The Grass Isn’t Always Greener: Perceptions of and Performance on Open-Note Exams

Undergraduate biology education is often viewed as being focused on memorization rather than development of students’ critical-thinking abilities. We speculated that open-note testing would be an easily implemented change that would emphasize higher-order thinking. As open-note testing is not commonly used in the biological sciences and the literature on its effects in biology education is sparse, we performed a comprehensive analysis of this intervention on a primary literature–based exam across three large-enrollment laboratory courses. Although students believed open-note testing would impact exam scores, we found no effect on performance, either overall or on questions of nearly all Bloom’s levels. Open-note testing also produced no advantage when examined under a variety of parameters, including research experience, grade point average, course grade, prior exposure to primary literature–focused laboratory courses, or gender. Interestingly, we did observe small differences in open- and closed-note exam performance and perception for students who experienced open-note exams for an entire quarter. This implies that student preparation or in-test behavior can be altered by exposure to open-note testing conditions in a single course and that ­increased experience may be necessary to truly understand the impact of this intervention.     

Examining the Beliefs and Practices of Four Effective Australian Primary Science Teachers

With trends across many countries still indicating the decline of student interest in school science and diminishing numbers of students studying science beyond the compulsory years, it seems that the field remains in crisis. To address these unfortunate trends, there needs to be a greater emphasis on science education research that highlights the good news stories. For example, what are science teachers actually doing in their classrooms to increase student interest and understanding in science? This article focuses on the science teaching beliefs and practices of four Western Australian primary school teachers. The teachers were nominated by a professional colleague as effective practitioners. The study involved gathering information from classroom observations and teacher interviews to provide background information to assist in developing understandings of these teachers and their science teaching. This article reports on the initial findings drawn from Deanne A, Kate B, Lisa C and Rebecca D. Their practices were organised into the following six categories: classroom environment; conceptual knowledge and procedural skills; teaching strategies and approaches; student-specific considerations; teacher-specific considerations; and context-specific considerations. In examining the components contributing to these categories, it was evident that the teachers’ beliefs, as well as the contextual factors inherent in each classroom environment, influenced how and why they teach science in the ways they do.     

Context sensitivity of conditioned suppression following preexposure to the conditioned stimulus

Conditioned suppression in rats is often unaffected when the context (or set of background stimuli) is changed following conditioning. This suggests that responding to the conditioned stimulus (CS) can be relatively insensitive to the context in which the CS is presented. In two experiments, we examined whether sensitivity to contextual stimuli is affected by preexposure to the CS. In Experiment 1, when the CS was novel at the outset of conditioning, conditioned suppression was not affected when the context was changed following conditioning. However, when the CS had been preexposed, responding was weaker when extinction occurred outside of the conditioning context. In Experiment 2, responding was again sensitive to the test context, regardless of whether preexposure occurred in the conditioning context or in an alternate context. These results suggest that the extent to which responding is sensitive to context can depend on the conditioning history of the CS.     

Identifying Baseline Covariates for Use in Propensity Scores: A Novel Approach Illustrated for a Nonrandomized Study of Recovery High Schools

There are many situations where random assignment of participants to treatment and comparison conditions may be unethical or impractical. This article provides an overview of propensity score techniques that can be used for estimating treatment effects in nonrandomized quasi-experimental studies. After reviewing the logic of propensity score methods, we call attention to the importance of the strong ignorability assumption and its implications. We then discuss the importance of identifying and measuring a sufficient set of baseline covariates upon which to base the propensity scores and illustrate approaches to that task in the design of a study of recovery high schools for adolescents treated for substance abuse. One novel approach for identifying important covariates that we suggest and demonstrate is to draw on the predictor-outcome correlations compiled in meta-analyses of prospective longitudinal correlations.     

Understanding Cultural Differences in the Antecedents of Pro-Environmental Behavior: A Comparative Analysis of Business Students in the United States and Chile

We surveyed business students in the U. S. (n = 256) and Chile (n = 310). The survey included measures drawn from studies of pro-environmental behavior using Schwartz's norm activation theory (Schwartz, 1977 Schwartz, S. H. 1977. “Normative influences on altruism”. In Advances in experimental social psychology, Edited by: Berkowitz, L. Vol. 10, 221–279. New York: Academic Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980 Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M. 1980. Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.  [Google Scholar]), and a values-beliefs-norms model created by Stern, Dietz, Abel, Guagnano, and Kalof (1999) Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Abel, T., Guagnano, G. A. and Kalof, L. 1999. A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: The case of environmentalism. Human Ecology Review, 6(2): 81–97.  [Google Scholar]. Our results show Chilean business students are more altruistic than business students in the United States and Chilean students felt stronger pressures from their peers to engage in pro-environmental behaviors. Chilean business students also expressed higher levels of awareness of environmental problems, a greater sense of obligation to protect the environment, a stronger willingness to limit property rights, and stronger intentions to engage in pro-environmental behavior.     

Cross‐survey analysis of school violence and disorder

School psychologists and administrators are often asked to respond to student violence and disorder based on incomplete or inaccurate information about the nature and scope of these problems in their schools. Records of disciplinary actions and incidents may reflect only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In national surveys, school administrators report rates of violence and disorder that are only a small fraction of the rates reported by students in national self‐report surveys. Student self‐report surveys on school violence and disorder may offer school officials a means of more accurately appraising the prevention needs of their students. This article compares the methods and findings of three national surveys of students in an effort to understand what methodological characteristics have the most salient impact on their findings. The article examines measures of school‐related weapon carrying and fear from all three national surveys contrasting their modes of administration and question phrasing. Estimates from even the most expertly designed and administered survey will include some error. However, the stability and comparability of the national surveys across time and across surveys suggest that student self‐report surveys are valuable tools for school‐level needs assessment. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Evaluating epistemic uncertainty under incomplete assessments

The thesis of this study is to propose an extended methodology for laboratory based Information Retrieval evaluation under incomplete relevance assessments. This new methodology aims to identify potential uncertainty during system comparison that may result from incompleteness. The adoption of this methodology is advantageous, because the detection of epistemic uncertainty – the amount of knowledge (or ignorance) we have about the estimate of a system’s performance – during the evaluation process can guide and direct researchers when evaluating new systems over existing and future test collections. Across a series of experiments we demonstrate how this methodology can lead towards a finer grained analysis of systems. In particular, we show through experimentation how the current practice in Information Retrieval evaluation of using a measurement depth larger than the pooling depth increases uncertainty during system comparison.     

Resistive pulse sensing of magnetic beads and supraparticle structures using tunable pores

Tunable pores (TPs) have been used for resistive pulse sensing of 1 μm superparamagnetic beads, both dispersed and within a magnetic field. Upon application of this field, magnetic supraparticle structures (SPSs) were observed. Onset of aggregation was most effectively indicated by an increase in the mean event magnitude, with data collected using an automated thresholding method. Simulations enabled discrimination between resistive pulses caused by dimers and individual particles. Distinct but time-correlated peaks were often observed, suggesting that SPSs became separated in pressure-driven flow focused at the pore constriction. The distinct properties of magnetophoretic and pressure-driven transport mechanisms can explain variations in the event rate when particles move through an asymmetric pore in either direction, with or without a magnetic field applied. Use of TPs for resistive pulse sensing holds potential for efficient, versatile analysis and measurement of nano- and microparticles, while magnetic beads and particle aggregation play important roles in many prospective biosensing applications.     

排汗衬衣

汗水皮肤上蒸发会降低体温，但是由于衣服吸附湿气，反而使体温升高，让人出更多汗为了解决这个问题，服装生产商向运动服市场推出具有“控制湿气”功能的面料，它可以通过毛细管作用将汗液带走，因此衣服很容易干，这是第一批即将推出的高科技面料。