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LIVED EXPERIENCE AND MATHEMATICAL PEDAGOGY
No full textThe purpose of this thesis is to outline a method for grounding our understanding of scholarly processes in our lived experience of time. I begin by tracking the importance of time in Kantian epistemology, which has had outsized importance in Western academic understanding for several centuries. I then shift the focus of the project away from epistemology towards ontology and lived experience, using Heidegger\u27s early and late works to inform the discussion of the problematic nature of privileging epistemology. Finally, I try to use phenomenology to track the implications of this shift for a radical pedagogy which includes marginalized bodies, and apply the repsective reflections to a case study in Algebraic Number Theory
A SURVEY OF MODERN ASTRONOMY
No full textAstronomy is said to be the oldest science, stemming from a natural human desire to explore and understand the world around us. Modern astronomy has taken what the astronomers of the past have learned in order to make new discoveries, expanding our understanding of the universe and what it holds. This thesis explores the how modern astronomy evolved over the past few decades, how major discoveries were made, and what future missions hope to achieve. Starting with the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope and its subsequent discoveries, this thesis will discuss as trometry, modern telescopes and what they will be able to capture, recent discoveries in interferometry, and ending with the emerging field of multi-messenger astronomy
Carbon Cycling in the Food Forest & Carbon Farm at New College of Florida
No full textCarbon cycling in the Food Forest & Carbon Farm at New College of Florida and a nearby lawn was studied to assess sources and sinks of organic carbon and overall soil quality. Over three months of fieldwork the organic carbon, bulk density, microbial respiration and nutrient composition of the soils were measured. Nearly all measurements suggest that both areas have sequestered organic carbon in soil. The average Food Forest soil sample had a proportion of organic carbon five times greater than the Lawn. Microbes present in the Food Forest released organic carbon at a rate five times faster than the Lawn. However, during the fall, respiration in the Food Forest used a smaller proportion of its yearly carbon budget than did respiration in the Lawn. The mean density of soil in the Food Forest was lower and provided more biologically favorable conditions than the Lawn, which had a density that was high enough to impede root growth, respiration, and water infiltration. The Food Forest soil had a much higher cation exchange capacity than the Lawn, and provided more accessible nutrients to the organisms that inhabit it. This permaculture project has succeeded in its goal of sequestering atmospheric carbon into the soil, and it does so at a rate ten times that of the lawn. Agroforestry systems based on permaculture principles show good promise for carbon sequestration and resilient food production systems in subtropical areas such as Sarasota. The Food Forest & Carbon Farm is a vibrant and diverse agroecosystem that provides an inspiring and interactable environment for students and community members. It is still a young forest, and with care and support it will strengthen social and environmental sustainability at New College of Florida for decades to come
“TWO WARRING IDEALS IN ONE DARK BODY”: THE PERSISTENCE OF THE PERSEPHONE MYTH IN 20TH CENTURY AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN’S LITERATURE
No full textThroughout American literary history, African American authors have had a complex relationship with the Classics. This thesis looks to works written by African American women authors of the 20th century that rework, appropriate, and adapt the Greco-Roman myth of Demeter and Persephone. In “The Anniad” (1949), Gwendolyn Brooks uses epic narrative style while alluding to the myths to elevate the story of a young African American woman, Annie, as she navigates her first love and loss amidst instances of racialized and gendered alterity. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970) appropriates the myth to parallel the traumatic repetitions of Persephone’s never-ending return to Hades with the traumatic repetitions that occur within an impoverished African American family due to instances of racism, sexism, and violence. In Mother Love (1995), Rita Dove openly adapts the myth to posit that, instead of traumatic repetitions, Persephone’s liminal status offers opportunities for renewal and rebirth. All three of these authors experiment with genre, form, and mythic allusions to refute the dichotic categories of writing that is defined by outside critics as “White” or “Black,” collapsing Classical myth as well as traditional poetic forms into contemporary spaces and imaginations to create something new and pluralistic. As Classical mythology and the Western literary tradition are part of an American collective unconscious, it is only natural that these authors would utilize these themes and forms, and in comparatively analyzing these texts, one can see a gradual move toward texts that openly work to create a new canon in which marginalized stories and voices can exist alongside the “traditional.
THE EFFECTS OF EXTENDED EXPOSURE TO ZEA MAYS L. BORDER CELLS WITH TOTAL ASSOCIATED EXUDATES ON THE MOTILITY AND BACTERIAL ATTRACTION ABILITIES OF CAENORHABDITIS ELEGANS
No full textNematodes, including Caenorhabditis elegans, become temporarily paralyzed (quiescent) when exposed to root border cells and their total associated exudates (BCTAE) from Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor, and Pisum sativum. C. elegans can excrete exudates to attract consumable bacteria. However, it is unknown whether quiescence induces lasting effects on C. elegans’ motility and their ability to attract bacteria; knowing its potential effects may allow insight into the rhizosphere’s trophic and non-trophic interactions. To investigate, two chemotaxis assays were conducted to evaluate the chemotactic responses of a.) C. elegans to Zea mays BCTAE and then b.) Pseudomonas putida – a gram-negative bacterium with chemotaxis capabilities – to C. elegans exudates. The Z. mays BCTAE assay involved placing root tips on agarose plates containing C. elegans and examining the nematode responses via video capture. Gravid adults were not paralyzed, but eggs were laid in BCTAE areas, so the general motility of the hatchlings was quantified digitally. The P. putida assay involved making agarose plugs containing C. elegans exudates from worms exposed and not exposed to BCTAE for 24 hours, then introducing Syto 9-stained bacteria to the plugs; the bacterial distributions were then observed under a fluorescent microscope. P. putida was unaffected by the BCTAE-exposed exudates in contrast to the observed chemotaxis toward the positive control plugs. There was no significant difference in overall nematode motility from BCTAE exposure in the plate assay, although quiescence was seen in BCTAE-exposed C. elegans in liquid cultures. The fact that no bacterial chemotaxis towards BCTAE-exposed nematode exudates was observed could suggest that BCTAE affects C. elegans’ ability to attract bacteria. This mechanism may represent another mode of nematode inhibition by root tips
TREE TRACE RECONSTRUCTION: SOME RESULTS
No full textWe analyze the tree trace reconstruction problem first introduced by Davies et. al. [4]. Our two main results hinge on an algorithm for reducing trees to strings under the TED deletion channel. For trees with n non-root nodes, and a reconstruction failure probability δ, we show that it is possible to learn tree-labels with T(n,δ) samples. Further, we define leaf-aware trees and fuzzy trees, and show that their structures can be learned with O(T(n,δ)) samples. We also analyze worst-case performance of deletion channels. In the left propagation deletion channel, for all deletion probabilities q, there exist trees with n non-root nodes that cannot be distinguished with less than O((1−q)−n) samples. We prove that there does not exist such a trivial edge case for the TED deletion model
THE MEMORY OF SINGLE MOTHERHOOD IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
No full textThe overarching question in this thesis, How are single mothers remembered collectively in contemporary literature? joins two fields of academia, Literature and Memory Studies. The single mothersIdiscussmaybeunwed,divorced,orwidowed.My introduction analyzes the social prejudices directed against single mothers and draws on sociological and historical studies as initial evidence. Within the three chapters and the conclusion, I discuss eight literary examples of single mothers, from books published between 1976 and 2009, and accompany them with relevant memory theories by such scholars as Michael Rothberg and Marianne Hirsch. Each chapter examines one ofthree life stages, and asks: What is pregnancy as a single mother like? looking at short stories byAnneHébertandMaxineHongKingston;Whatisscrapingbyasasinglemotherlike? featuring works by Julia Franck, Monika Maron, and Edwidge Danticat;andWhatisthe aftermath of single motherhood, according to the mothers and children involved? analyzing novels by Nora Okja Keller and Edwidge Danticat. In my conclusion, I highlight the range of single mother narratives by concentrating on one that particularly inspired me: the portrait of Lulu Lamartine in Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine . Though these works reflect differentcultures,theyfeaturesimilartropesofsingle motherhood, demonstrating a consistent patternofstrugglesthatthesewomenallface.In the ‘real world,’ single motherhood is a fairly common yet misunderstood phenomenon. Literature and Memory Studies give a voice to these real women and mothers, thus allowing readers to better understand their experiences as a group, too
Holding Fast to the Formless: A Rhizomatic Inventigation
No full textThis thesis is composed of two parts. Eight songs were recorded and some words were written. The music is similar to the writing in the process it was created by. Some of the music I am very satisfied with and others….well...not so much! Anyways you get it all either way! Enjoy! The words are not straightforward in their presentation and infolded in the structure of them is also what the words are explicitly trying to explain. So the words are explicitly explaining phenomena while the structure of the words is implicitly doing the same thing. You may feel lost, that’s an intended effect of the writing. This was written as a work of discovery and exploration, yes I am communicating ideas that I believe in and that I find valuable and important, but I am also trying to display what the process of creating and finding ideas is like and how the stream of consciousness meanders, gets lost, discovers, gets lost again and rediscovers. I hope you enjoy it and find your feet on the ground with eyes excitedly, curiously searching and smiling. :
GROWTH MINDSET INTERVENTION AND ITS EFFECTS ON MATHEMATICS CONFIDENCE AND PERFORMANCE IN MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS AND BOYS
No full textThis thesis reviewed the effects of a growth mindset intervention on sixth-grader’s mathematics performance and confidence in their mathematics ability. The current study hypothesized that (1) students with an initial fixed mindset would increase their mathematics confidence and performance more than students who held a growth mindset initially; (2) females would increase their mathematics confidence and performance more than males; (3) females who received the intervention would increase their mathematics confidence and performance more than females who did not receive the intervention. Sixth-grade students enrolled at a Montessori school completed a growth mindset intervention and were surveyed on their mindset and confidence in mathematics ability pre- and post- intervention. Students’ mathematics test grades pre- and post- intervention were collected. Results showed that males were more accurate in their confidence in mathematics ability as it relates to their performance than females were. Both males and females decreased their mathematics performance. Due to high individual differences, there was not a clear pattern to discern in mathematics performance for females who received the intervention versus those who did not. Limitations such as limited sample size and curriculum are noted, and further research is recommended