The influence of formative assessment on the outcome of summative assessment in the speaking skill with students from tenth grade “B” at Juan José Rodriguez Institute in the second semester 2021

This study was conducted to analyze the influence of formative assessment on the outcome of summative assessment in the speaking skill with students from tenth grade “B” at Juan José Rodriguez Institute in the second semester 2021. To achieve the main goal of this research, a mixed-method was used. The participants were the students and the English teacher. An observation guide was used to start the research, and an interview with open ended questions to the English teacher to explore the assessment process and strategies more used in the classroom. Two formative assessments (oral presentation and video recording) were applied to students through the development of the unit V and VI of the fourth-year English study program, applying one of those activities for the final summative assessment process. Finally, questionnaires with close items were applied in a student survey. The data collected through the survey and the formative and summative assessment applied were processed with the SPSS program. Results suggest that the formative assessment applied during the teaching process was useful to improve the students’ English-speaking skill. Therefore, this research suggests the implementation of Formative assessment since it helps to identify the students’ need in speaking skill and allow the teacher to work subsequently in function of the students’ deficiencies, helping them improve the outcomes of summative assessment in speaking skill through the feedback that formative assessment activities can provide. Thus, students demonstrate progress by improving the difficult speaking areas presented during the development of the formative process, which is useful for not repeating the same mistakes, and evidence progress in their speech quality

The origin and speciation of orchids

SummaryOrchids constitute one of the most spectacular radiations of flowering plants. However, their origin, spread across the globe, and hotspots of speciation remain uncertain due to the lack of an up-to-date phylogeographic analysis.We present a new Orchidaceae phylogeny based on combined high-throughput and Sanger sequencing data, covering all five subfamilies, 17/22 tribes, 40/49 subtribes, 285/736 genera, and c. 7% (1921) of the 29 524 accepted species, and use it to infer geographic range evolution, diversity, and speciation patterns by adding curated geographical distributions from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants.The orchids' most recent common ancestor is inferred to have lived in Late Cretaceous Laurasia. The modern range of Apostasioideae, which comprises two genera with 16 species from India to northern Australia, is interpreted as relictual, similar to that of numerous other groups that went extinct at higher latitudes following the global climate cooling during the Oligocene. Despite their ancient origin, modern orchid species diversity mainly originated over the last 5 Ma, with the highest speciation rates in Panama and Costa Rica.These results alter our understanding of the geographic origin of orchids, previously proposed as Australian, and pinpoint Central America as a region of recent, explosive speciation

Global Plant Ecology of Tropical Ultramafic Ecosystems

Ultramafic ecosystems are renowned for high endemism and habitat specialization. However, most of our understanding of ultramafic plant ecology comes from Mediterranean and temperate climes, raising questions about the generalizability of plant responses to ultramafic soils. This is especially apparent in tropical ultramafic ecosystems which exhibit a wide range of endemism and differentiation between ultramafic and adjacent non-ultramafic soils. Our objectives were two-fold: 1) synthesize our understanding of tropical ultramafic plant ecology, paying particular attention to generalities that may explain variation in endemism and habitat specialization among tropical ultramafic ecosystems; and 2) define an interdisciplinary research agenda using tropical ultramafic ecosystems as a macroecological model. We demonstrate that tropical ultramafic floras are diverse and variable in plant form and function due to the interactive effects of biogeography, climate, and edaphic properties. The variable rates of endemism, specialization, and stress tolerance traits across tropical ultramafic ecosystems have implications for the management and conservation of these diverse systems. Resumen. Los ecosistemas ultramáficos son reconocidos por su endemismo y especialización del hábitat. Sin embargo, la mayor parte de nuestra comprensión de la ecología vegetal ultramáfica proviene de climas mediterráneos y templados, lo que plantea dudas sobre la generalización de las respuestas de las plantas a los suelos ultramáficos. Esto es especialmente evidente en los ecosistemas tropicales ultramáficos que exhiben una amplia gama de endemismo y diferenciación entre suelos tropicales ultramáficos y no ultramáficos adyacentes. Nosotros teníamos dos objetivos: 1) sintetizar nuestra comprensión actual de la ecología de las plantas tropicales ultramáficas, prestando especial atención a las generalidades que pueden explicar la variación en el endemismo y la especialización del hábitat entre los ecosistemas tropicales ultramáficos; y 2) definir una agenda de investigación interdisciplinaria utilizando ecosistemas ultramáficos tropicales como modelo macroecológico. Las floras tropicales ultramáficas son diversas y variables en la forma y función de las plantas debido a los efectos interactivos de la biogeografía, el clima y las propiedades edáficas. Las tasas variables de endemismo, especialización y rasgos de tolerancia al estrés en los ecosistemas tropicales ultramáficos tienen implicaciones para el manejo y conservación de estos diversos sistemas