Application of remote sensing to state and regional problems

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Climate change and disaster impact reduction

Based on papers presented at the 'UK - South Asia Young Scientists and Practitioners Seminar on Climate Change and Disaster Impact Reduction' held at Kathmandu, Nepal on 5-6 June, 2008

Implementing the computing curriculum at national and regional level: lessons learnt

This paper will present how an emerging Community of Practice is supporting the development of a new national computing curriculum in primary (5-11 years) and secondary (11-18) schools in England. Computing, because of its ubiquity and role in innovation, has become an essential requirement in the increasingly global digital knowledge economy. Consequently, industry, government, academics and policy makers have become increasingly concerned that England was beginning to lose its innovative and competitive edge [1] [2]. This paper will present a background to changes at national level following the disapplication of Information Communication Technology as a subject, in 2013, through to the development of a new Computing curriculum in 2014. This curriculum is applicable for children 5-16 years, while new higher level qualifications for learners 16-18 have also been introduced. The paper will consider the new curriculum, challenges faced by schools, teachers and teacher trainers in terms of delivery of the new curricula, new programming languages, changing pedagogy, and upskilling in-service and pre-service teachers. The paper will present a national picture of support for teachers in England via funding from the Department for Education, devolved by Computing at School, a grass-roots organization that now has over 28,000 members, to 10 regional universities. The paper will then share how teachers across one region of England are building a networked community of practice comprising: computing master teachers who support less experienced teachers, and regional hubs which host events for local teachers. Data will be presented relating to teacher's growing confidence and the impact in the classroom, measured using Gukey’s [3] impact framework. This data indicates growing confidence, and identifies the support still required to increase classroom impact. The paper will finally share some of the resources teachers have found to be most useful – these are all available online for delegates to access and share. The conclusion will focus on sharing lessons learnt from the project (The Royal Society 2017) and consider its future direction

Are Condorcet and minimax voting systems the best?

For decades, the minimax voting system was well known to experts on voting systems, but was not widely considered to be one of the best systems. But in recent years, two important experts, Nicolaus Tideman and Andrew Myers, have both recognized minimax as one of the best systems. I agree with that. This paper presents my own reasons for preferring minimax. The paper explicitly discusses about 20 systems, though over 50 are known to exist.Comment: 41 pages, no figures. The Introduction has been changed. Also fixed some version 6 errors in referencing subsection numbers in section

Computing at school: an emergent community of practice for a re-emergent subject

The Computing at School (CAS) working group was formed in 2009 as a grassroots organisation with members drawn from schools, higher education and the computing industry. Their concern was the drop in applications for undergraduate computing courses and a dearth of specialists entering related professions. This paper studies the development of the organisation with respect to models of communities of practice. The methodology is a retrospective reflexive study based analysis of e-mail transactions to review the association’s activities and relationships with other stakeholders in computing education. Through this, the formation of a new professional community of practice is tracked and its characteristics established

Experiential Learning through Role-Playing in the Digital Technology for Business Course

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of role-playing in an introductory course. A study of how new pedagogical approaches affect students’ learning is crucial due to the change of learning environments, the more disengaged students, and enrollment declines. A survey of 103 undergraduate students from two classes of the Digital Technology for Business course, who joined the role-playing activities in 2018 and 2019, were collected. The role-playing activities were conducted six rounds for each class, yielding 458 records for data analysis. Results from the nonparametric test equivalent to the dependent t-test indicate that experiential learning through role-playing activities improves students’ perceived usefulness (understanding, problem-solving skills, creativity, and topic interests) and their engagement intention (role-playing engagement intention, class attendance intention, and class participation intention) in all aspects. The content analysis of the open-ended question also reveals key comments from students in terms of the received emotions/ feelings, benefits for audiences, general expectations, and expectations about role-playing. Lecturers could apply role-playing to enhance their classrooms and engage more students. The role-playing activities are fewer applied to technology-related courses. This work shows the effectiveness of role-playing and offers the guideline to implement role-playing in courses

Urban Geology: Master Plan for California

The nature, magnitude, and costs of geologic hazards in California and recommendations for their mitigation

Multiple resource evaluation of region 2 US forest service lands utilizing LANDSAT MSS data

The author has identified the following significant results. LANDSAT MSS imagery provided an excellent overview which put a geomorphic study into a regional perspective, using scale 1:250,000 or smaller. It was used for deriving a data base for land use planning for southern San Juan Mountains. Stereo pairing of adjacent images was the best method for all geomorphic mapping. Combining this with snow enhancement, seasonal enhancement, and reversal aided in interpretation of geomorphic features. Drainage patterns were mapped in much greater detail from LANDSAT than from a two deg quadrangle base

Significant achievements in the planetary geology program, 1981

Recent developments in planetology research are summarized. Important developments are summarized in topics ranging from solar system evolution, comparative planetology, and geologic processes, to techniques and instrument development for future exploration

Urban Geology: Master Plan for California

The nature, magnitude, and costs of geologic hazards in California and recommendations for their mitigation