La actividad experimental en educación primaria : restricciones y retos

Es un estudio que aporta pruebas empíricas sobre las condiciones y las restricciones de las actividades experimentales en Educación Primaria en Navarra (Spain), basadas en una encuesta distribuida a toda la población objeto de estudio. La encuesta está confeccionada mediante respuestas abiertas y objetivas con escala Likert. El objetivo del trabajo es el diagnóstico actual de la situación y uso de los laboratorios escolares, que servirá para adecuar y mejorar las condiciones de los centros y de los profesores en su actividad docente

First fossils from Galicia, rediscovered in the Schulz collection of the GeoMinero Museum (I. T. G. E., Madrid)

Se estudian los restos de trilobites y moluscos descubiertos hace más de 150 años por SCHULZ en los afloramientos de la Formación de Pizarras de Luarca al SO de Ribadeo (Lugo), a través del material original de su trabajo de 1835. Este se conserva en el Museo GeoMinero de Madrid, correspondiendo la formas revisadas (Calymenidade indet. y Endocerida indet.) a los primeros fósiles documentados en Galicia desde el punto de vista cronológico.Trilobite and mollusc remains from the Luarca Slates Formation, SO Ribadeo (Lugo province), collected more than 150 years ago by SCHULZ, have been identified as Calymenidae indet. and Endocerida indet. They belong to his Galician petrologic collection of 1835, actually preserved at the GeoMinero Museum of Madrid, and constitute the first documented Galician fossils from a chronological point of view.Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y PaleontologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasFALSEpu

Clin Ther

Purpose Although quantitative benefit–risk models (qBRms) are indisputably valuable tools for gaining comprehensive assessments of health care interventions, they are not systematically used, probably because they lack an integrated framework that provides methodologic structure and harmonization. An alternative that allows all stakeholders to design operational models starting from a standardized framework was recently developed: the discretely integrated condition event (DICE) simulation. The aim of the present work was to assess the feasibility of implementing a qBRm in DICE, using the example of rotavirus vaccination. Methods A model of rotavirus vaccination was designed using DICE and implemented in spreadsheet software with 3 worksheets: Conditions, Events, and Outputs. Conditions held the information in the model; this information changed at Events, and Outputs were special Conditions that stored the results collected during the analysis. A hypothetical French birth cohort was simulated for the assessment of rotavirus vaccination over time. The benefits were estimated for up to 5 years, and the risks in the 7 days following rotavirus vaccination versus no vaccination were assessed, with the results expressed as benefit–risk ratios. Findings This qBRm model required 8 Events, 38 Conditions, and 9 Outputs. Two Events cyclically updated the rates of rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) and intussusception (IS) according to age. Vaccination occurred at 2 additional Events, according to the vaccination scheme applied in France, and affected the occurrence of the other Events. Outputs were the numbers of hospitalizations related to RVGE and to IS, and related deaths. The entire model was specified in a small set of tables contained in a 445-KB electronic workbook. Analyses showed that for each IS-related hospitalization or death caused, 1613 (95% credible interval, 1001–2800) RVGE-related hospitalizations and 787 (95% credible interval, 246–2691) RVGE-related deaths would be prevented by vaccination. These results are consistent with those from a published French study using similar inputs but a very different modeling approach. Implications A limitation of the DICE approach was the extended run time needed for completing the sensitivity analyses when implemented in the electronic worksheets. DICE provided a user-friendly integrated framework for developing qBRms and should be considered in the development of structured approaches to facilitate benefit–risk assessment

Facies control on seismites in an alluvial–aeolian system: the Pliocene dunefield of the Teruel half-graben basin (eastern Spain)

The recognition of seismically induced soft-sediment deformation structures (SSDS) in sedimentary successions characterized by different facies, and hence by different rheology, is challenging. This is the case for high porosity and high permeability aeolian facies interbedded with muddy wet interdune deposits and alluvial conglomerates and sandstones. Several types of SSDS have been studied in two exposures of the Upper Pliocene (2.9–2.6 Ma) sediments of a fault-bounded intracontinental aeolian dune field in the Teruel Basin (Iberian Chain, eastern Spain). Among SSDS, load and fluid-escape structures, apart from several animal tracks, have been recognized. Those structures show an irregular distribution through the studied stratigraphic sections, being scarce in homogenous aeolian sands and frequent in water-related facies. A detailed study of the distribution and geometry of SSDS and their relationships with respect to the stratigraphic architecture and facies has allowed a critical discrimination of trigger mechanisms, i.e. biological or physical overloading vs. earthquakes. The seismically induced structures are concentrated into seven deformed beds, showing an uneven lateral distribution and geometry closely controlled by the hosting sedimentary facies and their rheology. These seismites resulted from liquefaction during moderate earthquakes (estimated magnitude from 5.0 to 6.8). The most probable seismogenic source was the Sierra del Pobo normal fault zone, located 2 km to the East. Results show how an appropriate recognition of sedimentary facies is crucial to understand the lateral variability of seismites in sedimentary environments characterized by sharp facies changes

Relict periglacial soils on Quaternary terraces in the central Ebro Basin (NE Spain)

Pedofeatures associated with ancient cold climatic conditions have been recognized in soils on terraces in the Monegros area (central Ebro Basin, Spain), at a latitude of 41°49′N and an altitude of 300 m a.s.l. Eleven soil profiles were described on fluvial deposits corresponding to the most extensive terrace (T5) of the Alcanadre River, Middle Pleistocene in age (MIS8–MIS7). Each soil horizon was sampled for physical, chemical, mineralogical and micromorphological analyses. Macromorphological features related to pedocryogenic processes were described: involutions, jacked stones, shattered stones, detached and vertically oriented carbonatic pendents, fragmented carbonatic crusts, laminar microstructures, succitic fabric, silt cappings on rock fragments and aggregates, and irregular, broken, discontinuous and deformed gravel and sandy pockets. Accumulations of Fe–Mn oxides, dissolution features on the surface of carbonatic stones, and calcitic accumulations were identified related to vadose–phreatic conditions. The observed periglacial features developed under cold environmental conditions in exceptional geomorphic and hydrological conditions. This soil information may have potential implications in studies of paleoclimate in the Ebro Valley as well as in other Mediterranean areas

A Paradox in the Constructive design of Robotic projects in School

In the training of teachers for teaching robotics at the primary school level, the methodological aspects of teaching and learning are important. Constructivist methodologies and project-based learning are two \u201cquality\u201d tools that are proposed to the teachers (in training courses) for the design of lesson plans. But, using them we can design constructivist teaching sequences which, although progressively lead to the resolution of real and complex situations, paradoxically may not lead to a parallel progression in the learning of robotic techniques. We emphasize here this paradox, showing two paradigmatic examples of constructivist lesson plans for the same theme "Nodriver bus ...". Only the second one guarantees parallelism between the increasing semantic complexity of the problems and the positive gradient in the syntactic component of the robot programming

Simulation of Robotic Sensors in BYOB

The paper presents a proposal to simulate several robotic sensors through an implementation in the BYOB authoring environment. The possibility to define custom blocks as specialized reporters is exploited to represent the information usually returned by relevant physical sensors in real robots. Some motivations to use simulated sensors and robots for educational purposes in a well know and not so complex environment like BYOB are also given

How to enhance the robotic experience with Scratch

Before using real educational robots, the Scratch environment offers advantages as an evolution of LOGO. While promoting, like LOGO, basic hypothetical thinking, its design moves around a more advanced interactive language and may allow, on the one hand, the simulation of \u201cphysical\u201d environments and, on the other hand, the enrichment of its \u201csprites\u201d with simulated sensors, i.e. it permits to work on an advanced level of the hypothetical-deductive thinking. The paper shows how deep a robotic experience can be using the Scratch environment. After some motivating remarks, the paper presents a sequence of demonstrative examples exploiting most of the Scratch commands able to promote such an experience. To support the successive the next step towards an experience with a real robot in a real environment, an activity with an Arduino board is suggested in the conclusions. Figure 1 shows one of the examples we have developed to show how deep can be the robotic experience with Scratch. After this preliminary step, in the future we would provide and possibly experiment a complete proposal of a robotic curriculum using Scratch and its extensions in preparation of a laboratory with physical wheeled robots and humanoids