Engineering design processes in seventh-grade classrooms: bridging the engineering education gap

This paper reports on some findings from the first year of a three-year longitudinal study, in which seventh- to ninth-graders were introduced to engineering education. Specifically, the paper addresses students’ responses to an initial design activity involving bridge construction, which was implemented at the end of seventh grade. This paper also addresses how students created their bridge designs and applied these in their bridge constructions; their reflections on their designs; their reflections on why the bridge failed to support increased weights during the testing process; and their suggestions on ways in which they would improve their bridge designs. The present findings include identification of six, increasingly sophisticated levels of illustrated bridge designs, with designs improving between the classroom and homework activities of two focus groups of students. Students’ responses to the classroom activity revealed a number of iterative design processes, where the problem goals, including constraints, served as monitoring factors for students’ generation of ideas, design thinking and construction of an effective bridge.     

VCQ&A with Kim Komenich

Kim Komenich, 58, has worked as a photographer since he was a kid. He has traveled the world, making pictures—from Iraq to Vietnam, El Salvador, and the Philippines. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1987. Now he is an assistant professor for multimedia at San Jose State University, his undergraduate alma mater.     

Feedback consistencies and inconsistencies: eight mentors’ observations on one preservice teacher’s lesson

Mentors play a key role in developing preservice teachers for their chosen careers, and providing feedback appears as a significant relational interaction between the mentor and mentee that assists in guiding the mentee’s practices. But what are mentors’ perspectives on providing feedback to their mentees? In this case study, eight mentors viewed a professional video-recorded science lesson facilitated by a final-year preservice teacher during practicum for the purposes of providing oral feedback in a simulated mentor–mentee discussion. Findings showed that mentors’ feedback was variable in both their positive feedback and constructive criticisms and, in one case, the feedback was contrasting in nature. Implications are discussed, including preservice teachers receiving feedback from more than one mentor and universities researching the design of valid and reliable tools to guide mentors’ oral feedback     

Advertising

How it Was in Advertising: 1776-1976 ($6.95, paper, 110 pp.)

Vernon Fryburger, The New World of Advertising ($6.95, paper, 129 pp.)

William A. Robinson, 100 Best Sales Promotions (annual, $19.95, about 140 pp. each)

Herbert S. Gardner Jr. The Advertising Agency Business ($19.95, 211 pp.)

Jack Z. Sissors and E.R. Petray Advertising Media Planning ($12.95, 341 pp.)

Arthur Bellaire Controlling Your TV Commercial Costs ($19.95, 166 pp.)

Julie M. Moss '77 Ayer Public Relations and Publicity Style Book (Ayer Press, 210 West Washington Square, Philadelphia, Pa. 19106—$9.95)     

Advertising/PR

ADVERTISING AGE YEARBOOK 1983 (Chicago: Crain Books, 1983---$34.95)

WRITING FOR THE MEDIA: PUBLIC RELATIONS AND THE PRESS by Sandra Pesmen (Chicago: Crain Books, 1983---$12.95, paper)

MEDIA PLANNING WORKBOOK by Jack Z. Sissors and William B. Goodrich (Chicago: Crain Books, 1983---$12.95, paper)     

History of Communication Technology

Antonio Meucci 1808–1889 by Marco Nese and Francesco Nicotra (Italy/Italy Magazine, 150 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10011—price not given, ISBN not provided)

The Spirit of Independent Telephony by Charles A. Pleasance (Independent Telephone Books, PO Box 321, Johnson City, TN 37601—$29.50, ISBN 0-9622205-0-7)

Video Recording Technology: Its Impact on Media and Home Entertainment by Aaron Foisi Nmungwun (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989—$49.95/$24.95, ISBN 0-0858-0360-2 hard, and 0-8058-0622-9 paper)

Communication Satellites: Their Development and Impact by Heather E. Hudson (New York: Free Press, 1990—$24.95, ISBN 0-02-915320-4)     

Interactions of Economics of Science and Science Education: Investigating the Implications for Science Teaching and Learning

In recent years, there has been upsurge of interest in the applications of interdisciplinary perspectives on science in science education. Within this framework, the implications of the so-called “economics of science” is virtually an uncharted territory. In this paper, we trace a set of arguments that provide a dialectic engagement with two conflicting agendas: (a) the broadening of science education to include the contextual positioning of science including economical dimensions of science, and (b) the guarding of the proliferation and reinforcement of those aspects of economics of science such as commodification of scientific knowledge that embraces inequity and restricted access to the products of the scientific enterprise. Our aim is broadly to engage, as science education researchers, in the debates in economics of science so as to investigate the reciprocal interactions that might exist with science education. In so doing, we draw out some recommendations whereby the goals of science education might provide as much input into the intellectual debates within philosophy of science on issues related to the commercialisation and commodification of scientific knowledge. We explore some implications of commodification of science in the context of modelling and argumentation in science education.     

Collaborative handheld gaming in education

This project describes the trialling of a new form of cooperative learning strategy, in the form of a game known as EcoRangers. EcoRangers is a multi‐player game designed to run on mobile phones, written specifically for education. EcoRangers is one of the first, if not the world's first, instances of this totally new genre of pedagogical tools (i.e. collaborative handheld educational games). In its current iteration EcoRangers is designed to help students practise skills of relevance to the social studies syllabus for Grades 9 and 10 in Singapore's education system, specifically through the pedagogical strategy known as the ‘structured academic controversy’, in which learners debate an open‐ended problem from a variety of perspectives. The trialling was done in three secondary schools, among 50 Grade 9 students. These students were taken through two distinct fieldwork tasks in March–July 2004, with the game being introduced as part of a post‐fieldwork activity.

Jeux collaboratifs sur portables en éducation

Ce projet décrit l'expérimentation d'une nouvelle forme de stratégie d'apprentissage coopératif sous la forme d'un jeu connu sous le nom d'EcoRangers.EcoRangers se joue à plusieurs.Il a été conçu pour fonctionner sur les téléphones portables et composé spécialement pour L'éducation. EcoRangers est un des premiers sinon le premier exemple au monde de cette catégorie d'outils pédagogiques (celle des jeux éducatifs collaboratifs portables) totalement nouvelle. Sous sa forme actuelle EcoRangers a été conçu pour aider les élèves à pratiquer des savoir faire correspondant au cursus de sciences sociales pour les classes 9 et 10 du système Singapourien(13‐14 ans) et plus particulièrement la stratégie connue sous le nom de « controverse académique structurée » au cours de laquelle les apprenants débatent d'un problème ouvert en partant de perspectives différentes.L'expérience a été menée dans trois écoles secondaires avec 50 élèves de 9^e.Ces élèves ont participé à deux tâches « de terrain » distinctes entre mars et juillet 2004,le jeu étant présenté comme faisant partie d'une activité « d'après‐terrain ».

Gemeinschafliches Spielen auf Handhelds oder Handys als Unterricht

Das Projekt beschreibt den Versuch, eine neue Art von Gruppenlernen zu testen, die auf ein Spiel zurück greift, das EcoRangers genannt wird. Dies ist ein Spiel für mehrere Spieler, das auf Handys abläuft und ein Lernspiel ist. EcoRangers ist eines der ersten, wenn nicht sogar das erste Spiel in der Welt, dieser Art. In seiner gegenwärtigen Fassung hilft EcoRangers den Schuelern, Fertigkeiten im Bereich der Social Studies (Gemeinschaftskunde) einzuueben (Lehrplan für Stufe 9 und 10 in Singapur), insbesondere dadurch, dass die Strategie der ‘strukturierten, akademischen Diskussion’ angewendet wird, bei der die Schueler ein offenes Problem aus sehr unterschiedlichen Perspektiven besprechen. Der Versuch wurde in drei Schulen (Sek.II) durchgeführt, wobei 50 Schueler aus Stufe 9 waren. Diese wurden im Rahmen eines Aufenthalts im Gelaende (Maerz–Juli 2004) mit dem Spiel konfrontiert, das als eine Tätigkeit nach dem Arbeiten im Gelände eingefuehrt wurde.