Lessons learned from implementing blended and online undergraduate chemistry laboratory teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic

In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic led to unprecedented circumstances which impacted significantly on Higher Education. Since that time, requirements for social distancing and reduced access to in-lab teaching facilities have meant a dramatic redesign of many Chemistry undergraduate laboratory courses. This chapter presents the lessons learned from the redevelopment of the 2020-2021 first-year chemistry undergraduate laboratory course at Durham University. The two pre-existing laboratory modules were converted from their traditional in-lab delivery (supported by online pre- and post-lab activities) to a blended delivery module and a fully online module. The blended module focused on the key manipulative skills students need to gain competence in to progress successfully to second year laboratory work. The fully online module focused on scientific enquiry skills. This chapter presents practical and theoretical considerations for the development of blended or online laboratory courses before discussing lessons learned from the evaluation of the process of implementing the course and the impact for students

Primary School Entry Assessment in New Zealand

There is a wide range of assessment tools used by schools to assess children at school entry in New Zealand. The lack of consistency of uptake and reporting of results leads to sporadic national data. This highlights a need for a national standardised assessment which can be used as a reliable baseline of what New Zealand children know when they start school and how they progress in their first year. The Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) assessment is a valid, reliable and internationally respected school entry assessment. The Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at the University of Canterbury used PIPS to collect data on 3916 students' early literacy and numeracy skills when they started school and followed up on their progress 12 months later. This provides a useful baseline of the literacy and numeracy skills New Zealand children have when they start school. The data is useful for the early identification of special learning needs and can be used to gauge the effectiveness of year 1 programmes

Baseline Evaluation of the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education Report

The Durham Commission on Creativity and Education published its Report on 11/10/2019 (Durham Commission, 2019). The Report contained a set of ten Recommendations, which aimed to establish and sustain the conditions for nurturing creativity in education through changes to the education system and wider system of learning for children. The ten Recommendations span a range of organisations that interact with the education of 0 to 18 year old children including the Department for Education, Ofqual, Ofsted, schools, Arts Council England, Higher Education Institutions, media organisations, youth sector organisations and call for change to take place at all levels of education. When it was first published the Report generated a large amount of interest through media coverage, parliamentary interest and access through the Durham Commission and Arts Council England (ACE) websites. This study aims to understand the early impact of the Report, four months on from its publication

The challenge and opportunities of quantum literacy for future education and transdisciplinary problem-solving

Background Knowledge of quantum computing is arguably inaccessible to many, with knowledge of the complex mathematics involving a particular barrier to entry, creating difficulty in terms of teaching and inclusive learning for those without a high level of mathematics. Meanwhile, it is increasingly important that the knowledge of quantum technologies is accessible to those who work with real-world applications and is taught to the younger generation. Purpose Resulting from collaborative dialogue between physicists, computer scientists, educationalists, and industrial end users, we propose the concept of quantum literacy as one means of addressing the need for transdisciplinary research in response to the complex problems that we see at the heart of issues around global sustainability. In this way, quantum literacy can contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education. Methods We introduce a specific puzzle visualization learning tool through which to achieve the pedagogic ends we set out with respect to quantum literacy. Visualization through puzzles can enable non-specialists to develop an intuitive, but still rigorous, understanding of universal quantum computation and provide a facility for non-specialists to discover increasingly complex and new quantum algorithms. Using the Hong–Ou–Mandel optical effect from quantum mechanics, we demonstrate how visual methods such as those made possible through the puzzle visualization tool can be very useful for understanding underlying complex processes in quantum physics and beyond and therefore support the aims of quantum literacy. Conclusion We argue that quantum literacy, as defined here, addresses the challenges of learning within a highly bounded discipline and of access to the kind of powerful knowledge that should be more accessible to a wide group of learners. We therefore argue for the importance of addressing pedagogic issues when powerful knowledge consists of dense concepts, as well as complex and hierarchical relations between concepts, in addition to presenting a strong barrier to entry in the form of mathematics