I conducted a case study to observe three art classes at various campuses throughout Austin, Texas in order to observe how art criticism methods were used to guide classroom discussions about contemporary art. By engaging in art criticism in the classroom, an instructor can ultimately enrich the teaching and learning of art. They can also assist students in learning to subjectively evaluate images from their everyday lives, reinforcing the value placed on thoughtful description through art education. Learning how to turn an evaluation from a judgmental and careless acceptance or dismissal into a thoughtful analysis can suspend indifference and re-invigorate the potential educational aspect of time spent in the art classroom and expand the scope of learning outside the arena of art. The value of using contemporary art for these evaluations, as opposed to more traditionally recognized artists, enables the art lessons to become integrated into a social and cultural context and can integrate social studies, political science, and any number of other concentrations into arts education. / text

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Computing and Information Sciences / Eugene Vasserman / Computer science departments face numerous challenges. Enrollment over the past 15 years reached an all-time high, endured a rapid decline and is now experiencing a just as rapid rebound. Meanwhile, demand for graduates continues to grow at an incredible rate. This is especially true in specialized sub-fields such as cybersecurity, where employers are constantly working to keep up with changing technology and new threats emerging on a daily basis. My research consists of two main objectives. The rst is gauging the ability of pre-service teachers from non-STEM areas of study to introduce and utilize computing concepts in a classroom setting. The second goal is to develop an assessment tool that enables improvements in quality of education for students within cybersecurity courses. Currently, few K-12 school districts in the United States o er stand-alone courses in computer science. My work shows that pre-service teachers in non-STEM areas are capable of effectively introducing basic concepts to students using modern software development tools while exploring content within their own areas of expertise. Survey results indicate that student interest and self-efficacy increased when they were taught by these pre-service teachers. I also found that with only 2 hours of experience, pre-service teachers enrolled in an education technology course showed dramatic increases in interest and confidence related to using this technology. These two findings demonstrate that there are potential ways to increase interest in computing among a broad student population at the K-12 level without changing core curriculum requirements. Even when students choose to enter computer science departments, a large number do not remain within the program. The second portion of my research focuses on developing an assessment tool for measuring student interest and self-efficacy in cybersecurity courses. Using information gleaned from a series of interviews with cybersecurity students, I developed, and performed the initial testing of, a survey instrument which measures these 2 values. Initial results show that the survey responses were very different between a group of introductory programming students and those enrolled in a cybersecurity course and that general trends in both self-efficacy and interest among theses differing student populations can be observed

<div> <p>In order to achieve broadening participation in computer science and other careers related to computing, middle school classrooms should provide students opportunities (tasks) to think like a computer scientist. Researchers in computing education promote the idea that programming skill should not be a pre-requisite for students to display computational thinking (CT). Thus, some tasks that aim to deliberately elicit students’ CT competency should be stand-alone tasks rather than coding fluency-oriented tasks. Guided by this approach, this assessment design process began by examining national standards in CT. A Q-matrix (i.e., item–attribute alignment table) was then developed and modified using (a) literature in CT, (b) input from subject-matter experts, and (c) cognitive interviews with a small sample of students. After multiple-choice item prototypes were written, pilot-tested, and revised, 15 of them were finally selected to be administered to 564 students in two middle schools in the Mid-western US. Through cognitive diagnostic modeling, the estimation results yielded mastery classifications or subscores that can be used diagnostically by teachers. The results help teachers facilitate students’ <i>mastery orientations</i>, that is, to address the gap between what students know and what students need to know in order to meet desired learning goals. By equipping teachers with a diagnostic classification based assessment, this research has the capacity to inform instruction which, in turn, will enrich students’ learning experience in CT. </p> </div> <br>

The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), one of the nations leading engineering schools, has limited institutional history of collaboration with surrounding K-12 schools. K-12 outreach is not a part of Georgia Techs mission, though recent years have seen greater outreach activities. Campus organizations have sponsored tutoring, academic schools have sponsored recruitment fairs and the College of Engineering has established a partnership with a high school. Two offices within Georgia Tech, the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) and the Center for Education Integrating Science, Math and Computers (CEISMC), have been working to expand and deepen Georgia Techs K-12 outreach through a National Science Foundation grant program combining graduate student development and K-12 outreach. Through this program, the Student and Teacher Enhancement Partnership (STEP), CETL and CEISMC seek to build meaningful and lasting relationships between Georgia Tech and local high schools. Given the novelty of mutually rewarding relationships between Georgia Tech and local high schools, this study attempts to account for differences in outcomes of the (STEP) program over its first three years. STEPs Project Officers at Georgia Tech developed dyadic relationships with high school personnel with the same programmatic goals in mind. However, at the end of three years, some of these pairings were more mutually rewarding. A narrative analysis of these relationships is presented through case studies and tested against a literature-based logic model depicting factors likely to lead to successful, inter-organizational partnerships.

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of school administrators about the use of distance education in Texas public schools. A mixed-method research design was used to determine if these administrators' perceptions were barriers to the implementation of distance education. The study included a series of 17 interviews with school principals and superintendents. Based on these interviews, a survey instrument was developed and sent to a larger sample of administrators. The sample population for the survey comprised administrators from three Education Service Centers in Texas. Results of the qualitative interviews and of the quantitative survey indicated that distance education has the potential to provide greater flexibility in offering high quality coursework and activities. However, administrators perceived that they lack control of these programs, and that the number of students who excelled in distance education was limited. Additionally, administrators perceived that distance education courses were not as good as traditional courses while admitting to a lack of knowledge about distance education. Overall, administrators who believed they had the support of their local school boards were most likely to implement distance education in their districts.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The University of Arizona has many useful resources for K-12 instructors that have been developed by different programs and departments and, until now, have been difficult to locate. The UA Libraries has developed a new resource called LessonLink that pulls together over 100 online resources for K-12 instructors. With this rich database, teachers only need to go to one site to access this material selected by a UA librarian for relevancy and applicability. Instructors can locate lesson plans, content for classroom activities, information about UA onsite campus visits, classroom visits from UA faculty and grad students, and programs for professional development. Teachers can search this database by subject and grade level. This poster will describe why and how this resource was developed, how it works, and its potential for outreach.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / The reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated during normal cellular metabolism and can produce several oxidative damage in the DNA, such as lesion nitrogen bases or apurinic/apirimidinic (AP) sites. These lesions may lead to the accumulation of mutations site, if such damages are not repaired. However, the bacteria have several mechanisms of protection against the ROS which play an important role in the maintenance of physiology. The objective of this study was to assess whether enzymatic systems, such as base excision repair (BER), SoxRS and SOS systems are capable to interfere with bacterial response to environmental signals such as susceptibility to antibiotics, and microbial adherence to biotic (HEp-2 cells) and abiotic surfaces (biofilm formation). The mutant strains used in this study were derivatives of Escherichia coli K-12. It was observed that the sole mutant presenting differences in antimicrobial susceptibility in relation to the parental wild type strain (AB1157) was BW9091 (xthA- -deficient in exonuclease III). Nevertheless, 11 strains with deficiency in different protective mechanisms to oxidative stress, presented differences in adherence patterns to HEp-2 cells, demonstrating an aggregative-like adherence in relation to the parental strain AB1157 (without a typical adherence pattern). Presence of mannose (a carbohydrate capable to block type I-mediated fimbriae adherence) was capable to interfere with both quantitative adherence and filamentation of bacterial cells. Filamentation is an important SOS response observed in genome repair during bacterial cell division. Furthermore, with respect to the formation of biofilms, 8 strains showed a strong biofilm formation where this response was not accompanied by increased in intensity of filamentation. Our results suggest the involvement of oxidative stress in the definition of parameters such as sensitivity to antimicrobials, pattern and intensity of adhesion, and filamentous formation of biofilms in the samples of E. coli K-12 assessed in this study. We suggest that adherence generates oxidative stress causing damage to the DNA, which leads to induction of the SOS system resulting in the filamentation. / As espécies reativas de oxigênio (ERO) são geradas durante o metabolismo celular normal e podem produzir vários danos oxidativos no DNA, tais como lesões nas bases nitrogenadas ou sítios apurínico/apirimidínico (AP). Essas lesões podem acarretar acúmulo de sítios de mutações, caso esses danos não sejam reparados. Entretanto, as bactérias possuem vários mecanismos de defesa contra as ERO que desempenham um importante papel na manutenção da fisiologia. O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de avaliar se sistemas enzimáticos, como o reparo por excisão de bases (BER), sistema SOS e SoxRS, interferem em respostas como a sensibilidade aos antibióticos, aderência das células bacterianas a superfícies bióticas ou abióticas e formação de biofilme. Os mutantes utilizados no presente estudo são todos derivados de Escherichia coli K-12 e os resultados obtidos mostraram que, dos mutantes BER testados, o único que apresentou diferença no perfil de sensibilidade aos antimicrobiamos em relação à cepa selvagem (AB1157) foi o mutante xthA- (BW9091), deficiente em exonuclease III. No teste de aderência qualitativo realizado com linhagem de células HEp-2 (originária de carcinoma de laringe humana) foi observado que onze cepas da nossa coleção, apresentaram um padrão denominando like-AA, contrastando com o que era esperado para as cepas de E. coli utilizadas como controle negativo, que apresentam aderência discreta sem padrão típico. A aderência manose-sensível via fímbria do tipo I avaliada nesse estudo mostrou que essa fimbria, possui um papel relevante na intensidade da aderência e filamentação nessas cepas estudas. A filamentação é uma resposta SOS importante para que o genoma seja reparado antes de ser partilhado pelas células filhas. Além disso, com relação à formação de biofilme, oito cepas apresentaram um biofilme forte sendo que essa resposta não foi acompanhada pelo aumento da intensidade de filamentação. Nossos resultados em conjunto sugerem o envolvimento de estresse oxidativo na definição de parâmetros como sensibilidade a antimicrobianos, padrão e intensidade de aderência, filamentação e formação de biofilme nas amostras de E. coli K-12 avaliadas neste trabalho. Sugerimos que a aderência gera estresse oxidativo causando danos no DNA, o que leva a indução do sistema SOS resultando na resposta de filamentação observada.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / F. Todd Goodson / American education is increasingly driven by standards and high-stakes tests. This creates a dynamic in which curricular content addressed in the standards will be subjected to high-stakes tests while that not addressed in the standards risks being ignored. Such a dynamic threatens poetry—a subject whose strength resides in its ambiguity instead of one correct answer. The literature review establishes poetry as an important area of study for K-12 students and explores how the Standards Movement has affected poetry instruction in other English-speaking countries. This research used context-sensitive textual analysis to examine the treatment of poetry in American English language arts standards from 1971 to 2010 as demonstrated in the following three documents: (1) Representative Performance Objectives for High School English written by the Tri-University Project in 1971, (2) Standards for the English Language Arts written by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association in 1996, and (3) the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts written in 2010. Context-sensitive textual analysis (Huckin, 1992) presumes that the contexts in which texts are written and read impact their meanings. The study describes those impacts, their implications, and suggestions for continued study.

Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / The reactive oxygen species (ROS) are generated during normal cellular metabolism and can produce several oxidative damage in the DNA, such as lesion nitrogen bases or apurinic/apirimidinic (AP) sites. These lesions may lead to the accumulation of mutations site, if such damages are not repaired. However, the bacteria have several mechanisms of protection against the ROS which play an important role in the maintenance of physiology. The objective of this study was to assess whether enzymatic systems, such as base excision repair (BER), SoxRS and SOS systems are capable to interfere with bacterial response to environmental signals such as susceptibility to antibiotics, and microbial adherence to biotic (HEp-2 cells) and abiotic surfaces (biofilm formation). The mutant strains used in this study were derivatives of Escherichia coli K-12. It was observed that the sole mutant presenting differences in antimicrobial susceptibility in relation to the parental wild type strain (AB1157) was BW9091 (xthA- -deficient in exonuclease III). Nevertheless, 11 strains with deficiency in different protective mechanisms to oxidative stress, presented differences in adherence patterns to HEp-2 cells, demonstrating an aggregative-like adherence in relation to the parental strain AB1157 (without a typical adherence pattern). Presence of mannose (a carbohydrate capable to block type I-mediated fimbriae adherence) was capable to interfere with both quantitative adherence and filamentation of bacterial cells. Filamentation is an important SOS response observed in genome repair during bacterial cell division. Furthermore, with respect to the formation of biofilms, 8 strains showed a strong biofilm formation where this response was not accompanied by increased in intensity of filamentation. Our results suggest the involvement of oxidative stress in the definition of parameters such as sensitivity to antimicrobials, pattern and intensity of adhesion, and filamentous formation of biofilms in the samples of E. coli K-12 assessed in this study. We suggest that adherence generates oxidative stress causing damage to the DNA, which leads to induction of the SOS system resulting in the filamentation. / As espécies reativas de oxigênio (ERO) são geradas durante o metabolismo celular normal e podem produzir vários danos oxidativos no DNA, tais como lesões nas bases nitrogenadas ou sítios apurínico/apirimidínico (AP). Essas lesões podem acarretar acúmulo de sítios de mutações, caso esses danos não sejam reparados. Entretanto, as bactérias possuem vários mecanismos de defesa contra as ERO que desempenham um importante papel na manutenção da fisiologia. O objetivo deste trabalho foi o de avaliar se sistemas enzimáticos, como o reparo por excisão de bases (BER), sistema SOS e SoxRS, interferem em respostas como a sensibilidade aos antibióticos, aderência das células bacterianas a superfícies bióticas ou abióticas e formação de biofilme. Os mutantes utilizados no presente estudo são todos derivados de Escherichia coli K-12 e os resultados obtidos mostraram que, dos mutantes BER testados, o único que apresentou diferença no perfil de sensibilidade aos antimicrobiamos em relação à cepa selvagem (AB1157) foi o mutante xthA- (BW9091), deficiente em exonuclease III. No teste de aderência qualitativo realizado com linhagem de células HEp-2 (originária de carcinoma de laringe humana) foi observado que onze cepas da nossa coleção, apresentaram um padrão denominando like-AA, contrastando com o que era esperado para as cepas de E. coli utilizadas como controle negativo, que apresentam aderência discreta sem padrão típico. A aderência manose-sensível via fímbria do tipo I avaliada nesse estudo mostrou que essa fimbria, possui um papel relevante na intensidade da aderência e filamentação nessas cepas estudas. A filamentação é uma resposta SOS importante para que o genoma seja reparado antes de ser partilhado pelas células filhas. Além disso, com relação à formação de biofilme, oito cepas apresentaram um biofilme forte sendo que essa resposta não foi acompanhada pelo aumento da intensidade de filamentação. Nossos resultados em conjunto sugerem o envolvimento de estresse oxidativo na definição de parâmetros como sensibilidade a antimicrobianos, padrão e intensidade de aderência, filamentação e formação de biofilme nas amostras de E. coli K-12 avaliadas neste trabalho. Sugerimos que a aderência gera estresse oxidativo causando danos no DNA, o que leva a indução do sistema SOS resultando na resposta de filamentação observada.