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Making the case for alternative assessment: A writing-based rubri for self-reflection and improved learning
No full textIn the global STEM professional arena, the ability to communicate, both orally and in writing, is a skillset demanded by employers. Unfortunately, typical academic exercises that involve written and oral communication are often just that … academic exercises. To provide a more authentic and robust experience, a student conference activity has been developed for use in a second-level physics course entitled Physics for a New Millennium (PNM) at American University (AU). This conference paper activity involves writing a formal research paper using professional guidelines. Students then present their papers at a class conference held at the end of the semester. The primary focus of the research paper is to allow students to synthesize a subset of the physics topics that are being studied in class. The secondary focus of the research paper is to make a solid connection between physics and its connection to the overall paper topic. For example, in an earlier semester, one student, with a major in sociology and a minor in applied physics, wrote a paper on the physics associated with the cochlear implant and its impact on the deaf community. A topic such as this allows students the opportunity to connect the physics being studied in class to something that directly relates to their major course of study. Being able to make this type of connection is invaluable to the students and provides the instructor with a unique opportunity to assess their understanding. The research paper and conference presentation take the place of a traditional final exam. Unlike a traditional final exam, the research paper activity provides for multiple points of assessment of student learning. A traditional final exam merely provides a data point regarding student learning after the learning has actually taken place. In fact, most exams do not provide students with an opportunity to correct flaws in their reasoning and make adjustments to their current understanding. The non-traditional research paper activity, however, provides for multiple opportunities to correct one’s understanding of key physics concepts and to utilize this adjusted understanding in the next phase of the paper-writing process. To illustrate, students must submit an abstract, as well as a first, second, and final draft of their papers. At each juncture, a carefully crafted rubric is utilized to better capture student learning. This paper will focus on one such evaluative rubric and provide discussion regarding how it was utilized in terms of assessing students’ understanding of key physics topics
Stock volatility, return jumps and uncertainty shocks during the Great Depression
No full textPublished in: Financial History Review 23.2 (2016), pp. 165-192.There are a multitude of explanations for the depth and length of the Great Depression, of which uncertainty has been proposed as one possible explanation (Romer 1990). The 1930s not only saw extreme declines in output and prices, but stock volatility was also at record highs (Schwert 1989). This high stock volatility was generated by a series of discontinuous jumps as news about uncertainty arrived regularly during the 1930s, as shown by applying the Barndorff-Nielsen and Shephard (2006) test for jumps in a time-series. To provide a more historical narrative for these jumps, I outline some key events during the Great Depression that generated a sense of uncertainty for businesses and households which occurred contemporaneously to these extreme jumps. While much of the literature has placed Roosevelt's New Deal as a primary source of uncertainty, I do not find much evidence for this hypothesis, and instead find that banking crises, the breakdown of the gold standard, popular unrest and uncertainty related to the brewing war in Europe were primarily responsible for both jumps in returns and the uncertainty of the 1930s
The Defender of the bond in Canon Law: Observations in Light of Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus
No full textby Rev. Jeffrey D. Tudgay.Typescript.Thesis (J.C.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2019.Bibliography: leaves 50-53.Also available in microfilm.Also available in microfiche
Taking the Truck OUT!: Activism around the DC AIDS/HIV Crisis
No full textThis collection contains material from AU Public History student Hannah Byrne's exhibit on the history of Whitman Walker's Walk and 5K to End HIV, which faculty Truck Fellow Mary Ellen Curtin adapted for her Truck project about HIV/AIDS activism in DC. Hannah Byrne and Mary Ellen Curtin both presented exhibits at the Whitman Walker Walk and 5K to End HIV, and AU Public History student Kai Walther completed oral histories with DC AIDS activists for Mary Ellen's project
Historic African River Road Connections Image 06
No full textPeople stand outside the Scotland African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
