An Investigation of Secondary Students’ Mental Models of Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published inResearch in Science Education. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-018-9703-1There are several studies dealing with students’ conceptions on climate change, but most of them refer to understanding before instruction. In contrast, this study investigates students’ conceptions and describes the levels of sophistication of their mental models on climate change and the greenhouse effect. The participants were 40 secondary students (grade 7) in Spain. As a method of data collection, a questionnaire was designed with open-ended questions focusing on the mechanism, causes, and actions that could be useful in reducing climate change. Students completed the same questionnaire before and after instruction. The students’ conceptions and mental models were identified by an inductive and iterative analysis of the participants’ explanations. With regard to the students’ conceptions, the results show that they usually link climate change to an increase in temperature, and they tend to mention, even after instruction, generic actions to mitigate climate change, such as not polluting. With regard to the students’ mental models, the results show an evolution of models with little consistency and coherence, such as the models on level 1, towards higher levels of sophistication. The paper concludes with educational implications proposed for solving learning difficulties regarding the greenhouse effect and climate changeS

As denominacións da ‘chuvia miúda’: variedades diatópicas e lingua literaria

Este relatorio ten a pretensión de percorrer de forma sintética e xeral as diferentes, e abundantes, denominacións que recibe o orballo 'chuvia miúda' no territorio de fala galega. Trátase dun estudo histórico-etimolóxico e motivacional dos datos dialectais e da súa presenza nos dicionarios e na literatura galega

Denominacións para ‘pedra’, ‘penedo’ e conceptos afíns en galego

Pretendemos aproximarnos ó campo semántico das pedras, baseándonos esencialmente no material do ALGa ó que engadiremos información complementaria tirada de traballos dialectais sobre a fala de distintos lugares de Galicia (estudos monográficos contemporáneos éditos e inéditos). Con todo, levar a cabo aquí un estudo, aínda que fose superficial, desta noción e conceptos afíns era unha tarefa inviable se se pretendía respecta-lo tempo de exposición

Dirección y evaluación de políticas públicas en base a la evidencia: ¿dónde se encuentra la Administración General del Estado?

Institutional intelligence offers a new perspective on data analysis to generate knowledge and to guide decision-making process. To manage it properly, the data value chain must be supported by a governance framework. This article identifies the components required for its application and highlights the benefits and opportunities for guiding public policies through evidence are highlighted, as well as the risks and obstacles to be faced. In addition, a review of the national and European regulatory context is carried out where data come to occupy a primary place in the work done by the Public Administration. The existence in the Spanish State Administration of structures, competencies and experiences related to the process of obtaining and managing data, its transformation into information and this into knowledge, is analyzed. With this research, it can be stated that there is evidence that places the SSA on the path of becoming a data-driven organization and some proposals for improvement are suggested to guide it.La inteligencia institucional plantea una nueva visión del análisis de los datos para generar conocimiento y apoyar la toma de decisiones. Para gestionarla correctamente, la cadena de valor de los datos se debe encontrar amparada por un marco de gobernanza. En este trabajo se identifican los componentes requeridos para su aplicación y se destacan los beneficios y oportunidades de orientar las políticas públicas mediante la evidencia, así como los riesgos y obstáculos a afrontar. Se lleva a cabo, además, un repaso del contexto normativo nacional y europeo donde los datos pasan a ocupar un lugar primordial en la labor de la Administración Pública. Se analiza la existencia en la Administración General del Estado de unidades orgánicas, competencias y experiencias vinculadas al proceso de obtención y gestión de datos, su transformación en información y ésta en conocimiento. Con la investigación que se presenta, se concluye que hay evidencias que sitúan a la AGE en el camino de convertirse en una data-driven organization y se aportan unas propuestas de mejora para guiarla en el mismo

Teaching of fine arts: new strategies and new languages for arts education; graphic design

En la Facultad de Bellas Artes de Pontevedra (la única en Galicia) hasta la implantación del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) la formación era básicamente procedimental, casi exclusivamente ligada a las áreas de la plástica tradicional; escultura, pintura y dibujo. Con los nuevos planes de estudio se han incorporado de forma explícita, contenidos vinculados al denominado “territorio expandido del arte”, nuevos espacios de creación y nuevas maneras de entender el lenguaje artístico que pasan por el cuestionamiento del concepto tradicional del Arte entendido como sistema aurático. Esta formación ha puesto en valor un perfil de profesor que ha comenzado a incorporarse a las áreas de “didáctica de la plástica” que utiliza como herramienta formativa los códigos de los nuevos lenguajes del arte.In the Faculty of Fine Arts of Pontevedra (the only faculty of this kind in Galicia) up to the introduction of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) the training was basically procedural, almost exclusively linked to the areas of traditional plastic expression, sculpture, painting and drawing Thanks to the new study programmes we have explicitly added contents linked to the so-called “extended territory of art”, new spaces of creation and new ways of understanding the artistic language that question the concept of traditional art, understood as auratic system. This training has added value to a profile of teachers that has been incorporated to the areas of “plastic expression training” that uses an educational tool codes of the new languages of ar

Satisfiers for children development at rural-urban interphase contexts

This paper analyzes the satisfiers of child development present in the care practices that parents and caregivers implement with their children between 0 and 8 years old, from the perspective of a human scale development. The participants, mainly women, were interviewed in focus groups and the information collected was processed with the technique of categorical information analysis. The results showed that caregivers usually use practices that contain synergistic satisfiers of child development, but also practices that can be considered inhibitory and pseudo-satisfying for the care and upbringing of children.Este artículo analiza los satisfactores del desarrollo infantil presentes en las prácticas de cuidado que padres y cuidadores implementan con sus niños entre los 0 y 8 años de edad, desde la perspectiva del desarrollo a escala humana. Los participantes, principalmente mujeres, fueron entrevistadas en grupos focales y la información recolectada se procesó con la técnica del análisis categorial de información. Los resultados mostraron que los cuidadores suelen utilizar prácticas que contienen satisfactores sinérgicos del desarrollo infantil, pero también dan cuenta de prácticas que se pueden considerar inhibidoras y pseudosatisfactoras en el proceso de cuidado y crianza de los niños

Art training for primary education teachers to develop collaborative projects

The education sector is undergoing a significant transformation in which the art education is present because of its interdisciplinary nature. Consequently, it is essential to train teachers in the plastic and visual expressions. As artists and teachers, we present three educational experiences with working groups in order to show the strengths and the opportunities of an art training in proceedings, processes and resources, enabling teachers to automatically develop different collaborative projects in the classroominfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Novel CircRNA Discovery in Sheep Shows Evidence of High Backsplice Junction Conservation

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are covalently closed circular non-coding RNAs. Due to their structure, circRNAs are more stable and have longer half-lives than linear RNAs making them good candidates for disease biomarkers. Despite the scientific relevance of these molecules, the study of circRNAs in non-model organisms is still in its infancy. Here, we analyse total RNA-seq data to identify circRNAs in sheep from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and parietal lobe cortex. Out of 2510 and 3403 circRNAs detected in parietal lobe cortex and in PBMCs, a total of 1379 novel circRNAs were discovered. Remarkably, around 63% of all detected circRNAs were found to be completely homologous to a circRNA annotated in human. Functional enrichment analysis was conducted for both tissues based on GO terms and KEGG pathways. The enriched terms suggest an important role of circRNAs from encephalon in synaptic functions and the involvement of circRNAs from PBMCs in basic immune system functions. In addition to this, we investigated the role of circRNAs in repetitive vaccination experiments via differential expression analysis and did not detect any significant relationship. At last, our results support both the miRNA sponge and the miRNA shuttle functions of CDR1-AS in sheep brain. To our knowledge, this is the first study on circRNA annotation in sheep PBMCs or parietal lobe cortex samples.This work was supported by a Spanish Ministry of Economy grant AGL2013-49137-C3 to BMJ; EV-M is a predoctoral fellow from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) [PIF15/361] and received a grant for a short-term scientific mission (STSM) from the Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes—European network (FAANG-Europe) [COST Action CA15112