Primary and Secondary Students’ Understanding of the Rainfall Phenomenon and Related Water Systems: a Comparative Study of Two Methodological Approaches

Rainfall is a key process in the water cycle, the most structured scientific knowledge about water movement on Earth. Nevertheless, despite being a common topic covered in school science, it entails several cognitive difficulties for young children. This study uses a pictorial task and semi-opened questions to examine primary (11/12 years old) and secondary (12/13 years old) students’ understanding of the elements and processes involved in the hydrologic cycle and how they are integrated into their explanations regarding the rainfall phenomenon. Overall, we have found that the studied children’s (n = 246) conceptual knowledge increases with age. However, they have an incomplete perception of the mechanism of rainfall and its integration into the water cycle. In fact, not all the students have a cyclic notion of water dynamics; they also miss the inclusion and role of groundwater in water systems and present misconceptions regarding key processes, such as condensation and evaporation. Regarding the two diagnostic tools (drawings and questionnaires) used to study children’s understanding, although questionnaires seem more appropriate for assessing lower conceptual levels, each methodological approach is useful for detecting different key concepts and misconceptions related to the rainfall phenomenon and related water cycle. Consequently, a mixed research design using different methods is advised for a comprehensive study of students’ conceptions.

     

Disseminating scientific research: a double-edged sword?

This study addresses the problem of knowledge dissemination in science–society relation, its connection with the specialization of scientific research fields and the proliferation of academic and practitioner-oriented journals. Specifically, we elaborate on the scientists’ failure to communicate successfully with practitioners and the need for establishing alternative mechanisms that help boost the flow of knowledge between academics and industry. To do so, a thorough literature review is conducted and the author guidelines of the most prominent journals that appeal to both academics and practitioners are reviewed. Based on the analysis, the article offers suggestions on how to narrow the science–industry knowledge gap and how to find a way of not only delivering science to practitioners, but also making science benefit society. Progress is necessary to move towards a better academic–practitioner dialogue and thereby advance both science and practice.     

The achievement flow motive as an element of the autotelic personality: predicting educational attainment in three cultures

Human behavior is directed by an implicit and an explicit motivational system. The intrinsic form of the implicit achievement motive has been demonstrated to predict the experience of flow. Thus, this achievement flow motive can be considered an integral component of the autotelic personality, posited in Flow Theory as dispositional difference in the propensity to experience flow. As implicit motivation predicts long-term behavioral trends and flow predicts quality of performance, the achievement flow motive should be predictive of a long-term goal pursuit such as educational attainment. This hypothesis is tested cross-culturally to shed some light on the universality of flow: Participants from Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Germany were asked about the level of education they attained. To assess their achievement flow motive, the Operant Motive Test was employed. After measurement equivalence was established, analyses revealed that, across all three cultures, the achievement flow motive explained variance in educational attainment independent of achievement values as measured by a scale of the Schwartz Value Survey. Consequently, as would be expected of an element of the autotelic personality, the achievement flow motive predicts long-term academic success.     

A study regarding the spontaneous use of geometric shapes in young children’s drawings

The studies regarding how the comprehension of geometric shapes evolves in childhood are largely based on the assessment of children's responses during the course of tasks linked to the recognition, classification or explanation of prototypes and models. Little attention has been granted to the issue as to what extent the geometric shape turns out to be an expressive tool that young children spontaneously use in their pictorial productions and also, whether or not methodological research approaches aimed at the examination of unprompted usage of geometric shapes in childhood may be useful regarding the study of the development of geometric thinking. This evidence provided by this study is coherent with the assumption that before starting primary education, internal representation of closed curves, quadrilaterals and triangles should have been developed by a significant number of children and, more interestingly, that young children’s graphical expressivity appears liaised to their skill to depict two-dimensional geometric shapes.     

International Comparisons in Higher Education Funding

The use of appropriate indicators of public and private expenditures, from which statistically significant differences in funding policies can be identified, constitutes a solid foundation in which the assessment of the role of governments in promoting higher education can be grounded. Based on a carefully selected set of Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development indicators, this paper explores the effects of education funding policies, along with research and development expenditures and tax levels, on the entry rate to higher education. The results from the statistical analysis of the data confirm the existence of two distinct approaches to higher education funding, the Scandinavian approach and Anglo–American approach, and help to define their characteristics.     

Robust sliding mode control of a DC/DC Boost converter with switching frequency regulation

This paper presents the design of a hysteresis band controller to regulate the switching frequency in a sliding mode controlled nonlinear Boost power converter. The proposed architecture relies on a piecewise linear modeling of the switching function behavior within the hysteresis band, and consists of a continuous-time integral-type controller that modifies the amplitude of the hysteresis band of the comparator in accordance with the error between the desired and the actually measured switching period. The study provides the dynamical models of the converter operating in sliding mode and the switching frequency control loop. Moreover, the design of the parameters of both the sliding mode control and the switching frequency controller guarantee the fulfilment of the desired output voltage regulation of the Boost converter and the steady state setting of the switching frequency with a known, taylored dynamics. A Boost power converter prototype has been built to validate the proposal. Experimental results confirm the predicted good performance of the controllers, as well as the robustness with respect to changes in the switching frequency reference and the system parameters.     

Critical Race Theory Meets the NYPD: An Assessment of Anti-Racist Pedagogy for Police in New York City

This research describes and assesses Critical Race Theory (CRT) pedagogy in a higher education ethnic studies course for police officers. CRT pedagogy aims to help students overcome “color-blind” thinking, which minimizes awareness of racism, by raising their critical understanding of racism and framing it as a pervasive and institutionalized reality that everyone has a responsibility to change. Using the Color Blind Racial Awareness (COBRA) Scale, critical awareness in three cluster areas, white privilege, institutional discrimination, and blatant racism, is measured among those completing the ethnic studies course and a comparison group of officers completing a different college course for police. Conclusions reflect on the impact of the course on students’ awareness of racism, the correlation of identity and awareness of racism, the hypothetical impact of such awareness in policing and possibilities for future research.     

Laser cleaning of terracotta decorations of the portal of Palos of the Cathedral of Seville

Laser cleaning has been used to restore the soiled terracotta statues and decorations of the tympanum of the portal of Palos of the Cathedral of Seville in Spain. A simultaneous laboratory study performed on a representative sample helped to identify the optimum laser conditions to remove the dark soiling layer produced by air pollution. It was found that irradiation at 1064 nm with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was more effective than the harmonic wavelengths of 532 or 266 nm. LIBS and Raman microscopy gave information on the composition of terracotta and identified the presence of a protective layer made of gypsum and calcite. As detected by Raman spectroscopy, laser irradiation caused the elimination of the carbon component of the soiling layer and the appearance of an anhydrite component in the laser irradiated gypsum layer applied over the terracotta substrate for protective purposes. Local heating of the surface caused by laser irradiation at 1064 nm, the laser wavelength used for restoration of the portal, might be responsible for a process of partial dehydration of gypsum into anhydrite.