95 research outputs found
Physics as a Mechanism for Including ELLs in Classroom Discourse
English Language Learners (ELLs) are frequently left on the periphery of
classroom interactions. Due to misalignment of language skills, teachers and
peers communicate with these students less often, decreasing the number of
opportunities to engage. Exclusion can be avoided with learning activities that
invite all students to participate and contribute ideas. We argue that
environments and activities that privilege scientific inductive reasoning
increase possibilities for emerging bilingual students to engage. This study
investigated first-grade students' discussions about factors that affect how
objects float. Students came from a variety of language backgrounds; all were
considered beginner/intermediate ELLs. Results show that the goal of inducing
principles from actual phenomena encouraged students to communicate their ideas
and reasoning, boosting students' confidence in expressing themselves.
Following the hybrid space argument of Vygotsky's theory of concept formation,
we illustrate that physics can be particularly suitable context for the
co-development of concepts and English language skills.Comment: 4 Pages; Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings - 2013,
Portland O
3rd grade English language learners making sense of sound
Despite the extensive body of research that supports scientific inquiry and
argumentation as cornerstones of physics learning, these strategies continue to
be virtually absent in most classrooms, especially those that involve students
who are learning English as a second language. This study presents results from
an investigation of 3rd grade students' discourse about how length and tension
affect the sound produced by a string. These students came from a variety of
language backgrounds, and all were learning English as a second language. Our
results demonstrate varying levels, and uses, of experiential, imaginative, and
mechanistic reasoning strategies. Using specific examples from students'
discourse, we will demonstrate some of the productive aspects of working within
multiple language frameworks for making sense of physics. Conjectures will be
made about how to utilize physics as a context for English Language Learners to
further conceptual understanding, while developing their competence in the
English language.Comment: 4 pages, PERC 201
Changing Roles and Identities in a Teacher Driven Professional Development Community
In a climate where teachers feel deprofessionalized at the hands of
regulations, testing, and politics, it is vital that teachers become empowered
both in their own teaching and as agents of change. This physics education
research study investigates the Streamline to Mastery professional development
program, in which the teachers design professional development opportunities
for themselves and for fellow teachers. The research reported here describes
the process of teacher professional growth through changes in roles and
identities. Videos, emails, and interviews were analyzed to glean insight into
practice and participation shifts as these physical science teachers formed a
community and engaged in their own classroom research. Implications for the
role of PER in teacher professional development and teacher preparation will be
discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Physics Education Research Conference 2011
Proceedings, Finalist in the PERC 2011 proceedings paper awar
Teaching to Learn: iPads as Tools for Transforming Physics Student Roles
Students who serve as Learning Assistants (LAs) and have the opportunity to
teach the content they are learning, while also studying effective teaching
pedagogy, have demonstrated achievement gains in advanced content courses and
positive shifts in attitudes about learning science [V. Otero, S. Pollock & N.
Finkelstein, Amer J Physics 78, 11 (2010)]. Although the LA experience is also
valuable for high school students, the tight schedule and credit requirements
of advanced high school students limit opportunities for implementing
traditional LA programs at the high school level. In order to provide high
school physics students with an LA-like experience, iPads were used as tools
for students to synthesize screencast video tutorials for students to access,
review and evaluate. The iPads were utilized in a one-to-one tablet-to-student
environment throughout the course of an entire school year. This research
investigates the impact of a one-to-one iPad environment and the use of iPads
to create teaching-to-learn (TtL) experiences on student agency and attitudes
toward learning science. Project funded by NSF grant # DUE 934921.Comment: Proc. 2013 Physics Education Research Conference. AIP Pres
Learning Assistant Supported Student Outcomes (LASSO) study initial findings
This study investigates how faculty, student, and course features are linked
to student outcomes in Learning Assistant (LA) supported courses. Over 4,500
students and 17 instructors from 13 LA Alliance member institutions
participated in the study. Each participating student completed an online
concept inventory at the start (pre) and end (post) of their term. The physics
concept inventories included Force and Motion Concept Evaluation (FMCE) and the
Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA). Concepts inventories from
the fields of biology and chemistry were also included. Our analyses utilize
hierarchical linear models that nest student level data (e.g. pre/post scores
and gender) within course level data (e.g. discipline and course enrollment) to
build models that examine student outcomes across institutions and disciplines.
We report findings on the connections between students' outcomes and their
gender, race, and time spent working with LAs as well as instructors'
experiences with LAs.Comment: 4 pages (2 tables
Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements
Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories: a pooled analysis of 2181 population-based studies with 65 million participants
Summary Background Comparable global data on health and nutrition of school-aged children and adolescents are scarce. We aimed to estimate age trajectories and time trends in mean height and mean body-mass index (BMI), which measures weight gain beyond what is expected from height gain, for school-aged children and adolescents. Methods For this pooled analysis, we used a database of cardiometabolic risk factors collated by the Non-Communicable Disease Risk Factor Collaboration. We applied a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends from 1985 to 2019 in mean height and mean BMI in 1-year age groups for ages 5–19 years. The model allowed for non-linear changes over time in mean height and mean BMI and for non-linear changes with age of children and adolescents, including periods of rapid growth during adolescence. Findings We pooled data from 2181 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in 65 million participants in 200 countries and territories. In 2019, we estimated a difference of 20 cm or higher in mean height of 19-year-old adolescents between countries with the tallest populations (the Netherlands, Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina for boys; and the Netherlands, Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland for girls) and those with the shortest populations (Timor-Leste, Laos, Solomon Islands, and Papua New Guinea for boys; and Guatemala, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Timor-Leste for girls). In the same year, the difference between the highest mean BMI (in Pacific island countries, Kuwait, Bahrain, The Bahamas, Chile, the USA, and New Zealand for both boys and girls and in South Africa for girls) and lowest mean BMI (in India, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Ethiopia, and Chad for boys and girls; and in Japan and Romania for girls) was approximately 9–10 kg/m2. In some countries, children aged 5 years started with healthier height or BMI than the global median and, in some cases, as healthy as the best performing countries, but they became progressively less healthy compared with their comparators as they grew older by not growing as tall (eg, boys in Austria and Barbados, and girls in Belgium and Puerto Rico) or gaining too much weight for their height (eg, girls and boys in Kuwait, Bahrain, Fiji, Jamaica, and Mexico; and girls in South Africa and New Zealand). In other countries, growing children overtook the height of their comparators (eg, Latvia, Czech Republic, Morocco, and Iran) or curbed their weight gain (eg, Italy, France, and Croatia) in late childhood and adolescence. When changes in both height and BMI were considered, girls in South Korea, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some central Asian countries (eg, Armenia and Azerbaijan), and boys in central and western Europe (eg, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, and Montenegro) had the healthiest changes in anthropometric status over the past 3·5 decades because, compared with children and adolescents in other countries, they had a much larger gain in height than they did in BMI. The unhealthiest changes—gaining too little height, too much weight for their height compared with children in other countries, or both—occurred in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, New Zealand, and the USA for boys and girls; in Malaysia and some Pacific island nations for boys; and in Mexico for girls. Interpretation The height and BMI trajectories over age and time of school-aged children and adolescents are highly variable across countries, which indicates heterogeneous nutritional quality and lifelong health advantages and risks
- …