Music at the Fair! The Trans- Mississippi and International Exposition. An Interactive Website

“Music at the Fair!” gives the daily musical programs for The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, held in Omaha, Nebraska, June 1 through October 31, 1898. The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition brought an unprecedented array of local, national, and international musical acts to Omaha, NE in 1898. This served to designate Omaha, "the gateway to the west" as a musical hub, as well as to incite musical excitement in the region. Some of the more popular acts featured were the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, the U.S. Marine Band, and the Apollo Club of Chicago. Many more groups and their musical programs can be found within the pages of this site. The “Music at the Fair!” website was created by Grace Carey, and last revised on May 19, 2006.It is the result of a two- year research grant funded by an Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences (UCARE) grant through the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. It is an extension of an ongoing project on music at the TME by Music Professor Peter Lefferts. The primary sources of information for the site are the following newspapers from June – November 1898: The Omaha Daily Bee, the Omaha Evening Bee, and the Omaha World Herald, and the the official programs of the fair located in the archives at the Omaha Public Library. I would like to thank the helpful staff at the Nebraska State Historical Society and the downtown branch of the Omaha Public Library. Site Creator: Grace Carey Project Advisor: Peter Lefferts, Professor of Music History at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln The linked “Document” is a flat PDF version of the interactive website. To download the fully interactive html version, click on the “Related file” to download the zipped folder. When unzipped, click on the file named “index” to enter the website.

Discourse and Cooperative Learning in the Math Classroom

In this action research study of my 6th grade math classroom I investigated the effects of increased student discourse and cooperative learning on the students’ ability to explain and understand math concepts and problem solving, as well as its effects on their use of vocabulary and written explanations. I also investigated how it affected students’ attitudes. I discovered that increased student discourse and cooperative learning resulted in positive changes in students’ attitudes about their ability to explain and understand math, as well as their actual ability to explain and understand math concepts. Evidence in regard to use of vocabulary and written explanations generally showed little change, but this may have been related to insufficient data. As a result of this research, I plan to continue to use cooperative learning groups and increased student discourse as a teaching practice in all of my math classes. I also plan to include training on cooperative learning strategies as well as more emphasis on vocabulary and writing in my math classroom.

The Effects Improving Student Discourse Has on Learning Mathematics

In this action research study of my 8th grade mathematics classroom, I investigated how improving student discourse affects learning mathematics. I conducted this study because I wanted to give students more opportunities to develop and share their ideas with their peers as well as with me. My idea was to create a learning environment that encouraged students to voice their opinions. In order to do so, I needed to reassure and model with my students that they were in a classroom where it was safe to take risks, and they should feel comfortable sharing their ideas. By facilitating activities for students to complete in groups, asking students to prepare work to share with the class, and offering more opportunities for students to work with each other on discovering and exploring math skills being presented, I set the tone for abundant student discourse to take place in the mathematics classroom. I discovered that students became more comfortable with math skills the more opportunities they had to discuss the ideas in various settings. I also found that as the study went on, students discovered the importance of being able to share their mathematical ideas and valued the ability to verbalize their thoughts with others. As a result of this study, I plan to continue offering many opportunities for students to work in groups as well as to share their ideas with the class.

ENHANCEMENT OF THE FAA’s ON-LINE WILDLIFE AIRCRAFT STRIKE DATABASE WITH AN INTERACTIVE GRAPHICS CAPABILITY

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Prescott, AZ, USA) was awarded a grant from the William J. Hughes FAA Technical Center in October 1999 to develop and maintain a web site dealing with a wide variety of airport safety wildlife concerns. Initially, the web site enabled users to access related topics such as wildlife management (at/near airports), bird identification information, FAA wildlife management guidelines, education, pictures, current news, upcoming meetings and training, available jobs and discussion/forum sections. In April 2001, the web site was augmented with an on-line wildlife strike report (FAA Form 5200-7). Upon submittal on-line, “quick look” email notifications are sent to concerned government personnel. The distribution of these emails varies as to whether there was damage, human injuries/fatalities, and whether feather remains were collected and will be sent to the Smithsonian Institution for identification. In July 2002, a real-time on-line query system was incorporated to allow federal and local government agencies, airport and operator personnel, and USDA and airport wildlife biologists to access this database (which as of June 2005 contains 68,288 researched strike reports added to at a rate of approximately 500 strike reports/month) to formulate strategies to reduce the hazards wildlife present to aviation. To date (June 2005), over 15,000 on-line real-time queries were processed. In June 2004, ERAU was authorized to develop a graphical interface to this on-line query system. Current capabilities include mapping strikes (by species) on the US map, each of the contiguous 48 state maps (with AK and HI being added), and airport diagrams of the major metropolitan airports as well as the next 46 airports with the most reported strikes The latter capability depicts strikes by runway in plan as well as in elevation view. Currently under development is the ability to view time-sequenced strikes on the US map. This extensive graphical interface will give analysts the ability to view strike patterns with a wide variety of variables including species, seasons, migration patterns, etc. on US and state maps and airport diagrams.