Our educator friends at Charles H. Flowers High School used literature reviews instead of science fair projects during Covid, and we realized this may be more valuable than the science fair.
Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines:
from ELSEVIER (2019)
Harvard University Free Online Courses 2023-24 for all students
Harvard University is offering following Free Online Courses:
The enrollment process for Harvard Free Online Courses is simple. official web link is given below
Click here: https://echo.epa.gov/report-environmental-violations
Use the EPA page to report what appears to you as a possible violation of environmental laws and regulations. Information you submit will be forwarded to EPA environmental enforcement personnel or to the appropriate regulatory authority. More Information. Please provide as much information as you can in the form below. Asterisks (*) indicate required fields.
If you are seeing an environmental event that may lead to an immediate threat to human health or the environment, call 911, then report it to the National Response Center at: 1-800-424-8802. Learn the difference between a possible violation and an emergency.
Click on the link below to check any address:
https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search
Whether you are in a high risk zone or not, you may need flood insurance because most homeowners insurance doesn't cover flood damage. If you live in an area with low or moderate flood risk, you are 5 times more likely to experience flood than a fire in your home over the next 30 years. For many, a National Flood Insurance Program's flood insurance policy could cost less than $400 per year. Call your insurance agent today and protect what you've built.
Learn more about steps you can take to reduce flood risk damage.
Job Opportunities with Closing Dates
Natural Resources Biologist III, Maryland Department of Natural Resources – Closing Date: November 21, 2022 – Annapolis, MD – https://www.jobapscloud.com/MD/ (search: “Biologist”, Job Number: 22-001000-0008)
Natural Resources Planner IV, Maryland Department of Natural Resources – Closing Date: November 25, 2022 – Annapolis, MD – https://www.jobapscloud.com/MD/ (search: “Natural Resources”, Job Number: 22-002502-0002)
Geologist III, Maryland Geological Survey – Closing Date: November 28, 2022 – Baltimore City, MD – https://jobapscloud.com/MD/ (search: “Geologist”, Job Number: 22-001052-003)
Assistant Professor – Irrigation Engineer, Oklahoma State University – Screening Begins: December 1, 2022 – Stillwater, OK -- https://okstate.csod.com/ats/careersite/search.aspx (search: “req12670”)
Assistant Professor – Water Management, Oklahoma State University – Screening Begins: December 1, 2022 – Stillwater, OK -- https://okstate.csod.com/ats/careersite/search.aspx (search: “req12671”)
Program Manager I – Stream Inspections, Montgomery County Government Department of Environmental Protection -- Closing Date: December 5, 2022 -- Wheaton, MD -- https://ex12.montgomerycountymd.gov/irec_home/irec_home.htm (search “stream”)
Public Interest Environmental Law Fellowships, Environmental Law Institute – Closing Date: December 12, 2022 – Washington D.C. -- https://www.eli.org/employment
New postings listed alphabetically by State below:
Certification Trainings: To learn more about courses for individuals seeking certification in either erosion and sediment control (ESC) or stormwater management (SWM), see https://www.deq.virginia.gov/
Exploring this may give you ideas for future work, and some of you are in positions now where you might pursue this.
2023 Virginia DCR Flood Resilience Funding Opportunities – These funds integrate floodplain management and nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk across the Commonwealth. The full notice and additional guidance can be found at https://townhall.virginia.gov/
Registration Deadline: November 10, 2023
Conference: November 17, 2023 (7:30am-4:30pm) – Linthicum Heights, MD
The Maryland Water Monitoring Council (MWMC) in partnership with the Maryland Stream Restoration Association (MSRA) is hosting the 29th Annual Conference: Stepping Up Our Efforts - Now Is The Time. The conference will be held on November 17th at the Maritime Conference Center in Linthicum Heights, MD.
You can participate as a sponsor or attendee! See details below:
· Tickets will include registration and lunch.
o Early Bird Special - Before October 27th
- General Admission: $90
- Full-Time Student: $50
- Non-Profit: $50
o After October 27th
- General Admission: $100
- Full-Time Student: $60
- Non-Profit: $60
· Sponsorship Tables are available for $300 / each
Please refer to the MWMC website for additional information on the conference program and conference agenda.
https://dnr.maryland.gov/streams/Pages/MWMC/conference.aspx
Please reach out to the following email if you have any questions or complications: marylandstreamrestoration@yahoo.com
This workshop is free to high school teachers in Accomack or Northampton Counties, Virginia and open to high school teachers in other counties for a small $10 fee to help cover the cost of supplies.
For more information and to register, see http://www.cbfieldstation.org/
from CNN:
Opinion: The simple reason why so many adults can’t swim
by Melon Dash, updated 3:49 PM EDT, Sat August 26, 2023
Editor’s Note: Melon Dash is the author of “Conquer Your Fear of Water: A Revolutionary Way to Learn to Swim Without Ever Feeling Afraid” and co-author of “Conquer Your Fear of the Triathlon Swim.” She is a competitive masters swimmer and runs a a swim academy in Sarasota, Florida strictly for adults with fear in water. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion at CNN.
My first job after college was a teaching assistantship at a small college in New Hampshire, where I taught beginning swimming every semester to around 20 undergrads. I noticed, however, that half of my students couldn’t follow my instructions. They were afraid.
My students needed a class before beginning swimming. I went to the dean with this problem. “May I teach a class for students who are afraid?”
“Changing the undergraduate curriculum takes a lot of red tape, but if you offer the course through the adult education program, you’ll get paid and the students can come,” he said. Sold.
The next semester, my class, “Swimming for Adults Afraid in Water” appeared in the community circular. It was 1978. Six people came from as far as 50 miles away.
A Gallup survey published two years ago found that across the globe, half of adults are afraid in water over their heads, and that’s just in pools. A third of American adults are afraid to even put their heads underwater.
If you’re an adult who doesn’t know how to swim, you may have asked yourself, “Why haven’t I been able to learn over the years? Is it me?” I’ve taught swimming to thousands like you who are afraid in water, and I can assure you — it’s not you. For most people who don’t succeed in learning to swim, it’s not for lack of trying.
I grew up swimming competitively from the age of seven. Inexplicably, when I was in college, I would swim my fastest times at the regional championships and slower at the nationals. (You’re supposed to swim fastest at the biggest competition.)
When I asked my coach what she thought about this, she recommended two books: ”The Inner Game of Tennis” by W. Timothy Gallwey and “Freedom to Learn” by Carl R. Rogers — which focus on the importance of being present to perform well and the natural, unstoppable process of learning when people are comfortable, respectively.
After reading those books, I still swam fastest at regionals — I’m not sure why — but they helped change my thinking about the emotional and psychological aspects of performing.
As I thought about teaching adults who are afraid in water, I asked myself a question: How does fear work? Forty years later, other professionals are starting to realize that something’s been missing from swim instruction. Swim instructors and their training agencies are, in general, flat-out clueless about how learning works, especially for the fearful. There’s no better way to see it than with adults who are afraid in water.
When you hear about lessons and drowning prevention efforts, they are almost always aimed at keeping children safe, but adults account for three out of four drowning deaths. We have virtually no beginning adult swimming lessons that really work. And if adults haven’t learned well enough to save their lives, they haven’t learned, period.
While there are many initiatives to provide lessons to kids, our society seems to have forgotten that kids do what their parents do, and parents who fail to learn swimming raise children who become adult non-swimmers. And for non-swimmers of any age, finding yourself in water over your head can be fatal. This is preventable.
Swim instructors presume that their students want to learn at least one major stroke, probably “freestyle” or what used to be called the front crawl. Even people teaching swimming have been taught to believe — mistakenly — that learning strokes makes a person safe in deep water. Adults who want to learn to swim often quit long before achieving their goals.
Comfort in deep water is essential and life-saving. The one simple reason that many adults in beginning swimming lessons fail to learn to be comfortable in deep water is their instruction — what is taught and what is not.
It’s clear that would-be swimmers and their instructors often have very different ideas about what the objectives are. When afraid adults register for swimming lessons, they presume that, at long last, they will be able to feel at ease in deep water. They hope to be able to tread water while chatting with their friends in a deep pool. They may have visions of being able to swim to a raft or jump off a boat whenever they please. What they don’t know is that most swim classes won’t make it easier to fulfill these dreams.
How does one address people’s fear in the water? Give them an environment where it’s okay to be afraid, where they hear that others’ fears are the same as their own, where they are warm not cold, where there is no pressure to perform and where they have time to slow down and feel what they feel.
They should be taught in an environment where their feelings are considered first and foremost and their concerns are respected rather than subverted. It’s not about what their arms and legs do. In such an environment, you will see people blossoming heroically and fast. Another way to say this is, define learning to swim as comfort in deep water — not swim strokes — and each and every student will become safe.
Year after year, decade after decade, students who have taken traditional swim lessons described to me how, over a lifetime, they’ve approached the water with apprehension. They went on vacation and couldn’t get off the boat to snorkel. Or, they did get off the boat and panicked once they were in the water.
They may have small grandkids who are more at ease in water than they are. Or, they want to be able to play with them in the water, something they missed with their own kids. Or, they never had a chance to learn to swim as a child and have tried five rounds of lessons in adulthood.
The problem is, no swim instructor ever knew what to do with their anxiety. Conquering fear has been the center of my approach to teaching swimming.
Committees that put together traditional swim curricula believe that confidence in the water comes from skills. The truth is that skills come from confidence. Skills cannot be learned until one has a basic level of self-reliance. A student cannot be afraid for their life and also be expected to learn. Swim students have to be comfortable in all water depths to be safe. In short, learning to swim must include deep water safety. If an adult’s swim instruction includes strokes, strokes must follow comfort and safety in deep water.
It’s important to acknowledge that emotional and psychological barriers prevent non-swimmers from becoming swimmers. Many adults have failed swimming lessons to the point of discouragement and even resignation that they cannot learn to swim. They often refuse to try again.
Most people who can’t swim are embarrassed about it. “What? You can’t swim?!” But they need not feel ashamed. No one has a silly reason for being afraid. They come by it honestly. It often starts with a scary experience, an afraid parent or unqualified teachers.
What’s needed is a foolproof, proven system that would become a national standard for swimming instruction, one that focuses on helping adults cope with their fears. And it should be paired with a national campaign to dispel shame and replace it with permission. People need to know it’s okay to be afraid in water. But it’s not okay to remain afraid: it’s unsafe.
The undergrads who weren’t served by my beginning swimming class in New England all those years ago didn’t get to experience my revised approach to teaching swimming. I hope they’re searching for me now. Because if they’re taught to conquer their fear, everyone can learn to swim.
