Geography and natural history curriculums integration for secondary schools - example of the living nature of America

Protože klasická frontální výuka, kde mají žáci vyučujícího poslouchat a dělat si zápis, se stává stereotypem, rozhodla jsem se věnovat tématu, kde můžu zařadit více metod do výuky jak v hodinách zeměpisu, tak v hodinách přírodopisu. Cílem této práce bylo vytvořit příručku pro učitele včetně potřebných výukových materiálů na téma přírodní krajiny Ameriky a následně zhodnotit přínos těchto aktivit. Výukové materiály byly testovány celkem ve dvou třídách na základní škole v Dolních Břežanech. Obě třídy absolvovaly pretest, výuku, 1. posttest (bezprostředně po výuce) a 2. posttest (6 týdnů po výuce), dále si vyzkoušeli i aktivity, při kterých museli využít vědomosti získané během výuky. Data byla vyhodnocena statistickými analýzami, které ukázaly rozdíl v dosažených znalostech mezi pretestem a 1. posttestem, zatímco výsledky mezi 1. a 2. posttestem se nelišily. Lze říct, že žáci získali nové vědomosti a jejich znalosti byly lepší než na začátku, tyto znalosti jim zůstali i po delší době uchované. Klíčová slova: Severní Amerika, Jižní Amerika, přírodní krajiny, přírodopis, zeměpis, aktivizující metody, integrace učivaClassical frontal teaching, where pupils are supposed to listen to the teacher and make notes is becoming stereotypical. Therefore I decided to focus on a topic where I can apply more teaching methods both in Geography lessons and Biology ones. The goal of this work was to create a teaching guide including necessary materials covering the topic of American natural lanscapes and afterwards to evaluate the contribution of these activities. The teaching materials were tested in two classes in The Basic School in Dolní Břežany. Both classes underwent a pretest, the first posttest (immediately after the experimental lessons), the second posttest (six weeks after the experimental lessons) and pupils also tried activities in which they had to apply their achieved knowledge. The data were evaluated using statistical analyses where the results showed a progress of gained knowledge between the pretest and the first posttest, whereas their knowledge did not significantly differ between the first and second posttest. It can be concluded that pupils broadened their knowledge, which was deeper than at the beginning and the pupils were able to retain this knowledge for a longer time. Key words: North America, South America, natural lanscapes, Biology, Geography, activating teaching methods, curriculum integrationDepartment of Teaching and Didactics of BiologyKatedra učitelství a didaktiky biologiePřírodovědecká fakultaFaculty of Scienc

Geography and natural history curriculums integration for secondary schools - example of the living nature of America

Classical frontal teaching, where pupils are supposed to listen to the teacher and make notes is becoming stereotypical. Therefore I decided to focus on a topic where I can apply more teaching methods both in Geography lessons and Biology ones. The goal of this work was to create a teaching guide including necessary materials covering the topic of American natural lanscapes and afterwards to evaluate the contribution of these activities. The teaching materials were tested in two classes in The Basic School in Dolní Břežany. Both classes underwent a pretest, the first posttest (immediately after the experimental lessons), the second posttest (six weeks after the experimental lessons) and pupils also tried activities in which they had to apply their achieved knowledge. The data were evaluated using statistical analyses where the results showed a progress of gained knowledge between the pretest and the first posttest, whereas their knowledge did not significantly differ between the first and second posttest. It can be concluded that pupils broadened their knowledge, which was deeper than at the beginning and the pupils were able to retain this knowledge for a longer time. Key words: North America, South America, natural lanscapes, Biology, Geography, activating teaching methods, curriculum integratio

Toxoplasmosis--a global threat. Correlation of latent toxoplasmosis with specific disease burden in a set of 88 countries.

BACKGROUND: Toxoplasmosis is becoming a global health hazard as it infects 30-50% of the world human population. Clinically, the life-long presence of the parasite in tissues of a majority of infected individuals is usually considered asymptomatic. However, a number of studies show that this 'asymptomatic infection' may also lead to development of other human pathologies. AIMS OF THE STUDY: The purpose of the study was to collect available geoepidemiological data on seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis and search for its relationship with mortality and disability rates in different countries. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Prevalence data published between 1995-2008 for women in child-bearing age were collected for 88 countries (29 European). The association between prevalence of toxoplasmosis and specific disease burden estimated with age-standardized Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) or with mortality, was calculated using General Linear Method with Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDP), geolatitude and humidity as covariates, and also using nonparametric partial Kendall correlation test with GDP as a covariate. The prevalence of toxoplasmosis correlated with specific disease burden in particular countries explaining 23% of variability in disease burden in Europe. The analyses revealed that for example, DALY of 23 of 128 analyzed diseases and disease categories on the WHO list showed correlations (18 positive, 5 negative) with prevalence of toxoplasmosis and another 12 diseases showed positive trends (p<0.1). For several obtained significant correlations between the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis and specific diseases/clinical entities, possible pathophysiological, biochemical and molecular explanations are presented. CONCLUSIONS: The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis correlated with various disease burden. Statistical associations does not necessarily mean causality. The precautionary principle suggests however that possible role of toxoplasmosis as a triggering factor responsible for development of several clinical entities deserves much more attention and financial support both in everyday medical practice and future clinical research

Diseases and clinical entities associated with <i>T. gondii</i> infection.

<p>Diseases and clinical entities associated with <i>T. gondii</i> infection.</p

Correlation of mortality and Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) with prevalence of toxoplasmosis for all 88 WHO member countries (29 European and 59 non-European countries).

<p>The correlations were estimated with General Linear Model with GDP per capita, latitude humidity, as covariates. Positive B (red) correspond to positive, and negative B (blue) to negative correlations. Significant results (p<0.05) are labeled with yellow and trends (p<0.10) with green colors.</p

Correlation of prevalence of toxoplasmosis with various disease-attributed DALY for 88 WHO-member countries.

<p>The x-axes show prevalence of toxoplasmosis (%) in women of childbearing age and y-axes the number years of ‘healthy’ life lost by virtue of being in a state of poor health or disability due to particular disease per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004.</p

Prevalence of latent toxoplasmosis in women of childbearing age in various countries.

<p>The second and third column show prevalence of toxoplasmosis and prevalence adjusted to a standard age of 22 years to account for variation in childbearing age in across countries (column 1) using the formula Prevalence_adj = 1−(1−Prevalence)∧(22/childbearing age) <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0090203#pone.0090203-Lafferty1" target="_blank">[9]</a>. Column 5 shows year(s) when the study was performed and column 6 shows number of women in the sample. For Macedonia, the 2004 WHO data were not available therefore this 30^th European country was not included in our data set.</p