'Its not like anything Joe and I have experienced before': Family workshops at Tate Modern

Supporting Children's Learning in the Early Years is aimed at early years practitioners who are developing their knowledge and understanding of professional practice through studying at undergraduate level. The book encourages readers to consider their professional development as reflective practitioners, building on and supporting the government agenda to provide quality provision for young children and their families. Combining theory and practice, and bringing together current research and thinking in a broad range of areas, the book covers: Learning environments: young children as learners, assessment of learning, well being and children's rights, diversity and inclusion. Learning and development: children's development including social and emotional development, literacy and mathematical development, the potential of ICT, fostering creativity, musical development and knowledge and understanding of the world. Reflective practice: the learning environment, safeguarding and wellbeing, the reflective practitioner. Throughout, the contributions in this book encourage the reader to consider the diverse range of experiences which young children bring to early years and early primary settings and suggest ways in which they can be supported. The book will also be a valuable and unique resource for training providers of a range of courses at further and higher education level that prepare people to work with, and lead in, early years settings in the UK

Water and Energy Conservation Grow System: Aquaponics and Aeroponics with a Cycle Timer

What some experts call the “blue gold”; water is a major issue in this world. There is only so much water and the reliability and cleanliness of water is what many developing countries are dealing with today. Countries around the world are facing problems with reliable water to grow enough food for their villages and homes. Is there is a way to minimize water consumption while optimizing growth in plants for food? One solution can be seen through both Aeroponics and Aquaponics. This project explores the potential of providing larger quantities of food to areas where water may be in short supply. There are four main components: the cycle timer, solar panels, the Aeroponics / Aquaponics system, and live fish. Aeroponics is a system thru which the roots are suspended in the air and saturated with water at designated time intervals. The benefit to this style of growing is the major reduction in water consumption compared to the traditional soil farming. With Aeroponics a farmer can grow certain types of food faster and bigger while using less water. Aquaponics, the second system, utilizes a combination of fish and plants to create a balanced system. In this arrangement fish waste (ammonia) is converted into nitrate by two types of bacteria in a series of chemical reactions. The plants then use the nitrate rich water for growth while simultaneously “cleaning” the water for the fish and removing potentially harmful nitrogen buildup. Without each other’s contribution to the system, the system would fail. The grow bed is designed to be a filter for the fish and also a growing area for the plants. This type of filter is called a bio-filter, which has living bacteria that breakdown the ammonia. This process is called the nitrogen cycle. According to Aquaponics Earth, Aquaponic systems can conserve up to 99.75% of the water used by continuously re-circulating the system. Also that Aquaponics uses 90% less water than conventional farming techniques (Aquaponics Earth, 2012) The cycle timer is made with 4 integrated circuits; a 555 timer, two counter chips, and a flip-flop. The cycle timer was the most logical choice for this project as it allows the user to choose the specific ON / OFF times as required by the plants in the system. One of the goals in this project was to be able to run this system virtually anywhere. This concept included the use of solar panels. The solar panels are used to charge the battery through a charge controller with the suns energy. The DC energy is then converted into AC through an inverter. The size or number of the solar panels will depend on the size of the grow system. Also, solar can be used as a backup system if the main power goes out

Classroom assistants in primary schools: Employment and deployment

The study investigates the ways in which classroom assistants in primary schools are deployed in classrooms, and the terms and conditions under which they are employed. The number of classroom assistants in primary schools has grown considerably in recent years, but very little is known about their work. Despite this, government policy is paying increasing attention to their potential to contribute to raising standards of achievement. The study aimed to understand the range of practices which govern the employment of classroom assistants, and the range of ways in which they are deployed in classrooms. The study sought to understand the factors that determine employment practices and patterns of deployment, and the way in which these are interrelated. The study contributes to the growing debate on professional and para-professional roles in primary schools. The study uses a combination of large sample survey and small scale case study methodology. In the first phase, policy and practice in three LEAs were explored through semi-structured interviews with key informants among LEA staff and representatives of trade unions and professional associations. In the second phase, questionnaires were sent to a large sample of schools in these three LEAs for completion by the head teacher, a classroom assistant and a teacher. The returns from LEA 3 were very low and therefore not included in this phase. Finally, three schools in LEA 1 and two schools in LEA 2 were chosen for in-depth case studies, drawing data from non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews with school staff

Natural history contributions of the University of Glasgow Exploration Society to Scotland and the World

Expeditions with a natural history focus have been organised by University of Glasgow staff and students since the 1930s. The educational benefits of such expeditions to students have been reported by Harper et al. ( Journal of Biological Education 51, 3- 16; 2017). Here, we present a short history of these expeditions, concentrating on their scientific achievements. In addition to expedition reports, a large number of PhD theses, masters and honours project reports and scientific papers have been based on expedition work. Many biological specimens have been deposited in museums, including some new species. We provide case histories of four expedition locations, to demonstrate the variety of work done, and the value of returning many times to the same place: Scotland, Trinidad and Tobago, North Cyprus and Ecuador. A major problem for expeditions is funding. For many years, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland ran a funding stream that was crucial to the viability of Scottish university expeditions, but this has sadly now closed. For Glasgow University expeditions, the Blodwen Lloyd Binns Bequest has provided a reliable source since 1994, and we hope that it will continue to do so

A kinetic core model of the glucose-stimulated insulin secretion network of pancreatic β cells

The construction and characterization of a core kinetic model of the glucose-stimulated insulin secretion system (GSIS) in pancreatic β cells is described. The model consists of 44 enzymatic reactions, 59 metabolic state variables, and 272 parameters. It integrates five subsystems: glycolysis, the TCA cycle, the respiratory chain, NADH shuttles, and the pyruvate cycle. It also takes into account compartmentalization of the reactions in the cytoplasm and mitochondrial matrix. The model shows expected behavior in its outputs, including the response of ATP production to starting glucose concentration and the induction of oscillations of metabolite concentrations in the glycolytic pathway and in ATP and ADP concentrations. Identification of choke points and parameter sensitivity analysis indicate that the glycolytic pathway, and to a lesser extent the TCA cycle, are critical to the proper behavior of the system, while parameters in other components such as the respiratory chain are less critical. Notably, however, sensitivity analysis identifies the first reactions of nonglycolytic pathways as being important for the behavior of the system. The model is robust to deletion of malic enzyme activity, which is absent in mouse pancreatic β cells. The model represents a step toward the construction of a model with species-specific parameters that can be used to understand mouse models of diabetes and the relationship of these mouse models to the human disease state. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00335-007-9011-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

'They call me wonder woman': the job jurisdictions and workplace learning of higher level teaching assistants

This paper reports on an in-depth interview study of the roles, job jurisdictions and associated learning of higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs). This role has the core purpose of covering classes to enable teacher release for planning, preparation and assessment. HLTAs' individual job jurisdictions are described and discussed as are implications for their knowledge and practice. The HLTAs are found to have wide-ranging job domains and, sometimes, unexpected involvements which mean they have to improvise practice. The study acknowledges that these HLTAs are being creatively managed and deployed by head teachers for the sake of teachers and schools. However, they are, at times, required to take on planning and cover duties which are beyond their knowledge and training with a likely impact on children's learning. Given their training and experience it is asked if covering classes to release teachers is the most effective use of their abilities and time

Thriving Toddlers and their Attentive Fathers and Grandfathers Around the Globe During a Day in their Lives

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Mapping Electrical Crosstalk in Pixelated Sensor Arrays

The effects of inter pixel capacitance in a pixilated array may be measured by first resetting all pixels in the array to a first voltage, where a first image is read out, followed by resetting only a subset of pixels in the array to a second voltage, where a second image is read out, where the difference in the first and second images provide information about the inter pixel capacitance. Other embodiments are described and claimed