Susan A. Kirch

Dual role of RAG2 in V(D)J recombination: catalysis and regulation of ordered Ig gene assembly.

Immunoglobulin genes are assembled during lymphoid development by a series of site‐specific rearrangements that are tightly regulated to ensure that functional antibodies are generated in B (but not T) cells and that a unique receptor is present on each cell. Because a common V(D)J recombinase comprising RAG1 and RAG2 proteins is used for both B‐ and T‐cell antigen receptor assembly, lineage‐specific rearrangement must be modulated through differential access to sites of recombination. We show here that the C‐terminus of the RAG2 protein, although dispensable for the basic recombination reaction and for Ig heavy chain DH to JH joining, is essential for efficient VH to DJH rearrangement at the IgH locus. Thus, the RAG2 protein plays a dual role in V(D)J recombination, acting both in catalysis of the reaction and in governing access to particular loci.

Reflections of Educators in Pursuit of Inclusive Science Classrooms

General education science teachers are meeting increasingly diverse classrooms of students that include students with disabilities. A one-week, summer, residential workshop was offered to interested science and special educators who worked through lab experiments one-on-one with students with physical or sensory disabilities (grades 7-12). To determine how effective this professional development workshop was at raising disability awareness and providing teacher training in inclusive science teaching practices, a combination of survey and reflective journal entries was used to monitor participants’ experience. Here we discuss the findings from this benchmark study and discuss how others might adapt this professional development model for use by schools interested in moving toward inclusive practices.

The chlL (frxC)* gene: phylogenetic distribution in vascular plants and DNA sequence from Polystichum acrostichoides (Pteridophyta) and Synechococcus sp. 7002 ( Cyanobacteria)

We examinedchlL (frxC) gene evolution using several approaches. Sequences from the chloroplast genome of the fernPolystichum acrostichoides and from the cyanobacteriumSynechococcus sp. 7002 were determined and found to be highly conserved. A complete physical map of the fern chloroplast genome and partial maps of other vascular plant taxa show thatchlL is located primarily in the small single copy region as inMarchantia polymorpha. A survey of a wide variety of non-angiospermous vascular plant DNAs shows thatchlL is widely distributed but has been lost in the pteridophytePsilotum and (presumably independently) within the Gnetalean gymnosperms.

Working toward equitable opportunities for science students with disabilities: Using professional development and technology

As a result of federal legislation, adolescents with disabilities and other exceptionalities are increasingly included in science and math classes alongside their peers who are typically developing. The effectiveness of this placement option, however, is largely dependent on the skill level of the general educator and the support afforded to this teacher through various channels. Efforts arising from two National Science Foundation grants address both skill and support. Centers Lesson Adaptations for Student Success (CLASS) project used summer professional development opportunities to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills needed to provide students with physical, sensory and learning disabilities equitable access to laboratory and field experiences. Second, to support teachers back in their classrooms, the Ohio Resource Centers Lesson Adaptations for Student Success (OR-CLASS) uses web resources to share high quality, peer-reviewed lesson plans, complete with specific recommendations on adaptations for students with a variety of exceptional learning needs.

Understanding Scientific Uncertainty as a Teaching and Learning Goal

Despite the intent of science education reform documents in the USA, science education programs, as practiced, do not reflect the core content standards related to social, cultural, historical, and epistemological aspects of the scientific enterprise or the application of science to societal problems and desires. Instead, current curricula emphasize learning scientific knowledge as facts, concepts, and ideas known with certainty. In this review, I interrogate the current goals for science education in the USA and explore whether and how to teach students the role of uncertainty in scientific knowledge production and application.

Candidates Use a New Teacher Development Process, Transformative Reflection, to Identify and Address Teaching and Learning Problems in Their Work With Children

This article has two aims: (a) to offer a new model for a teacher preparation course that features reflection and teaching as integral, inseparable actions and (b) to provide empirical evidence from an exploratory ethnography to demonstrate teacher development possibilities with this model. The model, termed Transformative Reflection, was founded on principles from cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and empirical work on reflection. This study examines two CHAT-based mediation practices that became a focus of 12 childhood education masters students inquiry during reflection sessions: (a) posture as a tool for working with students and (b) open questions as a tool to re/orient learners. Based on analysis of observations, interviews, journals, and video, we found candidates took action individually and collectively to interrogate and, in many cases, change how they planned learning activities, how they re/oriented learners to the learning object, and how they viewed students as agents.

Contributing to Science

So far, we’ve reconstructed science education’s view of science from a discipline perspective and proposed an alternative model from a learner perspective: the Being and Becoming Scientists Today (BBST) framework. We’ve challenged the notion of an ideal scientist and the linear pipeline or pathway to becoming a scientist.

Representing Scientific Problems and Tools for Thinking

In the previous chapter, we explained our negative feelings toward treating knowledge as an object. Under that condition, knowing means having or possessing these objects in our brains, and the key goals of learning science become building memory.

Being and becoming scientists

Imagine you are a child of 4 or 5 years and have never met a scientist. The only images of scientists you’ve seen are from popular media outlets such as cartoons, movies, advertisements, comic books, and TV. These images are almost always of either great scientists like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Charles Darwin, and Marie Curie, or fictional characters that wear lab coats and goggles, and work with brightly colored, dangerous, bubbling chemicals in a laboratory.

A Q&A Session with the Authors

For these reasons, the BBST framework helps me to overcome the challenge of time constraints while meeting new demands in an organized way. I am no longer trying to survive; I am purposefully active and I look forward to learning and teaching alongside the students.