Computing Competencies for Undergraduate Data Science Curricula: ACM Data Science Task Force

At the August 2017 ACM Education Council meeting, a task force was formed to explore a process to add to the broad, interdisciplinary conversation on data science, with an articulation of the role of computing discipline-specific contributions to this emerging field. Specifically, the task force would seek to define what the computing/computational contributions are to this new field, and provide guidance on computing-specific competencies in data science for departments offering such programs of study at the undergraduate level. There are many stakeholders in the discussion of data science – these include colleges and universities that (hope to) offer data science programs, employers who hope to hire a workforce with knowledge and experience in data science, as well as individuals and professional societies representing the fields of computing, statistics, machine learning, computational biology, computational social sciences, digital humanities, and others. There is a shared desire to form a broad interdisciplinary definition of data science and to develop curriculum guidance for degree programs in data science. This volume builds upon the important work of other groups who have published guidelines for data science education. There is a need to acknowledge the definition and description of the individual contributions to this interdisciplinary field. For instance, those interested in the business context for these concepts generally use the term “analytics”; in some cases, the abbreviation DSA appears, meaning Data Science and Analytics. This volume is the third draft articulation of computing-focused competencies for data science. It recognizes the inherent interdisciplinarity of data science and situates computing-specific competencies within the broader interdisciplinary space

Software reliability and dependability: a roadmap

Shifting the focus from software reliability to user-centred measures of dependability in complete software-based systems. Influencing design practice to facilitate dependability assessment. Propagating awareness of dependability issues and the use of existing, useful methods. Injecting some rigour in the use of process-related evidence for dependability assessment. Better understanding issues of diversity and variation as drivers of dependability. Bev Littlewood is founder-Director of the Centre for Software Reliability, and Professor of Software Engineering at City University, London. Prof Littlewood has worked for many years on problems associated with the modelling and evaluation of the dependability of software-based systems; he has published many papers in international journals and conference proceedings and has edited several books. Much of this work has been carried out in collaborative projects, including the successful EC-funded projects SHIP, PDCS, PDCS2, DeVa. He has been employed as a consultant t

Diversification policies to enhance the Fraser Valley\u27s economic resilience

The Fraser Valley Region has a specialized economy in agriculture. Empirical studies in economic geography literature find that specialized regional economies are less resilient and hence, more susceptible to economic shocks. Thus, this capstone project highlights the need for the region to implement diversification policies to enhance its economy’s resilience to economic shocks. This capstone project conducted a panel study of 157 Canadian regional economies in 2006 and 2011 to determine if diversified regional economies were more economically resilient. Supporting the findings in economic geography literature, this study found that Canadian regional economies that were more diverse were more resilient. Base on economic geography literature, expert interviews, a jurisdictional scan, and policy analysis, this capstone project identified and recommended that the Fraser Valley Regional District implement several diversification policies

Characterizing High School Students\u27 Systems Thinking in Engineering Design Through the Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) Framework

The aim of this research study was to examine high school students\u27 systems thinking when engaged in an engineering design challenge. This study included 12 high school students that were paired into teams of two to work through an engineering design challenge. These dyads were given one hour in their classrooms with access to a computer and engineering sketching paper to complete the design. Immediately following the design challenge, the students participated in a post hoc reflective group interview. The methodology of this study was informed by and derived from cognitive science\u27s verbal protocol analysis. Multiple forms of data were gathered and triangulated for analysis. These forms included audio and video recordings of the design challenge and the interview, computer tracking, and student-generated sketches. The data were coded using Gero\u27s FBS framework. These coded data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The transitions were further analyzed using measures of centrality. Additionally, qualitative analysis techniques were used to understand and interpret systems and engineering design themes and findings. Through the qualitative and quantitative analyses, it was shown that the students demonstrated thinking in terms of systems. The results imply that systems thinking can be part of a high school engineering curriculum. The students considered and explored multiple interconnected variables, both technical as well as nontechnical in nature. The students showed further systems thinking by optimizing their design through balancing trade-offs of nonlinear interconnected variables. Sketching played an integral part in the students\u27 design process, as it was used to generate, develop, and communicate their designs. Although many of the students recognized their own lack of drawing abilities, they understood the role sketching played in engineering design. Therefore, graphical visualization through sketching is a skill that educators may want to include in their curricula. The qualitative analysis also shed light on analogical reasoning. The students drew from their personal experience in lieu of professional expertise to better understand and expand their designs. Hence, the implication for educators is to aid the students in using their knowledge, experience, and preexisting schemata to work through an engineering design

Managing social-ecological systems under uncertainty : implications for conservation

Natural resource managers and conservationists are often confronted with the challenges of uncertainty. Limits to knowledge and predictability challenge conservation success and socio-economic, institutional and political context affect implementation of conservation interventions. Using a management strategy evaluation (MSE) conceptual framework, I use a multidisciplinary approach to gain a better understanding of the role and implications of different sources and types of uncertainty for the management of social-ecological systems, giving special attention to the issues of observation and implementation uncertainty. The conservation of harvested ungulate species in the Serengeti, Tanzania, is used as a case study. I investigated which factors should be prioritized in order to increase survey accuracy and precision, and explored the potential effects of budgetary scenarios on the robustness of the population estimates obtained for different savannah ungulate species. The relative importance of each process affecting precision and accuracy varied according to the survey technique and biological characteristics of the species. I applied specialized questioning techniques developed for studying non-compliant and sensitive behaviour, using the unmatched-count technique (UCT) to assess prevalence of illegal hunting in the Serengeti. I found that poaching remains widespread in the Serengeti and current alternative sources of income may not be sufficiently attractive to compete with the opportunities provided by hunting. I explored trade-offs between different types of error when monitoring changes in population abundance and how these are affected by budgetary, observational and ecological conditions. Higher observation error and conducting surveys less frequently increased the likelihood of not detecting trends and misclassifying the shape of the trend but the differences between multiple levels of observation error decreased for higher monitoring length and frequency. Using key informant interviews with the main actors in the monitoring and management system, I provided recommendations for the development and implementation of interventions within long-term integrated and adaptive frameworks. The research presented in this thesis highlights the need to consider the role of people as influential components within social-ecological systems in order to promote effective conservation interventions. Monitoring and implementation must be understood as dynamic features of the system, instead of merely acting upon it, and the multiple sources of uncertainty must be fully considered in conservation planning, requiring the development and application of tools to aid management decision-making under uncertainty.Open Acces

Improving conservation practice with principles and tools from systems thinking and evaluation

Achieving nature conservation goals require grappling with ‘wicked’ problems. These intractable problems arise from the complexity and dynamism of the social–ecological systems in which they are embedded. To enhance their ability to address these problems, conservation professionals are increasingly looking to the transdisciplines of systems thinking and evaluation, which provide philosophies, theories, methods, tools and approaches that show promise for addressing intractable problems in a variety of other sectors. These transdisciplines come together especially around praxis, i.e., the process by which a theory or idea is enacted, embodied or realized. We present a review and synthesis of the learnings about praxis that have emerged from The Silwood Group, a consortium of conservation professionals, professional evaluators, and complexity and systems thinkers. The Silwood Group believes that for conservation activities to achieve ambitious goals, we should benefit nature without compromising the well-being of people, and that framing a praxis for conservation in the context of social–ecological systems will provide the greatest potential for positive impact. The learnings are presented as four key principles of a ‘praxis for effective conservation’. The four principles are: (1) attend to the whole with humility; (2) engage constructively with the values, cultures, politics, and histories of stakeholders; (3) learn through evaluative, systemic enquiry, and (4) exercise wisdom in judgement and action. We also provide descriptions and references for tools and methods to support such praxis and discuss how the thinking and approaches used by conservation professionals can be transformed to achieve greater effectiveness

Building STEM Teacher Capacity at a South American International School

Although originating in the United States, STEM education has gained acceptance worldwide as an inquiry-based, interdisciplinary approach engaging students in active learning. Despite the ubiquity of STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, schools face challenges in providing professional development for teachers. This dissertation addresses a lack of adequate professional development to support STEM implementation at an international school in South America. Based on a constructivist assumption that teachers’ beliefs, cultures, and experiences mediate their learning, a mentoring program was selected as the most viable solution strategy. Mentoring provides a pathway for mentees to enact new strategies with their mentor’s support promoting reflection and professional growth. The change requires a transformational leadership approach, complemented by distributed leadership practices, to foster relational trust, inspire a change vision, and focus on the collective learning of program coordinators, mentors, and mentees needed to propel the change forward. A change path framework will be employed that awakens, mobilizes, and accelerates change forces toward the eventual institutionalization of the mentor program. This framework, combined with a robust monitoring, evaluation, and communication plan, will incorporate teacher voices and foster commitment at each phase of change. Structuring an effective professional development model that includes teachers’ prior knowledge, beliefs, language, and culture will promote a shift away from postcolonial patterns in the school context and build teacher capacity and confidence to teach STEM

Operational guidelines for assessing the impact of agricultural research on livelihoods. Good practices from CIMMYT

Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Sustainability Education through the Integration of Behavioral Science into Pedagogy and Practice

abstract: For some time it has been recognized amongst researchers that individual and collective change should be the goal in educating for sustainability, unfortunately education has generally been ineffective in developing pro-environmental behaviors among students. Still, many scholars and practitioners are counting on education to lead us towards sustainability but suggest that in order to do so we must transition away from current information-intensive education methods. In order to develop and test novel sustainability education techniques, this research integrates pedagogical methods with psychological knowledge to target well-established sustainable behaviors. Through integrating education, behavior change, and sustainability research, I aim to answer: How can we motivate sustainable behavioral change through education programs? More specifically: How do diverse knowledge domains (declarative, procedural, effectiveness, and social) influence sustainable behaviors, both in general as well as before and after a sustainability education program? And: What are barriers hindering education approaches to changing behaviors? In answering these questions, this research involved three distinct stages: (1) Developing a theoretical framework for educating for sustainability and transformative change; (2) Implementing a food and waste focused sustainability educational program with K-12 students and teachers while intensively assessing participants' change over the course of one year; (3) Developing and implementing an extensive survey that examines the quantitative relationships between diverse domains of knowledge and behavior among a large sample of K-12 educators. The results from the education program demonstrated that significant changes in knowledge and behaviors were achieved but social knowledge in terms of food was more resistant to change as compared to that of waste. The survey results demonstrated that K-12 educators have high levels of declarative (factual or technical) knowledge regarding anthropocentric impacts on the environment; however, declarative knowledge does not predict their participation in sustainable behaviors. Rather, procedural and social knowledge significantly influence participation in sustainable food behaviors, where as procedural, effectiveness, and social knowledge impact participation in sustainable waste behaviors. Overall, the findings from this research imply that in order to effectively educate for sustainability, we must move away from nature-centric approaches that focus on declarative knowledge and embrace different domains of knowledge (procedural, effectiveness, and social) that emphasis the social implications of change.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Sustainability 201