Preconceptions and relations used by children in the construction of food chains

This study shows two aspects: the predator–prey relations and the preconceptions held by children (9–10 years old) on the construction of food chains. The subjects of the study were 506 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children from the Mexican education curriculum. The conclusions are based on a single application of an instrument after a lecture in the classroom. The instrument consists of three tasks. The outcome showed that the classification of herbivorous and carnivorous is based in children's preconceptions of size and ferocity. These preconceptions guide the children's selection of the higher-level predator in the construction of a food chain. Another element used by children is the predator-prey relation in the construction of a food chain. The results shed light on the difficulties students have at higher education levels in the resolution of food webs and the relationships with ecosystems.     

Short-Term Effects of Field Programme on Students’ Knowledge and Attitude Toward Biology: a Slovak Experience

Field trips are ideal for increasing students’ experience and perceptions of various organisms and their relationship between the original habitat. However, in general field trips are greatly neglected by teachers and their short-term effects are thought to be questionable. Therefore, we conducted a one-day field trip for both improving students’ knowledge in ecology and for examining short-term effects. Based on the results of the research conducted 3 days after the trip, we found a significant and positive increase in students’ attitudes toward biology, natural environment outside and future career in biology. Moreover, students displayed a better understanding of ecology concepts like ecosystems and food webs. However, no similar pattern was observed for the control group experienced only traditional biology settings. Thus, this study is unique showing significant short-term effects of a field trip on students’ attitude and knowledge toward biology.     

High school students' understanding of food webs: Identification of a learning hierarchy and related misconceptions

Developing an understanding of the nature of food webs is an important topic in today's biology curricula. The relationships represented in a food web are rule-like in nature. Hence, it should be possible to construct a learning hierarchy for this concept. A hierarchy leading to the ability to determine how a change in the size of one population can affect another population in the same web but not on the same chain was hypothesized. Data from 200 subjects were extremely consistent with the hierarchy. A second major focus related to the identification of specific misconceptions held by subjects for food webs. The need to identify students' misconceptions of important concepts has been expressed widely in the recent science education literature. In the present article, an argument is presented for the usefulness of learning hierarchies in this work. Specific misconceptions and the frequencies of their occurrence are reported.     

食品安全意识与行为的社会学研究——以某大学在校大学生为样本的分析

消费者的食品安全意识与行为,是食品安全研究的重要领域。以某校大学生为调查研究对象,采用社会学的理论方法考察他们在食品安全方面的意识与行为。研究发现,大学生在食品安全意识与行为方面并没有表现出令人欣喜的情况。从消费者的角度来观察和思考食品安全问题,最值得注意的问题是消费者的食品安全意识的淡薄,以及由此导致的食品不安全消费行为。风险社会理论与社会控制理论对食品安全问题具有重要的规制作用。     

Validation of an Interdisciplinary Food Safety Curriculum Targeted at Middle School Students and Correlated to State Educational Standards

ABSTRACT:  Providing effective food safety education to young consumers is a national health priority to combat the nearly 76 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States annually. With the tremendous pressures on teachers for accountability in core subject areas, the focus of classrooms is on covering concepts that are tested on state performance examinations. As a result, topics such as food safety are rarely addressed in middle school classrooms. Middle school is an ideal time to teach food safety because adolescents are in the process of setting lifelong behaviors; therefore, they are more likely to synthesize new food safety knowledge in a way that will lead to the development of lifelong behaviors. The purpose of this study was to scientifically validate an educational resource that provides a method for classroom teachers to involve young consumers in food safety education while meeting state content area curriculum standards. An interdisciplinary curriculum targeted at middle school students and correlated directly to state content standards was designed to include highly effective instructional strategies that teach food safety concepts through all core subject classes (science, math, social studies, and language arts). The curriculum was pilot tested in 5 schools using a pretest, posttest, and follow-up test assessment model. The results showed that the curriculum was highly effective at raising student knowledge (21% gain) and improving students' food handling behaviors (8.47% gain) from pretests to posttests. In addition, 6 wk after implementation, students retained 86% of their total knowledge gain as measured by a follow-up assessment.     

小食品包装的宜人性探求

随着生活水平的提高,小食品作为娱乐休闲食品经常在我们的视线里出现。在小食品品牌竞争的压力下,如何吸引消费者,引起购买欲,小食品的包装就起到非常关键的作用。小食品的包装已不仅仅受限在它的功能陛,其宜人性的包装也越来越受到消费者的青睐。包装结构就是包装设计宜人性表现的一个重要方面,也是小食品包装设计中引人入目的亮点。     

浅析20世纪初美国联邦《纯净食品与药品法》出台的历史背景

19世纪80年代以来美国食品加工技术的提高和食品市场的扩大使政府对食品市场进行管制成为必要。这种管制最先表现为各州制定了纯净食品法。然而州管制既不足以保护消费者,也不足以保护食品生产者。于是,在科学界的呼吁和媒体的宣传下,觉醒消费者开始大力推动联邦政府对食品市场进行管制,大型食品生产者利益集团在这方面态度也十分积极,最后促成了1906年《纯净食品与药物法》的出台,开始了联邦管制食品市场的新时代。     

论食品召回管理制度的实施困境与对策

食品召回是在不符合安全标准的食品流向市场后所采取的一种补救措施,有利于避免消费者权益遭受损害。我国食品召回法律制度还有待进一步完善,包括：提高食品召回在食品安全管理中的法律地位,细化相关法律规定;建立健全食品召回的信息披露机制;加大惩罚力度,提高违法成本,增强食品生产者召回不符合安全标准的食品的动力。     

High school students’ concepts regarding food chains and food webs: a multinational study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the views of high school students with regard to food chains and food webs. This investigation included 96 randomly selected students from three countries (32 from each country): the USA, Australia and Canada. Each subject was individually interviewed using the interviews about events method. During each interview, the investigators asked the subject a set of standard questions that was developed prior to the beginning of this study. The investigators found that most of the students from all three countries had some difficulty in providing a complete explanation of the complex feeding relationship that occurs within a food web and that some of these students revealed one or more misconceptions about these relationships.     

Innovation and product qualification in apple production in Belgium

Abstract

Consumer concerns about food safety have been steadily growing during the last decade. Along with the recognition of the increasing power from the consumer side of food chains, this has forced agricultural producers to innovate and adapt their production methods. One of those innovations is integrated fruit production (IFP) aiming at providing consumers with specific quality products. The focus in this paper is on the establishment and impact of socio-technical networks that close existing gaps between the consumers' world and the one of producers. Specific attention is paid to the role of extension services and product champions as mediators. The theoretical framework comprises elements of the actor-network theory and economic conventions theory. It is shown that the interaction between the consumers' world and the producers' world results from a mediated interactive process that clearly influences the socially constructed technology. Relevant input from consumers, as well as adequate policy measures are urgently needed in order to realise a successful development of quality networks for fresh food.     

危害食品安全犯罪的刑法规制

危害食品安全犯罪作为近几年高发的一类犯罪,严重侵害着广大消费者的生命健康,顺应当前整治形势的《食品安全法》的实施为刑法的规制提出了更高的要求。通过对现行刑法中对危害食品安全犯罪的规定做一简单分析,认为我国应当完善相应的规定,以更好的实现刑法与《食品安全法》的对接和建立严密的食品监管体系。     

环境公益诉讼视域下食品安全保障机制

当前,我国食品安全监管体系正在逐渐完善,但规制环境污染导致食品安全问题的法规尚未出台.传统食品安全问题解决机制大多局限于个别消费者的民事赔偿与行政机关的行政处罚,无力从整体上解决环境污染导致的食品安全问题.环境公益诉讼的引入有助于维护公民基本生存权、食品安全权.积极探索环境公益诉讼在食品安全保障方面的应用,是完善我国食品安全保障的必要路径.     

完善河南省食品安全法制保障的对策与建议

食品安全事关民生,近年来,河南省的食品安全问题层出不穷,不仅让消费者深受其害,也使政府的公信力遭到了质疑。河南省食品安全的法律保障在加强相关立法的同时,要注重执法,突出抓好食品安全监管的协调工作,加大处罚力度,促进食品安全法律保障水平的不断提升。     

Social learning about predators: a review and prospectus

In comparison with social learning about food, social learning about predators has received little attention. Yet such research is of potential interest to students of animal cognition and conservation biologists. I summarize evidence for social learning about predators by fish, birds, eutherian mammals, and marsupials. I consider the proposal that this phenomenon is a case of S-S classical conditioning and suggest that evolution may have modified some of the properties of learning to accommodate for the requirements of learning socially about danger. I discuss some between-species differences in the properties of socially acquired predator avoidance and suggest that learning may be faster and more robust in species in which alarm behavior reliably predicts high predatory threat. Finally, I highlight how studies of socially acquired predator avoidance can inform the design of prerelease antipredator training programs for endangered species.     

If You Don't Know,Ask! Using Expert Knowledge to Determine What Content Is Needed in an Undergraduate Food Quality Management and Control Course

Quality management and quality control of food products are critical to producing food that is safe to consume and has consistent quality and sensory attributes. The extent to which undergraduate students are equipped with competencies in quality management/control, in theory, has a direct connection with their career potential to ensure food products and/or services meet the expectations of consumers and society. However, the most important quality management/control competencies for undergraduate food science students have yet to be identified. The objective of this study was to determine key knowledge and skills in quality management/control needed by food science graduates. A modified Delphi method was used to gather consensus on these knowledge and skills from experts in food quality management/control. Surveys were used to establish a framework of the most relevant quality management/control concepts for undergraduate food science students to learn and organize these concepts into core domains according to their relative importance. A course outline for teaching an undergraduate course on food quality management/control was developed that detailed relevant topics and depth of coverage for each of these topics. The needs assessment method used in this study to align course content with food industry's needs may be used for a wide variety of course topics.     

Using Focus Groups to Study Consumer Understanding and Experiences with Tamper-Evident Packaging Devices

ABSTRACT:  A focus group with an educational component was used to help initiate a new research hypothesis. Early-stage development of a new tamper-evident invention was improved with input from a consumer focus group. The focus group comprised consumers who were shown several tamper-evident devices, including a new color-changing cap under active development. We found that consumers understood tamper-evident food packaging and recognized when devices were triggered. Most said that they always checked tamper-evident food packaging but further query revealed that they only did this for certain products. Consumers were ambivalent about paying more for foods protected by tamper-evident devices, including the color-changing one. None rejected the color-changing device but some recommended changes that would improve the invention. Some mentioned that new devices are unnecessary because current technology is effective in keeping food safe. An educational session conducted in conjunction with the focus group sessions showed that some peoples' initial negative attitude changed to positive support for new color-changing devices after learning about food security concerns. We found that a focus group was useful for shaping academic research and identifying the most practical outcomes. A focus group provided a unique interactive assessment of consumers' understanding of the usefulness and critical research needs in developing a tamper-evident device.     

Virtual Models of Long-Term Care

Nursing homes, assisted living facilities and home-care organizations, use web sites to describe their services to potential consumers. This virtual ethnographic study developed models representing how potential consumers may understand this information using data from web sites of 69 long-term-care providers. The content of long-term-care web sites can be understood based on common concepts such as services provided, quality of life, autonomy, values, and goals. However, the use of a human ecosystems organizing framework results in systemic, contextualized, in-depth, and useful models for understanding and highlighting similarities and differences across the three forms of long-term care. This research has implications for those interested in long-term care and for researchers organizing qualitative data in ethnographic research.     

Temperature stress analysis of prestressed concrete box girder with corrugated steel webs

To figure out the distribution of temperature gradient along the girder height of steel-concrete composite box girder, combined with the mechanical characteristics of prestressed concrete composed box girder with corrugated steel webs, the calculation formulas of cross-sectional temperature stress along the span in a simply-supported beam bridge with composite section were derived under the conditions of static equilibrium and deformation compatibility of the beam element. The methods of calculating the maximum temperature stress value were discussed when the connectors are assumed rigid or flexible. Theoretical and numerical results indicate that the method proposed shows better precision for the calculation of temperature self-stress in both the top and the bottom surfaces of the box girder. Moreover, the regularity of temperature stress distribution at different locations along the girder span is that the largest axial force of the top or the bottom plate of the box girder is located in the midspan and spreads decreasingly until zero at both supported ends, and that the greatest longitudinal shear density in steel-concrete interface appears at both supported ends and then reduces gradually to zero in the midspan.     

也论多元智能理论指导下的专题学习网站建设

利用专题学习网站开展网络教学是目前较流行的一种网络教学模式,它为学科综合性知识的学习提供了网络学习环境。为了专题学习网站的自身发展和开展网络素质教育的需要,应以多元智能理论为指导,建设一种能实现每个学生最大化发展其多元智能的专题学习网站,从而达到扩大专题学习网站的研究范围和利用基于多元智能理论建设的专题学习网站开展网络素质教育的目的。