Reflecting on our own learning: incorporating diverse worldviews into teaching and learning activities.

CONTEXT The teacher’s experience is frequently overlooked as a source of useful data on teaching practice. Nelson (2003, p. 85) points out that “every class is potentially an experiment from which the data are either discarded or never gathered.” This paper presents two academics’ reflections on the impact of their training in te reo Maori and tikanga Maori on their teaching activities. PURPOSE To reflect on academics’ learning of Maori language and culture in order to design teaching and learning activities that incorporate Maori language and the Maori worldview. APPROACH The paper uses three of Brookfield’s (1998) four lenses of reflection on teaching practice. RESULTS The first academic considered it was important to enable students to adequately explore the worldviews of the diverse stakeholders they will design products for in future and to test students on their understanding of these in order to satisfy cultural aspects of the graduate profile outcomes. The second academic found benefits of the use of Maori language in class in creating an atmosphere reflective of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Each academic found something to learn from the other’s work. CONCLUSIONS Adding the Maori language and worldview enables the classroom to better reflect New Zealand’s bi-cultural environment and student projects to better meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups, and also explicitly addresses the cultural aspects of the graduate profile

Engineers for the future; accounting for diversity

tailoring engineering and STEM education to meet the needs of all stakeholders. (External Industry requirement) a. Educational institutions must consider an increasingly diverse group of stakeholders, including students, staff, industry, and the wider community. How can educational activities expand our horizons beyond classroom and industry experience

Valley of the Wolves as Representative of Turkish Popular Attitudes toward Iraq

Abstract In 2006, the Turkish film, Valley of the Wolves (Kurtlar Vadisi-Irak) (Serdar Akar, 2006), was released to audiences in Turkey and Europe. Costing $10 million, it was the most costly production in the history of Turkish cinema, breaking all box office records in the country. A fantastical account of a Turkish victory over a fictional US invasion of the country, Valley of the Wolves has been interpreted as a reaction to the ‘Sack Incident’ (‘çuval olayı’) of July 2003, in which eleven Turkish soldiers were hooded and arrested in northern Iraq shortly after the United States invasion. The film’s title hence refers to a dark and dangerous place where howling and vicious ‘wolves’—namely Americans and Kurds—are gathered. This paper argues that Valley of the Wolves confirms a reemergence of 1960s Turkish industry (Yeşilçam) films which emphasized the historical conflict between Western and Islamic values. It discusses the extent to which Valley of the Wolves reflects popular Turkish attitudes toward the US war on Iraq, and it analyzes the film’s projection of Turkish humiliation, anger, and frustration following the Sack Incident. The paper also addresses how Valley of the Wolves engages US–Turkish relations and Turkish concerns over current Iraq-related politics, especially the US–Kurdish alliance, the establishment of an independent Kurdistan, Turkmen and the issue of Kirkuk, US violations of international law in Iraq, and the conflict between Islam and ChristianityValley of the Wolves as Representative of Turkish Popular Attitudes toward Ira

Assessing abdominal aorta narrowing using computational fluid dynamics

This paper investigates the effect of developing arterial blockage at the abdominal aorta on the blood pressure waves at an externally accessible location suitable for invasive measurements such as the brachial and the femoral arteries. Arterial blockages are created surgically within the abdominal aorta of healthy Wistar rats to create narrowing resemblance conditions. Blood pressure is measured using a catheter inserted into the right femoral artery. Measurements are taken at the baseline healthy condition as well as at four different severities (20, 50, 80 and 100 %) of arterial blockage. In vivo and in vitro measurements of the lumen diameter and wall thickness are taken using magnetic resonance imaging and microscopic techniques, respectively. These data are used to validate a 3D computational fluid dynamics model which is developed to generalize the outcomes of this work and to determine the arterial stress and strain under the blockage conditions. This work indicates that an arterial blockage in excess of 20 % of the lumen diameter significantly influences the pressure wave and reduces the systolic blood pressure at the right femoral artery. High wall shear stresses and low circumferential strains are also generated at the blockage site

Reflecting on our own learning: incorporating diverse worldviews into teaching and learning activities.

CONTEXT The teacher’s experience is frequently overlooked as a source of useful data on teaching practice. Nelson (2003, p. 85) points out that “every class is potentially an experiment from which the data are either discarded or never gathered.” This paper presents two academics’ reflections on the impact of their training in te reo Maori and tikanga Maori on their teaching activities. PURPOSE To reflect on academics’ learning of Maori language and culture in order to design teaching and learning activities that incorporate Maori language and the Maori worldview. APPROACH The paper uses three of Brookfield’s (1998) four lenses of reflection on teaching practice. RESULTS The first academic considered it was important to enable students to adequately explore the worldviews of the diverse stakeholders they will design products for in future and to test students on their understanding of these in order to satisfy cultural aspects of the graduate profile outcomes. The second academic found benefits of the use of Maori language in class in creating an atmosphere reflective of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Each academic found something to learn from the other’s work. CONCLUSIONS Adding the Maori language and worldview enables the classroom to better reflect New Zealand’s bi-cultural environment and student projects to better meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups, and also explicitly addresses the cultural aspects of the graduate profile

Integrating Learning Outcomes of Student Final Year Project with Objectives of a Research Project: Designing an All-In-One System for Climate Control and Air Purification

Student projects are designed to inform tasks on an overarching research project. The goal of the research project is to design a climate control system for particular use in crowded low quality built environments. Individual student projects were tailored to achieve specific phased steps within the project. This paper describes the mapping of learning outcomes in student projects to objectives of the main project, reflects on the achievement of these learning outcomes in the context of a project that fully explores all of them, and describes the service-learning potential for this type of student project

The effect of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium on the yield and carotene content of sweetpotatoes

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1953 R3Master of Scienc

Adaptive Pointing Theory (APT) Artificial Neural Network

The choice value and the testing process against the vigilance parameter, characteristic of ART Neural Network, are merged. Only, a single unique test is required to determine if a committed category node can represent the current input or not. Advantages of APT over ART are: 1-Avoid testing every committed category node before deciding to train a committed category node or a new node must be committed, 2-The vigilance parameter is fixed during training, and 3-The choice value parameter is eliminated

Residential air quality improvement using UV lights

Many New Zealand homes suffer from poor indoor air quality (IAQ). Cold, damp and mould-ridden homes can cause serious respiratory health problems. Poor IAQ can arise due to poor insulation and ventilation, and compounded when residents cannot afford heating. The main aim of this paper is to describe the process and results of modifying an existing dehumidifier to include ultraviolet germicidal UV lights. The modified device was designed to improve thermal comfort by removing moisture and perform UV filtration of the air to address mould and bacteria growth. To achieve these we combined the properties of a dehumidifier with germicidal lights (UV). The device was designed with the purpose of reducing humidity, increasing room temperature and purifying the air. Testing has shown that the modified dehumidifier with UV lights works as planned, with petri dishes showing a reduction in mould growth in most samples taken. Humidity was reduced where the device was used, and approximately 2L of water was removed in a 24-hour period. The temperature was increased where the device was used. The results show that the device reduced mould growth and increased room temperature