Education Commons^™

A Case Study Of The Mathematical Learning Of Two Teachers Acquiring Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching, David R. Hartman

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

This study offers an analysis of the learning of practicing teachers as they acquire a deeper knowledge of mathematics. While some professional developers have shifted part of their focus to helping practicing teachers acquire a deeper knowledge of mathematics (e.g., Stein & Silver, 1996), the results from studies often describe what translates from the professional development experience into classroom practice and measureable gains in student achievement (e.g., Desimone et al., 2002). Studies showing improvements in pedagogy and student learning are important. However, studying what teachers are learning and how they learn is important in developing understanding of the content and …

The Cohomology Of Modules Over A Complete Intersection Ring, Jesse Burke

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

We investigate the cohomology of modules over commutative complete intersection rings. The first main result is that if M is an arbitrary module over a complete intersection ring R, and if one even self-extension module of M vanishes then M has finite projective dimension. The second main result gives a new proof of the fact that the support variety of a Cohen-Macaulay module whose completion is indecomposable is projectively connected.

Using Insects To Promote Science Inquiry In Elementary Classrooms, Douglas A. Golick, Tiffany M. Heng-Moss, Marion D. Ellis

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Nebraska public schools created Bugs in the Classroom, a professional development initiative with the goal of empowering teachers to use insects in science inquiry instruction in elementary classrooms. The initiative included workshops for elementary educators on science inquiry and teaching with insects. This paper includes a description of the workshop as well as an evaluation of the impact of the workshop on participating teachers' knowledge of scientific inquiry, entomology knowledge, and inquiry practice. Also included are recommendations for similar professional development activities.

Laboratory Earth: A Model Of Online K-12 Teacher Coursework, David Gosselin, Julie Thomas, Adrienne Redmond, Cindy S. Larson-Miller, Sara Yendra, Ronald J. Bonnstetter, Timothy F. Slater

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Laboratory Earth, a series of three NASA-Sponsored, on-line graduate courses for K-8 teachers, was designed to meet a variety of learning styles and appeal to teachers‟ motivation to learn the content and improve their teaching. This is especially important to teachers as they seek to demonstrate “highly qualified” status to meet No Child Left Behind standards. These graduate-level courses consist of four modules of two to four lessons each. Pre- and post-course surveys indicated significant increases in teachers‟ (n=51) content knowledge, science teaching efficacy beliefs (STEBI-A), sense of community within the course (LEO) and science teaching enjoyment (STES). Qualitative data …

Laboratory Earth: A Model Of Online K-12 Teacher Coursework, David C. Gosselin, Julie Thomas, Adrienne Redmond, Cindy Larson-Miller, Sara Yendra, Ronald J. Bonnstetter, Timothy F. Slater

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Laboratory Earth, a series of three NASA-sponsored, online graduate courses for K–8 teachers, was designed to meet a variety of learning styles and appeal to teachers “motivation to learn the content and improve their teaching.” This is especially important to teachers as they seek to demonstrate “highly qualified” status to meet No Child Left Behind standards. These graduate-level courses consist of four modules of two to four lessons each. Pre- and post-course surveys indicated significant increases in teachers “(n = 51) content knowledge, science teaching efficacy beliefs (STEBI-A), sense of community within the course (LEO), and science teaching …

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 …

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 …

Perfect Numbers:, Diana French

Department of Mathematics: Master's of Arts in Teaching, Exam Expository Papers

While this topic of “Perfect Numbers” was completely new to me (at least to the degree at which it is discussed within this paper,) I found it very intriguing and believe there is still much information and mathematical discovery in it for me. There were many historical points of interest, and I found it difficult to whittle them down to a manageable size for the intent of this paper. Likewise, there were many facts and peculiarities I found interesting and certainly worthy of consideration. However, to maintain anything close to a reasonable length of discussion as outlined in the guidelines …

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 …

Nebraskamath April 2010 Newsletter

NebraskaMATH Materials

Table of Contents

Identifying great teachers

NCTM: How to Ask Good Questions

Math Challenge Corner

Resources: WestEd

Minding the Excellence Gap

Build your skill set through NMSSI

NebraskaMATH Summer Calendar

Achieve report shows shift in education reform

All teachers fired at Rhode Island high school

Nebraska performs poorly in Race to the Top

Nebraskamath March 2010 Newsletter

NebraskaMATH Materials

Table of Contents

New developments in state standards

Happy Pi Day!

Highlight on Action Research

Resources: Paper Pool

Call for technology journal articles

NMSSI: Registration open

Harlem academy founder: ‘Invest in teachers’

Getting involved with MATHCOUNTS

NebraskaMATH Summer Calendar

Common Core Standards released to public

Summit on Math Education video

Statistics doctoral student wins award

Nebraskamath February 2010 Newsletter

NebraskaMATH Materials

NebraskaMATH February 2010 Newsletter

Table of Contents:

Study advocates charter schools

Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806)

Confidence, not gender, affects math abilities

Girls affected by female teachers’ math anxiety

Highlight on Action Research

Resources: Faster Isn’t Smarter

NMSSI Web site updated

NebraskaMATH Summer Calendar

NCTM president advises math in early childhood

Two advisory board members visit campus

Ncuwm Abstracts Brochure

Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics

12th Annual

Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics

January 29-31, 2010

A national showcase for research projects of undergraduate women in the mathematical sciences

Ncuwm Talk Abstracts 2010

Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics

Dr. Bryna Kra, Northwestern University

“From Ramsey Theory to Dynamical

Systems and Back”

Dr. Karen Vogtmann, Cornell University

“Ping-Pong in Outer Space”

Lindsay Baun, College of St. Benedict

Danica Belanus, University of North Dakota

Hayley Belli, University of Oregon

Tiffany Bradford, Saint Francis University

Kathryn Bryant, Northern Arizona University

Laura Buggy, College of St. Benedict

Katharina Carella, Ithaca College

Kathleen Carroll, Wheaton College

Elizabeth Collins-Wildman, Carleton College

Rebecca Dorff, Brigham Young University

Melisa Emory, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Avis Foster, George Mason University

Xiaojing Fu, Clarkson University

Jennifer Garbett, Kenyon College

Nicki Gaswick, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Rita Gnizak, Fort …

Ncuwm Poster Abstracts 2010

Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics

Twelfth Annual Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics

Poster Abstracts

January 29-31, 2010

Holly Arrowood, Furman University

Kristen Bretney, Loyola Marymount University

Suzanne Carter, University of Iowa

Nicole Casella, Ithaca College

Morgan Chatham, University of Montevallo

Lilith Ciccarelli, Bellarmine University

Amber Clinton, Clarkson University

Jalonda Coats, Tougaloo College

Natalie Coston, Northern Arizona University

Belinda Cruz, University of Texas Pan American

Anita Doerfler, Northern Arizona University

Clarice Dziak, Clarkson University

Terra Fox, Hope College

Samantha Fuller, Penn State University

April Harry, Xavier University of Louisiana

Anne Ho, Regis University

Rachel Keyser, Bellarmine University

Hannah Kolb, Illinois Institute of Technology

Lauren …

Niche Specialization And Conservation Biology Of Cicindela Nevadica Lincolniana, Tierney R. Brosius

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As with many organisms across the globe, Cicindela nevadica lincolniana is threatened with extinction. Understanding ecological factors that contribute to extinction vulnerability and what methods aid in the recovery of those species is essential in developing successful conservation programs. Here we examine behavioral mechanisms for niche partitioning along with improving techniques for captive rearing protocol and increasing public awareness about the conservation of this local insect. Ovipositional selectivity was examined for Cicindela nevadica lincolniana, Cicindela circumpicta, Cicindela togata, Cicindela punctulata, and Cicindela fulgida. Models reflect that these species of co-occurring tiger beetles select different ranges of salinity in which to …

Nebraskamath January 2010 Newsletter

NebraskaMATH Materials

NebraskaMATH January 2010 Newsletter

Table of Contents:

Obama expands STEM campaign

NMSSI courses for Summer 2010

Larson elected to NCTM board

Andrews nominated A+ Educator of Week

NebraskaMATH Summer Calendar

Math Challenge Corner

Resources: Math education for preschoolers

NMSSI Summer Calendar

Nominate K-6 teachers for presidential award

Class Notes For Math 953: Algebraic Geometry, Instructor Roger Wiegand, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

Topics include: Affine schemes and sheaves, morphisms, dimension theory, projective varieties, graded rings, Artin rings

Class Notes For Math 901/902: Abstract Algebra, Instructor Tom Marley, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

Topics include: Free groups and presentations; Automorphism groups; Semidirect products; Classification of groups of small order; Normal series: composition, derived, and solvable series; Algebraic field extensions, splitting fields, algebraic closures; Separable algebraic extensions, the Primitive Element Theorem; Inseparability, purely inseparable extensions; Finite fields; Cyclotomic field extensions; Galois theory; Norm and trace maps of an algebraic field extension; Solvability by radicals, Galois' theorem; Transcendence degree; Rings and modules: Examples and basic properties; Exact sequences, split short exact sequences; Free modules, projective modules; Localization of (commutative) rings and modules; The prime spectrum of a ring; Nakayama's lemma; Basic category theory; The Hom …

Class Notes For Math 918: Homological Conjectures, Instructor Tom Marley, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

This course was an overview of what are known as the “Homological Conjectures,” in particular, the Zero Divisor Conjecture, the Rigidity Conjecture, the Intersection Conjectures, Bass’ Conjecture, the Superheight Conjecture, the Direct Summand Conjecture, the Monomial Conjecture, the Syzygy Conjecture, and the big and small Cohen Macaulay Conjectures. Many of these are shown to imply others.

This document contains notes for a course taught by Tom Marley during the 2009 spring semester at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The notes loosely follow the treatment given in Chapters 8 and 9 of Cohen-Macaulay Rings, by W. Bruns and J. Herzog, although many …

Class Notes For Math 915: Homological Algebra, Instructor Tom Marley, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

Topics covered are: Complexes, homology, direct and inverse limits, Tor, Ext, and homological dimensions. Also, Koszul homology and cohomology.

Class Notes For Math 918: Cohen Macaulay Modules, Instructor Roger Wiegand, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

Topics covered are: Cohen Macaulay modules, zero-dimensional rings, one-dimensional rings, hypersurfaces of finite Cohen-Macaulay type, complete and henselian rings, Krull-Remak-Schmidt, Canonical modules and duality, AR sequences and quivers, two-dimensional rings, ascent and descent of finite Cohen Macaulay type, bounded Cohen Macaulay type.

Class Notes For Math 921/922: Real Analysis, Instructor Mikil Foss, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

Topics include: Semicontinuity, equicontinuity, absolute continuity, metric spaces, compact spaces, Ascoli’s theorem, Stone Weierstrass theorem, Borel and Lebesque measures, measurable functions, Lebesque integration, convergence theorems, L^p spaces, general measure and integration theory, Radon- Nikodyn theorem, Fubini theorem, Lebesque-Stieltjes integration, Semicontinuity, equicontinuity, absolute continuity, metric spaces, compact spaces, Ascoli’s theorem, Stone Weierstrass theorem, Borel and Lebesque measures, measurable functions, Lebesque integration, convergence theorems, L^p spaces, general measure and integration theory, Radon-Nikodyn theorem, Fubini theorem, Lebesque-Stieltjes integration.

Class Notes For Math 918: Local Cohomology, Instructor Tom Marley, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

Topics include: Injective Module, Basic Properties of Local Cohomology Modules, Local Cohomology as a Cech Complex, Long exact sequences on Local Cohomology, Arithmetic Rank, Change of Rings Principle, Local Cohomology as a direct limit of Ext modules, Local Duality, Chevelley’s Theorem, Hartshorne- Lichtenbaum Vanishing Theorem, Falting’s Theorem.

Class Notes For Math 871: General Topology, Instructor Jamie Radcliffe, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

Topics include: Topological space and continuous functions (bases, the product topology, the box topology, the subspace topology, the quotient topology, the metric topology), connectedness (path connected, locally connected), compactness, completeness, countability, filters, and the fundamental group.

Class Notes For Math 905: Commutative Algebra, Instructor Sylvia Wiegand, Laura Lynch

Department of Mathematics: Class Notes and Learning Materials

Topics include: Rings, ideals, algebraic sets and affine varieties, modules, localizations, tensor products, intersection multiplicities, primary decomposition, the Nullstellensatz

Properties Of The Generalized Laplace Transform And Transport Partial Dynamic Equation On Time Scales, Chris R. Ahrendt

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this dissertation, we first focus on the generalized Laplace transform on time scales. We prove several properties of the generalized exponential function which will allow us to explore some of the fundamental properties of the Laplace transform. We then give a description of the region in the complex plane for which the improper integral in the definition of the Laplace transform converges, and how this region is affected by the time scale in question. Conditions under which the Laplace transform of a power series can be computed term-by-term are given. We develop a formula for the Laplace transform for …

Test 1974: John Deere 6100d, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …

Test 1977: Massey Ferguson 2670hd, Nebraska Tractor Test Lab

Nebraska Tractor Tests

ABOUT THE TEST REPORT AND USE OF THE DATA The test data contained in this report are a tabulation of the results of a series of tests. Due to the restricted format of these pages, only a limited amount of data and not all of the tractor specifications are included. The full OECD report contains usually about 30 pages of data and specifications. The test data were obtained for each tractor under similar conditions and therefore, provide a means of comparison of performance based on a limited set of reported data. EXPLANATION OF THE TEST PROCEDURES Purpose The purpose of …