Integrated science unit : small creatures : spiders and crickets

This instructional development project integrates the language arts and the science areas. The science content is small creatures, specifically, spiders and crickets, from the first grade curriculum. A rich learning environment is provided through a literature base, representing the different genres and related expressive activity. The unit is presented through teacher-directed activities and learning centers that off er many options from which children could select experiences. The goals of the program are to give children more control over their learning and to extend children\u27s thinking-language abilities by capitalizing on the common processes of the language arts and science areas and offering many opportunities to engage in the language processes within the functions of language. As children become involved in the content and processes of the unit provided by a print-rich environment with many options for learning activity, they can assume responsibility for directing their energies toward the learning tasks

Web Surveys In Business Research: Use, Design And Construction Issues

Online surveys have the potential to dramatically improve the distribution of surveys, reduce the cost of administering surveys and increase survey response rates.  This can lead to an overall improvement in the quality of the research being conducted.  We first discuss the advantages and potential problems associated with online surveys.  We then discuss survey website design issues and provide guidance regarding the use of various features.  We also discuss  several website construction considerations.  Finally, we report on several viable approaches for building an online survey system, which range from inexpensive and technically challenging to expensive and easy to use and build. 

ERP System Implementation At A Small Engineering Company: Size Does Matter

This case regards a company pseudonymously referred to as Johnson Precision Instruments, Inc, that, faced with Y2K compliance, decided to deal with it by adopting Oracle’s ERP solution, Oracle Applications. As recently as the mid to late nineteen eighties, traditional business applications comprising an organization's information infrastructure used data that either resided in proprietary file structures or was easily represented by the relational database model, in either event resulting in an ever proliferating set of non-integrated, heterogeneous systems.  In today’s business climate, access to information is key to competitive advantage, but both data and IT architectures have become increasingly complex, so a single system model is currently deemed desirable to reduce or eliminate the deleterious effects associated with the proliferation phenomenon.  This single system model (that would serendipitously solve as Johnson Precision Instruments,  Inc.'s  (JPII) Y2K problem as well) is typically embodied in the implementation of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) process, but this solution carries it's own costs and risks as this case makes clear

Barriers and Solutions to Advance Care Planning among Homeless-Experienced Older Adults.

Background/Objectives: Older homeless-experienced adults have low rates of advance care planning (ACP) engagement despite high rates of morbidity and mortality. To inform intervention development, we examined potential barriers and solutions to ACP engagement. Design: Cross-sectional qualitative study. Setting: We recruited adults who were homeless in the prior three years and ≥50 years of age in the San Francisco Bay Area, and recruited clinical stakeholders from a national meeting of homeless providers. We analyzed qualitative data using thematic analysis. Measurements: We conducted semistructured interviews with homeless-experienced older adults (n = 20) and focus groups with clinical stakeholders (n = 24) about perceived barriers and solutions to ACP engagement. Results: Participants considered ACP important, reflecting on deaths of people in their networks who had died. Participant-identified barriers to ACP included poor ACP knowledge, lack of familial ties and social isolation, competing priorities, avoidance and lack of readiness, fatalism and mistrust, and lack of ACP training for clinical and nonclinical staff. They identified solutions that included framing ACP as a way to provide meaning and assert choice, providing easy-to-read written documents focused on the populations' unique needs, tailoring content and delivery, initiating ACP in nonclinical settings, such as permanent supportive housing, and providing incentives. Conclusions: Both older homeless-experienced adults and clinical stakeholders believe that ACP is important, but acknowledge multiple barriers that impede engagement. By focusing on potential solutions, including capitalizing on opportunities outside of health care settings, focusing on the period after housing, and tailoring content, there are opportunities to improve ACP uptake

Integrating Data Cleansing With Popular Culture: A Novel SQL Character Data Tutorial

Big data and data science have experienced unprecedented growth in recent years.  The big data market continues to exhibit strong momentum as countless businesses transform into data-driven companies. From salary surges to incredible growth in the number of positions, data science is one of the hottest areas in the job market. Significant demand and limited supply of professionals with data competencies has greatly affected the hiring market and this demand/supply imbalance will likely continue in the future. A major key in supplying the market with qualified big data professionals, is bridging the gap from traditional Information Systems (IS) learning outcomes to those outcomes requisite in this emerging field. The purpose of this paper is to share an SQL Character Data Tutorial.  Utilizing the 5E Instructional Model, this tutorial helps students (a) become familiar with SQL code, (b) learn when and how to use SQL string functions, (c) understand and apply the concept of data cleansing, (d) gain problem solving skills in the context of typical string manipulations, and (e) gain an understanding of typical needs related to string queries. The tutorial utilizes common, recognizable quotes from popular culture to engage students in the learning process and enhance understanding. This tutorial should prove helpful to educators who seek to provide a rigorous, practical, and relevant big data experience in their courses

Business Intelligence, Analytics And Data Visualization: A Heat Map Project Tutorial

Business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) initiatives are helping countless organizations harness and interpret the vast amount of information available in the world today. The explosion of BI&A in industry has fueled the high demand for knowledge workers with advanced analytical skills. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a data visualization project tutorial for Information Systems (IS) education. The applied BI&A tutorial was designed to help students learn how to create and analyze a heat map using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Students learn how to make decisions based on large amounts of data by presenting it in visual form. This tutorial exposes students to the decision-making power derived from data visualization. Utilizing the 5E Instructional Model, the tutorial assists in the development of BI&A professionals who can quickly make sense of mass amounts of data, identify trends buried within data sets, and are skilled in making sound decisions that add value to organizations

Combining Business Intelligence And Stock Market Data: A Primer For Data Analytics And Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) has become indispensible to modern business decision-making. Organizations rely on BI to interpret the mass amounts of data circulating throughout the world. However, integration of BI into university business programs does not parallel industry demands. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an innovative business intelligence project tutorial for Information Systems (IS) education. The applied tutorial was designed to help students learn how to design and publish a report using SQL Server Reporting Services to analyze current stock market data. This tutorial exposes students to the decision-making power derived from raw data analysis and assists in development of business professionals who can maximize profitability through effective use of business intelligence

Adult 4-H volunteer empowerment in 4-H youth development settings

The primary purpose of this study was to determine which factors related to adult 4-H volunteer empowerment in 4-H youth development settings. This study examined the relationship of adult 4-H volunteers’ perceived leadership styles of Oregon 4-H Youth Development Educators (YDE) to the adult 4-H volunteer sense of empowerment. In addition, selected demographic and environmental variables of gender, years in role, alumni background, educational background, leadership training, and level of involvement were examined for their correlation to adult 4-H volunteer sense of empowerment. Bass and Avoilio’s Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (rater form), Spreitzer’s Psychological Empowerment Instrument, and a demographic/ environmental questionnaire were mailed to 498 randomly selected Oregon adult 4-H volunteers. There were 209 responses received for a 42% return rate. Participants were described in terms of their demographics, perceived leadership styles, and sense of psychological empowerment. This study involved multiple variables, including the latent variables of transformational leadership style, transactional leadership style, and empowerment, so structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as the statistical analysis. SEM was able to test various models concerning the interrelationship between each of the independent variables (leadership styles and demographic/ environmental factors) and the dependent variable (empowerment). Preliminary analysis reported adequate Cronbach alpha reliabilities as well as appropriate convergent and discriminant validity. The confirmatory factor analysis with the two leadership style factors revealed a modest fit (CFI=0.846) and the confirmatory factor analysis with the empowerment factors revealed an excellent fit (CFI=0.99). In the structural model, the only demographic/environmental variable to show a significant relationship to empowerment was years in role. The more years a volunteer had been in their leadership role, the more they expressed a sense of empowerment. A significant negative correlation (β= -0.693) was found when comparing transformational leadership style to transactional leadership style, meaning that 4-H YDE who are rated as using transformational leadership are very likely NOT to use transactional leadership. Finally, strong support was found for the hypothesis that transformational leadership style has a significant positive relationship (β= 0.031) to adult 4-H volunteer sense of empowerment. The 4-H YDE who are rated as using transformational leadership are very likely to be empowering adult 4-H volunteers

Education for optimized Life Cycle Management : The Project e-CIRP and its insights into embedding circular economy aspects to product design via teaching

Publisher Copyright: © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences.The integration of circular economy-based life cycle management (LCM) into product design and optimisation is essential for the transformation towards a circular economy (CE). However, companies often lack the expertise to adapt life-cycle design (LCD) thinking in their business operations and are in need of respective capacity building. To close this apparent gap is the aim of the project e-CirP (Embedding Circular Economy into Product Design and Optimization) where LUT University, Fraunhofer, Technical University of Denmark, University of Padova, Delft University of Technology, University of Helsinki and Metso Outotec have worked together to develop a program that allows Master students across Europe to learn how to integrate CE and Life Cycle Thinking principles into product design by analysing real industrial cases. In the project, modern pedagogical approaches have been applied. A modular training package covering general circular economy aspects, as well as detailed value chain perspectives, has been created. Next to the content-related aspects, a great focus was also on the support of so-called soft-skills development, e.g. through international student cooperation on case studies. The paper presents the perspective of participating students as well as the cooperating companies that supplied the industry cases to allow an overview of opportunities and challenges.Peer reviewe

Regeneration of Hymenaea courbaril L. in two forest fragments with different degrees of human impact

O objetivo do estudo foi avaliar a estrutura populacional e os efeitos da intensidade luminosa no recrutamento de jatobá-da-mata (Hymenaea courbaril L.) em dois fragmentos de Mata de Galeria não-inundável, com diferentes graus de perturbação antrópica. Foi assumida a hipótese de que as populações diferem nas classes de tamanho (diâmetro e altura) e abundância dos indivíduos entre os fragmentos e o recrutamento responde às diferenças de luminosidade disponível no sub-bosque. Como espécie clímax dependente de luz amplamente distribuída e adaptada a ambientes heterogêneos, espera-se uma maior abundância e regeneração de jatobá-da-mata no fragmento com maior incidência luminosa. Em cada fragmento foram utilizadas 25 parcelas permanentes, alocadas de forma aleatória ao longo de transectos entre a borda da mata e o leito córrego posicionados perpendicularmente à margem do córrego. As plântulas foram amostradas no interior de cada parcela, a partir de quatro sub-parcelas de 2x2 m ao longo de uma linha central no comprimento da parcela. No sub-bosque, em cada sub-parcela, a radiação fotossinteticamente ativa foi determinada e os valores de transmitância (T%) foram obtidos a partir das medidas a pleno sol fora da mata. Nos dois fragmentos o maior número de indivíduos se concentrou nas menores classes de tamanho, mas não foi obtido um bom ajuste à distribuição exponencial negativa (J invertido). A análise de regressão linear indicou que tanto o diâmetro como a altura dos indivíduos jovens (mediana/parcela) apresentaram, respectivamente, respostas positivas em relação ao efeito da T% (F=11,58-14,82(1,40); p<0,01). Foi observada menor abundância de jovens no fragmento mais perturbado que pode ser resultado de eventos de fogo no passado recente. Apesar de mais abundantes, os jovens no fragmento conservado, com dossel mais fechado, e consequentemente, com menos luz disponível no sub-bosque, apresentaram distribuições de tamanho semelhante às plântulas. Esse resultado sugere que o jatobá-da-mata é capaz de regenerar e recrutar em ambientes sombreados, mas o crescimento é limitado pelas condições de pouca luminosidade. .The objective of this research was to study the population structure of Hymenaea courbaril in two fragments of non-flooded gallery forests with different degrees of human impact. The research hypothesis was that populations present different size classes and number of individuals between fragments and that recruitment is related to understory light. As a climax species that requires light, and a species that is adapted to a variety of environments, there would probably be a higher abundance and regeneration of H. courbaril in a fragment that has more light. Twenty-five plots (10 x 20 m) were set in two fragments using transects between the forest edge and the stream bank. The seedlings were recorded within each plot by means of four subplots (2 x 2 m) in a central line along the plots. Within the understory the photosynthetic active radiation was determined and the transmittance values (T%) were calculated by measuring the sunlight in an open field. In both fragments, more individuals were concentrated in the smaller size classes. However the population sizes in both fragments were not adjusted to the negative exponential distribution (reversed J curve). A linear regression analysis indicated that both the diameter and height of young individuals were related to transmittance (T%) (F=11,58-14,82(1,40); p<0,01). The lower abundance of juvenile individuals in the disturbed fragment might be due to recent and frequent fires. In spite of the higher abundance of young individuals in the preserved fragment, which has more undisturbed canopy and lower light conditions, in the understory these young individuals had size classes similar to the seedlings. This result suggests that H. courbaril is able to regenerate and to recruit in shaded environments. However, the growth of H. courbaril might be constrained by these lower light conditions