Curriculum reform based on the development of scientific competences: controversies in teachers’ opinions

This paper examines certain controversies among a group of secondary education science teachers with regard to the teacher’s role and his/her professional environment, their views being gathered following a training programme aimed at introducing a key competences approach into the Spanish science curriculum. During the programme they were required to design, implement, and assess their own teaching unit for developing students’ scientific competences by means of context-based learning. At the end of the programme a representative group of teachers were selected to take part in a focus group in which they discussed the training received and its transferability to the classroom. Their statements were then analysed and categorised in order to identify factors associated with their professional environment (at the level of both school and the wider education system) and the implications they had for classroom practice. The present study focuses on those aspects which generated controversy among the teachers, specifically as regards whether they were seen as facilitating or as an obstacle to the teaching of science via a competence-based approach. The issues of controversy related to the following topics: the approach to teaching, the content to be taught, the views of and coordination with colleagues, the utility of contexts and the need for reflection on one’s own practice. The paper concludes by considering potential reasons for these issues of controversy and the implications they have for a competence-based approach to teaching.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.I+D Excelencia project EDU2013-41952-

Archaeological remains from the siege of Madinat Basta (Baza, Spain), by the catholic monarchs in 1489

The Catholic Monarchs (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) besieged the cities of the last Islamic kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula during the War of Granada (1482-1492), until surrender the capital of the Nasrid dynasty, Madinat Garnata and Madina Alhambra. The military campaigns were strategically programmed. A series of cities was chosen so that their fall would cause the surrender of a part of the territory, due to a domino effect. The capture of Madinat Basta (Baza), to the extreme North of the Nasrid kingdom, was seen as an easy target by the strategists of the Catholic Monarchs. However, the battle-hardened defence of the population and the special configuration and territorial layout of the city resulted in one of the hardest sieges of the campaign, lasting from mid-June to the beginning of December, 1489. To achieve this goal they adopted a strategy that Scipio Africanus the Younger had already developed in 133 B.C., when he surrounded the Celtiberian city of Numantia. Around Baza there are archaeological remains of different structures that can be linked to this conflict. In this communication we have analysed the fortification works that could have been built during the Christian siege of 1489, on the basis of the archaeological evidence and the historical written sources.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Origen y peso de los medios noticiosos indexados en google news. Un análisis exploratorio de las ediciones de Brasil, Colombia y México

Google News is a controversial news aggregation service owned by Google. By analyzing 3,738,375 news stories added in the Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico editions from January to March of 2015, 2,246 news media outlets were identified. In these editions, specific to their countries, large, popular, and traditional news media such as G1 (under Globo.com), Terra Brasil, El Universal, ElTiempo.com, and Caracol Radio had the highest rates of news aggregation in their respective country edition. This meant that they had greater visibility as well as a higher probability of receiving traffic from it, above the other indexed news media outlets.O Google News é um serviço controverso de agregação de notícias de propriedade do Google. Ao analisar 3.738.375 notícias adicionadas nas edições Brasil, Colômbia e México, de janeiro a março de 2015, foram identificados 2.246 meios de comunicação. Nessas edições, específicas de seus países, grandes mídias, populares e tradicionais como G1 (sob Globo.com), Terra Brasil, El Universal, ElTiempo.com e Caracol Radio apresentaram as maiores taxas de agregação de notícias em suas respectivas edições de cada país. Isso significava que eles tinham maior visibilidade e maior probabilidade de receber tráfego deles, acima dos outros meios de comunicação indexados.Google News es un servicio de agregación de noticias controvertido propiedad de Google. Al analizar 3.738.375 noticias agregadas en las ediciones de Brasil, Colombia y México, de enero a marzo de 2015, se identificaron 2.246 medios. En estas ediciones, específicas de sus países, grandes medios, populares y tradicionales como G1 (bajo Globo.com), Terra Brasil, El Universal, ElTiempo.com y Caracol Radio presentaron las tasas más altas de agregación de noticias en su respectiva edición por país. Esto significaba que eran más visibles y más propensos a recibir tráfico de éste, por encima de otros medios noticiosos indexados

Desarrollo de materiales tio2 modificados con estaño para degradación de fármacos y su efecto toxicológico en especies acuáticas

En este trabajo se reporta la preparación por el método sol-gel de catalizadores de TiO2 modificado con diferentes cantidades de Sn, Ti-Sn(x) con relaciones molares x=SnO2/[SnO2 + TiO2] = 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, y 0.5. Los resultados revelan que el método de síntesis favorece la formación de TiO2 en la fase anatasa y que la incorporación de estaño en relaciones molares arriba de 0.3 promueve la formación de la fase cristalina como la rutilo, la relación anatasa:rutilo puede variar en función del contenido de estaño. Se evaluó el desempeño fotocatalítico de los catalizadores preparados en reacciones de degradación de AINEs presentes en aguas residuales provenientes de una industria farmacéutica, que contienen por separado paracetamol, diclofenaco, ibuprofeno y naproxeno. Los resultados muestran un comportamiento selectivo en función del contenido de estaño en el catalizador para la degradación de un fármaco especifico, las relaciones molares que presentaron mayor actividad catalítica son x= 0.0, 0.1, 0.2 y 0.3. La evaluación de la toxicidad en la mezcla de fármacos resulto ser muy prometedora con respecto al tratamiento ya que se observó un aumento en la CL50, lo cual indica que el organismo es más resistente a las aguas tratadas por el proceso de fotocatálisis y por lo tanto los resultados sugieren un decremento en la toxicidad. Es importante resaltar que en las evaluaciones de los parámetros de estrés oxidativo no se muestra diferencia significativa entre los organismos testigos y los expuestos a la mezcla de fármacos esto nos hace pensar que el tratamiento puedes ser usado en un efluente real sin peligro de generar toxicidad en la especies que en el habitan.CHT3658-UAEM CONACYT CB-16882

Robustness of time-dependent attractors in H1-norm for nonlocal problems

In this paper, the existence of regular pullback attractors as well as their upper semicontinuous behaviour in H1-norm are analysed for a parameterized family of non-autonomous nonlocal reaction-diffusion equations without uniqueness, improving previous results [Nonlinear Dyn. 84 (2016), 35–50].Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadFondo Europeo de Desarrollo RegionalJunta de Andalucí

Time-dependent attractors for non-autonomous nonlocal reaction-diffusion equations

In this paper, the existence and uniqueness of weak and strong solutions for a non-autonomous nonlocal reaction-diffusion equation is proved. Next, the existence of minimal pullback attractors in the L2 -norm in the frameworks of universes of fixed bounded sets and those given by a tempered growth condition, and some relationships between them are established. Finally, we prove the existence of minimal pullback attractors in the H1-norm and study relationships among these new families and those given previously in the L2 - context. The results are also new in the autonomous framework in order to ensure the existence of global compact attractors, as a particular case.Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadFondo Europeo de Desarrollo RegionalJunta de Andalucí