Using an interactive whiteboard and a computer-programming tool to support the development of the key competencies in the New Zealand curriculum

Does children’s use of the software Scratch provide potential for the enhancement of key competencies as they work in pairs at the interactive whiteboard (IWB)? This article looks at how children using Scratch collaborated and managed their projects as they set about designing, constructing, testing and evaluating a game for others to play, a task that provided a sustained challenge over six weeks and beyond. The findings showed that the key competencies of participating, contributing, and relating to others were enhanced by the collaborative use of Scratch at the IWB, and that creative and conceptual thinking processes were sustained. Children became increasingly adept at using Scratch, and some children, previously thought to have poor social skills, began to articulate their understandings to others. While a guiding and scaffolding role was evident in teachers’ actions, close monitoring of group progress and direct input from teachers is required to keep the challenge high but achievable, and to extend children’s knowledge and thinking as they use Scratch at the IWB

Laptops for teachers: An evaluation of the TELA scheme in schools (Years 1 to 3)

The purpose of this evaluation is to investigate the impacts of the Laptops for Teachers Scheme: TELA (referred to from here as the TELA scheme) on teachers’ work over a period of three years (2006, 2007, 2008) and to record emerging changes in laptop use. This evaluation report presents findings from the three annual cycles of national focus groups and questionnaires with Years 1 to 3 teachers in New Zealand primary schools. In this evaluation, two methods of data collection were used: first, three focus groups were held with teachers in face-to-face meetings and second, a questionnaire was sent to teachers in a range of schools. The focus groups allowed teachers to talk about changes in their use of the laptop over the three years. Focus groups were held in the Taranaki, Wellington and Marlborough areas. The questionnaire asked teachers about various aspects of their laptops experience, including school support for laptops, professional development, their use of laptops at home and in school, and their goals for future use. In this final report, questionnaire results are presented together with the results from the focus groups held over three years

Laptops for teachers: An evaluation of the TELA scheme in schools (Years 4 to 6)

The purpose of this evaluation was to investigate the impacts of the Laptops for Teachers Scheme (referred to from here as the TELA scheme) on Years 4 to 6 teachers’ work over a period of three years (2004-2006) and to record emerging changes in laptop use. The investigation focused on the Ministry of Education expectation (Ministry of Education, 2004) that teacher access to a laptop for their individual professional use would lead to gains in confidence and expertise in the use of ICTs, to efficiencies in administration, would contribute to teacher collaboration and support the preparation of high quality lesson resources. It was also anticipated that teacher would use their laptop in the classroom for teaching and learning

A NOVEL CHEMICAL LOOPING COMBUSTION PROCESS: PRESSURE DROP AND SOLID CIRCULATION RATE MODELLING

Experimental results from a cold flow unit of a novel chemical looping combustion configuration are presented in this paper. The system employs a non-mechanical lvalve to control solid flow rate and uses loop-seals to minimize gas leakage. A model was developed to predict solid flow rate and pressure variation in different elements of the system. The developed model was able to well predict solid flow rate within an error range of 10% for a wide solid flux range of 70 – 150 kg/m².s. Sensibility of the solid flow rate was analyzed for different operating parameters by aid of the model. Particles diameter demonstrated to have highest impact on the solid flow rate. Particles density and solid inventory in the reactor were affecting the solid flow rate with less impact. Pressure variation loop over the first section of the system was finally presented for three different solid flow rate

Reflections on the 'History and Historians' of the black woman's role in the community of slaves: enslaved women and intimate partner sexual violence

Taking as points of inspiration Peter Parish’s 1989 book, Slavery: History and Historians, and Angela Davis’s seminal 1971 article, “Reflections on the black woman’s role in the community of slaves,” this probes both historiographically and methodologically some of the challenges faced by historians writing about the lives of enslaved women through a case study of intimate partner violence among enslaved people in the antebellum South. Because rape and sexual assault have been defined in the past as non-consensual sexual acts supported by surviving legal evidence (generally testimony from court trials), it is hard for historians to research rape and sexual violence under slavery (especially marital rape) as there was no legal standing for the rape of enslaved women or the rape of any woman within marriage. This article suggests enslaved women recognized that black men could both be perpetrators of sexual violence and simultaneously be victims of the system of slavery. It also argues women stoically tolerated being forced into intimate relationships, sometimes even staying with “husbands” imposed upon them after emancipation

Riser hydrodynamic study with different Group B powders

International audienceExperiments were conducted in a large cold flow CFB unit (18 m long riser and 30 cm in diameter) with threeGroup B powders. Sand, glass beads and a metal ore, with similar particle size, were used to study the impactof particle density and sphericity. The impact of particle nature on the riser hydrodynamics was investigated atsimilar operating conditions. Resulting axial pressure profiles are very different in both the acceleration andthe fully developed region. These differences can most probably be explained by the difference in shape betweenthe solids. Higher sphericity seems to generate less pressure drop and smaller values of drag force. The influenceof particle shape on acceleration resulting fromgas–solidmomentumtransfer and the impact on particle concentrationin the fully developed region are then studied. To analyze the results, amonodimensionalmomentumbalancestudy was conducted, resulting in a new formulation for the average drag force, based on experimentalresults

TELA: Laptops for teachers evaluation—Final report years 7 & 8

In this evaluation, two methods of data collection were used: first, two focus groups of teachers in face-to-face meetings and second, a questionnaire sent to teachers in a range of schools. The focus groups allowed teachers to talk about their experiences and changes in their use of the laptop over the three years. Each year, one focus group was held for Year 7 and 8 teachers in full primary schools and the other held for Year 7 and 8 teachers in intermediate schools. The annual questionnaire asked teachers about various aspects of their laptops’ experience, including school support for laptops, professional development, their use of laptops at home and in school, and their goals for future use. In this final report, questionnaire results are presented together with the results from focus groups held over three years

Hydrodynamic characterization of bubble columns by in turbulent regime by spatial cross-correlation of optical probes signals

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Bubble Size Measurement in Large Bubble Columns at High Void Fraction By an Original Method of Spatial Cross-Correlation Between Optical Probes

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