Foundation Selection and Construction Performance - Clark Bridge Replacement

The paper describes the foundation investigation for the Clark Bridge Replacement, which spans the Mississippi River at Alton, Illinois. The subsurface investigation and the design considerations leading to the foundation piling selection are detailed. The construction performances of the selected H-piles and composite piles are described, including the use of pre-construction wave equation analyses to predict the performance of proposed pile hammers, and the use of the dynamic pile driving analyzer during construction to limit driving stresses and prevent pile damage

Animated Learning: Integrating Ela and Coding Into Environmental Science

The purpose of this interdisciplinary project on human impacts on the environment was threefold. First, I sought to deepen students’ three-dimensional science learning by purposefully integrating related English Language Arts (ELA) standards. The reading and writing standards reinforced the science and engineering practice of obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information and the crosscutting concept of cause and effect (NRC 2012) within the context of Earth science. Second, I wanted to broaden students’ understanding of human impacts on the environment; this is important not only from an academic learning standpoint but also from a global citizenship standpoint. Finally, I wanted students to engage in a meaningful opportunity to use coding to demonstrate their science and ELA learning

Evaluation of partnership working within a community planning context

Partnership working has become an increasingly popular way of delivering public services. It is essential, however, that partnership working actually leads to the delivery of improved public services and evaluation will be required to ensure this is happening. This paper outlines efforts to evaluate the performance of a Community Planning Partnership in the East of Scotland. Community Planning Partnerships were instigated to try to reintegrate the public services in a local authority area which had previously been fragmented. Research on process issues with the partners using a partnership assessment tool and interviews suggest that the partnership is working satisfactorily. Unfortunately outcome evaluation based on focus groups from residents associations suggested serious difficulties and perceptions that services had not improved. As a result of the evaluation, meetings took place between partners and service users and significant progress was made towards resolving these difficulties

Bottom-up communication: Identifying opportunities and limitations through an exploratory field-based evaluation

Full article available via Springerlink.comCommunication to promote behaviours like energy saving can use significant resources. What is less clear is the comparative value of different approaches available to communicators. While it is generally agreed that ‘bottom-up’ approaches, where individuals are actively involved rather than passive, are preferable to ‘top-down’ authority-led projects, there is a dearth of evidence that verifies why this should be. Additionally, while the literature has examined the mechanics of the different approaches, there has been less attention paid to the associated psychological implications. This paper reports on an exploratory comparative study that examined the effects of six distinct communication activities. The activities used different communication approaches, some participative and others more top-down informational. Two theories, from behavioural studies and communication, were used to identify key variables for consideration in this field-based evaluation. The evaluation aimed to assess not just which activity might be most successful, as this has limited generalisability, but to also gain insight into what psychological impacts might contribute to success. Analysis found support for the general hypothesis that bottom-up approaches have more impact on behaviour change than top-down. The study also identified that, in this instance, the difference in reported behaviour across the activities related partly to the extent to which intentions to change behaviour were implemented. One possible explanation for the difference in reported behaviour change across the activities is that a bottom-up approach may offer a supportive environment where participants can discuss progress with like-minded individuals. A further possible explanation is that despite controlling for intention at an individual level, the pre-existence of strong intentions may have an effect on group success. These suggestive findings point toward the critical need for additional and larger-scale studies. The challenges associated with field-based evaluative research and the role of theory are discussed. The design approach and measures used in this study may be useful to other evaluations that seek to compare different communicative approaches.The research discussed in this article was funded by a bursary from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council