A Reflective Evaluation of Group Assessment

There is a general agreement in the literature that groupwork helps to develop important interpersonal and personal skills (Race, 2001; Visram & Joy, 2003; Elliot & Higgins, 2005; Kench et al, 2008). However, one of the problems with groupwork for both students and lecturers is how the work should be assessed (Parsons & Kassabova, 2002). The possibility of having ‘free-riders’ and the difficulty of fairly awarding marks to reflect the level of students’ contribution to a group output are some of the key problem areas in groupwork assessment (Race, 2001). Peer assessment is seen as one of the methods to deal with these problems. It can generally involve students assessing each other’s level of contribution to the group’s output (Visram & Joy, 2003). This paper provides our reflection on the use of peer assessment on a student group project

Born-Infeld Lagrangian using Cayley-Dickson algebras

We rewrite the Born-Infeld Lagrangian, which is originally given by the determinant of a $4 \times 4$ matrix composed of the metric tensor $g$ and the field strength tensor $F$, using the determinant of a $(4 \cdot 2^n) \times (4 \cdot 2^n)$ matrix $H_{4 \cdot 2^{n}}$. If the elements of $H_{4 \cdot 2^{n}}$ are given by the linear combination of $g$ and $F$, it is found, based on the representation matrix for the multiplication operator of the Cayley-Dickson algebras, that $H_{4 \cdot 2^{n}}$ is distinguished by a single parameter, where distinguished matrices are not similar matrices. We also give a reasonable condition to fix the paramet

A Laplace transform approach to the quantum harmonic oscillator

The one-dimensional quantum harmonic oscillator problem is examined via the Laplace transform method. The stationary states are determined by requiring definite parity and good behaviour of the eigenfunction at the origin and at infinity

The effect of environmental plasma interactions on the performance of the solar sail system

Interaction between the solar sail and the natural plasma environment were examined for deleterious impacts upon the operation of the sail and its associated payload. Electrostatic charging of the sail in the solar wind and in near earth environment were examined. Deployment problems were studied. An analysis of electromechanical oscillations coupling the sail to the natural plasma was performed. As a result of these studies, it was concluded that none of these effects will have a significant negative impact upon the sail operation. The natural environment will be significantly perturbed and this will preclude measurements of electric and magnetic fields from an attached payload