Stream temperature modeling and fiber optic temperature sensing to characterize groundwater discharge

The Ngongotaha Stream was used as a case study to assess the applicability of fiber optic distributed temperature sensing (FODTS) to identify the location of springs and quantify their discharge. Thirteen springs were identified, mostly located within a 115 m reach, five discharged from the right bank and eight from the left bank. To quantify groundwater discharge, a new approach was developed in which the one‐dimensional transient heat transport model was fitted to the FODTS measurements, where the main calibration parameters of interest were the unknown spring discharges. The spatial disposition of the groundwater discharge estimation problem was constrained by two sources of information; first, the stream gains ∼500 L/s as determined by streamflow gauging. Second, the temperature profiles of the left and right banks provide the spatial disposition of springs and their relative discharges. FODTS was used to measure stream temperature near the left and right banks, which created two temperature datasets. A weighted average of the two datasets was then calculated, where the weights reflected the degree of mixing between the right and left banks downstream of a spring. The new approach in this study marks a departure from previous studies, in which the general approach was to use the steady‐state thermal mixing model (Selker et al. 2006a; Westhoff et al. 2007; Briggs et al. 2012) to infer groundwater discharge, which is then used as an input into a transient model of the general form of equation to simulate stream temperature (Westhoff et al. 2007)

The occurrence and origin of salinity in non-coastal groundwater in the Waikato region

Aims The aims of this project are to describe the occurrence, and determine the origin of non-coastal saline groundwater in the Waikato region. High salinity limits the use of the water for supply and agricultural use. Understanding the origin and distribution of non-coastal salinity will assist with development and management of groundwater resources in the Waikato. Method The occurrence of non-coastal groundwater salinity was investigated by examining driller’s records and regional council groundwater quality information. Selected wells were sampled for water quality analyses and temperatures were profiled where possible. Water quality analyses include halogens such as chloride, fluoride, iodide and bromide. Ratios of these ions are useful to differentiate between geothermal and seawater origins of salinity (Hem, 1992). Other ionic ratio approaches for differentiating sources and influences on salinity such as those developed by Alcala and Emilio (2008) and Sanchez-Martos et al., (2002), may also be applied. Potential sources of salinity include seawater, connate water, geothermal and anthropogenic influences. The hydrogeologic settings of saline occurrence were also investigated, to explore the potential to predict further occurrence. Results Numerous occurrences of non-coastal saline groundwater have been observed in the Waikato region. Where possible, wells with relatively high total dissolved solids (TDS) were selected for further investigation. Several groundwater samples are moderately saline and exceed the TDS drinking water aesthetic guideline of 1,000 g m-3 (Ministry of Health, 2008). Selected ion ratios (predominantly halogens) were used to assist in differentiating between influences on salinity such as seawater and geothermal. Bromide to iodide ratios, in particular, infer a greater geothermal influence on salinity, although other ratios are not definitive. The anomalously elevated salinity observed appears natural but nevertheless has constrained localised groundwater resource development for dairy factory, industrial and prison water supply use. Further work may show some relationship with geology or tectonics, which could assist prediction of inland saline groundwater occurrence

Comparing Fiber-Optic Distributed Temperature Sensing to Hydrochemistry for understanding groundwater inflows to streams

Fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FODTS) is an established technique for identifying locations and quantifying fluxes of groundwater inflows into rivers and streams. FODTS has the advantage of being able to provide very high spatio-temporal res olution of groundwater inflows relative to conventional methods such as differential stream flow gauging. However, in the traditional longitudinal configuration in which the FODTS cable is deployed along the stream bed, the method may not provide detail on hyporehic exchange

CEID research: Recent, current and future direction

Centre for Engineering and Industrial Design researchers are discussed and the future focus is proposed

Motivation and Engagement: Māori and Pasifika learners

CONTEXT Motivation and engagement in the classroom are essential to help learner’s achievement their potential. Teachers play a key role in creating interest, energy and drive in learners and motivating them to engage with the material (Martin, 2006). Māori and Pasifika learners face challenges in classrooms, which are only recently being recognised, and we need to provide culturally safe spaces for them. In diverse classrooms, teachers’ relationships with learners (Tätaiako) is vital to support learners’ engagement. PURPOSE OR GOAL The purpose of this research is to reflect on four academics’ attempts to create culturally safe classrooms. It will assess what worked, and what did not, in terms of classroom context and creative learning activities to motivate and engage learners. APPROACH This research based on the approaches we have considered in improving Motivation and Engagement of students (Both Māori and Pasifika) by implementing teaching and learning instructions such as student-centred learning (flipped classroom), critical thinking, student engagement and motivational inquiry-based learning while working in groups. Bloom’s critical thinking are the main foundations of our Learning and Teaching approaches. We have considered group assignments and group project based tasks to access or justify our approaches. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES We anticipate that implementing more student-centred, critical thinking, inquiry-based learning approaches while working in groups will improve motivation and engagement of learners. All approaches we have considered for our learners in the classroom will create more confident, skilled and motivated learners, including amongst Māori and Pasfika. We are interested to see if there are additional benefits to Maori and Pacific learners, above the general cohort, from these approaches. CONCLUSIONS During this research, we have noticed that by implementing all these approaches, make a lot of difference in engagement of learners in the classroom and increase their motivation. We have noticed critical thinking is an essential skill in the cognitive development and motivation of students and student-centred approach in teaching help a lot to engage more by having good communication with each other. In future, we as a teacher can support New Zealand Māori Language in our sessions in our greetings and opening and closing of sessions

Incorporating effective teaching pedagogies to improve learning and teaching approaches globally

CONTEXT From secondary to tertiary level, educational development relies comprehensively on teaching elements and strategies, it is about learning to think and act in ways that will apply safety measures to the future wellbeing of our students. Learner centered teaching not only includes authentic and modernised teaching, but it includes a mix of planning, continual management, and measure changes of learning (Harper, Chen, & Yen, 2004). This paper presents range of efficient teaching pedagogies with a reflection element, which are also supported with adult learning theories to standardise and prove their effectiveness globally. PURPOSE To apply and measure the effectiveness of innovative learning and teaching pedagogies by analysing student performances in Wintec, New Zealand. In addition to that, to attain qualitative and standardised teaching and learning approaches. APPROACH Illustrating the most significant theme of innovation in learning and teaching. The paper has taken the approach describing and applying five major teaching pedagogies such as flipped classroom, inquiry-based learning, active learning, differentiated learning and reflective teaching. For justification, it also comprises of Adult Learning Theories (ALT) such as social and situated learning, social constructivism and behaviourist theory. These ALTs are sourced from the book, University Teaching in Focus by L. Hunt & D. Chalmers, 2012. RESULTS The preliminary analysis revealed that overall student participation has risen with positive feedback and acceptance of the modernised learning and teaching environment. All courses utilised and established these innovative teaching pedagogies with range of learner centered activities described in the research paper. These innovative pedagogies resulted in effective learnings with improved summative grades and increased student participation in formative assessments. Overall, the authors of this research found benefits of students leading the sessions, becoming problem solvers and developing employability skills. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the analysis of the results showed that learner centered teaching is accomplished from the approach of applying innovative teaching pedagogies. The use of these pedagogies aligned efficiently with the development of student adoption to become competent in the new teaching environment. Also, the students’ feedback demonstrated positive outlook towards adapting this shift to modernised teaching

Sustainable Urban Development: Implementation of Public Bike Sharing System - NZ Case Studies

This study describes research to improve understanding of sustainable urban transport planning from the perspective of the Central Business District (CBD) redevelopment process for two cities, Hamilton and Christchurch in New Zealand. The study was initiated with prioritising the type and location of a public bike sharing system to the existing CBD by attracting more visitors and patrons, which alters major and current urban transport issues. The concern of CBD traffic problems gained a majority among the others. These urban problems were further literature reviewed with other similar sized cities, which have established the ‘Public Bike Share Scheme’ to change CBD users’ travel behaviour. The literature review shows new aspects of the urban transportation network and explains the need for some particular changes in sustainable transport for livable urban life. The different forms of transport modes and urban planning were gathered from looking at the change made by many various cities. A major proportion of ‘Public Bike Share Scheme’ cities is the part of Europe territory, as the reason implies limited modal accessibility but higher population density in urban CBD. This scenario is somehow similar to NZ’s two cities as the city’s population is on the increase in proportion to the land size. Such studies, despite their importance, are relatively scarce due to issues related to data collection and confidentiality of personal information from taking part in such studies. To achieve the objective, the study uses the Logistic Regression modelling, which postulates that CBD patrons’ travel behaviour depends on two components: 1) some observable attributes, such as walking distance, service fares and bike availability; and 2) unobserved heterogeneity such as gender, income and education. The latter is taken into account by characteristics of respondents such as gender, income, education, and use of mode to travel. In this study, multinomial logit (MNL) and mixed logit (ML) models were used to calculate the base mode shares, and subsequently, to test various hypothetical policy options for promoting greater use of bike sharing system and public transport. The data were gathered using stated preference surveys from 486 New Zealander resided on two cities. Furthermore, as each participant evaluated eight choice scenarios, the data set contains 3,888 choice records. The results of the modelling allow policymakers to design more appropriate strategies and policies for different segments of the population to improve an urban CBD and to attract urban CBD. The modelling results also indicate that the potential improvement in a modal shift, which can be achieved by applying different policy options, varies with both walking distance, service fares and availability of new public transport service. Furthermore, in order to promote sustainable mobility in developing urban CBD, one policy would be to increase the connectivity of public transport services

A review of influencing factors for selection of engineering pathway for women: A case study of females studying engineering at Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), New Zealand

Females are underrepresented in engineering cohorts in New Zealand. The lack of female participation in engineering fields at the tertiary education level has been a barrier for diversity and equality in both the industry and academic professions. A recent study by Docherty et al. [11] noted girls coming to engineering at Canterbury University, New Zealand are more likely to be from a single sex school and this phenomenon can be due to cultural reasons. They identified that future work is needed to look at the cultural changes in New Zealand which could potentially mitigate the gender bias. However, we first need to identify a range of contributing factors (including cultural issues) for the lack of diversity in engineering schools in New Zealand. By identifying these factors, we can then propose and implement necessary remediation actions to address the lack of female participation in engineering. Common influencing factors for female participation in STEM and selection of engineering pathways were found during a review of literature and included parental and teacher influences, self-efficacy, perception and attitude, gender stereotypes, and peer and media influences. We believe that New Zealand context in terms of how it influences female study and career pathway to engineering has not been well studied and documented to date. The objective of this research is to identify the main factors and cultural issues that contribute to low female participation in engineering studies in New Zealand. We carried out individual and focus group interviews on both domestic and international female students at Wintec enrolled in the Diploma, Bachelor of Engineering Technology and Graduate Diploma programmes in Civil Engineering. The interviews helped us to understand our students’ perspectives around the factors that influenced their study decisions. We used the collected data to identify patterns and generate themes

Assessing Group Project for Fluids Power and Advanced Fluid Mechanics Paper

The Fluids Power and Advanced Fluid Mechanics paper is a Level 7 paper for the Bachelor of Engineering and Technology following Sydney accord. Its graduate attributes are set by the accrediting body, Engineering New Zealand. One key attribute is to: “Function effectively as an individual, and as a member or leader in diverse teams” It is a challenge to teach and assess this attribute in a group project setting. We have designed a project-based class and assessment for this paper to enable students to learn and work in a team-based setting solving real-world problems, using modern Engineering CAD tools. We investigate how this graduate attribute may be effectively taught and assessed when students are functioning as part of a team. PURPOSE OR GOAL The main purpose of this study is to investigate how to teach and assess, as accurately as possible and in a way that does not increase monitoring costs on the part of instructors, the contribution of each student as an individual and as a member or leader their diverse project team. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS This paper investigates teaching and assessment of group participation and demonstration of the graduate attribute both in the classroom, and in a group project context. First, the design of a small intensive Project-Based Learning (PjBL) class is described, and the process by which this design allows the instructor to foster directly participation and contribution towards the group’s deliverable is characterised. Then, a PjBL assignment is described, and the means by which an instructor can clearly assess the level of intra-group interaction and team-based contribution to the assignment is constructed. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES Both cases demonstrate how an instructor can effectively teach and accurately assess group participation without relying on measures of self- and peer- assessment of others’ work. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY The cases described in this paper challenge perceptions that teaching and accurate assessment of students’ participation in group work must entail more work on the part of the instructor. PjBL teaching classes are an excellent place to foster and develop teamwork skills. Furthermore, students’ fears can be allayed that group projects are inadequate reflections of students’ learning if most of the work is done by one student: it turns out students perform poorly at presenting or understanding their team members’ work. This does however also challenge the theory that group assignments result in students’ understanding the value of teamwork since less than half the class could effectively describe what their fellow team members had done. This suggests PjBL classes may be a better place to foster such teamwork