Heat conduction, latitude and longitude

In spring 2011 I ran a one off experiment on heat capacity. The lab was complicated by a lack of different materials with the same mass.  Thus materials that were tested varied in mass and composition. I returned to thermal conductivity in the fall of 2011 for laboratory 62 and stayed with thermal conductivity for spring 2012. The class had viewed a cartoon video on temperature and heat on Monday, followed by coverage of temperature scales on Wednesday.

Joyceleen and Lotrynes track temperature changes

Fall 2011 I opted to run a demonstration using the rebar and I tracked the temperature every two minutes. This modeling, not entirely intentional, led to the class generating two column time and temperature charts. This in turn led to xy scattergraph approaches and less diversity in chart choices during the group presentations.

Emerson and Roxanne watch for the peak temperature

In retrospect I did not like what had happened, the modeling had overly channeled the students down one path. Spring 2012 I began again with a quick demonstration of the set up and noted the start temperature. I then almost immediately set the class loose on their own rigs. As the students set up their rigs, I orally noted the new temperature of mine. I did not record time interval - temperature data. I left a blank next to "peak temperature."

Seyleen Johnston presents column chart of temperature changes

This approach led to a greater diversity of chart ideas when the laboratory moved on to the group presentations portion of the laboratory.

Jeffrey Isaac attempts an xy scattergraph involving start and peak temperatures on the x and y axes

Cuteleen a variation on the xy scattergraph approach

The Wednesday hide and seek activity had me hiding in a clump of Saccharum spontaneum  at N 06° 54.680', E 158° 09.408'. 

The location was shaded only by the grass, but I came prepared including packing a lunch from the cafeteria in a tupperware, a hat, an extra shirt and a towel. The latter helped keep the hairy, itchy grass off of me. I also had an umbrella which proved useful for shading my feet. The students would be approaching the grass clump from the back side in the photo above, hence the shape of the clump helped shield me.

I was tucked up in under the wild sugar cane.

Jessica Salvador

The first group led by Jessica Salvador found me withing 15 minutes. This was seven minutes longer than the fastest group last fall. Four of the six other groups were on location within 20 minutes. We adjourned to the shade for a wrap-up of the activity.

Cuteleen on lab 072

Jessica noted that she had not used a GPS before - her success was in simply following the numbers wherever they led - trusting in the instrument and the coordinates. Other groups were leery of going into the bush, reckoning that I would be somewhere along or near the road.

Perihsa headed north along a line of longitude

The fifth group arrived at around 12:40, as I was dismissing the first four groups. A sixth group had given up at some point and had returned to base at the science division office and surrendered their GPS. 

Seyleen pushes the surveyor's wheel

Laboratory 072 at 8:00 followed the recent use of a line of longitude, E 158° 09.565', that runs from the A+ center, between the administration building and the LRC, and north towards the main road.

End of the line for the morning class

In the 11:00 section I opted to try a run from east to west, as in years past. I did not start from the corner at BurBen, but rather started from a tree along the main road. About the fourth or fifth tree from the semi-circular road at N 06° 54.576, E 158° 09.657.

Hanna pushes the surveyor's wheel

The line of latitude took the 11:00 section west to almost the boy's dormitory.

Roxann checks to see that the latitude remains the same

This meant that the measurements would not yield the circumference of the earth, but rather the circumference at N 06° 54.576.

Emerson headed west

In the second portion of the laboratory in the computer room I located a table of values for the circumference of the earth by latitude. This provided a theoretic value against which to compare the class data.

Roxann and Melinda Hadley heading west towards the book store

The use of a line of latitude worked rather well, although the class ended up farther from the computer lab. The end point was a Terminalia catappa tree between the book store and the boys dormitory. This provided a shady spot to gather data.

MS 150 statistics midterm assessment

Eighty students took the spring 2012 midterm examination. Scores ranged from a low of nine to a high score of 34. The mode was 21, the median 23, and the average was 22.44. This represents a 66% success rate.

Performance was lower in the eight o'clock class with an average of 16.96. A histogram of the student score distribution makes clear the difference in the two sections. The eight o'clock section has been under performing the 9:00 and 10:00 sections due to a higher rate of absences and late arrivals to class.

The blue columns represent 8:00 student scores, the pink represent 9:00 and 10:00 scores. Note that the highest score attained at 8:00 was 25, well below the 34 attained by three students in the other two sections. There were 35 possible points on the midterm examination.

The low score in the 8:00 section was nine, no student at 9:00 or 10:00 scored below 13.

An item analysis was done on the midterm with the results shown above. Student performance was strongest on basic statistical calculations and the use of functions to obtain answers. Students had difficulties with the frequency table, histogram, probability calculations, and using linear regressions to predict values.

An assessment was done against the program and course level student learning outcomes. The percentages are the average success rate against the listed outcome. The program learning outcomes (plo) 3.1 and 3.2 are listed horizontally. The course learning outcomes (clo 1 and 2) are listed vertically with the individual learning outcomes (slo) also presented.

As noted above, weak performance was seen on SLOs 1.2, 1.4, and 3.3.

Average - perc		plo
clo	slo	3.1 Demonstrate understanding and apply mathematical concepts in problem solving and in day-to-day activities	3.2 Present and interpret numeric information in graphic forms.	Average
1 Perform basic statistical calculations	1.1 Identify levels of measurement and appropriate statistical measures for a given level of measurement	0.63		0.63
	1.2 Determine frequencies and relative frequencies, create histograms and identify their shape visually.	0.48	0.74	0.65
	1.3 Calculate basic statistical measures of the middle, spread, and relative standing.	0.82		0.82
	1.4 Calculate simple probabilities for equally likely outcomes.	0.29		0.29
1 Average		0.55	0.74	0.60
3 Perform linear regressions	3.1 Calculate the linear slope and intercept for a set of data		0.69	0.69
	3.2 Calculate the correlation coefficient r	0.60		0.60
	3.3 Generate predicted values based on the regression	0.26		0.26
3 Average		0.43	0.69	0.52
Overall average		0.52	0.74	0.55

F.lux and the circadian rhythm

Apparently blue light is important to entraining circadian rhythm, potentially even resetting the rhythm or altering the onset of sleepiness by effects on melatonin levels. At the core of this clocking and melatonin cycle is the color temperature of light. Light color temperature may even directly impact slow wave sleep. Thus those of us who linger late into the night in front of the cyclopean computer eye may be able to push deeper into the night because the color temperature of the computer screen itself is helping keep us awake.

Enter F.lux, an applet that changes the color temperature of your monitor based on the time of day. I should note that the GUI for Ubuntu Linux did not function on my Lubuntu 11.10 rig, the computer very quickly reset the color temperature.

I did find, however, after installing the program using the lines:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kilian/f.lux
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fluxgui

I was able to successfully run the program from the command line:

xflux -l 7 -g +158 -k 2700

Now I can work in the evening without saturating my brain with circadian rhythm impacting daylight balanced light from my computer screen.

Mosses, lycophytes, and monilophytes

For the past five or more years the term has started on a Thursday, which meant that the first ethnobotany class was also on the first day of class at the end of the week. Attendance had suffered as a result. This was the second term that class started on a Monday, which put the first ethnobotany class on the second day of classes on a full week of class.

On the first day I told the students that on Thursday they ought not bring books nor backpacks, and if they had such, they could leave them in the division storage closet.

On the second day of class, the class headed out on the hike into the valley of the monilophytes. I did not open the classroom, opting to leave from in front of the classroom at 3:30 to maximize the time available for the hike.

We stopped to put backpacks in the division supply closet. Behind the gym the class paused briefly as I looked for moss sporophytes. I did not see any and moved on.

This term I did not head down into the valley with the Psilotum nudum as a recent visit suggested there was none to be easily found.

The class stopped on the ridgeline to view the lycopodium Lycopodiella cernua and the sun-loving fern Dicranopteris linearis. Lycopodium is a member of the division Lycophyta, the ferns are members of Monilophyta. After a fire four years ago, and over-harvesting due to decoration for graduation, the Lycopodiella had become scarce.

Renee Iva, Keylafay, and Thomas

Last term the Lycopodiella appeared to be recovering, and this spring term 2012 the recovery appears to have continued.

Yet again the language loss among the students was severe. Last term one student came up with kidien mal, this term none.

The class then paused at the top of the steep slope where Nephrolepis acutifolia.and Cyclosorus maemonensis were observed. A tree at the top of the trail now has a healthy growth of the lycopodium Huperzia phlegmaria on the trunk. Since last January strobili have developed on this plant. Only one  student could name the Nephrolepis fern - rehdil.  Local uses and meanings of these plants was also explained, along with names in the local languages. The local names for Microsorum scolopendria, its use as a mwarmwar, and the function the plant had as a mwarmwar in protecting the dancer from soumwahuen eni were covered. A plant known locally as marekenleng was located on a tree, this plant is currently listed in the virtual herbarium as Asplenium polyodon.

Also found atop the steep slope was Davallia solida (ulung en kieil). I was so taken aback by broad and deep loss of language, that I forgot to cover the term devolution. Asplenium nidus was encountered as we descended the slope. Now that I no longer cover the use of Haploteris elongata, the fern is re-establishing on the trees at the top of the slope. This omission has been necessary due to over harvesting of the plants. This term again I mentioned only the Pohnpeian name and that the fern is a primitive fern.

Down in the forest I could not locate Davallia pectinata. This term I also did not locate the Psilotum complanatum. Psilotum complanatum has appeared, however, in the ethnobotanical garden. The Asplenium Polyodon was still present both on top of the slope and in the valley.

Father along the trail the class observed Sphaeropteris nigricans.

I then took the class down to the river and up to the Antrophyum callifolium. We reached theA. callifolium around 16:30. No one said that they knew its name, no one indicated that they had seen this fern before. I then took role and dismissed the class.

Overall my impression continued to be that plant language loss is increasing term-on-term. While there will always be statistical fluctuations in the knowledge set of a given class, monilophyte and lycophyte local plant name loss is now simply pervasive among youth here.

Keylafay

On Thursday the 12th of January the students cleaned up the ethnobotanical garden.

Rico

Renee Iva present the life cycle of mosses

Moss sporophytes have been consistently seen on a Premna serratifolia on the east end of the campus.

Cindy covers the morphology of lycopodium

Rosalina, Gifteen, and Serpina cover local names and their proper pronounciation

Attendance in MS 150: First fifteen days

Casual hallway talk early this term in the division has been about attendance or the lack thereof. I analyzed attendance in the first fourteen days of MS 150 statistics, tossing out day one as it was statistically aberrant with an unusually high number of absences. The course has an enrollment of 85 students in three sections. During the fourteen days analyzed there was an average of 11.2 absences per day across all three sections. On average 9.3 students arrive late per day, again, across all three sections. On-time attendance is achieved by an average of 64.5 students per day.

When asked, students most often cite transportation difficulties - late taxis, late rides. Some students also report having slept too late.

The chart below includes the first day of class and thus spans 15 days. Day one thirty students were absent and five were late. Day one attendance is typically weak. Faculty usually cite the add/drop period as having this impact.

Explorations of momentum, Hooke's law

Laboratory four began as I have done so in the past, with an introduction to the behavior of marbles on a ruler. I usually lead off with the students gathered around observing a simple marble momentum conservation system.

Perihsa times

Five to seven marbles sit touching each other on the flat portion of a marble track. The marble track is made of two plastic rulers with grooves to guide the marbles. One to four marbles are released from an elevated end of the track. I demonstrated that "marbles in" appear to equal "marbles out." I noted that this also means that "mass in" must roughly be "mass out."

Seylyn Johnston on the stopwatch

I also qualitatively demonstrated that "speed in" appeared to be related to "speed out." This was all  done qualitatively, not quantitatively.

Lizmay working calculations

Jessica, Hanna, and Palikkun crunch some numbers

This term I deployed an electronic mass scale to simplify massing the marbles. In addition, in a break from prior terms, I demonstrated ways to measure speed in and speed out. This term provided more structure, was more directive, than prior terms. Different classes seem to start differently, I have yet to gel the design of this laboratory.

Ceyleen also calculating results

Laboratory five explores whether an elastic band is a Hookean material - a linear elastic material. This laboratory also uses marbles, thirty of them.

Jessica and Palikkun, Joyceleen in the background

Lotrynes records data for Joyceleen

The elastic seems to vary in behavior in part according to the length of the elastic. Some data is linear, some is bilinear, and others form smooth almost logarithmic curves of extension versus mass. The system is modeled as F = kx with downward extension taken as positive, hence the +k.