Breaking the macho mould: meeting boys' needs in sex and relationships education

The work examines the needs of boys as regards sex education in school. The literature search depicted a situation where boys' needs were being neglected despite the calls from such bodies as the British Medical Association. Literature supports the idea that there is an overemphasis on biology rather than relationships and this, coupled with peer and teacher expectations of masculine behaviour, neither helps boys to cope with relationships nor aids them in their understanding of the needs of others or coping with their own fears and anxieties. The growing problem of early teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) had led to comparisons with other countries, which show that England has a severe problem with underage pregnancy and the transmission of STIs. Research was undertaken to investigate the characteristics of sex and relationships education for boys with the object of determining their needs and what types of education would best meet these needs. Investigations took place in eight diverse secondary schools in the south east of England. Questionnaires were issued to boys and girls in the sixth form regarding their experiences of school sex education. In addition students in their first term at university were also asked to complete questionnaires to give a wider scope to the research. Eight co-ordinators of Personal Social and Health Education were interviewed to discover their opinions of sex education in secondary schools at present and whether this was meeting the needs of pupils, especially boys. Research was then conducted to examine alternative methods of delivering sex and relationships education to determine if these strategies could better satisfy boys' needs in this area. These included a student tutor scheme in Prague a teacher training establishment in The Netherlands, an 'agony uncle' who ran a computer help line for boys, a theatre group, two male sex education workers who deliver sex education to boys, a peer education scheme and a Teenage Health Project. Three focus group interviews were carried out with young men of sixteen and seventeen to determine their feelings about their sex education and how it could be improved. In order to assess these diverse schemes a set of criteria was established against which to judge sex education delivery. These criteria were devised from the search of literature, the focus group and questionnaire responses and suggestions from the alternative method respondents and the co-ordinators. The schools' sex education provision and the altemative methodologies were then evaluated against these criteria. Results showed that none of the methods totally met the needs of boys. The analysis was used to determine a new strategy to meet the needs of boys with regard to their sex and relationships education. At the heart of the strategy is a curriculum with a stronger emphasis on relationships, how to cope with and express emotions. The content, methods of delivery, amount of sessions, size of groups and the types of teachers required are also defined

Automatic identification and enumeration of algae

A good understanding of the population dynamics of algal communities is vital in many ecological and pollution studies of freshwater and oceanic systems. Present methods require manual counting and identification of algae and can take up to 90 min to obtain a statistically reliable count on a complex population. Several alternative techniques to accelerate the process have been tried on marine samples but none have been completely successful because insufficient effort has been put into verifying the technique before field trials. The objective of the present study has been to assess the potential of in vivo fluorescence of algal pigments as a means of automatically identifying algae. For this work total fluorescence spectroscopy was chosen as the observation technique

Standard-M mobile satellite terminal employing electronic beam squint tracking

In recent years, extensive experience has been built up at the University of Bristol in the use of the Electronic Beam Squint (EBS) tracking technique, applied to large earth station facilities. The current interest in land mobile satellite terminals, using small tracking antennas, has prompted the investigation of the applicability of the EBS technique to this environment. The development of an L-band mechanically steered vehicle antenna is presented. A description of the antenna is followed by a detailed investigation of the tracking environment and its implications on the error detection capability of the system. Finally, the overall hardware configuration is described along with plans for future work

User's guide to data obtained by the Aerospace Corporation energetic particle spectrometer on ATS-6

Descriptions of the energetic particle detector are offered with calibration data, as part of a user's guide to the data obtained by ATS 6. Information on instrumental and operational anomalies and a description of the procedures used to reduce the data are also presented along with a description of the format of the data

Proportional Reasoning as Essential Numeracy

This paper reports an aspect of a large research and development project that aimed to promote middle years school teachers’ understanding and awareness of the pervasiveness of proportional reasoning as integral to numeracy. Teacher survey data of proportional reasoning across the curriculum were mapped on to a rich model of numeracy. Results provided evidence of extensive and creative teaching of proportional reasoning in all learning areas. The capacity of such tasks and activities for promoting student numeracy is theorised

Promoting middle school students’ proportional reasoning skills through an ongoing professional development programme for teachers

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Proportional reasoning, the ability to use ratios in situations involving comparison of quantities, is essential for mathematical competence, especially in the middle school years, and is an important determinant of success beyond school. Research shows students find proportional reasoning and its foundational concepts difficult. Proportional reasoning does not always develop naturally, however some research suggests that with targeted teaching, its development can be promoted. This paper reports on a large Australian study involving over 130 teachers and their students. A major goal of the study was to investigate the efficacy of ongoing teacher professional development for promoting middle years students’ proportional reasoning. A series of professional development workshops was designed to enhance the teachers’ understanding of proportional reasoning and to extend their repertoire of teaching strategies to promote their students’ proportional reasoning skills. The workshop design was informed by research literature on proportional reasoning teaching and learning as well as the results of a diagnostic instrument administered to over 2500 middle years students prior to the professional development. Between workshops, the teachers implemented a variety of targeted teaching activities. This paper reports on pre- and post- instrument student data collected at the beginning and end of the first year of the project (i.e., after completion of half of the workshops). The findings suggest that targeted professional development and explicit teaching can make a difference to students’ proportional reasoning

The analysis of reactively loaded microstrip antennas by finite difference time domain modelling

In recent years, much interest has been shown in the use of printed circuit antennas in mobile satellite and communications terminals at microwave frequencies. Although such antennas have many advantages in weight and profile size over more conventional reflector/horn configurations, they do, however, suffer from an inherently narrow bandwidth. A way of optimizing the bandwidth of such antennas by an electronic tuning technique using a loaded probe mounted within the antenna structure is examined, and the resulting far-field radiation patterns are shown. Simulation results from a 2D finite difference time domain (FDTD) model for a rectangular microstrip antenna loaded with shorting pins are given and compared to results obtained with an actual antenna. It is hoped that this work will result in a design package for the analysis of microstrip patch antenna elements

Remote detection of aerosol pollution by ERTS

Photogrammetric and densitometric examination of ERTS-1 MSS imagery of Eastern Virginia coupled with extensive ground truth air quality and meteorological data has shown that the identification and surveying of fixed particulate emitters (smoke plumes) is feasible. A description of the ground truth network is included. The quantitative monitoring of smoke stacks from orbital altitudes over state size regions appears possible when tied to realistic plume models and minimal ground truth. Contrast reductions over urban areas can possibly be utilized to produce isopleths of particulates when supplemented by local measurements

Excursion to Sandgate and Folkestone

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