Integrated Smart Home Model

Today, in the realm of Industry 4.0, vastly diverse Internet of Things (IoT) technology are integrated everywhere, not to mention included in academic programs in schools and universities. Domain ratio of the final year projects in Universiti Teknologi Mara exposes a staggering hype in IoT as compared to other domains despite not having IoT included in any of the courses. Meanwhile, to fulfill the needs of the student in exploring this technology, an integrated IoT learning platform is developed. It integrates an IoT smart home model and a web-based interface as a learning platform to inspire hands-on learning for the students. The raspberry pi, motion sensor, analog gas sensor, atmospheric sensor, ultrasonic proximity sensor, and rain detector sensor are integrated together in a Lego-built smart home model where its connectivity and readings are displayed in a simple web interface to enable and inspire learning. A manual to set up the entire model is also prepared as a guide for students to set up and further explore the functionalities and operabilities of “things”.

Decellularization Following Fixation of Explanted Aortic Valves as a Strategy for Preserving Native Mechanical Properties and Function

Mechanical or biological aortic valves are incorporated in physical cardiac simulators for surgical training, educational purposes, and device testing. They suffer from limitations including either a lack of anatomical and biomechanical accuracy or a short lifespan, hence limiting the authentic hands-on learning experience. Medical schools utilize hearts from human cadavers for teaching and research, but these formaldehyde-fixed aortic valves contort and stiffen relative to native valves. Here, we compare a panel of different chemical treatment methods on explanted porcine aortic valves and evaluate the microscopic and macroscopic features of each treatment with a primary focus on mechanical function. A surfactant-based decellularization method after formaldehyde fixation is shown to have mechanical properties close to those of the native aortic valve. Valves treated in this method were integrated into a custom-built left heart cardiac simulator to test their hemodynamic performance. This decellularization, post-fixation technique produced aortic valves which have ultimate stress and elastic modulus in the range of the native leaflets. Decellularization of fixed valves reduced the valvular regurgitation by 60% compared to formaldehyde-fixed valves. This fixation method has implications for scenarios where the dynamic function of preserved valves is required, such as in surgical trainers or device test rigs.

Educational interventions involving physical manipulatives for improving children’s learning and development: a scoping review

WHY DID WE DO THIS RESEARCH?Hands-on learning activities with physical objects – or physical manipulatives (PMs) – can be great at encouraging children’s active participation in learning. Cast your mind back to your own childhood: do you remember using items like counters, shapes, or fraction bars in school? If so, you were using PMs! We wanted to find out what kind of research has been done on educational programmes involving PMs.WHAT DID WE DO?We conducted a scoping review – a type of literature review used to identify and broadly describe a body of research according to certain inclusion criteria. We searched several academic databases for studies that have tested the effectiveness of PM interventions with primary-age children; 102 studies met our inclusion criteria and were synthesised in the review.WHAT DID WE FIND?Most studies involved children between 4-6 years in school settings. They spanned 26 different countries, but almost all took place in high- or middle-income contexts, typically the USA. The interventions involved different PMs and hands-on activities (e.g., block building, shape sorting, paper folding), and evidence relating their effectiveness was mixed. Whilst some studies reported benefits to children’s math, spatial, or literacy skills, others did not, and many were hindered by methodological shortcomings. This means we must be cautious when drawing conclusions about the overall effectiveness of PM interventions. Nevertheless, the findings illustrate the many ways hands-on experiences with PMs can facilitate children’s active engagement in learning. Going forward, higher quality research is needed, as well as more studies testing PM interventions in lower-income contexts.

Pedagogical Creativity as a Means of Inclusion in Primary School

This chapter presents some creative pedagogical strategies used during the distance or remote learning period due to the COVID-19 pandemic from March to May 2020. The chapter explores the use of coding in a transdisciplinary way. Strategies for online tools and their specific use both in remote and in face-to-face learning are presented. The role of hands-on learning as a process of learning-by-doing and how to involve pupils using the methods of a flipped classroom are also presented. The chapter concludes with the importance of games to keep the class group united and cohesive in order to develop a healthy sense of competitiveness and collaboration among the pupils.

School Activities With Educational Robot to Facilitate Student Learning

The teaching of programming and its basic concepts even to young children has a crucial influence on the development of their cognitive functions and blends the lessons in the class with real life. In this chapter, school activities with educational robotics performed at both the special-needs education school and general public school were described. The students with mild intellectual disabilities and physically handicapped at the special needs school could build the robots nicely using small blocks and move them as they wanted through coding. The intellectual disabled students usually do not have enough long-term memory and are weak in abstraction but could develop the ability to actually understand logical thinking through hands-on learning with educational robotics. Through the present activities, the students including the public school could become aware of various goods around them programmed with coding and connect the learning in class to the real world.

Cultivating True Leaders: A Social Justice Curriculum for Youth Development Programs

In recent years, there have been increasing calls to intentionally center diversity, equity, and inclusion within positive youth development programs. True Leaders: Culture, Power and Justice is a 4-H curriculum designed to engage young people in understanding and applying social justice concepts with the ultimate aim of nurturing their sense of self-efficacy as they work to find solutions to pressing social issues. The True Leaders curriculum is shaped by the Five Cs of positive youth development—confidence, competence, connection, caring, and character—and a social justice youth development framework. Each lesson is grounded in the critical experiential learning model, which seeks to move participants through a process of hands-on learning about social justice concepts, critical reflection, and, ultimately, collective action. The True Leaders curriculum is intended for use with middle and high school-aged youth.

The effects of using the agile methodology as an instructional format for software development courses

The objective of traditional software development courses focuses on competencies in the programming languages and technical tools. Project methodologies and software development are typically taught as theory-driven and separate courses in Information Systems undergraduate programs. Rather than teaching project methodologies as secondary to the learning phase of software development, these methodologies can be actively incorporated into the software development course, applying the theoretical concepts in the classroom with the same tools used in the industry for product development. This research evaluates the effects of instituting the project methodology Agile as an active learning, instructional tool for a low-code software development course using the Mendix platform to give students hands-on learning of Agile while increasing their expertise in software development. The use of Agile in an instructional pedagogical approach enhanced student learning and prepared students with skills directly applicable in the industry. Future research could be applied to measure the Agile methodology as an instructional format for technical courses other than software development.

SWOT Analysis of a Didactic Program in Dietetics: Results from Focus Group Research

This study utilized focus group research to understand the experiences of students in a Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) at a large, public university. Students participating in the focus group reflected on and discussed the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats of the program. The participants stated that faculty support, hands-on learning, and opportunities to participate in clubs were strengths of the program. Students would like more opportunity to do research with faculty. They also indicated that there are program weaknesses such as access to common space, limits in course availability, roadblocks in curriculum, and limited access to necessary tools. Program opportunities, such as the upcoming accreditation visit, will express the student’s concerns and therefore focus administration’s attention on much needed financial support for the program. Although not a specific threat, changes in the credentialing for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists were also discussed by the students. Data were collected in preparation for an accreditation visit. However, the results can be used to advise department and university administrators about what items make students successful in their programs.

Hands-on learning: The influence of hand gestures on children's recall of scientific information

<p>When people speak they typically also gesture. Gesture and speech form an integrated communication system, with speech conveying information in a rule-bound and sequential manner (i.e. one word follows the other in accordance with grammatical rules) while gesture conveys information holistically in a visuospatial representation. These gestural hand movements not only aid the process of speaking, but also convey important information to the listener. While observing gesture during learning can facilitate children’s understanding and remembering of novel and isolated information (e.g.(Cook, Duffy, & Fenn, 2013), observing gesture may also support children in recalling complex, discursive content. This thesis examined the role observing gesture may play in supporting children’s learning and recall of narrative, scientific content. The 7- to 9-year-old children, who participated in this program of research, learnt about the solar system either with or without accompanying gestures. Children’s recall was assessed via interviews, both at short delays (one day) and long delays (two weeks or seven months after learning). It was hypothesised that gesture would improve children’s recall by grounding the abstract scientific ideas in a physical representation, disambiguating novel terms, and providing an additional representation for children to process, store, and retrieve. In Study 1, the influence of observing gesture in supporting children’s learning and recall was examined in combination with adult initiated wh-questions. The study was also conducted in the presence of visual aids. Results indicated that observing gesture only had a limited effect on children’s recall in Study 1 (both independently and in combination with wh-questions), so Study 2 examined the role of observing gesture in the absence of additional visual and verbal supports. Children’s recall was assessed both the next day and seven months later. Study 3 then manipulated both the gesture children observed at learning and the gesture children performed during recall the next day (i.e. instructed, allowed or restricted from gesturing). Finally, Study 4 examined children’s recall of spatial terms across the three studies. The overarching results revealed that children who observed gesture during learning tended to report more spatial terms, but did not show improved recall of the facts and concepts taught. When children observed gesture they did, however, produce a greater rate of representational gestures during recall. In particular, children who observed gesture were more likely to mimic the gestures they had observed, and in doing so improve their verbal recall both within the same interview and across interviews. The instruction to produce gesture did not appear to be effective in augmenting the influence of children’s gesture production, but restricting children from gesturing was found to hinder recall. Observing gesture was only indirectly effective in supporting children’s recall. One possible explanation for this findings may be that children found it difficult to integrate the gestural and verbal information into a cohesive message. Perhaps it was only when children produced gesture that they were able to non-verbally access the encoded gestural content and convert it into speech. While children’s own gesture appears to be the driving force in improving children’s learning and recall, adults must be aware of the way they move their hands during educational lessons, as these gestures likely set the stage for how children themselves will gesture.</p>