Assessing Students' Opportunity to Learn: Teacher and Student Perspectives

How can we assess the opportunity that students have to learn the material they find on tests? How do students' perceptions of opportunity to learn differ from their teachers?     

Solar radiation during the total eclipse of January 24, 1925

A Fery radiation pyrometer was used in relative radiation measurements during a total eclipse of the sun.The experimental curve shows that the radiation is not uniform over the sun's disc.The ratio of the energy received during full sunlight to the energy received from the corona was found to he 13,000.     

Can higher education stimulate entrepreneurial intentions among engineering and business students?

This paper approaches the issue of higher entrepreneurship education in motivating young people to start their own business as a viable alternative to the successful integration of university graduates on the labour market. The fundamental question of this research is if, currently, entrepreneurship education influences students’ entrepreneurial intentions and to what extent. The research results, based on the statistical analysis of data collected through a questionnaire distributed to Romanian business and engineering bachelor students in the final year, highlight that business students assessed the effectiveness of higher entrepreneurship education and its positive influence on entrepreneurial intentions to a greater extent than the engineering students. Furthermore, entrepreneurial intentions of engineering students are influenced positively much more by entrepreneurial family background than by entrepreneurship education. The findings provide important highlights for future research, in order to identify the most effective ways of approaching, modernising and expanding entrepreneurship education, aiming to increase entrepreneurial intentions among students, regardless of the graduated field of study.     

心路历程--关于爱情

Dear Friends,I recently learned that February 14th is celebrated inChina as qing ren jie.In America we call this Valentine’sDay and dedicate it to romantic love.Because of this I havebeen asked to devote this month’s column to Love.This is avery complicated subject,and not easy to write about.Thereare no experts.Terms are ambiguous,and there are wide cu-tural differences in our approach to the subject of Love.     

American Students’ Perspectives on Alternative Assessment: do they know it's different?

This study used the 1993 California Learning Assessment System (CLAS) Middle Grades Mathematics Performance Assessment as a platform to examine alternative assessment in actual practice in the United States. Reported here is information gathered using the CLAS regarding student attitudes and approaches toward this new type of assessment. At issue is whether students find alternative assessments to be more motivating and interesting than traditional types of tests, and whether they appreciate the difference between traditional and alternative tasks. Data were collected in 13 schools across the state of California, involving more than 800 students. Instrumentation used in data collection included student surveys as well as in‐depth student retrospective interviews. Findings suggest that students do indeed understand the differences in approaches necessitated by novel, open‐ended versus more familiar multiple‐choice tasks. In addition, student attitudes toward these two types of tasks are discussed in detail.     

Enumeration of lymphocyte subsets using flow cytometry: Effect of storage before and after staining in a developing country setting

Lymphocyte subset estimations by flow cytometry in population-based studies require transportation of samples from the field site to the laboratory. As samples arrive late in the day they have to wait overnight before being processed. The effect of two possible approaches, sample storage for 24 h before staining and immediate staining with analysis after 24 h and 48 h were evaluated. Two sets of experiments were performed with EDTA (ethylenediamine tetra-acetate) anticoagulated peripheral blood. In the first experiment, after collection, each sample was divided into two portions. One portion was stained at the time of blood collection and the other 24 h later after keeping it at room temperature (38–45°C). In the second experiment, blood samples were stained within 1–2 h. Each sample was analyzed immediately upon completion of staining process and subsequently after 24 h and 48 h of storage at 4°C. Results suggest that blood collected in EDTA can be processed using whole blood lysis method, after storage at room temperature (38–45°C) for 24 h with some but not significant alteration in T-cell subsets. Storage at 4°C after staining for 24 h results in a lesser and insignificant loss of cells or alteration of T-cell subsets and may be the method of choice.     

Modifications in flow cytometric estimation of t cell subsets and b cells in peripheral blood to reduce the cost of investigation

The development of monoclonal antibodies combined with flow cytometry has revolutionized the analysis of lymphocyte subsets. These newer methods using the Q-prep leucocyte preparation system require only 1–2 ml of blood as compared to 10 ml required traditionally. One of the main impediments in the use of this superior technology in Indian laboratories has been the high cost of reagents. This study evaluated methods to reduce the cost of assays. In the first experiment from 26 healthy subjects, 2ml venous blood samples in EDTA (ethylenediamine tetra-acetate) were obtained. Each sample was divided into two equal portions, one portion was stained using diluted monoclonal antibody, whereas the other portion was stained using standard concentrations of antibodies. In the second experiment, blood samples from 12 subjects were again divided into 2 portions; one portion of each pair was processed using commercial Q-prep reagents while the other portion was processed using our own reagents. In the first experiment, which evaluated use of a diluted antibody against the standard recommended concentrations, a 5-tube panel that estimated CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20 was used. In the second experiment CD3, CD4 and CD8 were estimated. The total cost per sample for a 5-panel estimation was however reduced from $39.11 to $1.10. Given the proven advantages of using a whole blood stain-lyse method for T cell subset estimations, its use should be encouraged in developing country settings. With the suggested methods the whole blood Q-prep could be performed at appreciably reduced costs, without loss in precision.