Developing Effective K-16 Geoscience Partnerships

This article describes the benefits of research partnerships to scientists, students, and teachers. There is growing awareness that the way science is experienced in the K-16 classroom deviates greatly from the experiences of practicing researchers. Whereas researchers are immersed in more open-ended observation and inquiry, many K-16 students find themselves cramming to memorize core scientific content in preparation for standardized examinations. This issue can be mitigated by the development of partnerships in which scientists benefit by added human resources (teachers and students) for data collection and analysis, and teachers and students benefit from a learning process that fosters creativity, sets high standards, teaches problem solving, and is highly motivating. Educational levels: Graduate or professional

The Language-Culture Connection in ELT : Theory and Practice

Defining the nature of the language-culture connection and proposing how that connection should be addressed in the language classroom have long been major issues in the ELT field, and these issues remain contested and largely unresolved to this day. This paper attempts to clarify some of the major ways that the language-culture connection is conceived of in the field, and it will also outline the influences that those conceptions may be having on both course content and language pedagogy. The writer argues that the ways in which the language-culture connection is theorized and put into practice needs to be better understood so program designers and teachers can make more informed choices about how they address it. The paper concludes with several recommendations about how to go about making those choices

The Language-Culture Connection in ELT : Theory and Practice

Defining the nature of the language-culture connection and proposing how that connection should be addressed in the language classroom have long been major issues in the ELT field, and these issues remain contested and largely unresolved to this day. This paper attempts to clarify some of the major ways that the language-culture connection is conceived of in the field, and it will also outline the influences that those conceptions may be having on both course content and language pedagogy. The writer argues that the ways in which the language-culture connection is theorized and put into practice needs to be better understood so program designers and teachers can make more informed choices about how they address it. The paper concludes with several recommendations about how to go about making those choices

L1 Writing Experiences and L2 Writing Instruction : University Entrance Exams in Japan

This poper examines an L1 learning experience shared by many EFL students in Japan: writing an essay in Japanese on university entrance exams. The main purpose is to identify the features of the experience that L2 writing teachers need to address in their classrooms. The major issues that are investigated are 1) what kind of writing students are expected to do on the exams, 2) what the purpose of the essay question is, and 3) what kind of training students receive to improve their writing skills. Foillowing this investigation, is a discussion of how the experience of writing the entrance exam essay compares with the approach to writing found in mainstream ESL/EFL writing classes. It is hoped that comparing students\u27 previous writing experiences with the approach to writing they are likely to encounter in the L2 writing classroom will help contribute to more effective writing pedagogy

Learning vocabulary for university entrance exams: a word frequency study

This paper reports on a frequency analysis of the English vocabulary items that university-bound students in Japan are expected to master. The items are compared with the three frequency bands that current corpus-driven research shows to offer the widest range of coverage for the minimal amount of leaning investment. The comparison shows that students in Japan are being exposed to a large amount of vocabulary that is not in any of these three bands. Discussion of the problems with corpus-driven research and some of the pedagogical issues raised by the study is included

Bioengineering Lantibiotics for Therapeutic Success

peer-reviewedSeveral examples of highly modified antimicrobial peptides have been described. While many such peptides are non-ribosomally synthesized, ribosomally synthesized equivalents are being discovered with increased frequency. Of the latter group, the lantibiotics continue to attract most attention. In the present review, we discuss the implementation of in vivo and in vitro engineering systems to alter, and even enhance, the antimicrobial activity, antibacterial spectrum and physico-chemical properties, including heat stability, solubility, diffusion and protease resistance, of these compounds. Additionally, we discuss the potential applications of these lantibiotics for use as therapeutics.DF,CH,PC,RR are supported by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan, through a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Technology and Innovation Development Award (TIDA14/TIDA/2286) to DF, a SFI Investigator awards to CH and RR (10/IN.1/B3027),SFI-PIfunding(11/PI/1137) to PDC and the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre under Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2273