Promoting inquiry skills in Curriculum for Excellence in Science: conceptualising inquiry to improve practice

This paper describes a Scottish initiative (arising out of a EU funded development project) involving university researchers, a local authority curriculum development officer and a group of teachers interested in developing more inquiry based approaches in science education. The project is not one in which the researchers bring prescriptions from research. Rather, it is seen as a joint effort aimed at solving practitioners' conceptual and practice issues. The overall question for the teachers was, How do I (we) make our practice more inquiry based? The question for the researchers was, How do we help you (the interested science teachers) to make your practice more inquiry based? This has two sub-questions: How do we help you to conceptualise the issues? How do we help you to solve the practice problems? As it turned out, the particular group of teachers we worked with did not ask for help with practice issues, so we have not made much progress in answering the second question. Therefore, this paper will focus on the first. We seem to have been successful in helping the teachers to acquire some useful conceptual tools for thinking about and changing their practice in ways that they valued for themselves. Perhaps the answer to the second question is that researchers can help teachers to solve their practice problems by helping them to conceptualise the issues

Promoting Inquiry in Science Classrooms in European Schools : a Handbook for Tutors

In Scotland, PISCES stands for Promoting Inquiry Skills for a Curriculum for Excellence in Science. It is a CPD module for teachers of science, which has been developed in Scotland with the support of the S-TEAM project. However, this Handbook uses our international acronym in which PISCES stands for Promoting Inquiry in Science Classrooms in European Schools . It is, we believe, potentially equally as successful across Europe as it was designed around the idea of empowering teachers to think for themselves how to make their practice more-inquiry based, wherever they are. It is recognised that some school, social, policy and cultural environments may be more supportive of the idea of ‘more inquiry-based practice’ than others. PISCES empowers teachers to make small or large changes to their practice, according to those sorts of contextual factors, their own aims and how they perceive the needs of their pupils. You will note that we have been careful to use the word ‘more’ in ‘more inquiry-based.’ As befits the idea of empowerment to adapt to one’s own context, there is no single model of inquiry being ‘pushed’ here. Indeed, we count it as a measure of success of PISCES that the teachers who have participated did very different things in making their practice more inquiry-based. Strathclyde University is a leading partner in S-TEAM. Members of Strathclyde University, along with the Development Officer for Curriculum for Excellence for East Lothian, successfully developed and delivered a pilot version of PISCES as a module to a group of East Lothian teachers, in 2010/11. The module resulted in successful ‘experiments in practice’ and increased awareness of the benefits of inquiry-based teaching and learning. The same group of teachers have also taken part in a follow-up course (ARIES: Advanced Resources for Inquiry and Evaluation in Science). PISCES is a high quality CPD programme, valued by teachers and supportive of their professional self-development. It can be applied to both primary and secondary teaching, in all science subjects. Pupils benefit from learning experiences, which develop scientific inquiry skills. Feedback from participating teachers has been consistently positive

The Hidden Effects of Parasites in a Changing Ocean

Trematode parasites are a fascinating group of species which occur in almost all types of marine habitat and infect many ecologically and commercially important marine organisms. They possess complex life histories that involve multiple host species, often radically change morphology as they move between hosts, and can dramatically alter the performance of infected organisms.As with all marine organisms, trematodes are affected by human-mediated changes to the global oceans – for example, warmer temperatures, less available oxygen, increased seawater acidity.Of course, given the complex nature of host–parasite interactions, the effects of such changes to the marine environment could have equally complex consequences for disease dynamics. The potential for such substantial change to the role of trematode parasites caused by a changing marine environment can best be understood by following a single parasite species through a complete life cycle

Communal residential laundry washing and drying : can it provide demand-side electrical load flexibility?

Changes in lifestyle have led to increased use and ownership rates of domestic appliances resulting in increasing electrical consumption in the residential sector. An important element of this consumption is due to domestic washing and drying of laundry. Given current and predicted ownership rates, the market for drying facilities is still not fully saturated and electrical demand for these functions will therefore increase. This paper looks at energy loads for laundering in high density housing such as blocks of flats and explores the benefits of communal facilities. Benefits of such facilities include reduced high humidity levels and the mitigation of decreased indoor air quality associated with indoor drying of laundry in individual dwellings. However from the perspective of integrating microgeneration into buildings, communal facilities may facilitate increased flexibility in the electrical demand profile, hence better complementing low carbon and localised energy supplies. In order to investigate the possible effects on the electric demand load profile, this paper presents the scenario of a hypothetical housing block and analyses the effect of moving from washing and drying in individual households to communal facilities. The study includes the effects of appliance energy-efficiency improvements and increased ownership rates. Results obtained show that communal laundering is successful in terms of time-shifting and hence lowering of peak electrical demand but is ineffective in reducing consumption

Lower-Limb Amputees in Olympic Weightlifting

The coach serves an integral role in shaping the youth sport experience. For athletes with disabilities, participation in sports may be a negative experience because their coach may misperceive or misunderstand their behaviors. More educational material about coaching adaptive athletes would help bridge the information gap between weightlifting coaches and the adaptive community. Because the number of adaptive athletes in the sport of weightlifting is steadily rising, it is becoming increasingly important that coaches of these athletes understand how they can facilitate the athlete’s lifelong enjoyment of the sport. Coaches should not be intimidated by adaptive athletes. Due to the unique nature of individual circumstances, it can be difficult to generalize about the most effective ways to train adaptive athletes. In recent years, USA Weightlifting (USAW) has introduced measures designed to increase accessibility of the sport for disabled athletes. These measures are summarized, analyzed, and presented in this article in a way that the authors are able to make training recommendations for athletes with lower-lib amputations. In addition, the psychological aspects of adapted weightlifting are briefed and analyzed culminating in recommendations for athletes engaging in weight training and coaches who work with athletes with amputation

Physiological Responses to Acute Silver Exposure in the Freshwater Crayfish (\u3cem\u3eCambarus diogenes diogenes\u3c/em\u3e)—A Model Invertebrate?

Adult crayfish (Cambarus diogenes diogenes) exposed to 8.41 ± 0.17 μg silver/L (19.4% as Ag+) in moderately hard freshwater under flow-through conditions for 96 h exhibited ionoregulatory disturbance, elevated metabolic ammonia (Tamm) production and substantial silver accumulation in the gills, hemolymph, and hepatopancreas. The ionoregulatory disturbance included both a generally reduced unidirectional Na1 influx and an increased unidirectional Na+ efflux, leading to a substantial net loss of Na+ from the silver-exposed crayfish. The Na+ uptake in silver-exposed crayfish differed overall from controls, while the increased Na+ efflux recovered to control values 48 h into the 96 h of exposure. The general inhibition of Na+ uptake could be explained by a reduced sodium/potassium-adenosine triphosphatase (Na/K-ATPase) activity in terminally obtained gill samples from the silver exposed crayfish. The silver-induced effect on Na+ uptake and loss translated to reduced hemolymph Na+ concentrations but not significantly reduced hemolymph Cl- concentrations. Hemolymph Tamm and Tamm efflux both increased in silver-exposed crayfish, indicating an increased metabolic Tamm production. The present study demonstrates that the toxic mechanism of waterborne silver exposure in freshwater crayfish resembles that of freshwater teleost fish. The crayfish might therefore be a useful model system for extending current environmental regulatory strategies, currently based on teleost fish, to invertebrates

Does group composition impact group scores in two-stage collaborative exams?

Recently, two-stage exams were introduced in two large second year genetic courses (\u3e250 students) at two different universities. The courses follow similar formats and use course learning outcomes, activities, and materials developed by the two instructors. Two-stage exams are those in which students first write an exam individually, followed immediately by a second stage in which they write the same, or similar, exam as part of a small group. Student exam grades comprised 85% individual score and 15% group score. Typically, exam scores improved in the group portion, however, the extent of the improvement varied between groups, and for several group scores were lower than the average of members’ individual scores. The goal of this project is to identify factors that may influence learning and student performance gains (Group Score – Average of Members’ Individual Scores) in the collaborative component. To determine group-composition factors that impact group scores, we compared individual and group scores from midterm and final exams, of fixed (group members stayed the same throughout all 3 exams) and dynamic (composition of group members changed in at least one exam) groups. Preliminary results show that while group composition does not have a significant effect on predicting group score, the average individual performance of students in a group impact student gains (the difference between a group’s score and the average of the members’ individual scores). We hope to use this opportunity to discuss different approaches to assess factors impacting performance on collaborative exams

A scoping review of the potential for chart stimulated recall as a clinical research method.

Background: Chart-stimulated recall (CSR) is a case-based interviewing technique, which is used in the assessment of clinical decision-making in medical education and professional certification. Increasingly, clinical decision-making is a concern for clinical research in primary care. In this study, we review the prior application and utility of CSR as a technique for research interviews in primary care. Methods: Following Arksey & O'Malley's method for scoping reviews, we searched seven databases, grey literature, reference lists, and contacted experts in the field. We excluded studies on medical education or competence assessment. Retrieved citations were screened by one reviewer and full texts were ordered for all potentially relevant abstracts. Two researchers independently reviewed full texts and performed data extraction and quality appraisal if inclusion criteria were met. Data were collated and summarised using a published framework on the reporting of qualitative interview techniques, which was chosen a priori. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines informed the review report. Results: From an initial list of 789 citations, eight studies using CSR in research interviews were included in the review: six from North America, one from the Netherlands, and one from Ireland. The most common purpose of included studies was to examine the influence of guidelines on physicians' decisions. The number of interviewees ranged from seven to twenty nine, while the number of charts discussed per interview ranged from one to twelve. CSR gave insights into physicians' reasoning for actions taken or not taken; the unrecorded social and clinical influences on decisions; and discrepancies between physicians' real and perceived practice. Ethical concerns and the training and influence of the researcher were poorly discussed in most of the studies. Potential pitfalls included the risk of recall, selection and observation biases. Conclusions: Despite the proven validity, reliability and acceptability of CSR in assessment interviews in medical education, its use in clinical research is limited. Application of CSR in qualitative research brings interview data closer to the reality of practice. Although further development of the approach is required, we recommend a role for CSR in research interviews on decision-making in clinical practice