More than Wind: Evaluating Renewable Energy Opportunities for First Nations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick

More than Wind: Evaluating Renewable Energy Opportunities for First Nations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick is one of nine new research reports on Aboriginal economic development released by Atlantic Aboriginal Economic Development Integrated Program, (AAEDIRP) in 2010/2011. The AAEDIRP is a unique research program formed through partnerships between the 38 member communities of the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs (APCFNC), plus the Inuit, 12 Atlantic universities and 4 government funders, both federal and provincial. AAEDIRP funders include Indian and North Affairs Canada, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Aboriginal Affairs, Nova Scotia. The AAEDIRP conducts research on Aboriginal economic development that is relevant to communities, builds Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal research capacity, conducts workshops on Aboriginal economic development and is developing a database on this topic. The main purpose of the AAEDIRP is to improve the knowledge base concerning Atlantic Aboriginal economic development in order to improve the lives of the Aboriginal people in the region. The APCFNC is a policy research organization that analyzes and develops culturally relevant alternatives to federal policies that impact on the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Innu Aboriginal communities and peoples

A descriptive study monitoring the change of individual teachers involved in using an innovation : a study of middle school teachers\u27 use of telecommunications.

The purpose of this study was to monitor the change of certain teachers in the use of an innovation as a function of their participation in an institutionally supported staff development program. Five middle school teachers from rural schools participated in this project. This group was administered the SoCQ (Stages of Concern Questionnaire) and the LoU (Level of Use) interview on three different dates over an eight month period. These instruments were designed and tested by the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education at the University of Texas in Austin (Hall, et al., 1979). In addition to these two data collecting instruments, clinical interviews and classroom observations were administered and integrated into data analysis. The researcher was looking at how data changed during the course of this study. The results of this study indicated that in order for teachers to effectively implement telecommunications in the classroom they must be provided with support. The major issues that surround the implementation and use of telecommunications in the classroom were summarized from the teacher profiles. These categories consisted of planning and training, informational and technical support, administrative support, integration of telecommunication into the curriculum, teacher collaboration and mentoring. Leaders in the field of telecommunications and those making decisions about the innovation will need to look at teacher training and support, long-range district planning, curricula where the innovation is incorporated, and effective assessment tools at all levels of implementation. The group of teachers represented here had gone through intensive staff development training outside of their school systems. They were experienced educators and had been using computers for some years. The results of this exploratory and descriptive study may offer researchers, teachers, and educational administrators perspectives and information useful in implementing telecommunications in curricular reform, especially valuable at a time when technology instruction in many schools is undergoing this reform and teachers are being recognized as the primary agents implementing curricular changes and developing effective schools

Investigating the relationship between predictability and imbalance in minimisation : a simulation study

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Science for Alaska: place for curious learners

Master's Project (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017For over 25 years, Alaskans have been attending Science for Alaska Lecture Series, held during the coldest part of an Alaskan winter. The hour-long evening lectures would see from around 100 to almost 300 people attend each event. The scientific literature is quiet in regard to audience preferences in regard to the recieving end of science communication. This qualitative study looked at the audience of a science lecture series: who are they, why do they come and what do they do with the information. In nine taped audio interviews, the research participants described themselves as smart, curious lifelong learners who felt a sense of place to the Arctic for its practical and esoteric values. Attending the events constructed their social identity that they felt important to share with children. The findings suggest that addressing the audience's sense of place and mirroring their view as smart, curious people would be an effective avenue to communicate science

A preferred vision for administering secondary schools : a reflective essay

It is the purpose of this paper to reflect on the principal\u27s role in the following areas: (a) creating a safe, caring environment for students; (b) assisting teachers in 2 creating a learning environment; (c) engaging parents in their child\u27s education; and (d) developing a learning community as an educational leader. It is my intent to examine the characteristics of these roles through my philosophy and educational experiences thus envisioning an environment that will ensure these efforts

Use of randomisation in clinical trials : a survey of UK practice

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Gaia transient detection efficiency: hunting for nuclear transients

We present a study of the detectability of transient events associated with galaxies for the Gaia European Space Agency astrometric mission. We simulated the on-board detections, and on-ground processing for a mock galaxy catalogue to establish the properties required for the discovery of transient events by Gaia, specifically tidal disruption events (TDEs) and supernovae (SNe). Transients may either be discovered by the on-board detection of a new source or by the brightening of a previously known source. We show that Gaia transients can be identified as new detections on-board for offsets from the host galaxy nucleus of 0.1--0.5,arcsec, depending on magnitude and scanning angle. The Gaia detection system shows no significant loss of SNe at close radial distances to the nucleus. We used the detection efficiencies to predict the number of transients events discovered by Gaia. For a limiting magnitude of 19, we expect around 1300 SNe per year: 65% SN Ia, 28% SN II and 7% SN Ibc, and ~20 TDEs per year.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRA