scholarly journals Listen Up! Using Podcasts in STEM Courses to Improve Engagement and Facilitate Review

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlin E. W. Laidlaw

This workshop focuses on how to integrate podcasts into science-based courses (e.g., chemistry, psychology). To some students, science-based courses can be perceived as ‘dry’ and difficult to engage with at a level that facilitates retention. Given that engrossing, high-quality teaching is cited as inspiring course enjoyment and leading students to further pursue STEM education (e.g., Horowitz, 2009), lecturers are often looking for ways to increase student interest. More than this, it is the hope of many educators that more enjoyable coursework will lead to better retention and understanding of the material (e.g., Kuh et al., 2008). As a news and entertainment vehicle, podcasts have continued to grow in popularity over the past decade or more. However, the efficacy of using podcasts within educational settings has been mixed (e.g., Daniel & Woody, 2010; Lee & Chan, 2007). This workshop will introduce podcasts as a learning medium and describe ways in which they can be used to effectively complement traditional teaching approaches, either as an enhancement to the course, or as a resource for student review. Attendees will be introduced to several ready-made STEM podcast resources and engage in discussions on how to develop new content that is effective, both logistically and pedagogically.

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
pp. 48-50
Author(s):  
Dr.AnnieKavitha L. ◽  
Keyword(s):  

Electricity is critical to enabling India’s economic growth and providing a better future for its citizens. In spite of several decades of reform, the Indian electricity sector is unable to provide high-quality and affordable electricity for all, and grapples with the challenge of poor financial and operational performance. To understand why, Mapping Power provides the most comprehensive analysis of the political economy of electricity in India’s states. With chapters on fifteen states by scholars of state politics and electricity, this volume maps the political and economic forces that constrain and shape decisions in electricity distribute on. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it concludes that attempts to depoliticize the sector are misplaced and could worsen outcomes. Instead, it suggests that a historically grounded political economy analysis helps understand the past and devise reforms to simultaneously improve sectoral outcomes and generate political rewards. These arguments have implications for the challenges facing India’s electricity future, including providing electricity to all, implementing government reform schemes, and successfully managing the rise of renewable energy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 019459982098713
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Silver ◽  
Marco Mascarella ◽  
George Tali ◽  
Rickul Varshney ◽  
Marc A. Tewfik ◽  
...  

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of evidence of rhinology and rhinologic skull base surgery (RSBS) research and its evolution over the past decade. Study Design Review article. Setting We reviewed articles from 2007 to 2019 in 4 leading peer-reviewed otolaryngology journals and 3 rhinology-specific journals. Methods The articles were reviewed and levels of evidence were assigned using the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine 2011 guidelines. High quality was defined as level of evidence 1 or 2. Results In total, 1835 articles were reviewed in this study spanning a 13-year period. Overall, the absolute number of RSBS publications increased significantly 22.6% per year, from 108 articles in 2007 to 481 in 2019 ( P < .001; 95% CI, 7.9-37.2). In 2007, only 13 articles, or 15%, were high quality, and this grew to 146 articles, or 39%, in 2019. A 14.0% per year exponential increase in the number of high-quality publications was found to be statistically significant ( P < .001; 95% CI, 7.2, 20.7). Overall, high-quality publications represented just 25.8% of RSBS articles overall. There was no significant difference in quality between rhinology-specific journals and general otolaryngology journals (χ2 = 3.1, P = .077). Conclusion The number of overall publications and of high-quality RSBS publications has significantly increased over the past decade. However, the proportion of high-quality studies continues to represent a minority of total RSBS research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
S. M. Mizanoor Rahman

Experienced middle school mathematics and science teachers were recruited for a pilot study. The teachers separately responded to a survey related to determining expected learning outcomes based on their traditional teaching, classroom experiences and observations, and self-brainstorming. The teachers then received training on how to design, develop, and implement robotics-enabled lessons under a design-based research approach for experiential learning, and taught robotics-enabled lessons to a selected student population in classroom settings. The teachers then responded to the survey for the robotics-enabled teaching. For each case (traditional and robotics-enabled), the survey responses were analyzed, and a set of expected learning outcomes of math and science lessons was derived separately. The thematic analysis results showed that the expected learning outcomes for the robotics-enabled lessons were not only related to the educational gains (content knowledge) observed in traditional teaching, but also to the improvements in the behavioral, social, scientific, cognitive, and intellectual aptitudes of the students. Then, a set of metrics and methods were proposed for assessing the learning outcomes separately. To validate the assessment metrics and methods, teachers from different schools taught two selected robotics-enabled lessons (one math, one science) to same grade students, and separately assessed the learning outcomes of each student using the proposed metrics and methods. The learning outcomes were then compared and benchmarked between schools and subjects. The results of a user study with the teachers showed user acceptance, effectiveness, and suitability of the assessment metrics and methods. The proposed scheme of assessing learning outcomes can be used to assess and justify the benefits and advantages of robotics-enabled STEM education, benchmark the outcomes, help improve teaching preparations, motivate decision-makers to confer on robotics-enabled STEM education and curricula development, and promote robotics-enabled STEM education.


PalZ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Haug ◽  
Joachim T. Haug

AbstractWhip spiders (Amblypygi), as their name suggests, resemble spiders (Araneae) in some aspects, but differ from them by their heart-shaped (prosomal) dorsal shield, their prominent grasping pedipalps, and their subsequent elongate pair of feeler appendages. The oldest possible occurrences of whip spiders, represented by cuticle fragments, date back to the Devonian (c. 385 mya), but (almost) complete fossils are known from the Carboniferous (c. 300 mya) onwards. The fossils include specimens preserved on slabs or in nodules (Carboniferous, Cretaceous) as well as specimens preserved in amber (Cretaceous, Eocene, Miocene). We review here all fossil whip spider specimens, figure most of them as interpretative drawings or with high-quality photographs including 3D imaging (stereo images) to make the three-dimensional relief of the specimens visible. Furthermore, we amend the list by two new specimens (resulting in 37 in total). The fossil specimens as well as modern whip spiders were measured to analyse possible changes in morphology over time. In general, the shield appears to have become relatively broader and the pedipalps and walking appendages have become more elongate over geological time. The morphological details are discussed in an evolutionary framework and in comparison with results from earlier studies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 926-930 ◽  
pp. 4004-4007
Author(s):  
Zhang Peng ◽  
Ji Liang ◽  
Shen Lei

PBL (Problem-Based Learning) method is to problem for based of a method, teaching process in the teachers boot students based on specific problem read information, and organization discussion, eventually boot students to analysis problem and settlement problem; in human anatomy teaching in the application PBL method, change has traditional teaching means, enhanced has students of learning consciousness and sense, improve has students multi cognitive and overall thinking capacity, in students of active participation in the training they of team spirit At the same time flexible application of modern information technology, improving organizational communication skills; The proper application of PBL teaching theory to teaching human anatomy to improve student interest in learning, improve teaching effectiveness, and lay a solid foundation for the future of PBL teaching other courses.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan-Chi Yang ◽  
Ping-Chun Wu ◽  
Chia-Chun Wei ◽  
Qilan Zhong ◽  
Sheng-Zhu Ho ◽  
...  

Abstract Epitaxial growth is of significant importance over the past decades, given it has been the key process of modern technology for delivering high-quality thin films. For conventional heteroepitaxy, the selection of proper single crystal substrates not only facilitates the integration of different materials but also fulfills interface and strain engineering upon a wide spectrum of functionalities. Nevertheless, the lattice structures, regularity and crystalline orientation are determined once a specific substrate is chosen. In this work, we reveal the growth of twisted oxide lateral homostructures with multiple conjunction degree of freedom. The twisted lateral homostructures with atomically sharp interfaces can be composed of epitaxial “blocks” with different crystalline orientations, ferroic orders and phases. We further demonstrate that this approach is universal for fabricating various complex systems. Our results establish an efficient pathway towards twisted lateral homostructures, allowing epitaxial films to be arbitrarily tailored at designated positions with unbounded in-plane conjunction tunability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 694-708 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Qin ◽  
Baogang He

AbstractAuthoritarian deliberation has been used widely to describe the specific form of deliberation developed in China. However, whether its practice will strengthen authoritarianism or lead to democratization remains unknown. In this study, we examine this question from the perspective of participants in public deliberation. Surveying the participants in participatory pricings held in Shanghai over the past 5 years, we find that participants’ perception of deliberative quality has a statistically significant negative impact on their level of political activism, while their level of empowerment has a moderating effect on this negative relationship. In this light, Chinese deliberative practices characterized by high-quality deliberation and low-level empowerment are likely to have a demobilization effect; thus, they reinforce the authoritarian rules.


Author(s):  
Juria Wiechmann ◽  
Daniel Conn ◽  
Leslee Thorpe

Multiage classrooms seem to be an idea of the past, as students in most schools across the country are grouped by age. However, research by Goldman (1981), Rhoades (1966), and Eisner (2003) argue that multiage grouping has significant social, behavioral, and intellectual advantages for students. Using educational criticism and connoisseurship as a methodology, this article examines the accounts of a professor who taught in a multiage school environment within the United States, as well as observations of a multiage school in the Masaka district of Uganda. This study aims to understand how curriculum and pedagogy interact within multiage system, as well as whether those interactions help or hinder students. Through interviews observations, and classroom artifacts, it was found as Perez, Breault, and White (2014) argue curriculum functions as a space, not only a given content trajectory. Additionally, it was found that in creating a space where community was encouraged, the school was able to move toward pedagogy of love.


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