Exploring relationships between playspaces, pedagogy, and preschoolers’ play-based science and engineering practices

This manuscript reports the results of a research study exploring the ways in which physical space and teacher pedagogy are related to preschoolers’ engagement with science and engineering practices while at play. Using the Science and Engineering Practices Observation Protocol (SciEPOP), researchers captured children’s engagement with the eight science and engineering practices identified in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). This study explores relationships between specific playspaces, materials, and pedagogical strategies, and children’s patterns of engagement with particular science and engineering practices during free play. There are notable differences in the spaces, materials, and pedagogies children encounter across the four participating preschools, and these differences suggest significant gaps in children’s opportunities to engage in and deepen their enactment of science and engineering practices. The authors present evidence in support of adaptive, personalized strategies for deepening children’s engagement with science through play, and raise questions about equity in early science learning environments that have implications both nationally and internationally for science education research, practice, and policy

Examining the Relationship between Physical Models and Students' Science Practices

Scientists engage with practices like model development and use, data analysis and interpretation, explanation construction, and argumentation in order to expand the frontiers of science, so it can be inferred that students’ engagement with science practices may help them deepen their own science understanding. As one of three dimensions on which the Next Generation Science Standards is built, science practices are recognized as an important component of science instruction. However, the contexts in which these practices happen are under-researched. Furthermore, research on science practices among students tends to focus on one or two practices in isolation when, in reality, students and scientists tend to engage with multiple overlapping practices. This study focused on identifying and characterizing multiple science practices as eighth and ninth-grade Earth Science students participated in a small group collaborative problem solving activity both with and without the use of a physical model. This study found a range of sophistication in the observed science practices as well as a relationship between the frequency of those practices and the accuracy of the groups’ outcomes. Based on this relationship, groups were assigned to one of three categories. Further analysis revealed that model use varied among the three categories of groups. Comparisons across these three group categories suggest that there may be a bootstrapping relationship between students’ engagement with science practices and the development of their content understanding. This metaphor of bootstrapping is used to represent how students may develop deeper science content understanding through engagement with science practices and concurrently develop greater facility with science practices as they learn science content. Implications are presented for curriculum designers, teachers and teacher educators. These include recommendations for curriculum design that encourage structured opportunities for small group engagement with science practices as well as recommendations for assessment of students’ reasoning while they engage with science practices within small group collaborative contexts

(Mis)Alignments in Mentorship: Exploring Challenges to Preservice Science Teacher Preparation

The mentoring relationships between preservice teachers and their cooperating teachers have been established as critical to the retention or attrition of novice teachers (Clarke, Triggs, & Nielsen, 2014), yet little research has been conducted to examine what factors around mentor teacher selection and support are most salient to creating strong mentoring structures. In this study, we investigated how four U.S. states (one in the Southwest, one in the Northeast, one in the Midwest, and one in the South) recruit mentor teachers for secondary science preservice teachers, what requirements the mentor teachers must possess, how mentor teachers are incentivized to serve in this role, and whether the use of science standards influences decisions related to preservice teacher placement. Our results show that (a) mentor placements are often found through word-of-mouth versus more formalized systems, (b) there is a wide variety of incentives offered to mentor teachers, (c) there is a common minimum standard for teachers to qualify as mentor teachers, and (d) that science standards, including individual state standards or the Next Generation Science Standards, are central to preservice teacher education programs but are not frequently considered by these same programs when they place a preservice teacher with a mentor teacher. Our findings indicate the need for further research to identify what factors are most salient in strong mentoring relationships and what steps can be taken to support and strengthen the mentoring between preservice teachers and their mentor teachers

Exploring digital fiction as a tool for teenage body image bibliotherapy

This article reflects on the findings of the interdisciplinary ‘TransForm’ project, which ran between 2012 and 2014 and aimed to explore how reading and writing digital fictions (DFs) might support young women in developing frameworks for more positive thinking regarding their body image. The project comprised the following stages: (1) a review and compilation of DFs thematising and/or problematising female corporeality; (2) a series of cooperative inquiries with 3 groups of young women (aged 16–19 years) over a period of 5 weeks, examining participants’ responses to a selection of the previously compiled DFs, as well as the challenges these young women face in relation to body image and (3) an interventionist summer school in which participants aged 16–19 explored body image issues via writing DFs. This article reports on the main observations and findings of each stage, and draws conclusions for future research needs in this area

Using short dietary questions to develop indicators of dietary behaviour for use in surveys exploring attitudinal and/or behavioural aspects of dietary choices

For countries where nutrition surveys are infrequent, there is a need to have some measure of healthful eating to plan and evaluate interventions. This study shows how it is possible to develop healthful eating indicators based on dietary guidelines from a cross sectional population survey. Adults 18 to 64 years answered questions about the type and amount of foods eaten the previous day, including fruit, vegetables, cereals, dairy, fish or meat and fluids. Scores were based on serves and types of food according to an established method. Factor analysis indicated two factors, confirmed by structural equation modeling: a recommended food healthful eating indicator (RF_HEI) and a discretionary food healthful eating indicator (DF_HEI). Both yield mean scores similar to an established dietary index validated against nutrient intake. Significant associations for the RF_HEI were education, income, ability to save, and attitude toward diet; and for the DF_HEI, gender, not living alone, living in a socially disadvantaged area, and attitude toward diet. The results confirm that short dietary questions can be used to develop healthful eating indicators against dietary recommendations. This will enable the exploration of dietary behaviours for “at risk” groups, such as those with excess weight, leading to more relevant interventions for populations

Observed restrictive feeding practices among low- income mothers of pre- adolescents

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162798/2/ijpo12666_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162798/1/ijpo12666.pd

The Effects of Blood Flow Restriction Training on Measures of Strength and Body Composition in College Age Females

Blood flow restriction (BFR) training is a non-invasive technique that uses wraps, bands, or inflated blood pressure cuffs to alter blood flow within targeted muscles. BFR has been seen as a means to potentially help people build muscle mass and strength faster while they are exercising. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the body composition and strength changes resulting from traditional resistance training without BFR to the changes resulting from resistance training combined with BFR. METHODS: 21 females with at least one year of resistance training experience were recruited to participate in the study. Participants were randomly split into two different groups: occluded (OC) and non-occluded (NOC). Each participant was provided with a 4 days/week training protocol for 8 weeks of total training under either OC or NOC conditions. Participants underwent a DEXA scan, thigh girth measurement, blood draw pre- and post-workout, one-repetition max testing, and an acute bout of lower extremity exercise using a hammer strength leg press at weeks 0, 4, and 8. Participants assigned to the OC group had their 50% occlusion percentage determined during each testing session and were required to utilize BFR cuffs during all training sessions with 50% occlusion on all lower extremity exercises. RESULTS: Data are presented as change over time. After data analysis, there was a statistically significant time effect between pre- and post-performance testing on muscular strength (OC = 124 ± 54, NOC = 171 ± 43, p = 0.00) and body fat (OC = -1.517 ± 1.377, NOC = -1.138 ± 1.544, p = 0.022). However, there was no significant difference between groups (p \u3e 0.05). There was no time or interaction effect for weight (OC = 0.627 ± 0.946, NOC = 0.725 ± 1.414, p = 0.183) or thigh girth (OC = 0.514 ± 1.137, NOC = -0.369 ± 2.022, p = 0.146). CONCLUSION: Eight weeks of lower-body BFR training at 50% occlusion does not appear to have an added effect on measures of muscular strength or body composition in resistance-trained females

2018 SFU Liaison Librarian Program Evaluation Survey

As the Liaison Program continues to evolve in response to Library and University priorities, this brief survey is intended to: - Identify and assess the strengths and challenges of the liaison program model; - Elicit ways in which liaison librarians would like support in their roles; - Determine the degree to which the liaison model and current liaison activities meet the emerging needs of the Library.   This 30 question survey was distributed online using SurveyMonkey to SFU liaison librarians (departmental and functional) in May 2018. Not all questions were mandatory, and librarians were told that their responses would remain anonymous. We received a total of 27 responses to the survey