301 research outputs found
Introducing STEM education: Implications for educating our teachers in the age of innovation
Cataloged from PDF version of article.Reforms in education of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines have
been particularly critical for the economic competitiveness of Turkey. There has been some criticism of the
reforms at the teacher education level, claiming that Turkish teachers were not prepared to address the needs of
their profession. The authors of this article introduced the STEM education model, which was designed with a
critical investigation of the previous research on curriculum integration, STEM education, teaching knowledge,
and Turkish educational reforms. By focusing on the interaction of mathematics and science, the model
emphasized the importance of integrated teaching knowledge to successfully transition from the
departmentalized model of teaching to an integrated model that promotes innovation
A longitudinal study of the relationship between mathematics and science: The case of Texas
Cataloged from PDF version of article.This study aims to investigate the relationship between mathematics and science scores acquired from the Texas
Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) examination, and how this relationship changed over the years.
The participants were from an independent school district in a northern Texas town. Criterion sampling was
used in this study to assure that students who were selected had four TAKS mathematics scores from 2006
through 2010 and two TAKS science scores for 2006 and 2010: 116 students met the criteria. The relationship
between two subjects was investigated by analyzing the correlation between studentsâ mathematics and science
scores of 2006 and 2010. Growth curve models were used to reveal whether there was growth on studentsâ
mathematics and science scores over the years. A strong correlation was found between mean mathematics and
mean science scores in the whole sample, and a greater growth was found in mathematics than it did for science
Increasing altruistic and cooperative behaviour with simple moral nudges
The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our time, as, for example, the reduction of air pollution and the redistribution of scarce resources. For the well-being of our societies, it is thus crucial to find mechanisms to promote pro-social choices over egoistic ones. Particularly important, because cheap and easy to implement, are those mechanisms that can change people's behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives, the so-called "nudges". Previous research has found that moral nudges (e.g., making norms salient) can promote pro-social behaviour. However, little is known about whether their effect persists over time and spills across context. This question is key in light of research showing that pro-social actions are often followed by selfish actions, thus suggesting that some moral manipulations may backfire. Here we present a class of simple moral nudges that have a great positive impact on pro-sociality. In Studies 1-4 (total Nâ=â1,400), we use economic games to demonstrate that asking subjects to self-report "what they think is the morally right thing to do" does not only increase pro-sociality in the choice immediately after, but also in subsequent choices, and even when the social context changes. In Study 5, we explore whether moral nudges promote charity donations to humanitarian organisations in a large (Nâ=â1,800) crowdfunding campaign. We find that, in this context, moral nudges increase donations by about 44 percent
Using Precision in STEM Language: A Qualitative Look
Teachers need to develop a variety of pedagogical strategies that can encourage precise and accurate communication - an extremely important 21st century skill. Precision with STEM oral language is essential. Emphasizing oral communication with precise language in combination with increased spatial skills with modeling can improve the chances of success in STEM courses and later in making STEM career choices. The participants were 14 middle and high school teachers who participated in a week of professional development (PD). The Aural/Spatial Interactions and Invariant Components of Vocabulary for STEM Content Area Specialists (AS-STEM) was administered to teacher groups to examine how STEM discourses influenced AS-STEM success. This study compared language differences among groups that were more versus less successful at representing unseen 3-D objects by drawing 2-D depictions from oral descriptions from peers. The groups that were more successful, able to produce more accurate depictions, used (a) language type merging that was more coherent and less frequent, (b) language precision that appeared to convey meaning effectively, and (c) validated shared meaning regularly and established these shared meanings efficiently. Thus, teachers who were able to merge language types using precision and jointly took ownership of the tasks were more successful. We trust that this work translates into practice through the awareness teachers had from participation in and discussion of the activities
Benevolent characteristics promote cooperative behaviour among humans
Cooperation is fundamental to the evolution of human society. We regularly
observe cooperative behaviour in everyday life and in controlled experiments
with anonymous people, even though standard economic models predict that they
should deviate from the collective interest and act so as to maximise their own
individual payoff. However, there is typically heterogeneity across subjects:
some may cooperate, while others may not. Since individual factors promoting
cooperation could be used by institutions to indirectly prime cooperation, this
heterogeneity raises the important question of who these cooperators are. We
have conducted a series of experiments to study whether benevolence, defined as
a unilateral act of paying a cost to increase the welfare of someone else
beyond one's own, is related to cooperation in a subsequent one-shot anonymous
Prisoner's dilemma. Contrary to the predictions of the widely used inequity
aversion models, we find that benevolence does exist and a large majority of
people behave this way. We also find benevolence to be correlated with
cooperative behaviour. Finally, we show a causal link between benevolence and
cooperation: priming people to think positively about benevolent behaviour
makes them significantly more cooperative than priming them to think
malevolently. Thus benevolent people exist and cooperate more
Hydroclimate variability in the central Mediterranean during MIS 17 interglacial (Middle Pleistocene) highlights timing offset with monsoon activity
Mediterranean climates are characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Previous studies suggest that over the last 1.36 Myr, Mediterranean winter rainfalls were in phase with the African monsoon. Here we present a high-resolution terrestrial and marine dataset for the Marine Isotope Stage 17 interglacial (Middle Pleistocene) from Southern Italy, showing that precipitation rates and regimes in the central Mediterranean varied independently of the monsoon system. Specifically, events of extreme summer precipitation were promoted by increased regional insolation rates and/or extratropical cyclones, and their magnitude was further enhanced by the advection of cool and humid North Atlantic air during stadials. Our findings provide new information on the short- to mid-term natural hydroclimatic variability of the Mediterranean basin, and offer new critical insights on landâocean interactions at the regional scale by complementing previous analyses on the displacement of storm tracks toward southern Europe
Hierarchical invasion of cooperation in complex networks
The emergence and survival of cooperation is one of the hardest problems still open in science. Several factors such as the existence of punishment, repeated interactions, topological effects and the formation of prestige may all contribute to explain the counter-intuitive prevalence of cooperation in natural and social systems. The characteristics of the interaction networks have been also signaled as an element favoring the persistence of cooperators. Here we consider the invasion dynamics of cooperative behaviors in complex topologies. The invasion of a heterogeneous network fully occupied by defectors is performed starting from nodes with a given number of connections (degree) k0. The system is then evolved within a Prisonerâs Dilemma game and the outcome is analyzed as a function of k0 and the degree k of the nodes adopting cooperation. Carried out using both numerical and analytical approaches, our results show that the invasion proceeds following preferentially a hierarchical order in the nodes from those with higher degree to those with lower degree. However, the invasion of cooperation will succeed only when the initial cooperators are numerous enough to form a cluster from which cooperation can spread. This implies that the initial condition has to be a suitable equilibrium between high degree and high numerosity. These findings have potential applications to the problem of promoting pro-social behaviors in complex networks
Impact of sustained professional development in STEM on outcome measures in a diverse urban district
Sustained professional development can support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) reform. The authors describe a 3-year study of sustained professional development for 3 diverse urban schools across the salient factors of fidelity of implementation of project-based learning, development of professional learning communities, and student achievement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The students who experienced the greatest fidelity of implementation exhibited the greatest gains (d = 1.41-2.03) on standardized test scores, while those with the lowest fidelity of implementation exhibited negative gains (d = -0.16 to -0.08). Qualitative data indicated teachers perceived there were multiple benefits from the implementation of project-based learning. Š 2016 Taylor & Francis
An ERK1/2-driven RNA-binding switch in nucleolin drives ribosome biogenesis and pancreatic tumorigenesis downstream of RAS oncogene
Oncogenic RAS signaling reprograms gene expression through both transcriptional and postâtranscriptional mechanisms. While transcriptional regulation downstream of RAS is relatively well characterized, how RAS postâtranscriptionally modulates gene expression to promote malignancy remains largely unclear. Using quantitative RNA interactome capture analysis, we here reveal that oncogenic RAS signaling reshapes the RNAâbound proteomic landscape of pancreatic cancer cells, with a network of nuclear proteins centered around nucleolin displaying enhanced RNAâbinding activity. We show that nucleolin is phosphorylated downstream of RAS, which increases its binding to preâribosomal RNA (rRNA), boosts rRNA production, and promotes ribosome biogenesis. This nucleolinâdependent enhancement of ribosome biogenesis is crucial for RASâinduced pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and can be targeted therapeutically to inhibit tumor growth. Our results reveal that oncogenic RAS signaling drives ribosome biogenesis by regulating the RNAâbinding activity of nucleolin and highlight a crucial role for this mechanism in RASâmediated tumorigenesis
Reflecting Back to Forge the Path Forward
The JUME editorial team provides an update of the journal\u27s health and progress during the 2021 calendar year and discusses coming changes and opportunities for growth
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