literature. Chukwumah's application in the interpretation of Nigerian literature results in the understanding that the hero as conceived by Frye is not exactly the same with Africa's or Nigeria's and requires that scholars and critics of African texts fill up the ellipses generated by Frye with an autochthonous, resistant, rewarding, African-related symbolic templates in order to make the sense of the hero in both traditional and postcolonial African/Nigerian literatures …

Sound Semiotics Of Osundare's Poetry, Christopher Chukwudi Anyokwu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Sound Semiotics of Osundare's Poetry" Christopher Anyokwu postulates that in our increasingly chirographically and typographically oriented culture and society, we often forget how tenacious and over-arching the oral continues to be. Semiotics, the science of signs, highlights among others how speech acts and speech sounds are deployed in everyday human interactions to convey meaning and communicate humanity's need for understanding and fulfillment. This meaning-signaling potential of the tonality of language is even more pronounced in most African languages which are, unlike English, syllable timed and tonal in nature. This tonal nature of African languages is appropriated by …

Racism And Identity In Onwueme's Riot In Heaven, Onyeka F. Iwuchukwu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Racism and Identity in Onwueme's Riot in Heaven" Onyeka Iwuchukwu explores Tess Osonye Onwueme's acclaimed play in the context of the Black diaspora in the U.S. Iwuchukwu posits that because of Onwueme's exploration of the theater of the absurd in the play, audience's attention is directed to the illogical presentation of dialogue and action. However, the technique with textual properties suggesting unmotivated and meaningless references in fact carries profound meaning. Further, the said "absurd" presentation and narration results in a strong ideological and political message akin to the practice of littérature engagée. Iwuchukwu's analysis of …

Achebe's Work, Postcoloniality, And Human Rights, Eric Sipyinyu Njeng

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Achebe's Work, Postcoloniality, and Human Rights" Eric Sipyinyu Njeng argues that Chinua Achebe exposes failings in the fabric of African society and engages with violations of human rights. Achebe is careful not to hurt the pride of Africans who in the Zeitgeist of the nationalist ferment of the 1950s were wary of European powers. Achebe does not "write back" to the empire: he writes the empire in and he lays bare the weaknesses in African culture grounded in the father-son-grandson trajectory he narrates. Achebe presents what may be termed a cultural dialectics: the thesis (flawed African customs …

Cross-Cultural Interpretation And Chinese Literature: A Book Review Article On Owen's Work In Sinology, Qingben Li, Jinghua Guo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.