Advantages and Problems Regarding Content and Language Integrated Learning on the Example of Miina Härma Gymnasium

Supervisor: Natalja ZaguraIn recent years Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has attracted much attention in Europe and other parts of the world as a way of acquiring any foreign language in the natural environments. Therefore, the research project presented in this thesis was carried out to learn more about the usefulness of CLIL. Thus, the thesis deals with the advantages and problems of CLIL. The purpose of the thesis is to provide an overview of the most relevant literature regarding CLIL. The goal of the action research is to investigate what the CLIL teachers and the CLIL students of Miina Härma Gymnasium, Tartu see as the advantages and problems of CLIL, in reality being a part of it themselves. Consequently, the present thesis has a potential to make a valuable contribution to the field of CLIL application research. Chapter one is based on secondary sources and gives an overview of the different methods most often used within CLIL, thereafter the main advantages of CLIL are described, which are followed by the most common problems regarding CLIL. Furthermore, there is a section about its educational service. The next section provides information on CLIL in Estonia, followed by the description of the qualities of good CLIL teachers and strategies for teachers towards quality CLIL. Last, ten tips for CLIL teachers of maths and science are presented and discussed. Chapter two introduces the methods and the results of an action research conducted in the scope of the present thesis. The purpose of the thesis was to carry out research on the advantages and problems regarding CLIL on the example of Miina Härma Gymnasium and also to get feedback on how the CLIL students have comprehended the terminology of chemistry and can apply the knowledge to more practical tasks. Five CLIL teachers and also five CLIL students of Miina Härma Gymnasium were interviewed. In addition to that, a chemistry test on the properties of metals was carried out. Nine CLIL students and nine control group students completed the test. The results of the study were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively

Choran community: The aesthetics of encounter in literary and photographic modernism

This dissertation examines novels, photographs, and phototexts by British and American artists published between the world wars in order to argue that these works re-envision community through a narrative aesthetic, which I term the choran moment, that communicates the possibility of genuinely empathetic understanding between self and other. My study of literary and photographic modernism is based upon these modern artists\u27 awareness of an ever-present, organic community allied in common knowledge of the interconnection among humanity offered through convergence with and respect for difference. These choran moments of correlation are key to the aesthetics and therefore the politics of modernist writers Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston, and photographers Gertrude Kasebier, James Van Der Zee, and Walker Evans. The artists I discuss share a common humanist concern for creating moments of wholeness in their work. Moreover, their evocations of choran moments lead to communal interconnectivity for both artist and audience. The longing to rediscover a choran moment allows modern artists and audiences to rediscover a wholeness of self---the first step toward finding intersubjectivity and, finally, interconnective community through art. The ethical encounter, enacted in the choran moment, invites both contemporary audiences and the present scholarly community to read modernism as an attempt at rebuilding interconnectivity. Through my intervention into established critical categories of Modernism, I identify a particular expression of the period by examining how a broad selection of writers and photographers engage with a common humanist concern for recreating community through their art. My assessment of a diverse set of writers and photographers enables literary critics to include all of these previously unconnected artists under a new critical category of modernist narratives of community in order to see the work of these modernists as interconnected, resonant, and mutually productive. We are the scholars who can benefit from these artists\u27 potentially transformative aesthetic of modernist choran moments and communal interconnectivity

Reply to the Comment on “Astronomical constraints on the duration of the Early Jurassic Pliensbachian Stage and global climatic fluctuations” (Ruhl et al., Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 455 (2016) 149–165)

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record

Interannual Southern California Precipitation Variability During the Common Era and the ENSO Teleconnection

Southern California’s Mediterranean‐type hydroclimate is highly variable on interannual time scales due to teleconnected climate forcings such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Here we present subannually resolved scanning X‐ray fluorescence Ti counts from deep‐sea cores in Santa Barbara Basin, California, recording 2,000 years of hydroclimate variability. The reconstructed Southern California precipitation record contains interannual variability in the 2‐ to 7‐year band that could be driven by changes in tropical Pacific ENSO variability and/or the strength of the ENSO teleconnection modulated by extratropical pressure systems. Observed interannual precipitation variance increased and was associated with longer periodicities (5–7 years) when the Intertropical Convergence Zone migrated southward (1370–1540 CE) and the Aleutian Low strengthened creating a robust ENSO teleconnection. Weak interannual precipitation variance with shorter periodicity (2–3 years) was observed when the Intertropical Convergence Zone shifted northward (700–900 CE) and/or the Aleutian Low was weak (1540–1680 CE).Plain Language SummaryEl Niños occur when the rising branch of atmospheric circulation in the tropical Pacific shifts eastward, driving changes in air temperature and rainfall around the globe. Rainfall in Southern California often increases during El Niño events causing rivers to carry extra sediment to the ocean. We reconstructed Southern California rainfall for every year of the last 2,000 years using the elemental signature of river sediment deposited in Santa Barbara Basin. We found that after ~1350 CE, when the Aleutian Low was strong, interannual rainfall in Southern California varied more and with longer cycles (5 to 7 years). During this time, the region of rising air at the equator was further south and storms over the North Pacific Ocean were stronger and occurred further east. Both of these changes in atmospheric circulation increased the Southern California rainfall response to El Niño events in the tropical Pacific Ocean.Key PointsThe interannual (2‐ to 7‐year band) precipitation in Southern California is closely related to ENSO variance originating from the tropical PacificExtratropical pressure systems modulate the interannual precipitation changes in Southern California by influencing the ENSO teleconnectionThe magnitude and frequency of interannual precipitation variance in Southern California changes throughout the past 2,000 yearsPeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153690/1/grl60057_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/153690/2/grl60057.pd

Rock Magnetic Cyclostratigraphy of Permian Loess in Eastern Equatorial Pangea (Salagou Formation, South-Central France)

We present the findings from analysis and modeling of a stratigraphic series of magnetic susceptibility (MS) data measured with a portable MS meter from the Permian Salagou Formation loessite (south-central France). The results reveal discernible Milankovitch-scale paleoclimatic variability throughout the Salagou Formation, recording astronomically forced climate change in deep-time loessite of eastern equatorial Pangea. Optimal sedimentation rates are estimated to have ranged between 9.4 cm/kyr (lower Salagou Formation) and 13 cm/kyr (mid-upper Salagou Formation). A persistent 10-m-thick cyclicity is present that likely represents orbital eccentricity-scale (∼100 kyr) variability through the middle to late Cisuralian (ca. 285—275 Ma). Subordinate, higher frequency cycles with thicknesses of ∼3.3–3.5 and ∼1.8 m appear to represent obliquity and precession-scale variability. If the driver of magnetic enhancement is pedogenic, then the ∼10 m thick cyclicity that is consistent over ∼1000 m of section may represent the thickness of loessite–paleosol couplets in the Salagou Formation. Laboratory rock magnetic data show generally low magnetic enhancement compared to analogous Eurasian Quaternary loess deposits. This is related to the predominance of hematite (substantially weaker signal than magnetite or maghemite) in the Salagou Formation which may be explained by different conditions of formation (e.g., syn depositional processes, more arid, and/or oxidizing climate conditions) than in present Eurasia and/or post depositional oxidation of magnetite and maghemite. © Copyright © 2020 Pfeifer, Hinnov, Zeeden, Rolf, Laag and Soreghan

Millennial-scale climate cycles in Permian-Carboniferous rhythmites: Permanent feature throughout geologic time?

Two late Paleozoic glacial rhythmite successions from the Itarare Group (Parana Basin, Brazil) were examined for paleoclimate variations. Paleomagnetic (characteristic remanent magnetization, ChRM) and magnetic susceptibility (K(z)) measurements taken from the rhythmites are interpreted as paleoclimatic proxies. Ratios of low-frequency components in the K(z) variations suggest Milankovitch periodicities; this leads to recognition of other, millennial-scale variations reminiscent of abrupt climate changes during late Quaternary time, and are suggestive of Bond cycles and the 2.4 k.y. solar cycle. We infer from these patterns that millennial-scale climate change is not restricted to the Quaternary Period, and that millennial forcing mechanisms may have been prevalent throughout geologic time.Brazilian agency FAPESP [02/06480-0]Brazilian agency CAPES [2603-07-1]Brazilian agency FAPERJ [E-26/102.033/2009

Optimizing significance testing of astronomical forcing in cyclostratigraphy

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Aluminum limiter experiment in ST tokamak

In order to investigate the effects of a light-element limiter on plasma parameters, aluminum rail limiters interchangeable with Mo rails were installed top, bottom, and outside directions in the ST tokamak. The inside limiter remained a fixed Mo rail. Compared with discharges produced immediately before and after with the usual Mo limiters, the "aluminum" discharges showed an increase of T/sub e/ (by factors of 1.4-2 near the center) and of energy confinement (by factors of 2 to 3 in el. energy/power input, depending on time of observation). H/sub 2/ and He discharges showed practically identical effects. In plasma composition, the Mo concentration dropped significantly, but Fe only slightly if at all; the Al concentration was about 3-5 percent (i.e., large compared to the heavier metals), whereas oxygen, about 4 to 8 percent to start with, dropped to insignificance, probably as a result of Al evaporation. The z/sub eff/ from resistivity increased 20-30 percent although the resistance dropped because of the higher T/sub e/. The improved T/sub e/ and energy confinement are thought to be the result of cumulative effects of more favorable radial current and power input distributions rather than direct energy losses by radiation

High‐resolution rock magnetic cyclostratigraphy in an Eocene flysch, Spanish Pyrenees

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95346/1/ggge1746.pd

Astronomical constraints on the duration of the Early Jurassic Pliensbachian Stage and global climatic fluctuations

The Early Jurassic was marked by multiple periods of major global climatic and palaeoceanographic change, biotic turnover and perturbed global geochemical cycles, commonly linked to large igneous province volcanism. This epoch was also characterised by the initial break-up of the super-continent Pangaea and the opening and formation of shallow-marine basins and ocean gateways, the timing of which are poorly constrained. Here, we show that the Pliensbachian Stage and the Sinemurian–Pliensbachian global carbon-cycle perturbation (marked by a negative shift in δ13Cδ13C of 2–4‰2–4‰), have respective durations of ∼8.7 and ∼2 Myr. We astronomically tune the floating Pliensbachian time scale to the 405 Kyr eccentricity solution (La2010d), and propose a revised Early Jurassic time scale with a significantly shortened Sinemurian Stage duration of 6.9±0.4 Myr6.9±0.4 Myr. When calibrated against the new time scale, the existing Pliensbachian seawater 87Sr/86Sr record shows relatively stable values during the first ∼2 Myr of the Pliensbachian, superimposed on the long-term Early Jurassic decline in 87Sr/86Sr. This plateau in 87Sr/86Sr values coincides with the Sinemurian–Pliensbachian boundary carbon-cycle perturbation. It is possibly linked to a late phase of Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) volcanism that induced enhanced global weathering of continental crustal materials, leading to an elevated radiogenic strontium flux to the global ocean