Summary of Effects: Impact of InTERSECT on Student Math Achievement and Teacher Perceptions

This summary of project evaluation findings was presented to the InTERSECT team and DCPS leaders in February 2023 as a supplement to the Year 2 Summative Evaluation Report. The evaluation examined effects of Project InTERSECT on Cohorts 1 and 2, including student mathematics achievement and teacher perceptions. The project has had significant impacts on students’ mathematics achievement. Compared to a business-as-usual group (which was matched to the treatment group based on pretest scores, demographics, and grade level), students in Project InTERSECT classrooms performed significantly higher on iReady Math assessments. Treatment effects were particularly large for kindergarten (Hedges’ g = .34) and first grade students (g = .21). InTERSECT also impacted teachers’ perceptions. Compared to business-as-usual teachers, participants’ efficacy for teaching STEM was significantly higher, with large effects evident in efficacy for teaching Computational Thinking (g = 1.11), Math (g = .91), and Science (g = .63). Participation in InTERSECT also predicted teachers’ leadership beliefs (g = .48); perceptions of the quality and relevance of PD (g = 1.02), collaboration/coaching (g = .79), and feedback (g = .96). In general, findings are consistent across the Teacher Leader and PD pathways, suggesting the effectiveness of both teacher dosages in promoting improvements in teacher perceptions and student performance.https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/stem_research/1001/thumbnail.jp

Truly Accomplished: Effectiveness Of A Measurement And Feedback Approach To Lifestyle Change

Individuals’ personal improvement efforts are pervasive and the benefits associated with successful self-improvement are both tangible (e.g., healthier lifestyles, more intimate relationships) and intangible (e.g., personal accomplishment, enhanced well-being). As evidenced by research on work-family spillover, self-improvement also has important implications for organizations, as there is considerable crossover between work and non-work domains. The current study tested the effectiveness of Truly Accomplished, an intervention designed to help individuals develop personalized systems for measuring and improving behavior, and examined the extent to which the outcomes associated with such behavior change exhibit positive spillover effects into the workplace. Participants (N = 44) experienced large gains in effectiveness (d = 2.93). Effectiveness gain was predicted by conscientiousness (r = .40), core self-evaluations (r = .42), and psychological safety (r = .64). Learning goal orientation and performance goal orientation interacted with perceived goal difficulty to predict effectiveness gain. Overall effectiveness gain was negatively related to stress and positively related to future change efficacy, job-related efficacy, and satisfaction with the intervention. Job satisfaction and job efficacy increased following feedback, providing some evidence of spillover. Results have implications for individual behavior and attitude change, and its impact seems to extend into subjective well-being above and beyond actual behavior change. Evidence of spillover has implications for organizations, suggesting that TA may be used as a mechanism through which job-related outcomes can be improved

How to Save the World: One life (and UAV) at a time!

The proliferation of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) in commercial and public service aviation arenas has begun to gain the attention of many citizens. Popularized vehicles such as quadcopters have applications in aerial photography, small package delivery and hobbyist/consumer interests. Use of small-scale, fixed- and rotary-wing, remotely operated systems has been popularized as a result of such vehicles’ size and operational simplicity, which widens the range of application of this technology. Public service applications have the potential to advance emergency services management, which can substantially contribute to the public wellbeing. This research will examine the utility of multi-rotor systems in the context of the design of emergency response vehicles. Various vehicle design parameters will be analyzed with RotCFD, a computational fluid dynamics tool tailored for aerial vehicle conceptual design

Evaluation of the Wadden Sea Particularly sensitive Sea Area. On behalf of the Common Wadden Sea Secretariat.

The purpose of this document is to present the high level outcomes for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Wadden Sea PSSA, seven years after its designation by the IMO. Key changes with regard to IMO and EU shipping policy are identified and described, followed by a review of ‘expert’ opinion focused on the issues relating to PSSAs. The development of an evaluative framework and the resulting findings are introduced and discussed in context. Using existing data against this evaluative framework we conclude that six key elements require action in order to fully describe the efficacy of the designation, and our recommendations to address these concerns are presented.<br/

goDesign Express 2011 Workshop

The goDesign Express 2011 Workshop was a design immersion workshop run by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Built Environment and Engineering Faculty during three weeks of 70-minute art class periods/sessions in August/September 2011 at Morayfield State High School, for 80 Grade 10 and 64 Grade 11 art students and two teachers, and October 2011 at Narangba Valley State High School for 60 Grade 10 and 30 Grade 11 art students and two teachers. Funded and administrated through QUT’s Widening Participation Program, which supports outreach activities to increase tertiary enrolments for under represented groups (such as low-SES, rural and indigenous students), the program utilised two activities from Day 1 of the highly successful 3-day goDesign Travelling Workshop Program for Regional Secondary Students (http://eprints.qut.edu.au/47747/). In contrast to this program, which was facilitated by two tertiary design educators, the goDesign Express 2011 Workshop was facilitated primarily by three tertiary interior design/architecture students, with assistance from a design educator. This action research study aimed to facilitate an awareness in young people, of the value of design thinking skills in generating strategies to solve local community challenges. It also aimed to investigate the value of collaboration between secondary school students and teachers, and tertiary design students and educators, in inspiring post-secondary pathways for school students, professional development for schoolteachers, and alternative career prospects and leadership skills for tertiary design students. During the workshop, secondary students and teachers explored, analysed and reimagined their local community through a series of scaffolded problem solving activities around the theme of ‘place’. Students worked individually and in groups designing graphics, fashion and products, and utilising sketching, making, communication, collaboration and presentation skills to improve their design process, while considering social, cultural and environmental opportunities for their local community. The workshop was mentioned in a news article in the local Caboolture Shire Herald newspaper

Learning by Design Workshop 2010

The Learning by Design Workshop Program 2010, a part of the Queensland Government Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific Event Program, was a one-day professional development design thinking workshop run on October 9, 2011 at The Edge, State Library of Queensland for self-selected public and private secondary school teachers from the subject areas of Visual Art, Graphics and Industrial Technology and Design. Participants were drawn from a database of Brisbane and regional Queensland schools from the goDesign and Living City Workshop Programs. It aimed to generate leadership within schools for design-led education and creative thinking and give teachers a rare opportunity to work with professional designers to generate future strategies for design-based learning. Teachers were introduced to the concept of design thinking in education by international keynote speakers CJ Lim (Studio 8 Architects) and Jeb Brugmann (The Next Practice), national speaker Oliver Freeman (NevilleFreeman Agency) and three Queensland speakers, Alexander Loterztain, David Williams and Keith Holledge. Inspired by the Unlimited showcase exhibition Make Change: Design Thinking in Action and ‘Idea Starters’/teaching resources provided, teachers worked with a professional designer (from a discipline of architecture, interior design, industrial design, urban design, graphic design or landscape architecture) in ten random teams, to generate optimistic ideas for the Ideal City of tomorrow, each considering a theme – Food, Water, Transport, Ageing, Growth, Employment, Shelter, Health, Education and Energy. They then discussed how this process could be best activated and expanded on to build interest and knowledge in design thinking in the classroom. Assisted by illustrators, the teams prepared a visual presentation of their ideas and process from art materials provided. The workshop culminated in a video-taped interactive design charette to the larger group, which is intended to be utilised as a toolkit and praxis for teachers as part of the State Library of Queensland Design Minds Website Project

Searching for Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea

The Colorado River Basin runs through multiple states in the West of the United States and is a prime water source for about 30 million people in our nation and is used for much of the farmland and agricultural needs in this area. Using cultures derived from the Colorado River Basin a multitude of tests were run in order to determine more about the microbes that are thriving within the river, specifically from archeal phylum Thaumarchaeota. These are ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) who perform nitrification by converting ammonia into nitrite, a process that was previously thought to only be achieved by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB). Currently there is limited information about Thaumarchaeota, during this research further exploration of the microbe was hoping to reveal more information. While the research did not reveal any new information about the archaea, it did reveal that there were bacteria surviving in the extreme conditions within the lab kept cultures. As a result, further research is still needed but the progress that is being made allows scientists a way to continue providing the nation with more information about their natural resources