Water Towers, Pump Houses, and Mountain Streams: Students' Ideas about Watersheds

This study investigates students' ideas about watersheds and how these ideas change across grade level. A group of 95 students were each asked to draw a picture of a watershed and explain their drawings. The results revealed that, in general, students understand the concept of watersheds from a very limited scientific perspective. Sixth and some seventh grade students envisioned watersheds as a water storage facility or a facility that supplies water. Eighth and ninth grade students' ideas about a watershed focused on a mountainous stream. Older students also incorporated the hydrologic cycle, but rarely represented linkages between land and watercourses. For all students, humans do not appear to be a part of a watershed, but separate from it. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Generalised Whittaker models as instances of relative Langlands duality

The recent proposal by Ben-Zvi, Sakellaridis and Venkatesh of a duality in the relative Langlands program, leads, via the process of quantization of Hamiltonian varieties, to a duality theory of branching problems. This often unexpectedly relates two a priori unrelated branching problems. We examine how the generalised Whittaker (or Gelfand-Graev) models serve as the prototypical example for such branching problems. We give a characterization, for the orthogonal and symplectic groups, of the generalised Whittaker models possibly contained in this duality theory. We then exhibit an infinite family of examples of this duality, which, provably at the local level via the theta correspondence, satisfy the conjectural expectations of duality

Learning with multiple representations: An example of a revision lesson in mechanics

We describe an example of learning with multiple representations in an A-level revision lesson on mechanics. The context of the problem involved the motion of a ball thrown vertically upwards in air and studying how the associated physical quantities changed during its flight. Different groups of students were assigned to look at the ball's motion using various representations: motion diagrams, vector diagrams, free-body diagrams, verbal description, equations and graphs, drawn against time as well as against displacement. Overall, feedback from students about the lesson was positive. We further discuss the benefits of using computer simulation to support and extend student learning.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-912

Study of LED Radiation Effects on Insect Phototaxis Response for the Development of Light-Based Pest Trap

: Commercial agriculture is a resource intensive industry that employs significant amounts of agrochemicals to maintain a high yield output. Excessive application of insecticides has detrimental impacts on human health, environment and long-term sustainability. One particular area of interest is in exploring how insects are attracted to specific bands of the visible light spectrum. This paper details the study of several light conditions using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to determine its phototaxis response on the common grasshopper, garden moth and lava beetle. The results conclude that all three insects exhibit positive phototaxis response on wavelengths around 491nm and below, which encompasses ultraviolet, blue and green. The radiant intensity experiment revealed a threshold response of 2.8mW/m2, or 25m in reciprocal distance

A Digital One Health framework to integrate data for public health decision-making

The current implementation of One Health (OH) primarily focuses on multi-sectoral collaboration but often overlooks opportunities to integrate contextual and pathogen-related data into a unified data resource. This lack of integration hampers effective, data-driven decision-making in OH activities. In this perspective, we examine the existing strategies for data sharing and identify gaps and barriers to integration. To overcome these challenges, we propose the Digital OH (DOH) framework for data integration, which consolidates data-sharing principles within five pillars for the OH community of practice: (a) Harmonization of standards to establish trust, (b) Automation of data capture to enhance quality and efficiency, (c) Integration of data at point of capture to limit bureaucracy, (d) Onboard data analysis to articulate utility, and (e) Archiving and governance to safeguard the OH data resource. We discuss an upcoming pilot program as a use case focusing on antimicrobial resistance surveillance to illustrate the application of this framework. Our ambition is to leverage technology to create data as a shared resource using DOH not only to overcome current structural barriers but also to address prevailing ethical and legal concerns. By doing so, we can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of decision-making processes in the OH community of practice, at a national, regional, and international level

One-dimensional collision carts computer model and its design ideas for productive experiential learning

We develop an Easy Java Simulation (EJS) model for students to experience the physics of idealized one-dimensional collision carts. The physics model is described and simulated by both continuous dynamics and discrete transition during collision. In the field of designing computer simulations, we discuss briefly three pedagogical considerations such as 1) consistent simulation world view with pen paper representation, 2) data table, scientific graphs and symbolic mathematical representations for ease of data collection and multiple representational visualizations and 3) game for simple concept testing that can further support learning. We also suggest using physical world setup to be augmented complimentary with simulation while highlighting three advantages of real collision carts equipment like tacit 3D experience, random errors in measurement and conceptual significance of conservation of momentum applied to just before and after collision. General feedback from the students has been relatively positive, and we hope teachers will find the simulation useful in their own classes. 2015 Resources added: http://iwant2study.org/ospsg/index.php/interactive-resources/physics/02-newtonian-mechanics/02-dynamics/46-one-dimension-collision-js-model http://iwant2study.org/ospsg/index.php/interactive-resources/physics/02-newtonian-mechanics/02-dynamics/195-elastic-collisionComment: 6 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, 1 L. K. Wee, Physics Education 47 (3), 301 (2012); ISSN 0031-912