The Impact of Interactive Tools within Lectures in Medical Education

Background: Traditional didactic lectures in medical curriculum are used to transmit lots of information in a short time frame but evidence shows that student attention lapses after 15-20 minutes into a lecture. Along with this, there is a concern that deep understanding of topics is often missed in favour of fact retention. In this study, I am interested in finding out student perception of the use of interactive tools within lectures and whether the use of such tools encourages active learning, improves understanding and helps students retain knowledge. Summary of Work: Two lectures were delivered to Year 1 MBChB students, one using interactive tools including electronic voting, real time discussion boards and polling software, and one without any interactive tools. Student opinion of these was evaluated using a questionnaire and focus group. Summary of Results: Students felt the use of interactive tools made the lecture more interesting and helped them stay focussed during the lecture. It allowed them to check that they understood the topic being presented and they were in favour of being able to compare their answers to the rest of the class. Discussion and Conclusions: Asking and answering questions using interactive tools during lectures facilitates the development of deep, active learning and knowledge creation, and gives students the feeling that they are contributing to their own learning. Take-home messages: The use of some interactive tools within lectures is welcomed and can have a positive impact on knowledge and understanding

Selenium and vascular health

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A genetic and economic evaluation of lactose in the New Zealand dairy industry : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Animal Science

Milk composition in New Zealand is heavily influenced by the selection for Breeding Worth (BW) and the breed composition of the national herd. Under selection for BW a greater emphasis is placed upon protein (39% of emphasis) than fat yield (13% of emphasis) with a penalty on milk volume (14% of emphasis). The export orientated product portfolio influences the development of economic values for fat and protein in the BW, to date lactose has not been considered despite its importance in the manufacture of whole milk powder (WMP). The milk produced on farm is in deficit for lactose based on the current export product portfolio. This thesis evaluated the potential of altering New Zealand milk through the modification of the selection objective around milk lactose selection. Genetic parameters were estimated including lactose yield to construct selection objectives and indices to evaluate the effect on lactose production under a number of different product portfolio scenarios. Genetic parameters were estimated from daily and total milk records with moderate heritabilities found for both lactose yield and lactose content. The genetic correlations between lactose yield and milk volume was estimated to be 0.98, which is a potential problem as this correlation effectively gives lactose a negative economic value due to the negative value on milk volume. Using an existing industry milk processing model, the lactose deficit was estimated to be 129,000 tonnes in 2012 which is consistent with industry records. A genetic gains model developed from this thesis, combined with an existing industry model estimated that the deficit in lactose would increase by 60%, to 204,000 tonnes by 2022 if no changes were made to the current selection objective and index. Including lactose yield in the selection objective with an economic value of $2.04, 14.7% relative emphasis within the objective, would reduce the lactose deficit by 8.7% to 194,000 tonnes. Overall the results of this thesis indicate that including lactose yield in the selection objective has the potential to modify the composition of milk to make it more suitable for the production of WMP and increase the potential for profit in the industry

Helping children think: Gaze aversion and teaching

Looking away from an interlocutor's face during demanding cognitive activity can help adults answer challenging arithmetic and verbal-reasoning questions (Glenberg, Schroeder, & Robertson, 1998). However, such `gaze aversion' (GA) is poorly applied by 5-year-old school children (Doherty-Sneddon, Bruce, Bonner, Longbotham, & Doyle, 2002). In Experiment 1 we trained ten 5-year-old children to use GA while thinking about answers to questions. This trained group performed significantly better on challenging questions compared with 10 controls given no GA training. In Experiment 2 we found significant and monotonic age-related increments in spontaneous use of GA across three cohorts of ten 5-year-old school children (mean ages: 5;02, 5;06 and 5;08). Teaching and encouraging GA during challenging cognitive activity promises to be invaluable in promoting learning, particularly during early primary years

Don't look now... I'm trying to think

What was the name of your first headteacher? Stop and think for a while... did you just look to the heavens for the answer? During difficult cognitive activity, for example remembering information, thinking of an answer to a question, planning what we are going to say, and speaking, we often close our eyes, look up at the sky, or look away from the person we are in conversation with. Adults are very good at switching off from environmental stimulation (both live faces and other sorts of visual display) in order to concentrate better. Until recently we knew very little about whether children use gaze aversion in a similar way. This is a potentially important omission, since the efficiency with which children process information influences many aspects of their development, including school progress. In this article I'll describe what our research team at stirling has been doing to investigate children's gaze aversion, including past and current work. children's patterns of gaze promise to yield important cues to their thinking, concentration and mental processing that will be useful to paretns, teachers, psychologists and anyone engaged in assessing children's knowledge and development

The great baby signing debate

‘Baby signing’ is an augmentative communication approach that has been developed for use with hearing preverbal infants. It involves teaching babies key word signing that they can use to communicate before they can talk. A baby signing movement is currently sweeping the country. Parents of infants everywhere are reading about the benefits of teaching ‘sign’ to their children and many are embracing this wholeheartedly. Numerous companies have been set up to promote and sell baby signing materials. All claim immense benefits to be had including facilitating spoken language development, reducing tantrums and even increasing a child’s intelligence

Gravity : Beauty

Gravity is a cross-disciplinary research project in Fine Art at Sheffield Institute of the Arts (SIA) in partnership with Sheffield Galleries and Museums. Gravity is led by Penny McCarthy, Dr Becky Shaw and Andrew Sneddon. Gravity begins with a series of lectures designed to examine the wider context of practice and discourse. Gravity examines the contemporary condition of the art object or artefact, and the relations between maker, medium, site of production and systems of dissemination. Following the legacy of socially engaged art practices that unravelled the social ingredients of any object, the enchantment of objects continues to affect us. As our lives are increasingly mediated by the digital world of text and image, we appreciate the value of how something is crafted and made - the pleasure of touch. For the academic year 2010—2011 Gravity offers a programme that is shaped by a range of artistic practices that use different approaches to these ideas. Artists, writers and makers have been invited to discuss this complex emotional and theoretical territory. Speakers such as Jeremy Deller, Karla Black, Martin Boyce, Edmund de Waal Lubaina Himid MBE, David Batchelor have selected objects that have meaning or resonance for them in the context of their work in order to open up associative and imaginative possibilities for the audience. Each of these objects will be the catalyst for a strand of research. The fabric and construction of the objects will subsequently be studied in order to produce a replica. This will set up a collaboration that may involve scientists, engineers, bio-medical practitioners, conservation experts, historians and other specialists from a broad spectrum. Gravity will develop an archive of information documenting the particular processes involved in the production of these ‘replicas’. The research will be documented in the form of notes, diagrams and images to build a repository of information about the project. The project will also produce a collection of distinct objects in the form of scale models or replicas. Gravity presents an excellent opportunity to develop cross-disciplinary conversations so the guest lectures are open to a wide public audience including specialist scholars in curating, archaeology, history and social sciences. Focussing on what unites disciplines through the examination of the object will generate new research, which may be shaped by its Sheffield heritage.</p

I dont know what Im looking for but I'll know it when I see it

The cultural geographer and philosopher David Harvey suggests that, like space and time, place is a social construct, and the only interesting question left to be asked on the subject is by what social process(es) is place constructed? This paper sets out to explore the construction methods employed by contemporary visual artists for whom place is central to their practice. Specific approaches are historically retraced revealing our understanding and desire to explore methods of representing place, and how this enquiry has influenced our renewed contemporary interest and understanding of place. It is not possible to separate any study of place from that of space, as both are intrinsically linked and are often interchangeable in literature and speech. It, therefore, becomes important to explore this relationship in some depth. The representation of place adheres to many social and political forces, which form it and continue to condition our understanding of place. If place functions as a manifestation of those associations, then by extension, the space experience of an artwork could be said to reside within the realm of place; space by virtue of our experience of it, of what we bring to it, is afforded the significance of place. Through the study of particular artists and artworks such as Antony Gormley’s, Angel of the North (Gateshead) and Jeremy Deller’s, Battle of Orgreave (Sheffield), two similar in theme but very different approaches to place making and representation of place are considered. The paper also allows for thoughts to emerge and be tested on the role serendipity and sagacity has had on the formulation and reception of these works. Both artworks created a great deal of heated public debate at the time and continue to do so, and thus, have generated a great deal of community engagement that questions and interrogates the idea of place

Canada's approach to monetary policy

The ultimate goal of Canadian monetary policy is maintaining a low, stable rate of inflation in order to foster efficient economic performance and a rising standard of living for Canadians. More specifically, the Bank of Canada aims to keep inflation inside a target range of 1 to 3 percent. This range, established jointly with the federal government, was first announced in 1991 and has been extended through the end of 2006. Over the medium term, the target applies to total CPI. The Bank also uses a core CPI measure as a guide to future inflation developments over the shorter term. The Bank of Canada's operational target is the overnight rate, which is set at the midpoint of a 50 basis point operating band.Monetary policy - Canada ; Bank of Canada ; Banks and banking, Central - Canada