The Effects of Inquiry Project-Based Learning on Student Reading Motivation and Student Perceptions of Inquiry Learning Processes

Inquiry-based learning approaches have been promoted as an instructional method for students at all levels. An inquiry approach requires students to discover or construct knowledge through relevant activities and personal investigations. Due to the student driven nature of inquiry learning, it is reasonable to believe that students will become more motivated to read and to engage in critical thinking after participating in the inquiry approach. This quantitative study observes the effects of inquiry project based learning (PBL) on reading motivation and students’ perceptions of higher order thinking processes in a middle school language arts classroom. By comparing inquiry project based learning to fully guided instruction using an experimental study design, it was hypothesized that reading motivation and perceptions of inquiry thinking processes would increase after eight weeks of implementing the inquiry PBL model. The control and treatment group’s reading motivation was compared using pre-tests and post-tests of the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) (Wigfield and Guthrie 1997), and student perception of the type of learning and the learning processes they have experienced in the class was measured with an instrument created by Spronken-Smith, Walker, Batchelor, O’Steen, & Angelo (2012). An Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was run to determine any change in groups after the treatment, and Pearson Correlations were run to examine relationships between motivation constructs and perceptions of learning processes. There was no indication that inquiry PBL had any significant effects on the treatment group in terms of reading motivation or perceptions of critical thinking

The Importance of Automaticity Development in Mathematics

This study examined whether students were reaching automaticity with single digit multiplication facts. A fourteen question interview was used to collect data. The first three questions asked the student basic information about themselves and their current math teacher. The next seven questions were math facts. The math facts chosen for the interview were a range of difficulty, starting with a simple problem like 1 x 9 and increasing in difficulty to 6 x 9. The last four questions were open-ended with the intent of gaining insight into whether the students were using strategies to complete the problems or if they were showing automaticity. The study took place in one elementary school and one middle school. The participants were students from 3rd, 5th, and 8th grade. There were nine students from 3rd grade. Four were male and five were female. Ten students were from 5th grade. Four were male and six were female. Five students were from 8th grade. Three were male and two were female. The findings from this study are consistent with research included in this study in that students are continuing to struggle with single digit multiplication problems

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Search for supersymmetry in events with one lepton and multiple jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for anomalous couplings in boosted WW/WZ -> l nu q(q)over-bar production in proton-proton collisions at root s=8TeV

Peer reviewe

Vision, challenges and opportunities for a Plant Cell Atlas

With growing populations and pressing environmental problems, future economies will be increasingly plant-based. Now is the time to reimagine plant science as a critical component of fundamental science, agriculture, environmental stewardship, energy, technology and healthcare. This effort requires a conceptual and technological framework to identify and map all cell types, and to comprehensively annotate the localization and organization of molecules at cellular and tissue levels. This framework, called the Plant Cell Atlas (PCA), will be critical for understanding and engineering plant development, physiology and environmental responses. A workshop was convened to discuss the purpose and utility of such an initiative, resulting in a roadmap that acknowledges the current knowledge gaps and technical challenges, and underscores how the PCA initiative can help to overcome them.</jats:p

Cognitively Guided Phonetic Instruction

This research study looks at phonics instructional strategies, determines the key elements of Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI), and investigates whether there is a way to apply CGI to a phonics lesson. The initial question that sparked the study was can students use problem solving strategies, like in CGI, to construct their own understanding of phonics? Initial review of the literature showed that many studies have been conducted to determine the effects of CGI in a mathematics setting. However, very little research has been conducted to help determine what CGI could look like in other subject areas. The purpose of this study was to determine if cognitively guided phonetic instruction could have a positive impact on student achievement and self-efficacy. A pre and post assessment and survey were administered and used to compare student achievement and self-efficacy. These assessments were used to answer the essential questions of the study which are; can students who are in tier two and tier three interventions show growth at the same pace as their high achieving and gifted peers in their ability to read phonetically, write phonetically, and remember phonics rules when all students receive cognitively guided phonetic instruction? Do tier two and three students show similar levels of self-efficacy as high achieving and gifted students when all students receive cognitively guided phonetic instruction? The results of this study will be determined at the end of March of 2019

The Effects of Instructional and Administrative Text Messages on Academic Achievement and Student Perception of Learning in a High School Food, Nutrition, and Wellness Classroom

This study investigates the effects of instructional and administrative text messages on student academic achievement and perception of learning. The study takes place at a public high school located in North Georgia. Participants include 9th through 12th grade students enrolled in the food, nutrition, and wellness courses. 128 students will be involved in this study with 61 being male and 67 being female. Of these 128 students, 36 are freshmen, 59 are sophomores, 31 are juniors, and 2 are seniors. There will be one certified Food, Nutrition, and Wellness teacher involved in this study. This teacher is the researcher and has five years of teaching experience. In this quasi-experimental study, there will be an experimental group and a comparison group. The experimental group will be comprised of students in two classes and the comparison group will be comprised of students in two different classes. Students in the experimental group will receive instructional and administrative text messages three times a week for a total of nine weeks. Instructional text messages include text, videos and imagery of relevant in-class information that reviews content covered in the unit. Administrative text messages serve to help students remember due dates for classroom assignments and materials they needed to bring to class on lab days. At the end of the experiment, data will be collected from teacher-made pre and post assessments for academic achievement as well as classroom community subscale for student perception of learning. Both the pretest and posttest contain 40 items prepared by the teacher and were given to participants to assess knowledge about the unit involved in the study. The unit covers information about quick breads, yeast breads, meat, and meat products. A classroom community scale developed by Rovai (2002) was given to participants in both groups as a pre and post assessment to measure for student perception of learning in the course. The survey uses a 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of 10 questions. Results of the data will be analyzed using SPSS software