Do spiders respond to global change? A study on the phenology of ballooning spiders in Switzerland

We studied ballooning spiders captured weekly over an 11-y period using a 12.2-m- high suction trap in an agricultural landscape of western Switzerland. We analyzed population trends, changes in phenology, and species composition. Yearly trends in population size of the most abundant species were studied with nonparametric correlations. We found that these trends were markedly different for ground-living (92% of all decreasing species) and upper-strata species (75% of all increasing species). These contrasting tendencies can be explained by a stronger effect of meteorological conditions on species living at ground level and by an observed decrease in habitat availability for open-habitat species. The phenology of ballooning spiders was analyzed using mixtures of Gaussian curves fitted to the yearly capture data; this was possible for the 7 most abundant species. From these, we estimated the dates of the ballooning peaks for each species and each year (1 to 4 peaks depending on the species). We found that the dates remained mostly constant: the timing of dispersal peaks showed no annual trend for all but 1 species. Using nonparametric correlation, we analyzed the relationships between the dates of the peaks and the meteorological parameters occurring before the peak dates. In line with the absence of trend, the dates of the peaks were only weakly related to meteorological conditions. The extreme climatic event of 2003 had a strong impact by reducing populations of ground-living species. Using Canonical Correspondence Analysis and clustering methods, we identified a strong shift in the phenological structure of the ballooning spider assemblage in that year. In all, despite noticeable trends in population size during the study period, the dispersal phenology did not change, which contrasts with observations from other arthropod groups

Les quiz hebdomadaires: quel impact sur l'anxiété et la motivation des élèves du secondaire I en biologie ?

Pour de nombreux élèves, évaluation rime souvent avec anxiété. Or, trop d’anxiété est contre-productive au niveau des apprentissages. D’après la littérature, l’utilisation de quiz serait un moyen adéquat pour réduire l’anxiété des élèves. Dans la présente étude, l’utilisation hebdomadaire de quiz en cours de biologie a donc été testée durant un semestre et son impact sur l’anxiété et la motivation des élèves a été examiné. Cette question a été investiguée au travers de questionnaires basés sur le test QASAM, au sein de trois classes de 9H. Les résultats montrent que les quiz permettent d’aboutir à une légère baisse de l’anxiété mais également à une amélioration de la motivation, de manière plus limitée. En revanche, une baisse de la perception de la contrôlabilité est également observée et cette conséquence indésirable mérite d’être étudiée à travers d’autres recherches afin de trouver la raison de ce changement. La leçon de biologie se déroulant uniquement à raison de deux périodes par semaine, il se peut que cette discipline soit moins anxiogène que d’autres branches prenant plus de place dans le planning des élèves. Il serait donc intéressant de tester la même méthode mais durant des leçons de français, mathématiques ou allemand

La pédagogie par projet en éducation en vue d'un développement durable pour développer des compétences transdisciplinaires

Le Plan d’études romand (PER) en vigueur en Suisse romande est formulé à partir de verbes d’action tels que « explorer, observer, construire, analyser, etc. » et ne définit pas une accumulation de connaissances. Pourtant les évaluations pratiquées à l’école font encore trop souvent appel à la mémoire. Dès lors, comment pourrait-on proposer une évaluation plus adéquate, basée sur des compétences considérées comme indispensables à un élève du xxie siècle ? Ce chapitre propose quatre types de compétences évaluées à travers des habiletés supérieures de la pensée23 et développées grâce aux apports de la pédagogie par projet et de l’interdisciplinarité qu’elle nécessite. Ce contexte permet d’influer non seulement sur la motivation intrinsèque à apprendre, mais également sur la mobilisation et sur l’acquisition de connaissances disciplinaires. Nous avons créé, d’une part, des fiches ressources « clés en main », traitant de problématiques actuelles de développement durable et permettant aux élèves de développer certaines habiletés, et, d’autre part, des grilles d’observation destinées, à terme, à évaluer les compétences travaillées.The Plan d’études romand (PER) is formulated from action verbs such as explore, observe, construct, analyze… and does not define an accumulation of knowledge. The evaluations at school are still too often based on memory. Therefore, how could we propose a more appropriate assessment based on skills considered to be essential to a 21st century student? This article introduces four types of competencies evaluated through superior thinking skills (Conklin, 2014) and developed through the contributions of project-based pedagogy and the interdisciplinarity it requires. This context influences the intrinsic motivation to learn, but also the mobilization and acquisition of disciplinary knowledge. We have created ‘ready-to-use’ resource sheets dealing with current sustainable development issues, allowing students to develop certain skills, and observation grids intended in the long term to evaluate the skills worked on

Transformations: d'un concept organisateur à une mise en œuvre dans les classes pour développer les compétences en lien avec la démarche d'investigation

Autour de ressources originales proposant d’aborder les grandes questions environnementales, sociales et économiques de notre époque au travers d’une pédagogie de projet, nous cherchons à développer les compétences des élèves, dont leur capacité à gérer leur propre apprentissage. Pour ce faire, des grilles d’autoévaluation leur sont proposées, mises en correspondance avec des grilles d’évaluation renseignées par les enseignants

Are phenological patterns of ballooning spiders linked to habitat characteristics?

We describe here the phenological patterns of the 25 most common ballooning species of spiders caught by a 12.2 m suction trap during an eleven year survey in Switzerland. We aimed at identifying and quantifying the number, position, spread, and relative weight of activity periods for the whole community. Further, we explored the possible link between phenological patterns and habitat use. For this purpose, we used bump-hunting approaches and fitted mixtures of normal distributions to the abundance data. The phenologies can be grouped in four categories, from uni- to quadrimodal. The specific peaks in the timing of ballooning were found between February and November, with most ballooning activity occurring in summer and autumn. For some taxa, it was possible to analyze the data for young instars and adults. For the majority of taxa, the adults’ peak appeared between the early and late peaks of immature individuals. Species inhabiting the ground level of open areas, often disturbed by agricultural practices, were clearly dominant in the multimodal categories; spiders living in more closed and stable habitats, such as tree-shrub and herb layers, typically had a single peak of adult dispersal. This discrepancy in phenology may simply reflect different numbers of generations, but may also result from an adaptation to maximize the persistence of populations in unstable habitats.Peer reviewe

Developing self-confidence through the transformation of evaluation practices

Self-confidence is the driving force behind learning. But does it not also underlie the ability to make strong and courageous decisions when faced with various challenges? With the aim to provide an education for sustainable development and ecological transition, or even an education on the state of our planet, to what extent do academic evaluation systems prevent pupils from developing the self-esteem they need to face current problems calmly and take an active role in dealing with them? This article proposes practical approaches for setting up an evaluation system that is based on a teacher-pupil dialogue and provides pupils with the opportunity to work on their cognitive, metacognitive and emotional skills

The competencies that school-leavers should possess in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century

The current state of the planet poses challenging ethical questions that shake up our emotions and values, thus making our choices and decisions more difficult. In order to grasp the many complex issues with which we are each confronted on a daily basis, education in sustainable development (ESD) advances competencies (Unesco, 2017) that are rooted in both cognitive and socio-emotional processes. Although ESD is included in most school curricula, it is worth exploring what teachers perceive to be the real needs for these thinking tools, as well as how they value the development of these competencies in school.This research, which was carried out with pre-service and in-service teachers, answers these two questions. These initial results bring to light the interdisciplinary nature of the competencies considered necessary by the teaching profession, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the current school system with regard to their development. This interdisciplinary approach leads us to a definition of what a competence is with regard to the specificity of the school context, and finally, to propose a typology.We have used this typology to compare the visions of the teaching staff with the competency frameworks proposed by the international bodies with the most influence in the Swiss school system, namely the World Economic Forum, the OECD, and UNESCO. Comparisons between these different elements open up perspectives on what tools could be proposed for assessing these competencies in schools in the long term