New Media and Online Mathematics Learning for Teachers

In this chapter we offer a case study of an online Mathematics for Teachers course through the lens of four affordances of new media: democratization, multimodality, collaboration and performance. Mathematics, perhaps more so than other school subjects, has traditionally been a subject that people do not talk about outside of classroom settings. However, we demonstrate through the case of the Mathematics for Teachers course that this does not have to be the case. Mathematics, even mathematics that traditionally has been seen as abstract or inaccessible, can be talked about in ways that can engage not only adults but also young children. The affordances of new media can help us rethink and disrupt our existing views of mathematics (for teachers and for students) and of how it might be taught and learned, by (1) blurring teacher/student distinctions and crossing hierarchical curriculum boundaries; (2) communicating mathematics in multimodal ways; (3) seeing mathematics as a collaborative enterprise; and (4) helping us learn how to relate good math stories to classmates and family when asked “What did you do in math today?

Phylogeny of the tropical tree family Dipterocarpaceae based on nucleotide sequences of the chloroplast RBCL gene

The Dipterocarpaceae, well-known trees of the Asian rain forests, have been variously assigned to Malvales and Theales. The family, if the Monotoideae of Africa (30 species) and South America and the Pakaraimoideae of South America (one species) are included, comprises over 500 species. Despite the high diversity and ecological dominance of the Dipterocarpaceae, phylogenetic relationships within the family as well as between dipterocarps and other angiosperm families remain poorly defined. We conducted parsimony analyses on rbcL sequences from 35 species to reconstruct the phylogeny of the Dipterocarpaceae. The consensus tree resulting from these analyses shows that the members of Dipterocarpaceae, including Monotes and Pakaraimaea, form a monophyletic group closely related to the family Sarcolaenaceae and are allied to Malvales. The present generic and higher taxon circumscriptions of Dipterocarpaceae are mostly in agreement with this molecular phylogeny with the exception of the genus Hopea, which forms a clade with Shorea sections Anthoshorea and Doona. Phylogenetic placement of Dipterocarpus and Dryobalanops remains unresolved. Further studies involving representative taxa from Cistaceae, Elaeocarpaceae, Hopea, Shorea, Dipterocarpus, and Dryobalanops will be necessary for a comprehensive understanding of the phylogeny and generic limits of the Dipterocarpaceae

NEST HiLo: Investigating lightweight construction and adaptive energy systems

This paper presents research on lightweight construction and smart, integrated and adaptive building systems. The research is focused on addressing challenges related to the building industry at large, including most prominently the improvement of energy efficiency, onsite power generation, and the reduction of the quantity of materials required to build. We introduce four innovations in context of the design of an experimental building (NEST HiLo): a lightweight, unreinforced funicular floor system; a flexibly formed, concrete shell sandwich roof; a soft actuated, adaptive solar facade and an automated, occupant-centred control system. We demonstrate novel structural engineering approaches to compression-only concrete elements and shell design using multi-criteria shape optimisation. We explore a building facade concept, which employs robotic actuators for solar shading and on-site generation. In addition, the operational phase of the building will be used as a living laboratory where occupants’ locations and needs for comfort are detected and used for the control of the energy innovations. The research provides insight into design topics that will become increasingly relevant for the evolution of improved lifecycle energy buildings

The Knowledge Quartet as an Organising Framework for Developing and Deepening Teachers' Mathematics Knowledge

In this chapter we present some findings from a study which evaluated the effectiveness of one classroom-based approach to the development of elementary mathematics teaching. This approach drew on earlier research into teachers’ mathematical content knowledge at the University of Cambridge, when a framework for the analysis of mathematics teaching - the Knowledge Quartet - was developed. The chapter begins with a rationale for our focus on teachers’ content knowledge in action in the classroom and a brief description of the study which led to the development of the Knowledge Quartet. It then proceeds to a report of the longitudinal study in which this framework was used to identify and develop a group of beginning teachers’ mathematics content knowledge for teaching