Transdisciplinary STEM curriculum enactment: an exploratory case study in the Queensland context

Kristy Schulz investigated a case of transdisciplinary STEM education in a secondary school context in Queensland. She found that the enactment strategy, which focused on 21C skills and problem-framing, clearly addressed policy language of what STEM education could be and was a genuine attempt to prepare students for an uncertain future. Her findings provide a novel approach for secondary schools that are looking ahead of tech-focused STEM to a meaningful, human-centered curriculum

Project Managers\u27 Strategies for Megaproject Success

In Africa, most oil and gas megaprojects exceed their original budget and time deadlines despite advancement in project management processes and systems. This study explored strategies project managers used for megaprojects\u27 success in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, from the perspectives of the owner and contractor organizations. Multiple case study design was utilized to collect data by asking open-ended questions in separate interviews with 4 project managers. Archival project data was also reviewed to eliminate information incongruences. The conceptual framework for the study is the contingency theory that there is no universal management structure for every project. The data analysis approach was thematic coding. Study findings from the data analysis were aggregated into 5 themes. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd themes include the project managers\u27 view of measures of megaproject successes, project managers\u27 strategies for managing the business environment, and the strategies for achieving megaproject execution excellence. The 4th and 5th themes are the strategies for facilitating employee performance and the typical social change development and social change performance initiatives to benefit neighboring communities because of a megaproject. The conclusion from the evidences gathered is that megaproject success is contingent on the ability of the project manager to unravel and address complexity leveraging strategic leadership and systems thinking. From these findings, project managers from the client and contractor organizations may use, adapt, learn, refresh, and improve their project management skills. The significance of the study to positive social change from improving the success rates of megaprojects includes improvement in human capacity development and infrastructural additions that can facilitate economic growth in the region

TLAD 2010 Proceedings:8th international workshop on teaching, learning and assesment of databases (TLAD)

This is the eighth in the series of highly successful international workshops on the Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2010), which once again is held as a workshop of BNCOD 2010 - the 27th International Information Systems Conference. TLAD 2010 is held on the 28th June at the beautiful Dudhope Castle at the Abertay University, just before BNCOD, and hopes to be just as successful as its predecessors.The teaching of databases is central to all Computing Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems and Information Technology courses, and this year, the workshop aims to continue the tradition of bringing together both database teachers and researchers, in order to share good learning, teaching and assessment practice and experience, and further the growing community amongst database academics. As well as attracting academics from the UK community, the workshop has also been successful in attracting academics from the wider international community, through serving on the programme committee, and attending and presenting papers.This year, the workshop includes an invited talk given by Richard Cooper (of the University of Glasgow) who will present a discussion and some results from the Database Disciplinary Commons which was held in the UK over the academic year. Due to the healthy number of high quality submissions this year, the workshop will also present seven peer reviewed papers, and six refereed poster papers. Of the seven presented papers, three will be presented as full papers and four as short papers. These papers and posters cover a number of themes, including: approaches to teaching databases, e.g. group centered and problem based learning; use of novel case studies, e.g. forensics and XML data; techniques and approaches for improving teaching and student learning processes; assessment techniques, e.g. peer review; methods for improving students abilities to develop database queries and develop E-R diagrams; and e-learning platforms for supporting teaching and learning