Sense of belonging at school: defining attributes, determinants, and sustaining strategies

Building and sustaining students’ sense of belonging at school has been proposed by teachers and researchers as a means of stimulating students’ intent or desire to learn and of reducing student attrition. This article will present the results of an inquiry into the literature on belonging to support the perspective that is it necessary, not only to foster a strong sense of belonging, but also to place much greater emphasis on school belonging in educational programs, practices, and research. The aims of the paper are: (a) to review the theoretical literature on school belonging with an emphasis on its defining attributes and main determinants, (b) to review the measurement instruments of school belonging, and (c) to identify various strategies that may enhance school belonging. In light of the defining attributes identified, the authors propose six general recommendations for educational stakeholders wishing to build and sustain students’ sense of belonging at school

Damage-cluster distributions and size effect on strength in compressive failure

We investigate compressive failure of heterogeneous materials on the basis of a continuous progressive damage model. The model explicitely accounts for tensile and shear local damage and reproduces the main features of compressive failure of brittle materials like rocks or ice. We show that the size distribution of damage-clusters, as well as the evolution of an order parameter, the size of the largest damage-cluster, argue for a critical interpretation of fracture. The compressive failure strength follows a normal distribution with a very small size effect on the mean strength, in good agreement with experiments

Measuring many-body effects in carbon nanotubes with a scanning tunneling microscope

Electron-electron interactions and excitons in carbon nanotubes are locally measured by combining Scanning tunneling spectroscopy and optical absorption in bundles of nanotubes. The largest gap deduced from measurements at the top of the bundle is found to be related to the intrinsic quasi-particle gap. From the difference with optical transitions, we deduced exciton binding energies of 0.4 eV for the gap and 0.7 eV for the second Van Hove singularity. This provides the first experimental evidence of substrate-induced gap renormalization on SWNTs

Symmetry-selected spin-split hybrid states in C60_{60}/ferromagnetic interfaces

The understanding of orbital hybridization and spin-polarization at the organic-ferromagnetic interface is essential in the search for efficient hybrid spintronic devices. Here, using first-principles calculations, we report a systematic study of spin-split hybrid states of C$_{60}$ deposited on various ferromagnetic surfaces: bcc-Cr(001), bcc-Fe(001), bcc-Co(001), fcc-Co(001) and hcp-Co(0001). We show that the adsorption geometry of the molecule with respect to the surface crystallographic orientation of the magnetic substrate as well as the strength of the interaction play an intricate role in the spin-polarization of the hybrid orbitals. We find that a large spin-polarization in vacuum above the buckyball can only be achieved if the molecule is adsorbed upon a bcc-(001) surface by its pentagonal ring. Therefore bcc-Cr(001), bcc-Fe(001) and bcc-Co(001) are the optimal candidates. Spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements on single C$_{60}$ adsorbed on Cr(001) and Co/Pt(111) also confirm that both the symmetry of the substrate and of the molecular conformation have a strong influence on the induced spin polarization. Our finding may give valuable insights for further engineering of spin filtering devices through single molecular orbitals.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

(Finite) statistical size effects on compressive strength

The larger structures are, the lower their mechanical strength. Already discussed by Leonardo da Vinci and Edmé Mariotte several centuries ago, size effects on strength remain of crucial importance in modern engineering for the elaboration of safety regulations in structural design or the extrapolation of laboratory results to geophysical field scales. Under tensile loading, statistical size effects are traditionally modeled with a weakest-link approach. One of its prominent results is a prediction of vanishing strength at large scales that can be quantified in the framework of extreme value statistics. Despite a frequent use outside its range of validity, this approach remains the dominant tool in the field of statistical size effects. Here we focus on compressive failure, which concerns a wide range of geophysical and geotechnical situations. We show on historical and recent experimental data that weakest-link predictions are not obeyed. In particular, the mechanical strength saturates at a nonzero value toward large scales. Accounting explicitly for the elastic interactions between defects during the damage process, we build a formal analogy of compressive failure with the depinning transition of an elastic manifold. This critical transition interpretation naturally entails finite-size scaling laws for the mean strength and its associated variability. Theoretical predictions are in remarkable agreement with measurements reported for various materials such as rocks, ice, coal, or concrete. This formalism, which can also be extended to the flowing instability of granular media under multiaxial compression, has important practical consequences for future design rules

Malarce-sur-la-Thines, Sainte-Marguerite-Lafigère – Concessions du Chassezac, mines

Identifiant de l'opération archéologique : 10037 Date de l'opération : 2009 (SP) La mise en sécurité des mines de Sainte-Marguerite-Lafigère a été précédé d'une intervention d'archéologie préventive de fouille, visant à renseigner cet important secteur minier. L'intervention menée par la société Iker archéologie durant 5 semaines de terrain, a porté essentiellement sur la quartier de la Rouvière, le Vallat du Colombier, mais aussi sur le secteur du Vert, qui s'est révélé particulièrement rich..

Participation in sports-related extracurricular activities: a strategy that enhances school engagement

This article outlines a strategy that we, as high school teachers, used in the academic year 2012-2013 to improve a student’s school engagement. Extracurricular activities such as sports have proven useful (among other strategies) to counter school disengagement, specifically in enhancing positive social relations among the teachers and students involved. The authors present an approach implemented in partnership with the students, and discuss the consequences of this strategy for the students and the desired improvements. Finally, we emphasize the importance of peer involvement, teachers’ collaboration, and the teachers’ willingness to inspire and empower change.Cet article porte sur une stratégie que nous avons mise de l’avant à titre de praticiens afin de susciter l’engagement d’un élève à l’école pendant l’année scolaire 2012-2013. Le recours à une activité parascolaire axée sur le sport pour favoriser l’engagement de l’élève s’est avéré en partie efficace pour contrer ce phénomène, notamment en suscitant la qualité des liens sociaux entre tous les acteurs impliqués. Les auteurs présentent la stratégie élaborée en partenariat avec l’élève, les retombées de celle-ci et les améliorations souhaitées. Finalement, ils soulignent l’importance de l’implication des pairs, de la collaboration entre les enseignants, et de la capacité des praticiens à inspirer et à susciter du changement chez les élèves