A model for examining middle school students’ STEM integration behavior in a national technology competition

Background Research on teaching and learning for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects has increased, and has demonstrated the importance of integrating interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. Our research model was based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the data were analyzed by partial least squares-structural equation modeling. The present study aims to identify factors that play an important role in students’ ability to integrate STEM knowledge and skills. Results Data were collected from participants who had won awards in local contests and represented their regions in a national technology competition. The reliability and validity of our instrument, the Students’ STEM Integration Scale, were verified. The findings demonstrated that students’ intentions to integrate STEM knowledge and skills to solve complex problems can be predicted by their attitude and perceived behavioral control. Conclusions This work highlights factors which are associated with students’ intentions to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge and skills, and serves as a reference for research on the gap between intentions and actual behavior. The findings could help teachers and instructors design STEM-based activities to enhance students’ attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and intentions, to improve their ability to integrate STEM knowledge and skills.

Anti-Corruption Criminological Security as a New Direction of Research

The sustainability of existence and the high destructive potential of corruption determined its place among the global problems that the humanity faces. One of the unique characteristics of corruption is its ability to adapt to the changing factors of the external environment, including the preventive measures. At the same time, continuous reproduction and development of various forms of corruption predetermines the necessity for improving ways of preventing it. Delays or insufficient effectiveness of counteracting publicly dangerous forms of corruption may jeopardize the system-forming elements of the society and the state, may result in their destruction. The complex nature of the phenomenon of corruption requires a search for new fundamental approaches in counteracting it. From the standpoint of history, the Russian Federation developed the legal and organizational basis of counteracting corruption in the shortest time possible. At the same time, the analysis of how this system functions makes it possible to conclude that it is at the limit of its possible extension. The existing situation is partially explained by the fact that, in view of the urgency of problems to be solved, the practice of building the state model of corruption counteraction was always ahead of scientific findings, which led to inevitable intrasystem contradictions. To reach a whole new level in the development of anti-corruption work, it is necessary to find fundamentally new approaches which would make it possible to unite a substantial body of available interdisciplinary knowledge within one guiding idea and present an optimal theoretical model. Modern Russian research is actively studying specific features of corruption and corruption crimes as well as ways of preventing them. At the same time, there have not yet been any fundamental research of the criminological aspects of anti-corruption activities from the standpoint of ensuring national security. One of the prospective directions of such research is the development of the theoretical basis of anti-corruption security as an inter-branch direction of research. Taking into account that crimes of corruption inflict the greatest damage on public relations, it should be noted that the research of anti-corruption criminological security has a considerable scientific potential. Primary cognition of poly-aspect manifestations of anti-corruption criminological security as well as its systemic-structural characteristics will allow to estimate the prospects of the presented direction of research.

Constituent aspects of riverside isomorphic governance on the Ilha do Careiro (Amazonas, Brazil)

Understanding governance in rural communities in the state of Amazonas requires interdisciplinary knowledge, as understanding the network of political articulation involves a collection of knowledge. Despite the existence of numerous works related to this subject, an a prior state is presumed in the representation of the network of political articulation, which leads to an exacerbated role of the State, in the face of other forms of social organization. Hence, the objective of the article was to analyze the environmental governance in the São Francisco community, located on the Ilha do Careiro da Várzea, in the state of Amazonas. We built Venn diagrams of agriculture, fishing, and plant extractivism to achieve this. The evidence provided indicates that the existing governance in the studied community is an isomorphic governance, which is the materialization of organized molecular power, originating from the triumvirate correspondence between the activities developed on lands, in forests, and on waters.

STEAM Course Development and Design based on Design Thinking: A Case Study on “Self-induction Demonstrator”

STEAM education is a new direction of education reform in the 21st century. It can cultivate students’ ability to creatively solve practical problems, integrate and apply interdisciplinary knowledge. It is an effective way to help students master the 21st century’s abilities. All countries spare no effort to let it be local Take root. The integration of design thinking and STEAM education provides a good opportunity for students' comprehensive and creative development. Therefore, we use the D. School design thinking model developed by Stanford University to develop a STEAM course based on design thinking to improve students' STEAM literacy and the skills and abilities that company needs for high-quality development. This STEAM course takes "Self-induction Demonstrator" as the project theme, including five steps: Empathize, Define, Ideal, Prototype, and Test. It aims to provide a reference paradigm for the design and implementation of the K-12 STEAM course, and promote the deep integration of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and art.

Project-based learning oriented STEAM: the case of micro–bit paper-cutting lamp

The main purpose of the living technology curriculum is to cultivate students' interest in learning science and technology, and further to utilize their experience of learning instructions and develop their ability to integrate interdisciplinary knowledge and skills. In recent years, as countries have begun to emphasize the concept of interdisciplinary integration in the school education, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, STEM) focuses on cultivating interdisciplinary talents. With this, STEAM highlights the role of ART because other dimensions of STEM are expected to be effectively integrated through the cultivation of aesthetics; the purpose of this study is to design a STEAM curriculum for elementary school children and to explore the impact of STEAM education on the creativity. The content of this course is based on the PBL (Project-Based Learning) with the teaching activities combining with “Chinese Paper-cutting” and “BBC micro: bit”. The teaching process is used the strategy of creative thinking instruction. The research method adopts a one-group pretest–posttest design based on a purposive sampling of 21 students from one class in an elementary school. The research tools included the records of learning feedback and the creativity assessment. The empirical findings show that the project-based learning incorporating STEAM activity has a positive significant influence on students’ development of creative recognition. Since the empirical results are constricted by the short-term STEAM course, the STEAM course with the art-oriented still benefits the STEAM education and Learning effectiveness of elementary school students. The implication of interdisciplinary interactive Lamp of Paper Carving with Micro:Bit is expected to contribute to further development of STEAM course. Since the curriculum is only last for few weeks, it is too short to affect the emotional facet of creativity. Future researches are suggested to extend the teaching period and evaluate the long-term influence of PBL STEAM on students' learning attitude.

DNA Environment of Centromeres and Non-Homologous Chromosomes Interactions in Mouse

Although the pericentromeric regions of chromosomes that are enriched in tandemly repeated satellite DNA represent a significant part of eukaryotic genomes, they remain understudied, which is mainly due to interdisciplinary knowledge gaps. Recent studies suggest their important role in genome regulation, karyotype stability, and evolution. Thus, the idea of satellite DNA as a junk part of the genome has been refuted. The integration of data regarding molecular composition, chromosome behaviour, and the details of the in situ organization of pericentromeric regions is of great interest. The objective of this work was a cytogenetic analysis of the interactions between pericentromeric regions from non-homologous chromosomes in mouse spermatocytes using immuno-FISH. We analysed two events: the associations between centromeric regions of the X chromosome and autosomes and the associations between the centromeric regions of the autosomal bivalents that form chromocenters. We concluded that the X chromosome forms temporary synaptic associations with different autosomes in early meiotic prophase I, which can normally be found until the pachytene–diplotene, without signs of pachytene arrest. These associations are formed between the satellite-DNA-rich centromeric regions of the X chromosome and different autosomes but do not involve the satellite-DNA-poor centromeric region of the Y chromosome. We suggest the hypothetical model of X chromosome competitive replacement from such associations during synaptic correction. We showed that the centromeric region of the X chromosome in association remains free of γH2Ax-dependent chromatin inactivation, while the Y chromosome is completely inactivated. This finding highlights the predominant role of associations between satellite DNA-rich regions of different chromosomes, including the X chromosome. We suppose that X-autosomal transient associations are a manifestation of an additional synaptic disorder checkpoint. These associations are normally corrected before the late diplotene stage. We revealed that the intense spreading conditions that were applied to the spermatocyte I nuclei did not lead to the destruction of stretched chromatin fibers of elongated chromocenters enriched in satellite DNA. The tight associations that we revealed between the pericentromeric regions of different autosomal bivalents and the X chromosome may represent the basis for a mechanism for maintaining the repeats stability in the autosomes and in the X chromosome. The consequences of our findings are discussed.

UKIDS – Trash Value: Educating With Citizenship in an Interdisciplinary Context

Supervised Teaching Practice (PES) should promote the development of skills associated with the profile of the teacher-researcher, namely: observation, recording, analysis, reflection. At the same time, it should provide children with rich and diverse experiences that produce education for (with) citizenship. The research project developed at PES was based on the European project UKIDS (Erasmus +) and was based on learning by project methodology, allowing for interdisciplinary knowledge. The challenges set in the project offer a variety of tasks to work on aspects such as initiative, motivation and innovation, as well as, trust and responsible social participation. Specifically, the Trash Value challenge, proposes to give a new life to waste, respecting a sustainable environment. Based on the implementation of this challenge and using the egg cartons, it was investigated how this material potentiated the development of social skills, reasoning and mathematical communication of children in the 4th year of schooling. The research methodology had characteristics of action-research, selecting different techniques and instruments for data collection. In addition to the pre-test and post-test carried out on the students and the teacher in charge of the class, audio recordings, field notes, photographic records and children’s productions were collected and organized in the form of multimodal narration. After conducting the study, it was possible to verify that the Trash Value challenge promoted the development of social skills, with a greater focus on cooperation, self-control and responsibility. Convergingly, problem-solving and mathematical communication skills have improved considerably, in an environment rich in children’s environmental awareness.