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We discuss and examine a numerical indicator--the individual gain--of students' engagement and mathematical growth in relation to an instructor's course aims and goals. The individual gain statistic assesses the fractional amount an individual student improves initial-test to final-test. We argue that an initial-test score and a final-test score, if the two tests are related to each other and to a course focus, can provide a numerical indication of a student's engagement with the goals and aims of the course and the extent to which a student was prepared to work toward those goals. Results on the distribution of individual gain for students in two-year college developmental mathematics courses and in sections of a course for pre-service elementary teachers are discussed. We detail and discuss advantages of the full distribution of individual gain, particularly for allowing statistical inference for differences, compared with Richard Hake's use of mean gain of reform classes in undergraduate physics. Other instructional benefits of using the gain statistic to examine distribution of individual student gains include: a pre-test formative assessment at beginning of instruction, providing an instructor with data for specific, targeted remediation; and planning information that informs an instructor for the effectiveness of instruction for students in that cohort.

"Data science" is a discipline that provides principles, methodology, and guidelines for the analysis of data for tools, values, or insights. Driven by a huge workforce demand, many academic institutions have started to offer degrees in data science, with many at the graduate, and a few at the undergraduate level. Curricula may differ at different institutions, because of varying levels of faculty expertise, and different disciplines (such as mathematics, computer science, and business) in developing the curriculum. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth started offering degree programs in data science from Fall 2015, at both the undergraduate and the graduate level. Quite a few articles have been published that deal with graduate data science courses, much less so dealing with undergraduate ones. Our discussion will focus on undergraduate course structure and function, and specifically, a first course in data science. Our design of this course centers around a concept called the data science life cycle. That is, we view tasks or steps in the practice of data science as forming a process, consisting of states that indicate how it comes into life, how different tasks in data science depend on or interact with others until the birth of a data product or a conclusion. Naturally, different pieces of the "data science life cycle" then form individual parts of the course. Details of each piece are filled up by concepts, techniques, or skills that are popular in industry. Consequently, the design of our course is both "principled" and practical. A significant feature of our course philosophy is that, in line with activity theory, the course is based on the use of tools to transform real data to answer strongly motivated questions related to the data.

Like other coastal zones around the world, the inland sea ecosystem of Washington (USA) and British Columbia (Canada), an area known as the Salish Sea, is changing under pressure from a growing human population, conversion of native forest and shoreline habitat to urban development, toxic contamination of sediments and species, and overharvest of resources. While billions of dollars have been spent trying to restore other coastal ecosystems around the world, there still is no successful model for restoring estuarine or marine ecosystems like the Salish Sea. Despite the lack of a guiding model, major ecological principles do exist that should be applied as people work to design the Salish Sea and other large marine ecosystems for the future. We suggest that the following 10 ecological principles serve as a foundation for educating the public and for designing a healthy Salish Sea and other coastal ecosystems for future generations: (1) Think ecosystem: political boundaries are arbitrary; (2) Account for ecosystem connectivity; (3) Understand the food web; (4) Avoid fragmentation; (5) Respect ecosystem integrity; (6) Support nature’s resilience; (7) Value nature: it’s money in your pocket; (8) Watch wildlife health; (9) Plan for extremes; and (10) Share the knowledge.

The article discusses the concept of climate crisis triage as a way to address the challenges of climate change. It emphasizes the need to protect the Earth and its ecosystems, assess the threats posed by climate change, and take action to mitigate its effects. The article also highlights the importance of understanding the reality of the climate crisis and the need for collective cooperation to address it. It concludes by emphasizing the quest for meaning and the importance of finding hope in the face of the climate crisis. [Extracted from the article]

Levetiracetam is used for seizure prophylaxis in patients presenting with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) or traumatic brain injury (TBI). We aim to characterize the optimal levetiracetam dosage for seizure prophylaxis. This retrospective cohort study included adult patients at an academic tertiary hospital presenting with SAH or TBI who received levetiracetam at a total daily dose (TDD) equivalent to or greater than 1000 mg. The primary outcome was combined seizure incidence, including clinical and subclinical seizures. We identified 139 patients (49.6% male, mean age 53 years) for inclusion. For patients receiving a 1000-mg TDD, the administration was 500 mg twice daily. For patients receiving >1000-mg TDD, 77/78 patients received 1000 mg twice daily and one patient received 750 mg twice daily. Patients receiving 1000-mg TDD had a higher seizure incidence than those receiving >1000-mg TDD (p = 0.01), despite no difference in examined confounders, including history of alcoholism (p = 0.49), benzodiazepine use (p = 0.28), or propofol use (p = 0.17). No difference in adverse effects was observed (anemia, p = 0.44; leukopenia, p = 0.60; thrombocytopenia, p = 0.86). Patients may experience a reduced incidence of clinical and electroencephalographic seizures with levetiracetam dosing >1000-mg TDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues involved in teaching English language learners mathematics while they are learning English pose many challenges for mathematics teachers and highlight the need to focus on language-processing issues related to teaching mathematical content. Two realistic-type problems from high-stakes tests are used to illustrate the complex interactions between culture, language, and mathematical learning. The analyses focus on aspects of the problems that potentially increase cognitive demands for second-language learners. An analytical framework is presented that is designed to enable mathematics teachers to identify critical elements in problems and the learning environment that contribute to increased cognitive demands for students of English as a second language. The framework is proposed as a cycle of teacher reflection that would extend a constructivist model of teaching to include broader linguistic, cultural, and cognitive processing issues of mathematics teaching, as well as enable teachers to develop more accurate mental models of student learning.

The authors of this paper examine the use of formative assessment as a tool to assist teachers of mathematics to become more mindful developers of curricula. They focus on instructional design that is based on careful examination of student answers to questions. Empirical studies have shown the effectiveness of formative assessment for students, and recent theoretical work indicates that the positive feedback aspect of formative assessment stimulates self-regulation and transformation, processes that are regarded as critical to developing intelligence. The authors apply these ideas of formative assessment to teachers of senior mathematics as they rethink instructional design. (Contains 4 tables.)