History and development of construction kits including a special study of Mobilo and Reo Click

This research is aimed at proViding a background to the development of construction kits. It examines the various stages of official recognition of the place and purpose of construction kits in the primary curriculum in England and Wales. A brief review of some of the issues surrounding construction activities in the early years is offered. This compares and contrasts building styles which employ commercially available kits with those that utilise reclaimed materials. From this background, two well established kits are considered in detail from a small scale pilot study in a school. Research evidence in this school was gained in controlled conditions and yielded quantitative data about the ways that children interact with Reo-Click and Mobilo in open-choice building situations

The seduction of the wheel: a synthesis of research-based issues surrounding car-led construction activities of young children and the relationship these may have with current environmental trends which progressively seek to limit the impact of road traffic

Construction activities play a core role in design and technology education. Some of this activity is undertaken through the medium of construction kits, especially in the early years. Modelling of wheeled vehicles has always been a popular activity for children and indeed this is often the premier choice for pupils engaged in "free choice" situations. This paper examines aspects of free choice activity and relates this to the "car-led" mindset of wider society and the implications this may have for future transport choices. Research evidence has been collected from a range of cultural/geographic settings to provide qualitative and quantitative data on building choices made by children. Against the evidence collected from this research background, the paper asks to what extent car-led construction activity in primary schools may, by virtue of the consequent mindset developed in children, be a future mechanism for strengthening public resistance to changing travel habits in order to secure environmental benefits

Developing an understanding of structures: experiences from primary teacher education

There is a significant body of research into the notion that learners hold ideas which may conflict with "scientific" explanations of perceived reality. This domain of research into "misconceptions" is extensive and often portrayed in terms of children's learning. Of course, adults too bring their own agenda to learning situations. This paper is focused on some of the ideas that adults, in this case student teachers, may hold in relation to force and its relationship with structures. There is a clear link with school practice since many of the outcomes of designing and making activity in primary schools feature a product with some structural dimension. Student teachers were introduced to a problem solving situation focused on a simple bridge-building task, using limited materials. The use of limited materials had a direct effect in terms of guiding participants towards a variety of structural solutions. Outcomes from this practical engagement suggested that some part-formed ideas were imported into the new learning situation. Within the paper, comparisons are drawn between student ideas on structural strength and evidence from the wider domain of other research findings into misconceptions, such as those involving children's beliefs. Questions are raised regarding the relationship Design and Technology has with other curriculum areas, notably science

Scientific and technological literacy and UNESCO Project 2000+: and agenda for curriculum and professional development in Nigeria

This paper explores some of the issues facing both teacher and curriculum development and delivery in an environment of considerable poverty facing a legacy of past political upheaval. The current place of primary design and technology is explored, and questions asked regarding the relationship this currently shares with science education, particularly in the light of recent political changes which include a return to democracy and a return to the Commonwealth and international fold. A return to democracy will have implications for all levels of society, not least in primary teaching where scientific and technological literacy ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ will need to take a key role in the raising of standards in education, in health, in individual wealth and in long-term safeguards for a sustainable environment. On the 29th May 1999 a new era began for Nigeria with the swearing-in of Olusegun Obasanjo to preside over a democratically elected government. New doors will undoubtedly open as Nigeria takes its place within the international fold and new accompanying opportunities and choices will follow. This paper explores some of choices that will need to be made in curriculum and professional terms in the fields of technological and scientific literacy. In particular, the paper explores the measures being undertaken to develop teacher expertise and the consequent enhancement of the science-technology experience for children. It also explores models of science-technology curriculum delivery and how these depend on factors such as context, needs and evolution from past frameworks. Scientific and technological literacy (STL) are key strands in Project 2000+, which is co-ordinated by UNESCO. A declaration of intent (UNESCO, 1994) pronounces that “sound basic education is fundamental to the strengthening of higher levels of education and of scientific and technological literacy and capacity and thus to self-reliant development” (p.7). This notion of “self-reliant development” is of central importance, for it is through measures such as STL that people can begin to make informed choices about their future. Informed choices will indeed need to be made as environmental issues gain a higher profile in people’s lives. UNESCO (1983) recognised this almost 20 years ago by registering a concern that education could and should contribute to solving problems which arise within the environment, adding that many of the problems were generated by human behaviour. Project 2000+ provides an overarching structure for a global array of regional organisations which support local projects within the promotional theme of STL

Back to the Future: Where next in a world of cross-curricularprimary education?

This article is an interim report on a research project concerning the place of Design and Technology in selected primary schools at a time of curriculum change.There is a particular focus on the influence of the processes surrounding acts of designing as they may impact on the wider curriculum. The process of design may have wider applications in a future curriculum which will embrace features such as “creativity” on a more intensive scale than hitherto. It may also become diluted as subject focal points become less obvious.This study is focused on student teachers and serving teachers in what are termed “Partnership” schools.Partnership is an arrangement by which Canterbury Christ Church University establishes secure training platforms with schools. Teacher education students may thus undertake their placements in appropriate and controlled surroundings in order to develop and practise their teaching skills and become rounded and successful teachers. Partnership schools receive a succession of primary education student teachers throughout the school year. Generally the placements become longer as the student teachers progress through their studies.It is the case that many of the schools within the“partnership” arrangement with the Faculty of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University are moving towards cross-curricular approaches to learning and teaching. For research purposes, they are an accessible stock of schools within which trends in the shifting curriculum can be identified and have been treated as an opportunity sample for research purposes

Pass Rates in Introductory Programming and in other STEM Disciplines

Vast numbers of publications in computing education begin with the premise that programming is hard to learn and hard to teach. Many papers note that failure rates in computing courses, and particularly in introductory programming courses, are higher than their institutions would like. Two distinct research projects in 2007 and 2014 concluded that average success rates in introductory programming courses world-wide were in the region of 67%, and a recent replication of the first project found an average pass rate of about 72%. The authors of those studies concluded that there was little evidence that failure rates in introductory programming were concerningly high. However, there is no absolute scale by which pass or failure rates are measured, so whether a failure rate is concerningly high will depend on what that rate is compared against. As computing is typically considered to be a STEM subject, this paper considers how pass rates for introductory programming courses compare with those for other introductory STEM courses. A comparison of this sort could prove useful in demonstrating whether the pass rates are comparatively low, and if so, how widespread such findings are. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that gathered information on pass rates from several institutions to determine whether prior results can be confirmed, and conducted a detailed comparison of pass rates in introductory programming courses with pass rates in introductory courses in other STEM disciplines. The group found that pass rates in introductory programming courses appear to average about 75%; that there is some evidence that they sit at the low end of the range of pass rates in introductory STEM courses; and that pass rates both in introductory programming and in other introductory STEM courses appear to have remained fairly stable over the past five years. All of these findings must be regarded with some caution, for reasons that are explained in the paper. Despite the lack of evidence that pass rates are substantially lower than in other STEM courses, there is still scope to improve the pass rates of introductory programming courses, and future research should continue to investigate ways of improving student learning in introductory programming courses.Peer reviewe

Intraspecific variation in male mating strategies in an African ground squirrel (Xerus inauris)

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. All data are associated with tables and figures: Dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0cv.Male mating strategies respond to female availability such that variation in resources that affect spatial distribution can also alter cost–benefit tradeoffs within a population. In arid-adapted species, rainfall alters reproduction, behavior, morphology, and population density such that populations differing in resource availability may also differ in successful reproductive strategies. Here, we compare two populations of Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris), a sub-Saharan species with year-round breeding and intense mating competition. Unlike most mammals where males resort to aggressive interactions over females, male X. inauris are tolerant of one another, relying instead on other nonaggressive pre-and postcopulatory strategies to determine reproductive success. Our findings suggest that differences in resource availability affect female distribution, which ultimately leads to intraspecific variation in male reproductive tactics and sexual morphology. Sperm competition, assessed by reproductive morphometrics, was more pronounced in our high resource site where females were distributed evenly across the landscape, whereas dominance seemed to be an important determinant of success in our low resource site where females were more aggregated. Both sites had similar mating intensities, and most males did not sire any offspring. However, our low resource site had a higher variance in fertilization success with fewer males siring multiple offspring compared with our high resource site where more individuals were successful. Our results lend support to resource models where variations in female spatial distribution attributed to environmental resources ultimately impact male reproductive behaviors and morphology.National Science Foundation and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.http://www.ecolevol.orgam2023Zoology and Entomolog

Seniors with Parkinson's Disease: Initial Medical Treatment

Parkinson's disease most often presents after age 60, and patients in this age group are best managed with levodopa therapy as the primary treatment modality. Unlike young-onset parkinsonism (onset <age 40), this older age group is much less prone to subsequent development of levodopa responsive instability (dyskinesias, fluctuations). When these problems do occur in seniors, they usually can be managed by medication adjustments. The treatment goal is to keep patients active and engaged; levodopa dosage should be guided by the patients' responses and not arbitrarily limited to low doses, which may compromise patients' lives

X-Ray Micro-Tomography Applied to Nasa's Materials Research: Heat Shields, Parachutes and Asteroids

X-ray micro-tomography is used to support the research on materials carried out at NASA Ames Research Center. The technique is applied to a variety of applications, including the ability to characterize heat shield materials for planetary entry, to study the Earth- impacting asteroids, and to improve broadcloths of spacecraft parachutes. From micro-tomography images, relevant morphological and transport properties are determined and validated against experimental data

How Effective Were the Federal Reserve Emergency Liquidity Facilities?

Evidence from the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facilit