Teaching Shakespeare in the Digital Age: The eZoomBook Approach

International audienceWhat collaborative process can teachers offer in order to stimulate their students' reading of and writing on Shakespeare's plays? How can new technologies contribute to facilitating the classroom experience? The eZoomBook (eZB) template was designed for teachers to create and share multi-level digital books called " eZoomBooks " that allow readers to access enriched versions of the original, organized according to different tabs related to places mentioned in the original text. A zooming in and out function enables the readers of the eZoomBooks to navigate freely between the original and the enriched tabulated versions. This paper focuses on a pilot study of the methodology using a simplified version of the template. The targeted learners were English as a Second Language engineering students. Our objective is to show that the eZB framework and pedagogical applications are especially appropriate in making a difficult subject easier to teach (giving and correcting group assignments) and learn by providing learners an innovative and motivating approach to reading literature

eZoomBook Methodology and Template: A Case Study of Collective Authorship in the Classroom

This article reports on an innovative pedagogical methodology carried out in an executive education class. Participants were encouraged to link their classroom training and their professional activity using a methodology of collaborative note-taking and journal writing. The tool used for this activity was an eZoomBook, a multi-level tool incorporating different layers of content accessible by tabs in a menu. eZoomBooks include a zooming in and out function allowing readers to navigate between the different layers depending on interest and need. Participant testimony indicates that this student-centric approach to collaborative writing using the eZB methodology enhanced intrinsic motivation, teamwork skills, and learning. The executive education participants clearly indicated their satisfaction and their desire to continue using the methodology and tool in the workplace

Introduction to Focus Issue : Dynamics in Systems Biology

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The eZoomBook Tool: A Blended and Eclectic Approach to Digital Pedagogy

This article is a comparative study of five pedagogical experiments that involved the use of the digital eZoomBook tool. An “eZoomBook” is a customized multi-level document incorporating links among the different layers that are accessible by tabs in a menu. eZoomBooks include a zooming in and out function allowing readers to navigate easily among the different layers. Each of the five experiments is examined in light of six classroom variables. We aim to demonstrate that the eZoomBook editor facilitates a blended, eclectic approach adaptable to a variety of pedagogical contexts and highly motivating for its users

Magnetism and exchange interaction of small rare-earth clusters; Tb as a representative

Here we follow, both experimentally and theoretically, the development of magnetism in Tb clusters from the atomic limit, adding one atom at a time. The exchange interaction is, surprisingly, observed to drastically increase compared to that of bulk, and to exhibit irregular oscillations as a function of the interatomic distance. From electronic structure theory we find that the theoretical magnetic moments oscillate with cluster size in exact agreement with experimental data. Unlike the bulk, the oscillation is not caused by the RKKY mechanism. Instead, the inter-atomic exchange is shown to be driven by a competition between wave-function overlap of the 5d shell and the on-site exchange interaction, which leads to a competition between ferromagnetic double-exchange and antiferromagnetic super-exchange. This understanding opens up new ways to tune the magnetic properties of rare-earth based magnets with nano-sized building blocks

Simulating the Common Envelope Phase of a Red Giant Using SPH and Uniform Grid Codes

We use three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations to study the rapid infall phase of the common envelope interaction of a red giant branch star of mass equal to 0.88 \msun and a companion star of mass ranging from 0.9 down to 0.1 \msun. We first compare the results obtained using two different numerical techniques with different resolutions, and find overall very good agreement. We then compare the outcomes of those simulations with observed systems thought to have gone through a common envelope. The simulations fail to reproduce those systems in the sense that most of the envelope of the donor remains bound at the end of the simulations and the final orbital separations between the donor's remnant and the companion, ranging from 26.8 down to 5.9 \rsun, are larger than the ones observed. We suggest that this discrepancy vouches for recombination playing an essential role in the ejection of the envelope and/or significant shrinkage of the orbit happening in the subsequent phase.Comment: 45 pages, 19 figures, accepted to Ap

The Three Hundred project: shapes and radial alignment of satellite, infalling, and backsplash galaxies

Using 324 numerically modelled galaxy clusters, we investigate the radial and galaxy–halo alignment of dark matter subhaloes and satellite galaxies orbiting within and around them. We find that radial alignment depends on distance to the centre of the galaxy cluster but appears independent of the dynamical state of the central host cluster. Furthermore, we cannot find a relation between radial alignment of the halo or galaxy shape with its own mass. We report that backsplash galaxies, i.e. objects that have already passed through the cluster radius but are now located in the outskirts, show a stronger radial alignment than infalling objects. We further find that there exists a population of well radially aligned objects passing very close to the central cluster’s centre that were found to be on highly radial orbit

Overview of SnowEx Year 1 Activities

SnowEx is a multi-year airborne snow campaign with the primary goal of addressing the question: How much water is stored in Earths terrestrial snow-covered regions? Year 1 (2016-17) focused on the distribution of snow-water equivalent (SWE) and the snow energy balance in a forested environment. The year 1 primary site was Grand Mesa and the secondary site was the Senator Beck Basin, both in western, Colorado, USA. Nine sensors on five aircraft made observations using a broad range of sensing techniques, active and passive microwave, and active and passive optical infrared to determine the sensitivity and accuracy of these potential satellite remote sensing techniques, along with models, to measure snow under a range of forest conditions. SnowEx also included an extensive range of ground truth measurements in-situ manual samples, snow pits, ground based remote sensing measurements, and sophisticated new techniques. A detailed description of the data collected will be given and some preliminary results will be presented