Research on Students\u27 Conceptual Understanding of Geology/Solid Earth Science Content

Solid Earth is a broad concept, representing processes at the surface of the Earth, as well as the subsurface all the way to the solid inner core. Fields of study encompassed in this domain include geomorphology, historical geology, mineralogy, petrology, stratigraphy, structural geology – all topics that are touched upon in introductory coursework, and constitute the core of an undergraduate geology curriculum. Combined with cognate coursework in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, the conceptual load in the Solid Earth curriculum is significant. The risks of poor understanding of solid Earth concepts are non-trivial, ranging from the economic costs of commodities and energy to the potentially fatal impact of hazards from mass-wasting, flooding, volcanic activity, and earthquakes. As a result, undergraduate geoscience studies are faced with two main problems: (a) the determination of students\u27 solid Earth misconceptions when they participate in geoscience coursework, including their persistence and the means to address them, and (b) the determination of optimal learning progressions in geoscience instruction to accommodate preparation of geoscience professionals and Earth science teachers, as well as general education students. In this theme chapter, these two grand challenges are explored and recommended strategies are proposed to address them

Closing the Loop: Communication for Transformation of Geoscience Teaching Practice

The goal of the GER Framework is to improve teaching and learning about the Earth, by focusing the power of Geoscience Education Research (GER) on the set of ambitious, high-priority, community-endorsed grand challenges outlined in this document. This goal has an underlying assumption - that research results are effectively shared with educators and are used to reform teaching practice; consistent with the feedback loop on the strength of evidence pyramid. Closing this loop is intimately tied to research theme on Institutional Change and Professional Development. However, closing this loop has a broader scope as well. Raising awareness of research results, and then applying the research results, will require engaged, respectful dialogue as well as strategic communication to extend the community of reflective practitioners and gain needed support from administrators. This chapter expands on strategies for communication

Modification and preservation of environmental signals in speleothems

Speleothems are primarily studied in order to generate archives of climatic change and results have led to significant advances in identifying and dating major shifts in the climate system. However, the climatological meaning of many speleothem records cannot be interpreted unequivocally; this is particularly so for more subtle shifts and shorter time periods, but the use of multiple proxies and improving understanding of formation mechanisms offers a clear way forward. An explicit description of speleothem records as time series draws attention to the nature and importance of the signal filtering processes by which the weather, the seasons and longer-term climatic and other environmental fluctuations become encoded in speleothems. We distinguish five sources of variation that influence speleothem geochemistry: atmospheric, vegetation/soil, karstic aquifer, primary speleothem crystal growth and secondary alteration and give specific examples of their influence. The direct role of climate diminishes progressively through these five factors. \ud \ud We identify and review a number of processes identified in recent and current work that bear significantly on the conventional interpretation of speleothem records, for example: \ud \ud 1) speleothem geochemistry can vary seasonally and hence a research need is to establish the proportion of growth attributable to different seasons and whether this varies over time. \ud \ud 2) whereas there has traditionally been a focus on monthly mean Ã�´18O data of atmospheric moisture, current work emphasizes the importance of understanding the synoptic processes that lead to characteristic isotope signals, since changing relative abundance of different weather types might 1Corresponding author, fax +44(0)1214145528, E-mail: [email protected] control their variation on the longer-term. \ud \ud 3) the ecosystem and soil zone overlying the cave fundamentally imprint the carbon and trace element signals and can show characteristic variations with time. \ud \ud 4) new modelling on aquifer plumbing allows quantification of the effects of aquifer mixing. \ud \ud 5) recent work has emphasized the importance and seasonal variability of CO2-degassing leading to calcite precipitation upflow of a depositional site on carbon isotope and trace element composition of speleothems. \ud \ud 6) Although much is known about the chemical partitioning between water and stalagmites, variability in relation to crystal growth mechanisms and kinetics is a research frontier. \ud \ud 7) Aragonite is susceptible to conversion to calcite with major loss of chemical information, but the controls on the rate of this process are obscure. \ud \ud Analytical factors are critical to generate high-resolution speleothem records. A variety of methods of trace element analysis are available, but standardization is a common problem with the most rapid methods. New stable isotope data on Irish stalagmite CC3 compares rapid laser-ablation techniques with the conventional analysis of micromilled powders and ion microprobe methods. A high degree of comparability between techniques for Ã�´18O is found on the mm-cm scale, but a previously described high-amplitude oxygen isotope excursion around 8.3 ka is identified as an analytical artefact related to fractionation of the laser-analysis associated with sample cracking. High-frequency variability of not less than 0.5o/oo may be an inherent feature of speleothem Ã�´18O records

Environmental Predictors of Diversity in Recent Planktonic Foraminifera as Recorded in Marine Sediments

© 2016 Fenton et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. [4.0 license]. The attached file is the published version of the article

Satisfação e situação profissional: um estudo com professores nos primeiros anos de carreira

O ingresso em uma profissão e as motivações para a sua escolha, os primeiros anos de carreira e o estatuto da profissão, em especial a docente, têm sido objeto de diversas investigações. Porém, tanto no caso português como no âmbito internacional, a inserção profissional dos professores tem sido negligenciada pelas pesquisas acadêmicas. Assim sendo, neste artigo, propomo-nos a contribuir com o conhecimento do processo de inserção profissional dos docentes de ensino básico e secundário, por meio da análise do grau de satisfação na profissão, dos aspectos mais e menos valorizados no trabalho, bem como da situação profissional em dois períodos, após um ano e depois de cinco anos de conclusão da licenciatura. Consideramos os licenciados em educação em comparação com todos os licenciados das universidades de Lisboa e Nova de Lisboa. Os dados apresentados permitem constatar que, nas dimensões estudadas, não existem diferenças significativas entre os licenciados com relação aos aspectos analisados. Das particularidades do grupo de licenciados em educação que participaram da pesquisa, destacamos: a ligeira saliência que assumem os aspectos altruístas; uma satisfação com a profissão ligeiramente maior; uma tendência à precarização dos vínculos contratuais e uma disposição para auferir em média rendimentos ligeiramente inferiores. Como considerações finais deste artigo, destacamos a necessidade de aprofundamento no estudo do modo como as condições de exercício da profissão influenciam o desenvolvimento dos professores em fase de inserção profissional. Além disso, salientamos a pertinência de que melhores formas de apoiar aprendizagem profissional sejam exploradas, bem como a construção da identidade profissional dos professores em início de carreira

Marketing interno y su influencia en el compromiso de los colaboradores en los distribuidores autorizados de Claro en la Región San Martín, 2019

El presente estudio de planteó como objetivo general determinar la influencia del marketing interno en el compromiso organizacional de los colaboradores en los distribuidores autorizados de Claro en la Región San Martín, 2019. La investigación es de tipo básico con un alcance descriptivo correlacional porque determinara la relación del marketing interno y el compromiso organizacional en la distribuidora Claro. El diseño de la investigación fue no experimental de corte transversal porque se realizó sin manipular las variables. La población total fue 230 colaboradores y una muestra de 144 personas, solo serán colaboradores de las zonas urbanas. En cuanto a la recolección de datos, se aplicó como instrumento el cuestionario, para cada variable, en el caso de la variable marketing interno conformada por 22 items y esto agrupada en tres dimensiones, la primera dimensión conforma 9 preguntas, la segunda comprende 4 preguntas y la tercera comprende 9 preguntas. Para la segunda variable compromiso tiene 21 ítems y la primera dimensión conformada por 7 preguntas, la segunda dimensión conformada por 7 preguntas, la tercera dimensión conformada por 7 preguntas, se comprobó su fiabilidad a través del Alpha de Cronbach, (0.959) para marketing interno y 0.928 para compromiso organizacional; lo cual manifiesta que la confiabilidad es aceptable de acuerdo a los resultados obtenidos en la muestra, este resultado también demuestra que el instrumento es apto para poblaciones similares. Por medio del análisis estadístico Rho de Spearman se obtuvo el coeficiente de 0,843 (correlación positiva alta) y un p valor igual a 0,000 (p-valor ≤ 0.05), por lo tanto, se rechaza la hipótesis nula y se acepta la hipótesis alterna, es decir, marketing interno se relaciona (nivel alto) con el compromiso de los colaboradores de la empresa Claro en la Región San Martín, 2019

Friction compensation using Coulomb friction model with zero velocity crossing estimator for a force controlled model in the loop suspension test rig

This paper presents a method of friction compensation for a linear electric motor in a model in the loop suspension test rig. The suspension consists of a numerically modeled spring and damper, with inputs of suspension motion. The linear motor is force controlled using a force sensor to track the output of the numerical model. The method uses a Coulomb friction model and applies a feedforward step signal when velocity zero crossing occurs. Velocity zero crossing estimation is achieved using an algorithm based on measured feedback velocity and force. Experimental results indicate reduction of force tracking error caused by Coulomb friction leading to improved test rig accuracy. </jats:p