What do we teach them and what are they learning? Evaluation and assessment of the information literacy skills of science students

Information literacy ‘enables learners to engage critically with content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning’ (Council of Australian University Librarians 2001). Such skills are, therefore, a key element of undergraduate learning, a foundation for research activities, and a basis for lifelong learning within the workplace. A number of key generic graduate attributes can collectively be described as information literacy skills (ILS). These include: • a capacity to recognise the need for information and determine the nature and extent of the information needed; • a capacity to access required information effectively and efficiently; • the ability to evaluate information and its sources critically; and • the ability to create new knowledge by integrating prior knowledge and new understandings. The acquisition of such skills is an integral part of becoming a professional scientist, and there is an increasing impetus to include more overt teaching of such skills within the undergraduate degree (Parker 2003). It is acknowledged that the most effective learning outcomes occur when generic skills are an integral part of teaching within the discipline and taught to all students in a structured and progressive manner (Shapiro and Hughes 1996). Indeed, based on their own experiences of teaching ILS within the School of Zoology at the University of Tasmania (UTas), Dearden, Jones, Richardson and Barmuta (2004) have suggested that students’ acquisition of ILS should be incremental, iterative, embedded and assessed, as also proposed by Lupton (2002). Yet how can we determine what skills our students already possess, and at what level? And how can we best teach and assess their learning of information skills within the context of our own discipline? In this project we aimed to address these questions. In collaboration with Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Library staff, the project team developed a multipart survey to test students’ current knowledge, skills and practice against the Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy Framework (ANZIL) Framework standards. We surveyed students in all three undergraduate years to see if their knowledge and skills improved from years one to three, as a result of transferring skills acquired at lower levels into higher undergraduate levels. Second, we wished to investigate whether there are discipline-specific differences in students’ ILS. We therefore focussed on three schools that we anticipated might have rather different expectations of their graduates regarding ILS: Computing, Engineering and Zoology. Students in the first two disciplines are highly likely to be enrolled in specialist degrees, while Zoology students are most likely to be enrolled in the more generic BSc

Perceived Effectiveness of Teaching Techniques in the Basic Interpersonal Communication Course: a Comparison Between the Traditional and Nontraditional Student

The increase of nontraditional students to college campuses requires classroom instructors fo consider unique learning needs of older (over 25) students. Current literature does not accurately address these needs for instructors of basic courses. The primary research question behind this study is as follows: Is there a difference between traditional and nontraditional students in how effective they perceive teaching techniques used in the basic interpersonal communication course? Eleven instructors representing 17 sections of the basic interpersonal communication course at Southwest Missouri State University each implemented four techniques in each class section as prescribed by the researcher. One hundred fifty-seven students were asked to assess their perceived assignment, group discussion, role play, and lecture. Responses by the traditional and nontraditional students were compared. The subjects (51 percent traditional and 49 percent nontraditional) also completed the Kolb Learning Style Inventory and the James & Galbraith Perceptual Learning Style Inventory. The instructors\u27 teaching styles were measured through the Principles of Adult Learning Scale. The results of this study revealed that traditional students assessed the group discussion technique as more effective in helping them understand topic material than did the nontraditional students. There were no significant differences between the groups in their assessment of the other three techniques

The Trehalose Pathway in Maize: Conservation and Gene Regulation in Response to the Diurnal Cycle and Extended Darkness

Energy resources in plants are managed in continuously changing environments, such as changes occurring during the day/night cycle. Shading is an environmental disruption that decreases photosynthesis, compromises energy status, and impacts on crop productivity. The trehalose pathway plays a central but not well-defined role in maintaining energy balance. Here, we characterized the maize trehalose pathway genes and deciphered the impacts of the diurnal cycle and disruption of the day/night cycle on trehalose pathway gene expression and sugar metabolism. The maize genome encodes 14 trehalose-6-phosphate synthase (TPS) genes, 11 trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP) genes, and one trehalase gene. Transcript abundance of most of these genes was impacted by the day/night cycle and extended dark stress, as were sucrose, hexose sugars, starch, and trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P) levels. After extended darkness, T6P levels inversely followed class II TPS and sucrose non-fermenting-related protein kinase 1 (SnRK1) target gene expression. Most significantly, T6P no longer tracked sucrose levels after extended darkness. These results showed: (i) conservation of the trehalose pathway in maize; (ii) that sucrose, hexose, starch, T6P, and TPS/TPP transcripts respond to the diurnal cycle; and(iii) that extended darkness disrupts the correlation between T6P and sucrose/hexose pools and affects SnRK1 target gene expression. A model for the role of the trehalose pathway in sensing of sucrose and energy status in maize seedlings is proposed

The Xyce Parallel Electronic Simulator - An Overview

The Xyce{trademark} Parallel Electronic Simulator has been written to support the simulation needs of the Sandia National Laboratories electrical designers. As such, the development has focused on providing the capability to solve extremely large circuit problems by supporting large-scale parallel computing platforms (up to thousands of processors). In addition, they are providing improved performance for numerical kernels using state-of-the-art algorithms, support for modeling circuit phenomena at a variety of abstraction levels and using object-oriented and modern coding-practices that ensure the code will be maintainable and extensible far into the future. The code is a parallel code in the most general sense of the phrase--a message passing parallel implementation--which allows it to run efficiently on the widest possible number of computing platforms. These include serial, shared-memory and distributed-memory parallel as well as heterogeneous platforms. Furthermore, careful attention has been paid to the specific nature of circuit-simulation problems to ensure that optimal parallel efficiency is achieved even as the number of processors grows

A influência do teste sorológico ML Flow na classificação da hanseníase The influence of ML Flow test in leprosy classification

Estudo descritivo e exploratório correlacionando o ML Flow, a baciloscopia e a classificação em paucibacilar (PB) e multibacilar (MB), envolveu 1.041 casos novos com hanseníase em 13 municípios de Minas Gerais, de outubro de 2002 a março de 2004. A concordância entre o ML Flow e a classificação pelo número de lesões cutâneas e a baciloscopia foi moderada (Kappa:0,51 e 0,48, respectivamente) e, substancial (Kappa:0,77) com a classificação final. De janeiro de 2000 a março de 2004, a proporção de casos novos MB no Estado, passou de 78,1 para 65,8%. A queda no percentual de MB foi maior nos serviços participantes da pesquisa ML Flow (73,1 para 53,3%). A diferença de PB e MB nos serviços participantes e não participantes, de janeiro a março de 2004, foi estatisticamente significativa, indicando implicação direta e benéfica no tratamento e no controle da endemia em Minas Gerais.<br>This is a descriptive, exploratory study correlating ML Flow, bacilloscopy and classification of paucibacillary (PB) and multibacillary (MB), involving 1,041 new leprosy cases in 13 municipalities of Minas Gerais State, from October 2002 to March 2004. Agreement between ML Flow and the classification of the number of skin lesions and bacilloscopy was moderate (K:0.51 and K:0.48, respectively); and substantial for final classification (K:0.77). From January 2000 to March 2004, the proportion of new MB cases in Minas Gerais decreased from 78.1 to 65.8%. The reduction in the percentage of MB cases was higher in health centers that participated in the ML Flow study (73.1% to 53.3%). The difference between PB and MB in the participating and non-participating health centers from January to March 2004 was statistically significant. Implementation of the ML Flow test influenced the classification of patients, suggesting a direct and beneficial impact on patient treatment and the control of the leprosy endemic in Minas Gerais, Brazil