Effect of Think-Pair-Share Instructional Strategy on Secondary School Students’ Academic Achievement and Retention in Financial Accounting in Abia State

This study determined the effect of think-pair-share instructional strategy on students’ academic achievement and retention in financial accounting in secondary schools in Abia State. Four research questions guided the study and four null hypotheses were tested. Quasi-experimental research design specifically, pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group design was adopted for the study. Population was 846 senior secondary two (SS2) Financial accounting students in Abia. A purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 78 senior secondary two (SS2) financial accounting students. Financial Accounting Achievement Test (FAAT) and adapted Academic Self-efficacy Scale (ASS) was used for data collection. The face and content validity of the instruments were established using three experts in the field of Business Education and Measurement and Evaluation. Kudder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20) was used to establish the reliability of FAAT while Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of academic self-efficacy scale. Reliability coefficients of 0.92 and 0.79 were obtained. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Some of the findings of the study revealed that the think-pair-share instructional strategy is more effective in enhancing students’ academic achievement and retention ability of students in financial accounting when compared to the conventional teaching method. Furthermore, there were significant difference in the achievement and retention of students taught financial accounting using think-pair-share strategy and those taught with conventional method. The researchers recommended among others that, financial accounting teachers should use more of think-pair-share instructional strategy in their instructional delivery in order to enable students actively participate in classroom teaching and learning process. &nbsp

Impact force of melon seeds during shelling

Melon seeds are shelled in a rotating impeller – a type of machine to obtain the cotyledons.  The seeds exit the impeller and impact a cylindrical ring shelling the seeds.  Because of the impact force, some of the seeds are broken, which would deteriorate in storage and make lower market value.  An analytical method was used to determine the factors affecting the impact force on the ring.  Experimental compression tests were carried out to determine the static force for breaking melon seeds.  Some seeds were also shelled with an experimental shelling machine and the number of broken seeds was counted. Analysis results showed that the factors affecting the impact force were impeller speed, seed cross-section area at impact and mass ratio.  The mean forces for breaking melon seeds were 13.14×10-3 N, 19.62×10-3 N and 19.55×10-3 N for orientations of breadthwise, lengthwise with tip up and lengthwise with tip down respectively.Keywords: impact force, melon seeds, shelling, analysis Citation: Okokon F. B., E. Ekpenyong, C. Nwaukwa, N. Akpan, and F. I. Abam.  Impact force of melon seeds during shelling.  Agric Eng Int: CIGR Journal, 2010, 12(1): 182-188.&nbsp

Prebiotic synthesis of phosphoenol pyruvate by α-phosphorylation-controlled triose glycolysis

Phosphoenol pyruvate is the highest-energy phosphate found in living organisms and is one of the most versatile molecules in metabolism. Consequently, it is an essential intermediate in a wide variety of biochemical pathways, including carbon fixation, the shikimate pathway, substrate-level phosphorylation, gluconeogenesis and glycolysis. Triose glycolysis (generation of ATP from glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate via phosphoenol pyruvate) is among the most central and highly conserved pathways in metabolism. Here, we demonstrate the efficient and robust synthesis of phosphoenol pyruvate from prebiotic nucleotide precursors, glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde. Furthermore, phosphoenol pyruvate is derived within an α-phosphorylation controlled reaction network that gives access to glyceric acid 2-phosphate, glyceric acid 3-phosphate, phosphoserine and pyruvate. Our results demonstrate that the key components of a core metabolic pathway central to energy transduction and amino acid, sugar, nucleotide and lipid biosyntheses can be reconstituted in high yield under mild, prebiotically plausible conditions

Stereocontrolled syntheses of (-)-cubebol and (-)-10-epicubebol involving intramolecular cyclopropanation of alpha-lithiated epoxides

Formylation of (-)-menthone (11) with LDA and HCO2CH2CF3 avoids loss of configurational integrity at the isopropyl group, giving hydroxymethylenementhone 12. Lithium 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-piperidide-induced intramolecular cyclopropanation of derived unsaturated terminal epoxide 17 (and chlorohydrin 16), efficiently generates a substituted tricyclo[4.4.0.0(1,5)]decan-4-ol 18, which is used in a concise synthesis of (-)-cubebol (1). In contrast, isopropyl group inversion during formylation of menthone with NaOMe and HCO2Et led, by a similar strategy, to syntheses of 7-epicubebol (33) and (from (+)-menthone) of naturally occurring (-)-10-epicubebol (39), confirming the original structural assignment. Computational studies support the origin of the inversion as being rate-determining formylation of cis-enolate 27 from a mixture of rapidly interconverting enolates. In the synthesis of 7-epicubebol (33), allylic tertiary C-H insertion is observed as a significant competing reaction in the intramolecular cyclopropanation of unsaturated terminal epoxide 22