Developing Learning Progressions in Support of the New Science Standards: A RAPID Workshop Series

The hypothetical learning progressions presented here are the products of the deliberations of two working groups of science education researchers, each group also including a state science curriculum supervisor, organized by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE),with support from the National Science Foundation. Their charge was to produce hypothetical learning progressions describing the pathways students might be expected to follow as they acquire deep understanding of two of the core learning goals set by the National Research Council’s (NRC) Committee on a Conceptual Framework for the New K-12 Science Education Standards. The goals in question address students’ understanding of the structure, properties, and transformations of matter in the physical sciences and of the flow of matter and energy in ecosystems in the life sciences. These two core goals were chosen because a good bit of research has been done on children’s learning in these areas, some of it carried out by members of our working groups. These hypothetical learning progressions are intended to inform those who are working on the new national science standards, to serve as tools for those charged with developing curriculum and assessments to implement the new standards, and to encourage others to undertake the theoretical and empirical work needed to fill important gaps in our knowledge about learning progressions

Influence of Increasing Doses of Herbal Cellulose Bleaching Lye on Crop Yields

The team of Russian scientists has developed a new technology of pulp production from herbaceous vegetation, which can significantly reduce the negative impact of pulp and paper industry on the environment and become a very significant support for the development of agriculture. Laboratory-model and field experiments were carried out under conditions of grey forest soil. 2–12 l/m2 single application of boring liquor increased the productivity of tested crops within two years, while higher doses (16–48 l/m2) showed a reliable decrease in the yield of both crops, however, in the second year the negative impact of increased doses significantly decreased

Learning Progressions in Science: An Evidence-Based Approach to Reform

American education policy seems poised to escalate and shift its two decade long commitment to standards and outcome-based reform. That commitment has involved a set of “grand bargains”, in which the federal government provides Title I (The “No Child Left Behind Act” or NCLB) disadvantaged education funds in return for the states’ agreeing to set ambitious content standards, and define performance or “proficiency” standards associated with them that all students in the states’ schools will be expected to meet by the 2013/2014 school year. The disadvantaged children targeted by Title I are expected to meet the same standards as all of the rest of the children in each state. In return for agreeing to hold their schools accountable for meeting these expectations, the states are left free to set their standards and their related measures of proficiency as they wish, within some broadly defined parameters. And the local school systems and schools in each state, in return for their share of the Title I/NCLB money are left free, for the most part, to choose their preferred approaches to instruction as long as they agree to be held accountable for ensuring that all their students are making adequate progress towards meeting the state’s proficiency goals. So, the general form of each bargain is an agreement to reduce or forgo regulation of inputs in return for a commitment to define, and meet, outcome expectations. But, having agreed to do something they had never before tried to do—to succeed with essentially all students—schools and educators face the problem that they don’t know how to meet their side of the bargain. Proponents and observers of reform claim to be shocked that some states are setting their performance standards in ways that minimize or disguise the degree to which their students are likely to fail to meet the hopes of reform. In addition, schools and teachers are resorting to approaches, such as relentless test preparation and focusing on students who are just at the edge of meeting proficiency requirements, that try to meet the letter of the bargains’ requirements while leaving the more ambitious spirit of the reforms’ hopes well behind, along with all too many children

Implementación de sistema domótico para eficiencia energética en el hogar

Tesis (Ingeniero en Telecomunicaciones)En Chile, país en vías de rápida industrialización y desarrollo, pero aun con ingresos per cápita medios, el vínculo entre crecimiento económico y aumento del consumo de energia es directo. ́ Existe un acople entre la expansión del PIB y la energía final consumida por la población. Una de las tareas del futuro es lograr un desacople entre ambas variables, lo que implicaria ganar competitividad en un contexto en que las ́ fuentes de energía económicas serán cada vez más escasas. Este proyecto tiene como finalidad aportar con el desacople de estas variables presentando un sistema de eficiencia energética en el hogar desarrollado con Arduino, con el fin de que la energía se utilice de la mejor forma posible