College students’ attitudes towards sexually themed science content: a socioscientific issues approach to resolution

A socioscientific issues integrated instruction was used in the study to resolve college students attitude towards sexually-themed science content. Some 200 college students participated in the study as experimental and control groups. The former consisting of 98 students from one college was taught the content using the socioscientific issues integrated instruction. The later with 102 students from another college was taught the same content using a traditionally teacher dominated lectures. Both groups were taught over a period of eight weeks. Qualitative and quantitative data were obtained before and after the intervention. The quantitative data were analysed using analysis of covariance. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and the control groups (F (1, 247) = 426.97, p = .00, partial eta squared = 0.64) where the experimental group showed a significant change in attitude towards the content studied. The qualitative data obtained some experimental group students showed a change in attitude the second interview. It was concluded that the use of the approach has significantly made the college students feel comfortable and confident to learn and teach the content.     

Classroom

In this section of Resonance, we invite readers to pose questions likely to be raised in a classroom situation. We may suggest strategies for dealing with them, or invite responses, or both. “Classroom” is equally a forum for raising broader issues and sharing personal experiences and viewpoints on matters related to teaching and learning science.     

Coping with Short-term Sustained Peak Demands——several cost-effective strategies

For most open universities,in fact for most universities,there will arise occasions when some online activities will have to be completed by all students in a very short time interval.These occasions usually result in a great rush to get online as quickly as possible;the rush is often made worst by the limited good choices on offer such that usually only the earliest can get the best.Choosing and confirming elective subjects,when only a limited number for each are offered,on a first-come-first-served basis is an example. At the Open University Malaysia the rush occurs when confirming offered subjects and choosing face-to-face meeting timetable.Most students rushed to be earliest to ensure choice slots in the timetable are obtained. Available I.T.resources such as Internet bandwidth and servers cannot cope with these short-term sustained peak demands.Unless these peak demands are met,however,online services will slow down drastically resulting in long queues of users waiting to be served.Providing excess capacity,if at all possible,to ensure these short duration peak demands can be met would not be cost-effective since most of the time these resources are not utilised.This paper will look at some cost-effective approaches to meeting these short-term peak demands.     

Täuschungshandlungen im Sport

Experimental studies on the head fake in basketball showed that participant’s responses in a pass direction identification task were delayed for incongruent compared to congruent directions of the players gaze and pass (so-called head fake effect). In these studies on the head fake effect, static pictures were presented and responses on the pass direction were given with a simple key press. The present study examines whether an increase in the response complexity affects the head fake effect and whether it can also be transferred to the presentation of dynamic stimuli. In experiment 1, participants were presented with static pictures of a basketball player who passes a ball to the left or to the right. The player’s gaze direction was either oriented in the direction of the intended pass or in the opposite direction (i.?e., a head fake). The participants were asked to respond as quickly as possible to the pass direction and to ignore the gaze direction. Participants gave responses by pressing a key (simple response) or by executing a quasirealistic defense movement (complex response). Response complexity was blocked. In experiment 2, videos replaced the static stimuli. The responses were only given with the complex, full body movement. Results show that the head fake effect is independent of response complexity and that it can also be found when presenting dynamic stimuli.     

“A Zone of Deep Shadow”: Pedagogical and Familial Reflections on “The Clash of Civilizations”

This paper examines the media coverage of the murder of a young Muslim girl in Mississauga, Ontario in December 2007. We examine how that coverage moved from concerns for a terrible family event to the use of the language of Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations.” We explore the nature of this exaggeration that occurs in times of threat and the “hardening” and eventual clashing of identities that can follow. We interweave with these matters considerations of the pedagogical and familial consequences of such identity-exaggeration under threat. We propose that the provisional, negotiated, and casual conviviality of identities that precedes times of threat are cast into what Ivan Illich called “a zone of deep shadow.” We propose, also, that it is this locale of an interdependent, co-determining conviviality of identities that can profitably be the locus of rich and intellectually vital classroom conversations.     

United Arab Emirates University students’ attitudes towards the handicapped

ABSTRACT

The study aims to explore attitudes of the United Arab Emirates University students towards the handicapped. A sample of 313 students, conventionally drawn, took the College Students' Attitude Scale towards the Handicapped. Statistical analysis revealed significant differences in favour of females vs males, single vs married, residents vs non‐residents, families with handicapped children, previous contact with handicapped and urban vs rural groups. Several recommendations are suggested at the end of the study.     

Absence of postzygotic isolating mechanisms: evidence from experimental hybridization between two species of tropical sea urchins

Two reef margin species of tropical sea urchins, Echinometra sp. C (Ec) and Echinometra oblonga (Eo), occur sympatrically on Okinawa intertidal reefs in southern Japan. Hybridization between these species was examined through a series of cross-fertilization experiments. At limited sperm concentrations, where conspecific crosses reached near 100% fertilization, both heterospecific crosses showed high fertilization rates (81%–85%). The compatibility of the gametes demonstrated that if gamete recognition molecules are involved in fertilization of these species, they are not strongly species-specific. We found that conspecific crosses reached peak fertilization levels much faster than did heterospecific crosses, indicating the presence of a prezygotic barrier to hybridization in the gametes. Larval survival, metamorphosis, and juvenile and adult survival of hybrid groups were nearly identical to those of their parent species. Hybrids from crosses in both directions developed normally through larval stages to sexually mature adults, indicating that neither gametic incompatibility nor hybrid inviability appeared to maintain reproductive isolation between these species. In adults, Ec×Ec crosses gave the highest live weight, followed by Eo (ova)×Ec (sperm), Ec (ova)×Eo (sperm), and Eo×Eo. Other growth performance measures (viz., test size, Aristotle’s lantern length, and gonad index) of hybrid groups and their parental siblings showed the same trends. The phenotypic color patterns of the hybrids were closer to the maternal coloration, whereas spine length, tube-foot and gonad spicule characteristics, pedicellaria valve length, and gamete sizes showed intermediate features. Adult F₁ hybrids were completely fertile and displayed high fertilization success in F₁ backcrosses, eliminating the likelihood that hybrid sterility is a postzygotic mechanism of reproductive isolation. Conversely, intensive surveys failed to find hybrid individuals in the field, suggesting the lack or rarity of natural hybridization. This strongly suggests that reproductive isolation is achieved by prezygotic isolating mechanism(s). Of these mechanisms, habitat segregation, gamete competition, differences in spawning times, gametic incompatibility or other genetic and non-genetic factors appear to be important in maintaining the integrity of these species.     

Information ethics in Pakistani librarianship: The role of online mailing groups

This study examines the practice of information ethics of the members of the mailing group of the Pakistan Library Automation Group, called PAKLAGPK who participate frequently in the discussions on a variety of LIS ethical issues. The research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods, including a survey questionnaire to measure subscribers' prior knowledge about certain issues in Information Ethics (IE). The research also uses the content analysis method to investigate the information communication behavior of the subscribers over this mailing group.     

Computer Graphics in Simulating the Functioning of a Simple Computer

Computer graphics is widely used in several areas of science such as computer science education. The execution of hardware and software computer systems can be skillfully simulated using computer graphics. Such a simulation is very attractive in teaching at a university level. It is a way of visualization where students can see the unseen. In this article, the function of a simple computer is simulated. A simulator ASSEM is developed which is suitable as a teaching tool in computer system courses along with mnemonic and assembly language. The algorithm for implementing such a simulator is also presented.