Digital Commons Network^™

Selecting U.S. Senators By The Original Method: Intersecting Mathematics And Social Studies, Bonnie H. Litwiller, David R. Duncan

Faculty Work

Mathematics teachers are concerned with incorporating connections with other academic areas in their mathematics curriculum. Social science provides a rich source of data which can be collected, organized, and interpreted by mathematics students. These data become of particular interest to many students if they involve political questions and processes.

Risk Classification And Ratemaking In Insurance, Erin Conrad

Honors Program Theses

Actuaries in insurance companies strive to put a price tag on future risk. They use a variety of analyses and models to accurately price insurance products. Models discussed in this paper include the pure premium method, the loss ratio method, the minimum bias procedure, and generalized linear models. Each of these pricing mechanisms are used to determine accurate and actuarially sound rates for insurance products. Competition in the industry forces companies to find more refined ways to predict the future costs of a risk. Classification systems allow companies to include a variety of rating variables so that each risk is …

Research Mentors' Perspectives On Scientist-Teacher Partnerships, Andrea Van Waardhuizen

Honors Program Theses

Research A venues for Iowa's Science Educators [ RAISE] is a six week summer research program at the University of Northern Iowa for middle and high school science teachers. The teachers conduct scientific research under the supervision of a faculty mentor who regularly conducts his/her own research. In the past, only outcomes for the teacher fellows were evaluated. This study begins to examine the outcomes for faculty mentors.

A Fundamental Region On Two Copies Of The Hyperbolic Plane, Alyssa Jesse Soenksen

Honors Program Theses

Hyperbolic geometry is a beautiful, non-Euclidean space that hosts spectacular patterns and infinite designs. To learn about this space, this paper will focus on how linear fractional transformations act on this space and the patterns that reveal themselves. To expand on this, I will construct a fundamental domain under these mappings and explore the coding of closed geodesics on the fundamental domain, which requires an understanding of continued fractions. My research will then be applied to two copies of the hyperbolic plane. My goal is to understand fundamental regions in this space and eventually the geodesics.

This paper is intended …

Debian Clusters For Education And Research: The Missing Manual, Kristina Wanous

Honors Program Theses

Debian Clusters for Education and Research: The Missing Manual [4], or just "Debian Clusters" for short, meets the needs of this growing group of people. The Debian Clusters project is an online resource for anyone wishing to set up a cluster, particularly for those using Debian as the operating system. It features detailed step-by-step tutorials for every part of cluster setup and administration. In order to be accessible to people new to clusters, the walkthroughs assume no previous knowledge of clustering or networking and explain the principles and vocabulary behind the steps, yet are complex and detailed enough to be …

Fundamental Stock Market Analysis Tool, Rakshith Varadaraju

Honors Program Theses

There are many sources for stock market information and an investor can tap into the television or online media to sync up with current market news. Popular sources are news channels such as CNBC or CNN who spend the better part of the day evaluating the stock market. The internet is filled with a wealth of data ranging from historical to current market information. Added to this information are countless websites that make predictions on what stocks should be bought or sold. The challenge with all of this information is to figure out which sources are actually valid and can …

Application Of Blast-Based Techniques For Musical Information Retrieval, Fedor Aleksandrovich Korsakov

Honors Program Theses

Content retrieval in musical collections has been dependent on textual metadata (e.g. ID3 tags) which can present problems when the title of a piece is forgotten, misspelled, or when the search revolves around the similarity of sound. Content-based MIR (musical information retrieval) could offer an alternative. BLAST (basic local alignment search tool), an algorithm widely used in bioinformatics to search for sequences of aminoacids within longer sequences, seeks similarities and homologies, which makes it interesting for MIR, because musical information can be expected to be imprecise, and because homologies can allow to draw connections between musical pieces. Increased availability of …

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V04n4, Winter 2008, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--IAS NWR Website

--Science: Our Past and Future

--Iowa Academy of Science Fellows

--IAS Board Retreat

--Announcements, Events & Deadlines

--Spotlight on Des Moines University

--Iowa Academy of Science Membership Overview

--ISTJ—Practical Science Education Applications from Iowans to the World

Specification And Automatic Code Generation Of The Data Layer For Data-Intensive Web-Based Applications, Sergei Golitsinski

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In this thesis I propose a new code generation approach to developing data-intensive web-based applications. I hypothesize that it is possible to build a code generator which will significantly improve development of data-intensive web-based applications by generating at least 50% of the data access code based on a specification of the application's data model. My main argument is that the application's data model is sufficient for deriving most of the data access functionality. To test this hypothesis I designed a data definition language, came up with a set of rules for deriving data access operations from the application's data model, …

Going Beyond Cookbook Labs : Computer-Based Laboratory Tools In The High School Physics Classroom, Jennifer A. Strohbehn

Graduate Research Papers

Physics education is currently undergoing a face lift. The lecture should no longer be the primary mode of instruction because students are not actively participating. For effective learning to occur, the students need to be engaged, not passive listeners (Knight, 2005). Student-centered classrooms are becoming more common, but there is still work to be done. For a student-centered classroom to be effective, the students must construct their own understanding with the teacher acting as a 'guide. Physics instructors are responsible .for .making the classroom a user friendly environment for students to explore the basic concepts of physics and to develop …

Analysis Of Leaf Development In Ampelopsis Cordata And Ampelopsis Arborea (Vitaceae), Benjamin Grant Doughan

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The genus Ampelopsis is a member of the Vitaceae. Ampelopsis cordata Michx. and Ampelopsis arborea (L.) Koehne are the only two North American species of Ampelopsis. A recent molecular phylogenetic hypothesis placed them into two different clades (Soejima and Wen, 2006). This is correlated with mature leaf morphology, i.e. A. cordata has simple leaves, and A. arborea has compound leaves. My objective was to compare the two species leaf development from initiation to mature form to determine how and at what point their developmental trajectory differentiates and to establish a method to sufficiently track leaf development. Bpi-illumination light microscopy was …

A Case Study Of A Rural Iowa School Preparing To Meet New State Guidelines For School Libraries [Dissertation], Karla Steege Krueger

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The national school library guidelines place the greatest emphasis upon the teaching and learning component of school library programs led by professional school librarians. Despite findings linking school library programming, including instruction by professional school librarians, to increased student achievement on standardized tests and improved content learning through student inquiry using library resources, the importance of the instructional role of the school librarian remains largely unrecognized by administrators and teachers.

A qualitative case study of one rural Iowa elementary school provided insight into the issue of small schools without library programs as they are preparing to meet the Iowa reinstatement …

Synthesis And Characterization Of New Luminescent Late Transition Metal Complexes Containing The Tridentate 1,3-Di(N-Pyrazolyl)-4,6-Dimethyl Benzene Ligand, Brian Christopher Gruver

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The tridentate 1,3-di(N-pyrazolyl) benzene L 1 was synthesized from dibromobenzene and pyrazole. When reacted with K2PtC14 and IrCl3 the asymmetric complexes (µ-Cl)2(PtL1 )2 and (µ-Cl)2[lr L12]2 were obtained. The tridentate l ,3- dimethyl-4,6-(di-N-pyrazolyl) benzene ligand L2 , was synthesized from di-bromo-mxylene and pyrazole. The ligand was reacted with K2PtC14 to give L2 PtCl. Further reaction with phenylacetylene led to the air sensitive acetylide complex L2 PtC=C(C6H5). L2 PtCl could also be reacted with AgOTf in acetonitrile to give [L2 PtN=CCH3] OTf. Reaction with other late transition metals led to the di-chloro bridged iridium dimer (µ-Cl)2[L 2IrCl]2 and the square planar …

Surface Temperature Mapping Of The University Of Northern Iowa Campus Using High Resolution Thermal Infrared Aerial Imagery, Alexander Savelyev

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The goal of this study was to produce and analyze a heat loss map of the University of the Northern Iowa campus using thermal infrared remote sensing data. Aerial data with the spatial resolution of 0.29m and radiometric resolution of 14 bit was collected. A model for the pixel to radiance and temperature conversion was developed with its parameters estimated with an R² of 0.78. Temperature imagery was shown to be consistent over the time of the survey and accurate to within 12°C. The temperature map then was used to assess the conditions of the rooftops and steam pipelines …

Reframed Teacher Leadership: A Narrative Inquiry, Cynthia L. Kenyon

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Teacher leadership has been in schools from the time teachers rang the school bells. Three waves of teacher leadership have been examined. The first wave focused on formal managerial positions such as department chairs, the second wave focused on curriculum and staff development, and the third wave focused on daily acts of collaboration to solve problems and provide professional development activities for staffs. This study explored the third wave practice of teacher leaders in a qualitative study focusing on the narratives of 11 teacher leaders.

A narrative of lives format was used to study leadership experiences. A pilot study was …

Does Content Knowledge Matter In Scoring Teacher Work Samples?: A Study Of Rater Differences, Yana A. Cornish

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The study examines the role of rater characteristics in the assessment of teacher practice as presented in Renaissance Teacher Work Samples (RTWS). The study analyzed ratings of 10 teacher work samples submitted by teacher candidates at the University of Northern Iowa between Fall 2000 and Spring 2004. These teacher work samples, created in the area of Spanish language learning at 7-11 grade levels, were analyzed to determine the impact of content expertise, amount of teaching experience, and previous RTWS rating experience on reviewer's ratings. Three study questions form the foundation for the investigation:

(1) Is there a significant difference between …

Fall Commencement [Program], December 15, 2007, University Of Northern Iowa

UNI Commencement Programs

The program of the commencement ceremonies, including a list of institutional leadership, a list of the departments by college, awards given at the ceremonies, and a list of undergraduate and graduate degree candidates.

University Of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda, November 26, 2007, University Of Northern Iowa. Faculty Senate.

Documents - Faculty Senate

Meeting agenda from the Faculty Senate of the University of Northern Iowa.

Ists E-Newsletter, November 15, 2007, Iowa Academy Of Science

ISTS Newsletter

In this issue:

--Message from the ISTS Chair, Traci Maxted

--Message from the Fall Conference Chair, Gale Vermeulen

--Message from the Vice Chair, Morgan Masters

--Observations of a Well-Seasoned Middle School Science Teacher

--Your ISTS Leadership Team

University Of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, November 12, 2007, University Of Northern Iowa. Faculty Senate.

Documents - Faculty Senate

Meeting minutes from the Faculty Senate of the University of Northern Iowa.

University Of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate Meeting Agenda, October 22, 2007, University Of Northern Iowa. Faculty Senate.

Documents - Faculty Senate

Meeting agenda from the Faculty Senate of the University of Northern Iowa.

Minutes Of Graduate College Curriculum Committee, October 10, 2007, University Of Northern Iowa. Graduate College Curriculum Committee.

Minutes - Graduate Curriculum Committee

Minutes of the committee that oversees the development of the curriculum of the University of Northern Iowa Graduate College.

University Of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes, October 8, 2007, University Of Northern Iowa. Faculty Senate.

Documents - Faculty Senate

Meeting minutes from the Faculty Senate of the University of Northern Iowa.

Minutes Of Graduate College Curriculum Committee, October 3, 2007, University Of Northern Iowa. Graduate College Curriculum Committee.

Minutes - Graduate Curriculum Committee

Minutes of the committee that oversees the development of the curriculum of the University of Northern Iowa Graduate College.

Uni Schedule Of Classes, Fall 2007, University Of Northern Iowa

UNI Schedule of Classes

A listing and schedule of the courses being taught as well as policies and procedures concerning attending classes at the University of Northern Iowa.

Instruction Size Report, Fall 2007, University Of Northern Iowa

Institutional Effectiveness & Planning Documents

Gives breakdowns of student credit hours offered by status of instructor, average class size overall, and average class size by status of instructor.

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V03n3, Autumn 2007, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--Iowa Science Teachers Section Fall Conference

--Myrle Burk Scholarship Winners

--Project WET Update

--Academy Awards

--Opportunities for Learning

--ISTS Fall Conference Workshops

--Increasing Academy Membership and Recognition Across the State

--Financial Statement

Earth News, V31, Fall 2007, Department Of Earth Science, University Of Northern Iowa.

Earth News

Inside this issue:

--- Earth Science Staff Activities
--- Emeritus Faculty/Staff
--- Earth Science Open House
--- Earth Science Advisory Board
--- Fall 2006 Quarry Open House Features Dedication
--- Sigma Gamma Epsilon 40th Biennial Convention Held at UNI
--- Sigma Gamma Epsilon - Gamma Sigma Chapter
--- Spring Break 2007 Field Course: Geology and Natural History of Big Bend National Park
--- Earth Science Seminar Series
--- Majors in the Earth Science Department
--- Scholarship and Award Recipients
--- Student Internships
--- Student Research Presentations
--- 2007 Earth Science Graduates
--- CF Native Spends Three Years Sailing South Pacific …

Student Profile, Fall Semester 2007, University Of Northern Iowa

Institutional Effectiveness & Planning Documents

Contents:

--- Preface
--- Profile Summary
--- Section I: Total Student Enrollment for Fall Semester 2007
--- Section II: New Students Entering UNI Fall Semester 2007
--- Section III: Miscellaneous

Faculty Tenure Report, Fall 2007, University Of Northern Iowa. Office Of Institutional Research.

Institutional Effectiveness & Planning Documents

Statistical report showing the number of faculty that are tenured, on the tenure track, or not on the tenure track, broken down by college, department, gender, minority status, and if full or part time.