Title  : Directions, Spring 1993 Issue
Type   : Directions
NSF Org: OD / LPA
Date   : July 9, 1993
File   : dir9307





Paying Attention to the Teacher

Throughout the history of education, forward-looking nations have
sought to resolve the dilemma of how best to educate their youth.
Yet the debate over the content, context, and methods for preparing
young people for the future is as alive today as it was in
Socrates' time.

One might assume that after centuries of experience with
teacher-student relationships we would by now have distilled the
essentials of quality teaching into a formula that could guide us
in selecting, training, and monitoring excellent teachers. This
goal, however, has remained elusive for a number of reasonsa
shifting target of what it means to be an educated person, the
growing demand for universal education at higher levels of
achievement, the increasing social and cultural diversity in our
schools, and changing behavioral and familial norms.

As the lead federal agency for mathematics and science education,
the National Science Foundation has sought ways to provide
mathematics and science teachers with the tools to do their jobs
well. Teachers today must contend with a complex and growing
accumulation of knowledge, as well as rapidly changing
communication and information technologies. The pace of change
places tremendous demands on a profession expected to provide
interesting, challenging, current information to students with
widely different backgrounds and interests.

In seeking to improve the educational experience of the student,
it is important to know the special qualities that the exemplary
teacher brings to the classroom. Can these be infused into other
teachers? What are the best ways to structure the educational
experience so that the teacher's efforts offer the greatest payoff?
Which of the array of new technologies are most useful in improving
teaching quality? And what are the best methods for getting
teachers to use emerging technologies to maximum effect?

One way to answer these questions is to identify successful
teachers and learn from them how they teach. Over
the last 10 years, the Presidential Awards for Excellence in
Science and Mathematics Teaching program has provided a mechanism
for selecting exemplary mathematics and science teachers in every
state and recognizing their accomplishments. But the Presidential
Awards program does more than focus attention on teaching
excellence. It provides a way for excellent teachers to become
leaders in efforts to promote educational excellence in each state.

Successful change in a decentralized educational environment cannot
be accomplished without leadership at the local level. If we seek
to raise the status of teaching as a profession, professional
standards must be agreed upon by the teachers themselves. It is in
returning to their local school districts that the 1,400
Presidential Awardees selected since 1983 have had the greatest
impact. As teachers who are competitively selected and recognized
for excellence at the national level, Presidential Awardees gain
credibility as local education leaders. Many have become active in
advising  state curriculum committees, taken leadership positions
in professional organizations, become adjunct faculty in local
universities, and served as mentors and models for countless fellow
teachers. In addition, they are encouraged to continue their
contacts with one another through the Council of Presidential
Awardees in Mathematics and the Association of Presidential
Awardees in Science Teaching.

The Presidential Awards program has been so successful in meeting
its objectives that each of the state finalists will now be
recognized with Governor's Teaching Awards, broadening the
recognition of excellence in teaching at the state level.

Every successful scientist, mathematician, and engineer owes his
or her career to a teacher-a teacher who somewhere along the way
shared a spark of enthusiasm that grew into an impassioned
commitment. The coming generations of scientists, mathematicians,
and engineers will need as much help as we can provide, and
expanding excellence in teaching is a critical first step. NSF's
eventual success in achieving its mathematics and science education
and human resources goals is inevitably tied to the success of
individual teachers. In elevating teacher recognition to the
national level, the Presidential Awards program has had a notable
effect at the local level.

Dr. Luther Williams is the Assistant Director for NSF's Directorate
for Education and Human Resources.


Innovative Teachers Lauded for Leadership
by Lynn Teo Simarski

"I take a lot of pride in this awardit validates what I do."
"This is the culmination of my career."
"The award is prestigious, and the fact that we're going to the
White House sends a message that we're doing something right!"

Such comments by this year's recipients of the Presidential Awards
for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching suggest the
excitement that was echoed and amplified when 108 outstanding
secondary-level teachers gathered in Washington, D.C., March 9-14.
The recipients of the decade-old citation, which is designed to
reward and cultivate leadership in teaching reform, were at least
as enthralled about meeting fellow science and mathematics teachers
as with the opportunity to be congratulated by President Clinton.

Four mathematics and science teacherstwo elementary and two
secondary-are honored annually in each state and in U.S.
jurisdictions. Later this spring, the elementary teachers were
feted with their own celebratory week. The awards program was
established in 1983 by the White House, and is sponsored by the
National Science Foundation (NSF).

While in Washington, the secondary teachers met with top NSF
officials, including Director Walter Massey. They were also
addressed by John Gibbons, President Clinton's science advisor, as
well as by top science and mathematics researchers such as Maxine
Singer, president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and
Robert L. Devaney, mathematics professor at Boston University. Many
teachers also met individually with their congressional
representatives.

During workshops to exchange favorite lessonsin which fellow
teachers were enlisted as student stand-insthe teachers seemed to
be vying to display the greatest inventiveness. To throw out the
textbook is the norm in this group, commented Debra Hanson, a
teacher at Florida's Caloosa Middle School.

Mathematics teacher Kay Toliver from East Harlem, New York, dons
a magician's cap and gown and waves a wand, drawing from a Dr.
Seuss tale, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, to launch a lesson in
fractions-as well as science, journalism, and public speaking.
Appearing as the magic chef of the king in the story, Toliver
introduces the mysterious substance called oobleck, which the
students then analyze scientifically-delving into fractions, metric
measurements, and the use of proportions in problem-solving.
"Sometimes the kids ask, 'This is math class; why are we writing
so much?'" Toliver said. "But after awhile they see that math is
everything." Costumes are a staple in her teaching-she stars in
another role as the "M&M Lady" and uses Sun Maid raisin characters
to animate statistics lessons.

Toliver also won the Disney Channel American Teacher Award for
mathematics this year, and for the first time in 26 years of
teaching, some of her students want to be teachers-a spinoff from
her national recognition. Her fellow teachers are just as proud-
"It's like all of us have won." Of her students, Toliver said, "I
want them to feel all the time that they're making great
discoveries."

While many teachers at the Washington gathering cited the
importance of field trips, Dwight Sieggreen, president-elect of
the Michigan Science Teachers Association and teacher at Ida B.
Cooke Middle School in Northville, Michigan, brings the world into
his classroom, while helping to send other teachers on
horizon-expanding ventures. Over the past three years, he has
engineered an annual program for twenty K-6 teachers who travel on
expense-paid Earth-watch expeditions around the globe. The teachers
helped with research on the giant clams of Tonga, amphibians of the
South China Sea, and lemon sharks in Bimini, among a plethora of
other subjects. At home, Sieggreen's classroom is inhabited by
seventeen exotic snakes, Nile monitors, Cayman lizards, and other
beasts. Sieggreen met a teacher from Pago Pago at the Washington
awards week who promised to send a sample of Samoan sand to augment
his already globe-spanning collection. "The network is worth
everything," he says. "I have friends and students who travel all
over the world." Sieggreen sees the presidential award as "a
vehicle to open another thousand doors."

Teacher Becky Goodwin, who teaches at the Kansas State School for
the Deaf-with students ages 3-21set up an outdoor education
laboratory as a way to bring environmental issues home. The
facility features a pond, bird feeder, bat house, turtle-viewing
corner, and greenhouse. Her students wrote the field guide, which
explains, "The lab is a place for ongoing 'real-life' research, a
place to learn about responsibility for our planet." Goodwin said,
"The flowers they plant there are going to multiply." In troubled
budgetary times, "The lab has given them some sense of permanence-
some confidence that their school won't be closed." She reported
that the self-assurance of her students has also grown because
their teacher's achievement has been recognized with the
presidential award.

The awardees clearly share an ability to relate school to students'
lives. Dick Sander, a mathematics teacher from Alaska, demonstrated
a lesson on matrices that used local animals to illustrate the
concept of biological dominance. East Harlem's Toliver takes
children to a busy intersection in the community to count the
proportion of "gypsy" (illegal) taxis versus Yellow  Cabs-about
9:1, they discovered-and she uses the ratio to teach about
mathematics as well as social issues. Paul Cassens, a teacher in
American Samoa, uses "fish bingo" to teach the English and Samoan
names of reef fish in the area.

"Let's stop doing labs that have outcomes and let's start doing
experiments," one science teacher said. Another has each student
set up a terrarium. "I never say they can't put a cactus with a
geranium," she said, "which some of them do try."

Even with limited resources, the teachers are creative at
broadening their students' lives. Virginia Perino, who teaches at
Stockbridge Valley Central School, New York, helps her students
plan an itinerary for an imaginary class trip to another state,
emphasizing visits to sites related to earth science. "My kids live
in a valley and they don't see beyond the bounds of it," Perino
said. "This activity does a lot to expand their horizons."

Many teachers found that the week of intense synergy in Washington
helped to breach their own isolation. "This meeting is an
opportunity to interact with others who share your vision of what
the future might be," said an awardee from last year, one of the
alumni invited back to Washington as part of this year's
activities.

"Every idea I heard was something new," said Debra Hanson. Two
teachers who met at the conference, Kathryn Hilts of rural West
Virginia and David Wood of Washington, D.C., plan to link their
classrooms by computer, working on joint projects and opening their
students' eyes to a different cultural environment in the process.
Science teacher Wilson Flight of Concord-Carlisle Regional High
School in Massachusetts tendered an invitation to all the earth
science teachers to stay at his bed-and-breakfast later in the
year. During the week, teachers also had a chance to forge
relationships with Washington organizations, at breakfasts hosted
by scientific and mathematics societies.

Each awardee's school receives a $7,500 grant. "This money is to
be spent at the teacher's discretion to enhance science and
mathematics teaching; it will be used in the classroom," said Rose
Marie Smith, NSF program officer for the presidential awards. "This
is $7,500 and nobody can say no!" said Teri Lund of Millard North
High School in Omaha, Nebraska. "I feel like I'm rich."

Many teachers are consulting with their colleagues or students on
how to use the funds. Some awardees will send other teachers to
professional conventions, while technology for the classroom is
also at the top of many lists. At Neptune Middle School in New
Jersey, where 10 science teachers now share one computer, Barbara
Pietrucha is adding a second. Toliver is also buying a computer as
well as an overhead projector-her first in 26 years of teaching.

Addressing the teachers at the awards ceremony, presidential
science advisor John Gibbons commended the science and mathematics
teachers for giving their students the gift of critical analysis
as well as a sense of wonder, "opening a whole new world of
fascination denied to so many people." NSF Director Massey told the
awardees, "The qualities that you bring to your work every
day...your willingness to lead and have your voices heardare the
best that our nation has to offer."

"The charge is to become a leader, to get on the decision-making
committees that influence science and math education," said Larry
Dorsey-Spitz, an awardee alumnus from 1991. "It can be a lonely
and difficult task, but if change is going to occur, it's got to
come from the teacher."

Lynn Teo Simarski is a Science Writer in NSF's Office of
Legislative and Public Affairs


Putting the "E" in NREN
by Stephen Wolff and Beverly Hunter

NSF is combining its mission to reform science education with its
leadership role in creating the National Research and Education
Network (NREN). A collaboration between two NSF directorates is
producing a broad spectrum of projects to advance the state-of-art
in educational networking. Some examples of these projects are
described below.

Testbeds and Collaborations

Networking testbed projects are building software and know-how for
network applications in science, mathematics, and engineering
education. The projects support innovations in preparation and
professional development for teachers, classroom science
instruction, informal science education, assessment of student
learning, project-based science learning, and state and urban
systemic initiatives.

Many innovative learning activities in science and mathematics
require that teachers and students have access to experts, tools,
and information. The networks help make such collaborations
possible. For example, the National School Network testbed includes
reform projects such as Urban Math Collaboratives, Shadows,
MicroMUSE, Alternative Assessment, and Community of Explorers,
"Copernicus" internet servers provide easy-to-use software for
electronic mail, conferencing, database access, real-time
interaction, simulation, and interactive video. In Community of
Explorers, teachers and students share simulations, data, and notes
among schools. Children from around the world, who are involved in
the Shadows project, measure noontime shadows on their schoolyards,
share their data, and use it to compute the earth's circumference.

The National Geographic Society pioneered the Kids Network model
in which students gather data on their local environment (such as
acidity of their rain water) and, through the networks, work with
scientists and other students to study, combine, and share database
information.

Similarly, in the Global Lab project, teachers, students, and
global change researchers around the world are studying local and
global ecological change using new instruments and sensors such as
ozonometers and field data loggers. Internet servers called
"Alice," with easy-to-use software, will support these and other
networked science projects.

In a project called Learning Through Collaborative Visualization,
students and classroom teachers work directly with scientists on
inquiries in atmospheric science. Using two-way audio/video
technology being developed by Bellcore and Ameritech, this project
joins the classrooms to scientists at the University of Michigan,
the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the National Center for
Supercomputer Applications in Urbana-Champaign, and Technical
Education Research Centers.

The Geometry Forum supports a community of research geometers, high
school and college students and teachers, developers of
instructional materials, and research in geometry education. To
prepare new teachers of science and mathematics, Teaching
Teleapprenticeships enable undergraduates to participate in
network-based activities directly with K-12 students and practicing
classroom teachers.

Access to Information Resources, Instruments, and Services

A clearinghouse for networked information will help developers of
educational materials put their products and processes into a form
that can be easily accessed by educators. Network programs such as
"Archie," the "Wide-Area Information Server (WAIS)," and the
"Internet Gopher" will help users find and access the data.
The Weather Underground (University of Michigan) is testing
computer networking systems in which secondary school students in
inner city Detroit are using real-time weather data and tools from
the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Middle school
teachers in Boulder, Colorado, are studying children's
understanding of atmospheric science concepts while they are
working with multiple representations of the same weather phenomena
using National Weather Service data and satellite images.

Although high performance computers and sophisticated instruments
such as telescopes are not found in typical schools and colleges,
the networks make it possible for students and teachers, at their
own work-stations, to access and control such equipment. For
example, researchers in computational physics develop and use
software models that require powerful computers to execute.

Students are now accessing those models through the networks to
develop understanding of molecular behavior. Similarly, in the
Micro-Observatory project, students will use remote
computer-controlled optical telescopes to undertake their own
research projects in astronomy.

General-purpose help for both novice and experienced network users
will be provided by a new award for Network Information Services.
Created to provide basic information on how to get connected and
how to use the network, these customer services will be a boon to
frustrated users who have exhausted all other sources of help.

The Regional (sometimes called "Mid-level") networks of the NSFNET
are contributing in diverse ways to the infrastructure and know-how
for educational networking. For example, the Texas Educational
Network (TENET), reaching all schools in Texas, is built upon and
with the regional Texas Higher Education Network. In another case,
the Northwest Regional Network is working with the Northwest
Regional Education Laboratory (NWREL) to provide technical and
networking assistance to the schools served by NWREL. And, NYSERNET
is working with state, regional, and local education agencies in
New York to establish technical assistance infrastructure for
educational networking.

As these and other networks expand and evolve, instruction and
opportunities for learning will reach far beyond the traditional
classroom.

Stephen Wolff is Division Director for the Division of Networking
and Communications Research and Infrastructure, Directorate for
Computer and Information Science and Engineering.
Beverly Hunter is a Program Director for the Applications of
Advanced Technologies program in the Directorate for Education and
Human Resources.

Notes In Brief

NSF Joins the Navy

In keeping with an increasing emphasis on interagency cooperation
to enhance the nation's science and engineering base, the National
Science Foundation (NSF) recently joined forces with the Office of
Naval Research (ONR) in a written Memorandum of Understanding.  The
formal agreement promises to reinforce the informal partnership
that already existed between NSF, ONR, and the Naval Research
Laboratory by linking people and programs in stronger ties.  For
example, the Memorandum of Understanding encourages an exchange of
technical staff, development of better electronic data interchange,
joint review and funding of some proposals, and "rotational tours"
at NSF by senior Naval Research Laboratory staff members.

Thank the Fish for Seed Dispersal

When streams in tropical rain forests flood, their fish populations
often swim into the adjacent forests, in some cases for dozens of
miles. Fish species that feed on tropical fruit seeds may then
disperse these seeds over large areas beyond the normal stream
boundaries. Previous studies have revealed that some fish are major
components of this seed dispersal system.  National Science
Foundation-funded biologist Michael Horn of California State
University at Fullerton is investigating the diet of these tropical
fish, particularly their consumption of figs, as well as the nature
and degree of seed dispersal into forests near streams in Costa
Rica. Horn's study will provide important insights into a
little-known factor in maintaining tree diversity and ecosystem
structure in tropical rain forests.

First Remote Geophysics Observatory Scans Antarctic Sky

The first of six hundred unmanned geophysics observatories is up
and running in Antarctica, watching the upper atmosphere and
magnetosphere tens to hundreds of miles above the earth.  Sited
480 kilometers (about 300 miles) from the South Pole, the Automated
Geophysical Observatory (AGO) will be part of a network spanning
the lofty polar plateau by 1995.  The AGOs are being built under
the U.S. Antarctic Program, which is run by the National Science
Foundation, and they will supplement measurements by the inhabited
stations.  An AGO can store 2.7 gigabites of data, roughly equal
to a library of three million books, and can be left unattended for
a year.  A warm, propane-powered oasis in the polar temperatures,
the AGO houses two magnetometers, which measure the earth's
changing magnetic field as it is tugged by currents of the
aurorathe Southern Lights.  In addition, a radio telescope
photographs the aurora, and an all-sky camera snaps auroral shots
more than 700 times a day during the darkness of the polar winter.

Each AGO costs roughly $400,000, but future observatories could
cost less than one-fifth that much, now that the design stage is
complete. The only other way to get these measurements would be to
use a whole slew of spacecraft, which would be considerably more
expensive, explained John Lynch, NSF program manager for aeronomy
and astrophysics.  With better understanding of the upper
atmosphere, power and telephone companies could design systems to
withstand the likely range of magnetic variation that now sets off
massive power outages, Lynch points out.<R>The AGOs might one day
be used in the Arctic as well.

(These science news and feature stories were reprinted from the
National Science Foundation Tipsheet prepared by the Media and
Public Information Section of the Office of Legislative and Public
Affairs.)

Space Research from the Ground
by Syun-Ichi Akasofu

After the last three decades of intensive satellite-based
exploration, the field of space physics has entered a new age of
exploration of space around the earth from the ground. Space
physics is an outgrowth of traditional (before the advent of
man-made satellites) ground-based disciplines, such as
geomagnetism, ionospheric physics, cosmic ray physics, etc. It was
the success of Sputnik that caused a great infusion of physicists
into these fields, establishing the new discipline of space
physics. It is for this reason that spacecraft have been considered
the main tools in space physics during the last three decades. As
a result, the ground-based research was often considered to be
supplementary to satellite projects.

However, there have been three important realizations to change
this trend during the last decade. The first is that satellites
make only single point measurements in the magnetosphere, a vast
comet-shaped magnetic structure around the Earth. The second is
that with the recent advances in data processing, an array or a
network of ground-based observatories enables monitoring some of
the basic physical quantities at a number of points on a continuous
basis. The third is that considerable progress in computer
simulation studies of physical processes allows us now to combine
both satellite-based and ground-based results in understanding
complex three-dimensional processes in space.

In spite of the great emphasis on satellite-based research during
the last three decades, the National Science Foundation has been
a strong, consistent supporter of space research based on
ground-based observations, leading us to the above-mentioned
realizations.


My first involvement in this venture was to set up and operate an
array of cameras and magnetometers along the Alaska-Greenland
magnetic meridian. Begun in 1970 under the support of NSF, the
project featured an array of cameras (perhaps the largest array of
instruments on Earth) designed to scan the entire polar sky once
a day and depict many important features of the aurorawell before
auroral imagers aboard satellites confirmed them.

By 1978, during the International Magnetosphere Study, six meridian
chains of observatories were operated, again supported by NSF.
Indeed, the Foundation has a long history of ground-based
instrumentation and facilities which have contributed greatly to
progress in space physics. A prime example is NSF's ground-based
array of incoherent scatter radars. These observatories are located
along a longitudinal chain stretching from Greenland to the
magnetic equator.

The multi-instrumented facilities are well situated for both local
and global studies of the Earth's upper atmosphere and  ionosphere.
Recently, recognizing the special importance of the polar region
to global change in the Earth's mesosphere, thermosphere, and
ionosphere, a plan has emerged to extend poleward the NSF-sponsored
network. This plan calls for the Polar Cap Observatory to be
established near the North Magnetic Pole, probably in Resolute Bay,
NWT, Canada.

Another very successful ground-based NSF program to upgrade and
modernize instrumentation capable of remote sensing geospace is
the Coupling, Energetics, and Dynamics of Atmospheric Regions
(CEDAR) program, part of the Global Change Research program. The
collection of ground-based optical instruments and radars under
this program represents a valuable resource that has supplied data
necessary for critical atmospheric research.

In recent years, ground-based observations have become increasingly
important in space physics and NSF continues to play a key role in
ground-based research. This research has advanced both space
physics and astrophysics in parallel with the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration's focus on space-based observation.
Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM), a new program in NSF's
Directorate for Geosciences, is a unique attempt to interrelate
ground-based measurements and computer simulation methods to
produce a global circulation model of the near-Earth space
environment. The proposed NSF-STEP (Solar Terrestrial Energy
Program) initiative would constitute an important part of the
ground-based component of the International Solar Terrestrial
Physics (ISTP) program of the world's major space agencies. STEP
is the key international program for solar-terrestrial science
under the International Council of Scientific Unions.

Together, the ground-based observations represent a new initiative
in space physics. It is an effort to integrate the satellite-based,
ground-based, and computer modeling projects on a real-time basis.
At present, it takes many months to a few years to assemble all
necessary data for space physicists. However, there is no reason
to continue such an outdated data assembly mode. At the Poker Flat
Research Range of the Geophysical Institute, University of  Alaska
Fairbanks, we have developed a system where a variety of direct
output from ground-based instruments and results deduced by such
data sets are displayed all together on computer screens on a
real-time basis. This system, called the Geospace Environmental
Data Display System (GEDDS), has established a new mode of studying
space around Earth and is providing the common working ground for
space scientists and theorists.

The construction of an expanded version of GEDDS is now underway
and will become a hub of the GEM, CEDAR, STEP, and ISTP activities.
The concept of a data hub in this context is very new in geoscience
and the space physics community has responded positively to the
idea and supported our effort. We also envision GEDDS being used
as an ideal classroom for training future researchers in the
disciplinesuch a display system may prove to be an important
supplement to textbook illustrations of space physics.

Syun-Ichi Akasofu is Director of the Geophysical Institute of the
University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Congressional Corner
by David Stonner

While public attention has been focused on the larger economic
policy debates in Washington, several bills with important
implications for NSF have been moving in Congress.

Senator Hollings (D-SC) has introduced S. 4, a major
competitiveness bill, which with its House companion bill H.R. 840,
would enhance NSF's responsibilities in areas of research that
underpin technology development and application. Both bills focus
on activities at the National Institute for Standards and
Technology, but they also augment the ongoing NSF sponsored
Engineering Research Centers and Industry/University Cooperative
Research Centers. As introduced, these bills encourage NSF to
develop activities that foster closer cooperation between
educational institutions, industry, and NSF supported researchers.

A second important element of S.4 is the development of an
information infrastructure technology to ensure the widest
application of high performance computing and high speed
networking. This section of the bill is similar to H.R. 1757,
legislation introduced by Science Subcommittee Chairman Rick
Boucher (D-VA) that would expand NSF's role in government-wide
research on applications for computing and networking. H.R. 1757
specifies NSF as the lead agency for research on education
applications, electronic data storage and retrieval, and computer
networking.

NSF would also be a lead player in assisting the states in
developing model digital libraries, if legislation introduced by
Senator Kerrey (D-NE), is passed into law. Kerrey's bill (S. 626)
seeks to ensure that information useful for educational purposes
is available electronically.

Finally, in the first of many steps toward producing a budget for
the coming fiscal year, the House and Senate have both passed a
budget resolution that was largely consistent with the President's
budget. This would usually be good news for NSF, particularly since
the President's budget provides NSF with an increase of almost 19%.


However, the budget battles in the appropriations process are just
now heating up with the House preparing to mark up and consider
appropriation bills before the start of Memorial Day. The
difficultly in the process comes about because the President's
investment proposals exceed the maximum spending allowed by current
law by close to $6 billion. This means that if Congress is going
to stay within the spending caps, they will have to cut that much
out of the President's budget either from core programs, investment
programs such as NSF or a combination of the two. This sets up a
situation that makes Congressional approval of the NSF's FY94
budget request far from certain.

David Stonner is a Legislative Specialist in NSF's Office of
Legislative and Public Affairs
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