There’s a creepy guy on the other end at Google!: engaging middle school students in a drawing activity to elicit their mental models of Google

Although youth are increasingly going online to fulfill their needs for information, many youth struggle with information and digital literacy skills, such as the abilities to conduct a search and assess the credibility of online information. Ideally, these skills encompass an accurate and comprehensive understanding of the ways in which a system, such as a Web search engine, functions. In order to investigate youths’ conceptions of the Google search engine, a drawing activity was conducted with 26 HackHealth after-school program participants to elicit their mental models of Google. The findings revealed that many participants personified Google and emphasized anthropomorphic elements, computing equipment, and/or connections (such as cables, satellites and antennas) in their drawings. Far fewer participants focused their drawings on the actual Google interface or on computer code. Overall, their drawings suggest a limited understanding of Google and the ways in which it actually works. However, an understanding of youths’ conceptions of Google can enable educators to better tailor their digital literacy instruction efforts and can inform search engine developers and search engine interface designers in making the inner workings of the engine more transparent and their output more trustworthy to young users. With a better understanding of how Google works, young users will be better able to construct effective queries, assess search results, and ultimately find relevant and trustworthy information that will be of use to them.     

Baecklund Transformation and Localized Coherent Structure for the （2＋1）—Dimensional Asymmetric Nizhnik—Novikov—Veselov Equation

This article is concerned with the extended homogeneous balance method for studying the abundant lacalized solution structure of the (2 1)-dimensional asymmetric Nizhnik-novikov-Veselov equation.A Baecklund transformation was first obtained.and then the richness of the localized coherent structures was found,which was caused by the entrance of two variable-separated arbitrary functions,in the model.For some spectial choices of the arbitrary functions,it is shown that the localized structures of the model may be dromions,lumps,and rinmg solitons.     

Noise assisted directed motion at the molecular level — 1

Noise affects most of the activities. The term noise is used to describe fluctuations about the mean deterministic stationary value of a physical quantity. Noise is generally associated, for example, with inaccuracies in measurements or impurities in signals such as musical notes and hence is undesirable. However, its essential role in physical processes was pointed out in the beginning the last century by Smoluchowski and others. It is only in the last two decades or so that the positive (active) aspects of its role has come to light and is being subjected to intense scrutiny. It is now being increasingly realised that noise is an important ingredient to bring order in dynamical processes. Though it appears counterintuitive, noise seems to help in directing transport processes in biological systems at the molecular level.     

Profiling the Beliefs of the Forgotten Teachers: An Analysis of Intern Teachers’ Frameworks for Urban Science Teaching

The need to equip science teachers with knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to face the challenges of teaching science through inquiry informed this study, which analyzed the secondary science intern teachers’ beliefs about inquiry before, during, and following a series of 2 consecutive science methods courses in an attempt to document the effect of such experiences on their ability and willingness to infuse science inquiry in their science curricula. Nine science credentialing interns participated in the study. Data was gathered from their written reflections and various assignments throughout the methods courses. Results suggested that their beliefs changed significantly after the science methods courses. The implications of the study to secondary science teacher educators and researchers were highlighted.     

Inquiry-Based Early Childhood Teacher Preparation: The Personal Learning Plan Method

The purpose of this paper is to describe a Personal Learning Plan method used in undergraduate early childhood education courses as a specific case of learner-centered, inquiry-based instruction. A rationale for this approach to instruction, the instructional context in which the specific method was developed and used, the method framework (i.e., preliminary and final plans, activities, products, and reflections), and the evaluation process will be discussed. Finally, a discussion of the perceived benefits and challenges of the method as it has been implemented will be presented.     

Science Journals in the Preschool Classroom

We believe that science journals can be used in the preschool classroom as tools for supporting and assessing children’s learning of science- and literacy-relevant content and procedures. To support this argument, we review changes in attitudes about the cognitive competencies of preschoolers and in teaching and learning expectations for early childhood education. We describe practical aspects of using science notebooks with this age group and discuss specific ways that journals support children’s learning. Finally, the role of journals in assessment is discussed.