Riddle of the spirit: Promoting sustainability through playful learning design in Finnish education

Children are learning every moment; every childhood experience could influence their life-long values, behavioural development towards a sustainable way of living. To understand the new complex phenomena and make changes, children need relatively different competences, such as eco-literacy, empathy and systems thinking. Play, as a key way to explore the world, is seen as a significant element for promoting education for sustainability in childhood. Therefore, this thesis presents a new playset design as an alternative learning experience for children to study the abstract concept of sustainability. Setting Finland as the research context, this research examines how play design might promote climate education with diverse playthings and activities in Finnish early childhood and primary schools. The aim is to enhance children’s environmental knowledge, awareness and sense of responsibility, thus supporting teachers promoting relevant topics as ready-made learning materials. The set consists of one riddle as the storyline, seven playful activities with paper-based toys and templates. During the play, students acquire knowledge progressively and build the connection between themselves and climate issues through the story of an unwell “thunderstorms spirit”, inspired by Finnish myths, as core discussion. On the whole, the pedagogical framework combines elements of purposefully framed play, multi-literacy, phenomenon-based learning and imaginative education to deliver the learning goals of education for sustainability. The weight of this study lies on the practical design process of the playset. It involves methodology of transdisciplinary design research, double-diamond model, design thinking and user involvements. Contextual research includes interviews with educators and teachers, observation in a kindergarten, workshops, an analysis of the Finnish curriculum with a selected education model EarthCore by Worldwatch Institute. Further research will be collecting feedback from users to understand the exact application and produce more playful learning materials with other sustainability topics

Multiliteracies pedagogy promoting young children’s ecological literacy on climate change

Peer reviewe

The economic evaluation of the production of oil-palm-shell-based phenol

Previous work done in the extraction of phenol from oil palm shells showed that it contained up to 80.1% purity of phenolic compounds. The oil-palm-shell-based phenol is applicable to replace petroleum-based phenol in preparation of phenol formaldehyde wood adhesives. Since the average price of petroleum-based phenol is around RM 3600/ton, this work was done to estimate the cost of oil-palm-shell-based phenol. In this present research, three oil-palm-shell-based phenol manufacturing plants were investigated. Their manufacturing capacities are 1000 ton/year, 10 000 ton/year, and 100 000 ton/year. All the designs are based on the results from simulator DESIGN II. From the economic analysis, the cost of the oil-palm-shell-based phenol is RM 1084, RM 1008, and RM 972 per ton respectively. It shows that the cost of the oil-palm-shell-based phenol is reduced when the productivity is high. The net profit after taxes for these plants is RM 361,530, RM 4,140,764 and RM 43,943,092 per year respectively. The plants require 3 years for starting–up and their operating life is 17 years with a depreciation of 10% per year. For undiscounted cash flow, the pay back period is 10.0, 8.4, and 7.8 years respectively including the first 3 years. For different discount rates, values of net present value and discounted break–even point vary. The discounted cash flow rate of return is 14.0%, 20.0%, and 25.0% respectively in these plants with related net present value becomes zero. The after tax rate return obtained are 71%, 169%, and 426% respectively

A Context Aware Framework for User Centered Services

In this paper, we introduce a context aware middleware framework that has been developed over the years to serve as an enabler for user centered services. Firstly, we will discuss about a sensory API mechanism developed to allow an abstraction of sensing elements to report information in a structured manner. We will then proceed to discuss how this sensed information is represented in an ontology, replicating a virtual model of the environment. This will facilitate reasoning capabilities, where entities that are inter-related can be resolved and used by the service. And finally we will describe how context specific to a user-centered service could be subscribed from the middleware. The context, once subscribed, will enable actions to be fired off when the particular context is met. The three core components when put together, will allow for services to react more specific to the users needs, based on the user’s ever changing context

A short note on business cycles of underground output: are they asymmetric?

This short note as the first study investigates the symmetry of fluctuations of underground output around trend for four selected Southeast Asian countries, that is, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines, over the time horizon of 1970-2006. In particular, we test if the underground output falls below trend more drastically and severely at shorter time span than when rising above trend. We find no evidence that supports this hypothesis. We thus conclude that asymmetry in fluctuations around trend is not a primary concern in understanding the nature of underground economy. We suggest that the symmetry of fluctuation of underground output, in conjunction with the potential complementary effect on market consumption, may account for the widely documented expansionary fiscal contraction in developing countries.Underground economy

Theatre as an Individual and Collective Art

Art can be as tangible as objects. Art can also be as intangible as ideas. Art exists in multiple forms, such as painting, music, literatures, dancing, acting, and so on, which at the same time defines the form of theatre art. The multi-dimensional nature of theatre art is complex and requires a lot from people, including time, money, and effort. Such effort is not singular but rather diverse and multi-layered. It not only requires people to have contributive skills but also the ability to bind together the skills that different people have. Theatre is collaborative by nature, so communication is key. When people’s attention is drawn to the performance itself, the communication work behind the curtain is often left overlooked, which results in a lack of acknowledgement of people’s commitment and contribution and a lack of opportunity for improvement. Therefore, this project aims to illuminate the leadership and internal communication in a team, accompanied by a podcast episode “From Vision To Practice: A Conversation with Wendy-Marie.” Following Chapter One: Leadership and Internal Communication, which examines and evaluates group communication from a leadership and internal communication perspective, is Chapter Two: Practical Component describing the production of a podcast episode, and Chapter Three: Reflections and Artistic Analysis which recounts my artistic journey and my growth at Hollins University as a double major in Communication Studies and Theatre

Hard Water : Occurrence, Health Effects, and Consumer Drinking Practices in Brookings and Sioux Falls, South Dakota

In light of the probable benefits of drinking hard water, it would be anticipated that wherever hard water is available, dwellings would be plumbed to provide this water to the drinking tap. However, casual surveys in certain South Dakota communities had revealed that the plumbing is arranged in some dwellings so that drinking water available at the tap has been subjected to on-site softening. As a result, the water consumer has not only been deprived of the benefits of drinking hard water, but also subjected to the health hazards of drinking high-sodium water from ion­exchange softeners. The primary objective of this research was to determine the extent to which water softeners in residential homes are plumbed in such a manner that only soft water is available for drinking, thus depriving consumers of an important source of calcium and magnesium. The objectives of the research were: 1. To identify regions of. the United States where hard water supplies are available and those with soft water supplies. 2. To review the literature on the relation between hardness of water and CVD and establish the current views on this subject. 3. To establish the current most suitable daily calcium requirement for good health and prevention of osteoporosis based on age and gender as established by the medical and scientific community. 4. To determine the extent to which drinking water currently contributes to the daily calcium and magnesium requirement. 5. To determine the extent to which dwellings in two cities in South Dakota have been plumbed to provide water for drinking that has been softened by on-site, ion-exchange units where hard water could have been provided instead. By meeting the objectives outlined in this research, information regarding the many health benefits of drinking hard water and the hazards of drinking soft water could be enumerated. Also, the extent to which consumers drink on-site softened water when hard water is available will be estimated. If this practice appears extensive, this information could be used to publicize the need for changes in plumbing codes and procedures to ensure full advantage is taken of the health benefits of drinking hard water

Display of the VP1 epitope of foot-and-mouth disease virus on bacteriophage T7 and its application in diagnosis

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious epidemic disease threatening the cattle industry since the sixteenth century. In recent years, the development of diagnostic assays for FMD has benefited considerably from the advances of recombinant DNA technology. In this study, the immunodominant region of the capsid protein VP1 of the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) was fused to the T7 bacteriophage and expressed on the surface of the bacteriophage capsid protein. The recombinant protein of about 42 kDa was detected by the anti-T7 tag monoclonal antibody in Western blot analysis. Phage ELISA showed that both the vaccinated and positive infected bovine sera reacted significantly with the recombinant T7 particle. This study demonstrated the potential of the T7 phage displaying the VP1 epitope as a diagnostic reagent

A framework to develop an expert injection mold planning system for early product design decisions

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