The Small Mammal Project: Engaging Students as Scientists

2017 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 200-206
Author(s):  
Erika V. Iyengar ◽  
Paul T. Meier ◽  
Rachel E. Hamelers

This article describes a sustained, student-driven, inquiry-based set of activities meant to illuminate the scientific process from the initial scientific questions to oral dissemination of results. It is appropriate for science majors and nonmajors, advanced high school through upper-level college courses. Involving students in hands-on, self-driven investigations will allow them to see the challenges of quantitative scientific investigations, and the role of scientific creativity in experimental design and interpretation. This project allows a large group of students to engage in the type of research project often only available to students working one-on-one with instructors or in research labs. This activity requires skeletons of multiple species of small mammals, but there are many ways to alter the project to suit available resources. We expect that students involved in hands-on, self-directed scientific investigations early in their academic careers are less likely to view science as a mere accumulation of facts and more likely to be empowered to participate later in more sustained scientific investigations.

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zulkarnaen Zulkarnaen ◽  
ZA Imam Supardi ◽  
Budi Jatmiko

The purpose of this research is to know how big the role of mastery of knowledge and science process skills to improve scientific creativity, using C3PDR teaching model, that is teaching model that encourage and utilize knowledge mastery, science process skill, creative thinking technique and motivation to improve student's scientific creativity. The data used are the results of pre-test and post-test of: the mastery of knowledge, scientific process skills and scientific creativity, as a result of the implementation of the model conducted in the 2015/2016 learning year. The sample of this research is 160 students of 8th grade divided into 5 classes in two schools in Samarinda city. The magnitude of the role is expressed by the coefficient of determination (r2) and the probability value (p). Scores of the mastery of knowledge, scientific process skills and scientific creativity are grouped into 5 levels. Data were analyzed using Kendall Tau test b. The results showed: 1) mastery of knowledge plays a significant role to increase of scientific creativity by 30% indicated by the mode r2> 0.3 and p mode <0.0001, in the weak category, 2) the science process skills play a significant role of 20% indicated by the mode r2> 0.20 and p mode <0.0001, in the weak category. Mastery of knowledge that plays a role in scientific creativity is the mastery of knowledge more broadly and in more detail. The science process skills that plays a role in scientific creativity is of determining the variables. How the role of mastery of knowledge and skills of scientific processes in enhancing scientific creativity is discussed in this article.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 01060
Author(s):  
Sibel Demir Kaçan ◽  
Fatma Şahin

The research aims to determine “the Impact of Scientific Creative Thinking Skills on Scientific Process Skills”. Thus, the research was performed with 24 teacher candidates in the control group and 24 teacher candidates in the experimental group in the second class of the Department of Science Teaching in a university in Istanbul Province. In the experimental group of the research, the laboratory program to be designed by the researchers on the basis of scientific discussion and research; and in the control group, the conventionally designed laboratory program were applied for an academic semester. The research data was gained through “Scientific Creativity Test” to be developed by Hu and Adey [14] and adapted by Kadayıfçı [16]; “Scientific Process Skills Test” to be developed by Okey, Wise and Burns, and adapted by Geban, Aşkar and Özkan into Turkish. The conclusions to be reached by the research are in favour of the experimental group and the last application, and it has positive impact on the opinions of the teacher candidates related with the development of the scientific creativity skills.


2013 ◽  
Vol 05 (03) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Lance L P GORE

The new foreign policy team is more professional and with an Asian focus than its older counterpart. Although still fragmented, it may have stronger leadership and better coordination. This is critically important because China is at a defining moment as to its international role. Xi Jinping's closer ties with the military and his hands-on style may encourage assertive nationalism and more active role of the military in foreign affairs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christos Lynteris

A pressing question during the first half-decade of the third plague pandemic (1894–9) was what was a ‘suitable soil’ for the disease. The question related to plague’s perceived ability to disappear from a given city only to reappear at some future point; a phenomenon that became central to scientific investigations of the disease. However, rather than this simply having a metaphorical meaning, the debate around plague’s ‘suitable soil’ actually concerned the material reality of the soil itself. The prevalence of plague in the working-class neighbourhood of Taipingshan during the first major outbreak of the pandemic, in 1894 in Hong Kong, led to an extensive debate regarding the ability of the soil to harbour and even spread the disease. Involving experiments, which were seen as able to procure evidence for or against the demolition or even torching of the area, scientific and administrative concerns over the soil rendered it an unstable yet highly productive epistemic thing. The spread of plague to India further fuelled concerns over the ability of the soil to act as the medium of the disease’s so-called true recrudescence. Besides high-profile scientific debates, hands-on experiments on purifying the soil of infected houses by means of highly intrusive methods allowed scientists and administrators to act upon and further solidify plague’s supposed invisibility in the urban terrain. Rather than being a short-lived, moribund object of epidemiological concern, this paper will demonstrate that the soil played a crucial role in the development of plague as a scientifically knowable and actionable category for modern medicine.


2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa G. Rosas ◽  
Patricia Rodriguez Espinosa ◽  
Felipe Montes Jimenez ◽  
Abby C. King

While there are many definitions of citizen science, the term usually refers to the participation of the general public in the scientific process in collaboration with professional scientists. Citizen scientists have been engaged to promote health equity, especially in the areas of environmental contaminant exposures, physical activity, and healthy eating. Citizen scientists commonly come from communities experiencing health inequities and have collected data using a range of strategies and technologies, such as air sensors, water quality kits, and mobile applications. On the basis of our review, and to advance the field of citizen science to address health equity, we recommend ( a) expanding the focus on topics important for health equity, ( b) increasing the diversity of people serving as citizen scientists, ( c) increasing the integration of citizen scientists in additional research phases, ( d) continuing to leverage emerging technologies that enable citizen scientists to collect data relevant for health equity, and ( e) strengthening the rigor of methods to evaluate impacts on health equity. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 43 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaya Gopalan ◽  
Georgia Bracey ◽  
Megan Klann ◽  
Cynthia Schmidt

A great deal of interest has emerged recently in the flipped classroom (FC), a student-centered teaching approach. After attending a presentation by the first author on the FC, a faculty member of a medical school in Mexico arranged for a 3-day workshop for 13 faculty members. The goal of the workshop was to train faculty to use the FC strategy in their classrooms to increase student engagement in learning. The workshop was in the FC style, where the participants would assume the role of students. Pre- and posttraining surveys were administered to examine participants’ current teaching practices and to evaluate their perceptions of the FC. The participants overwhelmingly reported the need to change their lecture-based teaching, as it was not engaging students. Their large class size, lack of technology, training, and uncertainty of the effectiveness of new teaching methods had hindered participants from changing their teaching technique. The on-site training not only allowed the entire department to work closely and discuss the new teaching approach, but also reinforced the idea of changing their teaching strategy and embracing FC teaching method. After the workshop, participants reported being determined to use the FC strategy in their classrooms and felt more prepared to do so. The post-survey results indicated that participants valued the FC training in the flipped style and wanted more of the hands-on activities. In conclusion, the 3-day faculty workshop on the FC was successful, since every participant was motivated to use this teaching method.


eLife ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan J Kast ◽  
Alexandra L Lanjewar ◽  
Colton D Smith ◽  
Pat Levitt

The expression patterns of the transcription factor FOXP2 in the developing mammalian forebrain have been described, and some studies have tested the role of this protein in the development and function of specific forebrain circuits by diverse methods and in multiple species. Clinically, mutations in FOXP2 are associated with severe developmental speech disturbances, and molecular studies indicate that impairment of Foxp2 may lead to dysregulation of genes involved in forebrain histogenesis. Here, anatomical and molecular phenotypes of the cortical neuron populations that express FOXP2 were characterized in mice. Additionally, Foxp2 was removed from the developing mouse cortex at different prenatal ages using two Cre-recombinase driver lines. Detailed molecular and circuit analyses were undertaken to identify potential disruptions of development. Surprisingly, the results demonstrate that Foxp2 function is not required for many functions that it has been proposed to regulate, and therefore plays a more limited role in cortical development than previously thought.


2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 147-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
GIANLUCA ELIA ◽  
A. MARGHERITA ◽  
G. SECUNDO ◽  
K. MOUSTAGHFIR

The pervasiveness of scientific developments has raised the role of entrepreneurship as a driver of socio-economic value. Higher education institutions are thus asked to create entrepreneurial mindset and competencies with the purpose to make students people able to proactively identify opportunities and transform them in market solutions. In particular, engineering education programs can be of relevance to develop technology entrepreneurship competencies through hands-on and experiential approaches. In such vein, this paper proposes a model of entrepreneurship education as an "activation" process which uses four critical levers with the purpose to infuse the essence of entrepreneurship in tomorrow's engineering professionals. The application of the model is exemplified through the analysis of a research training program grounded in the aerospace domain. The key features of the initiative are discussed in the perspective of exploring new models of entrepreneurial engineering education.


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