Education Commons^™

Earth Systems Lesson Plan: Size And Forces Of The Solar System, Getaway Special Team 2010

Education and Outreach

No abstract provided.

Elementary And Middle School Science Lesson Plan: Solid, Liquid, Gas, What Is It?, Getaway Special Team 2010

Education and Outreach

No abstract provided.

Faculty Success: Developing A Research And Publication Agenda, Kathleen P. King

Leadership, Counseling, Adult, Career and Higher Education Faculty Publications

Anyone associated with higher education will acknowledge that tenure track faculty have to perform a fantastic balancing act. Compared to an administrative or line role in an organization, higher education faculty have tremendous autonomy and freedom. However, they face competing demands of many different (and good) opportunities, and for them the stakes are always high. Help is here! This article introduces a powerful strategy for staying on track in the research strand of this competitive journey.

Creative Exercises In General Chemistry: A Student-Centered Assessment, Scott E. Lewis, Janet L. Shaw, Kathryn A. Freeman

Faculty and Research Publications

Creative exercises (CEs) are a form of assessment in which students are given a prompt and asked to write down as many distinct, correct, and relevant facts about the prompt as they can. Students receive credit for each fact that they include that is related to the prompt and distinct from the other facts they list. With CEs, students have an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and the opportunity to select the information that they believe is related to the prompt. In addition, CEs encourage students to connect concepts because any relevant information presented can assist them in completing the …

Physics Lesson Plan: How Far And Fast Does It Travel?, Getaway Special Team 2010

Education and Outreach

No abstract provided.

Education In The Environment: A Strategy For Continued Interagency Outdoor Education Programming Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending August 31, 2010, Margaret N. Rees

Reports (PLI Education)

Highlights of the university’s focused efforts during the past three months include the following:

• One Families in Nature event was held, benefiting approximately 40 people.
• A media campaign has been developed for the Nevada Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights.
• A total of 18 people are participating in the fourth cohort of the Nevada State Certification in Environmental Education and Interpretation.
• An RV has been purchased for the SNAP Mobile Exhibit and is in process of being retrofitted.
• Forever Earth was scheduled for 16 days and benefited 425 individuals.
• The National Park Service used Forever Earth as a mobile visitor center …

Is Competition Making A Comeback? Discovering Methods To Keep Female Adolescents Engaged In Stem: A Phenomenological Approach, Kathryn B. Notter

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The decreasing number of women who are graduating in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields continues to be a major concern. Despite national support in the form of grants provided by National Science Foundation, National Center for Information and Technology and legislation passed such as the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that encourages women to enter the STEM fields, the number of women actually graduating in these fields is surprisingly low. This research study focuses on a robotics competition and its ability to engage female adolescents in STEM curricula. Data have been collected to help explain why young …

Choosing Management Information Systems As A Major: Understanding The Smifactors For Mis, Thomas W. Ferratt, Stephen R. Hall, Jayesh Prasad, Donald E. Wynn

MIS/OM/DS Faculty Publications

Given declining management information systems (MIS) enrollments at our university, we seek to understand our students‘ selection of a major. Prior studies have found that students choose a major based on a number of factors, with subject matter interest consistently being most important. We contribute to the literature by developing a deeper understanding of what is meant by subject matter interest, which we refer to as smiFactors, for MIS as a major and career. Based on a qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions completed by undergraduate business students, we confirm a number of smiFactors for MIS gleaned from recent studies …

Applications Of Linear Programming To Coding Theory, Nathan Axvig

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Maximum-likelihood decoding is often the optimal decoding rule one can use, but it is very costly to implement in a general setting. Much effort has therefore been dedicated to find efficient decoding algorithms that either achieve or approximate the error-correcting performance of the maximum-likelihood decoder. This dissertation examines two approaches to this problem.

In 2003 Feldman and his collaborators defined the linear programming decoder, which operates by solving a linear programming relaxation of the maximum-likelihood decoding problem. As with many modern decoding algorithms, is possible for the linear programming decoder to output vectors that do not correspond to codewords; such …

Vanishing Of Ext And Tor Over Complete Intersections, Olgur Celikbas

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Let (R,m) be a local complete intersection, that is, a local ring whose m-adic completion is the quotient of a complete regular local ring by a regular sequence. Let M and N be finitely generated R-modules. This dissertation concerns the vanishing of Tor(M, N) and Ext(M, N). In this context, M satisfies Serre's condition (S_{n}) if and only if M is an nth syzygy. The complexity of M is the least nonnegative integer r such that the nth Betti number of M is bounded by a polynomial of degree r-1 for all sufficiently large n. We use this notion of …

Hrc Enews — 2010 Summer, Megan K. Svarz

Publications (HRC)

This issue contains staff accomplishments and announcements, event listings, and a "new faces" listing for new staff, affiliates, and researchers.

The Sixth International Mathematics Education And Society Conference: Finding Freedom In A Mathematics Education Ghetto, David W. Stinson

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Faculty Publications

In this editorial, the author relates his experiences at the Sixth International Mathematics Education and Society Conference, held March 2010 in Berlin, Germany, and explores whether urban mathematics educators can navigate historically marginalized racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, gendered, sexual, intellectual, and other communities to find freedom in a what he sees as a "mathematics education ghetto."

The Nuts And Bolts: A Review Of Culturally Specific Pedagogy In The Mathematics Classroom: Strategies For Teachers And Students, Shonda Lemons-Smith

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Faculty Publications

The author reviews Jacqueline Leonard's Culturally Specific Pedagogy in the Mathematics Classroom: Strategies for Teachers and Students.

Collaborative Evaluative Inquiry: A Model For Improving Mathematics Instruction In Urban Elementary Schools, Iman C. Chahine, Lesa M. Covington Clarkson

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Faculty Publications

In this article, the authors describe the cyclical process of a collaborative evaluative inquiry project and the data collected throughout the project—data that not only informed "next steps" during the project but also show promise in documenting the benefits of such projects. Over a period of 18 months, seven elementary teachers from a K–6 urban elementary school collaborated with university personnel using Parsons’s (2002) Evaluative Inquiry Model, a 5-stage, cyclical model that includes defining, planning, and investigating challenges; collecting, analyzing, and synthesizing data; and communicating findings that transpire through collaborative inquiry. Overall, the project focused on improving the elementary teachers’ …

Where In The World? Demographic Patterns In Access Data, Mimi Recker, Beijie Xu, Sherry Hsi, Christine Garrard

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Standard webmetrics tools record the IP address of users’ computers, thereby providing fodder for analyses of their geographical location, and for understanding the impact of e-learning and teaching. Here we describe how two web-based educational systems were engineered to collect geo-referenced data. This is followed by a description of joining these data with demographic and educational datasets for the United States, and mapping different datasets using geographic information system (GIS) techniques to visually display their relationships. Results from statistical analyses of these relationships that highlight areas of significance are given.

Environmental Science, Its Importance And Integration, Sultan Alam

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

No abstract provided.

Interview With Marisa Ferro, Portland State University, 2010 (Audio), Marisa Ferro

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Marisa Ferro by Hamza Sherwani at Portland State University on June 1st, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

On The Characteristic Polynomial Of Regular Linear Matrix Pencil, Yan Wu, Phillip Lorren

Department of Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

Linear matrix pencil, denoted by (A,B), plays an important role in control systems and numerical linear algebra. The problem of finding the eigenvalues of (A,B) is often solved numerically by using the well-known QZ method. Another approach for exploring the eigenvalues of (A,B) is by way of its characteristic polynomial, P(λ)=A − λB. There are other applications of working directly with the characteristic polynomial, for instance, using Routh-Hurwitz analysis to count the stable roots of P(λ) and transfer function representation of control systems governed by differential-algebraic equations. In this paper, we …

Education In The Environment: A Strategy For Continued Interagency Outdoor Education Programming: Fourth Quarter Progress Report With Annual Report: Period Ending May 31, 2010, Margaret N. Rees

Reports (PLI Education)

Highlights of the university’s focused efforts during the past three months include the following:

• An Evaluation Report was produced for the Families in Nature program.
• The report “Reaching SNAP Audiences: Documenting the number of people reached through environmental education and interpretation programs and activities has been produced.
• Two Families in Nature field trips benefitted 85 people.
• Exhibit IQ, an exhibit design company, has been retained to develop an exhibit design plan, prepare the RV, and fabricate and install exhibits.
• Forever Earth was scheduled on 49 days involving 1639 individuals.
• Discover Mojave Outdoor World conducted 16 events for 333 participants.

President Higdon's 92nd Commencement Address, Leo I. Higdon, Jr.

Commencement Addresses

President Higdon tells graduates they are graduating at a pivotal time in U.S. history – indeed, in the history of the world. In a global economic upheaval, traditional companies and organizations seek to redefine themselves and the work they do. Increasingly, they will look to this generation, and specifically to liberal arts graduates, for answers whose comprehensive education has given them the qualities to succeed in the global arena. They are graduating at an important point in Connecticut College’s history, with a Centennial Celebration ahead that will involve them and all the College community, honoring the College’s legacy of excellence …

Wind Energy Workforce Development: A Roadmap To A Sustainable Wind Industry, Ian Baring-Gould, Marguerite Kelly

Publications (E)

As the United States moves toward greatly expanded wind energy use, the need for skilled workers at all industry levels has been repeatedly identified as a critical issue. Additionally, if the industry and nation wish to capitalize on this rapid industry growth by becoming a major international green technology exporter, reversing current educational trends away from science, engineering, and technical skills must be achieved.

This poster provides an overview of the educational infrastructure and expected industry needs through a discussion of the activities to train workers while addressing issues for each of the education sectors, leading to the development of …

Spinning Tubes: An Authentic Research Experience In A Three-Hour Laboratory, Arnold E. Sikkema, Steven D. Steenwyk, John Zwart

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

We discuss a three-hour laboratory that is a microcosm of physics research, starting with the discovery of an intriguing phenomenon, and including participation in “research conferences” and the interplay of theory and experiment. Students are given a small segment of PVC pipe marked at opposite ends with different symbols and asked to observe what happens when the pipe is placed on a horizontal surface and one end is pushed downward by a finger to initiate a rotation. Most students immediately recognize that the symbol at one end is visible while the other is not, and set about trying to understand …

Global Project Management: Pedagogy For Distributed Teams, Benjamin Kok Siew Gan, Randy Weinberg, Selma Limam Mansar

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper reflects on pedagogy for teaching collaborative global projects across universities in different countries. Over a period of four years, students at three universities - one in the United States, one in Singapore and one in the Middle East - enrolled in a course called "Global Project Management". In this course, coordinated across locations, students experience a global project with distant team members. We describe the course experience and student perceptions of the requisite skills, collaboration tools and challenges bearing on effective global project work.

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Spring 2010, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Each student in his or her senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. The senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real-world solution to an engineering challenge.

A highlight of the year-long senior design project is the senior design competition. This competition, which usually takes place the week before finals each semester, helps focus the senior students on increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects.

Judges from local industry evaluate the projects on innovation, commercial …

Youth Initiative Hector’S Helpers: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Covering February 11, 2010 – April 15, 2011, Hector's Helpers

Anti-littering Programs

The third quarter has progressed with the Hector’s Helpers program. We took action with hands-on classroom activities and lead three clean-up field trips. Students learned how to protect public lands in Southern Nevada through our anti-litter and desert dumping initiative. West Career Technical Academy students completed various GIS projects and finished the Adopt-A-Block Handbook. The Hector’s Helpers staff also submitted a formal proposal to study pre- and post-program surveys of students participating in the Hector's Helpers program.

Mathematical Modeling Of Optimal Seasonal Reproductive Strategies And A Comparison Of Long-Term Viabilities Of Annuals And Perennials, Anthony Delegge

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 1954, Lamont Cole posed a question which has motivated much ecological work in the past 50 years: When is the life history strategy of semelparity (organisms reproduce once, then die) favored, via evolution, over iteroparity (organisms may reproduce multiple times in their lifetime)? Although common sense should dictate that iteroparity would always be favored, we can observe that this is not always the case, since annual plants are not only prevalent, but can dominate an area. Also, certain plant species may be perennial in one region, but annual in another. Thus, in these areas, certain characteristics must be present …

Predictive Modeling Of Alumni Donor Behavior, Lauren Prue

Honors Projects in Mathematics

In recent years, college and universities have relied increasingly upon the charitable contributions of its previous graduates; as the costs of tuition rise substantially, development offices are facing the challenge of creating annual fund campaigns that are minimally expensive while providing the maximum potential for return. This study addresses the available constituent database at one University in particular in an effort to identify what criteria are the strongest predictors of donor response at a small, private university located within New England. The analysis utilized predictive modeling and data-mining largely within the software program Rapid Insight to build several models in …

Hrc Enews — 2010 Spring, Megan K. Svarz

Publications (HRC)

This issue contains staff accomplishments and announcements, event listings, a "new faces" listing for new staff, affiliates, and researchers, and an "of interest" section.

Unlv Magazine, Cate Weeks, Tony Allen, Shane Bevell, Diane Russell, Brendan Buhler, Afsha Bawany, Erin O'Donnell

UNLV Magazine

No abstract provided.

Education In The Environment: A Strategy For Continued Interagency Outdoor Education Programming: Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending February 28, 2010, Margaret N. Rees

Reports (PLI Education)

Highlights of the university’s focused efforts during the past three months include the following:

• A total of 56 people participated in a Families in Nature event at the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area
• More than 225 people are expected to attend the Our Places Tell Stories Conference, February 24 -27, 2010
• Forever Earth was scheduled for 19 days this quarter and benefited 622 individuals.
• Nine Discover Mojave Outdoor World events were conducted for 199 participants.