Teaching History: Effective Teaching for Learning History - Chronological vs. Thematic Approaches to Student Historical Comprehension

This action research study investigated the effects of different types of instruction on student learning of historical thinking. There are several instructional methods to teaching history but most fall into two major approaches: chronological or thematic. This study used twenty-eight high school students in two sections of a junior-senior World History course. The research project utilized three full eighteen day instructional units: The World War II unit was taught from the chronological perspective, the Cold War unit was taught from the thematic, and the instruction for the globalization unit utilized a blended approach or combination of the chronological and thematic pedagogies. Each unit of instruction ended with a common assessment type that was designed to assess the historical – chronological thinking skills of the students. It was anticipated that the blended or combined approach would prove to be the most effective method of instruction for teaching history -- when one of the objectives is to emphasize historical thinking skills. The results of the study confirmed this prediction; however, all three methods of instruction showed different areas of instructional effectiveness. The data indicate that selection of the instructional approach by the teacher does matter when it comes to the learning objectives of the course. The blended or combined approach is the most effective approach to teaching history to increase the learning of the most number of students. The combined approach strongly appears to better meet the needs of the lower level students to demonstrate their understanding of historical content and historical skills like chronological thinking

The PPARGC1A Gly482Ser polymorphism is associated with elite long-distance running performance

Success in long-distance running relies on multiple factors including oxygen utilisation and lactate metabolism, and genetic associations with athlete status suggest elite competitors are heritably predisposed to superior performance. The Gly allele of the PPARGC1A Gly482Ser rs8192678 polymorphism has been associated with endurance athlete status and favourable aerobic training adaptations. However, the association of this polymorphism with performance amongst long-distance runners remains unclear. Accordingly, this study investigated whether rs8192678 was associated with elite status and competitive performance of long-distance runners. Genomic DNA from 656 Caucasian participants including 288 long-distance runners (201 men, 87 women) and 368 non-athletes (285 men, 83 women) was analysed. Medians of the 10 best UK times (Top10) for 10 km, half-marathon and marathon races were calculated, with all included athletes having personal best (PB) performances within 20% of Top10 (this study’s definition of ‘elite’). Genotype and allele frequencies were compared between athletes and non-athletes, and athlete PB compared between genotypes. There were no differences in genotype frequency between athletes and non-athletes, but athlete Ser allele carriers were 2.5% faster than Gly/Gly homozygotes (p=0.030). This study demonstrates that performance differences between elite long-distance runners are associated with rs8192678 genotype, with the Ser allele appearing to enhance performance

Giving students the choice of authentic assessments in the Chemistry laboratory

Incorporating authentic assessments into a laboratory program can improve students’ engagement and satisfaction whilst developing highly valuable employment skills (Schultz et al., 2022; Sokhanvar et al., 2021). It can promote a deeper understanding by having students translate their data and findings to a real-world audience of stakeholders – occasionally not from the scientific community (Jopp, 2020). Another assessment strategy is to empower students with a choice of assessments to complete. A choice of assessments can increase student motivation, confidence and engagement whilst reducing the anxiety around assessments (Patall et al., 2010; Garside et al., 2009). This promotes self-regulated learning, self-efficacy and can lead to improved academic performance (Jopp & Cohen, 2020). At The University of Sydney, students complete four experiments in their laboratory program during their first semester of first year chemistry. Each experiment has a different style of authentic assessment associated with it. Students are provided with the opportunity to select one of these four experiments (and its associated authentic assessment) to submit as their major laboratory assessment for the semester. At the end of semester, students (n = ~750) were questioned about why they had selected the assessment they submitted. In this presentation, we analyse how popular the different authentic assessments were amongst students and look at some of the motives behind why these assessments were selected. REFERENCES Garside, J., Nhemachena, J. Williams, J., & Topping, A. (2009). Repositioning assessment: Giving students the ‘choice’ of assessment methods. Nurse Education in Practice, 9(2), 141-148. Jopp, R. (2020). A case study of a technology enhanced learning initiative that supports authentic assessment. Teaching in Higher Education, 25(8), 942-958. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2019.1613637 Jopp, R. & Cohen, J. (2020). Choose your own assessment – assessment choice for students in online higher education. Teaching in Higher Education 27(6), 738-755. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1742680 Patall, E. A., Cooper, H., & Wynn, S.R. (2010). The effectiveness and relative importance of choice in the classroom. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(4), 896. Schultz, M., Young, K., Gunning, T., & Harvey, M. (2022). Defining and measuring authentic assessment: a case study in the context of tertiary science. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 47(1), 77-94. Sokhanvar, Z. Salehi, K., & Sokhanvar, F. (2021) Advantages of authentic assessment for the improving the learning experience and employability skills of higher education students: A systematic literature review. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 70, 101030

Atmospheric Weather Balloon for Near Space Research

Abstract The Society 4 S.P.A.C.E. Club at Embry-Riddle has been working on the development of a weather balloon that will reach a height of 80 to 100 thousand feet and collect data from the atmosphere. The weather balloon is attached to a Styrofoam box that contains an Arduino board controlling a set of sensors that will measure: temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction. All the data collected will be transmitted with a XBEE antenna to the ground station. A capsule of compressed CO2 will be used to eject a parachute once the free falling Styrofoam box has reached an altitude of 1,000 feet. The Styrofoam box will be retrieved using GPS data, and once refurbished it will be fully reusable

The perspective of current and retired world class, elite and national athletes on the inclusion and eligibility of transgender athletes in elite sport

There has been limited empirical study allowing athletes to voice their opinions on transgender participation in elite sport. This study surveyed 175 national, elite and world class athletes eligible to compete in the female category regarding transgender inclusion and eligibility. The study compared current Olympic versus current Olympic Recognised sports, elite versus world class, and current versus retired Olympic sport athletes. Most athletes favoured biological sex categorisation (58%) and considered it unfair for trans women to compete in the female category, except for precision sports. This view was held most strongly by world class athletes regarding their own sport (77% unfair, 15% fair). For trans men inclusion in the male category, most athletes considered it fair, except for Olympic sport athletes regarding contact sports (49% unfair, 27% fair) and sports heavily reliant on physical capacity (53% unfair, 29% fair). Notwithstanding those views, athletes (81%) believed sporting bodies should improve inclusivity for transgender athletes. Opinion varied somewhat according to career stage, competitive level and sport type. Nevertheless, athletes in the present study favoured categorisation by biological sex and did not support trans women eligibility for the female category in sports reliant on performance-related biological factors that differ between sexes

Gene variants previously associated with reduced soft tissue injury risk: Part 1 – independent associations with elite status in rugby

There is growing evidence of genetic contributions to tendon and ligament pathologies. Given the high incidence and severity of tendon and ligament injuries in elite rugby, we studied whether 13 gene polymorphisms previously associated with tendon/ligament injury were associated with elite athlete status. Participants from the RugbyGene project were 663 elite Caucasian male rugby athletes (RA) (mean (standard deviation) height 1.85 (0.07) m, mass 101 (12) kg, age 29 (7) yr), including 558 rugby union athletes (RU) and 105 rugby league athletes. Non-athletes (NA) were 909 Caucasian men and women (56% female; height 1.70 (0.10) m, mass 72 (13) kg, age 41 (23) yr). Genotypes were determined using TaqMan probes and groups compared using Χ2 and odds ratio (OR). COLGALT1 rs8090 AA genotype was more frequent in RA (27%) than NA (23%; P = 0.006). COL3A1 rs1800255 A allele was more frequent in RA (26%) than NA (23%) due to a greater frequency of GA genotype (39% vs 33%). For MIR608 rs4919510, RA had 1.7 times the odds of carrying the CC genotype compared to NA. MMP3 rs591058 TT genotype was less common in RA (25.1%) than NA (31.2%; P < 0.04). For NID1 rs4660148, RA had 1.6 times the odds of carrying the TT genotype compared to NA. It appears that elite rugby athletes have an inherited advantage that contributes to their elite status, possibly via resistance to soft tissue injury. These data may, in future, assist personalised management of injury risk amongst athletes.Highlights The elite rugby athletes we studied had differing genetic characteristics to non-athletes regarding genetic variants previously associated with soft-tissue injury risk.COLGALT1 rs8090, COL3A1 rs1800255, MIR608 rs4919510, MMP3 rs591058 and NID1 rs4660148 were all associated with elite status in rugby.We propose that elite rugby athletes might possess an inherited resistance to soft tissue injury, which has enabled them to achieve elite status despite exposure to the high-risk environment of elite rugby

What does empathy look like to you? Investigating student and staff opinions

Empathy is a key factor in successful human interaction. Many contemporary issues can be linked to a lack of ability for individuals to truly understand the perspectives of those that they interact with. In the context of teaching and learning, if teaching staff cannot truly understand the complex lives of their students, it is likely that students will be unable to reach their full potential and proceed into society as fully realised members of their respective communities (Levin et al., 2012; Robertson et al., 2015; Tudor, 1993). As such, any intervention that increases the ability of teaching staff to connect to the students, benefits not only the student but also the workforce they go on to contribute to (Haertel et al., 1981). What is unknown, however, is how teaching staff perceive their role in this empathic relationship, especially in the sciences (chemistry, biology, physics, etc.). It is additionally unclear how these perceptions are affected by either subject area or the teaching staff’s previous teaching and life experience. This project would seek to interview teaching staff across a range of disciplines in order to unpack their views around empathy and how best to employ it in their teaching practices. Largescale questionaries undertaken with undergraduate students would allow a comparison between the perceptions of students with the teaching staff. Ideally, the results of this project would allow for a better understanding of how empathy can best be supported and embedded into the practices of teaching staff both within a university context but also into all teaching practices across society. REFERENCES Haertel, G. D., Walberg, H. J., &amp; Haertel, E. H. (1981). Socio-psychological environments and learning: A quantitative synthesis. British Educational Research Journal, 7(1), 27-36. Levin, D., Hammer, D., Elby, A., &amp; Coffey, J. (2012). Becoming a responsive science teacher: Focusing on student thinking in secondary science. National Science Teachers Association Arlington, VA. Robertson, A. D., Scherr, R., &amp; Hammer, D. (2015). Responsive teaching in science and mathematics. Routledge. Tudor, I. (1993). Teacher roles in the learner-centred classroom. ELT Journal, 47(1), 22-31.

Acceptance and values clarification versus cognitive restructuring and relaxation: A randomized controlled trial of ultra-brief non-expert-delivered coaching interventions for social resilience.

Low social resilience (e.g., susceptibility to social anxiety, and social avoidance) has been associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes, and can lead to ostracism. Support services such as university counselling centres, which deal with non-diagnosable psychological distress, linked to low social resilience, require effective yet brief interventions deliverable by non-experts to meet service demands. As it is not always possible to prevent subjectively negative experiences, acceptance-based interventions aim to change how we respond behaviourally to such experiences. The present study tests the efficacy of an ultra-brief (1hr) non-expert delivered acceptance and values-based (AV) coaching intervention to increase resilience to negative social interactions. This was compared to a comparable dose of a cognitive restructuring and relaxation-based (CRR) analogue, and a psycho-education and progressive muscle relaxation-based (PE-PMR) control. Participants ( N =60) were assessed on perceived burdensomeness, belonging, and 3 scenarios measuring anxiety and likelihood to engage in social situations. Participants then played Cyberball, an ostracising task, before recompleting the aforementioned measures. Physiological measures indicated Cyberball was an aversive experience. In the AV condition only, we observed an improved behavioral intention to engage with social scenarios ( dppc2 = .57). Ultra-brief AV-based coaching interventions delivered by non-expert coaches appear promising in increasing participant’s likelihood to continue engaging in social interactions after a stressful social experience. We tentatively conclude that gains in committed action may increase the propensity of at-risk individuals to seek social support

Data Management Challenges for Internet-scale 3D Search Engines

This paper describes the most significant data-related challenges involved in building internet-scale 3D search engines. The discussion centers on the most pressing data management issues in this domain, including model acquisition, support for multiple file formats, asset versioning, data integrity errors, the data lifecycle, intellectual property, and the legality of web crawling. The paper also discusses numerous issues that fall under the rubric of trustworthy computing, including privacy, security, inappropriate content, and copying/remixing of assets. The goal of the paper is to provide an overview of these general issues, illustrated by empirical data drawn from the internet's largest operational search engine. While numerous works have been published on 3D information retrieval, this paper is the first to discuss the real-world challenges that arise in building practical search engines at scale.Comment: Second version, distributed by SIGIR Foru