At Risk on the Border: Assessment of Student Learning at an Hispanic Serving Institution

Hispanics face multiple barriers to academic achievement. This study measured learning in an undergraduate criminal justice program at an Hispanic Serving Institution bordering Mexico. We estimated the average gains students achieved across core content areas using a technique that can be used by other faculty as part of program assessment. The majority of participants were Hispanic first-generation college students. An independent samples t-test was used to examine differences between freshman- and senior-level students, and the Lovett/Johnson model (2012) model was used to measure student gains using regression analysis. Results indicated that seniors showed meaningful gains at every level.     

Adding interactive graphic organizers to a whole-class slideshow lesson

This study examines the effects of including interactive graphic organizers into a whole-class PowerPoint lesson as an instructional approach intended to improve student engagement and generative learning in schools. A software application was developed and integrated into PowerPoint that makes it possible for the instructor to fill in empty graphic organizers during PowerPoint projection mode. The participants were 152 fourth-grade students selected from three schools that were grouped in four classrooms. Each classroom was divided in two groups—graphic organizer and content-based. The graphic organizer group was taught using an 11-slide PowerPoint presentation on a social study topic that included two empty graphic organizers plus two additional slides explaining how to make a comparison. The content-based group was taught using the same presentation but without these additional slides plus a set of questions students had to answer as a class activity. The lessons were recorded and the verbal statements between instructor and students examined using the Flanders Interaction Analysis System. Results indicated significant differences in how instructors and students interacted in each group, including more questions asked by teachers (d?=?1.99) and more students participating in the classroom discussion in the graphic organizer group (d?=?1.76). Learning outcomes showed that the graphic organizer group outperformed the content-based group on a memory test (d?=?.45) and a comprehension test (d?=?.44). These results encourage the use of graphic organizers as an instructional approach, and are consistent with a generative theory of learning.     

无线:未来互联网"冲击波"

上期,栏目刊载了NSF无线移动计划编制组WMPG发布的研究报告中“无线网络在下一代互联网中的应用”内容,本期将刊载“无线对网络体系结构的挑战;未来无线网络的部署策略;无线网络研究的实验基础架构”等内容。下期,栏目将刊载“小组的主要发现和建议”内容。     

Controversy as a Blind Spot in Teaching Nature of Science

In this article, the argument is put forth that controversies about the scope and limits of science should be considered in Nature of Science (NOS) teaching. Reference disciplines for teaching NOS are disciplines, which reflect upon science, like philosophy of science, history of science, and sociology of science. The culture of these disciplines is characterized by controversy rather than unified textbook knowledge. There is common agreement among educators of the arts and humanities that controversies in the reference disciplines should be represented in education. To teach NOS means to adopt a reflexive perspective on science. Therefore, we suggest that controversies within and between the reference disciplines are relevant for NOS teaching and not only the NOS but about NOS should be taught, too. We address the objections that teaching about NOS is irrelevant for real life and too demanding for students. First, we argue that science-reflexive meta-discourses are relevant for students as future citizens because the discourses occur publicly in the context of sociopolitical disputes. Second, we argue that it is in fact necessary to reduce the complexity of the above-mentioned discourses and that this is indeed possible, as it has been done with other reflexive elements in science education. In analogy to the German construct Bewertungskompetenz (which means the competency to make informed ethical decisions in scientific contexts), we suggest epistemic competency as a goal for NOS teaching. In order to do so, science-reflexive controversies must be simplified and attitudes toward science must be considered. Discourse on the scientific status of potential pseudoscience may serve as an authentic and relevant context for teaching the controversial nature of reflexion on science.     

What mathematical competencies does a citizen need to interpret Mexico’s official information about the COVID-19 pandemic?

Educational Studies in Mathematics - We report a study on mathematical literacy with special emphasis on health literacy. In particular, we identify and characterize the mathematical competencies...     

The Impact of Design-Based STEM Integration Curricula on Student Achievement in Engineering,Science, and Mathematics

The new science education reform documents call for integration of engineering into K-12 science classes. Engineering design and practices are new to most science teachers, meaning that implementing effective engineering instruction is likely to be challenging. This quasi-experimental study explored the influence of teacher-developed, engineering design-based science curriculum units on learning and achievement among grade 4–8 students of different races, gender, special education status, and limited English proficiency (LEP) status. Treatment and control students (n = 4450) completed pretest and posttest assessments in science, engineering, and mathematics as well as a state-mandated mathematics test. Single-level regression results for science outcomes favored the treatment for one science assessment (physical science, heat transfer), but multilevel analyses showed no significant treatment effect. We also found that engineering integration had different effects across race and gender and that teacher gender can reduce or exacerbate the gap in engineering achievement for student subgroups depending on the outcome. Other teacher factors such as the quality of engineering-focused science units and engineering instruction were predictive of student achievement in engineering. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Heat Transfer in Packed Bed Heat Recuperators—I. A Precision Numerical Analysis

An extensive literature survey is reported that verifies the need for a more precise representation of the heat transfer film coefficient in packed beds. A precision numerical analysis scheme is developed for a much more general model than previously reported. Application of the results to the experimental data will be reported in Part II of the paper.     

Potential adverse cardiac remodelling in highly trained athletes: still unknown clinical significance

Moderate endurance exercise has long been considered an essential element to maintain cardiovascular health, and sedentary behaviour in the general population has been related to a significant increase in all-causes of mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality and cardiovascular disease incidence. However, a growing group of people performs an intense exercise that leads to multiple heart adaptive changes that are collectively called “athlete’s heart”. In this review, we discussed the evidence of cardiac remodelling process secondary to repetitive and strenuous exercise in some predisposed athletes that produces intense and probably deleterious changes in cardiac morphology and function with no clear clinical significance in long-term follow-up. Moreover, we also discussed the individual biological response to exercise assessed by myocardial damage, inflammation, oxidative stress, fibrosis and ventricular hypertrophy biomarkers showing different intensities with equivalent exertion.     

Why robots should not be treated like animals

Responsible Robotics is about developing robots in ways that take their social implications into account, which includes conceptually framing robots and their role in the world accurately. We are now in the process of incorporating robots into our world and we are trying to figure out what to make of them and where to put them in our conceptual, physical, economic, legal, emotional and moral world. How humans think about robots, especially humanoid social robots, which elicit complex and sometimes disconcerting reactions, is not predetermined. The animal–robot analogy is one of the most commonly used in attempting to frame interactions between humans and robots and it also tends to push in the direction of blurring the distinction between humans and machines. We argue that, despite some shared characteristics, when it comes to thinking about the moral status of humanoid robots, legal liability, and the impact of treatment of humanoid robots on how humans treat one another, analogies with animals are misleading.