Students’ Views of Design in an Engineering Design-Based Science Curricular Unit

Recent reforms in science education have supported the inclusion of engineering and their practices in K-12 curricula. To this end, many classrooms have incorporated engineering units that include design challenges. Design is an integral part of engineering and can help students think in creative and interdisciplinary ways. In this study, we examined students’ conceptions of design during and after participation in a design-based science curriculum unit. Our study was guided by the following research question: What are students’ views of design after participation in an engineering design-based science curriculum unit and how are these views reflected in their enactment throughout the unit? Using a qualitative approach, we examined students’ conversations throughout the enactment of the curriculum and interviews conducted after the completion of the unit. We found that students had complex and diverse views of design, and these views were reflected in their group discussions throughout the curriculum and design challenge. Students most frequently expressed design as learning and as a process of integration into a coherent whole. These aspects of design were also frequently observed in students’ conversations during the unit. Interestingly, we found evidence of students demonstrating several aspects of design throughout the curriculum that were not explicitly expressed during the student interviews. Taken together, these findings support the complex nature of design as seen at the middle school level.

     

Impact and Sustainability of E-Government Services in Developing Countries: Lessons Learned from Tamil Nadu, India

We find that the presence of village Internet facilities, offering government to citizen services, is positively associated with the rate at which the villagers obtain some of these services. In a study of a rural Internet project in India, we identify a positive correlation for two such Internet services: obtaining birth certificates for children and applications for old age pensions. Both these government services are of considerable social and economic value to the citizens. Villagers report that the Internet based services saved them time, money, and effort compared with obtaining the services directly from the government office. We also find that these services can reduce corruption in the delivery of these services. After over one year of successful operation, however, the e-government program was not able to maintain the necessary level of local political and administrative support to remain institutionally viable. As government officers shifted from the region, or grew to find the program a threat, the e-government services faltered. We argue that this failure was due to a variety of Critical Failure Factors. We end with a simple sustainability failure model. In summary, we propose that the e-government program failed to be politically and institutionally sustainable due to people, management, cultural, and structural factors     

Legitimating status: perceptions of meritocracy and inequality among undergraduates at an elite British university

Given the frequent critiques of elite universities for admitting low numbers of state school graduates and, more recently, British Afro‐Caribbean students, how do students attending those universities make meaning of the admissions process? Through an analysis of 46 one‐on‐one in‐depth interviews with undergraduates attending Oxford University, we show that students believe in the fairness of the admissions process, while lamenting the lack of opportunities for educational advancement faced by some disadvantaged youth in British society. Despite their understanding that many British youth do not have access to educational experiences that make Oxbridge an attainable goal, most students do not support changes to make access more equitable across class or racial/ethnic lines. This perspective, which legitimates the status students gain through matriculation at an elite university, supports the maintenance of unequal access to an Oxford education despite the advantages that education is known to confer to graduates. The findings demonstrate elites acknowledging the disadvantages of particular groups in society without acknowledging their own advantages in the same system. They do so by recognizing two elements of merit: (1) intelligence, which most students assumed led to their own admission; and (2) cultivation of that intelligence, which requires elite secondary schools and which most students see as disadvantaging particular groups in society. In the paper we highlight differences in meaning‐making between graduates of grammar, comprehensive and private schools.     

An Embedded and Embodied Cognition Review of Instructional Manipulatives

Recent literature on learning with instructional manipulatives seems to call for a moderate view on the effects of perceptual and interactive richness of instructional manipulatives on learning. This “moderate view” holds that manipulatives’ perceptual and interactive richness may compromise learning in two ways: (1) by imposing a very high cognitive load on the learner, and (2) by hindering drawing of symbolic inferences that are supposed to play a key role in transfer (i.e., application of knowledge to new situations in the absence of instructional manipulatives). This paper presents a contrasting view. Drawing on recent insights from Embedded Embodied perspectives on cognition, it is argued that (1) perceptual and interactive richness may provide opportunities for alleviating cognitive load (Embedded Cognition), and (2) transfer of learning is not reliant on decontextualized knowledge but may draw on previous sensorimotor experiences of the kind afforded by perceptual and interactive richness of manipulatives (Embodied Cognition). By negotiating the Embedded Embodied Cognition view with the moderate view, implications for research are derived.     

Optimizing Word Learning via Links to Perceptual and Motoric Experience

The aim of this review is to consider how current vocabulary training methods could be optimized by considering recent scientific insights in how the brain represents conceptual knowledge. We outline the findings from several methods of vocabulary training. In each case, we consider how taking an embodied cognition perspective could impact word learning. The evidence we review suggests that vocabulary training methods can be optimized by making a congruent link between the words to learn and one’s own perceptual and motoric experiences. In particular, we suggest that motoric information about the meaning of a word could be incorporated into more standard vocabulary training methods. Finally, we consider the impact an embodied cognitive perspective may have on other characteristics of word learning, such as individual differences in learning and variations in learning different types of words, for example words from different word classes and words in different contexts.     

Expanding the Nomological Network of Work Avoidance: Antecedents and Consequences Across Contexts

Abstract

Work avoidance, or the goal to reduce effort in an achievement context, is related to disengagement and may offer insight into disengaged students and employees. To shed light on this issue, we investigated the antecedents of work avoidance in academic and work contexts to distinguish it from mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals. Two samples of employed college students (N?=?207, N?=?233) completed questionnaires about their jobs and in one sample about their introductory psychology class. Across both contexts, proposed antecedents of alienation, low need for achievement, and perceiving one’s competence needs as not being met predicted work avoidance. Work avoidance also accounted for additional variance when combined with achievement goals to predict citizenship behaviors, perceiving work/classwork as meaningless and wanting to leave/quit.     

Mucosal IgA & IL-1β in Helicobacter pylori Infection

Helicobacter pylori infection stimulates strong local inflammatory and specific IgA antibody production. The influence of antibodies on the bacterial colonization is not clear. Here, we have analysed the association between the mucosal IgA level and IL-1β in various manifestations of the infection seen endoscopically. Antral biopsies of 57 dyspeptic patients were taken for culture, histology and estimation of mucosal levels of anti-H. pylori IgA and IL-1β. Mean mucosal IgA level was higher in patients with normal mucosa compared to all other groups and lower IgA level was associated with higher bacterial density. IL-1β was higher in ulcer patients and suspicious malignancy group as compared to normal group and higher level of IL-1β was associated with higher grades of metaplasia. Present study indicates that local immunity seems to have a protective role against H. pylori infection and higher level of IL-1β induced by the pathogen may be associated with metaplasia and carcinogenesis.     

PAI-1 Study in Thalassemia Major Patients Receiving Multiple Blood Transfusion

Thalassemia is a congenital hemolytic disease which is treated by repeated blood transfusion. Chronic iron overload is currently considered to be the primary cause of mortality in β-thalassemia, mainly due to the induction of left-sided cardiac failure. Iron overload results from a number of mechanisms associated with the disease itself. In addition to chronic iron overload thalassemic patients are more prone for procoagulant status which in turn lead to clinical thrombotic events. The hypercoagulable state in thalassemia is due to multiple elements, a combination of which is often the drive behind a clinical thromboembolic events. PAI-1 study was done in thalassemia major patients receiving multiple blood transfusion as a marker for procoagulant status. Total of 30 thalassemic patients on repeated blood transfusion was included in the study and total of 30 healthy age and sex matched controls were included in the study. It was also found that there was significant differences between cases and controls. The mean level of PAI 1 in controls was 3047 ± 414 pg/ml, the value in cases was 3683 ± 358 pg/ml. The level was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in the cases compared to controls. PAI-1 levels were also compared with the total number of blood transfusion which correlates well.     

Changes in serum seromucoid following compensatory hyperparathyroidism: A sequel to chronic fluoride ingestion

This study was conducted to find out the possible underlying mechanism of various manifestation of fluorosis, a disease caused by excess ingestion of fluoride. For this the fluoride belt of Jaipur district was selected. The parameters selected were serum Parathyroid hormone, the levels of which are directly affected by fluoride intake. The levels of serum seromucoid, serum and leucocyte ascorbic acid, serum sialic acid (SSA) reflects ground substance metabolism. The study was conducted on two hundred children, selected from four areas (50 from each area) consuming water containing 2.4, 4.6, 5.6 and 13.6 mg/l of fluoride. Drinking water fluoride and serum fluoride were measured by Ion selective electrode method. Serum parathyroid by RIA and all other parameters were measured spectrophotometrically. The results revealed an increase in levels of fluoride, parathyroid hormone and seromucoid in serum with increasing water fluoride concentrations. Serum Calcium and serum ascorbic acid were found in normal range, how ever leucocyte ascorbic acid were decreased. A high positive correlation among fluoride concentration in drinking water and serum parathyroid hormone (r=0.967), and, serum parathyroid hormone and serum seromucoid concentration (r=0.935) was also observed The results indicated that secondary hyperparathyroidism due to hypocalcemic stress caused by excess fluoride ingestion disturbs normal metabolism of ground substance in calcified tissues of the body reflected as altered levels of the components of ground substance in the serum.     

逃跑的女孩

Ru Yun and San Hua were best friends. They had been the best of friends for almost half their lives, at about fifteen years of age. They went to the same school, took the same bus and shared the same interests. They were always together like a pair of Siamese twins. Nothing could separate them, not even their studies or their parents,