Using Mobile Technology to Engage Children With Nature

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (9) ◽  
pp. 959-984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxine R. Crawford ◽  
Mark D. Holder ◽  
Brian P. O’Connor

The efficacy of a mobile application to increase connectedness to nature and impart flora/fauna/ecological knowledge was assessed in 747 children in three separate and distinctive parks: a wetland, a prairie grassland, and an indoor tropical garden. The mobile application was developed with place-based education in mind. At each park, children were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group of children toured the park using an application on a mobile device with their chaperones, another group toured the park with an environmental educator and their chaperones, and a third group toured the parks with a paper map and their chaperones. Results showed that the mobile application was just as effective at connecting children to nature as more traditional ways of non-formal environmental education, but the mobile application offered additional benefits such as higher ratings of fun.

Author(s):  
Galina I. Kukatova

The article is devoted to the problems of protection and rational use of natural resources of the Bryansk region, the environmental education of the population and propaganda of ecological knowledge and the activities of the regional libraries in this area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Sara Costa Carvalho ◽  
Heitor Oliveira Braga ◽  
Sofia de Santa-Maria ◽  
Beatriz Fonte ◽  
Mário Jorge Pereira ◽  
...  

This study aims at evaluating the environmental education (EE) and communication intervention for the valorization of migratory fish resources in an estuary of northern Portugal. The EE component intervention was implemented among Middle School pupils of that region. Students’ knowledge was quantitatively evaluated with an experimental approach of pre-testing and post-testing, on the ocean and estuarine literacy (OEL) and biology of migratory species, such as sea lamprey. This study also analyzes the communication component developed via social media. Results of the EE component show an evident increment of OEL (p < 0.05). It is also highlighted that students had previous knowledge on issues that are not covered in the curriculum. Social media has shown to be an effective communication tool mostly among the scientific community (e.g., Ethnobiology). The research has various implications to OEL since it brings a new perspective towards the integration of ocean literacy in formal education; as well as the valorization of Students’ local ecological knowledge and of inter-generational dynamics. This study contributed to promoting local biodiversity, OEL, and participatory local governance of these ecosystems.


Author(s):  
Sergii Tereschuk ◽  
Vira Kolmakova

The concept of "sensor" in the system of physical experiment at school is considered in the article. The possibility of using sensors in physics lessons is substantiated: transformation of an input signal into an output is accompanied by transformation of one type of energy into another (according to the law of conservation of energy), and the functioning of the sensors are based on physical phenomena (physical effects or principles), which are described by the relevant physical laws. The article deals with the methodical aspects of using the Google Science Journal mobile application in physics lessons. This application allows you to use the sensors of your mobile device for a physical experiment. As an example we consider the frontal laboratory work "Determination of the period of oscillation of the mathematical pendulum". The method of its carrying out is offered in two approaches: the first one involves the traditional technique of conducting the experiment, and the second approach is using the mobile application Google Science Journal. The article shows that the use of smartphone sensors in physics lessons has perspectives in the context of STEM education. Thus, the use of the considered application is of current importance and requires further scientific and methodological research on its use in the high school physical experimentation system. The Science Journal mobile application can be used to connect external sensors, which will have a positive impact on the introduction of STEM education, and to use Arduino in the demonstration of physical experiments by a physics teacher. Connecting sensors using an Arduino microcontroller is particularly promising in creative lab work on physics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-14
Author(s):  
D. V. Fedasyuk ◽  
◽  
T. V. Demianets ◽  

A melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer, so early diagnosis can provide a positive prognosis for treatment. Modern methods for early detecting melanoma on the image of the tumor are considered, and their advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The article demonstrates a prototype of a mobile application for the detection of melanoma on the image of a mole based on a convolutional neural network, which is developed for the Android operating system. The mobile application contains melanoma detection functions, history of the previous examinations and a gallery with images of the previous examinations grouped by the location of the lesion. The HAM10000-based training dataset has been supplemented with the images of melanoma from the archive of The International Skin Imaging Collaboration to eliminate class imbalances and improve network accuracy. The search for existing neural networks that provide high accuracy was conducted, and VGG16, MobileNet, and NASNetMobile neural networks have been selected for research. Transfer learning and fine-tuning has been applied to the given neural networks to adapt the networks for the task of skin lesion classification. It is established that the use of these techniques allows to obtain high accuracy of the neural network for this task. The process of converting a convolutional neural network to an optimized Flatbuffer format using TensorFlow Lite for placement and use on a mobile device is described. The performance characteristics of the selected neural networks on the mobile device are evaluated according to the classification time on the CPU and GPU and the amount of memory occupied by the file of a single network is compared. The neural network file size was compared before and after conversion. It has been shown that the use of the TensorFlow Lite converter significantly reduces the file size of the neural network without affecting its accuracy by using an optimized format. The results of the study indicate a high speed of application and compactness of networks on the device, and the use of graphical acceleration can significantly decrease the image classification time of the tumor. According to the analyzed parameters, NASNetMobile was selected as the optimal neural network to be used in the mobile application of melanoma detection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-349
Author(s):  
Elena Anatolyevna Lamekhova

The following paper discusses one of the aspects of environmental education. It is related to the necessity to use a systematic approach for schoolchildrens environmental thinking development. The process of environmental thinking development is linked with environmental education implementation. For a long time, environmental education was considered as an integral part of biological education, but now an interdisciplinary approach to this work is considered. Different models of cognition are also considered, the recognition or denial of which influenced the nature of science development and the content of the educational process. Cognitive models in varying degrees, depending on specific conditions, determined the level and nature of ecological knowledge system development. A systematic approach for schoolchildrens environmental thinking development should be based on the main positions, which are the basis of cognitive models that act as paradigmatic methodological guidelines. The implementation of a systematic approach to environmental thinking development proceeds more successfully when using the practice-oriented approach, which lies at the basis of the lesson and students extracurricular activities organization. The above mentioned approach can be now implemented in the form of project development. While working with students - prospective teachers, ecologization of disciplines is widely implemented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 457
Author(s):  
I Putu Agus Wahyu Widiatmika ◽  
Cokorda Rai Adi Pramartha

Kulkul is one of Bali's cultural heritage. Kulkul is used in Balinese society for communication when there is a danger, death, a ritual, and so on. The current phenomenon is that many Balinese people are only able to know and without knowing much knowledge about kulkul. It is because this knowledge is the only word of mouth, making it difficult for it to be collected, stored, retrieved, shared, and renewed. Current technological developments, especially mobile technology, allow the development of mobile applications on cultural knowledge with an ontology approach that will help provide an explicit explanation of this knowledge. In this study, the authors propose the application of a web service with a REST API architecture to help mobile applications integrate Balinese Kulkul Semantic Ontology. This study uses the prototyping method in developing the REST API. From the tests that have been done, it is found that the REST API has successfully received requests and responses which prove that the mobile application is well integrated.


Author(s):  
Murray Crease ◽  
Robert Longworth

The evaluation of mobile applications is increasingly taking into account the users of such applications’ mobility (e.g., Mizobuchi, Chignell, & Newton, 2005; Mustonen , Olkkonen, & Hakkinen, 2004). While clearly an important factor, mobility on its own often does not require the user’s visual focus to any great extent. Real-life users, however, are required to be aware of potential hazards while moving through their environment. This chapter outlines a simple classification for describing these distractions and two evaluations into the effect visual distractions have on the users of a mobile application. In both cases, the participants were required to monitor both their environment and the display of their mobile device. The results of both evaluations indicated that monitoring the environment has an effect on both task performance and the subjective workload experienced by the participants, indicating that such distractions should be considered when designing future evaluations.


Author(s):  
Habib M. Fardoun ◽  
Hachem Awada

At the current classrooms, teachers continue using traditional techniques for monitoring the class. However, there are more participation of mobile devices, and concretely, the tablets. In addition, the network access by both students and teachers in daily life is something usual and a routine work. For this reason, the authors propose the introduction at the classes of a system whose target is to facilitate teacher's labour in the common tasks that are done over the class session. Thus, through a mobile application and a centralized platform of students' data, the authors obtain an interactive and modern system that facilitates teacher's labour.


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