Developing a survey instrument to evaluate tertiary chemistry students' attitudes and learning experiences

New Zealand tertiary institutions, like others worldwide, have experienced a decline in science and chemistry enrolments in recent times as students seek other career paths that they perceive to be more lucrative. In a previous article we described a qualitative study of the learning experiences of students enrolled in a first year chemistry course at a New Zealand tertiary institution. Researchers in education and science education have two choices of methodology, a qualitative or a quantitative approach, and each possesses advantages and disadvantages. Qualitative studies typically use resource intensive data gathering techniques such as interviews. These studies are useful in that they allow researchers to study issues of interest in great depth and, for example, allow investigators to probe for underlying reasons about students' views for abstract scientific concepts. However, because qualitative studies are more labour intensive, they typically involve only small numbers of participants, which in the minds of many researchers and teachers results in a lack of generalisability. In other words, it is not necessarily clear what implications the findings hold in other contexts. In contrast, quantitative studies involve larger numbers of participants. By the judicious use of statistical analysis, researchers can investigate changes and trends, and extrapolate their findings to a large (or target) population. However, whilst the results from quantitative studies are more generalisable, they are often less detailed. Hence researchers are confronted with a trade-off situation in which they must choose between the depth of understanding provided from qualitative studies, versus the generalisability of a quantitative approach: because of this dilemma, increasingly researchers employ a mixed methodology approach. In this paper we describe a quantitative study that complements previous qualitative work. We report on the development of a questionnaire that investigates tertiary level learning experiences of chemistry students, along with their attitude toward chemistry and chemistry self-efficacy

The Illustration of Experience

Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/351) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.This thesis documents and describes a research project driven by the creative practice of an illustrator. It examines the proposition that the visual mark can act as a register of experience. The research comprises three bodies of work each of which address a specific issue within the broader context of the research proposition. Knowledge gained through practical exploration is discussed in the context of illustration as well as contemporary systems and models of aesthetic representation. Overview Chapter one discusses the origins of this research project and charts the establishment of a methodology. Working under the preliminary title The Illustration of Conversational Time and Space, the practice explores how human conversation and physical interaction can be recorded and illustrated. This research results in the title being changed to The Illustration of Experience in order to reflect a significant transition in thinking and approach. Chapter two addresses the question how can experience be illustrated? Experiences are first identified and then recorded using an established vocabulary of reflexive gestural marks. These marks are in turn subject to further investigation through a more considered system of reproduction and replication. This pursuit of a mimetic representation, I argue, creates a direct access to the actualities of the experience, as interpreted by the unconscious, and reveals a fundamental connection between phenomenological sensation and learnt aesthetic reasoning. The research proposes that the appearance of an illustration of experience is not directed by the phenomenological interpretation of an event but by the representation process itself. Chapter three challenges the conclusions of chapter two by asking how the unconscious transformation of source into experience can be illustrated? This is achieved by symbolically aligning this metaphysical transformation with the physical movement of an object through space. In doing so, the research attempts to move beyond the conventional codes of aesthetic understanding and questions illustration's traditional associations with referentiality and elucidation. The research concludes that an illustration of experience's epistemological value is heavily dependent upon the interpretation of the viewer. Chapter four expands upon the hypotheses formulated in chapter three by constructing an illustration of experience that is devoid of all mimetic reference. The research confirms the earlier understanding that mimesis is not an inherent quality in all representational art forms, but is in fact determined by the viewer's independent knowledge and understanding of the subject matter presented. It is concluded that while an illustration of experience's epistemological value is dependent upon the viewer's interpretation, interpretation is not itself contingent upon the presence of an explicit mimetic (visual) vocabulary. It has been the intention of the research to challenge existing models of illustrative communication by devising original creative structures that support the illustration of experience. Although this research identifies with a range of contemporary and historical models of enquiry, thorough searches have revealed no previous research in this area. It is therefore hoped that this research will provide a solid base from which future investigations can develop. This research project would serve as an introduction to other researchers trained as illustrators to deeply investigate the meaning and functions of their creative processes in order to reflect back on the discipline of illustration and how it might register experience

EFRC Bulletin 81 December 2005

EFRC's regular Bulletin with updates from the Organic Advisory Servic

Brain amyloid in preclinical Alzheimer\u27s disease is associated with increased driving risk

INTRODUCTION: Postmortem studies suggest that fibrillar brain amyloid places people at higher risk for hazardous driving in the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS: We administered driving questionnaires to 104 older drivers (19 AD, 24 mild cognitive impairment, and 61 cognitive normal) who had a recent (18)F-florbetapir positron emission tomography scan. We examined associations of amyloid standardized uptake value ratios with driving behaviors: traffic violations or accidents in the past 3 years. RESULTS: The frequency of violations or accidents was curvilinear with respect to standardized uptake value ratios, peaking around a value of 1.1 (model r(2) = 0.10, P = .002); moreover, this relationship was evident for the cognitively normal participants. DISCUSSION: We found that driving risk is strongly related to accumulating amyloid on positron emission tomography, and that this trend is evident in the preclinical stage of AD. Brain amyloid burden may in part explain the increased crash risk reported in older adults

Control theory for principled heap sizing

We propose a new, principled approach to adaptive heap sizing based on control theory. We review current state-of-the-art heap sizing mechanisms, as deployed in Jikes RVM and HotSpot. We then formulate heap sizing as a control problem, apply and tune a standard controller algorithm, and evaluate its performance on a set of well-known benchmarks. We find our controller adapts the heap size more responsively than existing mechanisms. This responsiveness allows tighter virtual machine memory footprints while preserving target application throughput, which is ideal for both embedded and utility computing domains. In short, we argue that formal, systematic approaches to memory management should be replacing ad-hoc heuristics as the discipline matures. Control-theoretic heap sizing is one such systematic approach

Long-Term Effects of Community Service Programs

The need to develop connections between life in the school and that in the community is a recurring theme in educational literature. Of the many means for doing this, one of the more prominent is experiential learning or planned opportunities for learning outside the classroom (Hamilton 1980). Within the experiential learning concept, one variation which has received a good deal of attention is youth participation programs or community service projects (Olsen 1946; National Society for the Study of Education 1953; Harnack 1974; Coleman 1974; National Commission on Resources for Youth 1974). Such programs involve the active engagement of youth in attempts to improve local communities, and while these programs may be carried out under the auspices of any community agency, the focus here is on those sponsored by the school. Specific projects might include conducting surveys of community attitudes, making recommendations for solving environmental problems, and helping older persons and the like

Findings from a survey of pitch drift

The phenomenon of pitch drifting while choirs perform a cappella music is familiar to choral performers and directors, although there appears to be a lack of research into the reasons that it occurs. As part of a research project to investigate possible causes of pitch drift, when singing unaccompanied music, a survey of choral practitioners was undertaken. This paper presents the findings of the survey, which established that a majority of choirs suffer problems maintaining pitch and that varying beliefs about the cause are widespread. In general, anecdotal beliefs regarding pitch drift in a cappella choral singing are confirmed, but the causes remain unclear

Understanding radionuclide migration from the D1225 Shaft, Dounreay, Caithness, UK

A 65 m vertical shaft was sunk at Dounreay in the 1950s to build a tunnel for the offshore discharge of radioactive effluent from the various nuclear facilities then under construction. In 1959, the Shaft was licensed as a disposal facility for radioactive wastes and was routinely used for the disposal of ILW until 1970. Despite the operation of a hydraulic containment scheme, some radioactivity is known to have leaked into the surrounding rocks. Detailed logging, together with mineralogical and radiochemical analysis of drillcore has revealed four distinct bedding-parallel zones of contamination. The data show that Sr-90 dominates the bulk beta/gamma contamination signal, whereas Cs-137 and Pu-248/249 are found only to be weakly mobile, leading to very low activities and distinct clustering around the Shaft. The data also suggest that all uranium seen in the geosphere is natural in origin. At the smaller scale, contamination adjacent to fracture surfaces is present within a zone of enhanced porosity created by the dissolution of carbonate cements from the Caithness flagstones during long-term rockwater interactions. Quantitative modelling of radionuclide migration, using the multiphysics computer code QPAC shows the importance of different sorption mechanisms and different mineralogical substrates in the Caithnesss flagstones in controlling radionuclide migration