The Science of a Sundae: Using the Principle of Colligative Properties in Food Science Outreach Activities for Middle and High School Students

The opportunities for outreach activities for professionals and academics in food science are extensive, as too are the range of participants’ experience levels and platforms for delivery. Here, we present a set of activities that are readily adaptable for a range of students (ages 10 to 18) in multiple platforms (demonstration table and hands‐on workshop). Our activity, collectively called “The Science of a Sundae,” has three units, one for each of the three parts of a sundae: the caramel sauce, the cherry, and the ice cream. In each unit we use these familiar food items to illustrate how colligative properties (or, simply, “solutions” for younger students) impact the chemical, microbiological, and sensorial properties of food. We have used these activities to present to over 1000 students and their parents/chaperones. Grade levels of student participants have ranged from 5th grade through high school, and these activities have been presented in the form of a demonstration table at science events as well as a set of three 45‐minute workshops in a classroom setting. Educational impact of these activities was evaluated with 7th grade students (n = 77) who participated in the 3‐phase workshop. On average, students who took the posttest (after participation in the workshop) scored 36% higher than students who took the pretest (prior to participation in the workshop). These results and instructor observations suggest the merit of this lesson and its adaptability among ages and platforms.     

Innovations at the boundary: an exploratory case study of a New Zealand school-university partnership in initial teacher education

21st century initial teacher education [ITE] requires teachers and teacher educators to work together in the design and delivery of innovative learning experiences for student teachers. This study investigates a partnership that enabled the co-construction of one core course within a graduate ITE programme in New Zealand. Our partnership aimed to help student teachers to make links between theory taught at the university, and day-to-day practices in classroom settings. Using case study methodology, data were generated from participants in three primary/intermediate schools and one university to identify strategies that supported their collaborative process. Seven affordances were identified to facilitate this school-university collaboration, which enabled the development of a learning community wherein professional values and expertise were made visible, power was shared, and relational trust and respect grew. The findings offer insights for teacher educators and teachers seeking to open up a boundary space between universities and schools within which they might co-design and deliver an ITE course.     

Creating supportive and subversive spaces as professional dyads enact culturally relevant teaching

Abstract

In 2013, several leaders of the Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) developed a multi-year project called Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching (PDCRT). Funded by NCTE, early childhood teacher/teacher-educator dyads from various locations across the United States work together for two years to investigate, generate, implement and document culturally relevant pedagogies in their respective early childhood contexts. This article outlines some of the work of two PDCRT dyads conducted from 2013 to 2015. The project was developed in response to the long-time need for culturally relevant early childhood education and teacher education reform by focusing on overturning inequitable practices that ignore, misrepresent or marginalize children and families of Color, emerging bi/multilinguals and children from low-income communities. We argue that the PDCRT dyad model is an innovative avenue for addressing inequitable educational realities in the Eurocentric educational system that persists in the US and for moving equity work forward.     

Loving and Learning with Wemberly and David: Fostering Emotional Development in Early Childhood Education

Children enter the world with simple emotions and gradually add complex feelings to their repertoire of skills. As children grow and develop, they learn to label their emotions and regulate them in socially appropriate ways. Literature is one way early childhood educators can foster healthy emotional development. This article explains how emotions develop during the preschool years (3–5), shares why it is important for early childhood educators to understand the connection between emotional and literacy development, and suggests books and strategies that can be used to enhance young children’s emotional and literate lives.     

Copying and Coping Conceptualizations of Language: Counseling and the Ethic of Appreciation for Human Differences

The author takes the position that the foundational value of the counseling profession is an ethic of appreciation for human differences. The professional tool that is used to actualize this value is language. In this regard, the philosophical distinction between copying and coping conceptualizations of language is overviewed. The author argues that the value of the counseling profession is optimally actualized when a coping conceptualization of language is adopted. Implications for current ideological movements and the future of the profession are discussed.     

Evaluation of the degree of coherence found in students' conceptions concerning the particulate nature of matter

Students' conceptions are characterized by some authors as having a high degree of coherence while, in the minds of others, they show little coherence and great heterogeneity. The objective of this study was to throw light on this problem by reference to the particulate nature of matter, a topic where great discrepancies have been observed in the degree of coherence shown by students. We interviewed 43 students aged 9–22 years to evaluate the coherence of their replies, using a questionnaire in which different methodological strategies are incorporated, as will be explained below. A qualitative analysis of the students' replies to the interviewer's questions permitted a group of empirical categories to be established, which were then arranged hierarchically. The quantitative analysis of these categories gave rise to new categories, which we call structural categories. These permitted us to select the most significant variables, to identify the different types of conceptions held by the subjects and to assign to each a given level of conceptualization. They also revealed the high degree of coherence in the replies given to different tasks. The usefulness of the proposed method for studying students' conceptions and for evaluating their degree of coherence is confirmed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 577–598, 2006     

What is protest? Feminism,psychoanalysis and methods of social change

ABSTRACT

Despite the fact that feminism has recognised psychoanalysis to be a theory with direct application to the understanding of sexism for over 50 years, the application of psychoanalytic thinking to feminist activism has yet to be significantly realised. Using the work of Julia Kristeva, sexism is described as a symptom of an intolerable situation and overt forms of activism, such as street protest, that are critiqued as making demands on their subject. The third-wave tendency for deconstruction is examined as having direct implications to a concept of psychoanalytically informed activism.     

Oblique chest views as a routine part of skeletal surveys performed for possible physical abuse--is this practice worthwhile?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the utility of oblique chest views in the diagnosis of rib fractures when used as a routine part of the skeletal survey performed for possible physical abuse. METHODS: Oblique chest views have been part of the routine skeletal survey protocol at Primary Children's Medical Center since October 2002. Dictated radiology reports since that time were reviewed, and all cases with rib fractures documented were chosen for study. For each chosen case two pediatric radiologists identified and recorded rib fractures using only the PA and lateral chest radiographs (standard two-view chest series) from the skeletal survey for each case. In a separate session they identified and recorded rib fractures using the PA, lateral, right oblique, and left oblique radiographs (four-view chest series) from the skeletal survey for each case. The results were compared. RESULTS: Twenty-two cases with rib fractures were identified. Interpretation of the four-view chest series was different than interpretation of the two-view chest series in 12 of the 22 cases (54%). Overall, the four-view chest series differed significantly in the number of rib fractures diagnosed compared with the two-view chest series (p=.02, Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test) adding 19 rib fractures and excluding 6 rib fractures. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that use of the four-view chest series adds information to that obtained from the two-view chest series and increases the accuracy of diagnosing rib fractures in cases of possible physical abuse. Addition of oblique chest views to the routine protocol for skeletal surveys performed for possible physical abuse is recommended.     

Strategies of Number Sense in Pre-service Secondary Mathematics Teachers

This paper presents some results of an investigation on the number sense of a group of pre-service secondary teachers from Spain. The objective of this research was to analyze students’ use of strategies associated to number sense and compare them with those obtained in a previous study with pre-service primary teachers in Taiwan, (Yang, Reys & Reys, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 7, 383–403, 2009). Pre-service secondary teachers showed lower success than pre-service primary teachers in a number sense test. Nevertheless, these last based their reasoning mainly on rules and algorithms, while pre-service secondary teachers used more strategies of number sense. In an attempt to delve into the low success shown by of Spanish pre-service secondary teachers, some students were interviewed. Those interviews showed that a deeper work on number sense in the training of these students is needed.