SMARTER Teamwork: System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for Teamwork

The rapid adoption of Team-Maker and the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness (CATME), tools for team formation and peer evaluation, make it possible to extend their success to have a significant impact on the development of team skills in higher education. The web-based systems are used by over 700 faculty at over 200 institutions internationally. This paper and its accompanying poster will describe strategies for broadening the scope of those tools into a complete system for the management of teamwork in undergraduate education. The System for the Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation of Teamwork (SMARTER Teamwork) has three specific goals: 1) to equip students to work in teams by providing them with training and feedback, 2) to equip faculty to manage student teams by providing them with information and tools to facilitate best practices, and 3) to equip researchers to understand teams by broadening the system’s capabilities to collect additional types of data so that a wider range of research questions can be studied through a secure researcher interface. The three goals of the project support each other in hierarchical fashion: research informs faculty practice, faculty determine the students’ experience, which, if well managed based on research findings, equips students to work in teams. Our strategies for achieving these goals are based on a well-accepted training model that has five elements: information, demonstration, practice, feedback, and remediation. Different outcomes are expected for each group of people. For the students, both individual outcomes, such as student learning, and team outcomes, such as the development of shared mental models, are expected. For the faculty, individual outcomes such as faculty learning and faculty satisfaction are expected. The outcomes for researchers will be community outcomes, that is, benefits for stakeholders outside the research team, such as generating new knowledge for teaming theory and disseminating best practices. Measuring these outcomes is the basis for the project’s evaluation plan

SMARTER Teamwork: System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for Teamwork

SMARTER Teamwork: System for Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation for TeamworkThe rapid adoption of Team-Maker and the Comprehensive Assessment of Team MemberEffectiveness (CATME) tools for team formation and peer evaluation make it possible to extendtheir success to have a significant impact on the development of team skills in higher education.The web-based systems have been used by more than 110,000 students of more than 2400faculty at more than 500 institutions internationally—the figure below shows the growth of theuser base. 2400 The system has had 113,373 unique student users. 2200 Fitted curves are third order. 2000 1800 Faculty and staff 1600 1400 1200 Number of 1000 users 800 Institutions 600 400 Aug Oct. 2005 2012 200 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Years since software was releasedThis paper and its accompanying poster will describe strategies for broadening the scope of thosetools into a complete system for the management of teamwork in undergraduate education. TheSystem for the Management, Assessment, Research, Training, Education, and Remediation ofTeamwork (SMARTER Teamwork) has three specific goals: 1) to equip students to work inteams by providing them with training and feedback, 2) to equip faculty to manage student teamsby providing them with information and tools to facilitate best practices, and 3) to equipresearchers to understand teams by broadening the system’s capabilities to collect additionaltypes of data so that a wider range of research questions can be studied through a secureresearcher interface. The three goals of the project support each other in hierarchical fashion:research informs faculty practice, faculty determine the students’ experience, which, if wellmanaged based on research findings, equips students to work in teams. Our strategies forachieving these goals are based on a well-accepted training model that has five elements:information, demonstration, practice, feedback, and remediation.The paper that will be submitted and the poster presented at the conference will focus on newfeatures of the system, the development of training materials, and the deployment of a partnerwebsite that shares information about the SMARTER tools for teamwork and provides basicinformation about teamwork and team management

Adubos orgânicos e organominerais como alternativa sustentável para a cultura do milho (Zea mays L.).

Mineral fertilizers, in addition to being costly when misused, can be aggressive to the soil and the environment. For this reason, it is necessary to evaluate other sources of nutrients for plants. For this purpose, the experiment was installed under field conditions, with the objective of evaluating the efficiency of bat guano and organomineral organic fertilizers, resulting from the mixture based on nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK), in formula-12-24-12, on the development and yield of corn (Zea mays L.), submitted to a completely randomized block design, with 4 treatments and 4 repetitions. The treatments were mineral fertilizer (NPK, 12-24-12), bat guano, organomineral (NPK and bat guano), and the control. The results show that the bat guano provided the greatest increase in plant height and number of grains, while the largest increments in stem diameter, number of leaves, cob weight, grain weight, and higher yield, were obtained by the organomineral. These results have been achieved, despite the fact that organic fertilizers have low concentrations of NPK, when complemented with mineral fertilization, they promote positive effects on plants, since they make better use of nutrients through the timing of release throughout their development. It was concluded that organic and organomineral fertilizers can be used as a sustainable alternative to increase yields in the corn crop in replacement of mineral fertilizers.Los fertilizantes minerales, además de ser costosos cuando se usan incorrectamente, pueden ser agresivos para el suelo y el medio ambiente. Por esta razón, es necesario evaluar otras fuentes de nutrientes para las plantas. Para este propósito, el experimento se instaló en condiciones de campo, con el objetivo de evaluar la eficiencia del guano de murciélago orgánico y los fertilizantes organominerales, como resultado de la mezcla de guano y fertilizante complejo a base de nitrógeno, fósforo y potasio. (NPK), en la fórmula 12-24-12, sobre el desarrollo y rendimiento del cultivo de maíz (Zea mays L.), sometido a un diseño experimental de bloques completos al azar, con 4 tratamientos y 4 repeticiones. Los tratamientos fueron fertilizante mineral (NPK, 24-12-12), guano de murciélago, organomineral y el control. Los resultados muestran que el guano de murciélago proporcionó el mayor aumento en la altura de la planta y el número de granos por mazorca, mientras que los mayores incrementos en el diámetro del tallo, el número de hojas, el peso de la mazorca, el peso del grano, así como un mayor rendimiento por área , fueron obtenidos por el organomineral. Estos resultados se lograron, a pesar del hecho de que los fertilizantes orgánicos tienen bajas concentraciones de NPK, cuando se complementan con la fertilización mineral, promueven efectos positivos en las plantas, ya que hacen un mejor uso de los nutrientes a través del momento de la liberación a lo largo de su desarrollo. Se concluyó que los fertilizantes minerales orgánicos y orgánicos pueden usarse como una alternativa sostenible para aumentar los rendimientos en el cultivo de maíz en reemplazo de los fertilizantes minerales.Os fertilizantes minerais para além de apresentarem custos onerosos, quando mal empregues, podem ser agressivos aos solos e ao meio ambiente. Por este motivo, é necessária a avaliação de outras fontes de nutrientes para as plantas. Para o efeito, foi instalado o experimento em condições de campo, com o objetivo de avaliar a eficiência dos adubos orgânicos a base de guano de morcego e o organomineral, resultante da mistura do guano e do fertilizante complexo a base de nitrogênio, fosforo e potássio (NPK), na fórmula-12-24-12, sobre o desenvolvimento e rendimento da cultura do milho (Zea mays L.), submetidas em desenho experimental de blocos completos casualizados, com 4 tratamentos e 4 repetições. Os tratamentos foram, o adubo mineral (NPK, 12-24-12), o guano de morcego, o organomineral, e a testemunha. Os resultados mostram que o guano de morcego proporcionou maior incremento na altura da planta e número de grãos por espiga, enquanto que os maiores incrementos do diâmetro do caule, número de folhas, peso da espiga, peso dos grãos, assim como maior rendimento por área, foram obtidos pelo organomineral. Estes resultados foram alcançados, apesar dos adubos orgânicos apresentarem baixas concentrações de NPK, quando complementados com adubação mineral, promovem efeitos positivos às plantas, uma vez que estas aproveitam melhor os nutrientes através do sincronismo de liberação ao longo do seu desenvolvimento. Concluiu-se que, os adubos orgânicos e organominerais podem ser utilizados como alternativa sustentável para o aumento dos rendimentos na cultura do milho em substituição dos adubos minerais

The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education in Higher Education: A Systematic Review and Research Agenda

Using a teaching model framework, we systematically review empirical evidence on the impact of entrepreneurship education (EE) in higher education on a range of entrepreneurial outcomes, analyzing 159 published articles from 2004 to 2016. The teaching model framework allows us for the first time to start rigorously examining relationships between pedagogical methods and specific outcomes. Reconfirming past reviews and meta-analyses, we find that EE impact research still predominantly focuses on short-term and subjective outcome measures and tends to severely underdescribe the actual pedagogies being tested. Moreover, we use our review to provide an up-to-date and empirically rooted call for less obvious, yet greatly promising, new or underemphasized directions for future research on the impact of university-based entrepreneurship education. This includes, for example, the use of novel impact indicators related to emotion and mind-set, focus on the impact indicators related to the intention-to-behavior transition, and exploring the reasons for some contradictory findings in impact studies including person-, context-, and pedagogical model-specific moderator

Improving the assessment of transferable skills in chemistry through evaluation of current practice

The development and assessment of transferable skills acquired by students, such as communication and teamwork, within undergraduate degrees is being increas-ingly emphasised. Many instructors have designed and implemented assessment tasks with the aim to provide students with opportunities to acquire and demon-strate these skills. We have now applied our previously published tool to evaluate whether assessment tasks allow students to demonstrate achievement of these transferable skills. The tool allows detailed evaluation of the alignment of any as-sessment item against the claimed set of learning outcomes. We present here two examples in which use of the tool provides evidence for the level of achievement of transferable skills and a further example of use of the tool to inform curricu-lum design and pedagogy, with the goal of increasing achievement of communi-cation and teamwork bench marks. Implications for practice in assessment design for learning are presented