Exploring Differences in Student Learning and Behavior Between Real-life and Virtual Reality Chemistry Laboratories

Recent global events and educational trends have led schools to heavily rely on digital media to educate their students. Science classes, in particular, stand to lose substantial learning opportunities without the ability to provide physical laboratory experiences. Virtual reality (VR) technology has the potential to resolve this issue, but little is known if VR environments can produce similar results to real-life (RL) science learning environments. This 2?×?1, between-subjects study compares students’ learning results and safety behaviors in VR and RL chemistry laboratories. The study attempts to identify differences in learning experience (i.e., general chemistry content, experiment comprehension, laboratory safety knowledge) and laboratory safety behavior. Results indicate learning general content knowledge, laboratory skills, and procedure-related safety behaviors were comparable between RL and VR conditions, but clean-up behaviors were less frequent in VR. Also, the exploratory, risk-free nature of VR environments may have allowed the learners to elaborate and reflect more on general chemistry content and laboratory safety knowledge than in the RL environment.

     

Classroom-based science research at the introductory level: changes in career choices and attitude

Our study, focused on classroom-based research at the introductory level and using the Phage Genomics course as the model, shows evidence that first-year students doing research learn the process of science as well as how scientists practice science. A preliminary but notable outcome of our work, which is based on a small sample, is the change in student interest in considering different career choices such as graduate education and science in general. This is particularly notable, as previous research has described research internships as clarifying or confirming rather than changing undergraduates' decisions to pursue graduate education. We hypothesize that our results differ from previous studies of the impact of engaging in research because the students in our study are still in the early stages of their undergraduate careers. Our work builds upon the classroom-based research movement and should be viewed as encouraging to the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education movement advocated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Science Foundation, and other undergraduate education stakeholders.     

Children's rights in education

Conclusions The key to the development of any nation is through the educating of its people. No civilized, humane or progressive society can ignore that right to schooling and education of its citizens, particularly its children. Therefore, to implement the right of the child to a development-oriented education is a fundamental condition for improving the child's quality of life, including spiritual and moral dimensions, and his/her ability to function fully as a constructive member of society. The child needs supportive conditions, not only to survive, but also to develop into a responsible human adult. Education must make the present and future well-being of the young generation as its ultimate goal, of which one of the most important conditions is to ensure the full realization of its rights as stipulated by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, for education in the broadest sense continues beyond school and throughout life in a myriad of social contexts. Original language: English Sandra Prunella Mason (Barbados) Chairperson, United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. She received her legal education at Sir Hugh Wooding Law School. First a private practice lawyer, she became a judge in 1978 and from then until 1992 was in charge of Barbados' Juvenile and Family Courts. She was Barbados' Ambassador to Venezuela, Chile, Colombia and Brazil from 1993 to 1994. She was appointed Chief Magistrate of Barbados in 1995 and Registrar of the Barbados Supreme Court in 1997. She has been a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child from its inception in 1991, its Vice Chairperson 1993–95 and Chairperson since 1997.     

Orthotic control of rear foot and lower limb motion during running in participants with chronic Achilles tendon injury

This study examined the kinematic effects of orthoses in participants with a history of chronic Achilles tendon injury. Twelve participants ran at self-selected speeds on a treadmill with and without customized orthoses. Joint and segment angles including leg abduction, calcaneal, eversion, ankle dorsiflexion, and knee flexion angles were calculated from three-dimensional data throughout stance. Five footfalls were obtained for each participant and condition. Statistical tests revealed an increase in maximum eversion with orthoses (P < 0.001, eta(p)2 = 0.642). In the individual participant analysis, this was evident in 9 of 12 participants. Trends towards increased eversion range of motion and decreased ankle dorsiflexion maximum and range of motion angles were also observed. Increased eversion was unexpected as all devices were designed to provide pronation control as deemed necessary by the podiatrist. Despite this, participants reported between 50 and 100% (average 92%) relief from symptoms with the use of orthoses. Further analysis of the angle-time curves and coordination between angular measures is recommended.     

Does fundamental movement skill proficiency vary by sex,class group or weight status? Evidence from an Irish primary school setting

This study examined fundamental movement skill (FMS) proficiency among male (N = 216) and female (N = 198) Irish primary school pupils from Year 2 to Year 7 (9.0 ± 1.7 years). Following anthropometric measurements, participants were video-recorded performing 15 FMS and scored using the TGMD-3, Victorian Fundamental Movement skills Manual and the Get skilled: Get active guidelines. Percentage mastery ranged between 1.4% (gallop) and 35.7% (slide). A two-way ANOVA evaluated the effect of sex (male/female) and class group (Year 2/3/4/5/6/7) on individual skills, locomotor subtest, object-control subtest and total TGMD-3 (GMQ) scores. No significant sex ×class interaction effects were found. Large effect sizes were reported for male superiority in object-control subtest (η_p² = 0.26) and GMQ (η_p² = 0.16) scores (both p < 0.001). Older classes had higher object-control subtest scores than younger classes, but scores plateaued after Year 5. Furthermore, overweight participants had significantly lower locomotor subtest (p < 0.001, d = 0.7), object-control subtest (p = 0.03, d = 0.3) and GMQ scores (p < 0.001, d = 0.5) than non-overweight participants. This study highlights very poor levels of FMS mastery among Irish schoolchildren and stresses the need for developmentally appropriate, FMS intervention programmes that are inclusive regardless of age, sex or weight status.     

Application of the principal component waveform analysis to identify improvements in vertical jump performance

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of training on the force-, velocity-, and displacement-time curves using principal component analysis (PCA) to examine the pre to post intervention changes. Thirty-four trained women basketball players were randomly divided into training and control groups. The training intervention consisted of full squats combined with repeated jumps. The effects of the intervention were analysed before and after the training period of 6 weeks by comparing the principal component scores. The magnitude of differences within-/between-group were calculated and expressed as standardised differences. After the intervention period, clear changes in principal components were observed in the training group compared to the control group. These were related to the execution of a vertical jump with a faster and deeper countermovement that was stopped with greater force. This resulted in greater force from the start of the upward movement phase which was maintained for a longer time. This increase in force throughout a greater range of motion increased the take-off velocity and consequently jumping height.