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Showing posts from November, 2022

Canvas analytics week 16 page views per week

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 Page views are a proxy statistic for engagement on the Instructure Canvas platform.  The growth in the number of courses, instructors, and students over the past three terms makes discerning common patterns impossible.  Vertical axis is logarithmic Shifting to a logarithmic scale helps, but still makes a fall 2021 on fall 2022 comparison challenging at best. By rescaling each term against the maximum number of page views during that term, all three terms can be placed on a scale from zero to one. With this rescaling the shared patterns become more evident. The highest number of page views at the term start, thought to be a combination of faculty setting up material at term start and students learning to find their way around the platform. The drop in page views into midterm, and then a midterm increase in page views. The increase is, in relative terms, almost the same for all three terms.  After midterm page views decline. The drop in week fourteen spring 2022 was d...

Sharing legends and stories

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With few students knowing their own stories and legends, and even fewer knowing any involved their traditional plants, this presentation continues to be optional. Richard presents on the origin of Piper methysthicum Sakau: how it was brought to Pohnpei. Pohnpeian cosmology includes three inhabited realms.  Pahn lahng: The place underneath the heavens, inhabited by demigods.  Pohnpei: The terrestrial island inhabited by people. Aramas in pahn Sed: the underwater people of Pohnpei who inhabit an underwater realm in the sea. Sakau came from pahn lahng. Kerehs leng. A boy that came to the island. He passed men making a canoe. The men ignored Kerehs leng and failed to greet him. After Kerehs leng had passed, the canoe was transformed back into a tree. That boy was from place of the demigods.  One day the demigods were feasting in pahn lang. A strand of sakau fell and landed in Nett. That place in Nett is now renowned for strong sakau. People in Nett discovered the sakau. ...

Hula hoop diameter versus rotation rate

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The 8:00 lab settled on measuring the diameter in centimeters and timing five rotations of the hula hoop in seconds.  Myena with a 137 cm hoop, the green one is 96 cm This term I had sufficient hoops to cut and splice hoops generating everything from about 72 cm up to 137 cm in diameter. This was the first term to have actual hoops in a variety of diameters.  Cutting and splicing worked far better than expected and far better than the planned approach of taping overlaps and underlaps as was piloted last summer in Kosrae. Jasmine demonstrates the rotation rate differences Cutting sections from some hoops... Allowed splicing into other hoops. The shortened hoops were closed with Black Gorilla Tape to form shorter hoops. Hoops ranges in size from 72 cm in diameter up to 137 cm in diameter. I was able to hoop the 88 cm hoop, but only two students could put the 72 cm hoop into a stable orbit, Jasmine in the 8:00 section and Joe Scott at 11:00. Jasmine with a smaller hoop, Myena wi...

A breadfruit origin story from Kosrae

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This term I realized that I should not  stand in A101 and read legends and stories to the class, not if that could be avoided. Inspired by Hamilson Phillip  I had already laid the groundwork that no one version of a story is the authoritative version. Stories belong to story tellers and their families. One has to shake free of the western concept of a single correct version of events. All versions are equally and simultaneously true. I also knew that like Hamilson, or any other story teller, I could not read the story. I had to tell the story, orally, recalling the details without reference to notes. In this term of working to be fully paperless, I arrived in class empty handed. I did not take role, I did not refer to notes, I left my phone holstered out of view. Only three or four students were at the classroom at 3:30, so I headed down towards the dipwopw tree thinking to maybe hold class there. Then I decided to get a breadfruit leaf from across the road as a prop. The cla...

Clearing a path for the ethnobotany final on the west side of campus

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A second day of work on the plants for the ethnobotany final opened up a path through the plants on the west side of campus. The path starts from the east parking lot of the gym and runs straight back to an Ixora.  Jasminum sambac is also located here. Along with a Cyathea nigricans in the middle of the Gardenia jasminoides There is also a Senna alata forest developing here. Senna alata is a useful antifungal for fungal skin conditions. From the Senna alata the path turns west towards the Haruki cemetery. The path drops down through a gully which includes this lovely remnant from twenty years ago when the Chinese were building the gym. Based on the design I presume this was a part of the star gate terminus they were working on. Or not. There is metal embedded all over the hill from that construction project. Post-construction clean-up was apparently not in the contract. Cordyline fruticosa just up the slope. Cordyline fruticosa Curcuma longa. Not sure that this will still be there ...

Canvas week 14 assessment data only

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course learning outcomes dashboard Canvas analytics have remained generally stable since week 12 , future reports will look at the end of term analytics. This report looks only whether courses are accessing and reporting the course learing outcomes in the institutional bank of course learning outcomes in Instructure Canvas. Of 288 courses, 28 courses (9.7%) with 38 sections are reporting against the institutional bank of course learning outcomes. The dashboard is interactive and includes drill down capabilities to section level data. 

Floral litmus solutions

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The week of chemistry began with a crash course in the periodic table, elements, atomic number, and atomic mass.  I began with hydrogen and an explanation of why the atomic mass is not exactly one - a path that leads to tritium and "hydrogen bombs" that destroyed Bikini atoll.  This term I reached hydrogen to hydrogen bonding at the 40 minute mark - there was a lot to explain as no student had chemistry before. This may be in part a legacy of the pandemic and the effect of schools closing or going online during the pandemic. With students being unaware of protons, electrons, and neutrons, I realized I had a lot of explaining to do. By 40 minutes I could tell I was losing them - saturation was occurring.  Wednesday I picked up from H-H electron sharing and moved on into the compounds.  I wrapped up at water. This would be the first term that I would intentionally not print the table top guide sheets that I usually produce. This year I remembered the lime fruit, the S...