Sample records for facilitate scientific investigation

  1. Advanced Artificial Science. The development of an artificial science and engineering research infrastructure to facilitate innovative computational modeling, analysis, and application to interdisciplinary areas of scientific investigation.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Saffer, Shelley

    2014-12-01

    This is a final report of the DOE award DE-SC0001132, Advanced Artificial Science. The development of an artificial science and engineering research infrastructure to facilitate innovative computational modeling, analysis, and application to interdisciplinary areas of scientific investigation. This document describes the achievements of the goals, and resulting research made possible by this award.

  2. Educational Facilitation for Mathematically and Scientifically Precocious Youth.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fox, Lynn H.; Stanley, Julian C.

    A program to facilitate instruction for mathematically and scientifically gifted junior high students was described. Compared were nine educational alternatives for the gifted such as homogeneous grouping and early admission to college in terms of educational goals such as allowing for individual differences. Thirty-five scorers in a science fair…

  3. Investigating Flow Experience and Scientific Practices During a Mobile Serious Educational Game

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bressler, Denise M.; Bodzin, Alec M.

    2016-10-01

    Mobile serious educational games (SEGs) show promise for promoting scientific practices and high engagement. Researchers have quantified this engagement according to flow theory. This study investigated whether a mobile SEG promotes flow experience and scientific practices with eighth-grade urban students. Students playing the game ( n = 59) were compared with students in a business-as-usual control activity ( n = 120). In both scenarios, students worked in small teams. Data measures included an open-ended instrument designed to measure scientific practices, a self-report flow survey, and classroom observations. The game players had significantly higher levels of flow and scientific practices compared to the control group. Observations revealed that game teams received less whole-class instruction and review compared to the control teams. Game teachers had primarily a guide-on-the-side role when facilitating the game, while control teachers predominantly used didactic instruction when facilitating the control activity. Implications for these findings are discussed.

  4. Exploiting the Use of Social Networking to Facilitate Collaboration in the Scientific Community

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Coppock, Edrick G.

    The goal of this project was to exploit social networking to facilitate scientific collaboration. The project objective was to research and identify scientific collaboration styles that are best served by social networking applications and to model the most effective social networking applications to substantiate how social networking can support scientific collaboration. To achieve this goal and objective, the project was to develop an understanding of the types of collaborations conducted by scientific researchers, through classification, data analysis and identification of unique collaboration requirements. Another technical objective in support of this goal was to understand the current state of technology inmore » collaboration tools. In order to test hypotheses about which social networking applications effectively support scientific collaboration the project was to create a prototype scientific collaboration system. The ultimate goal for testing the hypotheses and research of the project was to refine the prototype into a functional application that could effectively facilitate and grow collaboration within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) research community.« less

  5. Using Communication Technology to Facilitate Scientific Literacy: A Framework for Engaged Learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    VanBuskirk, Shireen Adele

    The purpose of this research project is to describe how existing communication technologies are used to foster scientific literacy for secondary students. This study develops a new framework as an analytic tool to categorize the activities of teachers and students involved in scientific literacy to describe what elements of scientific literacy are facilitated by such technologies. Four case studies are analyzed using the framework to describe the scientific literacy initiatives. Data collection at each site included interviews with the teacher, student focus groups, student surveys, and classroom observations. Qualitative analysis of the data provided insight into the learning activities and student experiences in the four cases. This study intentionally provides a platform for student voice. Very few previous empirical studies in the area of scientific literacy include the student experience. This represents a significant gap in the current literature on scientific literacy. An interpretation of scientific literacy that promotes student engagement, interaction, and initiative corresponds to a need to listen to students' perspectives on these experiences. Findings of the study indicated that the classroom activities depended on the teacher's philosophy regarding scientific literacy. Communication technology was ubiquitous; where the teacher did not initiate the use of social media in the classroom, the students did. The goal of supporting scientific literacy in students is an objective that extends beyond the boundaries of classroom walls, and it can be facilitated by technologies that seem both abundant and underutilized. Technology-enhanced pedagogy altered the classroom practices and resulted in more student participation and engagement.

  6. Barriers and Facilitators to Scientific Writing Among Applied Epidemiologists.

    PubMed

    Pittman, Jessica; Stahre, Mandy; Tomedi, Laura; Wurster, Jessica

    Communication in the form of written and oral reports and presentations is a core competency for epidemiologists at governmental public health agencies. Many applied epidemiologists do not publish peer-reviewed articles, limiting the scientific literature of best practices in evidence-based public health. To describe the writing and publishing experiences of applied epidemiologists and identify barriers and facilitators to publishing. Telephone focus groups and an 18-question multiple-choice and short-answer Web-based assessment were fielded in 2014. Six focus groups composed of 26 applied epidemiologists and an online assessment answered by 396 applied epidemiologists. Sample selection was stratified by years of experience. Past publishing experience, current job duties as related to publishing, barriers and facilitators to writing and publishing, and desired training in writing and publishing were assessed through focus groups and the online assessment. Focus groups identified 4 themes: job expectations, barriers to publishing, organizational culture, and the understanding of public health practice among reviewers as issues related to writing and publishing. Most respondents (80%) expressed a desire to publish; however, only 59% had published in a peer-reviewed journal. An academic appointment (among doctoral educated respondents) was identified as a facilitator to publishing as was access to peer-reviewed literature. Time (68%) was identified as the greatest barrier to writing and publishing. Other major barriers included lack of encouragement or support (33%) within the public health agency and agency clearance processes (32%). Assistance with journal selection (62%), technical writing skills (60%), and manuscript formatting (57%) were listed as the most needed trainings. Public health agencies can be facilitators for epidemiologists to contribute to the scientific literature through increasing access to the peer-reviewed literature, creating a supportive

  7. Journal entries facilitating preprofessional scientific literacy and mutualistic symbiotic relationships

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vander Vliet, Valerie J.

    This study explored journal writing as an alternative assessment to promote the development of pre-professional scientific literacy and mutualistic symbiotic relationships between teaching and learning, instruction and assessment, and students and teachers. The larger context of this study is an action reaction project of the attempted transformation of a traditional first year undergraduate pre-professional biology class to sociocultural constructivist principles. The participants were commuter and residential, full and part-time students ranging in age from 18 to 27 and 18/21 were female. The backgrounds of the students varied considerably, ranging from low to upper middle income, including students of Black and Asian heritage. The setting was a medium-sized Midwestern university. The instructor has twenty years of experience teaching Biology at the college level. The data were analyzed using the constant comparative method and the development of grounded theory. The journal entries were analyzed as to their function and form in relationship to the development of multiple aspects of pre-professional scientific literacy. The perceptions of the students as to the significance of the use of journal entries were also determined through the analysis of their use of journal entries in their portfolios and statements in surveys and portfolios. The analysis revealed that journal entries promoted multiple aspects of pre-professional scientific literacy in both students and the instructor and facilitated the development of mutualistic symbiotic relationships between teaching and learning, instruction and assessment, and students and teachers. The function analysis revealed that the journal entries fulfilled the functions intended for the development of multiple aspects of pre-professional scientific literacy. The complexity of journal writing emerged from the form analysis, which revealed the multiple form elements inherent in journal entries. Students perceived journal

  8. Using the High-Level Based Program Interface to Facilitate the Large Scale Scientific Computing

    PubMed Central

    Shang, Yizi; Shang, Ling; Gao, Chuanchang; Lu, Guiming; Ye, Yuntao; Jia, Dongdong

    2014-01-01

    This paper is to make further research on facilitating the large-scale scientific computing on the grid and the desktop grid platform. The related issues include the programming method, the overhead of the high-level program interface based middleware, and the data anticipate migration. The block based Gauss Jordan algorithm as a real example of large-scale scientific computing is used to evaluate those issues presented above. The results show that the high-level based program interface makes the complex scientific applications on large-scale scientific platform easier, though a little overhead is unavoidable. Also, the data anticipation migration mechanism can improve the efficiency of the platform which needs to process big data based scientific applications. PMID:24574931

  9. Mutual Alignment Comparison Facilitates Abstraction and Transfer of a Complex Scientific Concept

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Orton, Judy M.; Anggoro, Florencia K.; Jee, Benjamin D.

    2012-01-01

    Learning about a scientific concept often occurs in the context of unfamiliar examples. Mutual alignment analogy--a type of analogical comparison in which the analogues are only partially understood--has been shown to facilitate learning from unfamiliar examples . In the present study, we examined the role of mutual alignment analogy in the…

  10. Promoting Science Learning and Scientific Identification through Contemporary Scientific Investigations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Van Horne, Katie

    This dissertation investigates the implementation issues and the educational opportunities associated with "taking the practice turn" in science education. This pedagogical shift focuses instructional experiences on engaging students in the epistemic practices of science both to learn the core ideas of the disciplines, as well as to gain an understanding of and personal connection to the scientific enterprise. In Chapter 2, I examine the teacher-researcher co-design collaboration that supported the classroom implementation of a year-long, project-based biology curriculum that was under development. This study explores the dilemmas that arose when teachers implemented a new intervention and how the dilemmas arose and were managed throughout the collaboration of researchers and teachers and between the teachers. In the design-based research of Chapter 3, I demonstrate how students' engagement in epistemic practices in contemporary science investigations supported their conceptual development about genetics. The analysis shows how this involved a complex interaction between the scientific, school and community practices in students' lives and how through varied participation in the practices students come to write about and recognize how contemporary investigations can give them leverage for science-based action outside of the school setting. Finally, Chapter 4 explores the characteristics of learning environments for supporting the development of scientific practice-linked identities. Specific features of the learning environment---access to the intellectual work of the domain, authentic roles and accountability, space to make meaningful contributions in relation to personal interests, and practice-linked identity resources that arose from interactions in the learning setting---supported learners in stabilizing practice-linked science identities through their engagement in contemporary scientific practices. This set of studies shows that providing students with the

  11. Scientific Investigation with the SJCSI

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berbey, E.; Delpeyroux, G.; Douay, E.; Juchereau, C.; Garavet, O.

    2012-04-01

    Scientific Investigation with the SJCSI (Saint Jean* Crime Scene Investigation) Our work, which we have been teaching for 3 years, consists of a scientific investigation. We create a case from A to Z and then our students (15 to 16 years old) are meant to collect samples and clues from a reconstituted crime scene and then have to catch the culprit thanks to laboratory tests crossing four subjects: Physics and Chemistry, Biology, Math and English. I'm a biology teacher and I work with 3 other teachers in my school. The objectives of these activities are: • Make sciences more attractive by putting them into a context of crime investigation. • Use science techniques to find a culprit or to clear a suspect. • To acquire scientific knowledge. • Realize that the different scientific subjects complement each other to carry out a survey. • Use English language and improve it. The investigation consists of doing experiments after collecting different samples and clues on the crime scene. Examples of Biology experimentation: • Detecting the origin of the blood samples found on the crime scene. Students observe blood samples with a microscope and compare the characteristics to those of human blood found on the web. They discover that blood samples found aren't human blood because the red cells have a nucleus. By using the information given in the scenario, they discover that blood sample belongs to the parrot of a suspect. Students, also take a photo of their microscopic preparations, add title and caption and so they learn the cell's structure and the characteristics of blood cells. • In another case, students have to study the blood sample found under the victims fingernails. They observe blood preparation and compare it to the blood of a suspect who has a genetic disease: drepanocytosis. So, they discover the characteristics of blood cells by comparing them to sickle cells. • DNA electrophoresis to identify DNA found, for example, on the gun. • Blood type

  12. Peer Mentoring to Facilitate Original Scientific Research by Students With Special Needs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Danch, J. M.

    2007-12-01

    Developed to allow high school students with special needs to participate in original scientific research, the Peer Mentoring Program was a supplement to existing science instruction for students in a self-contained classroom. Peer mentors were high school seniors at the end of a three-year advanced science research course who used their experience to create and develop inquiry-based research activities appropriate for students in the self- contained classroom. Peer mentors then assisted cooperative learning groups of special education students to facilitate the implementation of the research activities. Students with special needs successfully carried out an original research project and developed critical thinking and laboratory skills. Prior to embarking on their undergraduate course of study in the sciences, peer mentors developed an appreciation for the need to bring original scientific research to students of all levels. The program will be expanded and continued during the 2007-2008 school year.

  13. EASI: An electronic assistant for scientific investigation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Schur, A.; Feller, D.; DeVaney, M.

    1991-09-01

    Although many automated tools support the productivity of professionals (engineers, managers, architects, secretaries, etc.), none specifically address the needs of the scientific researcher. The scientist's needs are complex and the primary activities are cognitive rather than physical. The individual scientist collects and manipulates large data sets, integrates, synthesizes, generates, and records information. The means to access and manipulate information are a critical determinant of the performance of the system as a whole. One hindrance in this process is the scientist's computer environment, which has changed little in the last two decades. Extensive time and effort is demanded from the scientistmore » to learn to use the computer system. This paper describes how chemists' activities and interactions with information were abstracted into a common paradigm that meets the critical requirement of facilitating information access and retrieval. This paradigm was embodied in EASI, a working prototype that increased the productivity of the individual scientific researcher. 4 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.« less

  14. Investigating power capping toward energy-efficient scientific applications: Investigating Power Capping toward Energy-Efficient Scientific Applications

    DOE PAGES

    Haidar, Azzam; Jagode, Heike; Vaccaro, Phil; ...

    2018-03-22

    The emergence of power efficiency as a primary constraint in processor and system design poses new challenges concerning power and energy awareness for numerical libraries and scientific applications. Power consumption also plays a major role in the design of data centers, which may house petascale or exascale-level computing systems. At these extreme scales, understanding and improving the energy efficiency of numerical libraries and their related applications becomes a crucial part of the successful implementation and operation of the computing system. In this paper, we study and investigate the practice of controlling a compute system's power usage, and we explore howmore » different power caps affect the performance of numerical algorithms with different computational intensities. Further, we determine the impact, in terms of performance and energy usage, that these caps have on a system running scientific applications. This analysis will enable us to characterize the types of algorithms that benefit most from these power management schemes. Our experiments are performed using a set of representative kernels and several popular scientific benchmarks. Lastly, we quantify a number of power and performance measurements and draw observations and conclusions that can be viewed as a roadmap to achieving energy efficiency in the design and execution of scientific algorithms.« less

  15. Investigating power capping toward energy-efficient scientific applications: Investigating Power Capping toward Energy-Efficient Scientific Applications

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Haidar, Azzam; Jagode, Heike; Vaccaro, Phil

    The emergence of power efficiency as a primary constraint in processor and system design poses new challenges concerning power and energy awareness for numerical libraries and scientific applications. Power consumption also plays a major role in the design of data centers, which may house petascale or exascale-level computing systems. At these extreme scales, understanding and improving the energy efficiency of numerical libraries and their related applications becomes a crucial part of the successful implementation and operation of the computing system. In this paper, we study and investigate the practice of controlling a compute system's power usage, and we explore howmore » different power caps affect the performance of numerical algorithms with different computational intensities. Further, we determine the impact, in terms of performance and energy usage, that these caps have on a system running scientific applications. This analysis will enable us to characterize the types of algorithms that benefit most from these power management schemes. Our experiments are performed using a set of representative kernels and several popular scientific benchmarks. Lastly, we quantify a number of power and performance measurements and draw observations and conclusions that can be viewed as a roadmap to achieving energy efficiency in the design and execution of scientific algorithms.« less

  16. Scientific Investigations of Elementary School Children

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Valanides, Nicos; Papageorgiou, Maria; Angeli, Charoula

    2014-02-01

    The study provides evidence concerning elementary school children's ability to conduct a scientific investigation. Two hundred and fifty sixth-grade students and 248 fourth-grade students were administered a test, and based on their performance, they were classified into high-ability and low-ability students. The sample of this study was randomly selected and included 80 students, 40 fourth-grade and 40 sixth-grade students of low and high abilities. Students were specifically instructed to investigate the functioning of a device, to think aloud prior and after any experiment with the device, and to keep a record of their experimental results. The results showed that students were inclined to mainly collect evidence from the experimental space and failed to control variables during their investigation. The majority of the students had difficulties with effectively organizing collected data and failed to coordinate hypotheses with evidence. The significant interaction effect that was found between grade level and ability in terms of students' investigation ability indicates that the existing gap between high- and low-ability students becomes bigger as students become older. Undoubtedly, ongoing research efforts for identifying patterns of children's cognitive development will be most valuable as they can have important implications for the design of teaching scenarios and inquiry-based science activities conducive to accelerating students' cognitive growth and scientific investigation abilities.

  17. Scientific Investigations of Elementary School Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Valanides, Nicos; Papageorgiou, Maria; Angeli, Charoula

    2014-01-01

    The study provides evidence concerning elementary school children's ability to conduct a scientific investigation. Two hundred and fifty sixth-grade students and 248 fourth-grade students were administered a test, and based on their performance, they were classified into high-ability and low-ability students. The sample of this study was…

  18. Facilitating Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals through Open Scientific Data and Indicators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, R. S.; Levy, M. A.; de Sherbinin, A. M.; Fischer, A.

    2015-12-01

    The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an unprecedented international commitment to a shared future encompassing sustainable management of the planet and significant improvement in the human condition around the world. The scientific community has both an ethical responsibility and substantial self-interest—as residents of this planet—to help the world community to better understand the complex, interlinked behavior of human and environmental systems and to elucidate pathways to achieve long-term sustainability. Critical to making progress towards the SDGs is the open availability of timely, reliable, usable, and well integrated data and indicators relevant to all SDGs and associated targets. Such data and indicators will not only be valuable in monitoring and evaluation of progress, but also in developing policies and making decisions on environmental and societal issues affecting sustainability from local to global scales. The open availability of such data and indicators can help motivate performance, promote accountability, and facilitate cooperation. A range of scientific, technical, organizational, political, and resource challenges need to be addressed in developing a coherent SDG monitoring and indicator framework. For example, assembling and integrating diverse data on consistent spatial and temporal scales across the relevant natural, social, health, and engineering sciences pose both scientific and technical difficulties, and may require new ways to interlink and organize existing cyberinfrastructure, reconcile different data policy regimes, and fund integration efforts. New information technologies promise more timely and efficient ways of collecting many types of data, but may also raise privacy, control, and equity issues. Scientific review processes to ensure data quality need to be coordinated with the types of quality control and review employed by national statistical agencies for trusted economic and social statistics. Although

  19. A Lightweight I/O Scheme to Facilitate Spatial and Temporal Queries of Scientific Data Analytics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tian, Yuan; Liu, Zhuo; Klasky, Scott; Wang, Bin; Abbasi, Hasan; Zhou, Shujia; Podhorszki, Norbert; Clune, Tom; Logan, Jeremy; Yu, Weikuan

    2013-01-01

    In the era of petascale computing, more scientific applications are being deployed on leadership scale computing platforms to enhance the scientific productivity. Many I/O techniques have been designed to address the growing I/O bottleneck on large-scale systems by handling massive scientific data in a holistic manner. While such techniques have been leveraged in a wide range of applications, they have not been shown as adequate for many mission critical applications, particularly in data post-processing stage. One of the examples is that some scientific applications generate datasets composed of a vast amount of small data elements that are organized along many spatial and temporal dimensions but require sophisticated data analytics on one or more dimensions. Including such dimensional knowledge into data organization can be beneficial to the efficiency of data post-processing, which is often missing from exiting I/O techniques. In this study, we propose a novel I/O scheme named STAR (Spatial and Temporal AggRegation) to enable high performance data queries for scientific analytics. STAR is able to dive into the massive data, identify the spatial and temporal relationships among data variables, and accordingly organize them into an optimized multi-dimensional data structure before storing to the storage. This technique not only facilitates the common access patterns of data analytics, but also further reduces the application turnaround time. In particular, STAR is able to enable efficient data queries along the time dimension, a practice common in scientific analytics but not yet supported by existing I/O techniques. In our case study with a critical climate modeling application GEOS-5, the experimental results on Jaguar supercomputer demonstrate an improvement up to 73 times for the read performance compared to the original I/O method.

  20. Scientific Investigators Retreat Brings Like Minds Together | Poster

    Cancer.gov

    Scientists throughout NCI gathered at the 2016 Intramural Scientific Investigators Retreat on Jan. 12, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, to discuss the results of their research with fellow investigators. Several researchers who have made significant advances toward the goal of eliminating the threat of cancer spoke to a packed auditorium of

  1. What can we learn from PISA?: Investigating PISA's approach to scientific literacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schwab, Cheryl Jean

    This dissertation is an investigation of the relationship between the multidimensional conception of scientific literacy and its assessment. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), developed under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the assessment of scientific literacy. PISA developed a continuum of performance for scientific literacy across three competencies (i.e., process, content, and situation). Foundational to the interpretation of PISA science assessment is PISA's definition of scientific literacy, which I argue incorporates three themes drawn from history: (a) scientific way of thinking, (b) everyday relevance of science, and (c) scientific literacy for all students. Three coordinated studies were conducted to investigate the validity of PISA science assessment and offer insight into the development of items to assess scientific 2 literacy. Multidimensional models of the internal structure of the PISA 2003 science items were found not to reflect the complex character of PISA's definition of scientific literacy. Although the multidimensional models across the three competencies significantly decreased the G2 statistic from the unidimensional model, high correlations between the dimensions suggest that the dimensions are similar. A cognitive analysis of student verbal responses to PISA science items revealed that students were using competencies of scientific literacy, but the competencies were not elicited by the PISA science items at the depth required by PISA's definition of scientific literacy. Although student responses contained only knowledge of scientific facts and simple scientific concepts, students were using more complex skills to interpret and communicate their responses. Finally the investigation of different scoring approaches and item response models illustrated different ways to interpret student responses to assessment items. These

  2. Group investigation with scientific approach in mathematics learning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Indarti, D.; Mardiyana; Pramudya, I.

    2018-03-01

    The aim of this research is to find out the effect of learning model toward mathematics achievement. This research is quasi-experimental research. The population of research is all VII grade students of Karanganyar regency in the academic year of 2016/2017. The sample of this research was taken using stratified cluster random sampling technique. Data collection was done based on mathematics achievement test. The data analysis technique used one-way ANOVA following the normality test with liliefors method and homogeneity test with Bartlett method. The results of this research is the mathematics learning using Group Investigation learning model with scientific approach produces the better mathematics learning achievement than learning with conventional model on material of quadrilateral. Group Investigation learning model with scientific approach can be used by the teachers in mathematics learning, especially in the material of quadrilateral, which is can improve the mathematics achievement.

  3. Balloon concepts for scientific investigation of Mars and Jupiter

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ash, R. L.

    1979-01-01

    Opportunities for scientific investigation of the atmospheric planets using buoyant balloons have been explored. Mars and Jupiter were considered in this study because design requirements at those planets bracket nominally the requirements at Venus, and plans are already underway for a joint Russian-French balloon system at Venus. Viking data has provided quantitative information for definition of specific balloon systems at Mars. Free flying balloons appear capable of providing valuable scientific support for more sophisticated Martian surface probes, but tethered and powered aerostats are not attractive. The Jovian environment is so extreme, hot atmosphere balloons may be the only scientific platforms capable of extended operations there. However, the estimated system mass and thermal energy required are very large.

  4. Scientific Investigators Retreat Brings Like Minds Together | Poster

    Cancer.gov

    Scientists throughout NCI gathered at the 2016 Intramural Scientific Investigators Retreat on Jan. 12, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, to discuss the results of their research with fellow investigators. Several researchers who have made significant advances toward the goal of eliminating the threat of cancer spoke to a packed auditorium of like-minded experts. Speaker topics included the role genetics play in the risk of breast cancer, using fiberglass to...

  5. Scientists Discover New Possibilities at Scientific Investigators Retreat | Poster

    Cancer.gov

    By Nancy Parrish, Staff Writer; photos by Richard Frederickson, Staff Photographer Scientists who attended the 2015 NCI Intramural Scientific Investigators Retreat on Jan. 13 had a chance to discuss research results with other investigators from across the National Cancer Institute. And this year, they could also explore new possibilities for the future of their research.

  6. Investigating the Impact of Automated Feedback on Students' Scientific Argumentation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhu, Mengxiao; Lee, Hee-Sun; Wang, Ting; Liu, Ou Lydia; Belur, Vinetha; Pallant, Amy

    2017-01-01

    This study investigates the role of automated scoring and feedback in supporting students' construction of written scientific arguments while learning about factors that affect climate change in the classroom. The automated scoring and feedback technology was integrated into an online module. Students' written scientific argumentation occurred…

  7. Scientists and Scientific Thinking: Understanding Scientific Thinking through an Investigation of Scientists Views about Superstitions and Religious Beliefs

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coll, Richard K.; Lay, Mark C.; Taylor, Neil

    2008-01-01

    Scientific literacy is explored in this paper which describes two studies that seek to understand a particular feature of the nature of science; namely scientists' habits of mind. The research investigated scientists' views of scientific evidence and how scientists judge evidence claims. The first study is concerned with scientists' views of what…

  8. Facilitating Stewardship of scientific data through standards based workflows

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bastrakova, I.; Kemp, C.; Potter, A. K.

    2013-12-01

    There are main suites of standards that can be used to define the fundamental scientific methodology of data, methods and results. These are firstly Metadata standards to enable discovery of the data (ISO 19115), secondly the Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) suite of standards that include the O&M and SensorML standards and thirdly Ontology that provide vocabularies to define the scientific concepts and relationships between these concepts. All three types of standards have to be utilised by the practicing scientist to ensure that those who ultimately have to steward the data stewards to ensure that the data can be preserved curated and reused and repurposed. Additional benefits of this approach include transparency of scientific processes from the data acquisition to creation of scientific concepts and models, and provision of context to inform data use. Collecting and recording metadata is the first step in scientific data flow. The primary role of metadata is to provide details of geographic extent, availability and high-level description of data suitable for its initial discovery through common search engines. The SWE suite provides standardised patterns to describe observations and measurements taken for these data, capture detailed information about observation or analytical methods, used instruments and define quality determinations. This information standardises browsing capability over discrete data types. The standardised patterns of the SWE standards simplify aggregation of observation and measurement data enabling scientists to transfer disintegrated data to scientific concepts. The first two steps provide a necessary basis for the reasoning about concepts of ';pure' science, building relationship between concepts of different domains (linked-data), and identifying domain classification and vocabularies. Geoscience Australia is re-examining its marine data flows, including metadata requirements and business processes, to achieve a clearer link between

  9. Investigating the Impact on Skill Development of an Undergraduate Scientific Research Skills Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yeoman, Kay H.; Zamorski, Barbara

    2008-01-01

    This paper describes the design and subsequent impact of a scientific research skills course. Student understanding of the university research environment, their confidence in finding and using scientific literature and in scientific writing and presentation pre- and post-course was investigated. The findings suggested that understanding of the…

  10. SALTON SEA SCIENTIFIC DRILLING PROJECT: SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sass, J.H.; Elders, W.A.

    1986-01-01

    The Salton Sea Scientific Drilling Project, was spudded on 24 October 1985, and reached a total depth of 10,564 ft. (3. 2 km) on 17 March 1986. There followed a period of logging, a flow test, and downhole scientific measurements. The scientific goals were integrated smoothly with the engineering and economic objectives of the program and the ideal of 'science driving the drill' in continental scientific drilling projects was achieved in large measure. The principal scientific goals of the project were to study the physical and chemical processes involved in an active, magmatically driven hydrothermal system. To facilitate these studies, high priority was attached to four areas of sample and data collection, namely: (1) core and cuttings, (2) formation fluids, (3) geophysical logging, and (4) downhole physical measurements, particularly temperatures and pressures.

  11. Shifting South African Learners towards Greater Autonomy in Scientific Investigations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ramnarain, Umesh; Hobden, Paul

    2015-01-01

    This report describes how teachers support ninth-grade students who are doing scientific investigations in Natural Sciences in South African schools. This is of interest as allowing students to participate in inquiry-based investigations is a significant shift from traditional practices. It presents a new challenge to teachers as it signals an…

  12. Investigating Flow Experience and Scientific Practices during a Mobile Serious Educational Game

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bressler, Denise M.; Bodzin, Alec M.

    2016-01-01

    Mobile serious educational games (SEGs) show promise for promoting scientific practices and high engagement. Researchers have quantified this engagement according to flow theory. This study investigated whether a mobile SEG promotes flow experience and scientific practices with eighth-grade urban students. Students playing the game (n = 59) were…

  13. Using the Scientific Method to Engage Mathematical Modeling: An Investigation of pi

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Archer, Lester A. C.; Ng, Karen E.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this paper is to explain how to use the scientific method as the framework to introduce mathematical model. Two interdisciplinary activities, targeted for students in grade 6 or grade 7, are explained to show the application of the scientific method while building a mathematical model to investigate the relationship between the…

  14. Media-Savvy Scientific Literacy: Developing Critical Evaluation Skills by Investigating Scientific Claims

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Brickman, Peggy; Gormally, Cara; Francom, Greg; Jardeleza, Sarah E.; Schutte, Virginia G. W.; Jordan, Carly; Kanizay, Lisa

    2012-01-01

    Students must learn content knowledge and develop scientific literacy skills to evaluate and use scientific information in real-world situations. Recognizing the accessibility of scientific information to the average citizen, we developed an instructional approach to help students learn how to judge the quality of claims. We describe a…

  15. [Investigation methodology and application on scientific and technological personnel of traditional Chinese medical resources based on data from Chinese scientific research paper].

    PubMed

    Li, Hai-yan; Li, Yuan-hai; Yang, Yang; Liu, Fang-zhou; Wang, Jing; Tian, Ye; Yang, Ce; Liu, Yang; Li, Meng; Sun Li-ying

    2015-12-01

    The aim of this study is to identify the present status of the scientific and technological personnel in the field of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) resource science. Based on the data from Chinese scientific research paper, an investigation regarding the number of the personnel, the distribution, their output of paper, their scientific research teams, high-yield authors and high-cited authors was conducted. The study covers seven subfields of traditional Chinese medicine identification, quality standard, Chinese medicine cultivation, harvest processing of TCM, market development and resource protection and resource management, as well as 82 widely used Chinese medicine species, such as Ginseng and Radix Astragali. One hundred and fifteen domain authority experts were selected based on the data of high-yield authors and high-cited authors. The database system platform "Skilled Scientific and Technological Personnel in the field of Traditional Chinese Medicine Resource Science-Chinese papers" was established. This platform successfully provided the retrieval result of the personnel, output of paper, and their core research team by input the study field, year, and Chinese medicine species. The investigation provides basic data of scientific and technological personnel in the field of traditional Chinese medicine resource science for administrative agencies and also evidence for the selection of scientific and technological personnel and construction of scientific research teams.

  16. Using Eye Tracking to Investigate Semantic and Spatial Representations of Scientific Diagrams During Text-Diagram Integration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jian, Yu-Cin; Wu, Chao-Jung

    2015-02-01

    We investigated strategies used by readers when reading a science article with a diagram and assessed whether semantic and spatial representations were constructed while reading the diagram. Seventy-one undergraduate participants read a scientific article while tracking their eye movements and then completed a reading comprehension test. Our results showed that the text-diagram referencing strategy was commonly used. However, some readers adopted other reading strategies, such as reading the diagram or text first. We found all readers who had referred to the diagram spent roughly the same amount of time reading and performed equally well. However, some participants who ignored the diagram performed more poorly on questions that tested understanding of basic facts. This result indicates that dual coding theory may be a possible theory to explain the phenomenon. Eye movement patterns indicated that at least some readers had extracted semantic information of the scientific terms when first looking at the diagram. Readers who read the scientific terms on the diagram first tended to spend less time looking at the same terms in the text, which they read after. Besides, presented clear diagrams can help readers process both semantic and spatial information, thereby facilitating an overall understanding of the article. In addition, although text-first and diagram-first readers spent similar total reading time on the text and diagram parts of the article, respectively, text-first readers had significantly less number of saccades of text and diagram than diagram-first readers. This result might be explained as text-directed reading.

  17. Scientific writing seminar for early-stage investigators in substance abuse research.

    PubMed

    Guydish, Joseph; Masson, Carmen; Flentje, Annesa; Shopshire, Michael; Sorensen, James L

    2016-01-01

    There is little information on how to increase the scientific writing productivity of early-stage investigators in the addictions field. A scientific writing seminar is presented in this article, aiming to encourage manuscript writing and dissemination of addiction research, and outcomes are reported for 14 years of the seminar. In 14 years, there were 113 postdoctoral fellow enrollments in a 6-month writing seminar. Records of submission and publication rates of manuscripts were collected for 14 cohorts. Of the 113 participant enrollments, 97 (86%) submitted a manuscript for publication, and 87 participants (77%) published their manuscript. A scientific writing seminar may benefit writing productivity, but more research is needed to compare this training model with other existing models.

  18. The Impact of International Scientific Teams on Investigations of Yugoslavian Meteorites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kolomejceva-Jovanovic, L.

    2008-10-01

    Investigations of scientific heritage is very important for every country. The evidence concerning the meteorites which have fallen upon the territory of former Yugoslavia can be a nice example. The samples of Yugoslav meteorites can be found in the biggest world museums of natural history (in Washington, Moscow, Vienna, Paris, Budapest, Berlin, Prague and London). In such a way scientists engaged in the area of meteorites, cosmochemistry, cosmic mineralogy, astrochemistry, astrophysics and other multidisciplinary scientific branches have the possibility to study these meteorites. The huge impact on the study of Yugoslav meteorites is given by international teams from Institute of Physics (Belgrade), Joint Institute for Nuclear Investigations (Dubna, Russia), Naturhistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria), Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (Moscow, Russia) and Museum of Natural History (Belgrade).

  19. Scientific Writing Seminar for Early-stage Investigators in Substance Abuse Research

    PubMed Central

    Guydish, Joseph; Masson, Carmen; Flentje, Annesa; Shopshire, Michael; Sorensen, James L.

    2015-01-01

    Background There is little information on how to increase the scientific writing productivity of early-stage investigators in the addictions field. A scientific writing seminar is presented in this article, aiming to encourage manuscript writing and dissemination of addiction research, and outcomes are reported for 14 years of the seminar. Methods In 14 years there were 113 postdoctoral fellow enrollments in a 6-month writing seminar. Records of submission and publication rates of manuscripts were collected for 14 cohorts. Results Of the 113 participant enrollments, 97 (86%) submitted a manuscript for publication, and 87 participants (77%) published their manuscript. Conclusions A scientific writing seminar may benefit writing productivity, but more research is needed to compare this training model to other existing models. PMID:25893689

  20. On the formalization and reuse of scientific research.

    PubMed

    King, Ross D; Liakata, Maria; Lu, Chuan; Oliver, Stephen G; Soldatova, Larisa N

    2011-10-07

    The reuse of scientific knowledge obtained from one investigation in another investigation is basic to the advance of science. Scientific investigations should therefore be recorded in ways that promote the reuse of the knowledge they generate. The use of logical formalisms to describe scientific knowledge has potential advantages in facilitating such reuse. Here, we propose a formal framework for using logical formalisms to promote reuse. We demonstrate the utility of this framework by using it in a worked example from biology: demonstrating cycles of investigation formalization [F] and reuse [R] to generate new knowledge. We first used logic to formally describe a Robot scientist investigation into yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) functional genomics [f(1)]. With Robot scientists, unlike human scientists, the production of comprehensive metadata about their investigations is a natural by-product of the way they work. We then demonstrated how this formalism enabled the reuse of the research in investigating yeast phenotypes [r(1) = R(f(1))]. This investigation found that the removal of non-essential enzymes generally resulted in enhanced growth. The phenotype investigation was then formally described using the same logical formalism as the functional genomics investigation [f(2) = F(r(1))]. We then demonstrated how this formalism enabled the reuse of the phenotype investigation to investigate yeast systems-biology modelling [r(2) = R(f(2))]. This investigation found that yeast flux-balance analysis models fail to predict the observed changes in growth. Finally, the systems biology investigation was formalized for reuse in future investigations [f(3) = F(r(2))]. These cycles of reuse are a model for the general reuse of scientific knowledge.

  1. An illustrated heuristic prototype facilitates scientific inventive problem solving: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

    PubMed

    Tong, Dandan; Li, Wenfu; Tang, Chaoying; Yang, Wenjing; Tian, Yan; Zhang, Lei; Zhang, Meng; Qiu, Jiang; Liu, Yijun; Zhang, Qinglin

    2015-07-01

    Many scientific inventions (SI) throughout history were inspired by heuristic prototypes (HPs). For instance, an event or piece of knowledge similar to displaced water from a tub inspired Archimedes' principle. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this insightful problem solving are not very clear. Thus, the present study explored the neural correlates used to solve SI problems facilitated by HPs. Each HP had two versions: a literal description with an illustration (LDI) and a literal description with no illustration (LDNI). Thirty-two participants were divided randomly into these two groups. Blood oxygenation level-dependent fMRI contrasts between LDI and LDNI groups were measured. Greater activity in the right middle occipital gyrus (RMOG, BA19), right precentral gyrus (RPCG, BA4), and left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG, BA46) were found within the LDI group as compared to the LDNI group. We discuss these results in terms cognitive functions within these regions related to problem solving and memory retrieval. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Facilitating Preschoolers' Scientific Knowledge Construction via Computer Games Regarding Light and Shadow: The Effect of the Prediction-Observation-Explanation (POE) Strategy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hsu, Chung-Yuan; Tsai, Chin-Chung; Liang, Jyh-Chong

    2011-10-01

    Educational researchers have suggested that computer games have a profound influence on students' motivation, knowledge construction, and learning performance, but little empirical research has targeted preschoolers. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of implementing a computer game that integrates the prediction-observation-explanation (POE) strategy (White and Gunstone in Probing understanding. Routledge, New York, 1992) on facilitating preschoolers' acquisition of scientific concepts regarding light and shadow. The children's alternative conceptions were explored as well. Fifty participants were randomly assigned into either an experimental group that played a computer game integrating the POE model or a control group that played a non-POE computer game. By assessing the students' conceptual understanding through interviews, this study revealed that the students in the experimental group significantly outperformed their counterparts in the concepts regarding "shadow formation in daylight" and "shadow orientation." However, children in both groups, after playing the games, still expressed some alternative conceptions such as "Shadows always appear behind a person" and "Shadows should be on the same side as the sun."

  3. Being scientifical: Popularity, purpose and promotion of amateur research and investigation groups in the U.S

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hill, Sharon A.

    21st century television and the Internet are awash in content regarding amateur paranormal investigators and research groups. These groups proliferated after reality investigation programs appeared on television. Exactly how many groups are active in the U.S. at any time is not known. The Internet provides an ideal means for people with niche interests to find each other and organize activities. This study collected information from 1000 websites of amateur research and investigation groups (ARIGs) to determine their location, area of inquiry, methodology and, particularly, to determine if they state that they use science as part of their mission, methods or goals. 57.3% of the ARIGs examined specifically noted or suggested use of science as part of the groups' approach to investigation and research. Even when not explicit, ARIGs often used science-like language, symbols and methods to describe their groups' views or activities. Yet, non-scientific and subjective methods were described as employed in conjunction with objective methods. Furthermore, what were considered scientific processes by ARIGs did not match with established methods and the ethos of the scientific research community or scientific processes of investigation. ARIGs failed to display fundamental understanding regarding objectivity, methodological naturalism, peer review, critical thought and theoretical plausibility. The processes of science appear to be mimicked to present a serious and credible reputation to the non-scientific public. These processes are also actively promoted in the media and directly to the local public as "scientific". These results highlight the gap between the scientific community and the lay public regarding the understanding of what it means to do science and what criteria are necessary to establish reliable knowledge about the world.

  4. A Sample Practical Report to Facilitate Writing in the Scientific Style

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Corradi, Hazel Ruth

    2012-01-01

    The ability to write concise and accurate scientific reports is highly valued in university level science. From reflection on marking student final year reports, it was apparent that many students have had insufficient practice at writing complete "scientific paper" style reports by that time, although some do it very well. This is a previously…

  5. Perceptions That Influence the Maintenance of Scientific Integrity in Community-Based Participatory Research

    PubMed Central

    Kraemer Diaz, Anne E.; Spears Johnson, Chaya R.; Arcury, Thomas A.

    2015-01-01

    Scientific integrity is necessary for strong science; yet many variables can influence scientific integrity. In traditional research, some common threats are the pressure to publish, competition for funds, and career advancement. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) provides a different context for scientific integrity with additional and unique concerns. Understanding the perceptions that promote or discourage scientific integrity in CBPR as identified by professional and community investigators is essential to promoting the value of CBPR. This analysis explores the perceptions that facilitate scientific integrity in CBPR as well as the barriers among a sample of 74 professional and community CBPR investigators from 25 CBPR projects in nine states in the southeastern United States in 2012. There were variations in perceptions associated with team member identity as professional or community investigators. Perceptions identified to promote and discourage scientific integrity in CBPR by professional and community investigators were external pressures, community participation, funding, quality control and supervision, communication, training, and character and trust. Some perceptions such as communication and training promoted scientific integrity whereas other perceptions, such as a lack of funds and lack of trust could discourage scientific integrity. These results demonstrate that one of the most important perceptions in maintaining scientific integrity in CBPR is active community participation, which enables a co-responsibility by scientists and community members to provide oversight for scientific integrity. Credible CBPR science is crucial to empower the vulnerable communities to be heard by those in positions of power and policy making. PMID:25588933

  6. An investigation of Taiwanese graduate students' level of civic scientific literacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Yu-Mei

    2003-07-01

    Professionals in a variety of disciplines have stressed the importance of advancing the scientific literacy of all citizens in a democratic and science- and technology-based society. Taiwan has been striving hard to advance its democracy and heavily relies on a knowledge-based economy. The high rank Taiwan receives in international comparisons demonstrates Taiwan's high achievement in science at the middle school level. However, no empirical evidence has been collected to examine whether this high achievement at the middle school level promises a high level of scientific literacy in adults. This study investigated the level of scientific literacy of Taiwanese graduate students using Miller's framework of three dimensions of civic scientific literacy, including: (1) a vocabulary of basic scientific constructs, (2) an understanding of the process of scientific inquiry, and (3) some level of understanding of the impact of science and technology on individuals and on society. A web-based questionnaire was employed to survey Taiwanese graduate students studying in three different types of graduate schools and eleven academic fields. A total of 525 responses were collected. In addition, following the survey, eight participants were purposefully selected for individual interviews in order to obtain additional information on participants' scientific literacy. Descriptive statistical analyses were computed to summarize the participants' overall responses to each of the survey sections. Regression models using dummy coding of categorical variables (i.e., gender, school type, and academic areas) were performed to examine whether significant differences exist among different groups. The major findings suggest that: (1) Taiwanese graduate students' civic scientific literacy is not at a satisfactory level; (2) the participants carry mixed attitudes toward science and technology, (3) Taiwanese graduate students are not very attentive to new information of science and technology

  7. Identifying barriers to and facilitators of tuberculosis contact investigation in Kampala, Uganda: a behavioral approach.

    PubMed

    Ayakaka, Irene; Ackerman, Sara; Ggita, Joseph M; Kajubi, Phoebe; Dowdy, David; Haberer, Jessica E; Fair, Elizabeth; Hopewell, Philip; Handley, Margaret A; Cattamanchi, Adithya; Katamba, Achilles; Davis, J Lucian

    2017-03-09

    The World Health Organization recommends routine household tuberculosis contact investigation in high-burden countries but adoption has been limited. We sought to identify barriers to and facilitators of TB contact investigation during its introduction in Kampala, Uganda. We collected cross-sectional qualitative data through focus group discussions and interviews with stakeholders, addressing three core activities of contact investigation: arranging household screening visits through index TB patients, visiting households to screen contacts and refer them to clinics, and evaluating at-risk contacts coming to clinics. We analyzed the data using a validated theory of behavior change, the Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation determine Behavior (COM-B) model, and sought to identify targeted interventions using the related Behavior Change Wheel implementation framework. We led seven focus-group discussions with 61 health-care workers, two with 21 lay health workers (LHWs), and one with four household contacts of newly diagnosed TB patients. We, in addition, performed 32 interviews with household contacts from 14 households of newly diagnosed TB patients. Commonly noted barriers included stigma, limited knowledge about TB among contacts, insufficient time and space in clinics for counselling, mistrust of health-center staff among index patients and contacts, and high travel costs for LHWs and contacts. The most important facilitators identified were the personalized and enabling services provided by LHWs. We identified education, persuasion, enablement, modeling of health-positive behaviors, incentivization, and restructuring of the service environment as relevant intervention functions with potential to alleviate barriers to and enhance facilitators of TB contact investigation. The use of a behavioral theory and a validated implementation framework provided a comprehensive approach for systematically identifying barriers to and facilitators of TB contact

  8. Preschool Pathways to Science (PrePS[TM]): Facilitating Scientific Ways of Thinking, Talking, Doing, and Understanding

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Gelman, Rochel; Brenneman, Kimberly; Macdonald, Gay; Roman, Moises

    2009-01-01

    To ensure they're meeting state early learning guidelines for science, preschool educators need fun, age-appropriate, and research-based ways to teach young children about scientific concepts. The basis for the PBS KIDS show "Sid the Science Kid," this teaching resource helps children ages 3-5 investigate their everyday world and develop the…

  9. Perceptions that influence the maintenance of scientific integrity in community-based participatory research.

    PubMed

    Kraemer Diaz, Anne E; Spears Johnson, Chaya R; Arcury, Thomas A

    2015-06-01

    Scientific integrity is necessary for strong science; yet many variables can influence scientific integrity. In traditional research, some common threats are the pressure to publish, competition for funds, and career advancement. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) provides a different context for scientific integrity with additional and unique concerns. Understanding the perceptions that promote or discourage scientific integrity in CBPR as identified by professional and community investigators is essential to promoting the value of CBPR. This analysis explores the perceptions that facilitate scientific integrity in CBPR as well as the barriers among a sample of 74 professional and community CBPR investigators from 25 CBPR projects in nine states in the southeastern United States in 2012. There were variations in perceptions associated with team member identity as professional or community investigators. Perceptions identified to promote and discourage scientific integrity in CBPR by professional and community investigators were external pressures, community participation, funding, quality control and supervision, communication, training, and character and trust. Some perceptions such as communication and training promoted scientific integrity whereas other perceptions, such as a lack of funds and lack of trust could discourage scientific integrity. These results demonstrate that one of the most important perceptions in maintaining scientific integrity in CBPR is active community participation, which enables a co-responsibility by scientists and community members to provide oversight for scientific integrity. Credible CBPR science is crucial to empower the vulnerable communities to be heard by those in positions of power and policy making. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

  10. Facilitating Students' Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning Involving the Unit of Combustion

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Chin-Quen; She, Hsiao-Ching

    2010-01-01

    This article reports research from a 3 year digital learning project to unite conceptual change and scientific reasoning in the learning unit of combustion. One group of students had completed the course combining conceptual change and scientific reasoning. The other group of students received conventional instruction. In addition to the…

  11. The Development of Authentic Assessments to Investigate Ninth Graders' Scientific Literacy: In the Case of Scientific Cognition Concerning the Concepts of Chemistry and Physics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chang, Shu-Nu; Chiu, Mei-Hung

    2005-01-01

    Scientific literacy and authenticity have gained a lot of attention in the past few decades worldwide. The goal of the study was to develop various authentic assessments to investigate students' scientific literacy for corresponding to the new curriculum reform of Taiwan in 1997. In the process, whether ninth graders were able to apply school…

  12. Investigating the impact of automated feedback on students' scientific argumentation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Mengxiao; Lee, Hee-Sun; Wang, Ting; Liu, Ou Lydia; Belur, Vinetha; Pallant, Amy

    2017-08-01

    This study investigates the role of automated scoring and feedback in supporting students' construction of written scientific arguments while learning about factors that affect climate change in the classroom. The automated scoring and feedback technology was integrated into an online module. Students' written scientific argumentation occurred when they responded to structured argumentation prompts. After submitting the open-ended responses, students received scores generated by a scoring engine and written feedback associated with the scores in real-time. Using the log data that recorded argumentation scores as well as argument submission and revisions activities, we answer three research questions. First, how students behaved after receiving the feedback; second, whether and how students' revisions improved their argumentation scores; and third, did item difficulties shift with the availability of the automated feedback. Results showed that the majority of students (77%) made revisions after receiving the feedback, and students with higher initial scores were more likely to revise their responses. Students who revised had significantly higher final scores than those who did not, and each revision was associated with an average increase of 0.55 on the final scores. Analysis on item difficulty shifts showed that written scientific argumentation became easier after students used the automated feedback.

  13. Parallel processing for scientific computations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Alkhatib, Hasan S.

    1995-01-01

    The scope of this project dealt with the investigation of the requirements to support distributed computing of scientific computations over a cluster of cooperative workstations. Various experiments on computations for the solution of simultaneous linear equations were performed in the early phase of the project to gain experience in the general nature and requirements of scientific applications. A specification of a distributed integrated computing environment, DICE, based on a distributed shared memory communication paradigm has been developed and evaluated. The distributed shared memory model facilitates porting existing parallel algorithms that have been designed for shared memory multiprocessor systems to the new environment. The potential of this new environment is to provide supercomputing capability through the utilization of the aggregate power of workstations cooperating in a cluster interconnected via a local area network. Workstations, generally, do not have the computing power to tackle complex scientific applications, making them primarily useful for visualization, data reduction, and filtering as far as complex scientific applications are concerned. There is a tremendous amount of computing power that is left unused in a network of workstations. Very often a workstation is simply sitting idle on a desk. A set of tools can be developed to take advantage of this potential computing power to create a platform suitable for large scientific computations. The integration of several workstations into a logical cluster of distributed, cooperative, computing stations presents an alternative to shared memory multiprocessor systems. In this project we designed and evaluated such a system.

  14. Rover-Based Instrumentation and Scientific Investigations During the 2012 Analog Field Test on Mauna Kea Volcano, Hawaii

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Graham, L. D.; Graff, T. G.

    2013-01-01

    Rover-based 2012 Moon and Mars Analog Mission Activities (MMAMA) were recently completed on Mauna Kea Volcano, Hawaii. Scientific investigations, scientific input, and operational constraints were tested in the context of existing project and protocols for the field activities designed to help NASA achieve the Vision for Space Exploration [1]. Several investigations were conducted by the rover mounted instruments to determine key geophysical and geochemical properties of the site, as well as capture the geological context of the area and the samples investigated. The rover traverse and associated science investigations were conducted over a three day period on the southeast flank of the Mauna Kea Volcano, Hawaii. The test area was at an elevation of 11,500 feet and is known as "Apollo Valley" (Fig. 1). Here we report the integration and operation of the rover-mounted instruments, as well as the scientific investigations that were conducted.

  15. A toolbox and a record for scientific model development

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ellman, Thomas

    1994-01-01

    Scientific computation can benefit from software tools that facilitate construction of computational models, control the application of models, and aid in revising models to handle new situations. Existing environments for scientific programming provide only limited means of handling these tasks. This paper describes a two pronged approach for handling these tasks: (1) designing a 'Model Development Toolbox' that includes a basic set of model constructing operations; and (2) designing a 'Model Development Record' that is automatically generated during model construction. The record is subsequently exploited by tools that control the application of scientific models and revise models to handle new situations. Our two pronged approach is motivated by our belief that the model development toolbox and record should be highly interdependent. In particular, a suitable model development record can be constructed only when models are developed using a well defined set of operations. We expect this research to facilitate rapid development of new scientific computational models, to help ensure appropriate use of such models and to facilitate sharing of such models among working computational scientists. We are testing this approach by extending SIGMA, and existing knowledge-based scientific software design tool.

  16. MSL: Facilitating automatic and physical analysis of published scientific literature in PDF format.

    PubMed

    Ahmed, Zeeshan; Dandekar, Thomas

    2015-01-01

    Published scientific literature contains millions of figures, including information about the results obtained from different scientific experiments e.g. PCR-ELISA data, microarray analysis, gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry data, DNA/RNA sequencing, diagnostic imaging (CT/MRI and ultrasound scans), and medicinal imaging like electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), echocardiography  (ECG), positron-emission tomography (PET) images. The importance of biomedical figures has been widely recognized in scientific and medicine communities, as they play a vital role in providing major original data, experimental and computational results in concise form. One major challenge for implementing a system for scientific literature analysis is extracting and analyzing text and figures from published PDF files by physical and logical document analysis. Here we present a product line architecture based bioinformatics tool 'Mining Scientific Literature (MSL)', which supports the extraction of text and images by interpreting all kinds of published PDF files using advanced data mining and image processing techniques. It provides modules for the marginalization of extracted text based on different coordinates and keywords, visualization of extracted figures and extraction of embedded text from all kinds of biological and biomedical figures using applied Optimal Character Recognition (OCR). Moreover, for further analysis and usage, it generates the system's output in different formats including text, PDF, XML and images files. Hence, MSL is an easy to install and use analysis tool to interpret published scientific literature in PDF format.

  17. Learning, Action and Solutions in Action Learning: Investigation of Facilitation Practice Using the Concept of Living Theories

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Sanyal, Chandana

    2018-01-01

    This paper explores the practice of action learning (AL) facilitation in supporting AL set members to address their 'messy' problems through a self-reflexive approach using the concept of 'living theory' [Whitehead, J., and J. McNiff. 2006. "Action Research Living Theory." London: Sage]. The facilitation practice is investigated through…

  18. MSL: Facilitating automatic and physical analysis of published scientific literature in PDF format

    PubMed Central

    Ahmed, Zeeshan; Dandekar, Thomas

    2018-01-01

    Published scientific literature contains millions of figures, including information about the results obtained from different scientific experiments e.g. PCR-ELISA data, microarray analysis, gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry data, DNA/RNA sequencing, diagnostic imaging (CT/MRI and ultrasound scans), and medicinal imaging like electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), echocardiography  (ECG), positron-emission tomography (PET) images. The importance of biomedical figures has been widely recognized in scientific and medicine communities, as they play a vital role in providing major original data, experimental and computational results in concise form. One major challenge for implementing a system for scientific literature analysis is extracting and analyzing text and figures from published PDF files by physical and logical document analysis. Here we present a product line architecture based bioinformatics tool ‘Mining Scientific Literature (MSL)’, which supports the extraction of text and images by interpreting all kinds of published PDF files using advanced data mining and image processing techniques. It provides modules for the marginalization of extracted text based on different coordinates and keywords, visualization of extracted figures and extraction of embedded text from all kinds of biological and biomedical figures using applied Optimal Character Recognition (OCR). Moreover, for further analysis and usage, it generates the system’s output in different formats including text, PDF, XML and images files. Hence, MSL is an easy to install and use analysis tool to interpret published scientific literature in PDF format. PMID:29721305

  19. Luminous Phenomena - A Scientific Investigation of Anomalous Luminous Atmospheric Phenomena

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Teodorani, M.

    2003-12-01

    Anomalous atmospheric luminous phenomena reoccur in several locations of Earth, in the form of multi-color light balls characterized by large dimensions, erratic motion, long duration and a correlated electromagnetic field. The author (an astrophysicist) of this book, which is organized as a selection of some of his technical and popularizing papers and seminars, describes and discusses all the efforts that have been done in 10 years, through several missions and a massive data analysis, in order to obtain some scientific explanation of this kind of anomalies, in particular the Hessdalen anomaly in Norway. The following topics are treated in the book: a) geographic archive of the areas of Earth where such phenomena are known to reoccur most often; b) observational techniques of astrophysical kind that have been used to acquire the data; c) main scientific results obtained so far; d) physical interpretation and natural hypothesis vs. ETV hypothesis; e) historical and chronological issues; f) the importance to brindle new energy sources; g) the importance to keep distance from any kind of "ufology". An unpublished chapter is entirely devoted to a detailed scientific investigation project of light phenomena reoccurring on the Ontario lake; the chosen new-generation multi-wavelength sensing instrumentation that is planned to be used in future missions in that specific area, is described together with scientific rationale and planned procedures. The main results, which were obtained in other areas of the world, such as the Arizona desert, USA and the Sibillini Mountains, Italy, are also briefly mentioned. One chapter is entirely dedicated to the presentation of extensive abstracts of technical papers by the author concerning this specific subject. The book is accompanied with a rich source of bibliographic references.

  20. Scientific investigations at a lunar base

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Duke, M. B.; Mendell, W. W.

    1988-01-01

    Scientific investigations to be carried out at a lunar base can have significant impact on the location, extent, and complexity of lunar surface facilities. Among the potential research activities to be carried out are: (1) Lunar Science: Studies of the origin and history of the Moon and early solar system, based on lunar field investigations, operation of networks of seismic and other instruments, and collection and analysis of materials; (2) Space Plasma Physics: Studies of the time variation of the charged particles of the solar wind, solar flares and cosmic rays that impact the Moon as it moves in and out of the magnetotail of the Earth; (3) Astronomy: Utilizing the lunar environment and stability of the surface to emplace arrays of astronomical instruments across the electromagnetic spectrum to improve spectral and spatial resolution by several orders of magnitude beyond the Hubble Space Telescope and other space observatories; (4) Fundamental physics and chemistry: Research that takes advantage of the lunar environment, such as high vacuum, low magnetic field, and thermal properties to carry out new investigations in chemistry and physics. This includes material sciences and applications; (5) Life Sciences: Experiments, such as those that require extreme isolation, highly sterile conditions, or very low natural background of organic materials may be possible; and (6) Lunar environmental science: Because many of the experiments proposed for the lunar surface depend on the special environment of the Moon, it will be necessary to understand the mechanisms that are active and which determine the major aspects of that environment, particularly the maintenance of high-vacuum conditions. From a large range of experiments, investigations and facilities that have been suggested, three specific classes of investigations are described in greater detail to show how site selection and base complexity may be affected: (1) Extended geological investigation of a complex

  1. Software Engineering Support of the Third Round of Scientific Grand Challenge Investigations: Earth System Modeling Software Framework Survey

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Talbot, Bryan; Zhou, Shu-Jia; Higgins, Glenn; Zukor, Dorothy (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    One of the most significant challenges in large-scale climate modeling, as well as in high-performance computing in other scientific fields, is that of effectively integrating many software models from multiple contributors. A software framework facilitates the integration task, both in the development and runtime stages of the simulation. Effective software frameworks reduce the programming burden for the investigators, freeing them to focus more on the science and less on the parallel communication implementation. while maintaining high performance across numerous supercomputer and workstation architectures. This document surveys numerous software frameworks for potential use in Earth science modeling. Several frameworks are evaluated in depth, including Parallel Object-Oriented Methods and Applications (POOMA), Cactus (from (he relativistic physics community), Overture, Goddard Earth Modeling System (GEMS), the National Center for Atmospheric Research Flux Coupler, and UCLA/UCB Distributed Data Broker (DDB). Frameworks evaluated in less detail include ROOT, Parallel Application Workspace (PAWS), and Advanced Large-Scale Integrated Computational Environment (ALICE). A host of other frameworks and related tools are referenced in this context. The frameworks are evaluated individually and also compared with each other.

  2. An investigative framework to facilitate epidemiological thinking during herd problem-solving.

    PubMed

    More, Simon J; Doherty, Michael L; O'Grady, Luke

    2017-01-01

    Veterinary clinicians and students commonly use diagnostic approaches appropriate for individual cases when conducting herd problem-solving. However, these approaches can be problematic, in part because they make limited use of epidemiological principles and methods, which has clear application during the investigation of herd problems. In this paper, we provide an overview of diagnostic approaches that are used when investigating individual animal cases, and the challenges faced when these approaches are directly translated from the individual to the herd. Further, we propose an investigative framework to facilitate epidemiological thinking during herd problem-solving. A number of different approaches are used when making a diagnosis on an individual animal, including pattern recognition, hypothetico-deductive reasoning, and the key abnormality method. Methods commonly applied to individuals are often adapted for herd problem-solving: 'comparison with best practice' being a herd-level adaptation of pattern recognition, and 'differential diagnoses' a herd-level adaptation of hypothetico-deductive reasoning. These approaches can be effective, however, challenges can arise. Herds are complex; a collection of individual cows, but also additional layers relating to environment, management, feeding etc. It is unrealistic to expect seamless translation of diagnostic approaches from the individual to the herd. Comparison with best practice is time-consuming and prioritisation of actions can be problematic, whereas differential diagnoses can lead to 'pathogen hunting', particularly in complex cases. Epidemiology is the science of understanding disease in populations. The focus is on the population, underpinned by principles and utilising methods that seek to allow us to generate solid conclusions from apparently uncontrolled situations. In this paper, we argue for the inclusion of epidemiological principles and methods as an additional tool for herd problem-solving, and

  3. Interference and facilitation in overt speech production investigated with event-related potentials.

    PubMed

    Hirschfeld, Gerrit; Jansma, Bernadette; Bölte, Jens; Zwitserlood, Pienie

    2008-08-06

    We report an event-related potential study investigating the neural basis of interference and facilitation in the picture-word interference paradigm with immediate overt naming. We used the high temporal resolution of the electrophysiological response to dissociate general and specific interference processes, by comparing unrelated word distractors to nonlinguistic (a row of Xs), surface feature denoting, and category member distractors. Our results first indicate that the increased naming latencies for linguistic relative to nonlinguistic distractors are because of general conflict-monitoring processes, associated with early event-related potential effects (120-220 ms) and increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex. Next, distractors specifying a surface feature of the picture seem to facilitate its identification within the same time window, which involves widespread networks. Finally, nonlinguistic and surface feature distractors also reduced the N400 amplitude, relative to unrelated word distractors. Taken together our results support the view that several distinct processes give rise to the reaction time results often observed in picture naming.

  4. The spacelab scientific missions: A comprehensive bibliography of scientific publications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Torr, Marsha (Compiler)

    1995-01-01

    November 1993 represented the 10-year anniversary of the flight of Spacelab 1 mission, with the first precursor mission (OSTA-1) being launched 2 years earlier. Since that time, a total of 27 Shuttle missions has been flown, using the Spacelab system as a facility for conducting scientific research in space. The missions flown to date have allowed a total of approximately 500 Principle Investigator class investigations to be conducted in orbit. These investigations have constituted major scientific efforts in astronomy/astrophysics, atmospheric science, Earth observation, life sciences, microgravity science, and space plasma physics. An initial survey of the scientific products gleaned from Spacelab missions already flown was sent to the Principle Investigators. In that survey, information was gathered from the investigators on the scientific highlights of their investigations and statistical measurements of overall success -- such as papers published. This document is a compilation of the papers that have been published to date in referred literature.

  5. Advances in Scientific Investigation and Automation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Abt, Jeffrey; And Others

    1987-01-01

    Six articles address: (1) the impact of science on the physical examination and treatment of books; (2) equipment for physical examination of books; (3) research using the cyclotron for historical analysis; (4) scientific analysis of paper and ink in early maps; (5) recent advances in automation; and (6) cataloging standards. (MES)

  6. Why (we think) facilitation works: insights from organizational learning theory.

    PubMed

    Berta, Whitney; Cranley, Lisa; Dearing, James W; Dogherty, Elizabeth J; Squires, Janet E; Estabrooks, Carole A

    2015-10-06

    Facilitation is a guided interactional process that has been popularized in health care. Its popularity arises from its potential to support uptake and application of scientific knowledge that stands to improve clinical and managerial decision-making, practice, and ultimately patient outcomes and organizational performance. While this popular concept has garnered attention in health services research, we know that both the content of facilitation and its impact on knowledge implementation vary. The basis of this variation is poorly understood, and understanding is hampered by a lack of conceptual clarity. In this paper, we argue that our understanding of facilitation and its effects is limited in part by a lack of clear theoretical grounding. We propose a theoretical home for facilitation in organizational learning theory. Referring to extant literature on facilitation and drawing on theoretical literature, we discuss the features of facilitation that suggest its role in contributing to learning capacity. We describe how facilitation may contribute to generating knowledge about the application of new scientific knowledge in health-care organizations. Facilitation's promise, we suggest, lies in its potential to stimulate higher-order learning in organizations through experimenting with, generating learning about, and sustaining small-scale adaptations to organizational processes and work routines. The varied effectiveness of facilitation observed in the literature is associated with the presence or absence of factors known to influence organizational learning, since facilitation itself appears to act as a learning mechanism. We offer propositions regarding the relationships between facilitation processes and key organizational learning concepts that have the potential to guide future work to further our understanding of the role that facilitation plays in learning and knowledge generation.

  7. [Scientific investigation in biomedicine and health sciences in Andalusia].

    PubMed

    Soriguer Escofet, F J; González-Valentín, A; Miranda, J; Doblas, S; Vallejo, J

    1996-09-01

    To evaluate the scientific output in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in Andalusia in the context of the published works on the national scientific output in the last few years. Descriptive study with seven different information sources: a) final Report of the Experts Committee on Documentation from the Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (IME: Indice Médico Español) suplemento internacional: 1980-1994; b) MEDLINE (Comprehensive Medline Ebsco, 1987-1993); c) EMBASE (Excerpta Medica; Elsevier Science Publisher) (1986-1994); d) IME, mechanized version: 1974-1993; Anales del FIS (1989-1993); e) Memoria REUNI: 1993-1994, and f) call for and resolution of research projects from the Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (1994). Scientific output in health sciences in Andalusia has gown in parallel with the national output from other communities. Nevertheless, in absolute terms this output is scant and the big difference compared with Catalonia and Madrid--the two Autonomous Communities with the largest scientific output--remains unchanged. Grenada is the Andalusian province with the largest output, with Seville, Cordoba and Malaga ranking next. The output in the other Andalusian provinces is very small. The output is apparently independent from the number of inhabitants or the historic presence of a Medicine School. In contrast with Catalonia and Madrid, where the largest output originates in hospitals, the largest output in Andalusia comes from Universities; this fact suggests relevant differences in scientific sub-structure. This suggestion is also endorsed by the lower competition of Andalusia to obtain resources and the lower number of research scholarships. With these results in mind a scientific policy of positive discrimination is proposed which allows the Andalusian Autonomous Community to reach the standard of scientific output in biomedicine and health sciences according to its socioeconomic status.

  8. Mismatches between 'scientific' and 'non-scientific' ways of knowing and their contributions to public understanding of science.

    PubMed

    Mikulak, Anna

    2011-06-01

    As differentiation within scientific disciplines increases, so does differentiation between the sciences and other ways of knowing. This distancing between 'scientific' and 'non-scientific' cultures reflects differences in what are considered valid and reliable approaches to acquiring knowledge and has played a major role in recent science-oriented controversies. Scientists' reluctance to actively engage in science communication, coupled with journalists' reliance on the norms of balance, conflict, and human interest in covering scientific issues, have combined to exacerbate public mistrust of science on issues like the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. The failure of effective communications between scientists and non-scientists has hindered the progress of both effective science and effective policy. In order to better bridge the gap between the 'scientific' and 'non-scientific' cultures, renewed efforts must be made to encourage substantive public engagement, with the ultimate goal of facilitating an open, democratic policy-making process.

  9. Consistency of nature of science views across scientific and socio-scientific contexts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khishfe, Rola

    2017-03-01

    The purpose of the investigation was to investigate the consistency of NOS views among high school students across different scientific and socio-scientific contexts. A total of 261 high school students from eight different schools in Lebanon participated in the investigation. The schools were selected based on different geographical areas in Lebanon and the principals' consent to participate in the study. The investigation used a qualitative design to compare the responses of students across different contexts/topics. All the participants completed a five-item open-ended questionnaire, which includes five topics addressing scientific and socio-scientific contexts. The items of the questionnaire addressed the empirical, tentative, and subjective aspects of NOS. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to answer the research questions. Results showed that participants' views of the emphasised NOS aspects were mostly inconsistent. Plus, there was variance in participants' views of NOS between scientific and socio-scientific issues. Discussion of the results related to differential developmental progression, contextual factors, social constructivist perspective, different domains of knowledge, and students' individual differences.

  10. Meditation, Health and Scientific Investigations: Review of the Literature.

    PubMed

    Sampaio, Cynthia Vieira Sanches; Lima, Manuela Garcia; Ladeia, Ana Marice

    2017-04-01

    A growing number of people are seeking health recovery treatments with a holistic approach to the human being. Meditation is a mental training capable of producing connection between the mind, body and spirit. Its practice helps people to achieve balance, relaxation and self-control, in addition to the development of consciousness. At present, meditation is classified as a complementary and integrative technique in the area of health. The purpose of this review of the literature was to describe what meditation is, its practices and effects on health, demonstrated by consistent scientific investigations. Recently, the advances in researches with meditation, the discovery of its potential as an instrument of self-regulation of the human body and its benefits to health have shown that it is a consistent alternative therapy when associated with conventional medical treatments.

  11. Artificial intelligence support for scientific model-building

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keller, Richard M.

    1992-01-01

    Scientific model-building can be a time-intensive and painstaking process, often involving the development of large and complex computer programs. Despite the effort involved, scientific models cannot easily be distributed and shared with other scientists. In general, implemented scientific models are complex, idiosyncratic, and difficult for anyone but the original scientific development team to understand. We believe that artificial intelligence techniques can facilitate both the model-building and model-sharing process. In this paper, we overview our effort to build a scientific modeling software tool that aids the scientist in developing and using models. This tool includes an interactive intelligent graphical interface, a high-level domain specific modeling language, a library of physics equations and experimental datasets, and a suite of data display facilities.

  12. Happy creativity: Listening to happy music facilitates divergent thinking.

    PubMed

    Ritter, Simone M; Ferguson, Sam

    2017-01-01

    Creativity can be considered one of the key competencies for the twenty-first century. It provides us with the capacity to deal with the opportunities and challenges that are part of our complex and fast-changing world. The question as to what facilitates creative cognition-the ability to come up with creative ideas, problem solutions and products-is as old as the human sciences, and various means to enhance creative cognition have been studied. Despite earlier scientific studies demonstrating a beneficial effect of music on cognition, the effect of music listening on creative cognition has remained largely unexplored. The current study experimentally tests whether listening to specific types of music (four classical music excerpts systematically varying on valance and arousal), as compared to a silence control condition, facilitates divergent and convergent creativity. Creativity was higher for participants who listened to 'happy music' (i.e., classical music high on arousal and positive mood) while performing the divergent creativity task, than for participants who performed the task in silence. No effect of music was found for convergent creativity. In addition to the scientific contribution, the current findings may have important practical implications. Music listening can be easily integrated into daily life and may provide an innovative means to facilitate creative cognition in an efficient way in various scientific, educational and organizational settings when creative thinking is needed.

  13. Happy creativity: Listening to happy music facilitates divergent thinking

    PubMed Central

    Ferguson, Sam

    2017-01-01

    Creativity can be considered one of the key competencies for the twenty-first century. It provides us with the capacity to deal with the opportunities and challenges that are part of our complex and fast-changing world. The question as to what facilitates creative cognition—the ability to come up with creative ideas, problem solutions and products—is as old as the human sciences, and various means to enhance creative cognition have been studied. Despite earlier scientific studies demonstrating a beneficial effect of music on cognition, the effect of music listening on creative cognition has remained largely unexplored. The current study experimentally tests whether listening to specific types of music (four classical music excerpts systematically varying on valance and arousal), as compared to a silence control condition, facilitates divergent and convergent creativity. Creativity was higher for participants who listened to ‘happy music’ (i.e., classical music high on arousal and positive mood) while performing the divergent creativity task, than for participants who performed the task in silence. No effect of music was found for convergent creativity. In addition to the scientific contribution, the current findings may have important practical implications. Music listening can be easily integrated into daily life and may provide an innovative means to facilitate creative cognition in an efficient way in various scientific, educational and organizational settings when creative thinking is needed. PMID:28877176

  14. Scaffolding Middle School Students' Construction of Scientific Explanations: Comparing a cognitive versus a metacognitive evaluation approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Chia-Yu

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated the effects of scaffolds as cognitive prompts and as metacognitive evaluation on seventh-grade students' growth of content knowledge and construction of scientific explanations in five inquiry-based biology activities. Students' scores on multiple-choice pretest and posttest and worksheets for five inquiry-based activities were analyzed. The results show that the students' content knowledge in all conditions significantly increased from the pretest to posttest. Incorporating cognitive prompts with the explanation scaffolds better facilitated knowledge integration and resulted in greater learning gains of content knowledge and better quality evidence and reasoning. The metacognitive evaluation instruction improved all explanation components, especially claims and reasoning. This metacognitive approach also significantly reduced students' over- or underestimation during peer-evaluation by refining their internal standards for the quality of scientific explanations. The ability to accurately evaluate the quality of explanations was strongly associated with better performance on explanation construction. The cognitive prompts and metacognitive evaluation instruction address different aspects of the challenges faced by the students, and show different effects on the enhancement of content knowledge and the quality of scientific explanations. Future directions and suggestions are provided for improving the design of the scaffolds to facilitate the construction of scientific explanations.

  15. Current Efforts in European Projects to Facilitate the Sharing of Scientific Observation Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bredel, Henning; Rieke, Matthes; Maso, Joan; Jirka, Simon; Stasch, Christoph

    2017-04-01

    This presentation is intended to provide an overview of currently ongoing efforts in European projects to facilitate and promote the interoperable sharing of scientific observation data. This will be illustrated through two examples: a prototypical portal developed in the ConnectinGEO project for matching available (in-situ) data sources to the needs of users and a joint activity of several research projects to harmonise the usage of the OGC Sensor Web Enablement standards for providing access to marine observation data. ENEON is an activity initiated by the European ConnectinGEO project to coordinate in-situ Earth observation networks with the aim to harmonise the access to observations, improve discoverability, and identify/close gaps in European earth observation data resources. In this context, ENEON commons has been developed as a supporting Web portal for facilitating discovery, access, re-use and creation of knowledge about observations, networks, and related activities (e.g. projects). The portal is based on developments resulting from the European WaterInnEU project and has been extended to cover the requirements for handling knowledge about in-situ earth observation networks. A first prototype of the portal was completed in January 2017 which offers functionality for interactive discussion, information exchange and querying information about data delivered by different observation networks. Within this presentation, we will introduce the presented prototype and initiate a discussion about potential future work directions. The second example concerns the harmonisation of data exchange in the marine domain. There are many organisation who operate ocean observatories or data archives. In recent years, the application of the OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) technology has become more and more popular to increase the interoperability between marine observation networks. However, as the SWE standards were intentionally designed in a domain independent manner

  16. Investigate the Child's Scientific Activities on Practical Child's Activity Books for the Kindergarten's Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Aldarabah, Intisar Turki; Al-Mouhtadi, Reham

    2015-01-01

    This research aimed to investigate the extent to which the interactive international curriculum is included in the "Child's Scientific Activities" issued by the Ministry of Education in Jordan, for the kindergarten stage according to the global criterion (NRC). In order to answer the study questions, an instrument was developed to…

  17. Consistency of Nature of Science Views across Scientific and Socio-Scientific Contexts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Khishfe, Rola

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of the investigation was to investigate the consistency of NOS views among high school students across different scientific and socio-scientific contexts. A total of 261 high school students from eight different schools in Lebanon participated in the investigation. The schools were selected based on different geographical areas in…

  18. A Comparison Study of Augmented Reality versus Interactive Simulation Technology to Support Student Learning of a Socio-Scientific Issue

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chang, Hsin-Yi; Hsu, Ying-Shao; Wu, Hsin-Kai

    2016-01-01

    We investigated the impact of an augmented reality (AR) versus interactive simulation (IS) activity incorporated in a computer learning environment to facilitate students' learning of a socio-scientific issue (SSI) on nuclear power plants and radiation pollution. We employed a quasi-experimental research design. Two classes (a total of 45…

  19. Scientific papers for health informatics.

    PubMed

    Pereira, Samáris Ramiro; Duarte, Jacy Marcondes; Bandiera-Paiva, Paulo

    2013-01-01

    From the hypothesis that the development of scientific papers, mainly in interdisciplinary areas such as Health Informatics, may bring difficulties to the author, as had its communicative efficacy decreased or compromising their approval for publication; we aim to make considerations on the main items to good players making this kind of text. The scientific writing has peculiarities that must be taken into consideration when it writes: general characteristics, such as simplicity and objectivity, and characteristics of each area of knowledge, such as terminology, formatting and standardization. The research methodology adopted is bibliographical. The information was based on literature review and the authors' experience, teachers and assessors of scientific methodology in peer review publications in the area. As a result, we designed a checklist of items to be checked before submission of a paper to a scientific publication vehicle in order to contribute to the promotion of research, facilitating the publication and increase its capacity in this important area of knowledge.

  20. Improving safety culture in hospitals: Facilitators and barriers to implementation of Systemic Falls Investigative Method (SFIM).

    PubMed

    Zecevic, Aleksandra A; Li, Alvin Ho-Ting; Ngo, Charity; Halligan, Michelle; Kothari, Anita

    2017-06-01

    The purpose of this study was to assess the facilitators and barriers to implementation of the Systemic Falls Investigative Method (SFIM) on selected hospital units. A cross-sectional explanatory mixed methods design was used to converge results from a standardized safety culture survey with themes that emerged from interviews and focus groups. Findings were organized by six elements of the Ottawa Model of Research Use framework. A geriatric rehabilitation unit of an acute care hospital and a neurological unit of a rehabilitation hospital were selected purposefully due to the high frequency of falls. Hospital staff who took part in: surveys (n = 39), interviews (n = 10) and focus groups (n = 12), and 38 people who were interviewed during falls investigations: fallers, family, unit staff and hospital management. Implementation of the SFIM to investigate fall occurrences. Percent of positive responses on the Modified Stanford Patient Safety Culture Survey Instrument converged with qualitative themes on facilitators and barriers for intervention implementation. Both hospital units had an overall poor safety culture which hindered intervention implementation. Facilitators were hospital accreditation, strong emphasis on patient safety, infrastructure and dedicated champions. Barriers included heavy workloads, lack of time, lack of resources and poor communication. Successful implementation of SFIM requires regulatory and organizational support, committed frontline staff and allocation of resources to identify active causes and latent contributing factors to falls. System-wide adjustments show promise for promotion of safety culture in hospitals where falls happen regularly. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with the International Society for Quality in Health Care. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  1. Investigating the complementary value of discrete choice experiments for the evaluation of barriers and facilitators in implementation research: a questionnaire survey

    PubMed Central

    van Helvoort-Postulart, Debby; van der Weijden, Trudy; Dellaert, Benedict GC; de Kok, Mascha; von Meyenfeldt, Maarten F; Dirksen, Carmen D

    2009-01-01

    Background The potential barriers and facilitators to change should guide the choice of implementation strategy. Implementation researchers believe that existing methods for the evaluation of potential barriers and facilitators are not satisfactory. Discrete choice experiments (DCE) are relatively new in the health care sector to investigate preferences, and may be of value in the field of implementation research. The objective of our study was to investigate the complementary value of DCE for the evaluation of barriers and facilitators in implementation research. Methods Clinical subject was the implementation of the guideline for breast cancer surgery in day care. We identified 17 potential barriers and facilitators to the implementation of this guideline. We used a traditional questionnaire that was made up of statements about the potential barriers and facilitators. Respondents answered 17 statements on a five-point scale ranging from one (fully disagree) to five (fully agree). The potential barriers and facilitators were included in the DCE as decision attributes. Data were gathered among anaesthesiologists, surgical oncologists, and breast care nurses by means of a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Results The overall response was 10%. The most striking finding was that the responses to the traditional questionnaire hardly differentiated between barriers. Forty-seven percent of the respondents thought that DCE is an inappropriate method. These respondents considered DCE too difficult and too time-consuming. Unlike the traditional questionnaire, the results of a DCE provide implementation researchers and clinicians with a relative attribute importance ranking that can be used to prioritize potential barriers and facilitators to change, and hence to better fine-tune the implementation strategies to the specific problems and challenges of a particular implementation process. Conclusion The results of our DCE and traditional questionnaire would probably lead to

  2. Expert Opinion Is Necessary: Delphi Panel Methodology Facilitates a Scientific Approach to Consensus.

    PubMed

    Hohmann, Erik; Brand, Jefferson C; Rossi, Michael J; Lubowitz, James H

    2018-02-01

    Our current trend and focus on evidence-based medicine is biased in favor of randomized controlled trials, which are ranked highest in the hierarchy of evidence while devaluing expert opinion, which is ranked lowest in the hierarchy. However, randomized controlled trials have weaknesses as well as strengths, and no research method is flawless. Moreover, stringent application of scientific research techniques, such as the Delphi Panel methodology, allows survey of experts in a high quality and scientific manner. Level V evidence (expert opinion) remains a necessary component in the armamentarium used to determine the answer to a clinical question. Copyright © 2017 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Scientists in the making: An ethnographic investigation of scientific processes as literate practice in an elementary classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Crawford, Teresa Jo

    This study explored the issue of literacy in science by examining how the social and academic literate practices in an elementary classroom formed the basis for learning across the curriculum, with a specific focus on the disciplinary field of science. Through the study of classroom interaction, issues related to student knowledge and ability were addressed as they pertain to scientific literacy in the context of science education reform. The theoretical framework guiding this study was drawn from sociocultural studies of scientific communities and interactional ethnography in education. To investigate the literate practices of science in a school setting, data were collected over a two-year period with the same teacher in her third grade and then her fourth/fifth grade classroom. Data were collected through participant observation in the form of fieldnotes, video data, interviews, and various artifacts (e.g., writings, drawings, teaching protocols). Using ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods of analysis this work examined classroom members' discursive practices to illustrate the role that discourse plays in creating opportunities for engagement in, and access to, scientific knowledge. These analyses revealed that the discursive actions and practices among members of this classroom shaped a particular type of learning environment that was process-oriented and inquiry based. It was shown that this learning environment afforded opportunities for students to engage in the processes of science outside the official, planned curriculum, often leading to whole class scientific investigations and discussions. Additionally, within this classroom community students were able to draw on multiple discourses to display their knowledge of scientific concepts and practices. Overall, this study found that the literate practices of this classroom community, as they were socially constructed among members, contributed to opportunities for students to practice science and

  4. Multi-representation based on scientific investigation for enhancing students’ representation skills

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Siswanto, J.; Susantini, E.; Jatmiko, B.

    2018-03-01

    This research aims to implementation learning physics with multi-representation based on the scientific investigation for enhancing students’ representation skills, especially on the magnetic field subject. The research design is one group pretest-posttest. This research was conducted in the department of mathematics education, Universitas PGRI Semarang, with the sample is students of class 2F who take basic physics courses. The data were obtained by representation skills test and documentation of multi-representation worksheet. The Results show gain analysis value of .64 which means some medium improvements. The result of t-test (α = .05) is shows p-value = .001. This learning significantly improves students representation skills.

  5. Component Technology for High-Performance Scientific Simulation Software

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Epperly, T; Kohn, S; Kumfert, G

    2000-11-09

    We are developing scientific software component technology to manage the complexity of modem, parallel simulation software and increase the interoperability and re-use of scientific software packages. In this paper, we describe a language interoperability tool named Babel that enables the creation and distribution of language-independent software libraries using interface definition language (IDL) techniques. We have created a scientific IDL that focuses on the unique interface description needs of scientific codes, such as complex numbers, dense multidimensional arrays, complicated data types, and parallelism. Preliminary results indicate that in addition to language interoperability, this approach provides useful tools for thinking about themore » design of modem object-oriented scientific software libraries. Finally, we also describe a web-based component repository called Alexandria that facilitates the distribution, documentation, and re-use of scientific components and libraries.« less

  6. From the Horse's Mouth: What Scientists Say about Scientific Investigation and Scientific Knowledge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wong, Siu Ling; Hodson, Derek

    2009-01-01

    This study sought to identify prominent features of the nature of science (NOS) embedded in authentic scientific inquiry. Thirteen well-established scientists from different parts of the world, working in experimental or theoretical research, in both traditional fields such as astrophysics and rapidly growing research fields such as molecular…

  7. Ethnicity in Dutch health research: situating scientific practice.

    PubMed

    Helberg-Proctor, Alana; Meershoek, Agnes; Krumeich, Anja; Horstman, Klasien

    2016-10-01

    A growing body of work is examining the role health research itself plays in the construction of 'ethnicity.' We discuss the results of our investigation as to how the political, social, and institutional dynamics of the context in which health research takes place affect the manner in which knowledge about ethnicity and health is produced. Qualitative content analysis of academic publications, interviews with biomedical and health researchers, and participant observation at various conferences and scientific events. We identified four aspects related to the context in which Dutch research takes place that we have found relevant to biomedical and health-research practices. Firstly, the 'diversity' and 'inclusion' policies of the major funding institution; secondly, the official Dutch national ethnic registration system; a third factor was the size of the Netherlands and the problem of small sample sizes; and lastly, the need for researchers to use meaningful ethnic categories when publishing in English-language journals. Our analysis facilitates the understanding of how specific ethnicities are constructed in this field and provides fruitful insight into the socio-scientific co-production of ethnicity, and specifically into the manner in which common-sense ethnic categories and hierarchies are granted scientific validity through academic publication and, are subsequently, used in clinical guidelines and policy.

  8. Private Science and Public Knowledge: The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal and its Use of the Literature.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pinch, T. J.; Collins, H. M.

    1984-01-01

    Shows the part played by formal/informal literatures in the social construction of scientific knowledge, analyzing the work of the "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal" (which critically investigates fringe-sciences). Indicates that popular literature can deconstruct facts while scientific…

  9. An investigation of the practice of scientific inquiry in secondary science and agriculture courses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Grady, Julie R.

    The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to investigate the practice of scientific inquiry in two secondary biology classes and one agriculture class from different schools in different communities. The focus was on teachers' interests and intentions for the students' participation in inquiry, the voices contributing to the inquiry, and students' opportunities to confront their conceptions of the nature of science (NOS). The Partnership for Research and Education in Plants (PREP) served as the context by providing students with opportunities to design and conduct original experiments to help elucidate the function(s) of a disabled gene in Arabidopsis thaliana . Transcripts of teacher and student semi-structured interviews, field notes of classroom observations and classroom conversations, and documents (e.g., student work, teacher handouts, school websites, PREP materials) were analyzed for evidence of the practice of scientific inquiry. Teachers were interested in implementing inquiry because of potential student learning about scientific research and because PREP supports course content and is connected to a larger scientific project outside of the school. Teachers' intentions regarding the implementation of inquiry reflected the complexity of their courses and the students' previous experiences. All inquiries were student-directed. The biology students' participation more closely mirrored the practice of scientists, while the agriculture students were more involved with the procedural display of scientific inquiry. All experiences could have been enhanced from additional knowledge-centered activities regarding scientific reasoning. No activities brought explicit attention to NOS. Biology activities tended to implicitly support NOS while the agriculture class activities tended to implicitly contradict NOS. Scientists' interactions contributed to implied support of the NOS. There were missed opportunities for explicit attention to NOS in all classes

  10. Contributing to Meaning Making: Facilitating Discourse in the High School Physics Classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hovan, Scot Alan

    The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) identify eight practices as essential to science and engineering, and these practices include asking students to construct explanations, to engage in argumentation, and to communicate scientific information. However, few teacher-training programs instruct teachers how to facilitate such discourse in the classroom. Modeling Instruction is one movement in physics education that organizes high school physics content around a small number of student-derived scientific models, and it relies on student discourse for the design, development, and deployment of these models. This research is a self-study of one high school physics teacher's experience facilitating large group discourse in the high school modeling physics classroom. Whiteboard meetings and graded discussions were examined by applying the analytical framework created by Mortimer and Scott (2003) to characterize the classroom talk and the discourse facilitation moves that I employed. In addition, elements of discourse analysis were used to examine some of the tensions that I experienced in the facilitation of this discourse. The findings suggest that deliberate identification of the teaching purposes for the discussion can help determine the scaffolding needed for students to enter the Discourse (Gee, 2011) of being a participant in these large group conversations. In addition, connecting the dialogic dimension of exploring student ideas with the authoritative dimension of introducing the scientific view and supporting the internalization of that view is necessary to contribute to meaning making in the science classroom.

  11. Fostering Scientific Reasoning in Education--Meta-Analytic Evidence from Intervention Studies

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Engelmann, Katharina; Neuhaus, Birgit J.; Fischer, Frank

    2016-01-01

    Scientific reasoning skills are not just for researchers, they are also increasingly relevant for making informed decisions in our everyday lives. How can these skills be facilitated? The current state of research on supporting scientific reasoning includes intervention studies but lacks an integrated analysis of the approaches to foster…

  12. On (scientific) integrity: conceptual clarification.

    PubMed

    Patrão Neves, Maria do Céu

    2018-06-01

    The notion of "integrity" is currently quite common and broadly recognized as complex, mostly due to its recurring and diverse application in various distinct domains such as the physical, psychic or moral, the personal or professional, that of the human being or of the totality of beings. Nevertheless, its adjectivation imprints a specific meaning, as happens in the case of "scientific integrity". This concept has been defined mostly by via negativa, by pointing out what goes against integrity, that is, through the identification of its infringements, which has also not facilitated the elaboration of an overarching and consensual code of scientific integrity. In this context, it is deemed necessary to clarify the notion of "integrity", first etymologically, recovering the original meaning of the term, and then in a specifically conceptual way, through the identification of the various meanings with which the term can be legitimately used, particularly in the domain of scientific research and innovation. These two steps are fundamental and indispensable for a forthcoming attempt at systematizing the requirements of "scientific integrity".

  13. Nutrition Labelling: Applying Biological Concepts and Reasoning to Socio-Scientific Issues

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lee, Yeung Chung

    2016-01-01

    Nutrition labelling, which helps consumers to make informed choices, can be used as both a context and a vehicle for students to consolidate and apply their knowledge of food and nutrition to improve health. It also facilitates students' ability to negotiate socio-scientific issues from scientific and other perspectives. This article reports a…

  14. Social behavioural epistemology and the scientific community.

    PubMed

    Watve, Milind

    2017-07-01

    The progress of science is influenced substantially by social behaviour of and social interactions within the scientific community. Similar to innovations in primate groups, the social acceptance of an innovation depends not only upon the relevance of the innovation but also on the social dominance and connectedness of the innovator. There are a number of parallels between many well-known phenomena in behavioural evolution and various behavioural traits observed in the scientific community. It would be useful, therefore, to use principles of behavioural evolution as hypotheses to study the social behaviour of the scientific community. I argue in this paper that a systematic study of social behavioural epistemology is likely to boost the progress of science by addressing several prevalent biases and other problems in scientific communication and by facilitating appropriate acceptance/rejection of novel concepts.

  15. Primary Teachers' beliefs about Scientific Creativity in the Classroom Context

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Shu-Chiu; Lin, Huann-shyang

    2014-07-01

    While a number of studies have investigated people's perceptions or conceptions of creativity, there is a lack of studies looking into science teachers' views. The study aimed to explore the meanings of scientific creativity in the classroom context as perceived by a selective group of upper primary (Grades 3-6; student ages 8-12) science teachers (n = 16) in Taiwan. Using a self-report, open-ended questionnaire and follow-up interviews, the participants responded to questions as to (1) what quality, behaviours and abilities characterise a creative learner in their science classrooms, (2) what a science classroom should be like if it is to facilitate scientific creativity, and (3) whether and what particular elements of the inquiry approach are incorporated in such a classroom. The analyses revealed that the teachers captured the central features of creativity and proposed diverse ideas about how to foster creativity in school science, but seemed to overlook some aspects, such as convergent thinking, problem-finding, and linking the arts and science. These missing features are regarded as important for scientific creativity in contemporary research. The findings were discussed along with their implications for teacher education and future research.

  16. Scientific integrity in Brazil.

    PubMed

    Lins, Liliane; Carvalho, Fernando Martins

    2014-09-01

    This article focuses on scientific integrity and the identification of predisposing factors to scientific misconduct in Brazil. Brazilian scientific production has increased in the last ten years, but the quality of the articles has decreased. Pressure on researchers and students for increasing scientific production may contribute to scientific misconduct. Cases of misconduct in science have been recently denounced in the country. Brazil has important institutions for controlling ethical and safety aspects of human research, but there is a lack of specific offices to investigate suspected cases of misconduct and policies to deal with scientific dishonesty.

  17. NASA SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION (STI) PROGRAM PLAN

    EPA Science Inventory

    NASA's scientific and technical information (STI) is an essential product of research, facilitates technology transfer, and enhances the competitive edge of U.S. companies and educational institutions. NASA's STI is an integral part of NASA's information transfer and is critical...

  18. A Programme-Wide Training Framework to Facilitate Scientific Communication Skills Development amongst Biological Sciences Masters Students

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Divan, Aysha; Mason, Sam

    2016-01-01

    In this article we describe the effectiveness of a programme-wide communication skills training framework incorporated within a one-year biological sciences taught Masters course designed to enhance the competency of students in communicating scientific research principally to a scientific audience. In one class we analysed the numerical marks…

  19. Beyond Black Boxes: Bringing Transparency and Aesthetics Back to Scientific Investigation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Resnick, Mitchel; Berg, Robbie; Eisenberg, Michael

    2000-01-01

    Presents a set of case studies in which students create, customize, and personalize their own scientific instruments. Finds that students become engaged in scientific inquiry not only through observing and measuring, but also through designing and building. (Author/CCM)

  20. Using Eye Tracking to Investigate Semantic and Spatial Representations of Scientific Diagrams during Text-Diagram Integration

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Jian, Yu-Cin; Wu, Chao-Jung

    2015-01-01

    We investigated strategies used by readers when reading a science article with a diagram and assessed whether semantic and spatial representations were constructed while reading the diagram. Seventy-one undergraduate participants read a scientific article while tracking their eye movements and then completed a reading comprehension test. Our…

  1. Training Elementary Teachers to Prepare Students for High School Authentic Scientific Research

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Danch, J. M.

    2017-12-01

    The Woodbridge Township New Jersey School District has a 4-year high school Science Research program that depends on the enrollment of students with the prerequisite skills to conduct authentic scientific research at the high school level. A multifaceted approach to training elementary teachers in the methods of scientific investigation, data collection and analysis and communication of results was undertaken in 2017. Teachers of predominately grades 4 and 5 participated in hands on workshops at a Summer Tech Academy, an EdCamp, a District Inservice Day and a series of in-class workshops for teachers and students together. Aspects of the instruction for each of these activities was facilitated by high school students currently enrolled in the High School Science Research Program. Much of the training activities centered around a "Learning With Students" model where teachers and their students simultaneously learn to perform inquiry activities and conduct scientific research fostering inquiry as it is meant to be: where participants produce original data are not merely working to obtain previously determined results.

  2. Modern scientific evidence pertaining to criminal investigations in the Chosun dynasty era (1392-1897 A.C.E.) in Korea.

    PubMed

    Nam, Yun Sik; Won, Sung-Ok; Lee, Kang-Bong

    2014-07-01

    A guidebook detailing the process of forensic investigation was written in 1440 A.C.E. It outlines the fundamentals and details of each element of criminal investigation during the era of the Chosun dynasty in Korea. Because this old guidebook was written in terms of personal experience rather than on scientific basis, it includes many fallacies from the perspective of modern forensic science. However, the book describes methods to form a scientific basis for the experiments performed. We demonstrate the modern scientific basis for ancient methods to monitor trace amounts of blood and detect lethal arsenic poisoning from a postmortem examination as described in this old forensic guidebook. Traces of blood and arsenic poisoning were detected according to the respective color changes of brownish red, due to the reaction of ferric ions in blood with acetic ions of vinegar, and dark blue, due to the reaction of silver with arsenic sulfide. © 2014 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  3. Translanguaging in a middle school science classroom: Constructing scientific arguments in English and Spanish

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Licona, Peter R.

    This dissertation investigates translanguaging in an English/Spanish dual language middle school science classroom as the teacher and students worked through a curriculum unit focusing on socioscientific issues and implementing a scientific argumentation framework. Translanguaging is the process in which bilingual speakers fluidly and dynamically draw from their full linguistic repertoire to perform a communicative act. Using ethnographically informed data collection in conjunction with discourse analysis, teacher translanguaging was examined for its related functions in the science classroom and how teacher translanguaging afforded opportunities for framing and supporting scientific argumentation. Results suggest that the functions of teacher translanguaging fell into three main themes: maintaining classroom culture, facilitating the academic task, and framing epistemic practices. Of the three categories of translanguaging, framing epistemic practices proved to be of paramount importance in the teacher presenting and supporting the practice of scientific argumentation. Implications from this study are relevant for pre-service science teacher preparation and in-service science teacher professional development for teachers working with emergent bilingual students.

  4. Withholding answers during hands-on scientific investigations? Comparing effects on developing students' scientific knowledge, reasoning, and application

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Lin

    2018-03-01

    As more concerns have been raised about withholding answers during science teaching, this article argues for a need to detach 'withholding answers' from 'hands-on' investigation tasks. The present study examined students' learning of light-related content through three conditions: 'hands-on' + no 'withholding' (hands-on only: HO), 'hands-on' + 'withholding' (hands-on investigation with answers withheld: HOW), and no 'hands-on' + no 'withholding' (direction instruction: DI). Students were assessed in terms of how well they (1) knew the content taught in class; (2) reasoned with the learned content; and (3) applied the learned content to real-life situations. Nine classes of students at 4th and 5th grades, N = 136 in total, were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. ANCOVA results showed that students in the hands-on only condition reasoned significantly better than those in the other two conditions. Students in this condition also seemed to know the content fairly better although the advance was not significant. Students in all three conditions did not show a statistically significant difference in their ability to apply the learned content to real-life situations. The findings from this study provide important contributions regarding issues relating to withholding answers during guided scientific inquiry.

  5. Making ideas at scientific fabrication laboratories

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fonda, Carlo; Canessa, Enrique

    2016-11-01

    Creativity, together with the making of ideas into fruition, is essential for progress. Today the evolution from an idea to its application can be facilitated by the implementation of Fabrication Laboratories, or FabLabs, having affordable digital tools for prototyping. FabLabs aiming at scientific research and invention are now starting to be established inside Universities, Research Centers and Schools. We review the setting up of the ICTP Scientific FabLab in Trieste, Italy, give concrete examples on the use in physics, and propose to replicate world-wide this class of multi-purpose workplaces within academia as a support for physics and math education and for community development.

  6. The Impact of Student Self-Efficacy on Scientific Inquiry Skills: An Exploratory Investigation in "River City," a Multi-User Virtual Environment

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ketelhut, Diane Jass

    2007-01-01

    This exploratory study investigated data-gathering behaviors exhibited by 100 seventh-grade students as they participated in a scientific inquiry-based curriculum project delivered by a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE). This research examined the relationship between students' self-efficacy on entry into the authentic scientific activity and…

  7. Using photovoice methodology to investigate facilitators and barriers to food acquisition and preparation by rural older women.

    PubMed

    Neill, Carly; Leipert, Beverly D; Garcia, Alicia C; Kloseck, Marita

    2011-01-01

    This research investigates facilitators and barriers that rural women aged 65 to 75 years in Southwestern Ontario experience in acquiring and preparing food through the use of photovoice methodology. Eighteen participants in five rural communities used a camera and log book to document their experiences and perspectives relating to the acquisition and preparation of food, and they each participated in two focus groups to engage in critical dialogue and knowledge sharing regarding the meaning and significance of the pictures they took. Analysis of photographs, log books, and focus group data revealed 13 themes, 3 emerging as facilitators to food acquisition and preparation (availability of food, social networks and values, personal values and resources), 5 as barriers (adjusting to changing family size, winter weather, food labeling issues, grocery shopper resources, limited physical capacity), and 5 as both facilitators and barriers (economics, valuing a healthy diet, technology changes, transportation, location and nature of grocery stores). Data also revealed rurality, age, and gender as foundationally influential factors affecting rural older women's food acquisition and preparation.

  8. Effects of Student-Facilitated Learning on Instructional Facilitators

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bonner, Sarah M.; Somers, Jennifer A.; Rivera, Gwendelyn J.; Keiler, Leslie S.

    2017-01-01

    We investigated perceptions about learning strategy use and instructional roles among a sample of high needs adolescents (n = 230) who acted as near-peer instructional facilitators. The sample was drawn from science and mathematics classes in nonselective public secondary schools in New York City. Students participated in an inschool intervention…

  9. SCCR Digital Learning System for Scientific Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    She, H. C.; Lee, C. Q.

    2008-01-01

    This study reports an adaptive digital learning project, scientific concept construction and reconstruction (SCCR), that was developed based on the theories of Dual Situated Learning Model (DSLM) and scientific reasoning. In addition, the authors investigated the effects of an SCCR related to a "combustion" topic for sixth grade students…

  10. Addressing scientific literacy through content area reading and processes of scientific inquiry: What teachers report

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cooper, Susan J.

    The purpose of this study was to interpret the experiences of secondary science teachers in Florida as they address the scientific literacy of their students through teaching content reading strategies and student inquiry skills. Knowledge of the successful integration of content reading and inquiry skills by experienced classroom teachers would be useful to many educators as they plan instruction to achieve challenging state and national standards for reading as well as science. The problem was investigated using grounded theory methodology. Open-ended questions were asked in three focus groups and six individual interviews that included teachers from various Florida school districts. The constant comparative approach was used to analyze the data. Initial codes were collapsed into categories to determine the conceptual relationships among the data. From this, the five core categories were determined to be Influencers, Issues, Perceptions, Class Routines, and Future Needs. These relate to the central phenomenon, Instructional Modifications, because teachers often described pragmatic and philosophical changes in their teaching as they deliberated to meet state standards in both reading and science. Although Florida's secondary science teachers have been asked to incorporate content reading strategies into their science instruction for the past several years, there was limited evidence of using these strategies to further student understanding of scientific processes. Most teachers saw little connection between reading and inquiry, other than the fact that students must know how to read to follow directions in the lab. Scientific literacy, when it was addressed by teachers, was approached mainly through class discussions, not reading. Teachers realized that students cannot learn secondary science content unless they read science text with comprehension; therefore the focus of reading instruction was on learning science content, not scientific literacy or student

  11. [Health care access barriers and facilitators: a qualitative systematic review].

    PubMed

    Hirmas Adauy, Macarena; Poffald Angulo, Lucy; Jasmen Sepúlveda, Anita María; Aguilera Sanhueza, Ximena; Delgado Becerra, Iris; Vega Morales, Jeanette

    2013-03-01

    To determine whether health care access barriers and facilitators cut across different populations, countries, and pathologies, and if so, at which stages of health care access they occur most frequently. A qualitative systematic review of literature published between 2000 and 2010 was undertaken drawing on six international sources: Fuente Académica, MEDLINE (full-text), Academic Search Complete (a full-text multidisciplinary academic database), PubMed, SciELO, and LILACS. Scientific appraisal guidelines from the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme Español (CASPe) and Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) were applied. Gray literature was also reviewed. From the review of scientific literature, 19 of 1 160 articles and 8 of 12 gray literature documents were selected. A total of 230 barriers and 35 facilitators were identified in countries with different contexts and degrees of development. The 230 barriers were classified according to the Tanahashi framework: 25 corresponded to availability, 67 to access, 87 to acceptability, and 51 to contact. Most of the barriers were related to acceptability and access. The facilitating elements that were identified had to do with personal factors, the provider-client relationship, social support, knowledge about diseases, and adaptation of the services to patients. The barriers and facilitators were seen mostly in people who initiated contact with the health systems, and they occurred at all stages of health care access. Only a few of the studies looked at people who did not initiate contact with the health services. The barriers and facilitators identified were socially determined and largely a reflection of existing social inequities in the countries. To reduce or eliminate them, joint action with other non-health sectors will be necessary.

  12. Integrating entertainment and scientific rigor to facilitate a co-creation of knowledge

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hezel, Bernd; Broschkowski, Ephraim; Kropp, Jürgen

    2013-04-01

    The advancing research on the changing climate system and on its impacts has uncovered the magnitude of the expectable societal implications. It therefore created substantial awareness of the problem with stakeholders and the general public. But despite this awareness, unsustainable trends have continued untamed. For a transition towards a sustainable world it is, apparently, not enough to disseminate the "scientific truth" and wait for the people to "understand". In order to remedy this problem it is rather necessary to develop new entertaining formats to communicate the complex topic in an integrated and comprehensive way. Beyond that, it could be helpful to acknowledge that science can only generate part of the knowledge that is necessary for the transformation. The nature of the problem and its deep societal implications call for a co-creation of knowledge by science and society in order to enable change. In this spirit the RAMSES project (Reconciling Adaptation, Mitigation and Sustainable Development for Cities) follows a dialogic communication approach allowing for a co-formulation of research questions by stakeholders. A web-based audio-visual guidance application presents embedded scientific information in an entertaining and intuitive way on the basis of a "complexity on demand" approach. It aims at enabling decision making despite uncertainty and it entails a reframing of the project's research according to applied and local knowledge.

  13. Enhancing endorsement of scientific inquiry increases support for pro-environment policies.

    PubMed

    Drummond, Aaron; Palmer, Matthew A; Sauer, James D

    2016-09-01

    Pro-environment policies require public support and engagement, but in countries such as the USA, public support for pro-environment policies remains low. Increasing public scientific literacy is unlikely to solve this, because increased scientific literacy does not guarantee increased acceptance of critical environmental issues (e.g. that climate change is occurring). We distinguish between scientific literacy (basic scientific knowledge) and endorsement of scientific inquiry (perceiving science as a valuable way of accumulating knowledge), and examine the relationship between people's endorsement of scientific inquiry and their support for pro-environment policy. Analysis of a large, publicly available dataset shows that support for pro-environment policies is more strongly related to endorsement of scientific inquiry than to scientific literacy among adolescents. An experiment demonstrates that a brief intervention can increase support for pro-environment policies via increased endorsement of scientific inquiry among adults. Public education about the merits of scientific inquiry may facilitate increased support for pro-environment policies.

  14. Enhancing endorsement of scientific inquiry increases support for pro-environment policies

    PubMed Central

    Palmer, Matthew A.; Sauer, James D.

    2016-01-01

    Pro-environment policies require public support and engagement, but in countries such as the USA, public support for pro-environment policies remains low. Increasing public scientific literacy is unlikely to solve this, because increased scientific literacy does not guarantee increased acceptance of critical environmental issues (e.g. that climate change is occurring). We distinguish between scientific literacy (basic scientific knowledge) and endorsement of scientific inquiry (perceiving science as a valuable way of accumulating knowledge), and examine the relationship between people's endorsement of scientific inquiry and their support for pro-environment policy. Analysis of a large, publicly available dataset shows that support for pro-environment policies is more strongly related to endorsement of scientific inquiry than to scientific literacy among adolescents. An experiment demonstrates that a brief intervention can increase support for pro-environment policies via increased endorsement of scientific inquiry among adults. Public education about the merits of scientific inquiry may facilitate increased support for pro-environment policies. PMID:27703700

  15. Using Discrepant Events in Science Demonstrations to Promote Student Engagement in Scientific Investigations: An Action Research Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mancuso, Vincent J.

    2010-01-01

    Students' scientific investigations have been identified in national standards and related reform documents as a critical component of students' learning experiences in school, yet it is not easy to implement them in science classrooms. Could science demonstrations help science teachers put this recommendation into practice? While demonstrations…

  16. Epistemological pluralism and scientific development: an argument against authoritative nosologies.

    PubMed

    Markon, Kristian E

    2013-10-01

    The author examines the influence of authoritative nosological systems--those developed by an authoritative body or organization (e.g., the DSM, ICD, RDoC)--on the development of scientific theory and research. Although there has been extensive discussion of how such systems should be organized, and of the historical role of such systems, little focus has been placed on whether these systems impede or facilitate scientific progress. The author reviews the nature and role of constructs in scientific theory and the role of authoritative taxonomy in science. He presents an argument that, although authoritative classification systems clearly have value for nonscientific purposes, or for specific scientific purposes, the systems themselves, at least as they have been constructed thus far, likely impede scientific development by constraining competitive discourse. Implications and recommendations are discussed.

  17. Using Scientific Visualizations to Enhance Scientific Thinking In K-12 Geoscience Education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Robeck, E.

    2016-12-01

    The same scientific visualizations, animations, and images that are powerful tools for geoscientists can serve an important role in K-12 geoscience education by encouraging students to communicate in ways that help them develop habits of thought that are similar to those used by scientists. Resources such as those created by NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS), which are intended to inform researchers and the public about NASA missions, can be used in classrooms to promote thoughtful, engaged learning. Instructional materials that make use of those visualizations have been developed and are being used in K-12 classrooms in ways that demonstrate the vitality of the geosciences. For example, the Center for Geoscience and Society at the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) helped to develop a publication that outlines an inquiry-based approach to introducing students to the interpretation of scientific visualizations, even when they have had little to no prior experience with such media. To facilitate these uses, the SVS team worked with Center staff and others to adapt the visualizations, primarily by removing most of the labels and annotations. Engaging with these visually compelling resources serves as an invitation for students to ask questions, interpret data, draw conclusions, and make use of other processes that are key components of scientific thought. This presentation will share specific resources for K-12 teaching (all of which are available online, from NASA, and/or from AGI), as well as the instructional principles that they incorporate.

  18. Case Studies in Describing Scientific Research Efforts as Linked Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gandara, A.; Villanueva-Rosales, N.; Gates, A.

    2013-12-01

    The Web is growing with numerous scientific resources, prompting increased efforts in information management to consider integration and exchange of scientific resources. Scientists have many options to share scientific resources on the Web; however, existing options provide limited support to scientists in annotating and relating research resources resulting from a scientific research effort. Moreover, there is no systematic approach to documenting scientific research and sharing it on the Web. This research proposes the Collect-Annotate-Refine-Publish (CARP) Methodology as an approach for guiding documentation of scientific research on the Semantic Web as scientific collections. Scientific collections are structured descriptions about scientific research that make scientific results accessible based on context. In addition, scientific collections enhance the Linked Data data space and can be queried by machines. Three case studies were conducted on research efforts at the Cyber-ShARE Research Center of Excellence in order to assess the effectiveness of the methodology to create scientific collections. The case studies exposed the challenges and benefits of leveraging the Semantic Web and Linked Data data space to facilitate access, integration and processing of Web-accessible scientific resources and research documentation. As such, we present the case study findings and lessons learned in documenting scientific research using CARP.

  19. Automatic recognition of conceptualization zones in scientific articles and two life science applications.

    PubMed

    Liakata, Maria; Saha, Shyamasree; Dobnik, Simon; Batchelor, Colin; Rebholz-Schuhmann, Dietrich

    2012-04-01

    Scholarly biomedical publications report on the findings of a research investigation. Scientists use a well-established discourse structure to relate their work to the state of the art, express their own motivation and hypotheses and report on their methods, results and conclusions. In previous work, we have proposed ways to explicitly annotate the structure of scientific investigations in scholarly publications. Here we present the means to facilitate automatic access to the scientific discourse of articles by automating the recognition of 11 categories at the sentence level, which we call Core Scientific Concepts (CoreSCs). These include: Hypothesis, Motivation, Goal, Object, Background, Method, Experiment, Model, Observation, Result and Conclusion. CoreSCs provide the structure and context to all statements and relations within an article and their automatic recognition can greatly facilitate biomedical information extraction by characterizing the different types of facts, hypotheses and evidence available in a scientific publication. We have trained and compared machine learning classifiers (support vector machines and conditional random fields) on a corpus of 265 full articles in biochemistry and chemistry to automatically recognize CoreSCs. We have evaluated our automatic classifications against a manually annotated gold standard, and have achieved promising accuracies with 'Experiment', 'Background' and 'Model' being the categories with the highest F1-scores (76%, 62% and 53%, respectively). We have analysed the task of CoreSC annotation both from a sentence classification as well as sequence labelling perspective and we present a detailed feature evaluation. The most discriminative features are local sentence features such as unigrams, bigrams and grammatical dependencies while features encoding the document structure, such as section headings, also play an important role for some of the categories. We discuss the usefulness of automatically generated Core

  20. Software Engineering Support of the Third Round of Scientific Grand Challenge Investigations: An Earth Modeling System Software Framework Strawman Design that Integrates Cactus and UCLA/UCB Distributed Data Broker

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Talbot, Bryan; Zhou, Shu-Jia; Higgins, Glenn

    2002-01-01

    One of the most significant challenges in large-scale climate modeling, as well as in high-performance computing in other scientific fields, is that of effectively integrating many software models from multiple contributors. A software framework facilitates the integration task. both in the development and runtime stages of the simulation. Effective software frameworks reduce the programming burden for the investigators, freeing them to focus more on the science and less on the parallel communication implementation, while maintaining high performance across numerous supercomputer and workstation architectures. This document proposes a strawman framework design for the climate community based on the integration of Cactus, from the relativistic physics community, and UCLA/UCB Distributed Data Broker (DDB) from the climate community. This design is the result of an extensive survey of climate models and frameworks in the climate community as well as frameworks from many other scientific communities. The design addresses fundamental development and runtime needs using Cactus, a framework with interfaces for FORTRAN and C-based languages, and high-performance model communication needs using DDB. This document also specifically explores object-oriented design issues in the context of climate modeling as well as climate modeling issues in terms of object-oriented design.

  1. A knowledgebase system to enhance scientific discovery: Telemakus

    PubMed Central

    Fuller, Sherrilynne S; Revere, Debra; Bugni, Paul F; Martin, George M

    2004-01-01

    Background With the rapid expansion of scientific research, the ability to effectively find or integrate new domain knowledge in the sciences is proving increasingly difficult. Efforts to improve and speed up scientific discovery are being explored on a number of fronts. However, much of this work is based on traditional search and retrieval approaches and the bibliographic citation presentation format remains unchanged. Methods Case study. Results The Telemakus KnowledgeBase System provides flexible new tools for creating knowledgebases to facilitate retrieval and review of scientific research reports. In formalizing the representation of the research methods and results of scientific reports, Telemakus offers a potential strategy to enhance the scientific discovery process. While other research has demonstrated that aggregating and analyzing research findings across domains augments knowledge discovery, the Telemakus system is unique in combining document surrogates with interactive concept maps of linked relationships across groups of research reports. Conclusion Based on how scientists conduct research and read the literature, the Telemakus KnowledgeBase System brings together three innovations in analyzing, displaying and summarizing research reports across a domain: (1) research report schema, a document surrogate of extracted research methods and findings presented in a consistent and structured schema format which mimics the research process itself and provides a high-level surrogate to facilitate searching and rapid review of retrieved documents; (2) research findings, used to index the documents, allowing searchers to request, for example, research studies which have studied the relationship between neoplasms and vitamin E; and (3) visual exploration interface of linked relationships for interactive querying of research findings across the knowledgebase and graphical displays of what is known as well as, through gaps in the map, what is yet to be tested

  2. Investigating Socioscientific Issues via Scientific Habits of Mind: Development and validation of the Scientific Habits of Mind Survey

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Çalik, Muammer; Coll, Richard Kevin

    2012-08-01

    In this paper, we describe the Scientific Habits of Mind Survey (SHOMS) developed to explore public, science teachers', and scientists' understanding of habits of mind (HoM). The instrument contained 59 items, and captures the seven SHOM identified by Gauld. The SHOM was validated by administration to two cohorts of pre-service science teachers: primary science teachers with little science background or interest (n = 145), and secondary school science teachers (who also were science graduates) with stronger science knowledge (n = 145). Face validity was confirmed by the use of a panel of experts and a pilot study employing participants similar in demographics to the intended sample. To confirm convergent and discriminant validity, confirmatory factor analysis and evaluation of the reliability were calculated. Statistical data and other data gathered from interviews suggest that the SHOMS will prove to be a useful tool for educators and researchers who wish to investigate HoM for a variety of participants.

  3. Amplify scientific discovery with artificial intelligence

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gil, Yolanda; Greaves, Mark T.; Hendler, James

    Computing innovations have fundamentally changed many aspects of scientific inquiry. For example, advances in robotics, high-end computing, networking, and databases now underlie much of what we do in science such as gene sequencing, general number crunching, sharing information between scientists, and analyzing large amounts of data. As computing has evolved at a rapid pace, so too has its impact in science, with the most recent computing innovations repeatedly being brought to bear to facilitate new forms of inquiry. Recently, advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have deeply penetrated many consumer sectors, including for example Apple’s Siri™ speech recognition system, real-time automatedmore » language translation services, and a new generation of self-driving cars and self-navigating drones. However, AI has yet to achieve comparable levels of penetration in scientific inquiry, despite its tremendous potential in aiding computers to help scientists tackle tasks that require scientific reasoning. We contend that advances in AI will transform the practice of science as we are increasingly able to effectively and jointly harness human and machine intelligence in the pursuit of major scientific challenges.« less

  4. The Scientific Approach Learning: How prospective science teachers understand about questioning

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wiyanto; Nugroho, S. E.; Hartono

    2017-04-01

    In the new curriculum, questioning is one of theaspects of scientific approach learning. It means teachers should facilitate students to ask their questions during science learning. The purpose of this research was to reveal the prospective science teachers’ understanding about questioning and how the science teachers implement of that in the scientific approach learning. Data of the prospective science teachers’ understanding was explored from their teaching plan that produced during microteaching. The microteaching is an activity that should be followed by students before they conduct partnership program in school. Data about theimplementation of questioning that conducted by theteacher was be collected by video-assisted observation in junior school science class. The results showed that majority of the prospective science teachers had difficulty to write down in their teaching plan about how to facilitate students to ask their questions, even majority of them understood that questioning is not students’ activity, but it is an activity that should be done by teachers. Based on the observation showed that majority of teachers did not yet implement a learning that facilitates students to ask their questions.

  5. Using Authentic Data to Facilitate Comparative Planetology & Student-led Classroom Investigations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Graff, Paige; Runco, Susan

    2014-01-01

    This session will engage participants in a hands-on activity that uses stunning NASA imagery from space to help participants gain an understanding of how scientists use Earth to gain a better understanding of other planetary bodies in the solar system. Participants will make observations, develop identification criteria, and use evidence to justify inferences made about processes sculpting the surface of different planetary worlds. Participants will also "build" a comparative planetology feature wall that will facilitate a comparative view of major geologic processes and features across the inner solar system. This session will highlight additional comparative planetology activities and demonstrate how the use of authentic data and imagery can help facilitate student-led research in the classroom, helping teachers address the Next Generation Science Standards.

  6. Center for Center for Technology for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kostadin, Damevski

    A resounding success of the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program is that high-performance computational science is now universally recognized as a critical aspect of scientific discovery [71], complementing both theoretical and experimental research. As scientific communities prepare to exploit unprecedented computing capabilities of emerging leadership-class machines for multi-model simulations at the extreme scale [72], it is more important than ever to address the technical and social challenges of geographically distributed teams that combine expertise in domain science, applied mathematics, and computer science to build robust and flexible codes that can incorporate changes over time. The Center for Technologymore » for Advanced Scientific Component Software (TASCS)1 tackles these these issues by exploiting component-based software development to facilitate collaborative high-performance scientific computing.« less

  7. Anthropological film: a scientific and humanistic resource.

    PubMed

    Soren, E R

    1974-12-20

    More than a scientific endeavor but not strictly one of the humanities either, anthropology stands between these basic kinds of intellectual pursuit, bridging and contributing to both. Not limited to natural history, anthropology touches art, historical process, and human values, drawing from the materials and approaches of both science and humanities. This professional interest in a broad understanding of the human condition has led anthropologists to adapt and use modern cameras and films to inquire further into the variety of ways of life of mankind and to develop method and theory to prepare anthropological film as a permanent scientific and humanistic resource. Until quite recently the evolution of human culture and organization has diverged in the hitherto isolated regions of the world. Now this divergence has virtually ceased; we are witnessing an unprecedented period in human history-one where cultural divergence has turned to cultural convergence and where the varieties of independently evolved expressions of basic human potential are giving way to a single system of modern communications, transport, commerce, and manufacturing technology. Before the varieties of ways of life of the world disappear, they can be preserved in facsimile in anthropological films. As primary, undifferentiated visual information, these films facilitate that early step in the creation of new knowledge which is sometimes called humanistic and without which scientific application lies dormant, lacking an idea to test. In keeping with the two scholarly faces of anthropology, humanistic and scientific, anthropological films may provide material permitting both humanistic insight and the more controlled formulations of science. The lightweight filming equipment recently developed has been adapted by anthropologists as a tool of scholarly visual inquiry; methods of retrieving visual data from changing and vanishing ways of life have been developed; and new ways to reveal human beings

  8. Why resilience is unappealing to social science: Theoretical and empirical investigations of the scientific use of resilience

    PubMed Central

    Olsson, Lennart; Jerneck, Anne; Thoren, Henrik; Persson, Johannes; O’Byrne, David

    2015-01-01

    Resilience is often promoted as a boundary concept to integrate the social and natural dimensions of sustainability. However, it is a troubled dialogue from which social scientists may feel detached. To explain this, we first scrutinize the meanings, attributes, and uses of resilience in ecology and elsewhere to construct a typology of definitions. Second, we analyze core concepts and principles in resilience theory that cause disciplinary tensions between the social and natural sciences (system ontology, system boundary, equilibria and thresholds, feedback mechanisms, self-organization, and function). Third, we provide empirical evidence of the asymmetry in the use of resilience theory in ecology and environmental sciences compared to five relevant social science disciplines. Fourth, we contrast the unification ambition in resilience theory with methodological pluralism. Throughout, we develop the argument that incommensurability and unification constrain the interdisciplinary dialogue, whereas pluralism drawing on core social scientific concepts would better facilitate integrated sustainability research. PMID:26601176

  9. Scientific investigations planned for the Lidar in-Space Technology Experiment (LITE)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mccormick, M. P.; Winker, D. M.; Browell, E. V.; Coakley, J. A.; Gardner, C. S.; Hoff, R. M.; Kent, G. S.; Melfi, S. H.; Menzies, R. T.; Platt, C. M. R.

    1993-01-01

    The Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment (LITE) is being developed by NASA/Langley Research Center for a series of flights on the space shuttle beginning in 1994. Employing a three-wavelength Nd:YAG laser and a 1-m-diameter telescope, the system is a test-bed for the development of technology required for future operational spaceborne lidars. The system has been designed to observe clouds, tropospheric and stratospheric aerosols, characteristics of the planetary boundary layer, and stratospheric density and temperature perturbations with much greater resolution than is available from current orbiting sensors. In addition to providing unique datasets on these phenomena, the data obtained will be useful in improving retrieval algorithms currently in use. Observations of clouds and the planetary boundary layer will aid in the development of global climate model (GCM) parameterizations. This article briefly describes the LITE program and discusses the types of scientific investigations planned for the first flight.

  10. Scientific investigations with the data base HEAO-1 scanning modulator collimator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schwartz, Daniel A.

    1992-01-01

    The hardware specification for the Scanning Modulation Collimator (MC) experiment on HEAO-1 was to measure positions of bright (greater than 10(exp -11) ergs/cm(exp 2)s), hard (1 to 15 keV) x-ray sources to 5-10 arcsec, and to measure their size and structure in three energy bands down to 10 arcsec resolution. The scientific purpose of this specification was to enable the identification of these x-ray sources with optical and radio objects in order to elucidate the x-ray emission mechanism and the nature of the candidate astronomical system. The experiment was an outstanding success. Hardware systems functioned perfectly although loss of one (out of eight) proportional counters degraded our sensitivity by about 10 percent. Our aspect solution of 7 arcsec precision, allowed us to achieve statistic-limited location precision for all but the strongest sources. We vigorously pursued a strategy of determining the scientific importance of each identification, and of publishing each scientific result as it came along.

  11. Using Just-in-Time Information to Support Scientific Discovery Learning in a Computer-Based Simulation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hulshof, Casper D.; de Jong, Ton

    2006-01-01

    Students encounter many obstacles during scientific discovery learning with computer-based simulations. It is hypothesized that an effective type of support, that does not interfere with the scientific discovery learning process, should be delivered on a "just-in-time" base. This study explores the effect of facilitating access to…

  12. Blended Training on Scientific Software: A Study on How Scientific Data Are Generated

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Skordaki, Efrosyni-Maria; Bainbridge, Susan

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents the results of a research study on scientific software training in blended learning environments. The investigation focused on training approaches followed by scientific software users whose goal is the reliable application of such software. A key issue in current literature is the requirement for a theory-substantiated…

  13. Diagramming Scientific Papers - A New Idea for Understanding/Teaching/Sharing Science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Saltus, R. W.; Fedi, M.

    2014-12-01

    How do we best communicate scientific results? As the number of scientists and scientific papers steadily increases, one of the greatest challenges is effective and efficient sharing of science. The official repository of scientific knowledge is the peer-reviewed journal archive. However, this primary knowledge can be difficult to access and understand by anyone but a relevant specialist. We propose some new ideas for diagramming the content and significance of scientific papers using a simple and intuitive graphical approach. We propose a visual mapping that highlights four fundamental aspects of most scientific papers: Data, Methods/Models, Results/Ideas, and Implications/Importance. Each of these aspects is illustrated within boxed fields which contain one or more labeled elements positioned to reflect novelty (aka originality) and impact relative to the vertical and horizontal axes. The relative position of the boxed fields themselves indicates the relative significance of data, methods, ideas, or implications to the paper. Optional lines between boxed elements indicate the flow and dependence of data/methods/ideas within the paper. As with any graphical depiction, you need to see it to best appreciate it -- this written abstract is only meant as an introduction to the idea.We anticipate that diagramming may prove useful in both communication of scientific ideas among scientists as well as in education and outreach. For example, professors could assign diagramming of papers as a way to help students organize their thoughts about the structure and impact of scientific articles. Students could compare and defend their diagrams as a way to facilitate discussion/debate. Authors could diagram their own work as a way to efficiently summarize the importance and significance of their work. We also imagine that (in the future) automatic diagramming might be used to help summarize or facilitate the discovery of archived work.

  14. African Scientific Network: A model to enhance scientific research in developing countries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kebede, Abebe

    2002-03-01

    Africa has over 350 higher education institutions with a variety of experiences and priorities. The primary objectives of these institutions are to produce white-collar workers, teachers, and the work force for mining, textiles, and agricultural industries. The state of higher education and scientific research in Africa have been discussed in several conferences. The proposals that are generated by these conferences advocate structural changes in higher education, North-South institutional linkages, mobilization of the African Diaspora and funding. We propose a model African Scientific Network that would facilitate and enhance international scientific partnerships between African scientists and their counterparts elsewhere. A recent article by James Lamout (Financial Times, August 2, 2001) indicates that emigration from South Africa alone costs $8.9 billion in lost human resources. The article also stated that every year 23,000 graduates leave Africa for opportunities overseas, mainly in Europe, leaving only 20,000 scientists and engineers serving over 600 million people. The International Organization for Migration states that the brain drain of highly skilled professionals from Africa is making economic growth and poverty alleviation impossible across the continent. In our model we will focus on a possible networking mechanism where the African Diaspora will play a major role in addressing the financial and human resources needs of higher education in Africa

  15. Introductory Biology Textbooks Under-Represent Scientific Process

    PubMed Central

    Duncan, Dara B.; Lubman, Alexandra; Hoskins, Sally G.

    2011-01-01

    Attrition of undergraduates from Biology majors is a long-standing problem. Introductory courses that fail to engage students or spark their curiosity by emphasizing the open-ended and creative nature of biological investigation and discovery could contribute to student detachment from the field. Our hypothesis was that introductory biology books devote relatively few figures to illustration of the design and interpretation of experiments or field studies, thereby de-emphasizing the scientific process. To investigate this possibility, we examined figures in six Introductory Biology textbooks published in 2008. On average, multistep scientific investigations were presented in fewer than 5% of the hundreds of figures in each book. Devoting such a small percentage of figures to the processes by which discoveries are made discourages an emphasis on scientific thinking. We suggest that by increasing significantly the illustration of scientific investigations, textbooks could support undergraduates’ early interest in biology, stimulate the development of design and analytical skills, and inspire some students to participate in investigations of their own. PMID:23653758

  16. Interim report on the scientific investigations in the Animas River watershed, Colorado to facilitate remediation decisions by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, March 29, 2000 meeting, Denver, Colorado

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    2000-01-01

    presumed to be impacted by historical mining activities. The Animas River watershed (fig. 1) was selected by the State and Federal agencies as one of two watersheds in the U.S. to be studied in detail by the USGS in the AML Initiative. Beginning in October 1997, each of the four Divisions of the USGS (Water Resources, Geologic, Biological Resources, and National Mapping) initiated a collaborative integrated science study of the watershed. Funds were provided from USGS base funding to each of the four Divisions in response to the priorities set by Congressional action and within the flexibility provided by the budgetary framework funding individual research programs. The AML Initiative provides for a five-year focused scientific effort in the two watersheds with final synthesis of the scientific results from each to be published in 2001. Publications are released on the AML web site on a regular basis (http://amli.usgs.gov/amli). On March 29, 2000, the USGS hosted a meeting for the BLM and USFS to discuss remediation options that were under consideration for the summer of 2000. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the scientific rational provided by the USGS to meet objective one above, and to summarize our preliminary interpretations of our data. Additional information from sites on private lands have been collected by the State of Colorado, EPA, and the ARSG. Unfortunately, these data have not been fully supplied to the USGS so our conclusions are based only upon our data. These interpretations provide science-based constraints on possible remediation options to be considered by the FLMA, the State, and local property owners in the Animas River watershed. The report is presented in outline format to facilitate discussion of remediation options at the March 29, 2000 meeting. Not all historical mining sites within the watershed are on public lands. This should not be construed to be a final report of the USGS

  17. Constructing Arguments: Investigating Pre-Service Science Teachers' Argumentation Skills in a Socio-Scientific Context

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robertshaw, Brooke; Campbell, Todd

    2013-01-01

    As western society becomes increasingly reliant on scientific information to make decisions, citizens must be equipped to understand how scientific arguments are constructed. In order to do this, pre-service teachers must be prepared to foster students' abilities and understandings of scientific argumentation in the classroom. This study…

  18. Sentinel-1 mission scientific exploitation activities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Desnos, Yves louis; Foumelis, Michael; Engdahl, Marcus

    2017-04-01

    The Sentinel-1 mission is the European Imaging Radar Observatory for the Copernicus joint initiative of the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Sentinel-1 mission is composed of a constellation of two satellites, Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B (launched in April 2014 and April 2016, respectively), sharing the same orbital plane and featuring a short repeat cycle of 6 days optimised for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry science and applications. The full operation capacity was achieved after the completion of the Sentinel-1B in-orbit commissioning on 14 September 2016. Sentinel-1 data are freely available via the ESA's Sentinels Scientific Data Hub since October 2014. The data uptake by the science community has been unprecedented and numerous results have been published to date. The objective of the current paper is to provide a brief overview of the latest ESA activities, in the frame of the Scientific Exploitation of Operational Missions (SEOM) programme, aimed to facilitate the scientific exploitation of Sentinel-1 mission as well as discuss future opportunities for research.

  19. Analysis of scientific argumentation in two physical chemistry classrooms using the POGIL approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moon, Alena C.

    The benefits of facilitating argumentation in science education have been well reported (Jimenez-Aleixandre & Erduran, 2007). Engaging in argumentation has shown to model authentic scientific inquiry as well as promote development of content knowledge. However, less emphasis has been placed on facilitating argumentation in upper level undergraduate courses, though it is important for evaluating undergraduate curricula to characterize upper level students' scientific reasoning. This work considers two implementations of the POGIL physical chemistry curriculum and evaluates the classroom argumentation. The researchers aimed to consider the content of the arguments and dialectical features characteristic of socially constructed arguments (Nielson, 2013). To do this, whole class sessions were videotaped and Toulmin's Argument Pattern (TAP) was used to identify the arguments generated during the class (Erduran, Simon, & Osborne, 2004). A learning progression on chemical thinking (Sevian & Talanquer, 2014) was used as a domain-specific measure of argument quality. Results show differences in argumentation between and across both classrooms that can be explained by analysis of instructor facilitation and the POGIL curriculum. The results from this work will be used to make recommendations for instructor facilitation of argumentation and reform of the POGIL curriculum.

  20. MS PHD'S Professional Development Program: A Scientific Renaissance in Cyberspace

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Powell, J. M.; Williamson, V. A.; Griess, C. A.; Pyrtle, A. J.

    2004-12-01

    This study is a component of a four-year investigation of MS PHD'S Professional Development Program's virtual community through the lenses of underrepresented minority students in Earth system science and engineering fields. In this presentation, the development, assessment and projected utilization of the ongoing study will be discussed. The overall goal of this study is to examine the effectiveness of virtual team building methods and understand how the development of a communal cyberinfrastructure acts as an integral part of the emergence of a Scientific Renaissance. The exemplar, Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Science (MS PHD'S), provides professional development experiences to facilitate the advancement of students of color achieving outstanding Earth system careers. Undergraduate and graduate students are supported through access to scientific conferences, mentorship and virtual community building. Framed by critical theory, this ethnographic exploration uses a mixed methods research design to record, observe, and analyze both the processes and products of the website, listserv and synchronous web-based dialogue. First, key findings of the formative evaluation and annual reports of the successfully implemented 2003 MS PHD'S Pilot Project are presented. These findings inform future evaluations of the use of technological resources and illustrate how this public space provides peer support and enriched research opportunities. Quantitative methods such as statistical analysis, academic and professional tracking and evaluative tools for scientific content and competency are complimented by qualitative methods that include observations, heuristic case studies and focus group interviews. The findings of this ongoing investigation will provide insight on how national organizations, higher education practitioners, community-based support systems and underrepresented minorities in the sciences promote diversity by developing

  1. The climate visualizer: Sense-making through scientific visualization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gordin, Douglas N.; Polman, Joseph L.; Pea, Roy D.

    1994-12-01

    This paper describes the design of a learning environment, called the Climate Visualizer, intended to facilitate scientific sense-making in high school classrooms by providing students the ability to craft, inspect, and annotate scientific visualizations. The theoretical back-ground for our design presents a view of learning as acquiring and critiquing cultural practices and stresses the need for students to appropriate the social and material aspects of practice when learning an area. This is followed by a description of the design of the Climate Visualizer, including detailed accounts of its provision of spatial and temporal context and the quantitative and visual representations it employs. A broader context is then explored by describing its integration into the high school science classroom. This discussion explores how visualizations can promote the creation of scientific theories, especially in conjunction with the Collaboratory Notebook, an embedded environment for creating and critiquing scientific theories and visualizations. Finally, we discuss the design trade-offs we have made in light of our theoretical orientation, and our hopes for further progress.

  2. Investigating Assessment Bias for Constructed Response Explanation Tasks: Implications for Evaluating Performance Expectations for Scientific Practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Federer, Meghan Rector

    Assessment is a key element in the process of science education teaching and research. Understanding sources of performance bias in science assessment is a major challenge for science education reforms. Prior research has documented several limitations of instrument types on the measurement of students' scientific knowledge (Liu et al., 2011; Messick, 1995; Popham, 2010). Furthermore, a large body of work has been devoted to reducing assessment biases that distort inferences about students' science understanding, particularly in multiple-choice [MC] instruments. Despite the above documented biases, much has yet to be determined for constructed response [CR] assessments in biology and their use for evaluating students' conceptual understanding of scientific practices (such as explanation). Understanding differences in science achievement provides important insights into whether science curricula and/or assessments are valid representations of student abilities. Using the integrative framework put forth by the National Research Council (2012), this dissertation aimed to explore whether assessment biases occur for assessment practices intended to measure students' conceptual understanding and proficiency in scientific practices. Using a large corpus of undergraduate biology students' explanations, three studies were conducted to examine whether known biases of MC instruments were also apparent in a CR instrument designed to assess students' explanatory practice and understanding of evolutionary change (ACORNS: Assessment of COntextual Reasoning about Natural Selection). The first study investigated the challenge of interpreting and scoring lexically ambiguous language in CR answers. The incorporation of 'multivalent' terms into scientific discourse practices often results in statements or explanations that are difficult to interpret and can produce faulty inferences about student knowledge. The results of this study indicate that many undergraduate biology majors

  3. Representation of scientific methodology in secondary science textbooks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Binns, Ian C.

    The purpose of this investigation was to assess the representation of scientific methodology in secondary science textbooks. More specifically, this study looked at how textbooks introduced scientific methodology and to what degree the examples from the rest of the textbook, the investigations, and the images were consistent with the text's description of scientific methodology, if at all. The sample included eight secondary science textbooks from two publishers, McGraw-Hill/Glencoe and Harcourt/Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Data consisted of all student text and teacher text that referred to scientific methodology. Second, all investigations in the textbooks were analyzed. Finally, any images that depicted scientists working were also collected and analyzed. The text analysis and activity analysis used the ethnographic content analysis approach developed by Altheide (1996). The rubrics used for the text analysis and activity analysis were initially guided by the Benchmarks (AAAS, 1993), the NSES (NRC, 1996), and the nature of science literature. Preliminary analyses helped to refine each of the rubrics and grounded them in the data. Image analysis used stereotypes identified in the DAST literature. Findings indicated that all eight textbooks presented mixed views of scientific methodology in their initial descriptions. Five textbooks placed more emphasis on the traditional view and three placed more emphasis on the broad view. Results also revealed that the initial descriptions, examples, investigations, and images all emphasized the broad view for Glencoe Biology and the traditional view for Chemistry: Matter and Change. The initial descriptions, examples, investigations, and images in the other six textbooks were not consistent. Overall, the textbook with the most appropriate depiction of scientific methodology was Glencoe Biology and the textbook with the least appropriate depiction of scientific methodology was Physics: Principles and Problems. These findings

  4. Recommendations to Facilitate Expanded Access to Investigational Therapies for Seriously Ill Patients

    PubMed Central

    Jerome, Rebecca N.; Edwards, Terri L.; Boswell, Haley C.; Bernard, Gordon R.; Harris, Paul A.; Pulley, Jill M.

    2015-01-01

    When clinical trial enrollment is not an option for seriously ill patients whose illnesses have not responded to approved treatment options, those patients and their physicians may consider gaining access to investigational therapies through a pathway established by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called expanded access. However, recent events have highlighted the challenging dynamics involved in accessing investigational therapies through expanded access that include a complex interplay of factors involving the patient, physician, drug company, FDA, and, increasingly, social media. The authors offer several potential strategies to streamline what is otherwise an arduous process for all involved. (1) The drug company should prospectively determine whether it will establish an expanded access program for specific drugs. (2) A central clearinghouse for companies should support registration of expanded access drugs for suitable patients. (3) The determination of whether a patient fits criteria would be made by an independent review board of clinicians. (4) An independent coordinating center is needed; academic health centers are ideally suited for that role. (5) Adequate financing of the costs of therapy need to be in place to make expanded access a reality, given frequent lack of payor coverage for therapies. (6) Further enhancement of regulatory pathways, approaches, or rules would promote expanded access. (7) Patients should explicitly acknowledge the limited data available. (8) There should be a shared, secure, technical platform to facilitate expanded access. All the authors’ strategies present important prospects for improving treatment options for the most seriously ill patients. PMID:26445080

  5. The Role of Touch in Facilitated Communication.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kezuka, Emiko

    1997-01-01

    A study investigated the role of touch in the use of facilitated communication with Japanese individuals with autism. Five experiments were conducted involving a "telepathy game" using a rod with an attached strain gauge. Results found the facilitator's contact controlled the motor responses of the subjects. (Author/CR)

  6. Supporting students' scientific explanations: A case study investigating the synergy focusing on a teacher's practices when providing instruction and using mobile devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Delen, Ibrahim

    Engage students in constructing scientific practices is a critical component of science instruction. Therefore a number of researchers have developed software programs to help students and teachers in this hard task. The Zydeco group, designed a mobile application called Zydeco, which enables students to collect data inside and outside the classroom, and then use the data to create scientific explanations by using claim-evidence-reasoning framework. Previous technologies designed to support scientific explanations focused on how these programs improve students' scientific explanations, but these programs ignored how scientific explanation technologies can support teacher practices. Thus, to increase our knowledge how different scaffolds can work together, this study aimed to portray the synergy between a teacher's instructional practices (part 1) and using supports within a mobile devices (part 2) to support students in constructing explanations. Synergy can be thought of as generic and content-specific scaffolds working together to enable students to accomplish challenging tasks, such as creating explanations that they would not normally be able to do without the scaffolds working together. Providing instruction (part 1) focused on understanding how the teacher scaffolds students' initial understanding of the claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) framework. The second component of examining synergy (part 2: using mobile devices) investigated how this teacher used mobile devices to provide feedback when students created explanations. The synergy between providing instruction and using mobile devices was investigated by analyzing a middle school teacher's practices in two different units (plants and water quality). Next, this study focused on describing how the level of synergy influenced the quality of students' scientific explanations. Finally, I investigated the role of focused teaching intervention sessions to inform teacher in relation to students' performance. In

  7. [Transportation networks and means in the development of scientific expeditions in Argentina (1850-1910)].

    PubMed

    Farro, Máximo E

    2008-01-01

    The article explores the relation between the advance of transportation technology and the development of scientific expeditions between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Argentina. Expansion of the railway network on a national scale impacted the development of the earth sciences by facilitating access to distant places by scientific institutions located in Córdoba, Buenos Aires, and La Plata and also by simplifying the movement of equipment, scientific collections, and personnel. Hermann Burmeister's expedition (1857-60), expeditions by scientists from the Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Córdoba, and archeological digs in the northwestern provinces, organized by scientific institutions headquartered in Buenos Aires and La Plata, serve as examples.

  8. Flow of Scientific and Technical Information: The Results of a Recent Major Investigation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Goodman, A. F.

    Characterized were the scientific and technical information needs of 1,500 scientists and engineers from 73 companies, 8 research institutes, and 2 universities; and the flow of scientific and technical information (flow process) inherent in satisfying these needs. Interviewers asked 63 questions in the subject areas of (1) the user of scientific…

  9. [Factors related to the scientific production of gastroenterologists in Lima-Peru].

    PubMed

    Parra Pérez, V; Monge Salgado, E; Vildósola Gonzales, H

    2009-01-01

    The biomedical investigation in Peru is limited; among the implicated factors we have the reduced per-capita expense in investigation, the disperse efforts and the low communication between the investigations and the social productive activities. To determinate the personal, professional and academic factors related with the scientific production of the medical gastroenterologists that work in province Lima. Co-relational, observational, comparative, transversal and retrospective studies that had happened in between march 2007 and april 2008. Was elaborated a survey containing the variables of the investigation which was applied autoadministered to the gastroenterologists. Using bivaried and multivaried, were identified factors related with the scientific production of the gastroenterologist. The bivaried analysis has found, as related factors with the scientific production: Teaching, type of bibliographic research, degree of comprehension of the scientific article, facilities for the investigation at the job, subscription at the scientific magazine, to belong to the scientific society and the number of employments. The multivaried analysis found the previous factors but teaching and subscription to the scientific magazine, related with the scientific production. Those gastroenterologists that, despite being in contact with factors that impede the development of the investigation, had overcome the local negative influence and emerge, deserve consideration, because is on them were we can recognize factors that favor the investigation labor.

  10. SCIFIO: an extensible framework to support scientific image formats.

    PubMed

    Hiner, Mark C; Rueden, Curtis T; Eliceiri, Kevin W

    2016-12-07

    No gold standard exists in the world of scientific image acquisition; a proliferation of instruments each with its own proprietary data format has made out-of-the-box sharing of that data nearly impossible. In the field of light microscopy, the Bio-Formats library was designed to translate such proprietary data formats to a common, open-source schema, enabling sharing and reproduction of scientific results. While Bio-Formats has proved successful for microscopy images, the greater scientific community was lacking a domain-independent framework for format translation. SCIFIO (SCientific Image Format Input and Output) is presented as a freely available, open-source library unifying the mechanisms of reading and writing image data. The core of SCIFIO is its modular definition of formats, the design of which clearly outlines the components of image I/O to encourage extensibility, facilitated by the dynamic discovery of the SciJava plugin framework. SCIFIO is structured to support coexistence of multiple domain-specific open exchange formats, such as Bio-Formats' OME-TIFF, within a unified environment. SCIFIO is a freely available software library developed to standardize the process of reading and writing scientific image formats.

  11. Investigation on the Inclusion of Socio-Scientific Acquisitions in Curriculum of Science and Technology Lesson

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guler, Mutlu Pinar Demirci

    2013-01-01

    According to its definition, socio-scientific subjects emerge during scientific and technologic developments. Besides information, attitude and value constraints are effective in decision-making processes and thus there is no consensus on socio-scientific subjects yet and it leads to social discussions. These subjects comprise decision making…

  12. What Neural Substrates Trigger the Adept Scientific Pattern Discovery by Biologists?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Jun-Ki; Kwon, Yong-Ju

    2011-04-01

    This study investigated the neural correlates of experts and novices during biological object pattern detection using an fMRI approach in order to reveal the neural correlates of a biologist's superior pattern discovery ability. Sixteen healthy male participants (8 biologists and 8 non-biologists) volunteered for the study. Participants were shown fifteen series of organism pictures and asked to detect patterns amid stimulus pictures. Primary findings showed significant activations in the right middle temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule amongst participants in the biologist (expert) group. Interestingly, the left superior temporal gyrus was activated in participants from the non-biologist (novice) group. These results suggested that superior pattern discovery ability could be related to a functional facilitation of the parieto-temporal network, which is particularly driven by the right middle temporal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule in addition to the recruitment of additional brain regions. Furthermore, the functional facilitation of the network might actually pertain to high coherent processing skills and visual working memory capacity. Hence, study results suggested that adept scientific thinking ability can be detected by neuronal substrates, which may be used as criteria for developing and evaluating a brain-based science curriculum and test instrument.

  13. Transportable educational programs for scientific and technical professionals: More effective utilization of automated scientific and technical data base systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dominick, Wayne D.

    1987-01-01

    This grant final report executive summary documents a major, long-term program addressing innovative educational issues associated with the development, administration, evaluation, and widespread distribution of transportable educational programs for scientists and engineers to increase their knowledge of, and facilitate their utilization of automated scientific and technical information storage and retrieval systems. This educational program is of very broad scope, being targeted at Colleges of Engineering and Colleges of Physical sciences at a large number of colleges and universities throughout the United States. The educational program is designed to incorporate extensive hands-on, interactive usage of the NASA RECON system and is supported by a number of microcomputer-based software systems to facilitate the delivery and usage of the educational course materials developed as part of the program.

  14. Scientific investigation in deep wells for nuclear waste disposal studies at the Meuse/Haute Marne underground research laboratory, Northeastern France

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Delay, Jacques; Rebours, Hervé; Vinsot, Agnès; Robin, Pierre

    Andra, the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency, is constructing an underground test facility to study the feasibility of a radioactive waste disposal in the Jurassic-age Callovo-Oxfordian argillites. This paper describes the processes, the methods and results of a scientific characterization program carried out from the surface via deep boreholes with the aim to build a research facility for radioactive waste disposal. In particular this paper shows the evolution of the drilling programs and the borehole set up due to the refinement of the scientific objectives from 1994 to 2004. The pre-investigation phase on the Meuse/Haute-Marne site started in 1994. It consisted in drilling seven scientific boreholes. This phase, completed in 1996, led to the first regional geological cross-section showing the main geometrical characteristics of the host rock. Investigations on the laboratory site prior to the sinking of two shafts started in November 1999. The sinking of the shafts started in September 2000 with the auxiliary shaft completed in October 2004. The experimental gallery, at a depth of 445 m in the main shaft, was in operation by end 2004. During the construction of the laboratory, two major scientific programs were initiated to improve the existing knowledge of the regional hydrogeological characteristics and to accelerate the process of data acquisition on the shales. The aim of the 2003 hydrogeological drilling program was to determine, at regional scale, the properties of groundwater transport and to sample the water in the Oxfordian and Dogger limestones. The 2003-2004 programs consisted in drilling nine deep boreholes, four of which were slanted, to achieve an accurate definition of the structural features.

  15. Annual review of selected scientific literature: Report of the committee on scientific investigation of the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry.

    PubMed

    Donovan, Terence E; Marzola, Riccardo; Murphy, Kevin R; Cagna, David R; Eichmiller, Frederick; McKee, James R; Metz, James E; Albouy, Jean-Pierre

    2016-11-01

    It is clear the contemporary dentist is confronted with a blizzard of information regarding materials and techniques from journal articles, advertisements, newsletters, the internet, and continuing education events. While some of that information is sound and helpful, much of it is misleading at best. This review identifies and discusses the most important scientific findings regarding outcomes of dental treatment to assist the practitioner in making evidence-based choices. This review was conducted to assist the busy dentist in keeping abreast of the latest scientific information regarding the clinical practice of dentistry. Each of the authors, who are considered experts in their disciplines, was asked to peruse the scientific literature published in 2015 in their discipline and review the articles for important information that may have an impact on treatment decisions. Comments on experimental methodology, statistical evaluation, and overall validity of the conclusions are included in many of the reviews. The reviews are not meant to stand alone but are intended to inform the interested reader about what has been discovered in the past year. The readers are then invited to go to the source if they wish more detail. Analysis of the scientific literature published in 2015 is divided into 7 sections, dental materials, periodontics, prosthodontics, occlusion and temporomandibular disorders, sleep-disordered breathing, cariology, and implant dentistry. Copyright © 2016 Editorial Council for the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. The magnetic field investigation on the ARASE (ERG) mission: Data characteristics and initial scientific results

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Matsuoka, A.; Teramoto, M.; Nomura, R.; Nose, M.; Fujimoto, A.; Tanaka, Y.; Shinohara, M.; Nagatsuma, T.; Shiokawa, K.; Obana, Y.; Miyoshi, Y.; Takashima, T.; Shinohara, I.

    2017-12-01

    The ARASE (ERG) satellite was successfully launched on December 20 2016. A fluxgate magnetometer (MGF) was built for the ARASE satellite to measure DC and low-frequency magnetic field. The requirements to the magnetic field measurements by ARASE was defined as (1) accuracy of the absolute field intensity is within 5 nT (2) angular accuracy of the field direction is within 1 degree (3) measurement frequency range is from DC to 60Hz or wider. MGF measures the vector magnetic field with the original sampling frequency of 256 Hz. The dynamic range is switched between +/-8000nT and +/- 60000nT according to the background field intensity. The MGF initial checkout was carried on January 10th 2017, when the MGF normal performance and downlinked data were confirmed. The 5-m length MAST for the sensor was deployed on 17th January. The nominal operation of MGF started in March 2017. The MGF data are calibrated based on the results from the ground experiments and in-orbit data analysis. The MGF CDF files are distributed by the ARASE Science Center and available by Space Physics Environment Data Analysis Software (SPEDAS). The acceleration process of the charged particles in the inner magnetosphere is considered to be closely related to the deformation and perturbation of the magnetic field. Accurate measurement of the magnetic field is required to understand the acceleration mechanism of the charged particles, which is one of the major scientific objectives of the ARASE mission. We designed a fluxgate magnetometer which is optimized to investigate following topics; (1) accurate measurement of the background magnetic field - the deformation of the magnetic field and its relationship with the particle acceleration. (2) MHD waves - measurement of the ULF electromagnetic waves of frequencies about 1mHz (Pc4-5), and investigation of the radiation-belt electrons radially diffused by the resonance with the ULF waves. (3) EMIC waves - measurement of the electromagnetic ion

  17. Enhancing Eight Grade Students' Scientific Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning through a Web-Based Learning Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Liao, Ya-Wen; She, Hsiao-Ching

    2009-01-01

    This study reports the impacts of the Scientific Concept Construction and Reconstruction (SCCR) digital learning system on eighth grade students' concept construction, conceptual change, and scientific reasoning involving the topic of "atoms". A two-factorial experimental design was carried out to investigate the effects of the approach…

  18. European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) glossary of scientific terms: a tool for standardizing scientific jargon.

    PubMed

    Carollo, Anna; Rieutord, André; Launay-Vacher, Vincent

    2012-04-01

    This glossary is a tool for clinicians who have to confront topics in which medical, scientific and technical jargon is closely linked. It provides definitions for the key concepts and terms of pharmaceutical care, clinical pharmacy, and research in the health care system in clinical settings. It includes items that are not particularly technical, but that should be part of the know-how of staff working in medical and scientific fields. In fact, the glossary can also help clinical technicians who want to understand the precise definition of scientific terms, which often do not coincide with the ones used in the practice setting. PRINCIPAL GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this glossary is to aid in the development of more standardized and established terminology for clinical pharmacy, facilitate communication among different stakeholders and, ultimately, contribute to a higher-quality health care system. The glossary contains 165 definitions of concepts and principles in clinical pharmacy, and terms widely used in this field. The criteria for the inclusion of terms were specific applications in health promotion, or terms used in other fields that have a specific meaning or application when used in reference to clinical activity. The glossary arose from the need to standardize terminology in the scientific field. It was not intended as a comprehensive listing that would include all medical terms, but as a useful tool for clinical pharmacists working in this area, and for users who occasionally encounter unusual, often hard to understand, terminology.

  19. Contextual Shifting: Teachers Emphasizing Students' Academic Identity to Promote Scientific Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reveles, John M.; Brown, Bryan A.

    2008-01-01

    This research presents a case study of two teachers' emphasis on students' academic identity as a means of facilitating their science literacy development. These cases support a theoretical position that deconstructs the notion of normative science literacy into its constitutive components: (a) being scientific and (b) appropriating its literate…

  20. AMRZone: A Runtime AMR Data Sharing Framework For Scientific Applications

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhang, Wenzhao; Tang, Houjun; Harenberg, Steven

    Frameworks that facilitate runtime data sharing across multiple applications are of great importance for scientific data analytics. Although existing frameworks work well over uniform mesh data, they can not effectively handle adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) data. Among the challenges to construct an AMR-capable framework include: (1) designing an architecture that facilitates online AMR data management; (2) achieving a load-balanced AMR data distribution for the data staging space at runtime; and (3) building an effective online index to support the unique spatial data retrieval requirements for AMR data. Towards addressing these challenges to support runtime AMR data sharing across scientific applications,more » we present the AMRZone framework. Experiments over real-world AMR datasets demonstrate AMRZone's effectiveness at achieving a balanced workload distribution, reading/writing large-scale datasets with thousands of parallel processes, and satisfying queries with spatial constraints. Moreover, AMRZone's performance and scalability are even comparable with existing state-of-the-art work when tested over uniform mesh data with up to 16384 cores; in the best case, our framework achieves a 46% performance improvement.« less

  1. Engaging Young Students in Scientific Investigations: Prompting for Meaningful Reflection

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wilson, Travis; Perry, Michelle; Anderson, Carolyn J.; Grosshandler, Dean

    2012-01-01

    This study examined the verbal prompts a tutor used to promote reflection and young students' responses to these prompts. Seven children (ages 8-12) participated in 260 min of one-on-one tutoring to learn scientific concepts related to gear movement; the tutor spontaneously provided these students with 763 prompts for reflection. Prompts reliably…

  2. Using discrepant events in science demonstrations to promote student engagement in scientific investigations: An action research study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mancuso, Vincent J.

    Students' scientific investigations have been identified in national standards and related reform documents as a critical component of students' learning experiences in school, yet it is not easy to implement them in science classrooms. Could science demonstrations help science teachers put this recommendation into practice? While demonstrations are a common practice in the science classroom and research has documented some positive effects in terms of student motivation and engagement from their use, the literature also shows that, as traditionally presented, science demonstrations do not always achieve their intended outcomes. This, in turn, suggested the value of investigating what design elements of demonstrations could be used to promote specific instructional goals. Employing action research as a methodology, the proposed study was developed to explore how science demonstrations can be designed so as to most effectively promote student engagement in scientific investigations. More specifically, I was interested in examining the effects of using a discrepant event as part of the demonstration, as a way to create cognitive conflict and, thus, increase interest and engagement. I also investigated the relative merit of the well-researched POE (Predict, Observe, Explain) design versus employing demonstrations that appear to the student to be unplanned (what I will refer to as NOE, or a Naturally Occurring Experience). This study was informed by Constructivism, Situated Cognition and Conceptual Change as theoretical frameworks. The project included the design, implementation and study of an intervention consisting of three instructional units designed to support students' learning of the concepts of density, molecular arrangement of gas particles, and cohesion, respectively. In each of these units, lasting a total of two 80-minute class periods, students were asked to design and conduct an investigation to gain a better understanding of the concept under study. In

  3. Exploring Scientific Information for Policy Making under Deep Uncertainty

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Forni, L.; Galaitsi, S.; Mehta, V. K.; Escobar, M.; Purkey, D. R.; Depsky, N. J.; Lima, N. A.

    2016-12-01

    Each actor evaluating potential management strategies brings her/his own distinct set of objectives to a complex decision space of system uncertainties. The diversity of these objectives require detailed and rigorous analyses that responds to multifaceted challenges. However, the utility of this information depends on the accessibility of scientific information to decision makers. This paper demonstrates data visualization tools for presenting scientific results to decision makers in two case studies, La Paz/ El Alto, Bolivia, and Yuba County,California. Visualization output from the case studies combines spatiotemporal, multivariate and multirun/multiscenario information to produce information corresponding to the objectives defined by key actors and stakeholders. These tools can manage complex data and distill scientific information into accessible formats. Using the visualizations, scientists and decision makers can navigate the decision space and potential objective trade-offs to facilitate discussion and consensus building. These efforts can support identifying stable negotiatedagreements between different stakeholders.

  4. Facilitating Facilitators: Enhancing PBL through a Structured Facilitator Development Program

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Salinitri, Francine D.; Wilhelm, Sheila M.; Crabtree, Brian L.

    2015-01-01

    With increasing adoption of the problem-based learning (PBL) model, creative approaches to enhancing facilitator training and optimizing resources to maintain effective learning in small groups is essential. We describe a theoretical framework for the development of a PBL facilitator training program that uses the constructivist approach as the…

  5. SCIENTIFIC MANPOWER UTILIZATION, HEARINGS ON S. 430, AND S. 467, JANUARY 24-27, MARCH 29-30, 1967.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.

    THE PURPOSE OF BILL S. 430, "SCIENTIFIC MANPOWER UTILIZATION ACT OF 1967," IS TO FACILITATE AND ENCOURAGE THE UTILIZATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC, ENGINEERING, AND TECHNICAL RESOURCES OF THE NATION IN MEETING URGENT NATIONAL AND LOCAL PROBLEMS BY PROMOTING THE APPLICATION OF SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING TO PROBLEMS IN THE AREAS OF EDUCATION,…

  6. Integrating visualization and interaction research to improve scientific workflows.

    PubMed

    Keefe, Daniel F

    2010-01-01

    Scientific-visualization research is, nearly by necessity, interdisciplinary. In addition to their collaborators in application domains (for example, cell biology), researchers regularly build on close ties with disciplines related to visualization, such as graphics, human-computer interaction, and cognitive science. One of these ties is the connection between visualization and interaction research. This isn't a new direction for scientific visualization (see the "Early Connections" sidebar). However, momentum recently seems to be increasing toward integrating visualization research (for example, effective visual presentation of data) with interaction research (for example, innovative interactive techniques that facilitate manipulating and exploring data). We see evidence of this trend in several places, including the visualization literature and conferences.

  7. Learning Genetics through a Scientific Inquiry Game

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Casanoves, Marina; Salvadó, Zoel; González, Ángel; Valls, Cristina; Novo, Maria Teresa

    2017-01-01

    In this paper we discuss an activity through which students learn basic concepts in genetics by taking part in a police investigation game. The activity, which we have called Recal, immerses students in a scientific-based scenario in which they play a role of a scientific assessor. Players have to develop and use scientific reasoning and…

  8. Representation of Scientific Methodology in Secondary Science Textbooks

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Binns, Ian C.; Bell, Randy L.

    2015-01-01

    This study explored how eight widely used secondary science textbooks described scientific methodology and to what degree the textbooks' examples and investigations were consistent with this description. Data consisted of all text from student and teacher editions that referred to scientific methodology and all investigations. Analysis used an…

  9. Core domains of shared decision-making during psychiatric visits: scientific and preference-based discussions.

    PubMed

    Fukui, Sadaaki; Matthias, Marianne S; Salyers, Michelle P

    2015-01-01

    Shared decision-making (SDM) is imperative to person-centered care, yet little is known about what aspects of SDM are targeted during psychiatric visits. This secondary data analysis (191 psychiatric visits with 11 providers, coded with a validated SDM coding system) revealed two factors (scientific and preference-based discussions) underlying SDM communication. Preference-based discussion occurred less. Both provider and consumer initiation of SDM elements and decision complexity were associated with greater discussions in both factors, but were more strongly associated with scientific discussion. Longer visit length correlated with only scientific discussion. Providers' understanding of core domains could facilitate engaging consumers in SDM.

  10. What Makes a Scientific Research Question Worth Investigating? Students' Epistemic Criteria and Considerations of Contribution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berson, Eric Bruckner

    This dissertation introduces the construct of worthwhileness as an important aspect of students' practical epistemologies of science (Sandoval, 2005). Specifically, it examines how students conceptualize what makes a scientific research question worthwhile, through a close analysis of the criteria they use for evaluating scientific research questions. Elementary (n=21) and high school students (n=21) participated in this study. As part of semi-structured interviews, students engaged in three novel tasks designed to elicit the epistemic criteria they use to evaluate scientific research questions in a variety of contexts. Findings indicate that elementary and high school students alike could engage in the practice of evaluating the worth of scientific questions. The criteria they employed included degree of interest, difficulty, and the contribution of questions to knowledge or to solving a problem. The criteria students considered varied by context. Several key differences emerged between the reasoning of the two grade cohorts. High school students tended to place more weight on the contribution of the research question. Also, the criteria reflected in the high school students' judgments of the scientific value of individual questions more closely accorded with the criteria they identified retrospectively as the basis of their judgments. Furthermore, the older cohort more often rationalized the selection and sequence of research questions within a single domain on the basis of epistemic contingency between questions. How students conceptualize what makes a scientific research question worthwhile constitutes a key aspect of students' epistemic reasoning. It is particularly important to understand how students judge the worthwhilness of scientific research questions given the central epistemic role of research questions in scientific inquiry.

  11. Writing Stories to Enhance Scientific Literacy

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ritchie, Stephen M.; Tomas, Louisa; Tones, Megan

    2011-01-01

    In response to international concerns about scientific literacy and students' waning interest in school science, this study investigated the effects of a science-writing project about the socioscientific issue (SSI) of biosecurity on the development of students' scientific literacy. Students generated two "BioStories" each that merged…

  12. Orthographic Facilitation Effects on Spoken Word Production: Evidence from Chinese

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhang, Qingfang; Weekes, Brendan Stuart

    2009-01-01

    The aim of this experiment was to investigate the time course of orthographic facilitation on picture naming in Chinese. We used a picture-word paradigm to investigate orthographic and phonological facilitation on monosyllabic spoken word production in native Mandarin speakers. Both the stimulus-onset asynchrony (SOA) and the picture-word…

  13. Facilitating Grant Proposal Writing in Health Behaviors for University Faculty: A Descriptive Study

    PubMed Central

    Stein, L. A. R.; Clair, M.; Lebeau, R.; Prochaska, J. O.; Rossi, J. S.; Swift, J.

    2015-01-01

    Grant proposal writing in the behavioral sciences is important for fiscal reasons and scientific reasons at many universities. This report describes a grant proposal–writing seminar series provided to University faculty (N = 20) and explores factors facilitating and impeding writing. Summary statistics are provided for quantitative data. Free responses were sorted by independent raters into meaningful categories. As a consequence of the training, 45% planned to submit within 18 months; 80% of grant proposals targeted NIH. At 1-year follow-up, 40% actually submitted grants. Factors impeding grant proposal writing included competing professional demands; factors facilitating writing included regularly scheduled feedback on written proposal sections and access to expert collaborators. Obtaining grants generates financial resources, facilitates training experiences, and vastly contributes to the growth and dissemination of the knowledge base in an area. PMID:21444921

  14. Can Questions Facilitate Learning from Illustrated Science Texts?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Iding, Marie K.

    1997-01-01

    Examines the effectiveness of using questions to facilitate processing of diagrams in science texts. Investigates three different elements in experiments on college students. Finds that questions about illustrations do not facilitate learning. Discusses findings with reference to cognitive load theory, the dual coding perspective, and the…

  15. Representation of Scientific Methodology in Secondary Science Textbooks

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Binns, Ian C.

    2009-01-01

    The purpose of this investigation was to assess the representation of scientific methodology in secondary science textbooks. More specifically, this study looked at how textbooks introduced scientific methodology and to what degree the examples from the rest of the textbook, the investigations, and the images were consistent with the text's…

  16. Scientific Literacy of High School Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lucas, Keith B.; Tulip, David F.

    This investigation was undertaken in order to establish the status of scientific literacy among three groups of secondary school students in four Brisbane, Australia high schools, and to reduce the apparent reticence of science teachers to evaluate students' achievement in the various dimensions of scientific literacy by demonstrating appropriate…

  17. Emotion processing facilitates working memory performance.

    PubMed

    Lindström, Björn R; Bohlin, Gunilla

    2011-11-01

    The effect of emotional stimulus content on working memory performance has been investigated with conflicting results, as both emotion-dependent facilitation and impairments are reported in the literature. To clarify this issue, 52 adult participants performed a modified visual 2-back task with highly arousing positive stimuli (sexual scenes), highly arousing negative stimuli (violent death) and low-arousal neutral stimuli. Emotional stimulus processing was found to facilitate task performance relative to that of neutral stimuli, both in regards to response accuracy and reaction times. No emotion-dependent differences in false-alarm rates were found. These results indicate that emotional information can have a facilitating effect on working memory maintenance and processing of information.

  18. Investigating the Relationship between Students' Views of Scientific Models and Their Development of Models

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cheng, Meng-Fei; Lin, Jang-Long

    2015-01-01

    Understanding the nature of models and engaging in modeling practice have been emphasized in science education. However, few studies discuss the relationships between students' views of scientific models and their ability to develop those models. Hence, this study explores the relationship between students' views of scientific models and their…

  19. The Effect of Scientific Process Skills Education on Students' Scientific Creativity, Science Attitudes and Academic Achievements

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Aktamis, Hilal; Ergin, Omer

    2008-01-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of teaching scientific process skills education to students to promote their scientific creativity, attitudes towards science, and achievements in science. The research includes a pre-test post-test research model with a control group. The subjects of the research consist of 40 students reading…

  20. Articulating uncertainty as part of scientific argumentation during model-based exoplanet detection tasks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, Hee-Sun; Pallant, Amy; Pryputniewicz, Sarah

    2015-08-01

    Teaching scientific argumentation has emerged as an important goal for K-12 science education. In scientific argumentation, students are actively involved in coordinating evidence with theory based on their understanding of the scientific content and thinking critically about the strengths and weaknesses of the cited evidence in the context of the investigation. We developed a one-week-long online curriculum module called "Is there life in space?" where students conduct a series of four model-based tasks to learn how scientists detect extrasolar planets through the “wobble” and transit methods. The simulation model allows students to manipulate various parameters of an imaginary star and planet system such as planet size, orbit size, planet-orbiting-plane angle, and sensitivity of telescope equipment, and to adjust the display settings for graphs illustrating the relative velocity and light intensity of the star. Students can use model-based evidence to formulate an argument on whether particular signals in the graphs guarantee the presence of a planet. Students' argumentation is facilitated by the four-part prompts consisting of multiple-choice claim, open-ended explanation, Likert-scale uncertainty rating, and open-ended uncertainty rationale. We analyzed 1,013 scientific arguments formulated by 302 high school student groups taught by 7 teachers. We coded these arguments in terms of the accuracy of their claim, the sophistication of explanation connecting evidence to the established knowledge base, the uncertainty rating, and the scientific validity of uncertainty. We found that (1) only 18% of the students' uncertainty rationale involved critical reflection on limitations inherent in data and concepts, (2) 35% of students' uncertainty rationale reflected their assessment of personal ability and knowledge, rather than scientific sources of uncertainty related to the evidence, and (3) the nature of task such as the use of noisy data or the framing of

  1. Teaching Scientific Concepts with Transparent Detector Models: An Example from Optics.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Allen, Sue; And Others

    This paper describes an attempt to facilitate students' learning of scientific concepts by using detectors that take as input physical information and output an instantiation of the concept. The principle hypothesis was that students would have a better understanding of the concept of image if they were taught to use a simplified, runnable model…

  2. Anatomy of scientific evolution.

    PubMed

    Yun, Jinhyuk; Kim, Pan-Jun; Jeong, Hawoong

    2015-01-01

    The quest for historically impactful science and technology provides invaluable insight into the innovation dynamics of human society, yet many studies are limited to qualitative and small-scale approaches. Here, we investigate scientific evolution through systematic analysis of a massive corpus of digitized English texts between 1800 and 2008. Our analysis reveals great predictability for long-prevailing scientific concepts based on the levels of their prior usage. Interestingly, once a threshold of early adoption rates is passed even slightly, scientific concepts can exhibit sudden leaps in their eventual lifetimes. We developed a mechanistic model to account for such results, indicating that slowly-but-commonly adopted science and technology surprisingly tend to have higher innate strength than fast-and-commonly adopted ones. The model prediction for disciplines other than science was also well verified. Our approach sheds light on unbiased and quantitative analysis of scientific evolution in society, and may provide a useful basis for policy-making.

  3. Anatomy of Scientific Evolution

    PubMed Central

    Yun, Jinhyuk; Kim, Pan-Jun; Jeong, Hawoong

    2015-01-01

    The quest for historically impactful science and technology provides invaluable insight into the innovation dynamics of human society, yet many studies are limited to qualitative and small-scale approaches. Here, we investigate scientific evolution through systematic analysis of a massive corpus of digitized English texts between 1800 and 2008. Our analysis reveals great predictability for long-prevailing scientific concepts based on the levels of their prior usage. Interestingly, once a threshold of early adoption rates is passed even slightly, scientific concepts can exhibit sudden leaps in their eventual lifetimes. We developed a mechanistic model to account for such results, indicating that slowly-but-commonly adopted science and technology surprisingly tend to have higher innate strength than fast-and-commonly adopted ones. The model prediction for disciplines other than science was also well verified. Our approach sheds light on unbiased and quantitative analysis of scientific evolution in society, and may provide a useful basis for policy-making. PMID:25671617

  4. A Joint Investigation of Semantic Facilitation and Semantic Interference in Continuous Naming

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Scaltritti, Michele; Peressotti, Francesca; Navarrete, Eduardo

    2017-01-01

    When speakers name multiple semantically related items, opposing effects can be found. Semantic facilitation is found when naming 2 semantically related items in a row. In contrast, semantic interference is found when speakers name semantically related items separated by 1 or more intervening unrelated items. This latter form of interference is…

  5. Students' abilities to critique scientific evidence when reading and writing scientific arguments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Knight, Amanda M.

    Scientific arguments are used to persuade others for explanations that make sense of the natural world. Over time, through the accumulation of evidence, one explanation for a scientific phenomenon tends to take precedence. In science education, arguments make students' thinking and reasoning visible while also supporting the development of their conceptual, procedural, and epistemic knowledge. As such, argumentation has become a goal within recent policy documents, including the Next Generation Science Standards, which, in turn, presents a need for comprehensive, effective, and scalable assessments. This dissertation used assessments that measure students' abilities to critique scientific evidence, which is measured in terms of the form of justification and the support of empirical evidence, when reading and writing scientific arguments. Cognitive interviews were then conducted with a subset of the students to explore the criteria they used to critique scientific evidence. Specifically, the research investigated what characteristics of scientific evidence the students preferred, how they critiqued both forms of justification and empirical evidence, and whether the four constructs represented four separate abilities. Findings suggest that students' prioritized the type of empirical evidence to the form of justification, and most often selected relevant-supporting justifications. When writing scientific arguments, most students constructed a justified claim, but struggled to justify their claims with empirical evidence. In comparison, when reading scientific arguments, students had trouble locating a justification when it was not empirical data. Additionally, it was more difficult for students to critique than identify or locate empirical evidence, and it was more difficult for students to identify than locate empirical evidence. Findings from the cognitive interviews suggest that students with more specific criteria tended to have more knowledge of the construct

  6. Assessing Scientific Performance.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Weiner, John M.; And Others

    1984-01-01

    A method for assessing scientific performance based on relationships displayed numerically in published documents is proposed and illustrated using published documents in pediatric oncology for the period 1979-1982. Contributions of a major clinical investigations group, the Childrens Cancer Study Group, are analyzed. Twenty-nine references are…

  7. Analysis According to Certain Variables of Scientific Literacy among Gifted Students That Participate in Scientific Activities at Science and Art Centers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kömek, Emre; Yagiz, Dursun; Kurt, Murat

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to analyze scientific literacy levels relevant to science and technology classes among gifted students that participate in scientific activities at science and art centers. This study investigated whether there was a significant difference in scientific literacy levels among gifted students according to the areas of…

  8. Systematic Analysis of the Effects of Digital Plagiarism on Scientific Research: Investigating the Moroccan Context--Ibn Tofail University as Case Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ennam, Abdelghanie

    2017-01-01

    This paper investigates the phenomenon of "digital plagiarism" and its effects on scientific research in Moroccan universities. It subscribes itself in the recent research work that focuses on university students and Information Technology in this "soft age," if one may name it as such. Amid the catastrophic plummeting reading…

  9. Investigating grounded conceptualization: motor system state-dependence facilitates familiarity judgments of novel tools.

    PubMed

    Matheson, Heath E; Familiar, Ariana M; Thompson-Schill, Sharon L

    2018-03-02

    Theories of embodied cognition propose that we recognize tools in part by reactivating sensorimotor representations of tool use in a process of simulation. If motor simulations play a causal role in tool recognition then performing a concurrent motor task should differentially modulate recognition of experienced vs. non-experienced tools. We sought to test the hypothesis that an incompatible concurrent motor task modulates conceptual processing of learned vs. non-learned objects by directly manipulating the embodied experience of participants. We trained one group to use a set of novel, 3-D printed tools under the pretense that they were preparing for an archeological expedition to Mars (manipulation group); we trained a second group to report declarative information about how the tools are stored (storage group). With this design, familiarity and visual attention to different object parts was similar for both groups, though their qualitative interactions differed. After learning, participants made familiarity judgments of auditorily presented tool names while performing a concurrent motor task or simply sitting at rest. We showed that familiarity judgments were facilitated by motor state-dependence; specifically, in the manipulation group, familiarity was facilitated by a concurrent motor task, whereas in the spatial group familiarity was facilitated while sitting at rest. These results are the first to directly show that manipulation experience differentially modulates conceptual processing of familiar vs. unfamiliar objects, suggesting that embodied representations contribute to recognizing tools.

  10. An exploration of tutors' experiences of facilitating problem-based learning. Part 2--implications for the facilitation of problem based learning.

    PubMed

    Haith-Cooper, Melanie

    2003-01-01

    This paper is the second of two parts exploring a study that was undertaken to investigate the role of the tutor in facilitating problem-based learning (PBL). The first part focussed on the methodological underpinnings of the study. This paper aims to focus on the findings of the study and their implications for the facilitation of PBL. Six essential themes emerged from the findings that described the facilitation role. The tutors believed that their facilitation role was essentially structured around the decision of when to intervene and how to intervene in the PBL process. Modelling and non-verbal communication were seen as essential strategies for the facilitator. Underpinning these decisions was the need to trust in the philosophy of PBL. However, within many of the themes, there was a divergence of opinion as to how the role should actually be undertaken. Despite this, these findings have implications for the future role of PBL facilitators in Health Professional Education.

  11. Understanding Science: Frameworks for using stories to facilitate systems thinking

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    ElShafie, S. J.; Bean, J. R.

    2017-12-01

    Studies indicate that using a narrative structure for teaching and learning helps audiences to process and recall new information. Stories also help audiences retain specific information, such as character names or plot points, in the context of a broader narrative. Stories can therefore facilitate high-context systems learning in addition to low-context declarative learning. Here we incorporate a framework for science storytelling, which we use in communication workshops, with the Understanding Science framework developed by the UC Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) to explore the application of storytelling to systems thinking. We translate portions of the Understanding Science flowchart into narrative terms. Placed side by side, the two charts illustrate the parallels between the scientific process and the story development process. They offer a roadmap for developing stories about scientific studies and concepts. We also created a series of worksheets for use with the flowcharts. These new tools can generate stories from any perspective, including a scientist conducting a study; a character that plays a role in a larger system (e.g., foraminifera or a carbon atom); an entire system that interacts with other systems (e.g., the carbon cycle). We will discuss exemplar stories about climate change from each of these perspectives, which we are developing for workshops using content and storyboard models from the new UCMP website Understanding Global Change. This conceptual framework and toolkit will help instructors to develop stories about scientific concepts for use in a classroom setting. It will also help students to analyze stories presented in class, and to create their own stories about new concepts. This approach facilitates student metacognition of the learning process, and can also be used as a form of evaluation. We are testing this flowchart and its use in systems teaching with focus groups, in preparation for use in teacher professional development workshops.

  12. Profile of middle school students on scientific literacy achievements by using scientific literacy assessments (SLA)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rachmatullah, Arif; Diana, Sariwulan; Rustaman, Nuryani Y.

    2016-02-01

    Along with the development of science and technology, the basic ability to read, write and count is not enough just to be able to survive in the modern era that surrounded by the products of science and technology. Scientific literacy is an ability that might be added as basic ability for human in the modern era. Recently, Fives et al. developed a new scientific literacy assessment for students, named as SLA (Scientific Literacy Assessment). A pilot study on the achievements of scientific literacy of middle school students in Sumedang using SLA was conducted to investigate the profile scientific literacy achievement of 223 middle school students in Sumedang, and compare the outcomes between genders (159 girls and 64 boys) and school accreditation (A and B) using a quantitative method with descriptive research-school survey. Based on the results, the average achievement of scientific literacy Sumedang middle school students is 45.21 and classified as the low category. The five components of scientific literacy, which is only one component in the medium category, namely science motivation and beliefs, and the four other components are in the low and very low category. Boys have higher scientific literacy, but the differences not statistically significant. Student's scientific literacy in an accredited school is higher than B, and the differences are statistically significant. Recommendation for further are: involve more research subjects, add more number of questions for each indicator, and conduct an independent research for each component.

  13. Veritas filia temporis: The origins of the idea of scientific progress.

    PubMed

    Špelda, Daniel

    2016-10-01

    The article provides insight into the epistemological and anthropological aspect of the origination of the idea of scientific progress. It focuses on the relationship between individual's limited lifetime and the immensity of nature. The basic assumption is that the idea of scientific progress offers a solution of the epistemological problem stemming from the finding that there is no (teleological) coincidence between human cognitive abilities and the extent of nature. In order to facilitate the understanding of the origin of the idea of scientific progress, I propose distinction between the descriptive and prescriptive concepts of progress. While the descriptive notion of progress expresses the cumulative character of scientific knowledge and the superiority of the present over preceding generations, the prescriptive concept pertains to progressivist epistemology directing scientific research at the future development of knowledge. This article claims that the prevalent concept in Antiquity was the descriptive concept of scientific progress. The prescriptive notion had developed only in ancient astronomy. Early modern science was faced with similar issues as ancient astronomy - mainly the empirical finding related to the inexhaustible character of nature. Consequently to the introduction of the idea of progress, the progress of sciences became a purpose in itself - hence becoming infinite.

  14. Variation in the Interpretation of Scientific Integrity in Community-based Participatory Health Research

    PubMed Central

    Kraemer Diaz, Anne E.; Spears Johnson, Chaya R.; Arcury, Thomas A.

    2013-01-01

    Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has become essential in health disparities and environmental justice research; however, the scientific integrity of CBPR projects has become a concern. Some concerns, such as appropriate research training, lack of access to resources and finances, have been discussed as possibly limiting the scientific integrity of a project. Prior to understanding what threatens scientific integrity in CBPR, it is vital to understand what scientific integrity means for the professional and community investigators who are involved in CBPR. This analysis explores the interpretation of scientific integrity in CBPR among 74 professional and community research team members from of 25 CBPR projects in nine states in the southeastern United States in 2012. It describes the basic definition for scientific integrity and then explores variations in the interpretation of scientific integrity in CBPR. Variations in the interpretations were associated with team member identity as professional or community investigators. Professional investigators understood scientific integrity in CBPR as either conceptually or logistically flexible, as challenging to balance with community needs, or no different than traditional scientific integrity. Community investigators interpret other factors as important in scientific integrity, such as trust, accountability, and overall benefit to the community. This research demonstrates that the variations in the interpretation of scientific integrity in CBPR call for a new definition of scientific integrity in CBPR that takes into account the understanding and needs of all investigators. PMID:24161098

  15. A Computing Environment to Support Repeatable Scientific Big Data Experimentation of World-Wide Scientific Literature

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Schlicher, Bob G; Kulesz, James J; Abercrombie, Robert K

    A principal tenant of the scientific method is that experiments must be repeatable and relies on ceteris paribus (i.e., all other things being equal). As a scientific community, involved in data sciences, we must investigate ways to establish an environment where experiments can be repeated. We can no longer allude to where the data comes from, we must add rigor to the data collection and management process from which our analysis is conducted. This paper describes a computing environment to support repeatable scientific big data experimentation of world-wide scientific literature, and recommends a system that is housed at the Oakmore » Ridge National Laboratory in order to provide value to investigators from government agencies, academic institutions, and industry entities. The described computing environment also adheres to the recently instituted digital data management plan mandated by multiple US government agencies, which involves all stages of the digital data life cycle including capture, analysis, sharing, and preservation. It particularly focuses on the sharing and preservation of digital research data. The details of this computing environment are explained within the context of cloud services by the three layer classification of Software as a Service , Platform as a Service , and Infrastructure as a Service .« less

  16. Experimental and Numerical Investigations on Colloid-facilitated Plutonium Reactive Transport in Fractured Tuffaceous Rocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dai, Z.; Wolfsberg, A. V.; Zhu, L.; Reimus, P. W.

    2017-12-01

    Colloids have the potential to enhance mobility of strongly sorbing radionuclide contaminants in fractured rocks at underground nuclear test sites. This study presents an experimental and numerical investigation of colloid-facilitated plutonium reactive transport in fractured porous media for identifying plutonium sorption/filtration processes. The transport parameters for dispersion, diffusion, sorption, and filtration are estimated with inverse modeling for minimizing the least squares objective function of multicomponent concentration data from multiple transport experiments with the Shuffled Complex Evolution Metropolis (SCEM). Capitalizing on an unplanned experimental artifact that led to colloid formation and migration, we adopt a stepwise strategy to first interpret the data from each experiment separately and then to incorporate multiple experiments simultaneously to identify a suite of plutonium-colloid transport processes. Nonequilibrium or kinetic attachment and detachment of plutonium-colloid in fractures was clearly demonstrated and captured in the inverted modeling parameters along with estimates of the source plutonium fraction that formed plutonium-colloids. The results from this study provide valuable insights for understanding the transport mechanisms and environmental impacts of plutonium in fractured formations and groundwater aquifers.

  17. Accelerating scientific discovery : 2007 annual report.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Beckman, P.; Dave, P.; Drugan, C.

    2008-11-14

    applications that are transitioning to petascale as well as to produce software that facilitates their development, such as the MPICH library, which provides a portable and efficient implementation of the MPI standard--the prevalent programming model for large-scale scientific applications--and the PETSc toolkit that provides a programming paradigm that eases the development of many scientific applications on high-end computers.« less

  18. Enhancing yoga participation: A qualitative investigation of barriers and facilitators to yoga among predominantly racial/ethnic minority, low-income adults.

    PubMed

    Spadola, Christine E; Rottapel, Rebecca; Khandpur, Neha; Kontos, Emily; Bertisch, Suzanne M; Johnson, Dayna A; Quante, Mirja; Khalsa, Sat Bir S; Saper, Robert B; Redline, Susan

    2017-11-01

    Yoga is underutilized among racial/ethnic minorities and low-income populations. To enhance participation among these demographic groups and to inform a future clinical trial, we conducted a qualitative formative investigation, informed by the Social Contextual Model of health behavior change, to identify barriers and facilitators to yoga that could impact study participation. We recruited twenty-four racially/ethnically diverse adults, with and without prior yoga experience, from a low-income, urban housing community to participate in either an individual interview or focus group. A thematic data analysis approach was employed. Barriers to yoga engagement included the perception that yoga lacks physicality and weight loss benefits, fear of injury, lack of ability/self-efficacy to perform the practices, preference for other physical activities, and scheduling difficulties. Facilitators of yoga engagement included a quality yoga instructor who provides individualized instruction, beginner level classes, and promotional messaging that highlights the potential benefits of yoga, such as stress reduction. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Framing of scientific knowledge as a new category of health care research.

    PubMed

    Salvador-Carulla, Luis; Fernandez, Ana; Madden, Rosamond; Lukersmith, Sue; Colagiuri, Ruth; Torkfar, Ghazal; Sturmberg, Joachim

    2014-12-01

    The new area of health system research requires a revision of the taxonomy of scientific knowledge that may facilitate a better understanding and representation of complex health phenomena in research discovery, corroboration and implementation. A position paper by an expert group following and iterative approach. 'Scientific evidence' should be differentiated from 'elicited knowledge' of experts and users, and this latter typology should be described beyond the traditional qualitative framework. Within this context 'framing of scientific knowledge' (FSK) is defined as a group of studies of prior expert knowledge specifically aimed at generating formal scientific frames. To be distinguished from other unstructured frames, FSK must be explicit, standardized, based on the available evidence, agreed by a group of experts and subdued to the principles of commensurability, transparency for corroboration and transferability that characterize scientific research. A preliminary typology of scientific framing studies is presented. This typology includes, among others, health declarations, position papers, expert-based clinical guides, conceptual maps, classifications, expert-driven health atlases and expert-driven studies of costs and burden of illness. This grouping of expert-based studies constitutes a different kind of scientific knowledge and should be clearly differentiated from 'evidence' gathered from experimental and observational studies in health system research. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  20. Modern Scientific Literacy: A Case Study of Multiliteracies and Scientific Practices in a Fifth Grade Classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Allison, Elizabeth; Goldston, M. Jenice

    2018-01-01

    This study investigates the convergence of multiliteracies and scientific practices in a fifth grade classroom. As students' lives become increasingly multimodal, diverse, and globalized, the traditional notions of literacy must be revisited (New London Group 1996). With the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013a) in many states, either in their entirety or in adapted forms, it becomes useful to explore the interconnectedness multiliteracies and scientific practices and the resulting implications for scientific literacy. The case study included a fifth grade classroom, including the students and teacher. In order to create a rich description of the cases involved, data were collected and triangulated through teacher interviews, student interviews and focus groups, and classroom observations. Findings reveal that as science activities were enriched with multiliteracies and scientific practices, students were engaged in developing skills and knowledge central to being scientifically literate. Furthermore, this study establishes that characteristics of scientific literacy, by its intent and purpose, are a form of multiliteracies in elementary classrooms. Therefore, the teaching and learning of science and its practices for scientific literacy are in turn reinforcing the development of broader multiliteracies.

  1. The Relationship of Facilitative Functioning to Effective Peer Supervision

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Seligman, Linda

    1978-01-01

    This study investigates peer supervision. The criterion used was counselor trainees' growth in facilitative functioning. The study sought to ascertain whether the facilitative counselor trainee was also the effective peer supervisor, to provide information on evaluating peer-supervisory experience, and to shed light on the most effective…

  2. Enhancing the Student Experiment Experience: Visible Scientific Inquiry through a Virtual Chemistry Laboratory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Donnelly, Dermot; O'Reilly, John; McGarr, Oliver

    2013-01-01

    Practical work is often noted as a core reason many students take on science in secondary schools (high schools). However, there are inherent difficulties associated with classroom practical work that militate against scientific inquiry, an approach espoused by many science educators. The use of interactive simulations to facilitate student…

  3. Developing the critical thinking skills of astrobiology students through creative and scientific inquiry.

    PubMed

    Foster, Jamie S; Lemus, Judith D

    2015-01-01

    Scientific inquiry represents a multifaceted approach to explore and understand the natural world. Training students in the principles of scientific inquiry can help promote the scientific learning process as well as help students enhance their understanding of scientific research. Here, we report on the development and implementation of a learning module that introduces astrobiology students to the concepts of creative and scientific inquiry, as well as provide practical exercises to build critical thinking skills. The module contained three distinct components: (1) a creative inquiry activity designed to introduce concepts regarding the role of creativity in scientific inquiry; (2) guidelines to help astrobiology students formulate and self-assess questions regarding various scientific content and imagery; and (3) a practical exercise where students were allowed to watch a scientific presentation and practice their analytical skills. Pre- and post-course surveys were used to assess the students' perceptions regarding creative and scientific inquiry and whether this activity impacted their understanding of the scientific process. Survey results indicate that the exercise helped improve students' science skills by promoting awareness regarding the role of creativity in scientific inquiry and building their confidence in formulating and assessing scientific questions. Together, the module and survey results confirm the need to include such inquiry-based activities into the higher education classroom, thereby helping students hone their critical thinking and question asking skill set and facilitating their professional development in astrobiology.

  4. Undergraduate Medical Academic Performance is Improved by Scientific Training

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zhang, Lili; Zhang, Wei; Wu, Chong; Liu, Zhongming; Cai, Yunfei; Cao, Xingguo; He, Yushan; Liu, Guoxiang; Miao, Hongming

    2017-01-01

    The effect of scientific training on course learning in undergraduates is still controversial. In this study, we investigated the academic performance of undergraduate students with and without scientific training. The results show that scientific training improves students' test scores in general medical courses, such as biochemistry and…

  5. Annual review of selected scientific literature: Report of the committee on scientific investigation of the American Academy of Restorative Dentistry.

    PubMed

    Donovan, Terence E; Marzola, Riccardo; Murphy, Kevin R; Cagna, David R; Eichmiller, Frederick; McKee, James R; Metz, James E; Albouy, Jean-Pierre; Troeltzsch, Mathias

    2017-09-01

    This review was conducted to assist the busy dentist in keeping abreast of the latest scientific information regarding the clinical practice of dentistry. Each of the authors, who are considered experts in their disciplines, was asked to peruse the scientific literature in their discipline published in 2016 and review the articles for important information that may affect treatment decisions. Comments on experimental methodology, statistical evaluation, and the overall validity of conclusions are included with many of the reviews. The reviews are not meant to stand alone but are intended to inform the interested reader about what has been discovered in the past year. The readers are then invited to go to the source, if they want more detail. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. A high performance scientific cloud computing environment for materials simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jorissen, K.; Vila, F. D.; Rehr, J. J.

    2012-09-01

    We describe the development of a scientific cloud computing (SCC) platform that offers high performance computation capability. The platform consists of a scientific virtual machine prototype containing a UNIX operating system and several materials science codes, together with essential interface tools (an SCC toolset) that offers functionality comparable to local compute clusters. In particular, our SCC toolset provides automatic creation of virtual clusters for parallel computing, including tools for execution and monitoring performance, as well as efficient I/O utilities that enable seamless connections to and from the cloud. Our SCC platform is optimized for the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). We present benchmarks for prototypical scientific applications and demonstrate performance comparable to local compute clusters. To facilitate code execution and provide user-friendly access, we have also integrated cloud computing capability in a JAVA-based GUI. Our SCC platform may be an alternative to traditional HPC resources for materials science or quantum chemistry applications.

  7. The challenge of scientific activities in wilderness

    Treesearch

    David J. Parsons

    2000-01-01

    Science is an appropriate and necessary use of wilderness. The long-term protection of wilderness, including decisions related to the planning and management of wilderness resources, use and values, requires an understanding often available only through scientific investigation. In addition, wilderness provides opportunities for scientific understanding not available...

  8. Investigation the Scientific Creativity of Gifted Students through Project-Based Activities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Karademir, Ersin

    2016-01-01

    In this research, it is aimed to identify the scientific creativity of gifted students through project-based activities. In accordance with this purpose, a study has been carried out with 13 gifted students studying in third and fifth grade. In the study, students have been informed about the project development stages and they have been asked…

  9. Resequencing and annotation of the Nostoc punctiforme ATTC 29133 genome: facilitating biofuel and high-value chemical production

    DOE PAGES

    Moraes, Luis E.; Blow, Matthew J.; Hawley, Erik R.; ...

    2017-02-16

    Cyanobacteria have the potential to produce bulk and fine chemicals and members belonging to Nostoc sp. have received particular attention due to their relatively fast growth rate and the relative ease with which they can be harvested. Nostoc punctiforme is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, filamentous cyanobacterium that has been studied intensively to enhance our understanding of microbial carbon and nitrogen fixation. The genome of the type strain N. punctiforme ATCC 29133 was sequenced in 2001 and the scientific community has used these genome data extensively since then. Advances in bioinformatics tools for sequence annotation and the importance of this organismmore » prompted us to resequence and reanalyze its genome and to make both, the initial and improved annotation, available to the scientific community. The new draft genome has a total size of 9.1 Mbp and consists of 65 contiguous pieces of DNA with a GC content of 41.38% and 7664 protein-coding genes. Furthermore, the resequenced genome is slightly (5152 bp) larger and contains 987 more genes with functional prediction when compared to the previously published version. We deposited the annotation of both genomes in the Department of Energy’s IMG database to facilitate easy genome exploration by the scientific community without the need of in-depth bioinformatics skills. We expect that an facilitated access and ability to search the N. punctiforme ATCC 29133 for genes of interest will significantly facilitate metabolic engineering and genome prospecting efforts and ultimately the synthesis of biofuels and natural products from this keystone organism and closely related cyanobacteria.« less

  10. Resequencing and annotation of the Nostoc punctiforme ATTC 29133 genome: facilitating biofuel and high-value chemical production

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Moraes, Luis E.; Blow, Matthew J.; Hawley, Erik R.

    Cyanobacteria have the potential to produce bulk and fine chemicals and members belonging to Nostoc sp. have received particular attention due to their relatively fast growth rate and the relative ease with which they can be harvested. Nostoc punctiforme is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, filamentous cyanobacterium that has been studied intensively to enhance our understanding of microbial carbon and nitrogen fixation. The genome of the type strain N. punctiforme ATCC 29133 was sequenced in 2001 and the scientific community has used these genome data extensively since then. Advances in bioinformatics tools for sequence annotation and the importance of this organismmore » prompted us to resequence and reanalyze its genome and to make both, the initial and improved annotation, available to the scientific community. The new draft genome has a total size of 9.1 Mbp and consists of 65 contiguous pieces of DNA with a GC content of 41.38% and 7664 protein-coding genes. Furthermore, the resequenced genome is slightly (5152 bp) larger and contains 987 more genes with functional prediction when compared to the previously published version. We deposited the annotation of both genomes in the Department of Energy’s IMG database to facilitate easy genome exploration by the scientific community without the need of in-depth bioinformatics skills. We expect that an facilitated access and ability to search the N. punctiforme ATCC 29133 for genes of interest will significantly facilitate metabolic engineering and genome prospecting efforts and ultimately the synthesis of biofuels and natural products from this keystone organism and closely related cyanobacteria.« less

  11. Ethical, Scientific, and Educational Concerns With Unproven Medications

    PubMed Central

    Pray, W. Steven

    2006-01-01

    Quackery (promotion of products that do not work or have not been proven to work) was once a commonly used term within the pharmacy and medical communities. However, an increasingly anti-scientific national climate culminated in passage of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which granted unprecedented legitimacy to “dietary supplements” that had not been scientifically proven to be effective and/or safe. In part, this was facilitated when professional pharmacy magazines and journals published advertisements and articles promoting these unproven medications. Gradually, pharmacy codes of ethics eliminated references to quackery, and some pharmacy organizations seemed to accept the unproven medications they once exhorted the pharmacist not to sell. The profession's shift in attitude toward unproven medications occurred as the medical community at large began to realize the value of evidence-based medicine. Academicians must resist pressure to present unproven therapies as realistic alternatives for medications with scientific proof of safety and efficacy. They must stress the value of evidence-based medicine and urge students and pharmacists to recommend only those medications with evidence-based proof of safety and efficacy. PMID:17332867

  12. Developing the Critical Thinking Skills of Astrobiology Students through Creative and Scientific Inquiry

    PubMed Central

    Lemus, Judith D.

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Scientific inquiry represents a multifaceted approach to explore and understand the natural world. Training students in the principles of scientific inquiry can help promote the scientific learning process as well as help students enhance their understanding of scientific research. Here, we report on the development and implementation of a learning module that introduces astrobiology students to the concepts of creative and scientific inquiry, as well as provide practical exercises to build critical thinking skills. The module contained three distinct components: (1) a creative inquiry activity designed to introduce concepts regarding the role of creativity in scientific inquiry; (2) guidelines to help astrobiology students formulate and self-assess questions regarding various scientific content and imagery; and (3) a practical exercise where students were allowed to watch a scientific presentation and practice their analytical skills. Pre- and post-course surveys were used to assess the students' perceptions regarding creative and scientific inquiry and whether this activity impacted their understanding of the scientific process. Survey results indicate that the exercise helped improve students' science skills by promoting awareness regarding the role of creativity in scientific inquiry and building their confidence in formulating and assessing scientific questions. Together, the module and survey results confirm the need to include such inquiry-based activities into the higher education classroom, thereby helping students hone their critical thinking and question asking skill set and facilitating their professional development in astrobiology. Key Words: Scientific inquiry—Critical thinking—Curriculum development—Astrobiology—Microbialites. Astrobiology 15, 89–99. PMID:25474292

  13. Constructing Scientific Applications from Heterogeneous Resources

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schichting, Richard D.

    1995-01-01

    A new model for high-performance scientific applications in which such applications are implemented as heterogeneous distributed programs or, equivalently, meta-computations, is investigated. The specific focus of this grant was a collaborative effort with researchers at NASA and the University of Toledo to test and improve Schooner, a software interconnection system, and to explore the benefits of increased user interaction with existing scientific applications.

  14. Clinical education facilitators: a literature review.

    PubMed

    Lambert, Veronica; Glacken, Michèle

    2005-07-01

    The aim of this literature review, set within an Irish context, is to present a broad overview of former and existing clinical support personnel, explore the concept of facilitation and examine what is known about the role of the clinical education facilitator. The importance of providing a supportive clinical environment to enhance clinical teaching and learning is strongly portrayed in the literature. While the past two decades have borne witness to various clinical support personnel, the literature identifies conflicting demands that these personnel face. No suggestions are advanced as to how to overcome these difficulties, which inevitably influence the quality and quantity of their clinical teaching role. An identifiable gap exists over who has prime responsibility for clinical teaching. It is timely that alternative possibilities for organizing clinical teaching are investigated. A new post emerging in practice settings is that of the clinical education facilitator who is meant to be the key linchpin in clinical areas for reducing the theory-practice gap. Relevant literature for this review was sourced using the computerized databases CINAHL, Medline and Synergy. Manual searching of relevant nursing journals and sourcing of secondary references extended the search. Government reports and other relevant documents were obtained through pertinent websites. Papers that explicitly examined the concept of facilitation and explored the posts of clinical education facilitators were included; six research papers were accessed and reviewed. In addition seven non-empirical papers were included. It is clear that considerable lack of role clarity resides over what constitutes clinical facilitation and the role of the clinical facilitator. Thus, it is paramount to strengthen this support role with Irish empirical evidence. A major advantage in having a ward-based clinical education facilitator is the benefit of having access to someone who can concentrate solely on

  15. Using Hypertext to Facilitate Information Sharing in Biomedical Research Groups

    PubMed Central

    Chaney, R. Jesse; Shipman, Frank M.; Gorry, G. Anthony

    1989-01-01

    As part of our effort to create an Integrated Academic Information Management System at Baylor College of Medicine, we are developing information technology to support the efforts of scientific work groups. Many of our ideas in this regard are embodied in a system called the Virtual Notebook which is intended to facilitate information sharing and management in such groups. Here we discuss the foundations of that system - a hypertext system that we have developed using a relational data base and the distributable interface the we have written in the X Window System.

  16. Oligonucleotide facilitators may inhibit or activate a hammerhead ribozyme.

    PubMed Central

    Jankowsky, E; Schwenzer, B

    1996-01-01

    Facilitators are oligonucleotides capable of affecting hammerhead ribozyme activity by interacting with the substrate at the termini of the ribozyme. Facilitator effects were determined in vitro using a system consisting of a ribozyme with 7 nucleotides in every stem sequence and two substrates with inverted facilitator binding sequences. The effects of 9mer and 12mer RNA as well as DNA facilitators which bind either adjacent to the 3'- or 5'-end of the ribozyme were investigated. A kinetic model was developed which allows determination of the apparent dissociation constant of the ribozyme-substrate complex from single turnover reactions. We observed a decreased dissociation constant of the ribozyme-substrate complex due to facilitator addition corresponding to an additional stabilization energy of delta delta G=-1.7 kcal/mol with 3'-end facilitators. The cleavage rate constant was increased by 3'-end facilitators and decreased by 5'-end facilitators. Values for Km were slightly lowered by all facilitators and kcat was increased by 3'-end facilitators and decreased by 5'-end facilitators in our system. Generally the facilitator effects increased with the length of the facilitators and RNA provided greater effects than DNA of the same sequence. Results suggest facilitator influences on several steps of the hammerhead reaction, substrate association, cleavage and dissociation of products. Moreover, these effects are dependent in different manners on ribozyme and substrate concentration. This leads to the conclusion that there is a concentration dependence whether activation or inhibition is caused by facilitators. Conclusions are drawn with regard to the design of hammerhead ribozyme facilitator systems. PMID:8602353

  17. Tachycardia detection in ICDs by Boston Scientific : Algorithms, pearls, and pitfalls.

    PubMed

    Zanker, Norbert; Schuster, Diane; Gilkerson, James; Stein, Kenneth

    2016-09-01

    The aim of this study was to summarize how implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) by Boston Scientific sense, detect, discriminate rhythms, and classify episodes. Modern devices include multiple programming selections, diagnostic features, therapy options, memory functions, and device-related history features. Device operation includes logical steps from sensing, detection, discrimination, therapy delivery to history recording. The program is designed to facilitate the application of the device algorithms to the individual patient's clinical needs. Features and functions described in this article represent a selective excerpt by the authors from Boston Scientific publicly available product resources. Programming of ICDs may affect patient outcomes. Patient-adapted and optimized programming requires understanding of device operation and concepts.

  18. Questioning the evidence for a claim in a socio-scientific issue: an aspect of scientific literacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Roberts, Ros; Gott, Richard

    2010-11-01

    Understanding the science in a 'socio-scientific issue' is at the heart of the varied definitions of 'scientific literacy'. Many consider that understanding evidence is necessary to participate in decision making and to challenge the science that affects people's lives. A model is described that links practical work, argumentation and scientific literacy which is used as the basis of this research. If students are explicitly taught about evidence does this transfer to students asking questions in the context of a local socio-scientific issue? What do they ask questions about? Sixty-five primary teacher training students were given the pre-test, before being taught the 'concepts of evidence' and applying them in an open-ended investigation and were tested again 15 weeks later. Data were coded using Toulmin's argument pattern (TAP) and the 'concepts of evidence'. After the intervention it was found that, in relation to a socio-scientific issue, they raised significantly more questions specifically about the evidence that lead to the scientists' claims although questions explicitly targeting the quality of the data were still rare. This has implications for curricula that aim for scientific literacy.

  19. Multidisciplinary scientific program of investigation of the structure and evolution of the Demerara marginal plateau

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Loncke, Lies; Basile, Christophe; Roest, Walter; Graindorge, David; Mercier de Lépinay, Marion; Klinghelhoefer, Frauke; Heuret, Arnauld; Pattier, France; Tallobre, Cedric; Lebrun, Jean-Frédéric; Poetisi, Ewald; Loubrieu, Benoît; Iguanes, Dradem, Margats Scientific Parties, Plus

    2017-04-01

    Mercier de Lépinay et al. published in 2016 an updated inventory of transform passive margins in the world. This inventory shows that those margins represent 30% of continental passive margins and a cumulative length of 16% of non-convergent margins. It also highlights the fact that many submarine plateaus prolong transform continental margins, systematically at the junction of oceanic domains of different ages. In the world, we identified twenty of those continental submarine plateaus (Falklands, Voring, Demerara, Tasman, etc). Those marginal plateaus systematically experiment two phases of deformation: a first extensional phase and a second transform phase that allows the individualization of those submarine reliefs appearing on bathymetry as seaward continental-like salients. The understanding of the origin, nature, evolution of those marginal plateaus has many scientific and economic issues. The Demerara marginal plateau located off French Guiana and Surinam belongs to this category of submarine provinces. The French part of this plateau has been the locus of a first investigation in 2003 in the framework of the GUYAPLAC cruise dedicated to support French submissions about extension of the limit of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. This cruise was the starting point of a scientific program dedicated to geological investigations of the Demerara plateau that was sustained by different cruises and collaborations (1) IGUANES (2013) that completed the mapping of this plateau including off Surinam, allowed to better understand the segmentation of the Northern edge of this plateau, and to evidence the combined importance of contourite and mass-wasting processes in the recent sedimentary evolution of this domain, (2) Collaboration with TOTAL (Mercier de Lépinay's PhD thesis) that allowed to better qualify the two main phases of structural evolution of the plateau respectively during Jurassic times for its Western border, Cretaceous times for its

  20. Use of Heuristics to Facilitate Scientific Discovery Learning in a Simulation Learning Environment in a Physics Domain

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Veermans, Koen; van Joolingen, Wouter; de Jong, Ton

    2006-01-01

    This article describes a study into the role of heuristic support in facilitating discovery learning through simulation-based learning. The study compares the use of two such learning environments in the physics domain of collisions. In one learning environment (implicit heuristics) heuristics are only used to provide the learner with guidance…

  1. Investigating the Environmental Effects of Agriculture Practices on Natural Resources: Scientific Contributions of the U.S. Geological Survey to Enhance the Management of Agricultural Landscapes

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    ,

    2007-01-01

    The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) enhances and protects the quality of life in the United States by advancing scientific knowledge to facilitate effective management of hydrologic, biologic, and geologic resources. Results of selected USGS research and monitoring projects in agricultural landscapes are presented in this Fact Sheet. Significant environmental and social issues associated with agricultural production include changes in the hydrologic cycle; introduction of toxic chemicals, nutrients, and pathogens; reduction and alteration of wildlife habitats; and invasive species. Understanding environmental consequences of agricultural production is critical to minimize unintended environmental consequences. The preservation and enhancement of our natural resources can be achieved by measuring the success of improved management practices and by adjusting conservation policies as needed to ensure long-term protection.

  2. Concept Formation in Scientific Knowledge Discovery from a Constructivist View

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peng, Wei; Gero, John S.

    The central goal of scientific knowledge discovery is to learn cause-effect relationships among natural phenomena presented as variables and the consequences their interactions. Scientific knowledge is normally expressed as scientific taxonomies and qualitative and quantitative laws [1]. This type of knowledge represents intrinsic regularities of the observed phenomena that can be used to explain and predict behaviors of the phenomena. It is a generalization that is abstracted and externalized from a set of contexts and applicable to a broader scope. Scientific knowledge is a type of third-person knowledge, i.e., knowledge that independent of a specific enquirer. Artificial intelligence approaches, particularly data mining algorithms that are used to identify meaningful patterns from large data sets, are approaches that aim to facilitate the knowledge discovery process [2]. A broad spectrum of algorithms has been developed in addressing classification, associative learning, and clustering problems. However, their linkages to people who use them have not been adequately explored. Issues in relation to supporting the interpretation of the patterns, the application of prior knowledge to the data mining process and addressing user interactions remain challenges for building knowledge discovery tools [3]. As a consequence, scientists rely on their experience to formulate problems, evaluate hypotheses, reason about untraceable factors and derive new problems. This type of knowledge which they have developed during their career is called “first-person” knowledge. The formation of scientific knowledge (third-person knowledge) is highly influenced by the enquirer’s first-person knowledge construct, which is a result of his or her interactions with the environment. There have been attempts to craft automatic knowledge discovery tools but these systems are limited in their capabilities to handle the dynamics of personal experience. There are now trends in developing

  3. Concept Formation in Scientific Knowledge Discovery from a Constructivist View

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peng, Wei; Gero, John S.

    The central goal of scientific knowledge discovery is to learn cause-effect relationships among natural phenomena presented as variables and the consequences their interactions. Scientific knowledge is normally expressed as scientific taxonomies and qualitative and quantitative laws [1]. This type of knowledge represents intrinsic regularities of the observed phenomena that can be used to explain and predict behaviors of the phenomena. It is a generalization that is abstracted and externalized from a set of contexts and applicable to a broader scope. Scientific knowledge is a type of third-person knowledge, i.e., knowledge that independent of a specific enquirer. Artificial intelligence approaches, particularly data mining algorithms that are used to identify meaningful patterns from large data sets, are approaches that aim to facilitate the knowledge discovery process [2]. A broad spectrum of algorithms has been developed in addressing classification, associative learning, and clustering problems. However, their linkages to people who use them have not been adequately explored. Issues in relation to supporting the interpretation of the patterns, the application of prior knowledge to the data mining process and addressing user interactions remain challenges for building knowledge discovery tools [3]. As a consequence, scientists rely on their experience to formulate problems, evaluate hypotheses, reason about untraceable factors and derive new problems. This type of knowledge which they have developed during their career is called "first-person" knowledge. The formation of scientific knowledge (third-person knowledge) is highly influenced by the enquirer's first-person knowledge construct, which is a result of his or her interactions with the environment. There have been attempts to craft automatic knowledge discovery tools but these systems are limited in their capabilities to handle the dynamics of personal experience. There are now trends in developing

  4. Scientific Communication at an International Scale: A Review and Bibliography of the UNISIST Project.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Nordstrom, Lance O.

    Within the last few decades there have been significant initiatives to establish and develop international programs and systems to facilitate access to the information resources of cooperating countries. A program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), UNISIST was designed to encourage and coordinate the…

  5. Scientific Investigations Associated with the Human Exploration of Mars in the Next 35 Years

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Niles, P. B.; Beaty, David; Hays, Lindsay; Bass, Deborah; Bell, Mary Sue; Bleacher, Jake; Cabrol, Nathalie A.; Conrad, Pan; Eppler, Dean; Hamilton, Vicky; hide

    2017-01-01

    A human mission to Mars would present an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the earliest history of the solar system. This history that has largely been overwritten on Earth by active geological processing throughout its history, but on Mars, large swaths of the ancient crust remain exposed at the surface, allowing us to investigate martian processes at the earliest time periods when life first appeared on the Earth. Mars' surface has been largely frozen in place for 4 billion years, and after losing its atmosphere and magnetic field what re-mains is an ancient landscape of former hydrothermal systems, river beds, volcanic eruptions, and impact craters. This allows us to investigate scientific questions ranging from the nature of the impact history of the solar system to the origins of life. We present here a summary of the findings of the Human Science Objectives Science Analysis Group, or HSO-SAG chartered by MEPAG in 2015 to address science objectives and landing site criteria for future human missions to Mars (Niles, Beaty et al. 2015). Currently, NASA's plan to land astronauts on Mars in the mid 2030's would allow for robust human exploration of the surface in the next 35 years. We expect that crews would be able to traverse to sites up to 100 km away from the original landing site using robust rovers. A habitat outfitted with state of the art laboratory facilities that could enable the astronauts to perform cutting edge science on the surface of Mars. Robotic/human partnership during exploration would further enhance the science return of the mission.

  6. Is risk analysis scientific?

    PubMed

    Hansson, Sven Ove; Aven, Terje

    2014-07-01

    This article discusses to what extent risk analysis is scientific in view of a set of commonly used definitions and criteria. We consider scientific knowledge to be characterized by its subject matter, its success in developing the best available knowledge in its fields of study, and the epistemic norms and values that guide scientific investigations. We proceed to assess the field of risk analysis according to these criteria. For this purpose, we use a model for risk analysis in which science is used as a base for decision making on risks, which covers the five elements evidence, knowledge base, broad risk evaluation, managerial review and judgment, and the decision; and that relates these elements to the domains experts and decisionmakers, and to the domains fact-based or value-based. We conclude that risk analysis is a scientific field of study, when understood as consisting primarily of (i) knowledge about risk-related phenomena, processes, events, etc., and (ii) concepts, theories, frameworks, approaches, principles, methods and models to understand, assess, characterize, communicate, and manage risk, in general and for specific applications (the instrumental part). © 2014 Society for Risk Analysis.

  7. Investigating Knowledge and Sources of Scientific Information of University Students and Lifelong Learners

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buxner, Sanlyn; Impey, Chris; Romine, James; Nieberding, Megan

    2015-08-01

    Using 25 years of data, we have been conducting a long-term study of undergraduate students’ science literacy. Based on questions developed for the National Science Board’s survey of the US public, we have gathered data from students enrolled in astronomy courses to help us understand their basic science knowledge as well as attitudes towards and beliefs about science. Science literacy of students in this study has remained relatively unchanged over a quarter of a century. Additionally, students’ beliefs and attitudes were associated with their overall knowledge in science. Less predictive were their self-reported majors, year in school, and number of college science courses taken. Students in this study consistently outperformed the general public surveyed by the NSB.Three years ago we broadened to our study to include an investigation of where students get their information about science and what sources they believe are the most and least reliable for that information. This past year, we have collected parallel data from lifelong learners from around the globe enrolled in a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) in astronomy, 70% of this audience lives outside the US and represent 170 countries. We will present results of these new studies of almost 700 undergraduate students and over 2500 lifelong learners. Overall, the lifelong learners possess a greater interest in science and better knowledge in science despite less overall college science course experience. Using online sources of scientific information were prevalent for both traditional college students and lifelong learners, although there were distinct differences between how different groups of learners perceived the reliability of online information. We will discuss the implications of teaching science in both traditional in-person college classes and in online learning environments as sources of scientific information and information literacy.This material is based upon work supported by the

  8. An Investigation of the Lived Experiences of Registered Nurses Facilitating Supernumerary Nursing Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    O'Callaghan, Nora; Slevin, Eamonn

    2003-01-01

    Interviews with 10 Irish nurses supervising student nurses in clinical placements revealed different interpretations of students' status in clinical settings. They viewed their role as facilitative. Although the experience was rewarding, they felt ill prepared for it. They approved the move to higher education for nurses, although most had not…

  9. Earth Exploration Toolbook Workshops: Helping Teachers and Students Analyze Web-based Scientific Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McAuliffe, C.; Ledley, T.; Dahlman, L.; Haddad, N.

    2007-12-01

    One of the challenges faced by Earth science teachers, particularly in K-12 settings, is that of connecting scientific research to classroom experiences. Helping teachers and students analyze Web-based scientific data is one way to bring scientific research to the classroom. The Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET) was developed as an online resource to accomplish precisely that. The EET consists of chapters containing step-by-step instructions for accessing Web-based scientific data and for using a software analysis tool to explore issues or concepts in science, technology, and mathematics. For example, in one EET chapter, users download Earthquake data from the USGS and bring it into a geographic information system (GIS), analyzing factors affecting the distribution of earthquakes. The goal of the EET Workshops project is to provide professional development that enables teachers to incorporate Web-based scientific data and analysis tools in ways that meet their curricular needs. In the EET Workshops project, Earth science teachers participate in a pair of workshops that are conducted in a combined teleconference and Web-conference format. In the first workshop, the EET Data Analysis Workshop, participants are introduced to the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) and the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE). They also walk through an Earth Exploration Toolbook (EET) chapter and discuss ways to use Earth science datasets and tools with their students. In a follow-up second workshop, the EET Implementation Workshop, teachers share how they used these materials in the classroom by describing the projects and activities that they carried out with students. The EET Workshops project offers unique and effective professional development. Participants work at their own Internet-connected computers, and dial into a toll-free group teleconference for step-by-step facilitation and interaction. They also receive support via Elluminate, a Web

  10. What can we learn from facilitator and student perceptions of facilitation skills and roles in the first year of a problem-based learning curriculum?

    PubMed Central

    McLean, Michelle

    2003-01-01

    Background The small group tutorial is a cornerstone of problem-based learning. By implication, the role of the facilitator is of pivotal importance. The present investigation canvassed perceptions of facilitators with differing levels of experience regarding their roles and duties in the tutorial. Methods In January 2002, one year after problem-based learning implementation at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, facilitators with the following experience were canvassed: trained and about to facilitate, facilitated once only and facilitated more than one six-week theme. Student comments regarding facilitator skills were obtained from a 2001 course survey. Results While facilitators generally agreed that the three-day training workshop provided sufficient insight into the facilitation process, they become more comfortable with increasing experience. Many facilitators experienced difficulty not providing content expertise. Again, this improved with increasing experience. Most facilitators saw students as colleagues. They agreed that they should be role models, but were less enthusiastic about being mentors. Students were critical of facilitators who were not up to date with curriculum implementation or who appeared disinterested. While facilitator responses suggest that there was considerable intrinsic motivation, this might in fact not be the case. Conclusions Even if they had facilitated on all six themes, facilitators could still be considered as novices. Faculty support is therefore critical for the first few years of problem-based learning, particularly for those who had facilitated once only. Since student and facilitator expectations in the small group tutorial may differ, roles and duties of facilitators must be explicit for both parties from the outset. PMID:14585108

  11. What can we learn from facilitator and student perceptions of facilitation skills and roles in the first year of a problem-based learning curriculum?

    PubMed

    McLean, Michelle

    2003-10-30

    The small group tutorial is a cornerstone of problem-based learning. By implication, the role of the facilitator is of pivotal importance. The present investigation canvassed perceptions of facilitators with differing levels of experience regarding their roles and duties in the tutorial. In January 2002, one year after problem-based learning implementation at the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, facilitators with the following experience were canvassed: trained and about to facilitate, facilitated once only and facilitated more than one six-week theme. Student comments regarding facilitator skills were obtained from a 2001 course survey. While facilitators generally agreed that the three-day training workshop provided sufficient insight into the facilitation process, they become more comfortable with increasing experience. Many facilitators experienced difficulty not providing content expertise. Again, this improved with increasing experience. Most facilitators saw students as colleagues. They agreed that they should be role models, but were less enthusiastic about being mentors. Students were critical of facilitators who were not up to date with curriculum implementation or who appeared disinterested. While facilitator responses suggest that there was considerable intrinsic motivation, this might in fact not be the case. Even if they had facilitated on all six themes, facilitators could still be considered as novices. Faculty support is therefore critical for the first few years of problem-based learning, particularly for those who had facilitated once only. Since student and facilitator expectations in the small group tutorial may differ, roles and duties of facilitators must be explicit for both parties from the outset.

  12. Dynamic Flexibility and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hardy, Lew; Jones, David

    1986-01-01

    Two experiments are described which investigated whether results obtained in studies of static flexibility tranfer to dynamic flexibility. In both experiments, subjects were assigned to a group receiving proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation training, ballistic stretching technique training or a control group. Results are presented and…

  13. Explaining the Alluring Influence of Neuroscience Information on Scientific Reasoning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rhodes, Rebecca E.; Rodriguez, Fernando; Shah, Priti

    2014-01-01

    Previous studies have investigated the influence of neuroscience information or images on ratings of scientific evidence quality but have yielded mixed results. We examined the influence of neuroscience information on evaluations of flawed scientific studies after taking into account individual differences in scientific reasoning skills, thinking…

  14. An Investigation on the Scientific Thinking Ability of Fourth Year University Students.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Boo, Hong-Kwen; Toh, Kok-Aun

    1998-01-01

    Fourth-year university students (n=12) in a secondary-science-education degree program in Singapore were interviewed after demonstrations of five familiar chemical reactions. The majority of interviewees used perceptually-dominated rather than conceptually-dominated thinking and were unable to use scientific concepts consistently across the five…

  15. Producing Gestures Facilitates Route Learning

    PubMed Central

    So, Wing Chee; Ching, Terence Han-Wei; Lim, Phoebe Elizabeth; Cheng, Xiaoqin; Ip, Kit Yee

    2014-01-01

    The present study investigates whether producing gestures would facilitate route learning in a navigation task and whether its facilitation effect is comparable to that of hand movements that leave physical visible traces. In two experiments, we focused on gestures produced without accompanying speech, i.e., co-thought gestures (e.g., an index finger traces the spatial sequence of a route in the air). Adult participants were asked to study routes shown in four diagrams, one at a time. Participants reproduced the routes (verbally in Experiment 1 and non-verbally in Experiment 2) without rehearsal or after rehearsal by mentally simulating the route, by drawing it, or by gesturing (either in the air or on paper). Participants who moved their hands (either in the form of gestures or drawing) recalled better than those who mentally simulated the routes and those who did not rehearse, suggesting that hand movements produced during rehearsal facilitate route learning. Interestingly, participants who gestured the routes in the air or on paper recalled better than those who drew them on paper in both experiments, suggesting that the facilitation effect of co-thought gesture holds for both verbal and nonverbal recall modalities. It is possibly because, co-thought gesture, as a kind of representational action, consolidates spatial sequence better than drawing and thus exerting more powerful influence on spatial representation. PMID:25426624

  16. The EGS Data Collaboration Platform: Enabling Scientific Discovery

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Weers, Jonathan D; Johnston, Henry; Huggins, Jay V

    Collaboration in the digital age has been stifled in recent years. Reasonable responses to legitimate security concerns have created a virtual landscape of silos and fortified castles incapable of sharing information efficiently. This trend is unfortunately opposed to the geothermal scientific community's migration toward larger, more collaborative projects. To facilitate efficient sharing of information between team members from multiple national labs, universities, and private organizations, the 'EGS Collab' team has developed a universally accessible, secure data collaboration platform and has fully integrated it with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Geothermal Data Repository (GDR) and the National Geothermal Data Systemmore » (NGDS). This paper will explore some of the challenges of collaboration in the modern digital age, highlight strategies for active data management, and discuss the integration of the EGS Collab data management platform with the GDR to enable scientific discovery through the timely dissemination of information.« less

  17. Deep Space Gateway Facilitates Exploration of Planetary Crusts: A Human/Robotic Exploration Design Reference Campaign to the Lunar Orientale Basin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Head, J. W.; Pieters, C. M.; Scott, D. R.

    2018-02-01

    We outline an Orientale Basin Human/Robotic Architecture that can be facilitated by a Deep Space Gateway International Science Operations Center (DSG-ISOC) (like McMurdo/Antarctica) to address fundamental scientific problems about the Moon and Mars.

  18. Facilitating Employees' and Students' Process towards Nascent Entrepreneurship

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hietanen, Lenita

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate a model for facilitating employees' and full-time, non-business students' entrepreneurial capabilities during their optional entrepreneurship studies at one Finnish Open University. Design/methodology/approach: The case study investigates the course in which transitions from employees or…

  19. Do students with higher self-efficacy exhibit greater and more diverse scientific inquiry skills: An exploratory investigation in "River City", a multi-user virtual environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ketelhut, Diane Jass

    In this thesis, I conduct an exploratory study to investigate the relationship between students' self-efficacy on entry into authentic scientific activity and the scientific inquiry behaviors they employ while engaged in that process, over time. Scientific inquiry has been a major standard in most science education policy doctrines for the past two decades and is exemplified by activities such as making observations, formulating hypotheses, gathering and analyzing data, and forming conclusions from that data. The self-efficacy literature, however, indicates that self-efficacy levels affect perseverance and engagement. This study investigated the relationship between these two constructs. The study is conducted in a novel setting, using an innovative science curriculum delivered through an interactive computer technology that recorded each student's conversations, movements, and activities while behaving as a practicing scientist in a "virtual world" called River City. River City is a Multi-User Virtual Environment designed to engage students in a collaborative scientific inquiry-based learning experience. As a result, I was able to follow students' moment-by-moment choices of behavior while they were behaving as scientists. I collected data on students' total scientific inquiry behaviors over three visits to River City, as well as the number of sources from which they gathered their scientific data. I analyzed my longitudinal data on the 96 seventh-graders using individual growth modeling. I found that self-efficacy played a role in the number of data-gathering behaviors students engaged in initially, with high self-efficacy students engaging in more data gathering than students with low self-efficacy. However, the impact of student self-efficacy on rate of change in data gathering behavior differed by gender; by the end of the study, student self-efficacy did not impact data gathering. In addition, students' level of self-efficacy did not affect how many different

  20. Practice Facilitators' and Leaders' Perspectives on a Facilitated Quality Improvement Program.

    PubMed

    McHugh, Megan; Brown, Tiffany; Liss, David T; Walunas, Theresa L; Persell, Stephen D

    2018-04-01

    Practice facilitation is a promising approach to helping practices implement quality improvements. Our purpose was to describe practice facilitators' and practice leaders' perspectives on implementation of a practice facilitator-supported quality improvement program and describe where their perspectives aligned and diverged. We conducted interviews with practice leaders and practice facilitators who participated in a program that included 35 improvement strategies aimed at the ABCS of heart health (aspirin use in high-risk individuals, blood pressure control, cholesterol management, and smoking cessation). Rapid qualitative analysis was used to collect, organize, and analyze the data. We interviewed 17 of the 33 eligible practice leaders, and the 10 practice facilitators assigned to those practices. Practice leaders and practice facilitators both reported value in the program's ability to bring needed, high-quality resources to practices. Practice leaders appreciated being able to set the schedule for facilitation and select among the 35 interventions. According to practice facilitators, however, relying on practice leaders to set the pace of the intervention resulted in a lower level of program intensity than intended. Practice leaders preferred targeted assistance, particularly electronic health record documentation guidance and linkages to state smoking cessation programs. Practice facilitators reported that the easiest interventions were those that did not alter care practices. The dual perspectives of practice leaders and practice facilitators provide a more holistic picture of enablers and barriers to program implementation. There may be greater opportunities to assist small practices through simple, targeted practice facilitator-supported efforts rather than larger, comprehensive quality improvement projects. © 2018 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.

  1. Constructing Scientific Arguments Using Evidence from Dynamic Computational Climate Models

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Pallant, Amy; Lee, Hee-Sun

    2015-01-01

    Modeling and argumentation are two important scientific practices students need to develop throughout school years. In this paper, we investigated how middle and high school students (N = 512) construct a scientific argument based on evidence from computational models with which they simulated climate change. We designed scientific argumentation…

  2. Ninth Grade Students' Understanding of The Nature of Scientific Knowledge

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kilic, Kerem; Sungur, Semra; Cakiroglu, Jale; Tekkaya, Ceren

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the 9th-grade students' understandings of the nature of scientific knowledge. The study also aimed to investigate the differences in students' understanding of the nature of scientific knowledge by gender, and school types. A total of 575 ninth grade students from four different school types (General…

  3. Enabling NVM for Data-Intensive Scientific Services

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Carns, Philip; Jenkins, John; Seo, Sangmin

    Specialized, transient data services are playing an increasingly prominent role in data-intensive scientific computing. These services offer flexible, on-demand pairing of applications with storage hardware using semantics that are optimized for the problem domain. Concurrent with this trend, upcoming scientific computing and big data systems will be deployed with emerging NVM technology to achieve the highest possible price/productivity ratio. Clearly, therefore, we must develop techniques to facilitate the confluence of specialized data services and NVM technology. In this work we explore how to enable the composition of NVM resources within transient distributed services while still retaining their essential performance characteristics.more » Our approach involves eschewing the conventional distributed file system model and instead projecting NVM devices as remote microservices that leverage user-level threads, RPC services, RMA-enabled network transports, and persistent memory libraries in order to maximize performance. We describe a prototype system that incorporates these concepts, evaluate its performance for key workloads on an exemplar system, and discuss how the system can be leveraged as a component of future data-intensive architectures.« less

  4. NOAA's Scientific Data Stewardship Program

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bates, J. J.

    2004-12-01

    The NOAA mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet the Nation's economic, social and environmental needs. NOAA has responsibility for long-term archiving of the United States environmental data and has recently integrated several data management functions into a concept called Scientific Data Stewardship. Scientific Data Stewardship a new paradigm in data management consisting of an integrated suite of functions to preserve and exploit the full scientific value of NOAA's, and the world's, environmental data These functions include careful monitoring of observing system performance for long-term applications, the generation of authoritative long-term climate records from multiple observing platforms, and the proper archival of and timely access to data and metadata. NOAA has developed a conceptual framework to implement the functions of scientific data stewardship. This framework has five objectives: 1) develop real-time monitoring of all satellite observing systems for climate applications, 2) process large volumes of satellite data extending up to decades in length to account for systematic errors and to eliminate artifacts in the raw data (referred to as fundamental climate data records, FCDRs), 3) generate retrieved geophysical parameters from the FCDRs (referred to as thematic climate data records TCDRs) including combining observations from all sources, 4) conduct monitoring and research by analyzing data sets to uncover climate trends and to provide evaluation and feedback for steps 2) and 3), and 5) provide archives of metadata, FCDRs, and TCDRs, and facilitate distribution of these data to the user community. The term `climate data record' and related terms, such as climate data set, have been used for some time, but the climate community has yet to settle on a concensus definition. A recent United States National Academy of Sciences report recommends using the

  5. Recent Developments in the Scientific Study of UFO's

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Salisbury, Frank B.

    1975-01-01

    Reviews the interest of the last few years, both inside and outside the scientific community, in unidentified flying objects (UFO), placing special emphasis on the extraterrestrial intelligence hypothesis. Cites numerous examples of UFO sightings and urges that the investigation of UFO's proceed in a scientific manner, despite skeptical public…

  6. The development of scientific literacy assessment to measure student’s scientific literacy skills in energy theme

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rusilowati, A.; Nugroho, S. E.; Susilowati, E. S. M.; Mustika, T.; Harfiyani, N.; Prabowo, H. T.

    2018-03-01

    The research were aimed to develop and find out of validity, reliability, characteristic of scientific literacy assessment, and find out of the profile of students’ scientific literacy skills in Energy themed. The research is conducted in 7th grade of Secondary School at Demak, Central of Java Indonesia. The research design used R&D (Research and Development). The results of the research showed that the scientific literacy assessment was valid and reliable with 0.68 value in the first try out and 0.73 value in the last try out. The characteristics of the scientific literacy assessment are the difficulty index and the discrimination power. The difficulty index and distinguishing are 56.25% easy, 31.25% medium, and 12.5% very difficult with good discrimination power. The proportion of category of scientific literacy as the body of knowledge, the science as a way of investigating, science as a way of thinking, and the interaction among science, environment, technology, and society was 37.5%:25%:18.75%:18.75%. The highest to the lowest profile of students’ scientific literacy skills at Secondary School Demak was 72% in the category of science as a way of thinking and the lowest was 59% in the category of science as the body of knowledge.

  7. Design of FastQuery: How to Generalize Indexing and Querying System for Scientific Data

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wu, Jerry; Wu, Kesheng

    2011-04-18

    Modern scientific datasets present numerous data management and analysis challenges. State-of-the-art index and query technologies such as FastBit are critical for facilitating interactive exploration of large datasets. These technologies rely on adding auxiliary information to existing datasets to accelerate query processing. To use these indices, we need to match the relational data model used by the indexing systems with the array data model used by most scientific data, and to provide an efficient input and output layer for reading and writing the indices. In this work, we present a flexible design that can be easily applied to most scientific datamore » formats. We demonstrate this flexibility by applying it to two of the most commonly used scientific data formats, HDF5 and NetCDF. We present two case studies using simulation data from the particle accelerator and climate simulation communities. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the new design, we also present a detailed performance study using both synthetic and real scientific workloads.« less

  8. Lab notebooks as scientific communication: Investigating development from undergraduate courses to graduate research

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stanley, Jacob T.; Lewandowski, H. J.

    2016-12-01

    In experimental physics, lab notebooks play an essential role in the research process. For all of the ubiquity of lab notebooks, little formal attention has been paid to addressing what is considered "best practice" for scientific documentation and how researchers come to learn these practices in experimental physics. Using interviews with practicing researchers, namely, physics graduate students, we explore the different experiences researchers had in learning how to effectively use a notebook for scientific documentation. We find that very few of those interviewed thought that their undergraduate lab classes successfully taught them the benefit of maintaining a lab notebook. Most described training in lab notebook use as either ineffective or outright missing from their undergraduate lab course experience. Furthermore, a large majority of those interviewed explained that they did not receive any formal training in maintaining a lab notebook during their graduate school experience and received little to no feedback from their advisors on these records. Many of the interviewees describe learning the purpose of, and how to maintain, these kinds of lab records only after having a period of trial and error, having already started doing research in their graduate program. Despite the central role of scientific documentation in the research enterprise, these physics graduate students did not gain skills in documentation through formal instruction, but rather through informal hands-on practice.

  9. An investigation into IgE-facilitated allergen recognition and presentation by human dendritic cells

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Allergen recognition by dendritic cells (DCs) is a key event in the allergic cascade leading to production of IgE antibodies. C-type lectins, such as the mannose receptor and DC-SIGN, were recently shown to play an important role in the uptake of the house dust mite glycoallergen Der p 1 by DCs. In addition to mannose receptor (MR) and DC-SIGN the high and low affinity IgE receptors, namely FcϵRI and FcϵRII (CD23), respectively, have been shown to be involved in allergen uptake and presentation by DCs. Objectives This study aims at understanding the extent to which IgE- and IgG-facilitated Der p 1 uptake by DCs influence T cell polarisation and in particular potential bias in favour of Th2. We have addressed this issue by using two chimaeric monoclonal antibodies produced in our laboratory and directed against a previously defined epitope on Der p 1, namely human IgE 2C7 and IgG1 2C7. Results Flow cytometry was used to establish the expression patterns of IgE (FcϵRI and FcϵRII) and IgG (FcγRI) receptors in relation to MR on DCs. The impact of FcϵRI, FcϵRII, FcγRI and mannose receptor mediated allergen uptake on Th1/Th2 cell differentiation was investigated using DC/T cell co-culture experiments. Myeloid DCs showed high levels of FcϵRI and FcγRI expression, but low levels of CD23 and MR, and this has therefore enabled us to assess the role of IgE and IgG-facilitated allergen presentation in T cell polarisation with minimal interference by CD23 and MR. Our data demonstrate that DCs that have taken up Der p 1 via surface IgE support a Th2 response. However, no such effect was demonstrable via surface IgG. Conclusions IgE bound to its high affinity receptor plays an important role in Der p 1 uptake and processing by peripheral blood DCs and in Th2 polarisation of T cells. PMID:24330349

  10. An investigation into IgE-facilitated allergen recognition and presentation by human dendritic cells.

    PubMed

    Sharquie, Inas K; Al-Ghouleh, Abeer; Fitton, Patricia; Clark, Mike R; Armour, Kathryn L; Sewell, Herb F; Shakib, Farouk; Ghaemmaghami, Amir M

    2013-12-13

    Allergen recognition by dendritic cells (DCs) is a key event in the allergic cascade leading to production of IgE antibodies. C-type lectins, such as the mannose receptor and DC-SIGN, were recently shown to play an important role in the uptake of the house dust mite glycoallergen Der p 1 by DCs. In addition to mannose receptor (MR) and DC-SIGN the high and low affinity IgE receptors, namely FcεRI and FcεRII (CD23), respectively, have been shown to be involved in allergen uptake and presentation by DCs. This study aims at understanding the extent to which IgE- and IgG-facilitated Der p 1 uptake by DCs influence T cell polarisation and in particular potential bias in favour of Th2. We have addressed this issue by using two chimaeric monoclonal antibodies produced in our laboratory and directed against a previously defined epitope on Der p 1, namely human IgE 2C7 and IgG1 2C7. Flow cytometry was used to establish the expression patterns of IgE (FcεRI and FcεRII) and IgG (FcγRI) receptors in relation to MR on DCs. The impact of FcεRI, FcεRII, FcγRI and mannose receptor mediated allergen uptake on Th1/Th2 cell differentiation was investigated using DC/T cell co-culture experiments. Myeloid DCs showed high levels of FcεRI and FcγRI expression, but low levels of CD23 and MR, and this has therefore enabled us to assess the role of IgE and IgG-facilitated allergen presentation in T cell polarisation with minimal interference by CD23 and MR. Our data demonstrate that DCs that have taken up Der p 1 via surface IgE support a Th2 response. However, no such effect was demonstrable via surface IgG. IgE bound to its high affinity receptor plays an important role in Der p 1 uptake and processing by peripheral blood DCs and in Th2 polarisation of T cells.

  11. The Scientific Method in a Cup

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carroll, Bradley W.; More, M. B.

    2006-12-01

    This paper describes an inexpensive hands-on activity that invites students to investigate an intriguing mystery and so discover for themselves the essence of the scientific method. When a spoon is tapped against the bottom of a mug of freshly made hot chocolate, a tone of constantly rising pitch is heard. Students’ reactions to this “hot chocolate effect” illustrate how the scientific method may be constructed from the common sense and curiosity present in us all.

  12. An Imagination Effect in Learning from Scientific Text

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Leopold, Claudia; Mayer, Richard E.

    2015-01-01

    Asking students to imagine the spatial arrangement of the elements in a scientific text constitutes a learning strategy intended to foster deep processing of the instructional material. Two experiments investigated the effects of mental imagery prompts on learning from scientific text. Students read a computer-based text on the human respiratory…

  13. National Collaboratories: Applying Information Technology for Scientific Research.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, Washington, DC. Computer Science and Telecommunications Board.

    The Committee on a National Collaboratory: Establishing the User-Developer Partnership was charged to study and report on the need for and potential of information technology to support collaboration in the conduct of scientific research. To do this, the committee focused on three discrete areas of scientific investigation: (1) oceanography, in…

  14. Refining Current Scientific Priorities and Identifying New Scientific Gaps in HIV-Related Heart, Lung, Blood, and Sleep Research.

    PubMed

    Twigg, Homer L; Crystal, Ronald; Currier, Judith; Ridker, Paul; Berliner, Nancy; Kiem, Hans-Peter; Rutherford, George; Zou, Shimian; Glynn, Simone; Wong, Renee; Peprah, Emmanuel; Engelgau, Michael; Creazzo, Tony; Colombini-Hatch, Sandra; Caler, Elisabet

    2017-09-01

    The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) AIDS Program's goal is to provide direction and support for research and training programs in areas of HIV-related heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) diseases. To better define NHLBI current HIV-related scientific priorities and with the goal of identifying new scientific priorities and gaps in HIV-related HLBS research, a wide group of investigators gathered for a scientific NHLBI HIV Working Group on December 14-15, 2015, in Bethesda, MD. The core objectives of the Working Group included discussions on: (1) HIV-related HLBS comorbidities in the antiretroviral era; (2) HIV cure; (3) HIV prevention; and (4) mechanisms to implement new scientific discoveries in an efficient and timely manner so as to have the most impact on people living with HIV. The 2015 Working Group represented an opportunity for the NHLBI to obtain expert advice on HIV/AIDS scientific priorities and approaches over the next decade.

  15. Facilitated transport of copper with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles in saturated sand

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Saturated packed column experiments were conducted to investigate the facilitated transport of Cu with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nHAP) at different pore water velocities (0.22-2.2 cm min–1), solution pH (6.2-9.0), and fraction of Fe oxide coating on grain surfaces (', 0-0.36). The facilitated tr...

  16. L2 Gender Facilitation and Inhibition in Spoken Word Recognition

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Behney, Jennifer N.

    2011-01-01

    This dissertation investigates the role of grammatical gender facilitation and inhibition in second language (L2) learners' spoken word recognition. Native speakers of languages that have grammatical gender are sensitive to gender marking when hearing and recognizing a word. Gender facilitation refers to when a given noun that is preceded by an…

  17. Improving Students' PISA Scientific Competencies through Online Argumentation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tsai, Chun-Yen

    2015-01-01

    The scientific competencies advocated by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) focus on the abilities needed in students' adult lives. This study investigated how such scientific competencies could be improved by using online argumentation. One hundred and thirty-eight 8th grade high school students took part in the study, with…

  18. Facilitating Team Learning through Transformational Leadership

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Raes, Elisabeth; Decuyper, Stefan; Lismont, Bart; Van den Bossche, Piet; Kyndt, Eva; Demeyere, Sybille; Dochy, Filip

    2013-01-01

    This article investigates when and how teams engage in team learning behaviours (TLB). More specifically, it looks into how different leadership styles facilitate TLB by influencing the social conditions that proceed them. 498 healthcare workers from 28 nursery teams filled out a questionnaire measuring the concepts leadership style, TLB, social…

  19. Evolution of local facilitation in arid ecosystems.

    PubMed

    Kéfi, Sonia; van Baalen, Minus; Rietkerk, Max; Loreau, Michel

    2008-07-01

    In harsh environments, sessile organisms can make their habitat more hospitable by buffering environmental stress or increasing resource availability. Although the ecological significance of such local facilitation is widely established, the evolutionary aspects have been seldom investigated. Yet addressing the evolutionary aspects of local facilitation is important because theoretical studies show that systems with such positive interactions can exhibit alternative stable states and that such systems may suddenly become extinct when they evolve (evolutionary suicide). Arid ecosystems currently experience strong changes in climate and human pressures, but little is known about the effects of these changes on the selective pressures exerted on the vegetation. Here, we focus on the evolution of local facilitation in arid ecosystems, using a lattice-structured model explicitly considering local interactions among plants. We found that the evolution of local facilitation depends on the seed dispersal strategy. In systems characterized by short-distance seed dispersal, adaptation to a more stressful environment leads to high local facilitation, allowing the population to escape extinction. In contrast, systems characterized by long-distance seed dispersal become extinct under increased stress even when allowed to adapt. In this case, adaptation in response to climate change and human pressures could give the final push to the desertification of arid ecosystems.

  20. The Influence of Facilitator and Facilitation Characteristics on Participants' Ratings of Stepfamily Education

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Higginbotham, Brian J.; Myler, Cory

    2010-01-01

    We examine the relative importance of facilitator and facilitation characteristics on participant ratings of a stepfamily education program. Data from 48 facilitators and 598 participants suggest that quality facilitation is more meaningful to participants than whether facilitators have comparable demographic characteristics or life experiences.…

  1. Methods for Specifying Scientific Data Standards and Modeling Relationships with Applications to Neuroscience

    PubMed Central

    Rübel, Oliver; Dougherty, Max; Prabhat; Denes, Peter; Conant, David; Chang, Edward F.; Bouchard, Kristofer

    2016-01-01

    Neuroscience continues to experience a tremendous growth in data; in terms of the volume and variety of data, the velocity at which data is acquired, and in turn the veracity of data. These challenges are a serious impediment to sharing of data, analyses, and tools within and across labs. Here, we introduce BRAINformat, a novel data standardization framework for the design and management of scientific data formats. The BRAINformat library defines application-independent design concepts and modules that together create a general framework for standardization of scientific data. We describe the formal specification of scientific data standards, which facilitates sharing and verification of data and formats. We introduce the concept of Managed Objects, enabling semantic components of data formats to be specified as self-contained units, supporting modular and reusable design of data format components and file storage. We also introduce the novel concept of Relationship Attributes for modeling and use of semantic relationships between data objects. Based on these concepts we demonstrate the application of our framework to design and implement a standard format for electrophysiology data and show how data standardization and relationship-modeling facilitate data analysis and sharing. The format uses HDF5, enabling portable, scalable, and self-describing data storage and integration with modern high-performance computing for data-driven discovery. The BRAINformat library is open source, easy-to-use, and provides detailed user and developer documentation and is freely available at: https://bitbucket.org/oruebel/brainformat. PMID:27867355

  2. Scientific Misconduct.

    PubMed

    Gross, Charles

    2016-01-01

    Scientific misconduct has been defined as fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism. Scientific misconduct has occurred throughout the history of science. The US government began to take systematic interest in such misconduct in the 1980s. Since then, a number of studies have examined how frequently individual scientists have observed scientific misconduct or were involved in it. Although the studies vary considerably in their methodology and in the nature and size of their samples, in most studies at least 10% of the scientists sampled reported having observed scientific misconduct. In addition to studies of the incidence of scientific misconduct, this review considers the recent increase in paper retractions, the role of social media in scientific ethics, several instructional examples of egregious scientific misconduct, and potential methods to reduce research misconduct.

  3. Fostering Inquiry and Scientific Investigation in Students by Using GPS Data to Explore Plate Tectonics and Volcanic Deformation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Olds, S. E.; Eriksson, S.

    2007-12-01

    The Education and Outreach program at UNAVCO has developed free instructional materials using authentic high-precision GPS data for secondary education and undergraduate students in Earth science courses. Using inquiry-based, data-rich activities, students investigate crustal deformation and plate motion using GPS data and learn how these measurements are important to scientific discovery and understanding natural hazards and the current state of prediction. Because this deformation is expressed on Earth's surface over familiar time scales and on easily visualized orders of magnitude, GPS data represent an effective method for illustrating the geomorphic effects of plate tectonics and, in essence, allow students to 'see' plates move and volcanoes deform. The activities foster student skills to critically assess different forms of data, to visualize abstract concepts, and to evaluate multiple lines of evidence to analyze scientific problems. The activities are scaffolded to begin with basic concepts about GPS data and analyzing simple plate motion and move towards data analyses for more complex motion and crustal deformation. As part of assessment, students can apply new knowledge to explore other geographic regions independently. Learning activities currently include exploring motion along the San Andreas Fault, monitoring volcano deformation and ground movement at the Yellowstone Caldera, and analyzing ground motion along the subduction zone in the Cascadia region. To support educators and their students in their investigations, UNAVCO has developed the Data for Educators portal; http://www.unavco.org/edu_outreach/data.html. This portal provides a Google-map displaying the locations of GPS stations, web links to numerical GPS data that illustrate specific Earth processes, and educational activities that incorporate this data. The GPS data is freely available in a format compatible with standard spreadsheet and graphing programs as well as visualization and

  4. Implementation of a Tool to Enhance Evidence-Informed Decision Making in Public Health: Identifying Barriers and Facilitating Factors

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    van der Heide, Iris; van der Noordt, Maaike; Proper, Karin I.; Schoemaker, Casper; van den Berg, Matthijs; Hamberg-van Reenen, Heleen H.

    2016-01-01

    One of the barriers regarding evidence-informed decision making is the gap between the needs of policy makers and the ways researchers present evidence. This pilot study evaluates the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a tool to enhance transparent and unambiguous communication on scientific evidence by knowledge workers.…

  5. Facilitating Vocational Development Among Disadvantaged Inner-City Adolescents

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hamdani, Asma

    1977-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the vocational development process of tenth-grade disadvantaged students can be facilitated through deliberate intervention in the form of supplementary learning experiences. (Author)

  6. Reporting to Improve Reproducibility and Facilitate Validity Assessment for Healthcare Database Studies V1.0.

    PubMed

    Wang, Shirley V; Schneeweiss, Sebastian; Berger, Marc L; Brown, Jeffrey; de Vries, Frank; Douglas, Ian; Gagne, Joshua J; Gini, Rosa; Klungel, Olaf; Mullins, C Daniel; Nguyen, Michael D; Rassen, Jeremy A; Smeeth, Liam; Sturkenboom, Miriam

    2017-09-01

    Defining a study population and creating an analytic dataset from longitudinal healthcare databases involves many decisions. Our objective was to catalogue scientific decisions underpinning study execution that should be reported to facilitate replication and enable assessment of validity of studies conducted in large healthcare databases. We reviewed key investigator decisions required to operate a sample of macros and software tools designed to create and analyze analytic cohorts from longitudinal streams of healthcare data. A panel of academic, regulatory, and industry experts in healthcare database analytics discussed and added to this list. Evidence generated from large healthcare encounter and reimbursement databases is increasingly being sought by decision-makers. Varied terminology is used around the world for the same concepts. Agreeing on terminology and which parameters from a large catalogue are the most essential to report for replicable research would improve transparency and facilitate assessment of validity. At a minimum, reporting for a database study should provide clarity regarding operational definitions for key temporal anchors and their relation to each other when creating the analytic dataset, accompanied by an attrition table and a design diagram. A substantial improvement in reproducibility, rigor and confidence in real world evidence generated from healthcare databases could be achieved with greater transparency about operational study parameters used to create analytic datasets from longitudinal healthcare databases. © 2017 The Authors. Pharmacoepidemiology & Drug Safety Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. Using learning theory, interprofessional facilitation competencies, and behavioral indicators to evaluate facilitator training.

    PubMed

    LeGros, Theresa A; Amerongen, Helen M; Cooley, Janet H; Schloss, Ernest P

    2015-01-01

    Despite the increasing need for faculty and preceptors skilled in interprofessional facilitation (IPF), the relative novelty of the field poses a challenge to the development and evaluation of IPF programs. We use learning theory and IPF competencies with associated behavioral indicators to develop and evaluate six key messages in IPF training and experience. Our mixed methods approach included two phases: quantitative data collection with embedded qualitative data, followed by qualitative data collection in explanatory sequential fashion. This enabled triangulated analyses of both data types and of facilitation behaviors from facilitator and student perspectives. Results indicate the competency-based training was effective. Facilitators felt comfortable performing behaviors associated with IPF competencies; student observations of those behaviors supported facilitator self-reported performance. Overall, students perceived more facilitation opportunities than facilitators. Findings corroborate the importance of recruiting seasoned facilitators and establishing IPF guidelines that acknowledge variable team dynamics and help facilitators recognize teachable moments.

  8. Jenkins-CI, an Open-Source Continuous Integration System, as a Scientific Data and Image-Processing Platform.

    PubMed

    Moutsatsos, Ioannis K; Hossain, Imtiaz; Agarinis, Claudia; Harbinski, Fred; Abraham, Yann; Dobler, Luc; Zhang, Xian; Wilson, Christopher J; Jenkins, Jeremy L; Holway, Nicholas; Tallarico, John; Parker, Christian N

    2017-03-01

    High-throughput screening generates large volumes of heterogeneous data that require a diverse set of computational tools for management, processing, and analysis. Building integrated, scalable, and robust computational workflows for such applications is challenging but highly valuable. Scientific data integration and pipelining facilitate standardized data processing, collaboration, and reuse of best practices. We describe how Jenkins-CI, an "off-the-shelf," open-source, continuous integration system, is used to build pipelines for processing images and associated data from high-content screening (HCS). Jenkins-CI provides numerous plugins for standard compute tasks, and its design allows the quick integration of external scientific applications. Using Jenkins-CI, we integrated CellProfiler, an open-source image-processing platform, with various HCS utilities and a high-performance Linux cluster. The platform is web-accessible, facilitates access and sharing of high-performance compute resources, and automates previously cumbersome data and image-processing tasks. Imaging pipelines developed using the desktop CellProfiler client can be managed and shared through a centralized Jenkins-CI repository. Pipelines and managed data are annotated to facilitate collaboration and reuse. Limitations with Jenkins-CI (primarily around the user interface) were addressed through the selection of helper plugins from the Jenkins-CI community.

  9. Jenkins-CI, an Open-Source Continuous Integration System, as a Scientific Data and Image-Processing Platform

    PubMed Central

    Moutsatsos, Ioannis K.; Hossain, Imtiaz; Agarinis, Claudia; Harbinski, Fred; Abraham, Yann; Dobler, Luc; Zhang, Xian; Wilson, Christopher J.; Jenkins, Jeremy L.; Holway, Nicholas; Tallarico, John; Parker, Christian N.

    2016-01-01

    High-throughput screening generates large volumes of heterogeneous data that require a diverse set of computational tools for management, processing, and analysis. Building integrated, scalable, and robust computational workflows for such applications is challenging but highly valuable. Scientific data integration and pipelining facilitate standardized data processing, collaboration, and reuse of best practices. We describe how Jenkins-CI, an “off-the-shelf,” open-source, continuous integration system, is used to build pipelines for processing images and associated data from high-content screening (HCS). Jenkins-CI provides numerous plugins for standard compute tasks, and its design allows the quick integration of external scientific applications. Using Jenkins-CI, we integrated CellProfiler, an open-source image-processing platform, with various HCS utilities and a high-performance Linux cluster. The platform is web-accessible, facilitates access and sharing of high-performance compute resources, and automates previously cumbersome data and image-processing tasks. Imaging pipelines developed using the desktop CellProfiler client can be managed and shared through a centralized Jenkins-CI repository. Pipelines and managed data are annotated to facilitate collaboration and reuse. Limitations with Jenkins-CI (primarily around the user interface) were addressed through the selection of helper plugins from the Jenkins-CI community. PMID:27899692

  10. Authentic scientific data collection in support of an integrative model-based class: A framework for student engagement in the classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sorensen, A. E.; Dauer, J. M.; Corral, L.; Fontaine, J. J.

    2017-12-01

    A core component of public scientific literacy, and thereby informed decision-making, is the ability of individuals to reason about complex systems. In response to students having difficulty learning about complex systems, educational research suggests that conceptual representations, or mental models, may help orient student thinking. Mental models provide a framework to support students in organizing and developing ideas. The PMC-2E model is a productive tool in teaching ideas of modeling complex systems in the classroom because the conceptual representation framework allows for self-directed learning where students can externalize systems thinking. Beyond mental models, recent work emphasizes the importance of facilitating integration of authentic science into the formal classroom. To align these ideas, a university class was developed around the theme of carnivore ecology, founded on PMC-2E framework and authentic scientific data collection. Students were asked to develop a protocol, collect, and analyze data around a scientific question in partnership with a scientist, and then use data to inform their own learning about the system through the mental model process. We identified two beneficial outcomes (1) scientific data is collected to address real scientific questions at a larger scale and (2) positive outcomes for student learning and views of science. After participating in the class, students report enjoying class structure, increased support for public understanding of science, and shifts in nature of science and interest in pursuing science metrics on post-assessments. Further work is ongoing investigating the linkages between engaging in authentic scientific practices that inform student mental models, and how it might promote students' systems-thinking skills, implications for student views of nature of science, and development of student epistemic practices.

  11. Major Strands in Scientific Inquiry through Cluster Analysis of Research Abstracts

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yeh, Yi-Fen; Jen, Tsung-Hau; Hsu, Ying-Shao

    2012-01-01

    Scientific inquiry involves a variety of abilities scientists use to investigate the natural world. In order to develop students' scientific inquiry, researchers and educators have developed different curricula and a variety of instructional resources, which make features and descriptors of scientific inquiry in teaching and learning even more…

  12. A Scientific Software Product Line for the Bioinformatics domain.

    PubMed

    Costa, Gabriella Castro B; Braga, Regina; David, José Maria N; Campos, Fernanda

    2015-08-01

    Most specialized users (scientists) that use bioinformatics applications do not have suitable training on software development. Software Product Line (SPL) employs the concept of reuse considering that it is defined as a set of systems that are developed from a common set of base artifacts. In some contexts, such as in bioinformatics applications, it is advantageous to develop a collection of related software products, using SPL approach. If software products are similar enough, there is the possibility of predicting their commonalities, differences and then reuse these common features to support the development of new applications in the bioinformatics area. This paper presents the PL-Science approach which considers the context of SPL and ontology in order to assist scientists to define a scientific experiment, and to specify a workflow that encompasses bioinformatics applications of a given experiment. This paper also focuses on the use of ontologies to enable the use of Software Product Line in biological domains. In the context of this paper, Scientific Software Product Line (SSPL) differs from the Software Product Line due to the fact that SSPL uses an abstract scientific workflow model. This workflow is defined according to a scientific domain and using this abstract workflow model the products (scientific applications/algorithms) are instantiated. Through the use of ontology as a knowledge representation model, we can provide domain restrictions as well as add semantic aspects in order to facilitate the selection and organization of bioinformatics workflows in a Scientific Software Product Line. The use of ontologies enables not only the expression of formal restrictions but also the inferences on these restrictions, considering that a scientific domain needs a formal specification. This paper presents the development of the PL-Science approach, encompassing a methodology and an infrastructure, and also presents an approach evaluation. This evaluation

  13. Role of Scientific Societies in International Collaboration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fucugauchi, J. U.

    2007-12-01

    Geophysical research increasingly requires global multidisciplinary approaches. Understanding how deeply interrelated are Earth components and processes, population growth, increased needs of mineral and energy resources, global impact of human activities, and view of our planet as an interconnected system emphasizes the need of international cooperation. International research collaboration has an immense potential and is needed for further development of Earth science research and education. The Union Session is planned to provide a forum for analysis and discussion of the status of research and education of geosciences in developing countries, international collaboration programs and new initiatives for promoting and strengthening scientific cooperation. A theme of particular relevance in the analyses and discussions is the role of scientific societies in international collaboration. Societies organize meetings, publish journals and books and promote cooperation through academic exchange activities. They may further assist communities in developing countries in providing and facilitating access to scientific literature, attendance to international meetings, short and long-term stays and student and young researcher mobility. What else can be done? This is a complex subject and scientific societies may not be seen independently from the many factors involved in research and education. Developing countries present additional challenges resulting from limited economic resources and social and political problems, while urgently requiring improved educational and research programs. Needed are in-depth analyses of infrastructure and human resources, and identification of major problems and needs. What are the major limitations and needs in research and postgraduate education in developing countries? What and how should international collaboration do? What are the roles of individuals, academic institutions, funding agencies, scientific societies? Here we attempt to

  14. NASA selects scientific investigations for Earth dynamics studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1981-01-01

    Forty two domestic investigators affiliated with U.S. universities, governmental agencies, or private concerns and 14 investigators from France, West Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela, and Canada were selected to use precise geodetic data obtained by laser ranging and very long base interferometry in a study of the Earth's tectonic plate movement, crustal deformation, and rotational dynamics. The studies to be made and the principal investigators for each are listed.

  15. Plagiarism in scientific publishing.

    PubMed

    Masic, Izet

    2012-12-01

    Scientific publishing is the ultimate product of scientist work. Number of publications and their quoting are measures of scientist success while unpublished researches are invisible to the scientific community, and as such nonexistent. Researchers in their work rely on their predecessors, while the extent of use of one scientist work, as a source for the work of other authors is the verification of its contributions to the growth of human knowledge. If the author has published an article in a scientific journal it cannot publish the article in any other journal h with a few minor adjustments or without quoting parts of the first article, which are used in another article. Copyright infringement occurs when the author of a new article with or without the mentioning the author used substantial portions of previously published articles, including tables and figures. Scientific institutions and universities should,in accordance with the principles of Good Scientific Practice (GSP) and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) have a center for monitoring,security, promotion and development of quality research. Establish rules and compliance to rules of good scientific practice are the obligations of each research institutions,universities and every individual-researchers,regardless of which area of science is investigated. In this way, internal quality control ensures that a research institution such as a university, assume responsibility for creating an environment that promotes standards of excellence, intellectual honesty and legality. Although the truth should be the aim of scientific research, it is not guiding fact for all scientists. The best way to reach the truth in its study and to avoid the methodological and ethical mistakes is to consistently apply scientific methods and ethical standards in research. Although variously defined plagiarism is basically intended to deceive the reader's own scientific contribution. There is no general regulation of control of

  16. WE-F-211-01: The Evolving Landscape of Scientific Publishing.

    PubMed

    Armato, S; Hendee, W; Marshall, C; Curran, B

    2012-06-01

    promotion and advancement of Medical Physics 3. To explore technology-driven content delivery mechanisms and their role in facilitating content access and driving content usage 4. To understand the potential benefits and pitfalls of various economic and editorial models of scientific publications and the recent shifts away from the traditional role of libraries. © 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

  17. Authors as vehicles of scientific memes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krawczyk, M. J.; Kułakowski, K.

    2016-04-01

    Scientific memes have been defined as short units of text in a publication that are replicated in citing [T. Kuhn et al., Phys. Rev. X 4, 041036 (2014)]. Here, we investigate how often the meme appears in the title of the paper when driven by a coauthorship with somebody who has already published a paper with the same meme in the paper title. Five memes are investigated: traffic flow (TF), stochastic resonance (SR), key distribution (KD), small world (SW) and prisoner’s dilemma (PD). For each meme, a network of papers (GP) and network of authors (GA) are constructed. A meme index is proposed which is a measure how often scientific teams undertake the research on a given area, marked by the meme, without a cooperation with coauthors with previous achievements in the subject.

  18. [Scientific advice by the national and European approval authorities concerning advanced therapy medicinal products].

    PubMed

    Jost, Nils; Schüssler-Lenz, Martina; Ziegele, Bettina; Reinhardt, Jens

    2015-11-01

    The aim of scientific advice is to support pharmaceutical developers in regulatory and scientific questions, thus facilitating the development of safe and efficacious new medicinal products. Recent years have shown that the development of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) in particular needs a high degree of regulatory support. On one hand, this is related to the complexity and heterogeneity of this group of medicinal products and on the other hand due to the fact that mainly academic research institutions and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are developing ATMPs. These often have limited regulatory experience and resources. In 2009 the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI) initiated the Innovation Office as a contact point for applicants developing ATMPs. The mandate of the Innovation Office is to provide support on regulatory questions and to coordinate national scientific advice meetings concerning ATMPs for every phase in drug development and especially with view to the preparation of clinical trial applications. On the European level, the Scientific Advice Working Party (SAWP) of the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicinal Agency (EMA) offers scientific advice. This article describes the concepts of national and EMA scientific advice concerning ATMPs and summarizes the experience of the last six years.

  19. Evidence-based practice: how nurse leaders can facilitate innovation.

    PubMed

    Shirey, Maria R

    2006-01-01

    Evidence-based nursing practice (EBNP) is the wave of the future. Increasingly, EBNP is being identified as a key to quality and excellence in nursing services. Incorporating evidence into practice is necessary to deliver scientifically sound patient care. In addition, understanding the importance of evidence is crucial for meeting the excellence requirements of Magnet designation. Despite the growing popularity of EBNP and its documented significant benefits, the literature demonstrates that only 15% of the nursing workforce consistently practices within an EBNP framework. If EBNP adoption is to increase in the profession, it will require the active efforts of nurse leaders to pursue an aggressive innovation diffusion strategy. The purpose of this article is to discuss the nurse leader's role in facilitating EBNP in nursing using a theoretical framework grounded in innovation diffusion theory. The article develops 4 areas of focus. First, the components of innovation diffusion theory are discussed. Second, a pertinent empirical review of the EBNP adoption literature is presented. Third, strategies for applying innovation diffusion theory to facilitate EBNP adoption are proposed. Lastly, the article ends with a leadership call to action.

  20. Enhancing Scientific Literacy by Targeting Specific Scientific Skills

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hicks, Sylvia; MacDonald, Shane; Martin, Ela

    2017-01-01

    The term scientific literacy is increasingly used by governments and teaching bodies, stemming from a growing international concern by scientists and government, who recognize the economic significance of developing scientific skills (McGregor & Kearton, 2010). However, in a society that requires students to be scientifically literate,…

  1. Computer network access to scientific information systems for minority universities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thomas, Valerie L.; Wakim, Nagi T.

    1993-08-01

    The evolution of computer networking technology has lead to the establishment of a massive networking infrastructure which interconnects various types of computing resources at many government, academic, and corporate institutions. A large segment of this infrastructure has been developed to facilitate information exchange and resource sharing within the scientific community. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supports both the development and the application of computer networks which provide its community with access to many valuable multi-disciplinary scientific information systems and on-line databases. Recognizing the need to extend the benefits of this advanced networking technology to the under-represented community, the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) in the Space Data and Computing Division at the Goddard Space Flight Center has developed the Minority University-Space Interdisciplinary Network (MU-SPIN) Program: a major networking and education initiative for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Universities (MUs). In this paper, we will briefly explain the various components of the MU-SPIN Program while highlighting how, by providing access to scientific information systems and on-line data, it promotes a higher level of collaboration among faculty and students and NASA scientists.

  2. Topological Landscapes: A Terrain Metaphor for ScientificData

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Weber, Gunther H.; Bremer, Peer-Timo; Pascucci, Valerio

    2007-08-01

    Scientific visualization and illustration tools are designed to help people understand the structure and complexity of scientific data with images that are as informative and intuitive as possible. In this context, the use of metaphors plays an important role, since they make complex information easily accessible by using commonly known concepts. In this paper we propose a new metaphor, called 'Topological Landscapes', which facilitates understanding the topological structure of scalar functions. The basic idea is to construct a terrain with the same topology as a given dataset and to display the terrain as an easily understood representation of the actualmore » input data. In this projection from an n-dimensional scalar function to a two-dimensional (2D) model we preserve function values of critical points, the persistence (function span) of topological features, and one possible additional metric property (in our examples volume). By displaying this topologically equivalent landscape together with the original data we harness the natural human proficiency in understanding terrain topography and make complex topological information easily accessible.« less

  3. Audit of nuclear medicine scientific and technical standards.

    PubMed

    Jarritt, Peter H; Perkins, Alan C; Woods, Sandra D

    2004-08-01

    The British Nuclear Medicine Society has developed a process for the service-specific organizational audit of nuclear medicine departments. This process identified the need for a scheme suitable for the audit of the scientific and technical standards of a department providing such a service. This document has evolved following audit visits of a number of UK departments. It is intended to be used as a written document to facilitate the audit procedure and may be used for both external and self-audit purposes. Scientific and technical standards have been derived from a number of sources, including regulatory documents, notes for guidance and peer-reviewed publications. The audit scheme is presented as a series of questions with responses graded according to legal and safety obligations (A), good practice (B) and desirable aspects of service delivery (C). This document should be regarded as part of an audit framework and should be kept under review as the process evolves to meet the future demands of this high-technology-based clinical service.

  4. Scientific Reasoning: Theory Evidence Coordination in Physics-Based and Non-Physics-Based Tasks

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ibrahim, Bashirah; Ding, Lin; Mollohan, Katherine N.; Stammen, Andria

    2016-01-01

    Scientific reasoning is crucial to any scientific discipline. One sub-skill particularly relevant to the scientific enterprise is theory evidence coordination. This study, underpinned by Kuhn's framework for scientific reasoning, investigates how university students coordinate their self-generated theory and evidence in a physics topic (energy)…

  5. Experimental Investigation of Effectiveness of Magnetic Field on Food Freezing Process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suzuki, Toru; Takeuchi, Yuri; Masuda, Kazunori; Watanabe, Manabu; Shirakashi, Ryo; Fukuda, Yutaka; Tsuruta, Takaharu; Yamamoto, Kazutaka; Koga, Nobumitsu; Hiruma, Naoya; Ichioka, Jun; Takai, Kiyoshi

    Recently, several food refrigeration equipments that utilize magnetic field have attracted much attention from food production companies, consumers and mass media. However, the effectiveness of the freezers is not scientifically examined. Therefore, the effectiveness should be clarified by experiments or theoretical considerations. In this study, the effect of weak magnetic field (about 0.0005 T) on freezing process of several kinds of foods was investigated by using a specially designed freezer facilitated with magnetic field generator. The investigation included the comparison of freezing curves, drip amount, physicochemical evaluations on color and texture, observation of microstructure, and sensory evaluation. From the results of the control experiments, it can be concluded that weak magnetic field around 0.0005 T provided no significant difference on temperature history during freezing and on the qualities of frozen foods, within our experimental conditions.

  6. Communicating Scientific Findings to Lawyers, Policy-Makers, and the Public (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thompson, W.; Velsko, S. P.

    2013-12-01

    This presentation will summarize the authors' collaborative research on inferential errors, bias and communication difficulties that have arisen in the area of WMD forensics. This research involves analysis of problems that have arisen in past national security investigations, interviews with scientists from various disciplines whose work has been used in WMD investigations, interviews with policy-makers, and psychological studies of lay understanding of forensic evidence. Implications of this research for scientists involved in nuclear explosion monitoring will be discussed. Among the issues covered will be: - Potential incompatibilities between the questions policy makers pose and the answers that experts can provide. - Common misunderstandings of scientific and statistical data. - Advantages and disadvantages of various methods for describing and characterizing the strength of scientific findings. - Problems that can arise from excessive hedging or, alternatively, insufficient qualification of scientific conclusions. - Problems that can arise from melding scientific and non-scientific evidence in forensic assessments.

  7. The Effectiveness of Scientific Inquiry With/Without Integration of Scientific Reasoning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chen, Chun-Ting; She, Hsiao-Ching

    2015-01-01

    This study examines the difference in effectiveness between two scientific inquiry programs-one with an emphasis on scientific reasoning and one without a scientific reasoning component-on students' scientific concepts, scientific concept-dependent reasoning, and scientific inquiry. A mixed-method approach was used in which 115 grade 5…

  8. Examples of Effective Data Sharing in Scientific Publishing

    DOE PAGES

    Kitchin, John R.

    2015-05-11

    Here, we present a perspective on an approach to data sharing in scientific publications we have been developing in our group. The essence of the approach is that data can be embedded in a human-readable and machine-addressable way within the traditional publishing environment. We show this by example for both computational and experimental data. We articulate a need for new authoring tools to facilitate data sharing, and we discuss the tools we have been developing for this purpose. With these tools, data generation, analysis, and manuscript preparation can be deeply integrated, resulting in easier and better data sharing in scientificmore » publications.« less

  9. Examples of Effective Data Sharing in Scientific Publishing

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kitchin, John R.

    Here, we present a perspective on an approach to data sharing in scientific publications we have been developing in our group. The essence of the approach is that data can be embedded in a human-readable and machine-addressable way within the traditional publishing environment. We show this by example for both computational and experimental data. We articulate a need for new authoring tools to facilitate data sharing, and we discuss the tools we have been developing for this purpose. With these tools, data generation, analysis, and manuscript preparation can be deeply integrated, resulting in easier and better data sharing in scientificmore » publications.« less

  10. Middle School Students' Views of Scientific Inquiry: An International Comparative Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Senler, B.

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate middle school students' views of scientific inquiry. A total of 489 middle school students (238 from the United States, and 251 from Turkey) participated in the study. The Views of Scientific Inquiry-Elementary (VOSI-E) was used to assess participants' scientific inquiry views. The instrument covered four…

  11. Positive Emotional Responses to Hybridised Writing about a Socio-Scientific Issue

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tomas, Louisa; Ritchie, Stephen M.

    2012-01-01

    In order to understand better the role of affect in learning about socio-scientific issues (SSI), this study investigated Year 12 students' emotional arousal as they participated in an online writing-to-learn science project about the socio-scientific issue of biosecurity. Students wrote a series of hybridised scientific narratives, or BioStories,…

  12. Scientific literacy and academic identity: Creating a community of practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reveles, John Michael

    2005-07-01

    This one-year ethnographic study of a third grade classroom examined the construction of elementary school science. The research focused on the co-development of scientific literacy and academic identity. Unlike much research in science education that views literacy as merely supportive of science; this dissertation research considers how students learned both disciplinary knowledge in science as well as about themselves as learners through language use. The study documented and analyzed how students came to engage with scientific knowledge and the impact this engagement had upon their academic identities over time. Ethnographic and discourse analytic methods were employed to investigate three research questions: (a) How were the students in a third grade classroom afforded opportunities to acquire scientific literate practices through the spoken/written discourse and science activities? (b) In what ways did students develop and maintain academic identities taken-up over time as they discursively appropriated scientific literate practices via classroom discourse? and (c) How did students collectively and individually inscribe their academic identities and scientific knowledge into classroom artifacts across the school year? Through multiple forms of analyses, I identified how students' communication and participation in science investigations provided opportunities for them to learn specific scientific literate practices. The findings of this empirical research indicate that students' communication and participation in science influenced the ways they perceived themselves as active participants within the classroom community. More specifically, students were observed to appropriate particular discourse practices introduced by the teacher to frame scientific disciplinary knowledge and investigations. Thus, emerging academic identities and developing literate practices were documented via analysis of discursive (spoken, written, and enacted) classroom interactions. A

  13. The Relations between Scientific Epistemological Beliefs and Goal Orientations of Pre-Service Teachers

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kaya, Gamze Inan

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between pre-service teachers' scientific epistemological beliefs and goal orientations in 2X2 framework. Scientific epistemological beliefs are domain-specific views of people about nature and acquisition of scientific knowledge, how scientific knowledge is produced, how reliable and valid…

  14. Teaching through Trade Books: Recording Scientific Explorations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Royce, Christine Anne

    2016-01-01

    Keeping a log of scientific investigations, discoveries, and notes is a process that scientists have used throughout history. Elementary-age children engage in similar types of documentation when they perform investigations and sketch, label, or provide details about their work and findings. This column includes activities inspired by children's…

  15. Exploration of Korean Students' Scientific Imagination Using the Scientific Imagination Inventory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mun, Jiyeong; Mun, Kongju; Kim, Sung-Won

    2015-09-01

    This article reports on the study of the components of scientific imagination and describes the scales used to measure scientific imagination in Korean elementary and secondary students. In this study, we developed an inventory, which we call the Scientific Imagination Inventory (SII), in order to examine aspects of scientific imagination. We identified three conceptual components of scientific imagination, which were composed of (1) scientific sensitivity, (2) scientific creativity, and (3) scientific productivity. We administered SII to 662 students (4th-8th grades) and confirmed validity and reliability using exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach α coefficient. The characteristics of Korean elementary and secondary students' overall scientific imagination and difference across gender and grade level are discussed in the results section.

  16. Facilitating Problem Framing in Project-Based Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Svihla, Vanessa; Reeve, Richard

    2016-01-01

    While problem solving is a relatively well understood process, problem framing is less well understood, particularly with regard to supporting students to learn as they frame problems. Project-based learning classrooms are an ideal setting to investigate how teachers facilitate this process. Using participant observation, this study investigated…

  17. Visual communication of engineering and scientific data in the courtroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jackson, Gerald W.; Henry, Andrew C.

    1993-01-01

    Presenting engineering and scientific information in the courtroom is challenging. Quite often the data is voluminous and, therefore, difficult to digest by engineering experts, let alone a lay judge, lawyer, or jury. This paper discusses computer visualization techniques designed to provide the court methods of communicating data in visual formats thus allowing a more accurate understanding of complicated concepts and results. Examples are presented that include accident reconstructions, technical concept illustration, and engineering data visualization. Also presented is the design of an electronic courtroom which facilitates the display and communication of information to the courtroom.

  18. Investigation of Storage Options for Scientific Computing on Grid and Cloud Facilities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garzoglio, Gabriele

    2012-12-01

    In recent years, several new storage technologies, such as Lustre, Hadoop, OrangeFS, and BlueArc, have emerged. While several groups have run benchmarks to characterize them under a variety of configurations, more work is needed to evaluate these technologies for the use cases of scientific computing on Grid clusters and Cloud facilities. This paper discusses our evaluation of the technologies as deployed on a test bed at FermiCloud, one of the Fermilab infrastructure-as-a-service Cloud facilities. The test bed consists of 4 server-class nodes with 40 TB of disk space and up to 50 virtual machine clients, some running on the storage server nodes themselves. With this configuration, the evaluation compares the performance of some of these technologies when deployed on virtual machines and on “bare metal” nodes. In addition to running standard benchmarks such as IOZone to check the sanity of our installation, we have run I/O intensive tests using physics-analysis applications. This paper presents how the storage solutions perform in a variety of realistic use cases of scientific computing. One interesting difference among the storage systems tested is found in a decrease in total read throughput with increasing number of client processes, which occurs in some implementations but not others.

  19. Investigation of storage options for scientific computing on Grid and Cloud facilities

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Garzoglio, Gabriele

    In recent years, several new storage technologies, such as Lustre, Hadoop, OrangeFS, and BlueArc, have emerged. While several groups have run benchmarks to characterize them under a variety of configurations, more work is needed to evaluate these technologies for the use cases of scientific computing on Grid clusters and Cloud facilities. This paper discusses our evaluation of the technologies as deployed on a test bed at FermiCloud, one of the Fermilab infrastructure-as-a-service Cloud facilities. The test bed consists of 4 server-class nodes with 40 TB of disk space and up to 50 virtual machine clients, some running on the storagemore » server nodes themselves. With this configuration, the evaluation compares the performance of some of these technologies when deployed on virtual machines and on bare metal nodes. In addition to running standard benchmarks such as IOZone to check the sanity of our installation, we have run I/O intensive tests using physics-analysis applications. This paper presents how the storage solutions perform in a variety of realistic use cases of scientific computing. One interesting difference among the storage systems tested is found in a decrease in total read throughput with increasing number of client processes, which occurs in some implementations but not others.« less

  20. Lab Notebooks as Scientific Communication: Investigating Development from Undergraduate Courses to Graduate Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Stanley, Jacob T.; Lewandowski, H. J.

    2016-01-01

    In experimental physics, lab notebooks play an essential role in the research process. For all of the ubiquity of lab notebooks, little formal attention has been paid to addressing what is considered "best practice" for scientific documentation and how researchers come to learn these practices in experimental physics. Using interviews…

  1. PLAGIARISM IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING

    PubMed Central

    Masic, Izet

    2012-01-01

    Scientific publishing is the ultimate product of scientist work. Number of publications and their quoting are measures of scientist success while unpublished researches are invisible to the scientific community, and as such nonexistent. Researchers in their work rely on their predecessors, while the extent of use of one scientist work, as a source for the work of other authors is the verification of its contributions to the growth of human knowledge. If the author has published an article in a scientific journal it cannot publish the article in any other journal h with a few minor adjustments or without quoting parts of the first article, which are used in another article. Copyright infringement occurs when the author of a new article with or without the mentioning the author used substantial portions of previously published articles, including tables and figures. Scientific institutions and universities should,in accordance with the principles of Good Scientific Practice (GSP) and Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) have a center for monitoring,security, promotion and development of quality research. Establish rules and compliance to rules of good scientific practice are the obligations of each research institutions,universities and every individual-researchers,regardless of which area of science is investigated. In this way, internal quality control ensures that a research institution such as a university, assume responsibility for creating an environment that promotes standards of excellence, intellectual honesty and legality. Although the truth should be the aim of scientific research, it is not guiding fact for all scientists. The best way to reach the truth in its study and to avoid the methodological and ethical mistakes is to consistently apply scientific methods and ethical standards in research. Although variously defined plagiarism is basically intended to deceive the reader’s own scientific contribution. There is no general regulation of control of

  2. A science confidence gap: Education, trust in scientific methods, and trust in scientific institutions in the United States, 2014.

    PubMed

    Achterberg, Peter; de Koster, Willem; van der Waal, Jeroen

    2017-08-01

    Following up on suggestions that attitudes toward science are multi-dimensional, we analyze nationally representative survey data collected in the United States in 2014 ( N = 2006), and demonstrate the existence of a science confidence gap: some people place great trust in scientific methods and principles, but simultaneously distrust scientific institutions. This science confidence gap is strongly associated with level of education: it is larger among the less educated than among the more educated. We investigate explanations for these educational differences. Whereas hypotheses deduced from reflexive-modernization theory do not pass the test, those derived from theorizing on the role of anomie are corroborated. The less educated are more anomic (they have more modernity-induced cultural discontents), which not only underlies their distrust in scientific institutions, but also fuels their trust in scientific methods and principles. This explains why this science confidence gap is most pronounced among the less educated.

  3. Investigating global change, environmental response, and adaptation: Jill Baron's 30 years as an ecosystem ecologist

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Wilson, J.T.

    2012-01-01

    Three decades of research, 145 publications (including two books), 15 graduate students, leadership in scientific organizations, invited talks around the world, and two collaborative entities that facilitate scientific synthesis—it’s a lot to pack into one career. But USGS research ecologist and Colorado State University senior scientist Jill Baron isn’t finished yet.

  4. PREDON Scientific Data Preservation 2014

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Diaconu, C.; Kraml, S.; Surace, C.; Chateigner, D.; Libourel, T.; Laurent, A.; Lin, Y.; Schaming, M.; Benbernou, S.; Lebbah, M.; Boucon, D.; Cérin, C.; Azzag, H.; Mouron, P.; Nief, J.-Y.; Coutin, S.; Beckmann, V.

    Scientific data collected with modern sensors or dedicated detectors exceed very often the perimeter of the initial scientific design. These data are obtained more and more frequently with large material and human efforts. A large class of scientific experiments are in fact unique because of their large scale, with very small chances to be repeated and to superseded by new experiments in the same domain: for instance high energy physics and astrophysics experiments involve multi-annual developments and a simple duplication of efforts in order to reproduce old data is simply not affordable. Other scientific experiments are in fact unique by nature: earth science, medical sciences etc. since the collected data is "time-stamped" and thereby non-reproducible by new experiments or observations. In addition, scientific data collection increased dramatically in the recent years, participating to the so-called "data deluge" and inviting for common reflection in the context of "big data" investigations. The new knowledge obtained using these data should be preserved long term such that the access and the re-use are made possible and lead to an enhancement of the initial investment. Data observatories, based on open access policies and coupled with multi-disciplinary techniques for indexing and mining may lead to truly new paradigms in science. It is therefore of outmost importance to pursue a coherent and vigorous approach to preserve the scientific data at long term. The preservation remains nevertheless a challenge due to the complexity of the data structure, the fragility of the custom-made software environments as well as the lack of rigorous approaches in workflows and algorithms. To address this challenge, the PREDON project has been initiated in France in 2012 within the MASTODONS program: a Big Data scientific challenge, initiated and supported by the Interdisciplinary Mission of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). PREDON is a study group formed by

  5. MSeqDR: A Centralized Knowledge Repository and Bioinformatics Web Resource to Facilitate Genomic Investigations in Mitochondrial Disease.

    PubMed

    Shen, Lishuang; Diroma, Maria Angela; Gonzalez, Michael; Navarro-Gomez, Daniel; Leipzig, Jeremy; Lott, Marie T; van Oven, Mannis; Wallace, Douglas C; Muraresku, Colleen Clarke; Zolkipli-Cunningham, Zarazuela; Chinnery, Patrick F; Attimonelli, Marcella; Zuchner, Stephan; Falk, Marni J; Gai, Xiaowu

    2016-06-01

    MSeqDR is the Mitochondrial Disease Sequence Data Resource, a centralized and comprehensive genome and phenome bioinformatics resource built by the mitochondrial disease community to facilitate clinical diagnosis and research investigations of individual patient phenotypes, genomes, genes, and variants. A central Web portal (https://mseqdr.org) integrates community knowledge from expert-curated databases with genomic and phenotype data shared by clinicians and researchers. MSeqDR also functions as a centralized application server for Web-based tools to analyze data across both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, including investigator-driven whole exome or genome dataset analyses through MSeqDR-Genesis. MSeqDR-GBrowse genome browser supports interactive genomic data exploration and visualization with custom tracks relevant to mtDNA variation and mitochondrial disease. MSeqDR-LSDB is a locus-specific database that currently manages 178 mitochondrial diseases, 1,363 genes associated with mitochondrial biology or disease, and 3,711 pathogenic variants in those genes. MSeqDR Disease Portal allows hierarchical tree-style disease exploration to evaluate their unique descriptions, phenotypes, and causative variants. Automated genomic data submission tools are provided that capture ClinVar compliant variant annotations. PhenoTips will be used for phenotypic data submission on deidentified patients using human phenotype ontology terminology. The development of a dynamic informed patient consent process to guide data access is underway to realize the full potential of these resources. © 2016 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.

  6. MSeqDR: A Centralized Knowledge Repository and Bioinformatics Web Resource to Facilitate Genomic Investigations in Mitochondrial Disease

    PubMed Central

    Shen, Lishuang; Diroma, Maria Angela; Gonzalez, Michael; Navarro-Gomez, Daniel; Leipzig, Jeremy; Lott, Marie T.; van Oven, Mannis; Wallace, Douglas C.; Muraresku, Colleen Clarke; Zolkipli-Cunningham, Zarazuela; Chinnery, Patrick F.; Attimonelli, Marcella; Zuchner, Stephan

    2016-01-01

    MSeqDR is the Mitochondrial Disease Sequence Data Resource, a centralized and comprehensive genome and phenome bioinformatics resource built by the mitochondrial disease community to facilitate clinical diagnosis and research investigations of individual patient phenotypes, genomes, genes, and variants. A central Web portal (https://mseqdr.org) integrates community knowledge from expert-curated databases with genomic and phenotype data shared by clinicians and researchers. MSeqDR also functions as a centralized application server for Web-based tools to analyze data across both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, including investigator-driven whole exome or genome dataset analyses through MSeqDR-Genesis. MSeqDR-GBrowse supports interactive genomic data exploration and visualization with custom tracks relevant to mtDNA variation and disease. MSeqDR-LSDB is a locus specific database that currently manages 178 mitochondrial diseases, 1,363 genes associated with mitochondrial biology or disease, and 3,711 pathogenic variants in those genes. MSeqDR Disease Portal allows hierarchical tree-style disease exploration to evaluate their unique descriptions, phenotypes, and causative variants. Automated genomic data submission tools are provided that capture ClinVar-compliant variant annotations. PhenoTips is used for phenotypic data submission on de-identified patients using human phenotype ontology terminology. Development of a dynamic informed patient consent process to guide data access is underway to realize the full potential of these resources. PMID:26919060

  7. Scientific Objectives for UV/Visible Astrophysics Investigations: A Summary of Responses by the Community (2012)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Scowen, Paul; Perez, Mario R.; Neff, Susan G.; Benford, Dominic J.

    2012-01-01

    Following several recommendations presented by the Astrophysics Decadal Survey 2010 centered around the need to define "a future ultraviolet-optical space capability," on 2012 May 25, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking persuasive ultraviolet (UV) and visible wavelength astrophysics science investigations. The goal was to develop a cohesive and compelling set of science objectives that motivate and support the development of the next generation of ultraviolet/visible space astrophysics missions. Responses were due on 10 August 2012 when 34 submissions were received addressing a number of potential science drivers. A UV/visible Mission RFI Workshop was held on 2012 September 20 where each of these submissions was summarized and discussed in the context of each other. We present a scientific analysis of these submissions and presentations and the pursuant measurement capability needs, which could influence ultraviolet/visible technology development plans for the rest of this decade. We also describe the process and requirements leading to the inception of this community RFI, subsequent workshop and the expected evolution of these ideas and concepts for the remainder of this decade.

  8. Scientific Objectives for UV-Visible Astrophysics Investigations: A Summary of Responses by the Community (2012)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Scowen, Paul A.; Perez, Mario R.; Neff, Susan G.; Benford, Dominic J.

    2013-01-01

    Following several recommendations presented by the Astrophysics Decadal Survey 2010 centered around the need to define "a future ultraviolet-optical space capability," on 2012 May 25, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking persuasive ultraviolet (UV) and visible wavelength astrophysics science investigations. The goal was to develop a cohesive and compelling set of science objectives that motivate and support the development of the next generation of ultraviolet/visible space astrophysics missions. Responses were due on 10 August 2012 when 34 submissions were received addressing a number of potential science drivers. A UV/visible Mission RFI Workshop was held on 2012 September 20 where each of these submissions was summarized and discussed in the context of each other. We present a scientific analysis of these submissions and presentations and the pursuant measurement capability needs, which could influence ultraviolet/visible technology development plans for the rest of this decade. We also describe the process and requirements leading to the inception of this community RFI, subsequent workshop and the expected evolution of these ideas and concepts for the remainder of this decade.

  9. Scientific Objectives for UV-Visible Astrophysics Investigations: A Summary of Responses by the Community (2012)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Scowen, Paul A.; Perez, Mario R.; Neff, Susan G.; Benford, Dominic J.

    2014-01-01

    Following several recommendations presented by the Astrophysics Decadal Survey 2010 centered around the need to define "a future ultraviolet-optical space capability," on 2012 May 25, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking persuasive ultraviolet (UV) and visible wavelength astrophysics science investigations. The goal was to develop a cohesive and compelling set of science objectives that motivate and support the development of the next generation of ultraviolet/visible space astrophysics missions. Responses were due on 10 August 2012 when 34 submissions were received addressing a number of potential science drivers. A UV/visible Mission RFI Workshop was held on 2012 September 20 where each of these submissions was summarized and discussed in the context of each other. We present a scientific analysis of these submissions and presentations and the pursuant measurement capability needs, which could influence ultraviolet/visible technology development plans for the rest of this decade. We also describe the process and requirements leading to the inception of this community RFI, subsequent workshop and the expected evolution of these ideas and concepts for the remainder of this decade.

  10. The scientific basis for patient blood management.

    PubMed

    Murphy, M F; Goodnough, L T

    2015-08-01

    Patient blood management is an increasingly used term to describe an evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach to optimising the care of patients who might need transfusion. It encompasses measures to avoid transfusion such as anaemia management without transfusion, cell salvage and the use of anti-fibrinolytic drugs to reduce bleeding as well as restrictive transfusion. It ensures that patients receive the optimal treatment, and that avoidable, inappropriate use of blood and blood components is reduced. This paper provides an overview of the scientific basis for patient blood management with a focus on the increasing evidence for restrictive rather than liberal transfusion practice and the use of electronic blood ordering and decision support to facilitate its implementation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  11. Questioning skills of clinical facilitators supporting undergraduate nursing students.

    PubMed

    Phillips, Nicole M; Duke, Maxine M; Weerasuriya, Rona

    2017-12-01

    To report on a study investigating questioning skills of clinical facilitators who support the learning of undergraduate nursing students. The ability to think critically is integral to decision-making and the provision of safe and quality patient care. Developing students' critical thinking skills is expected of those who supervise and facilitate student learning in the clinical setting. Models used to facilitate student learning in the clinical setting have changed over the years with clinicians having dual responsibility for patient care and facilitating student learning. Many of these nurses have no preparation for the educative role. This study adapted a comparative study conducted over fifteen years ago. Descriptive online survey including three acute care patient scenarios involving an undergraduate nursing student. Participants were required to identify the questions they would ask the student in relation to the scenario. A total of 133 clinical facilitators including clinical teachers, clinical educators and preceptors from five large partner healthcare organisations of one Australian university participated. The majority of questions asked were knowledge questions, the lowest category in the cognitive domain requiring only simple recall of information. Facilitators who had undertaken an education-related course/workshop or formal qualification asked significantly more questions from the higher cognitive level. The study provides some evidence that nursing facilitators in the clinical setting ask students predominantly low-level questions. Further research is needed to identify strategies that develop the capacity of facilitators to ask higher level cognitive questions. Clinical facilitators should undertake targeted education that focuses on how to frame questions for students that demand application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  12. Development of Scientific Thinking Facilitated by Reflective Self-Assessment in a Communication-Intensive Food Science and Human Nutrition Course

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hendrich, Suzanne; Licklider, Barbara; Thompson, Katherine; Thompson, Janette; Haynes, Cynthia; Wiersema, Jan

    2018-01-01

    A one-credit seminar on controversies in food science and human nutrition was a platform to introduce students to learning frameworks for thinking-like-a-scientist. We hypothesized that explicitly engaging students in thinking about their thinking abilities within these frameworks would enhance their self-perception of scientific thinking, an…

  13. Using Cloud-Computing Applications to Support Collaborative Scientific Inquiry: Examining Pre-Service Teachers' Perceived Barriers to Integration

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Donna, Joel D.; Miller, Brant G.

    2013-01-01

    Technology plays a crucial role in facilitating collaboration within the scientific community. Cloud-computing applications, such as Google Drive, can be used to model such collaboration and support inquiry within the secondary science classroom. Little is known about pre-service teachers' beliefs related to the envisioned use of collaborative,…

  14. Perspective: Innocence and due diligence: managing unfounded allegations of scientific misconduct.

    PubMed

    Goldenring, James R

    2010-03-01

    While the incidence of fraud in science is well documented, issues related to the establishment of innocence in cases of fallacious allegations remain unaddressed. In this article, the author uses his own experience to examine issues that arise when investigators are falsely accused of scientific fraud. Investigators must understand the processes in place to protect themselves against false accusations. The present system takes a position of guilty until proven innocent, a concept that is antithetical to American principles of jurisprudence. Yet this stance is acceptable as a requirement for membership in the scientific community, more reflective of the rules within a guild organization. The necessity for proof of innocence by members of the scientific community carries obligations that transcend normal legal assumptions. Scientists must safeguard their reputations by organizing and maintaining all original image files and data relevant to publications and grant proposals. Investigators must be able to provide clear documentation rapidly whenever concerns are raised during the review process. Moreover, peer-reviewed journals must be diligent not only in the identification of fraud but also in providing rapid due process for adjudication of allegations. The success of the scientific guild rules of conduct lies in the practice of due diligence by both scientists and journal editors in questions of scientific misconduct.

  15. Empirical grounding of the nature of scientific inquiry: A study of developing researchers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stucky, Amy Preece

    This work uses grounded theory methodology for developing theory about the nature of authentic scientific inquiry that occurs on a day-to-day basis in an academic research laboratory. Symbolic interaction and situated learning provide a theoretical framework. Data were collected from field notes, over 100 hours of videotape of researchers working in a chemical research laboratory, and interviews with participants. The phenomena of a research laboratory suggest that authentic daily work stretches scientists in three learning modalities: cognitive, affective and motivational beliefs and goals, which influence action to promote learning. A laboratory's line of research is divided into individual, thematic projects. Researchers are enabled in a specialized laboratory environment with sets of unique artifacts, substances, people and theoretical concepts to facilitate production of significant research goals. The work itself consists of chemical and mechanical processes facilitated by human actions, appropriate mental states, and theoretical explanations. The cognitive, affective (emotional), and conative (motivational) stretching then leads to explicit learning as well as implicit learning in the gain of experience and tacit knowledge. Implications of these findings about the nature of authentic scientific research on a day-to-day basis are applied to inquiry in science education in undergraduate and graduate education.

  16. Investigating drug-facilitated sexual assault at a dedicated forensic centre in Cape Town, South Africa.

    PubMed

    Tiemensma, Marianne; Davies, Bronwen

    2018-04-23

    Drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) is a well-recognised public health concern. In South Africa however, epidemiological and toxicological data associated with suspected DFSA are not available. Toxicological screening is currently not routinely available in clinical forensic practice in the Western Cape, or elsewhere in South Africa. To preliminary investigate and characterize DFSA in a specific metropolitan setting in South Africa and to identify the drugs/xenobiotics associated with these reported DFSAs. In total, 107 survivors of suspected DFSA who reported to Victoria Hospital Clinical Forensic Unit in Cape Town, between 1 October 2013 and 30 June 2016, were included. Blood, urine, and/or hair specimens from survivors were screened for drugs of abuse using a targeted LC-MS/MS method. Breath alcohol measurements were conducted using the Dräger Alcotest 6820 after July 2015. Patient, incident and examination history were recorded on standardized data sheets. Of the 107 cases investigated, most of the patients were female (n=104, 97%), between the ages of 18-25years (n=54, 50%), and had reported to the Clinical Forensic Unit within 24h (n=78, 73%). Altogether, 30 patients (28%) reported a history of mental health issues, drugs and/or alcohol use, or prior sexual abuse. Most incidents took place in the late evening/early morning at the home of the assailant(s), a friend or of the patient (n=62, 58%), and most assailants were known to the victim (n=66, 62%). Specimens were positive for drugs and/or ethanol in 72 patients (67%), with drugs other than ethanol being detected in 60 patients (56%). Breath alcohol measurements were conducted in 58 cases during the prospective leg of the study with an average reading of 0.1mg/L (range not detected-0.98mg/L). DFSA in this setting is mostly opportunistic, with ethanol suggested to be the most commonly involved drug, despite limitations in detection due to delays in reporting. Other common drugs observed were

  17. Enhancing Scientific Foundations to Ensure Reproducibility: A New Paradigm.

    PubMed

    Hsieh, Terry; Vaickus, Max H; Remick, Daniel G

    2018-01-01

    Progress in science is dependent on a strong foundation of reliable results. The publish or perish paradigm in research, coupled with an increase in retracted articles from the peer-reviewed literature, is beginning to erode the trust of both the scientific community and the public. The NIH is combating errors by requiring investigators to follow new guidelines addressing scientific premise, experimental design, biological variables, and authentication of reagents. Herein, we discuss how implementation of NIH guidelines will help investigators proactively address pitfalls of experimental design and methods. Careful consideration of the variables contributing to reproducibility helps ensure robust results. The NIH, investigators, and journals must collaborate to ensure that quality science is funded, explored, and published. Copyright © 2018 American Society for Investigative Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  18. Modelling Scientific Argumentation in the Classroom : Teachers perception and practice

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Probosari, R. M.; Sajidan; Suranto; Prayitno, B. A.; Widyastuti, F.

    2017-02-01

    The purposes of this study were to investigate teacher’s perception about scientific argumentation and how they practice it in their classroom. Thirty biology teachers in high school participated in this study and illustrated their perception of scientific argumentation through a questionnaire. This survey research was developed to measure teachers’ understanding of scientific argumentation, what they know about scientific argumentation, the differentiation between argument and reasoning, how they plan teaching strategies in order to make students’ scientific argumentation better and the obstacles in teaching scientific argumentation. The result conclude that generally, teachers modified various representation to accommodate student’s active participation, but most of them assume that argument and reasoning are similar. Less motivation, tools and limited science’s knowledge were considered as obstacles in teaching argumentation. The findings can be helpful to improving students’ abilities of doing scientific argumentation as a part of inquiry.

  19. The Role of Scientific Collections in Scientific Preparedness

    PubMed Central

    2015-01-01

    Building on the findings and recommendations of the Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections, Scientific Collections International (SciColl) aims to improve the rapid access to science collections across disciplines within the federal government and globally, between government agencies and private research institutions. SciColl offered a novel opportunity for the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, to explore the value of scientific research collections under the science preparedness initiative and integrate it as a research resource at each stage in the emergence of the infectious diseases cycle. Under the leadership of SciColl’s executive secretariat at the Smithsonian Institution, and with multiple federal and international partners, a workshop during October 2014 fully explored the intersections of the infectious disease cycle and the role scientific collections could play as an evidentiary scientific resource to mitigate risks associated with emerging infectious diseases. PMID:26380390

  20. Program of scientific investigations and development of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC) in VNIITF. Proposals on scientific and technical collaboration and SOFC commercialization

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kleschev, Yu.N.; Chukharev, V.F.

    1996-04-01

    This paper describes proposals on scientific and technical collaborations pertaining to solid oxide fuel cell commercialization. Topics included for discussion are: materials research and manufacture; market estimation and cost; directions of collaboration; and project of proposals on joint enterprise creation.

  1. Understanding Facilitation: Theory and Principles.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hogan, Christine

    This book introduces newcomers to the concept of facilitation, and it presents a critical analysis of established and current theory on facilitation for existing practitioners. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) emergence of the field of facilitation; (2) development of facilitation in management; (3) development of facilitation in…

  2. Microbial Forensics: A Scientific Assessment

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Keim, Paul

    2003-02-17

    Microorganisms have been used as weapons in criminal acts, most recently highlighted by the terrorist attack using anthrax in the fall of 2001. Although such ''biocrimes'' are few compared with other crimes, these acts raise questions about the ability to provide forensic evidence for criminal prosecution that can be used to identify the source of the microorganisms used as a weapon and, more importantly, the perpetrator of the crime. Microbiologists traditionally investigate the sources of microorganisms in epidemiological investigations, but rarely have been asked to assist in criminal investigations. A colloquium was convened by the American Academy of Microbiology inmore » Burlington, Vermont, on June 7-9, 2002, in which 25 interdisciplinary, expert scientists representing evolutionary microbiology, ecology, genomics, genetics, bioinformatics, forensics, chemistry, and clinical microbiology, deliberated on issues in microbial forensics. The colloquium's purpose was to consider issues relating to microbial forensics, which included a detailed identification of a microorganism used in a bioattack and analysis of such a microorganism and related materials to identify its forensically meaningful source--the perpetrators of the bioattack. The colloquium examined the application of microbial forensics to assist in resolving biocrimes with a focus on what research and education are needed to facilitate the use of microbial forensics in criminal investigations and the subsequent prosecution of biocrimes, including acts of bioterrorism. First responders must consider forensic issues, such as proper collection of samples to allow for optimal laboratory testing, along with maintaining a chain of custody that will support eventual prosecution. Because a biocrime may not be immediately apparent, a linkage must be made between routine diagnosis, epidemiological investigation, and criminal investigation. There is a need for establishing standard operating procedures and

  3. How can we enhance girls' interest in scientific topics?

    PubMed

    Kerger, Sylvie; Martin, Romain; Brunner, Martin

    2011-12-01

    Girls are considerably less interested in scientific subjects than boys. One reason may be that scientific subjects are considered to be genuinely masculine. Thus, being interested in science may threaten the self-perception of girls as well as the femininity of their self-image. If scientific topics that are considered to be stereotypically feminine were chosen, however, this potential threat might be overcome which, in turn, might lead to an increase in girls' interest in science. This hypothesis was empirically tested by means of two studies. Participants were 294 (Study 1) and 190 (Study 2) Grade 8 to Grade 9 students. Gender differences in students' interest in masculine and feminine topics were investigated for a range of scientific concepts (Study 1) as well as for a given scientific concept (Study 2) for four scientific subjects (i.e., biology, physics, information technology, and statistics), respectively. Both studies indicated that the mean level of girls' scientific interest was higher when scientific concepts were presented in the context of feminine topics and boys' level of scientific interests was higher when scientific concepts were presented in the context of masculine topics. Girls' interest in science could be substantially increased by presenting scientific concepts in the context of feminine topics. Gender differences as well as individual differences in the level of interest in scientific topics may be taken into account by creating learning environments in which students could select the context in which a certain scientific concept is embedded. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

  4. Measuring scientific research in emerging nano-energy field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guan, Jiancheng; Liu, Na

    2014-04-01

    The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively explore scientific research profiles in the field of emerging nano-energy during 1991-2012 based on bibliometrics and social network analysis. We investigate the growth pattern of research output, and then carry out across countries/regions comparisons on research performances. Furthermore, we examine scientific collaboration across countries/regions by analyzing collaborative intensity and networks in 3- to 4-year intervals. Results indicate with an impressively exponential growth pattern of nano-energy articles, the world share of scientific "giants," such as the USA, Germany, England, France and Japan, display decreasing research trends, especially in the USA. Emerging economies, including China, South Korea and India, exhibit a rise in terms of the world share, illustrating strong development momentum of these countries in nano-energy research. Strikingly, China displays a remarkable rise in scientific influence rivaling Germany, Japan, France, and England in the last few years. Finally, the scientific collaborative network in nano-energy research has expanded steadily. Although the USA and several major European countries play significantly roles on scientific collaboration, China and South Korea exert great influence on scientific collaboration in recent years. The findings imply that emerging economies can earn competitive advantages in some emerging fields by properly engaging a catch-up strategy.

  5. Toward a scientifically rigorous basis for developing mapped ecological regions.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    McMahon, G.; Wiken, E.B.; Gauthier, D.A.

    2004-01-01

    Despite the wide use of ecological regions in conservation and resource-management evaluations and assessments, a commonly accepted theoretical basis for ecological regionalization does not exist. This fact, along with the paucity of focus on ecological regionalization by professional associations, journals, and faculties, has inhibited the advancement of a broadly acceptable scientific basis for the development, use, and verification of ecological regions. The central contention of this article is that ecological regions should improve our understanding of geographic and ecological phenomena associated with biotic and abiotic processes occurring in individual regions and also of processes characteristic of interactions and dependencies among multiple regions. Research associated with any ecoregional framework should facilitate development of hypotheses about ecological phenomena and dominant landscape elements associated with these phenomena, how these phenomena are structured in space, and how they function in a hierarchy. Success in addressing the research recommendations outlined in this article cannot occur within an ad hoc, largely uncoordinated research environment. Successful implementation of this plan will require activities--coordination, funding, and education--that are both scientific and administrative in nature. Perhaps the most important element of an infrastructure to support the scientific work of ecoregionalization would be a national or international authority similar to the Water and Science Technology Board of the National Academy of Sciences.

  6. Toward a Scientifically Rigorous Basis for Developing Mapped Ecological Regions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McMahon, Gerard; Wiken, Ed B.; Gauthier, David A.

    2004-04-01

    Despite the wide use of ecological regions in conservation and resource-management evaluations and assessments, a commonly accepted theoretical basis for ecological regionalization does not exist. This fact, along with the paucity of focus on ecological regionalization by professional associations, journals, and faculties, has inhibited the advancement of a broadly acceptable scientific basis for the development, use, and verification of ecological regions. The central contention of this article is that ecological regions should improve our understanding of geographic and ecological phenomena associated with biotic and abiotic processes occurring in individual regions and also of processes characteristic of interactions and dependencies among multiple regions. Research associated with any ecoregional framework should facilitate development of hypotheses about ecological phenomena and dominant landscape elements associated with these phenomena, how these phenomena are structured in space, and how they function in a hierarchy. Success in addressing the research recommendations outlined in this article cannot occur within an ad hoc, largely uncoordinated research environment. Successful implementation of this plan will require activities—coordination, funding, and education—that are both scientific and administrative in nature. Perhaps the most important element of an infrastructure to support the scientific work of ecoregionalization would be a national or international authority similar to the Water and Science Technology Board of the National Academy of Sciences.

  7. The contamination of scientific literature: looking for an antidote

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liotta, Marcello

    2017-04-01

    Science may have very strong implications for society. The knowledge of the processes occurring around the society represents a good opportunity to take responsible decisions. This is particularly true in the field of geosciences. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, climate changes and many other natural phenomena still need to be further investigated. The role of the scientific community is to increase the knowledge. Each member can share his own ideas and data thus allowing the entire scientific community to receive a precious contribution. The latter one often derives from research activities, which are expensive in terms of consumed time and resources. Nowadays the sharing of scientific results occurs through the publication on scientific journals. The reading of available scientific literature thus represents a unique opportunity to define the state of the art on a specific topic and to address research activities towards something new. When published results are obtained through a rigorous scientific process, they constitute a solid background where each member can add his ideas and evidences. Differently, published results may be affected by scientific misconduct; they constitute a labyrinth where the scientists lose their time in the attempt of truly understanding the natural processes. The normal scientific dialectic should unmask such results, thus avoiding literature contamination and making the scientific framework more stimulating. The scientific community should look for the best practice to reduce the risk of literature contamination.

  8. A Scientific World in a Grain of Sand

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Clary, Renee; Wandersee, James

    2011-01-01

    Students investigate local sand samples on a shoestring budget. This investigation reveals a fascinating Earth history that can address various interdisciplinary scientific topics, provide rich inquiry experiences, and move beyond the science classroom to integrate history, culture, and art. (Contains 3 figures and 14 online resources.)

  9. NCI at Frederick Scientific Library Reintroduces Scientific Publications Database | Poster

    Cancer.gov

    A 20-year-old database of scientific publications by NCI at Frederick, FNLCR, and affiliated employees has gotten a significant facelift. Maintained by the Scientific Library, the redesigned database—which is linked from each of the Scientific Library’s web pages—offers features that were not available in previous versions, such as additional search limits and non-traditional metrics for scholarly and scientific publishing known as altmetrics.

  10. The United States of America and scientific research.

    PubMed

    Hather, Gregory J; Haynes, Winston; Higdon, Roger; Kolker, Natali; Stewart, Elizabeth A; Arzberger, Peter; Chain, Patrick; Field, Dawn; Franza, B Robert; Lin, Biaoyang; Meyer, Folker; Ozdemir, Vural; Smith, Charles V; van Belle, Gerald; Wooley, John; Kolker, Eugene

    2010-08-16

    To gauge the current commitment to scientific research in the United States of America (US), we compared federal research funding (FRF) with the US gross domestic product (GDP) and industry research spending during the past six decades. In order to address the recent globalization of scientific research, we also focused on four key indicators of research activities: research and development (R&D) funding, total science and engineering doctoral degrees, patents, and scientific publications. We compared these indicators across three major population and economic regions: the US, the European Union (EU) and the People's Republic of China (China) over the past decade. We discovered a number of interesting trends with direct relevance for science policy. The level of US FRF has varied between 0.2% and 0.6% of the GDP during the last six decades. Since the 1960s, the US FRF contribution has fallen from twice that of industrial research funding to roughly equal. Also, in the last two decades, the portion of the US government R&D spending devoted to research has increased. Although well below the US and the EU in overall funding, the current growth rate for R&D funding in China greatly exceeds that of both. Finally, the EU currently produces more science and engineering doctoral graduates and scientific publications than the US in absolute terms, but not per capita. This study's aim is to facilitate a serious discussion of key questions by the research community and federal policy makers. In particular, our results raise two questions with respect to: a) the increasing globalization of science: "What role is the US playing now, and what role will it play in the future of international science?"; and b) the ability to produce beneficial innovations for society: "How will the US continue to foster its strengths?"

  11. The United States of America and Scientific Research

    PubMed Central

    Hather, Gregory J.; Haynes, Winston; Higdon, Roger; Kolker, Natali; Stewart, Elizabeth A.; Arzberger, Peter; Chain, Patrick; Field, Dawn; Franza, B. Robert; Lin, Biaoyang; Meyer, Folker; Ozdemir, Vural; Smith, Charles V.; van Belle, Gerald; Wooley, John; Kolker, Eugene

    2010-01-01

    To gauge the current commitment to scientific research in the United States of America (US), we compared federal research funding (FRF) with the US gross domestic product (GDP) and industry research spending during the past six decades. In order to address the recent globalization of scientific research, we also focused on four key indicators of research activities: research and development (R&D) funding, total science and engineering doctoral degrees, patents, and scientific publications. We compared these indicators across three major population and economic regions: the US, the European Union (EU) and the People's Republic of China (China) over the past decade. We discovered a number of interesting trends with direct relevance for science policy. The level of US FRF has varied between 0.2% and 0.6% of the GDP during the last six decades. Since the 1960s, the US FRF contribution has fallen from twice that of industrial research funding to roughly equal. Also, in the last two decades, the portion of the US government R&D spending devoted to research has increased. Although well below the US and the EU in overall funding, the current growth rate for R&D funding in China greatly exceeds that of both. Finally, the EU currently produces more science and engineering doctoral graduates and scientific publications than the US in absolute terms, but not per capita. This study's aim is to facilitate a serious discussion of key questions by the research community and federal policy makers. In particular, our results raise two questions with respect to: a) the increasing globalization of science: “What role is the US playing now, and what role will it play in the future of international science?”; and b) the ability to produce beneficial innovations for society: “How will the US continue to foster its strengths?” PMID:20808949

  12. Scientific Investigations Associated with the Human Exploration of Mars in the Next 35 Years

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Niles, P. B.; Beaty, D.; Hays, L.; Bass, D.; Bell, M. S.; Bleacher, J.; Cabrol, N. A.; Conrad, P.; Eppler, D.; Hamilton, V.; Head, J.; Kahre, M.; Levy, J.; Lyons, T.; Rafkin, S.; Rice, J.; Rice, M.

    2017-02-01

    We present a summary of the findings of the Human Science Objectives Science Analysis Group (HSO-SAG) chartered by MEPAG in 2015 to address science objectives and landing site criteria for future human missions to Mars which could provide incredible scientific discovery.

  13. Cancer research in need of a scientific revolution: Using 'paradigm shift' as a method of investigation.

    PubMed

    Wion, Didier; Appaix, Florence; Burruss, Meriwether; Berger, Francois; van der Sanden, Boudewijn

    2015-09-01

    Despite important human and financial resources and considerable accumulation of scientific publications, patents, and clinical trials, cancer research has been slow in achieving a therapeutic revolution similar to the one that occurred in the last century for infectious diseases. It has been proposed that science proceeds not only by accumulating data but also through paradigm shifts. Here, we propose to use the concept of 'paradigm shift' as a method of investigation when dominant paradigms fail to achieve their promises. The first step in using the 'paradigm shift' method in cancer research requires identifying its founding paradigms. In this review, two of these founding paradigms will be discussed: (i) the reification of cancer as a tumour mass and (ii) the translation of the concepts issued from infectious disease in cancer research. We show how these founding paradigms can generate biases that lead to over-diagnosis and over-treatment and also hamper the development of curative cancer therapies. We apply the 'paradigm shift' method to produce perspective reversals consistent with current experimental evidence. The 'paradigm shift' method enlightens the existence of a tumour physiologic-prophylactic-pathologic continuum. It integrates the target/antitarget concept and that cancer is also an extracellular disease. The 'paradigm shift' method has immediate implications for cancer prevention and therapy. It could be a general method of investigation for other diseases awaiting therapy.

  14. Research Prototype: Automated Analysis of Scientific and Engineering Semantics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stewart, Mark E. M.; Follen, Greg (Technical Monitor)

    2001-01-01

    Physical and mathematical formulae and concepts are fundamental elements of scientific and engineering software. These classical equations and methods are time tested, universally accepted, and relatively unambiguous. The existence of this classical ontology suggests an ideal problem for automated comprehension. This problem is further motivated by the pervasive use of scientific code and high code development costs. To investigate code comprehension in this classical knowledge domain, a research prototype has been developed. The prototype incorporates scientific domain knowledge to recognize code properties (including units, physical, and mathematical quantity). Also, the procedure implements programming language semantics to propagate these properties through the code. This prototype's ability to elucidate code and detect errors will be demonstrated with state of the art scientific codes.

  15. Transformative Impact of Proteomics on Cardiovascular Health and Disease: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

    PubMed

    Lindsey, Merry L; Mayr, Manuel; Gomes, Aldrin V; Delles, Christian; Arrell, D Kent; Murphy, Anne M; Lange, Richard A; Costello, Catherine E; Jin, Yu-Fang; Laskowitz, Daniel T; Sam, Flora; Terzic, Andre; Van Eyk, Jennifer; Srinivas, Pothur R

    2015-09-01

    The year 2014 marked the 20th anniversary of the coining of the term proteomics. The purpose of this scientific statement is to summarize advances over this period that have catalyzed our capacity to address the experimental, translational, and clinical implications of proteomics as applied to cardiovascular health and disease and to evaluate the current status of the field. Key successes that have energized the field are delineated; opportunities for proteomics to drive basic science research, facilitate clinical translation, and establish diagnostic and therapeutic healthcare algorithms are discussed; and challenges that remain to be solved before proteomic technologies can be readily translated from scientific discoveries to meaningful advances in cardiovascular care are addressed. Proteomics is the result of disruptive technologies, namely, mass spectrometry and database searching, which drove protein analysis from 1 protein at a time to protein mixture analyses that enable large-scale analysis of proteins and facilitate paradigm shifts in biological concepts that address important clinical questions. Over the past 20 years, the field of proteomics has matured, yet it is still developing rapidly. The scope of this statement will extend beyond the reaches of a typical review article and offer guidance on the use of next-generation proteomics for future scientific discovery in the basic research laboratory and clinical settings. © 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.

  16. Sciologer: Visualizing and Exploring Scientific Communities

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bales, Michael Eliot

    2009-01-01

    Despite the recognized need to increase interdisciplinary collaboration, there are few information resources available to provide researchers with an overview of scientific communities--topics under investigation by various groups, and patterns of collaboration among groups. The tools that are available are designed for expert social network…

  17. Effects of Students' Prior Knowledge on Scientific Reasoning in Density.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yang, Il-Ho; Kwon, Yong-Ju; Kim, Young-Shin; Jang, Myoung-Duk; Jeong, Jin-Woo; Park, Kuk-Tae

    2002-01-01

    Investigates the effects of students' prior knowledge on the scientific reasoning processes of performing the task of controlling variables with computer simulation and identifies a number of problems that students encounter in scientific discovery. Involves (n=27) 5th grade students and (n=33) 7th grade students. Indicates that students' prior…

  18. In Search of Cross-Talk Facilitation in a Dual-Cued Recall Task

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Rickard, Timothy C.; Bajic, Daniel

    2005-01-01

    Despite earlier evidence that the presence of 2 redundant cues can facilitate activation of a common response, T. C. Rickard and D. Bajic (2004) found no dual-cue facilitation in the case of cued recall, provided that each cue-response association was learned independently. In this study the authors investigated the generality of their results…

  19. The Operation of a Specialized Scientific Information and Data Analysis Center With Computer Base and Associated Communications Network.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cottrell, William B.; And Others

    The Nuclear Safety Information Center (NSIC) is a highly sophisticated scientific information center operated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Its information file, which consists of both data and bibliographic information, is computer stored and numerous programs have been developed to facilitate the…

  20. Data mart construction based on semantic annotation of scientific articles: A case study for the prioritization of drug targets.

    PubMed

    Teixeira, Marlon Amaro Coelho; Belloze, Kele Teixeira; Cavalcanti, Maria Cláudia; Silva-Junior, Floriano P

    2018-04-01

    Semantic text annotation enables the association of semantic information (ontology concepts) to text expressions (terms), which are readable by software agents. In the scientific scenario, this is particularly useful because it reveals a lot of scientific discoveries that are hidden within academic articles. The Biomedical area has more than 300 ontologies, most of them composed of over 500 concepts. These ontologies can be used to annotate scientific papers and thus, facilitate data extraction. However, in the context of a scientific research, a simple keyword-based query using the interface of a digital scientific texts library can return more than a thousand hits. The analysis of such a large set of texts, annotated with such numerous and large ontologies, is not an easy task. Therefore, the main objective of this work is to provide a method that could facilitate this task. This work describes a method called Text and Ontology ETL (TOETL), to build an analytical view over such texts. First, a corpus of selected papers is semantically annotated using distinct ontologies. Then, the annotation data is extracted, organized and aggregated into the dimensional schema of a data mart. Besides the TOETL method, this work illustrates its application through the development of the TaP DM (Target Prioritization data mart). This data mart has focus on the research of gene essentiality, a key concept to be considered when searching for genes showing potential as anti-infective drug targets. This work reveals that the proposed approach is a relevant tool to support decision making in the prioritization of new drug targets, being more efficient than the keyword-based traditional tools. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Shared decision making: relevant concepts and facilitating strategies.

    PubMed

    Bae, Jong-Myon

    2017-01-01

    As the paradigm in healthcare nowadays is the evidence-based, patient-centered decision making, the issue of shared decision making (SDM) is highlighted. The aims of this manuscript were to look at the relevant concepts and suggest the facilitating strategies for overcoming barriers of conducting SDM. While the definitions of SDM were discordant, several concepts such as good communication, individual autonomy, patient participants, and patient-centered decision-making were involved. Further, the facilitating strategies of SDM were to educate and train physician, to apply clinical practice guidelines and patient decision aids, to develop valid measurement tools for evaluation of SDM processes, and to investigate the impact of SDM.

  2. Facilitated versus Non-Facilitated Online Case Discussions: Comparing Differences in Problem Space Coverage

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ertmer, Peggy A.; Koehler, Adrie A.

    2015-01-01

    The facilitator plays a key role in guiding students' efforts during case discussions. However, few studies have compared differences in learning outcomes for students participating in facilitated versus non-facilitated discussions. In this research, we used "problem space coverage" as a learning measure to compare outcomes between…

  3. Exploration of Korean Students' Scientific Imagination Using the Scientific Imagination Inventory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mun, Jiyeong; Mun, Kongju; Kim, Sung-Won

    2015-01-01

    This article reports on the study of the components of scientific imagination and describes the scales used to measure scientific imagination in Korean elementary and secondary students. In this study, we developed an inventory, which we call the Scientific Imagination Inventory (SII), in order to examine aspects of scientific imagination. We…

  4. Stewardship of Integrity in Scientific Communication.

    PubMed

    Albertine, Kurt H

    2018-06-14

    Integrity in the pursuit of discovery through application of the scientific method and reporting the results is an obligation for each of us as scientists. We cannot let the value of science be diminished because discovering knowledge is vital to understand ourselves and our impacts on the earth. We support the value of science by our stewardship of integrity in the conduct, training, reporting, and proposing of scientific investigation. The players who have these responsibilities are authors, reviewers, editors, and readers. Each role has to be played with vigilance for ethical behavior, including compliance with regulations for protections of study subjects, use of select agents and biohazards, regulations of use of stem cells, resource sharing, posting datasets to public repositories, etc. The positive take-home message is that the scientific community is taking steps in behavior to protect the integrity of science. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Investigations related to scientific deep drilling to study reservoir-triggered earthquakes at Koyna, India

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gupta, Harsh; Purnachandra Rao, N.; Roy, Sukanta; Arora, Kusumita; Tiwari, V. M.; Patro, Prasanta K.; Satyanarayana, H. V. S.; Shashidhar, D.; Mallika, K.; Akkiraju, Vyasulu V.; Goswami, Deepjyoti; Vyas, Digant; Ravi, G.; Srinivas, K. N. S. S. S.; Srihari, M.; Mishra, S.; Dubey, C. P.; Raju, D. Ch. V.; Borah, Ujjal; Chinna Reddy, K.; Babu, Narendra; Rohilla, Sunil; Dhar, Upasana; Sen, Mrinal; Bhaskar Rao, Y. J.; Bansal, B. K.; Nayak, Shailesh

    2015-09-01

    Artificial water reservoir-triggered earthquakes have continued at Koyna in the Deccan Traps province, India, since the impoundment of the Shivaji Sagar reservoir in 1962. Existing models, to comprehend the genesis of triggered earthquakes, suffer from lack of observations in the near field. To investigate further, scientific deep drilling and setting up a fault zone observatory at depth of 5-7 km is planned in the Koyna area. Prior to undertaking deep drilling, an exploratory phase of investigations has been launched to constrain subsurface geology, structure and heat flow regime in the area that provide critical inputs for the design of the deep borehole observatory. Two core boreholes drilled to depths of 1,522 and 1,196 m have penetrated the Deccan Traps and sampled the granitic basement in the region for the first time. Studies on cores provide new and direct information regarding the thickness of the Deccan Traps, the absence of infra-Trappean sediments and the nature of the underlying basement rocks. Temperatures estimated at a depth of 6 km in the area, made on the basis of heat flow and thermal properties data sets, do not exceed 150 °C. Low-elevation airborne gravity gradient and magnetic data sets covering 5,012 line km, together with high-quality magnetotelluric data at 100 stations, provide both regional information about the thickness of the Deccan Traps and the occurrence of localized density heterogeneities and anomalous conductive zones in the vicinity of the hypocentral zone. Acquisition of airborne LiDAR data to obtain a high-resolution topographic model of the region has been completed over an area of 1,064 km2 centred on the Koyna seismic zone. Seismometers have been deployed in the granitic basement inside two boreholes and are planned in another set of six boreholes to obtain accurate hypocentral locations and constrain the disposition of fault zones.

  6. Adventures in supercomputing: Scientific exploration in an era of change

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gentry, E.; Helland, B.; Summers, B.

    1997-11-01

    Students deserve the opportunity to explore the world of science surrounding them. Therefore it is important that scientific exploration and investigation be a part of each student`s educational career. The Department of Energy`s Adventures in Superconducting (AiS) takes students beyond mere scientific literacy to a rich embodiment of scientific exploration. AiS provides today`s science and math students with a greater opportunity to investigate science problems, propose solutions, explore different methods of solving the problem, organize their work into a technical paper, and present their results. Students learn at different rates in different ways. Science classes with students having varying learningmore » styles and levels of achievement have always been a challenge for teachers. The AiS {open_quotes}hands-on, minds-on{close_quotes} project-based method of teaching science meets the challenge of this diversity heads on! AiS uses the development of student chosen projects as the means of achieving a lifelong enthusiasm for scientific proficiency. One goal of AiS is to emulate the research that takes place in the everyday environment of scientists. Students work in teams and often collaborate with students nationwide. With the help of mentors from the academic and scientific community, students pose a problem in science, investigate possible solutions, design a mathematical and computational model for the problem, exercise the model to achieve results, and evaluate the implications of the results. The students then have the opportunity to present the project to their peers, teachers, and scientists. Using this inquiry-based technique, students learn more than science skills, they learn to reason and think -- going well beyond the National Science Education Standard. The teacher becomes a resource person actively working together with the students in their quest for scientific knowledge.« less

  7. Poor reporting of scientific leadership information in clinical trial registers.

    PubMed

    Sekeres, Melanie; Gold, Jennifer L; Chan, An-Wen; Lexchin, Joel; Moher, David; Van Laethem, Marleen L P; Maskalyk, James; Ferris, Lorraine; Taback, Nathan; Rochon, Paula A

    2008-02-20

    In September 2004, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) issued a Statement requiring that all clinical trials be registered at inception in a public register in order to be considered for publication. The World Health Organization (WHO) and ICMJE have identified 20 items that should be provided before a trial is considered registered, including contact information. Identifying those scientifically responsible for trial conduct increases accountability. The objective is to examine the proportion of registered clinical trials providing valid scientific leadership information. We reviewed clinical trial entries listing Canadian investigators in the two largest international and public trial registers, the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN) register, and ClinicalTrials.gov. The main outcome measures were the proportion of clinical trials reporting valid contact information for the trials' Principal Investigator (PI)/Co-ordinating Investigator/Study Chair/Site PI, and trial e-mail contact address, stratified by funding source, recruiting status, and register. A total of 1388 entries (142 from ISRCTN and 1246 from ClinicalTrials.gov) comprised our sample. We found non-compliance with mandatory registration requirements regarding scientific leadership and trial contact information. Non-industry and partial industry funded trials were significantly more likely to identify the individual responsible for scientific leadership (OR = 259, 95% CI: 95-701) and to provide a contact e-mail address (OR = 9.6, 95% CI: 6.6-14) than were solely industry funded trials. Despite the requirements set by WHO and ICMJE, data on scientific leadership and contact e-mail addresses are frequently omitted from clinical trials registered in the two leading public clinical trial registers. To promote accountability and transparency in clinical trials research, public clinical trials registers should ensure adequate monitoring of trial

  8. Switching between Everyday and Scientific Language

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blown, Eric J.; Bryce, Tom G. K.

    2017-01-01

    The research reported here investigated the everyday and scientific repertoires of children involved in semi-structured, Piagetian interviews carried out to check their understanding of dynamic astronomical concepts like daytime and night-time. It focused on the switching taking place between embedded and disembedded thinking; on the imagery which…

  9. Undergraduate medical academic performance is improved by scientific training.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Lili; Zhang, Wei; Wu, Chong; Liu, Zhongming; Cai, Yunfei; Cao, Xingguo; He, Yushan; Liu, Guoxiang; Miao, Hongming

    2017-09-01

    The effect of scientific training on course learning in undergraduates is still controversial. In this study, we investigated the academic performance of undergraduate students with and without scientific training. The results show that scientific training improves students' test scores in general medical courses, such as biochemistry and molecular biology, cell biology, physiology, and even English. We classified scientific training into four levels. We found that literature reading could significantly improve students' test scores in general courses. Students who received scientific training carried out experiments more effectively and published articles performed better than their untrained counterparts in biochemistry and molecular biology examinations. The questionnaire survey demonstrated that the trained students were more confident of their course learning, and displayed more interest, motivation and capability in course learning. In summary, undergraduate academic performance is improved by scientific training. Our findings shed light on the novel strategies in the management of undergraduate education in the medical school. © 2017 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(5):379-384, 2017. © 2017 The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

  10. Success with Investigations.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Chin, Christine

    2003-01-01

    Describes strategies for facilitating student science investigations and alleviating common weaknesses associated with student performance. Includes checklist criteria for performance on investigative tasks and an example of an assessment rubric for the investigation of the effect of temperature on enzyme activity. (Author/KHR)

  11. Characterizing scientific production of Italian Oral Surgery professionals through evaluation of bibliometric indices.

    PubMed

    Tetè, Stefano; Zizzari, Vincenzo Luca; De Carlo, Alessandro; Lorusso, Felice; Di Nicola, Marta; Piattelli, Adriano; Gherlone, Enrico; Polimeni, Antonella

    2014-01-01

    The aim of this study was to characterize the scientific production of Italian Oral Surgery professionals by evaluating different bibliometric indices. The bibliometric evaluation was conducted on the Scopus Database upon all the Active Members joining three important Italian scientific societies in Oral Surgery (SIdCO, SIO, and SICOI). The scientific production was analysed by considering the number of total publications, number of total citations, h-index, and hc-index. Moreover, the overall sample was divided into two groups (Academics and Not Academics), according to the fact the professionals had or not a university position, and then into sub-groups according to the different career lengths. Statistical analyses were performed to compare the scientific productivity amongst groups. For all the considered parameters a lack of homogeneity between groups was reported, and significantly greater mean values were recorded for the Academics compared to the Not Academics Group. Moreover, the h-index values increased more regularly as the career length progressed than the hc-index values, even if the last seemed to be less variable. h- and hc-indices are both stable bibliometric parameters, but as the hc-index values are related not only to the number of citation but also to their age, it seems to be less influenced by the authors' career length. Bibliometric analysis of the scientific production in dentistry may facilitate the recognition of factors that may further enhance research activity and clinical performance and be useful for a comparative assessment of authors or research groups in terms of quality and quantity of the scientific production.

  12. Ethics and fraud in science: a review of scientific misconduct and applications to craniofacial research.

    PubMed

    Eliades, Theodore; Athanasiou, Athanasios E; Papadopulos, Jannis S

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to review and discuss the occurrence of fraud in biomedical research and analyze the definition, origin, and various forms of scientific misconduct. Fraud in research most often involves reporting data for which no records of experiment or population are present; manipulating research materials, equipment, or procedures to arrive at the desirable result; adding, changing, or omitting results, which positively or negatively relate to the hypothesis that the research intends to test; and incorporating ideas, statements, procedures of others' work without permission and appropriate credit to the source. The etiologic factors contributing to this deviant behavior, and measures taken by relevant bodies to eliminate this phenomenon are discussed. Ethical and integrity aspects of craniofacial research are explored and a set of criteria to facilitate rigorous assessment of the integrity of clinical and basic research protocols is proposed. These include (1) an integrity-focused training of researchers to adhere to specific laboratory procedure and tactics which discourage fraud; (2) appointment of external reviewers to detect unusual and suspicious experimental process or data patterns; and (3) encouragement of multicenter trials. Although it is widely recognized that the sole determinant of scientific misconduct is the individual investigator's integrity, a number of precautions may effectively reduce the prevalence of this event, which may affect the status and trends of biomedical research in general.

  13. Supporting Beginning Teacher Planning and Enactment of Investigation-based Science Discussions: The Design and Use of Tools within Practice-based Teacher Education

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kademian, Sylvie M.

    explanation construction. Student opportunities to engage in practices that prioritize scientific discourse also occurred when interns were using dialogic voice and the tools designed to foster development of teacher knowledge for facilitating investigation-based science discussions. However, several intern characteristics likely moderated or mediated intern use of tools, dialogic voice, and productive teaching practices to capitalize on student contributions. These characteristics included intern knowledge of the science content and practices and initial beliefs about science teaching. Missed opportunities to use a combination of several teaching practices and tools designed to foster the development of knowledge for science teaching resulted in fewer opportunities for students to engage in data analysis, argumentation based on evidence, and construction of scientific explanations. These findings highlight the potential of teacher-educator provided tools for supporting beginning teachers in learning to facilitate investigation-based discussions that capitalize on student contributions. These findings also help the field conceptualize how beginning teachers use tools and teaching practices to plan and enact investigation-based science lessons, and how intern characteristics relate to tool use and planned and enacted lessons. By analyzing the investigation-based science lessons holistically, this study begins to unpack the complexities of facilitating investigation-based discussions including the interplay between intern characteristics and tool use, and the ways intern engagement in synergistic teaching practices provide opportunities for students to engage in data analysis, explanation construction, and argumentation. This study also describes methodological implications for this type of whole-lesson analysis and comments on the need for further research investigating beginning teachers' use of tools over time. Finally, I propose the need for iterative design of scaffolds to

  14. The need for scientific software engineering in the pharmaceutical industry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luty, Brock; Rose, Peter W.

    2017-03-01

    Scientific software engineering is a distinct discipline from both computational chemistry project support and research informatics. A scientific software engineer not only has a deep understanding of the science of drug discovery but also the desire, skills and time to apply good software engineering practices. A good team of scientific software engineers can create a software foundation that is maintainable, validated and robust. If done correctly, this foundation enable the organization to investigate new and novel computational ideas with a very high level of efficiency.

  15. The need for scientific software engineering in the pharmaceutical industry.

    PubMed

    Luty, Brock; Rose, Peter W

    2017-03-01

    Scientific software engineering is a distinct discipline from both computational chemistry project support and research informatics. A scientific software engineer not only has a deep understanding of the science of drug discovery but also the desire, skills and time to apply good software engineering practices. A good team of scientific software engineers can create a software foundation that is maintainable, validated and robust. If done correctly, this foundation enable the organization to investigate new and novel computational ideas with a very high level of efficiency.

  16. Scientific reasoning skills development in the introductory biology courses for undergraduates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schen, Melissa S.

    Scientific reasoning is a skill of critical importance to those students who seek to become professional scientists. Yet, there is little research on the development of such reasoning in science majors. In addition, scientific reasoning is often investigated as two separate entities: hypothetico-deductive reasoning and argumentation, even though these skills may be linked. With regard to argumentation, most investigations look at its use in discussing socioscientific issues, not in analyzing scientific data. As scientists often use the same argumentation skills to develop and support conclusions, this avenue needs to be investigated. This study seeks to address these issues and establish a baseline of both hypothetico-deductive reasoning and argumentation of scientific data of biology majors through their engagement in introductory biology coursework. This descriptive study investigated the development of undergraduates' scientific reasoning skills by assessing them multiple times throughout a two-quarter introductory biology course sequence for majors. Participants were assessed at the beginning of the first quarter, end of the first quarter, and end of the second quarter. A split-half version of the revised Lawson Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning (LCTSR) and a paper and pencil argumentation instrument developed for this study were utilized to assess student hypothetico-deductive reasoning and argumentation skills, respectively. To identify factors that may influence scientific reasoning development, demographic information regarding age, gender, science coursework completed, and future plans was collected. Evidence for course emphasis on scientific reasoning was found in lecture notes, assignments, and laboratory exercises. This study did not find any trends of improvement in the students' hypothetico-deductive reasoning or argumentation skills either during the first quarter or over both quarters. Specific difficulties in the control of variables and

  17. Towards Robot Scientists for autonomous scientific discovery

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    We review the main components of autonomous scientific discovery, and how they lead to the concept of a Robot Scientist. This is a system which uses techniques from artificial intelligence to automate all aspects of the scientific discovery process: it generates hypotheses from a computer model of the domain, designs experiments to test these hypotheses, runs the physical experiments using robotic systems, analyses and interprets the resulting data, and repeats the cycle. We describe our two prototype Robot Scientists: Adam and Eve. Adam has recently proven the potential of such systems by identifying twelve genes responsible for catalysing specific reactions in the metabolic pathways of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This work has been formally recorded in great detail using logic. We argue that the reporting of science needs to become fully formalised and that Robot Scientists can help achieve this. This will make scientific information more reproducible and reusable, and promote the integration of computers in scientific reasoning. We believe the greater automation of both the physical and intellectual aspects of scientific investigations to be essential to the future of science. Greater automation improves the accuracy and reliability of experiments, increases the pace of discovery and, in common with conventional laboratory automation, removes tedious and repetitive tasks from the human scientist. PMID:20119518

  18. Towards Robot Scientists for autonomous scientific discovery.

    PubMed

    Sparkes, Andrew; Aubrey, Wayne; Byrne, Emma; Clare, Amanda; Khan, Muhammed N; Liakata, Maria; Markham, Magdalena; Rowland, Jem; Soldatova, Larisa N; Whelan, Kenneth E; Young, Michael; King, Ross D

    2010-01-04

    We review the main components of autonomous scientific discovery, and how they lead to the concept of a Robot Scientist. This is a system which uses techniques from artificial intelligence to automate all aspects of the scientific discovery process: it generates hypotheses from a computer model of the domain, designs experiments to test these hypotheses, runs the physical experiments using robotic systems, analyses and interprets the resulting data, and repeats the cycle. We describe our two prototype Robot Scientists: Adam and Eve. Adam has recently proven the potential of such systems by identifying twelve genes responsible for catalysing specific reactions in the metabolic pathways of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This work has been formally recorded in great detail using logic. We argue that the reporting of science needs to become fully formalised and that Robot Scientists can help achieve this. This will make scientific information more reproducible and reusable, and promote the integration of computers in scientific reasoning. We believe the greater automation of both the physical and intellectual aspects of scientific investigations to be essential to the future of science. Greater automation improves the accuracy and reliability of experiments, increases the pace of discovery and, in common with conventional laboratory automation, removes tedious and repetitive tasks from the human scientist.

  19. Scientific Literacy of Adult Participants in an Online Citizen Science Project

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Price, Charles Aaron

    2011-01-01

    Citizen Science projects offer opportunities for non-scientists to take part in scientific research. Scientific results from these projects have been well documented. However, there is limited research about how these projects affect their volunteer participants. In this study, I investigate how participation in an online, collaborative…

  20. Facilitators of Survivorship Care Among Underserved Breast Cancer Survivors: a Qualitative Study.

    PubMed

    Ustjanauskas, Amy E; Quinn, Gwendolyn P; Pan, Tonya M; Rivera, Maria; Vázquez-Otero, Coralia; Ung, Danielle; Roetzheim, Richard G; Laronga, Christine; Johnson, Kenneth; Norton, Marilyn; Carrizosa, Claudia; Muñoz, Dariana; Goldenstein, Marissa; Nuhaily, Sumayah; Wells, Kristen J

    2017-12-01

    Research investigating facilitators of survivorship care among underserved breast cancer survivors (BCS) is sparse. This study aimed to explore facilitators of survivorship care among underserved BCS within the first 5 years following chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery for breast cancer. In-depth interviews were conducted, using a semi-structured interview guide, with underserved BCS exploring survivorship care experiences. Content analysis of the verbatim transcripts was applied, and results were summarized according to themes related to facilitators of breast cancer survivorship care. Interviews were conducted with 25 BCS. Eight main themes were identified: coordination of care; positive perceptions of health care providers; communication between patient and health care providers; financial and insurance facilitators; information, classes, and programs provided; assistance provided by organizations and health care professionals; transportation facilitators; and job flexibility. This study provides a comprehensive look at facilitators of survivorship care among underserved BCS. BCS endorsed several facilitators of their survivorship care, mainly at the interpersonal, organizational, and societal level. This study adds to the research literature on catalysts of care among underserved BCS. Results from this study are currently being used to inform a patient navigation intervention to facilitate care among this population.

  1. Interdisciplinary Laboratory Course Facilitating Knowledge Integration, Mutualistic Teaming, and Original Discovery.

    PubMed

    Full, Robert J; Dudley, Robert; Koehl, M A R; Libby, Thomas; Schwab, Cheryl

    2015-11-01

    Experiencing the thrill of an original scientific discovery can be transformative to students unsure about becoming a scientist, yet few courses offer authentic research experiences. Increasingly, cutting-edge discoveries require an interdisciplinary approach not offered in current departmental-based courses. Here, we describe a one-semester, learning laboratory course on organismal biomechanics offered at our large research university that enables interdisciplinary teams of students from biology and engineering to grow intellectually, collaborate effectively, and make original discoveries. To attain this goal, we avoid traditional "cookbook" laboratories by training 20 students to use a dozen research stations. Teams of five students rotate to a new station each week where a professor, graduate student, and/or team member assists in the use of equipment, guides students through stages of critical thinking, encourages interdisciplinary collaboration, and moves them toward authentic discovery. Weekly discussion sections that involve the entire class offer exchange of discipline-specific knowledge, advice on experimental design, methods of collecting and analyzing data, a statistics primer, and best practices for writing and presenting scientific papers. The building of skills in concert with weekly guided inquiry facilitates original discovery via a final research project that can be presented at a national meeting or published in a scientific journal. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  2. Comparative Analysis of Sustainable Approaches and Systems for Scientific Data Stewardship

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Downs, R. R.; Chen, R. S.

    2012-12-01

    Sustainable data systems are critical components of the cyberinfrastructure needed to provide long-term stewardship of scientific data, including Earth science data, throughout their entire life cycle. A variety of approaches may help ensure the sustainability of such systems, but these approaches must be able to survive the demands of competing priorities and decreasing budgets. Analyzing and comparing alternative approaches can identify viable aspects of each approach and inform decisions for developing, managing, and supporting the cyberinfrastructure needed to facilitate discovery, access, and analysis of data by future communities of users. A typology of sustainability approaches is proposed, and example use cases are offered for comparing the approaches over time. These examples demonstrate the potential strengths and weaknesses of each approach under various conditions and with regard to different objectives, e.g., open vs. limited access. By applying the results of these analyses to their particular circumstances, systems stakeholders can assess their options for a sustainable systems approach along with other metrics and identify alternative strategies to ensure the sustainability of the scientific data and information for which they are responsible. In addition, comparing sustainability approaches should inform the design of new systems and the improvement of existing systems to meet the needs for long-term stewardship of scientific data, and support education and workforce development efforts needed to ensure that the appropriate scientific and technical skills are available to operate and further develop sustainable cyberinfrastructure.

  3. Facilitating career advancement for women in the Geosciences through the Earth Science Women's Network (ESWN)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hastings, M. G.; Kontak, R.; Holloway, T.; Kogan, M.; Laursen, S. L.; Marin-Spiotta, E.; Steiner, A. L.; Wiedinmyer, C.

    2011-12-01

    The Earth Science Women's Network (ESWN) is a network of women geoscientists, many of who are in the early stages of their careers. The mission of ESWN is to promote career development, build community, provide informal mentoring and support, and facilitate professional collaborations, all towards making women successful in their scientific careers. ESWN currently connects over 1000 women across the globe, and includes graduate students, postdoctoral associates, faculty from a diversity of colleges and universities, program managers, and government, non-government and industry researchers. ESWN facilitates communication between its members via an email listserv and in-person networking events, and also provides resources to the broader community through the public Earth Science Jobs Listserv that hosts over 1800 subscribers. With funding from a NSF ADVANCE PAID grant, our primary goals include growing our membership to serve a wider section of the geosciences community, designing and administering career development workshops, promoting professional networking at major scientific conferences, and developing web resources to build connections, collaborations, and peer mentoring for and among women in the Earth Sciences. Recognizing that women in particular face a number of direct and indirect biases while navigating their careers, we aim to provide a range of opportunities for professional development that emphasize different skills at different stages of career. For example, ESWN-hosted mini-workshops at national scientific conferences have targeted skill building for early career researchers (e.g., postdocs, tenure-track faculty), with a recent focus on raising extramural research funding and best practices for publishing in the geosciences literature. More concentrated, multi-day professional development workshops are offered annually with varying themes such as Defining Your Research Identity and Building Leadership Skills for Success in Scientific Organizations

  4. Epistemologies and scientific reasoning skills among undergraduate science students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mollohan, Katherine N.

    Non-cognitive factors such as students' attitudes and beliefs toward a subject and their proficiency in scientific reasoning are important aspects of learning within science disciplines. Both factors have been studied in relation to science education in various discplines. This dissertation presents three studies that investigate student epistemologies and scientific reasoning in the domain of biology education. The first study investigated students' epistemic viewpoints in two introductory biology courses, one for science majors and one for non-science majors. This quantitative investigation revealed that the majors exhibited a negative shift in their attitudes and beliefs about biology and learning biology during a semester of introductory instruction. However, the non-science majors did not exhibit a similar shift. If fact, the non-science majors improved in their attitudes and beliefs during a semester of instruction, though not significantly so. The second study expands epistemological research to a population that has often been left out of this work, that is, intermediate-level biology majors. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected to reveal that junior and senior ranked students for the most part were able to characterize their views about biology and learning biology, and were able to associate factors with their epistemic improvement. Finally, the third study expands epistemology research further to determine if scientific reasoning and student attitudes and beliefs about learning science (specifically biology) are related. After a description of how various science and engineering majors compare in their scientific reasoning skills, this study indicated that among intermediate level biology majors there is no relationship between scientific reasoning skills and epistemologies, nor is there a relationship with other educational factors, including the number of courses taken during an undergraduate career, cumulative GPA, and standardized test

  5. A Scientific Approach to the Investigation on Anomalous Atmospheric Light Phenomena

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Teodorani, M.

    2011-12-01

    Anomalous atmospheric light phenomena tend to occur recurrently in several places of our planet. Statistical studies show that a phenomenon's real recurrence area can be identified only after pondering reported cases on the population number and on the diffusion of communication media. The main scientific results that have been obtained so far after explorative instrumented missions have been carried out are presented, including the empirical models that have been set up in order to describe the observed reality. Subsequently, a focused theorization is discussed in order to attack the physical problem concerning the structure and the dynamics of "light balls" and the enigma related to the central force that maintains them in spherical shape. Finally, several important issues are discussed regarding methodology, strategy, tactics and interdisciplinary approaches.

  6. Scientific Reasoning for Pre-service Elementary Teachers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sadaghiani, Homeyra R.

    2010-10-01

    The objectives of K-12 teacher education science courses often focus on conceptual learning and improving students overall attitude towards science. It is often assumed that with the use of research-based curriculum material and more hands on inquiry approaches, without any explicit instruction, student scientific and critical thinking skills would also be enhanced. In the last three years, we have been investigating student scientific and evidence-based reasoning abilities in a K-8 pre-service science course at Cal Poly Pomona. After recognizing student difficulties understanding the elements of scientific reasoning, we have provided explicit feedback using a rubric to assist students to become more rigorous and reflective thinkers; to use appropriate and accurate vocabulary; exercise evidence-base reasoning; and develop skepticism with respect to their own views. We will share the rubric and report on the preliminary results.

  7. Scientific integrity memorandum

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Showstack, Randy

    2009-03-01

    U.S. President Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum on 9 March to help restore scientific integrity in government decision making. The memorandum directs the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a strategy within 120 days that ensures that "the selection of scientists and technology professionals for science and technology positions in the executive branch is based on those individuals' scientific and technological knowledge, credentials, and experience; agencies make available to the public the scientific or technological findings or conclusions considered or relied upon in policy decisions; agencies use scientific and technological information that has been subject to well-established scientific processes such as peer review; and agencies have appropriate rules and procedures to ensure the integrity of the scientific process within the agency, including whistleblower protection."

  8. Exploring How Collaborative Dialogues Facilitate Synchronous Collaborative Writing

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yeh, Hui-Chin

    2014-01-01

    Collaborative writing (CW) research has gained prevalence in recent years. However, the ways in which students interact socially to produce written texts through synchronous collaborative writing (SCW) is rarely studied. This study aims to investigate the effects of SCW on students' writing products and how collaborative dialogues facilitate SCW.…

  9. Facilitating the learning process in design-based learning practices: an investigation of teachers' actions in supervising students

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gómez Puente, S. M.; van Eijck, M.; Jochems, W.

    2013-11-01

    Background: In research on design-based learning (DBL), inadequate attention is paid to the role the teacher plays in supervising students in gathering and applying knowledge to design artifacts, systems, and innovative solutions in higher education. Purpose: In this study, we examine whether teacher actions we previously identified in the DBL literature as important in facilitating learning processes and student supervision are present in current DBL engineering practices. Sample: The sample (N=16) consisted of teachers and supervisors in two engineering study programs at a university of technology: mechanical and electrical engineering. We selected randomly teachers from freshman and second-year bachelor DBL projects responsible for student supervision and assessment. Design and method: Interviews with teachers, and interviews and observations of supervisors were used to examine how supervision and facilitation actions are applied according to the DBL framework. Results: Major findings indicate that formulating questions is the most common practice seen in facilitating learning in open-ended engineering design environments. Furthermore, other DBL actions we expected to see based upon the literature were seldom observed in the coaching practices within these two programs. Conclusions: Professionalization of teachers in supervising students need to include methods to scaffold learning by supporting students in reflecting and in providing formative feedback.

  10. Writing Stories to Enhance Scientific Literacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ritchie, Stephen M.; Tomas, Louisa; Tones, Megan

    2011-03-01

    In response to international concerns about scientific literacy and students' waning interest in school science, this study investigated the effects of a science-writing project about the socioscientific issue (SSI) of biosecurity on the development of students' scientific literacy. Students generated two BioStories each that merged scientific information with the narrative storylines in the project. The study was conducted in two phases. In the exploratory phase, a qualitative case study of a sixth-grade class involving classroom observations and interviews informed the design of the second, confirmatory phase of the study, which was conducted at a different school. This phase involved a mixed methods approach featuring a quasi-experimental design with two classes of Australian middle school students (i.e., sixth grade, 11 years of age, n = 55). The results support the argument that writing the sequence of stories helped the students become more familiar with biosecurity issues, develop a deeper understanding of related biological concepts, and improve their interest in science. On the basis of these findings, teachers should be encouraged to engage their students in the practice of writing about SSI in a way that integrates scientific information into narrative storylines. Extending the practice to older students and exploring additional issues related to writing about SSI are recommended for further research.

  11. Does scene context always facilitate retrieval of visual object representations?

    PubMed

    Nakashima, Ryoichi; Yokosawa, Kazuhiko

    2011-04-01

    An object-to-scene binding hypothesis maintains that visual object representations are stored as part of a larger scene representation or scene context, and that scene context facilitates retrieval of object representations (see, e.g., Hollingworth, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 32, 58-69, 2006). Support for this hypothesis comes from data using an intentional memory task. In the present study, we examined whether scene context always facilitates retrieval of visual object representations. In two experiments, we investigated whether the scene context facilitates retrieval of object representations, using a new paradigm in which a memory task is appended to a repeated-flicker change detection task. Results indicated that in normal scene viewing, in which many simultaneous objects appear, scene context facilitation of the retrieval of object representations-henceforth termed object-to-scene binding-occurred only when the observer was required to retain much information for a task (i.e., an intentional memory task).

  12. Teaching Argumentation and Scientific Discourse Using the Ribosomal Peptidyl Transferase Reaction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Johnson, R. Jeremy

    2011-01-01

    Argumentation and discourse are two integral parts of scientific investigation that are often overlooked in undergraduate science education. To address this limitation, the story of peptide bond formation by the ribosome can be used to illustrate the importance of evidence, claims, arguments, and counterarguments in scientific discourse. With the…

  13. Teaching Structure-Property Relationships: Investigating Molecular Structure and Boiling Point

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Murphy, Peter M.

    2007-01-01

    A concise, well-organized table of the boiling points of 392 organic compounds has facilitated inquiry-based instruction in multiple scientific principles. Many individual or group learning activities can be derived from the tabulated data of molecular structure and boiling point based on the instructor's education objectives and the students'…

  14. A mixed-method investigation of patient monitoring and enhanced feedback in routine practice: Barriers and facilitators

    PubMed Central

    Lucock, Mike; Halstead, Jeremy; Leach, Chris; Barkham, Michael; Tucker, Samantha; Randal, Chloe; Middleton, Joanne; Khan, Wajid; Catlow, Hannah; Waters, Emma; Saxon, David

    2015-01-01

    Abstract Objective: To investigate the barriers and facilitators of an effective implementation of an outcome monitoring and feedback system in a UK National Health Service psychological therapy service. Method: An outcome monitoring system was introduced in two services. Enhanced feedback was given to therapists after session 4. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used, including questionnaires for therapists and patients. Thematic analysis was carried out on written and verbal feedback from therapists. Analysis of patient outcomes for 202 episodes of therapy was compared with benchmark data of 136 episodes of therapy for which feedback was not given to therapists. Results: Themes influencing the feasibility and acceptability of the feedback system were the extent to which therapists integrated the measures and feedback into the therapy, availability of administrative support, information technology, and complexity of the service. There were low levels of therapist actions resulting from the feedback, including discussing the feedback in supervision and with patients. Conclusions: The findings support the feasibility and acceptability of setting up a routine system in a complex service, but a number of challenges and barriers have to be overcome and therapist differences are apparent. More research on implementation and effectiveness is needed in diverse clinical settings. PMID:26436605

  15. Training for Research in Mental Health and HIV/AIDS Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations: Meeting the Needs of New Investigators

    PubMed Central

    2009-01-01

    My experiences as a mentor of young investigators, along with conversations with a diverse pool of mentees, led me to question the ability of conventional research methods, problem formulation, and instruments to address the unique challenges of studying racial and ethnic minorities. Training of new investi-gators should prepare them to explore alternative research paradigms and atypical research strategies, such as community-based participatory research and Photovoice technique. Unconventional approaches to research may challenge common explanations for unmet needs, noncompliance with treatments, and poor service outcomes. Mentors may need to develop broader theoretical insights that will facilitate unconventional problem formulation. The teaching of scientific research and mentoring of young investigators who study minority populations should evolve along with the changing research environment. PMID:19246670

  16. Pain and Prejudice: Does Collecting Information From the Standpoint of Exposed Workers Improve Scientific Examination of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders?

    PubMed

    Messing, Karen

    2016-07-01

    The meaning, feasibility, and importance of scientific objectivity have been debated among public health scientists. The debate is particularly relevant to occupational health, because of frequent opposition between employer and worker interests. This article suggests that the concept of standpoint (J. Eakin) may be more useful than that of objectivity in framing discussion of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Studies done from a "worker" standpoint can, for example, investigate and characterize environmental risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders, while studies from an "employer" standpoint may concentrate on identifying individual workers likely to report work-related musculoskeletal disorders or those for whom consequences of work-related musculoskeletal disorders are more severe. Within "worker" standpoints, a distinction between "high-prestige worker" and "lower-prestige worker" standpoints can be identified in the current scientific debate about the health costs and benefits of prolonged standing vs prolonged sitting at work. Contact with workers, particularly lower-prestige workers, is critical to developing and sustaining a worker-based standpoint among researchers in occupational health. This contact can be facilitated by formal collaborations between universities and unions or other community groups. © The Author(s) 2015.

  17. Effects of Scaffolds and Scientific Reasoning Ability on Web-Based Scientific Inquiry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wu, Hui-Ling; Weng, Hsiao-Lan; She, Hsiao-Ching

    2016-01-01

    This study examined how background knowledge, scientific reasoning ability, and various scaffolding forms influenced students' science knowledge and scientific inquiry achievements. The students participated in an online scientific inquiry program involving such activities as generating scientific questions and drawing evidence-based conclusions,…

  18. Science Inquiry as Knowledge Transformation: Investigating Metacognitive and Self-regulation Strategies to Assist Students in Writing about Scientific Inquiry Tasks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Collins, Timothy A.

    2011-12-01

    Science inquiry is central to the science education reform efforts that began in the early 1990's. It is both a topic of instruction and a process to be experienced. Student engagement in the process of scientific inquiry was the focus of this study. The process of scientific inquiry can be conceived as a two-part task. In the initial part of the task, students identify a question or problem to study and then carry out an investigation to address the issue. In the second part of the task, students analyze their data to propose explanations and then report their findings. Knowing that students struggle with science inquiry tasks, this study sought to investigate ways to help students become more successful with the communication demands of science inquiry tasks. The study took place in a high school chemistry class. Students in this study completed a total of three inquiry tasks over the course of one school year. Students were split into four experimental groups in order to determine the effect of goal setting, metacognitive prompts, and sentence stems on student inquiry tasks. The quality of the student written work was assessed using a scoring rubric familiar to the students. In addition, students were asked at four different times in the school year to respond to a self-efficacy survey that measured student self-efficacy for chemistry content and science inquiry processes. Student self-efficacy for the process of scientific inquiry was positive and did not change over the course of the study while student scores on the science inquiry tasks rose significantly. The metacognitive prompts and instruction in goal setting did not have any effect on student inquiry scores. Results related to the effect of the sentence stems were mixed. An analysis of student work indicated that students who received high marks on their initial inquiry task in this study were the ones that adopted the use of the sentence stems. Students who received low marks on their initial inquiry

  19. Socioscientific Issues: A Path Towards Advanced Scientific Literacy and Improved Conceptual Understanding of Socially Controversial Scientific Theories

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pinzino, Dean William

    This thesis investigates the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) in the high school science classroom as an introduction to argumentation and socioscientific reasoning, with the goal of improving students' scientific literacy (SL). Current research is reviewed that supports the likelihood of students developing a greater conceptual understanding of scientific theories as well as a deeper understanding of the nature of science (NOS), through participation in informal and formal forms of argumentation in the context of SSI. Significant gains in such understanding may improve a student's ability to recognize the rigor, legitimacy, and veracity of scientific claims and better discern science from pseudoscience. Furthermore, students that participate in significant SSI instruction by negotiating a range of science-related social issues can make significant gains in content knowledge and develop the life-long skills of argumentation and evidence-based reasoning, goals not possible in traditional lecture-based science instruction. SSI-based instruction may therefore help students become responsible citizens. This synthesis also suggests that that the improvements in science literacy and NOS understanding that develop from sustained engagement in SSI-based instruction will better prepare students to examine and scrutinize socially controversial scientific theories (i.e., evolution, global warming, and the Big Bang).

  20. Twenty-Year Survey of Scientific Literacy and Attitudes Toward Science - Investigating the Relationship Between Students' Knowledge and Attitudes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Buxner, Sanlyn; Antonellis, J.; Impey, C.; CATS

    2010-01-01

    Data from a twenty-year investigation into the science literacy of undergraduates (see Impey et al., this meeting) was used to explore responses to questions, derived from policy driven projects (e.g. NSF Science Indicators). Responses from almost 10,000 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory astronomy courses from 1989 to 2009 have been analyzed based on students’ responses to forced-choice and open-ended science literacy questions as well as Likert scale belief questions about science and technology. Science literacy questions were scored based on work by Miller (1998, 2004). In addition, we developed an extensive emergent coding scheme for the four open-ended science questions. Unique results as well as trends in the student data based on subgroups of codes are presented. Responses to belief questions were categorized, using theoretically derived categories, remodeled and confirmed through factor analysis, into five main categories; belief in life on other planets, faith-based beliefs, belief in unscientific phenomena, general attitude toward science and technology, and ethical considerations. Analysis revealed that demographic information explained less than 10% of the overall variance in students’ forced-answer scientific literacy scores. We present how students’ beliefs in these categories relate to their scientific literacy scores. You can help! Stop by our poster and fill out a new survey that will give us important parallel information to help us continue to analyze our valuable data set. We acknowledge the NSF for funding under Award No. 0715517, a CCLI Phase III Grant for the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS) Program.

  1. Nature of Science, Scientific Inquiry, and Socio-Scientific Issues Arising from Genetics: A Pathway to Developing a Scientifically Literate Citizenry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lederman, Norman G.; Antink, Allison; Bartos, Stephen

    2014-02-01

    The primary focus of this article is to illustrate how teachers can use contemporary socio-scientific issues to teach students about nature of scientific knowledge as well as address the science subject matter embedded in the issues. The article provides an initial discussion about the various aspects of nature of scientific knowledge that are addressed. It is important to remember that the aspects of nature of scientific knowledge are not considered to be a comprehensive list, but rather a set of important ideas for adolescent students to learn about scientific knowledge. These ideas have been advocated as important for secondary students by numerous reform documents internationally. Then, several examples are used to illustrate how genetically based socio-scientific issues can be used by teachers to improve students' understandings of the discussed aspects of nature of scientific knowledge.

  2. NCI at Frederick Scientific Library Reintroduces Scientific Publications Database | Poster

    Cancer.gov

    A 20-year-old database of scientific publications by NCI at Frederick, FNLCR, and affiliated employees has gotten a significant facelift. Maintained by the Scientific Library, the redesigned database—which is linked from each of the Scientific Library’s web pages—offers features that were not available in previous versions, such as additional search limits and non-traditional

  3. Research coordinators' experiences with scientific misconduct and research integrity.

    PubMed

    Habermann, Barbara; Broome, Marion; Pryor, Erica R; Ziner, Kim Wagler

    2010-01-01

    Most reports of scientific misconduct have been focused on principal investigators and other scientists (e.g., biostatisticians) involved in the research enterprise. However, by virtue of their position, research coordinators are often closest to the research field where much of misconduct occurs. The purpose of this study was to describe research coordinators' experiences with scientific misconduct in their clinical environment. The descriptive design was embedded in a larger cross-sectional national survey. A total of 266 respondents, predominately registered nurses, who answered "yes" to having firsthand knowledge of scientific misconduct in the past year, provided open-ended question responses. Content analysis was conducted by the research team, ensuring agreement of core categories and subcategories of misconduct. Research coordinators most commonly learned about misconduct via firsthand witness of the event, with the principal investigator being the person most commonly identified as the responsible party. Five major categories of misconduct were identified: protocol violations, consent violations, fabrication, falsification, and financial conflict of interest. In 70% of cases, the misconduct was reported. In most instances where misconduct was reported, some action was taken. However, in approximately 14% of cases, no action or investigation ensued; in 6.5% of cases, the coordinator was fired or he or she resigned. This study demonstrates the need to expand definitions of scientific misconduct beyond fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism to include other practices. The importance of the ethical climate in the institution in ensuring a safe environment to report and an environment where evidence is reviewed cannot be overlooked.

  4. Research Coordinators Experiences with Scientific Misconduct and Research Integrity

    PubMed Central

    Habermann, Barbara; Broome, Marion; Pryor, Erica R.; Ziner, Kim Wagler

    2010-01-01

    Background Most reports of scientific misconduct have been focused on principal investigators and other scientists (e.g., biostatisticians) involved in the research enterprise. However, by virtue of their position, research coordinators are often closest to the research field where much of misconduct occurs. Objective To describe research coordinators’ experiences with scientific misconduct in their clinical environment. Design The descriptive design was embedded in a larger, cross-sectional national survey. A total of 266 respondents, predominately registered nurses, who answered yes to having first hand knowledge of scientific misconduct in the past year provided open-ended question responses. Methods Content analysis was conducted by the research team, ensuring agreement of core categories and subcategories of misconduct. Findings Research coordinators most commonly learned about misconduct via first-hand witness of the event, with the principal investigator being the person most commonly identified as the responsible party. Five major categories of misconduct were identified: protocol violations, consent violations, fabrication, falsification, and financial conflict of interest. In 70% of cases, the misconduct was reported. In the majority of instances where misconduct was reported, some action was taken. However, in approximately 14% of cases, no action or investigation ensued; in 6.5% of cases the coordinator was either fired or resigned. Conclusions The study demonstrates the need to expand definitions of scientific misconduct beyond fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism to include other practices. The importance of the ethical climate in the institution in ensuring a safe environment to report and an environment where evidence is reviewed cannot be overlooked. PMID:20010045

  5. Worlds of wonder: Sensation and the Victorian scientific performance.

    PubMed

    Morus, Iwan Rhys

    2010-12-01

    Performances of various kinds were central to the strategies adopted by Victorian natural philosophers to constitute their authority. Appealing to the senses of their audience through spectacular effects or ingenious demonstrations of skill was key to the success of these performances. If we want to understand the politics and practice of Victorian science-and science more generally-we need to pay particular attention to these sorts of performances. We need to understand the ingredients that went into them and the relationships between scientific performers and their publics. In particular, we need to investigate the self-conscious nature of Victorian scientific performances. Looking at science as performance provides us with a new set of tools for understanding the politics of knowledge, the relationship between producers and consumers of scientific knowledge, and the construction and constitution of scientific authority.

  6. Fever: Views in Anthroposophic Medicine and Their Scientific Validity

    PubMed Central

    2016-01-01

    Objective. To conduct a scoping review to characterize how fever is viewed in anthroposophic medicine (AM) and discuss the scientific validity of these views. Methods. Systematic searches were run in Medline, Embase, CAMbase, and Google Scholar. Material from anthroposophic medical textbooks and articles was also used. Data was extracted and interpreted. Results. Most of the anthroposophic literature on this subject is in the German language. Anthroposophic physicians hold a beneficial view on fever, rarely suppress fever with antipyretics, and often use complementary means of alleviating discomfort. In AM, fever is considered to have the following potential benefits: promoting more complete recovery; preventing infection recurrences and atopic diseases; providing a unique opportunity for caregivers to provide loving care; facilitating individual development and resilience; protecting against cancer and boosting the anticancer effects of mistletoe products. These views are discussed with regard to the available scientific data. Conclusion. AM postulates that fever can be of short-term and long-term benefit in several ways; many of these opinions have become evidence-based (though still often not practiced) while others still need empirical studies to be validated, refuted, or modified. PMID:27999605

  7. Facilitating Scientific Collaboration and Education with Easy Access Web Maps Using the AGAP Antarctic Geophysical Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abdi, A.

    2012-12-01

    Science and science education benefit from easy access to data yet often geophysical data sets are large, complex and difficult to share. The difficulty in sharing data and imagery easily inhibits both collaboration and the use of real data in educational applications. The dissemination of data products through web maps serves a very efficient and user-friendly method for students, the public and the science community to gain insights and understanding from data. Few research groups provide direct access to their data, let alone map-based visualizations. By building upon current GIS infrastructure with web mapping technologies, like ArcGIS Server, scientific groups, institutions and agencies can enhance the value of their GIS investments. The advantages of web maps to serve data products are many; existing web-mapping technology allows complex GIS analysis to be shared across the Internet, and can be easily scaled from a few users to millions. This poster highlights the features of an interactive web map developed at the Polar Geophysics Group at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University that provides a visual representation of, and access to, data products that resulted from the group's recently concluded AGAP project (http://pgg.ldeo.columbia.edu). The AGAP project collected more than 120,000 line km of new aerogeophysical data using two Twin Otter aircrafts. Data included ice penetrating radar, magnetometer, gravimeter and laser altimeter measurements. The web map is based upon ArcGIS Viewer for Flex, which is a configurable client application built on the ArcGIS API for Flex that works seamlessly with ArcGIS Server 10. The application can serve a variety of raster and vector file formats through the Data Interoperability for Server, which eliminates data sharing barriers across numerous file formats. The ability of the application to serve large datasets is only hindered by the availability of appropriate hardware. ArcGIS is a proprietary

  8. Scientific field training for human planetary exploration

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lim, D. S. S.; Warman, G. L.; Gernhardt, M. L.; McKay, C. P.; Fong, T.; Marinova, M. M.; Davila, A. F.; Andersen, D.; Brady, A. L.; Cardman, Z.; Cowie, B.; Delaney, M. D.; Fairén, A. G.; Forrest, A. L.; Heaton, J.; Laval, B. E.; Arnold, R.; Nuytten, P.; Osinski, G.; Reay, M.; Reid, D.; Schulze-Makuch, D.; Shepard, R.; Slater, G. F.; Williams, D.

    2010-05-01

    Forthcoming human planetary exploration will require increased scientific return (both in real time and post-mission), longer surface stays, greater geographical coverage, longer and more frequent EVAs, and more operational complexities than during the Apollo missions. As such, there is a need to shift the nature of astronauts' scientific capabilities to something akin to an experienced terrestrial field scientist. To achieve this aim, the authors present a case that astronaut training should include an Apollo-style curriculum based on traditional field school experiences, as well as full immersion in field science programs. Herein we propose four Learning Design Principles (LDPs) focused on optimizing astronaut learning in field science settings. The LDPs are as follows: LDP#1: Provide multiple experiences: varied field science activities will hone astronauts' abilities to adapt to novel scientific opportunities LDP#2: Focus on the learner: fostering intrinsic motivation will orient astronauts towards continuous informal learning and a quest for mastery LDP#3: Provide a relevant experience - the field site: field sites that share features with future planetary missions will increase the likelihood that astronauts will successfully transfer learning LDP#4: Provide a social learning experience - the field science team and their activities: ensuring the field team includes members of varying levels of experience engaged in opportunities for discourse and joint problem solving will facilitate astronauts' abilities to think and perform like a field scientist. The proposed training program focuses on the intellectual and technical aspects of field science, as well as the cognitive manner in which field scientists experience, observe and synthesize their environment. The goal of the latter is to help astronauts develop the thought patterns and mechanics of an effective field scientist, thereby providing a broader base of experience and expertise than could be achieved

  9. Handwriting generates variable visual input to facilitate symbol learning

    PubMed Central

    Li, Julia X.; James, Karin H.

    2015-01-01

    Recent research has demonstrated that handwriting practice facilitates letter categorization in young children. The present experiments investigated why handwriting practice facilitates visual categorization by comparing two hypotheses: That handwriting exerts its facilitative effect because of the visual-motor production of forms, resulting in a direct link between motor and perceptual systems, or because handwriting produces variable visual instances of a named category in the environment that then changes neural systems. We addressed these issues by measuring performance of 5 year-old children on a categorization task involving novel, Greek symbols across 6 different types of learning conditions: three involving visual-motor practice (copying typed symbols independently, tracing typed symbols, tracing handwritten symbols) and three involving visual-auditory practice (seeing and saying typed symbols of a single typed font, of variable typed fonts, and of handwritten examples). We could therefore compare visual-motor production with visual perception both of variable and similar forms. Comparisons across the six conditions (N=72) demonstrated that all conditions that involved studying highly variable instances of a symbol facilitated symbol categorization relative to conditions where similar instances of a symbol were learned, regardless of visual-motor production. Therefore, learning perceptually variable instances of a category enhanced performance, suggesting that handwriting facilitates symbol understanding by virtue of its environmental output: supporting the notion of developmental change though brain-body-environment interactions. PMID:26726913

  10. Multicultural Inquiry toward Demystifying Scientific Culture and Learning Science

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Meyer, Xenia S.; Crawford, Barbara A.

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated how student participation in an authentic scientific investigation may shape underrepresented students' views of science and support students in learning science. The research centered on the instructional approach used in a fifth-grade classroom to engage English language learning students from Latino backgrounds in a…

  11. Changes in Participants' Scientific Attitudes and Epistemological Beliefs during an Astronomical Citizen Science Project

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Price, C. Aaron; Lee, Hee-Sun

    2013-01-01

    Citizen science projects provide non-scientists with opportunities to take part in scientific research. While their contribution to scientific data collection has been well documented, there is limited research on how participation in citizen science projects may affect their scientific literacy. In this study, we investigated (1) how volunteers'…

  12. Sources Sought for Innovative Scientific Instrumentation for Scientific Lunar Rovers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Meyer, C.

    1993-01-01

    Lunar rovers should be designed as integrated scientific measurement systems that address scientific goals as their main objective. Scientific goals for lunar rovers are presented. Teleoperated robotic field geologists will allow the science team to make discoveries using a wide range of sensory data collected by electronic 'eyes' and sophisticated scientific instrumentation. rovers need to operate in geologically interesting terrain (rock outcrops) and to identify and closely examine interesting rock samples. Enough flight-ready instruments are available to fly on the first mission, but additional instrument development based on emerging technology is desirable. Various instruments that need to be developed for later missions are described.

  13. High School Students' Informal Reasoning Regarding a Socio-Scientific Issue, with Relation to Scientific Epistemological Beliefs and Cognitive Structures

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Wu, Ying-Tien; Tsai, Chin-Chung

    2011-01-01

    This study investigated the relationship among 68 high school students' scientific epistemological beliefs (SEBs), cognitive structures regarding nuclear power usage, and their informal reasoning regarding this issue. Moreover, the ability of students' SEBs as well as their cognitive structures for predicting their informal reasoning regarding…

  14. Games as a Platform for Student Participation in Authentic Scientific Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Magnussen, Rikke; Hansen, Sidse Damgaard; Planke, Tilo; Sherson, Jacob Friis

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents results from the design and testing of an educational version of Quantum Moves, a Scientific Discovery Game that allows players to help solve authentic scientific challenges in the effort to develop a quantum computer. The primary aim of developing a game-based platform for student-research collaboration is to investigate if…

  15. Pre-Service Science Teachers' Perception of the Principles of Scientific Research

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Can, Sendil; Kaymakci, Güliz

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of the current study employing the survey method is to determine the pre-service science teachers' perceptions of the principles of scientific research and to investigate the effects of gender, grade level and the state of following scientific publications on their perceptions. The sampling of the current research is comprised of 125…

  16. [The assessment of the impact of education and support to nursing research on nurses' scientific production in an Emilia Romagna Hospital].

    PubMed

    Forni, Cristiana; Chiari, Paolo; Guarino, Lorenza; Tremosini, Morena; Trofa, Carmela; D'Alessandro, Fabio; Sabattini, Tania; Mini, Sandra; Zanotti, Enrichetta

    2014-01-01

    In Italy research conducted by non medical professions is scarce also for the lack of knowledge on methods. At Rizzoli hospital in Bologna in 2006 a Centre for research to educate and support health professionals was implemented. To assess the impact of the research centre on number of research articles and protocols produced by nurses. Interrupted time series. In the five years before and after the implementation of the centre data on the number of protocols approved by Ethical Committee with a nurse as principal investigator and on the number of articles published on impacted journals with a nurse as first author were collected. The number of nurses authors of the publications was also collected. For all the variables an increasing trend, starting from 2006 was observed, with statistically significant differences from 2008 for the number of research protocols presented (p=0.037), the number of nurses authors of scientific articles (p=0.027). Although the number of publications on impacted journals increased from 2006, differences were not statistically significant after 2008. An hospital based Centre for education and support to research for health professionals may facilitate the scientific and research production.

  17. A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures

    PubMed Central

    Bollen, Johan; Van de Sompel, Herbert

    2009-01-01

    Background The impact of scientific publications has traditionally been expressed in terms of citation counts. However, scientific activity has moved online over the past decade. To better capture scientific impact in the digital era, a variety of new impact measures has been proposed on the basis of social network analysis and usage log data. Here we investigate how these new measures relate to each other, and how accurately and completely they express scientific impact. Methodology We performed a principal component analysis of the rankings produced by 39 existing and proposed measures of scholarly impact that were calculated on the basis of both citation and usage log data. Conclusions Our results indicate that the notion of scientific impact is a multi-dimensional construct that can not be adequately measured by any single indicator, although some measures are more suitable than others. The commonly used citation Impact Factor is not positioned at the core of this construct, but at its periphery, and should thus be used with caution. PMID:19562078

  18. Facilitating Facilitators to Facilitate, in Problem or Enquiry Based Learning Sessions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coelho, Catherine

    2014-01-01

    Problem based learning (PBL) has been used in dental education over the past 20 years and uses a patient case scenario to stimulate learning in a small group setting, where a trained facilitator does not teach but guides the group to bring about deep contextualized learning, to be empathetic to each other and to encourage fair and equitable…

  19. Facilitating tolerance of delayed reinforcement during functional communication training.

    PubMed

    Fisher, W W; Thompson, R H; Hagopian, L P; Bowman, L G; Krug, A

    2000-01-01

    Few clinical investigations have addressed the problem of delayed reinforcement. In this investigation, three individuals whose destructive behavior was maintained by positive reinforcement were treated using functional communication training (FCT) with extinction (EXT). Next, procedures used in the basic literature on delayed reinforcement and self-control (reinforcer delay fading, punishment of impulsive responding, and provision of an alternative activity during reinforcer delay) were used to teach participants to tolerate delayed reinforcement. With the first case, reinforcer delay fading alone was effective at maintaining low rates of destructive behavior while introducing delayed reinforcement. In the second case, the addition of a punishment component reduced destructive behavior to near-zero levels and facilitated reinforcer delay fading. With the third case, reinforcer delay fading was associated with increases in masturbation and head rolling, but prompting and praising the individual for completing work during the delay interval reduced all problem behaviors and facilitated reinforcer delay fading.

  20. Using Technology to Facilitate Differentiated High School Science Instruction

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Maeng, Jennifer L.

    2017-01-01

    This qualitative investigation explored the beliefs and practices of one secondary science teacher, Diane, who differentiated instruction and studied how technology facilitated her differentiation. Diane was selected based on the results of a previous study, in which data indicated that Diane understood how to design and implement proactively…

  1. The Impact of Student Self-efficacy on Scientific Inquiry Skills: An Exploratory Investigation in River City, a Multi-user Virtual Environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ketelhut, Diane Jass

    2007-02-01

    This exploratory study investigated data-gathering behaviors exhibited by 100 seventh-grade students as they participated in a scientific inquiry-based curriculum project delivered by a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE). This research examined the relationship between students' self-efficacy on entry into the authentic scientific activity and the longitudinal data-gathering behaviors they employed while engaged in that process. Three waves of student behavior data were gathered from a server-side database that recorded all student activity in the MUVE; these data were analyzed using individual growth modeling. The study found that self-efficacy correlated with the number of data-gathering behaviors in which students initially engaged, with high self-efficacy students engaging in more data gathering than students with low self-efficacy. Also, the impact of student self-efficacy on rate of change in data gathering behavior differed by gender. However, by the end of their time in the MUVE, initial student self-efficacy no longer correlated with data gathering behaviors. In addition, students' level of self-efficacy did not affect how many different sources from which they chose to gather data. These results suggest that embedding science inquiry curricula in novel platforms like a MUVE might act as a catalyst for change in students' self-efficacy and learning processes.

  2. Cultural Border Crossing: The Interaction between Fundamental Christian Beliefs and Scientific Explanations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Elimbi, Celestine Nakeli

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to investigate the interaction between people's fundamental Christian beliefs and scientific explanations. When people with fundamental Christian beliefs encounter scientific explanations, such explanations may interact with their deeply rooted beliefs in a way that is likely to produce tensions. It is expedient to…

  3. Creating a Taken-as-Shared Understanding for Scientific Explanation: Classroom Norm Perspective

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Saglam, Yilmaz; Karaaslan, Emre Harun; Ayas, Alipasa

    2014-01-01

    The study aimed to investigate whether classroom norm perspective influence the students' capability of elucidating a natural phenomena and beliefs about scientific explanation. In particular, our objective was to explore the process by which the norm for scientific explanation was established and discover how the students' explanation…

  4. Encouraging Balanced Scientific Research through Formal Debate

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yurgelun, Nancy

    2007-01-01

    The new Connecticut science standards include a "Science, Technology, and Society" (STS) standard for each grade level. This standard encourages students to explore how scientific knowledge affects the quality of their lives. By relating science concepts to real-world decision making, STS investigations give students a framework through…

  5. Antenatal group consultations: Facilitating patient-patient education.

    PubMed

    Nisbeth Jensen, Matilde; Fage-Butler, Antoinette Mary

    2016-12-01

    This article investigates the perspectives of pregnant women attending antenatal group consultations to gain their understandings of whether and how peer learning is facilitated in this setting. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 16 women who had participated in group consultations at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, and analysed the data using qualitative content analysis. Our research design also included observations and patient guest book data. Women who were pregnant for the first time greatly appreciated the experiential knowledge of multiparous women in the group. Group consultations provided new learning opportunities, as individuals' questions prompted learning within the groups, as well as questions and answers. There was more time for reflection in group consultations than in dyadic communication. Midwives played a key role in facilitating peer learning. Some topics were not deemed appropriate for discussion. Antenatal group consultations can support learning, as individuals participate positively both in their own knowledge acquisition and that of others. We call such peer learning patient-patient education. Our study indicates the strengths of group consultations for learning from the perspective of the group members. It highlights how learning may be facilitated in group consultations, and thus has broad practical relevance. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Facilitating social support: member-leader communication in a breast cancer support group.

    PubMed

    Beck, Stephenson J; Keyton, Joann

    2014-01-01

    Early detection and treatment have resulted in more women surviving breast cancer; increased survivorship has also increased the need for breast cancer support groups (BCSG). The ostensible goal of such groups is to provide support for the physical and emotional stressors that cancer survivors face, as well as provide information on coping and treatment options. Although scholars have examined the effects of support groups on their group members, the examination of group facilitator messages has been largely neglected. The goal of this study was to extend theory on group leader behavior, specifically investigating how member-leader messages create social support in support groups. The transcribed conversations of weekly meetings of a BCSG were examined using Interaction Process Analysis to discover how the member-leader facilitated the group's enactment and management of social support. Across the meetings, task talk dominated (primarily statements of orientation or information). Furthermore, analysis of interaction sequences between the support group facilitator and other members revealed 2 broad categories of task-oriented facilitation techniques (changing the focus, clarification) and 1 category of socioemotional facilitation techniques (showing support). Support group facilitators need the ability to facilitate both task and relational aspects of social support. Facilitator behaviors were highlighted as being instrumental to the creation of social support. The results from this study indicate that the ability to change the focus of interaction, to provide and require clarification on complex issues, and to show support through relational messages is needed in facilitator training.

  7. Instructional scientific humor in the secondary classroom

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wizner, Francine

    skills, the ability to explore questions in a detached manner, and the ability to search out new perspectives. The results of this research may encourage additional study on how secondary science teachers use humor to explain scientific concepts and may also encourage science teachers to investigate novel ways that instructional humor can be used in their classrooms. Keywords: Scientific Humor, Instructional Humor, Secondary, Biology.

  8. Damaging earthquakes: A scientific laboratory

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Hays, Walter W.; ,

    1996-01-01

    This paper reviews the principal lessons learned from multidisciplinary postearthquake investigations of damaging earthquakes throughout the world during the past 15 years. The unique laboratory provided by a damaging earthquake in culturally different but tectonically similar regions of the world has increased fundamental understanding of earthquake processes, added perishable scientific, technical, and socioeconomic data to the knowledge base, and led to changes in public policies and professional practices for earthquake loss reduction.

  9. CAFE — A New On-Line Resource for Planning Scientific Field Investigations in Planetary Analogue Environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Preston, L. J.; Barber, S. J.; Grady, M. M.

    2012-03-01

    The Concepts for Activities in the Field for Exploration (CAFE) project is creating a complete catalogue of terrestrial analogue environments that are appropriate for testing human space exploration-related scientific field activities.

  10. Visualization and Interaction in Research, Teaching, and Scientific Communication

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ammon, C. J.

    2017-12-01

    Modern computing provides many tools for exploring observations, numerical calculations, and theoretical relationships. The number of options is, in fact, almost overwhelming. But the choices provide those with modest programming skills opportunities to create unique views of scientific information and to develop deeper insights into their data, their computations, and the underlying theoretical data-model relationships. I present simple examples of using animation and human-computer interaction to explore scientific data and scientific-analysis approaches. I illustrate how valuable a little programming ability can free scientists from the constraints of existing tools and can facilitate the development of deeper appreciation data and models. I present examples from a suite of programming languages ranging from C to JavaScript including the Wolfram Language. JavaScript is valuable for sharing tools and insight (hopefully) with others because it is integrated into one of the most powerful communication tools in human history, the web browser. Although too much of that power is often spent on distracting advertisements, the underlying computation and graphics engines are efficient, flexible, and almost universally available in desktop and mobile computing platforms. Many are working to fulfill the browser's potential to become the most effective tool for interactive study. Open-source frameworks for visualizing everything from algorithms to data are available, but advance rapidly. One strategy for dealing with swiftly changing tools is to adopt common, open data formats that are easily adapted (often by framework or tool developers). I illustrate the use of animation and interaction in research and teaching with examples from earthquake seismology.

  11. A Scientific Method Based upon Research Scientists' Conceptions of Scientific Inquiry.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Reiff, Rebecca; Harwood, William S.; Phillipson, Teddie

    For students to develop a more realistic picture of how scientists practice science, there must be well-researched understanding of how scientists do science. A model for the process of scientific inquiry that more closely reflects actual scientific practices can provide a means of dispelling some of the myths about scientific inquiry. This paper…

  12. A Review of the Scientific Misconduct Inquiry Process, Ankara Chamber of Medicine, Turkey.

    PubMed

    Gökçay, Banu; Arda, Berna

    2017-08-01

    The aim of this study is to review the inquiry process used in scientific misconduct cases in the Ankara Chamber of Medicine between the years 1998 and 2012. The violations of the "Disciplinary Regulations of the Turkish Medical Association" have been examined by keeping the names of the people, institutions, associations and journals secret. In total, 31 files have been studied and 11 of these files have been identified as related to scientific misconduct. The methods of inquiry, the decisions about the need for an investigation process, the types of scientific misconduct, and the adjudication processes have all been reported. Furthermore, the motives of researchers who made allegations, the study approaches of investigators, and the objections to the decisions about guilt and innocence have also been examined. Based on the findings obtained, the reasons for scientific misconduct and the distribution of responsibilities among the people in the inquiry process have been discussed. A major conclusion is the need to standardize the process of conducting inquiries about scientific misconduct cases for the regional chambers of medicine in Turkey.

  13. Hunting-mediated predator facilitation and superadditive mortality in a European ungulate.

    PubMed

    Gehr, Benedikt; Hofer, Elizabeth J; Pewsner, Mirjam; Ryser, Andreas; Vimercati, Eric; Vogt, Kristina; Keller, Lukas F

    2018-01-01

    Predator-prey theory predicts that in the presence of multiple types of predators using a common prey, predator facilitation may result as a consequence of contrasting prey defense mechanisms, where reducing the risk from one predator increases the risk from the other. While predator facilitation is well established in natural predator-prey systems, little attention has been paid to situations where human hunters compete with natural predators for the same prey. Here, we investigate hunting-mediated predator facilitation in a hunter-predator-prey system. We found that hunter avoidance by roe deer ( Capreolus capreolus ) exposed them to increase predation risk by Eurasian lynx ( Lynx lynx ). Lynx responded by increasing their activity and predation on deer, providing evidence that superadditive hunting mortality may be occurring through predator facilitation. Our results reveal a new pathway through which human hunters, in their role as top predators, may affect species interactions at lower trophic levels and thus drive ecosystem processes.

  14. Handwriting generates variable visual output to facilitate symbol learning.

    PubMed

    Li, Julia X; James, Karin H

    2016-03-01

    Recent research has demonstrated that handwriting practice facilitates letter categorization in young children. The present experiments investigated why handwriting practice facilitates visual categorization by comparing 2 hypotheses: that handwriting exerts its facilitative effect because of the visual-motor production of forms, resulting in a direct link between motor and perceptual systems, or because handwriting produces variable visual instances of a named category in the environment that then changes neural systems. We addressed these issues by measuring performance of 5-year-old children on a categorization task involving novel, Greek symbols across 6 different types of learning conditions: 3 involving visual-motor practice (copying typed symbols independently, tracing typed symbols, tracing handwritten symbols) and 3 involving visual-auditory practice (seeing and saying typed symbols of a single typed font, of variable typed fonts, and of handwritten examples). We could therefore compare visual-motor production with visual perception both of variable and similar forms. Comparisons across the 6 conditions (N = 72) demonstrated that all conditions that involved studying highly variable instances of a symbol facilitated symbol categorization relative to conditions where similar instances of a symbol were learned, regardless of visual-motor production. Therefore, learning perceptually variable instances of a category enhanced performance, suggesting that handwriting facilitates symbol understanding by virtue of its environmental output: supporting the notion of developmental change though brain-body-environment interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. Scientific habits of mind: A reform of structure and relationships

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mooney, Linda Beth

    This research was designed to broaden current elementary science reform efforts by including the voices of our young scientists. Ten high school students who were defined as possessing both coherent science knowledge and scientific habits of mind were selected for the study. Through a three-part series of in-depth, phenomenological interviews, these students revealed early childhood experiences from birth through age ten to which they attributed their development of science knowledge and scientific habits of mind. Educational connoisseurship and criticism provided the framework through which the experiences were analyzed. The research revealed the overwhelming role of scientific habits of mind in the current success of these young scientists. Scientific habits of mind were developed through the structures and relationships in the home. Parents of the participants provided a non-authoritarian, fun, playful, tolerant atmosphere in which messes and experimentation were the norm. Large blocks of uninterrupted, unstructured time and space that "belonged" to the child allowed these children to follow where curiosity led. Frequently, the parent modeled scientific habits of mind. Good discipline in the minds of these families had nothing to do with punishments, rewards, or rules. The parents gave the children responsibilities, "free rein," and their trust, and the children blossomed in that trust and mutual respect. Parents recognized and supported the uniqueness, autonomy, interests, and emotions of the child. Above all, the young scientists valued the time, freedom, patience, and emotional support provided by their parents. For girls, construction toys, hot wheels, sand boxes, and outdoor experiences were particularly important. Art classes, free access to art media, sewing, music, and physical activity facilitated observational skills and spatial relationship development. The girls knew that doing traditionally masculine and feminine activities were acceptable and

  16. Students' Positions and Considerations of Scientific Evidence about a Controversial Socioscientific Issue

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Albe, Virginie

    2008-01-01

    Efforts have been devoted to introduce in science curricula direct instruction for evaluating scientific reports on socioscientific issues. In this study, students' opinions on the SSI of mobile telephones effects have been investigated before and after a classroom activity designed to enable students to assess scientific data. Aspects of the…

  17. Using a Hybrid Approach to Facilitate Learning Introductory Programming

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cakiroglu, Unal

    2013-01-01

    In order to facilitate students' understanding in introductory programming courses, different types of teaching approaches were conducted. In this study, a hybrid approach including comment first coding (CFC), analogy and template approaches were used. The goal was to investigate the effect of such a hybrid approach on students' understanding in…

  18. The Role of Facilitators in Project Action Learning Implementation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cao, Rui; Chuah, Kong Bieng; Chao, Yiu Chung; Kwong, Kar Fai; Law, Mo Yin

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: This paper addresses the importance of a more proactive role of organizational learning (OL) facilitators, learning motivation reinforcer, through a two-part longitudinal study in a case company. The first part of this study aims to investigate and analyze some unexpected challenges in the project action learning-driven (PAL) OL…

  19. The Scientific Competitiveness of Nations.

    PubMed

    Cimini, Giulio; Gabrielli, Andrea; Sylos Labini, Francesco

    2014-01-01

    We use citation data of scientific articles produced by individual nations in different scientific domains to determine the structure and efficiency of national research systems. We characterize the scientific fitness of each nation-that is, the competitiveness of its research system-and the complexity of each scientific domain by means of a non-linear iterative algorithm able to assess quantitatively the advantage of scientific diversification. We find that technological leading nations, beyond having the largest production of scientific papers and the largest number of citations, do not specialize in a few scientific domains. Rather, they diversify as much as possible their research system. On the other side, less developed nations are competitive only in scientific domains where also many other nations are present. Diversification thus represents the key element that correlates with scientific and technological competitiveness. A remarkable implication of this structure of the scientific competition is that the scientific domains playing the role of "markers" of national scientific competitiveness are those not necessarily of high technological requirements, but rather addressing the most "sophisticated" needs of the society.

  20. The Scientific Competitiveness of Nations

    PubMed Central

    Cimini, Giulio; Gabrielli, Andrea; Sylos Labini, Francesco

    2014-01-01

    We use citation data of scientific articles produced by individual nations in different scientific domains to determine the structure and efficiency of national research systems. We characterize the scientific fitness of each nation—that is, the competitiveness of its research system—and the complexity of each scientific domain by means of a non-linear iterative algorithm able to assess quantitatively the advantage of scientific diversification. We find that technological leading nations, beyond having the largest production of scientific papers and the largest number of citations, do not specialize in a few scientific domains. Rather, they diversify as much as possible their research system. On the other side, less developed nations are competitive only in scientific domains where also many other nations are present. Diversification thus represents the key element that correlates with scientific and technological competitiveness. A remarkable implication of this structure of the scientific competition is that the scientific domains playing the role of “markers” of national scientific competitiveness are those not necessarily of high technological requirements, but rather addressing the most “sophisticated” needs of the society. PMID:25493626

  1. Barriers and Facilitators to Oral PrEP Use Among Transgender Women in New York City.

    PubMed

    Rael, Christine Tagliaferri; Martinez, Michelle; Giguere, Rebecca; Bockting, Walter; MacCrate, Caitlin; Mellman, Will; Valente, Pablo; Greene, George J; Sherman, Susan; Footer, Katherine H A; D'Aquila, Richard T; Carballo-Diéguez, Alex

    2018-03-27

    Transgender women may face a disparate risk for HIV/AIDS compared to other groups. In 2012, Truvada was approved for daily use as HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). However, there is a dearth of research about barriers and facilitators to PrEP in transgender women. This paper will shed light on transgender women living in New York City's perceived and actual challenges to using PrEP and potential strategies to overcome them. After completing an initial screening process, four 90-min focus groups were completed with n = 18 transgender women. Participants were asked what they like and dislike about PrEP. Participants identified the following barriers: uncomfortable side effects, difficulty taking pills, stigma, exclusion of transgender women in advertising, and lack of research on transgender women and PrEP. Facilitators included: reducing pill size, increasing the types of available HIV prevention products, and conducting scientific studies to evaluate PrEP in transgender women.

  2. Analysis of Photonic Networks for a Chip Multiprocessor Using Scientific Applications

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2009-05-01

    Analysis of Photonic Networks for a Chip Multiprocessor Using Scientific Applications Gilbert Hendry†, Shoaib Kamil‡?, Aleksandr Biberman†, Johnnie...electronic networks -on-chip warrants investigating real application traces on functionally compa- rable photonic and electronic network designs. We... network can achieve 75× improvement in energy ef- ficiency for synthetic benchmarks and up to 37× improve- ment for real scientific applications

  3. Scientific Utopia: An agenda for improving scientific communication (Invited)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nosek, B.

    2013-12-01

    The scientist's primary incentive is publication. In the present culture, open practices do not increase chances of publication, and they often require additional work. Practicing the abstract scientific values of openness and reproducibility thus requires behaviors in addition to those relevant for the primary, concrete rewards. When in conflict, concrete rewards are likely to dominate over abstract ones. As a consequence, the reward structure for scientists does not encourage openness and reproducibility. This can be changed by nudging incentives to align scientific practices with scientific values. Science will benefit by creating and connecting technologies that nudge incentives while supporting and improving the scientific workflow. For example, it should be as easy to search the research literature for my topic as it is to search the Internet to find hilarious videos of cats falling off of furniture. I will introduce the Center for Open Science (http://centerforopenscience.org/) and efforts to improve openness and reproducibility such as http://openscienceframework.org/. There will be no cats.

  4. The AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource: Role in HIV/AIDS scientific discovery

    PubMed Central

    Ayers, Leona W; Silver, Sylvia; McGrath, Michael S; Orenstein, Jan M

    2007-01-01

    The AIDS Cancer and Specimen Resource (ACSR) supports scientific discovery in the area of HIV/AIDS-associated malignancies. The ACSR was established as a cooperative agreement between the NCI (Office of the Director, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis) and regional consortia, University of California, San Francisco (West Coast), George Washington University (East Coast) and Ohio State University (Mid-Region) to collect, preserve and disperse HIV-related tissues and biologic fluids and controls along with clinical data to qualified investigators. The available biological samples with clinical data and the application process are described on the ACSR web site. The ACSR tissue bank has more than 100,000 human HIV positive specimens that represent different processing (43), specimen (15), and anatomical site (50) types. The ACSR provides special biospecimen collections and prepares speciality items, e.g., tissue microarrays (TMA), DNA libraries. Requests have been greatest for Kaposi's sarcoma (32%) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (26%). Dispersed requests include 83% tissue (frozen and paraffin embedded), 18% plasma/serum and 9% other. ACSR also provides tissue microarrays of, e.g., Kaposi's sarcoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, for biomarker assays and has developed collaborations with other groups that provide access to additional AIDS-related malignancy specimens. ACSR members and associates have completed 63 podium and poster presentations. Investigators have submitted 125 letters of intent requests. Discoveries using ACSR have been reported in 61 scientific publications in notable journals with an average impact factor of 7. The ACSR promotes the scientific exploration of the relationship between HIV/AIDS and malignancy by participation at national and international scientific meetings, contact with investigators who have productive research in this area and identifying, collecting, preserving, enhancing, and dispersing HIV/AIDS-related malignancy specimens to

  5. Evaluating Scientific Misconceptions and Scientific Literacy in a General Science Course

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Courtier, A. M.; Scott, T. J.

    2009-12-01

    The data used in this study were collected as part of the course assignments for General Education Science (GSci) 101: “Physics, Chemistry, and the Human Experience” at James Madison University. The course covers the basic principles of physics, chemistry, and astronomy. The primary goals of this study were to analyze student responses to general scientific questions, to identify scientific misconceptions, and to evaluate scientific literacy by comparing responses collected from different groups of students and from questions given during the course versus at the end of the course. While this project is focused on general scientific concepts, the misconceptions and patterns identified are particularly relevant for improving pedagogy in the geosciences as this field relies on multidisciplinary knowledge of fundamental physics, chemistry, and astronomy. We discuss differences in the results between the disciplines of physics, chemistry, and astronomy and their implications for general geology education and literacy, emphasizing the following questions: (a) What do students typically get wrong? (b) Did the overall scientific literacy of the students increase throughout the semester? Are the concepts discussed in answers provided at the end of class more accurate than those provided during class? (c) How do the before- and after- class responses change with respect to language and terminology? Did the students use more scientific terminology? Did the students use scientific terminology correctly?

  6. Developing facilitation skills--a narrative.

    PubMed

    Newton, Jennifer M

    2003-07-01

    Effective facilitation has been identified in the literature as one of three elements, along with context and evidence, that have a dynamic and coexisting relationship to enable the successful uptake of evidence into practice. This paper presents an overview of the concept of facilitation within the context of practice development, ahead of a personal and professional reflective account of a 'developing facilitator'. In the summer of 2001, the author was instrumental in organising the first Practice Development School in Melbourne. Thrown in at the deep end, she found herself co-facilitating with an experienced practice developer from the United Kingdom. Having never facilitated in the arena of an action learning group, nor worked in the field of practice development, there was initially a sense of impending overload and drowning in the new knowledge and skills that needed to be acquired. Drawing upon the work of narrative inquiry the author shares her experiences in the anticipation that in telling her story it will assist others in their journey of becoming a facilitator.

  7. Engaging Fifth Graders in Scientific Modeling to Learn about Evaporation and Condensation

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Hokayem, Hayat; Schwarz, Christina

    2014-01-01

    Reform efforts in science education have aimed at fostering scientific literacy by helping learners meaningfully engage in scientific practices to make sense of the world. In this paper, we report on our second year of unit implementation that has investigated 34 fifth grade students' (10-year-olds) learning about evaporation and condensation…

  8. Elementary Students' Scientific Epistemological Beliefs in Relation to Socio-Economic Status and Gender

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ozkal, Kudret; Tekkaya, Ceren; Sungur, Semra; Cakiroglu, Jale; Cakiroglu, Erdinc

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated students' scientific epistemological beliefs in relation to socio-economic status (SES) and gender. Data were obtained from 1,152 eight grade Turkish elementary school students using Scientific Epistemological Beliefs instrument. Canonical correlation analysis indicated that students with a working mother and educated…

  9. Analyzing Data Citations to Assess the Scientific and Societal Value of Scientific Data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, R. S.; Downs, R. R.

    2012-12-01

    Stakeholders in the creation, distribution, support, funding, and use of scientific data can benefit by understanding the value that the data have for society and science. For decades, the scientific community has been using citations of articles in the published scientific literature as one of the primary measures used for evaluating the performance of scientists, departments, institutions, and scientific disciplines. Similarly, citations in the published literature of scientific data may be useful for measuring and assessing the value of the scientific data and the performance of the individuals, projects, programs, and organizations that have contributed to the data and their use. The results of citation analysis and other assessments of the value of data also can contribute to planning for future data collection, development, distribution, and preservation efforts. The planned release of new data citation indexes and the more widespread adoption of unique data identifiers and automated attribution mechanisms have the potential to improve significantly the capabilities for analyzing citations of scientific data. In addition, rapid developments in the systems and capabilities for disseminating data, along with education and workforce development on the importance of data attribution and on techniques for data citation, can improve practices for citing scientific data. Such practices need to lead not only to better aggregate statistics about data citation, but also to improved characterization and understanding of the impact of data use in terms of the benefits for science and society. Analyses of citations in the scientific literature were conducted for data that were distributed by an interdisciplinary scientific data center during a five-year period (1997 - 2011), to identify the scientific fields represented by the journals and books in which the data were cited. Secondary citation analysis also was conducted for a sample of scientific publications that used

  10. Scientific production of medical sciences universities in north of iran.

    PubMed

    Siamian, Hasan; Firooz, Mousa Yamin; Vahedi, Mohammad; Aligolbandi, Kobra

    2013-01-01

    NONE DECLARED. The study of the scientific evidence citation production by famous databases of the world is one of the important indicators to evaluate and rank the universities. The study at investigating the scientific production of Northern Iran Medical Sciences Universities in Scopus from 2005 through 2010. This survey used scientometrics technique. The samples under studies were the scientific products of four northern Iran Medical universities. Viewpoints quantity of the Scientific Products Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences stands first and of Babol University of Medical Sciences ranks the end, but from the viewpoints of quality of scientific products of considering the H-Index and the number of cited papers the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences is a head from the other universities under study. From the viewpoints of subject of the papers, the highest scientific products belonged to the faculty of Pharmacy affiliated to Mazandaran University of Medial Sciences, but the three other universities for the genetics and biochemistry. Results showed that the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences as compared to the other understudies universities ranks higher for the number of articles, cited articles, number of hard work authors and H-Index of Scopus database from 2005 through 2010.

  11. Medical students' and facilitators' experiences of an Early Professional Contact course: active and motivated students, strained facilitators.

    PubMed

    von Below, Bernhard; Hellquist, Gunilla; Rödjer, Stig; Gunnarsson, Ronny; Björkelund, Cecilia; Wahlqvist, Mats

    2008-12-02

    Today, medical students are introduced to patient contact, communication skills, and clinical examination in the preclinical years of the curriculum with the purpose of gaining clinical experience. These courses are often evaluated from the student perspective. Reports with an additional emphasis on the facilitator perspective are scarce. According to constructive alignment, an influential concept from research in higher education, the learning climate between students and teachers is also of great importance. In this paper, we approach the learning climate by studying both students' and facilitators' course experiences.In 2001, a new "Early Professional Contact" longitudinal strand through term 1-4, was introduced at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. General practitioners and hospital specialists were facilitators.The aim of this study was to assess and analyse students' and clinical facilitators' experiences of the Early Professional Contact course and to illuminate facilitators' working conditions. Inspired by a Swedish adaptation of the Course Experience Questionnaire, an Early Professional Contact Questionnaire was constructed. In 2003, on the completion of the first longitudinal strand, a student and facilitator version was distributed to 86 students and 21 facilitators. In the analysis, both Chi-square and the Mann-Whitney tests were used. Sixty students (70%) and 15 facilitators (71%) completed the questionnaire. Both students and facilitators were satisfied with the course. Students reported gaining iiration for their future work as doctors along with increased confidence in meeting patients. They also reported increased motivation for biomedical studies. Differences in attitudes between facilitators and students were found. Facilitators experienced a greater workload, less reasonable demands and less support, than students. In this project, a new Early Professional Contact course was analysed from both student and facilitator

  12. Methods of Scientific Research: Teaching Scientific Creativity at Scale

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Robbins, Dennis; Ford, K. E. Saavik

    2016-01-01

    We present a scaling-up plan for AstroComNYC's Methods of Scientific Research (MSR), a course designed to improve undergraduate students' understanding of science practices. The course format and goals, notably the open-ended, hands-on, investigative nature of the curriculum are reviewed. We discuss how the course's interactive pedagogical techniques empower students to learn creativity within the context of experimental design and control of variables thinking. To date the course has been offered to a limited numbers of students in specific programs. The goals of broadly implementing MSR is to reach more students and early in their education—with the specific purpose of supporting and improving retention of students pursuing STEM careers. However, we also discuss challenges in preserving the effectiveness of the teaching and learning experience at scale.

  13. Scientific Visualization: A Synthesis of Historical Data.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Polland, Mark

    Visualization is the process by which one is able to create and sustain mental images for observation, analysis, and experimentation. This study consists of a compilation of evidence from historical examples that were collected in order to document the importance and the uses of visualization within the realm of scientific investigation.…

  14. A Complexity Approach to Evaluating National Scientific Systems through International Scientific Collaborations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zelnio, Ryan J.

    2013-01-01

    This dissertation seeks to contribute to a fuller understanding of how international scientific collaboration has affected national scientific systems. It does this by developing three methodological approaches grounded in social complexity theory and applying them to the evaluation of national scientific systems. The first methodology identifies…

  15. [Financing of the scientific publication and protection of the scientific knowledge].

    PubMed

    Oliveira Filho, Renato Santos de; Hochman, Bernardo; Nahas, Fabio Xerfan; Ferreira, Lydia Masako

    2005-01-01

    The main purpose of a study is its publication on a scientific journal. Research financing agencies are important institutions so that studies can be developed and published. The most important research financing agencies that are discussed in this article are: "Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior" (CAPES), "Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico" (CNPq) and "Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo" (FAPESP). CAPES' activities can be grouped in four different strategy lines: a) it evaluates the stricto sensu, at the post-graduation level; b) it provides access and development of scientific research; c) it provides investment on the development of high qualified human resources in Brazil and abroad, and d) it promotes international scientific cooperation. Although CAPES does not support directly scientific publications, almost all actions of this agency contribute to the development of scientific research and publication. CNPq has two main purposes: financing researches and development of human resources. It provides the researchers with financial aid to scientific publication. The grants for editing were specifically created for supporting the national scientific and technical publications edited by Brazilians institutions or societies. CNPq can also support Congresses, Symposiums and similar short-term courses. The Plataforma Lattes is also a branch of CNPq on which the Curriculum Lattes is available. This site has the curriculum vitae of the scientific community and is of great value for researchers. FAPESP also finances journal publications, articles and books that bring up original results of studies made by researchers from the state of São Paulo. It finances, partially, the travel expenses of innovative papers authors in meetings within the country or abroad. Brazilian authors are increasing the number of international publications. Universities, research institutes, financing agencies and

  16. Scientific Data Management Center for Enabling Technologies

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Vouk, Mladen A.

    Managing scientific data has been identified by the scientific community as one of the most important emerging needs because of the sheer volume and increasing complexity of data being collected. Effectively generating, managing, and analyzing this information requires a comprehensive, end-to-end approach to data management that encompasses all of the stages from the initial data acquisition to the final analysis of the data. Fortunately, the data management problems encountered by most scientific domains are common enough to be addressed through shared technology solutions. Based on community input, we have identified three significant requirements. First, more efficient access to storage systemsmore » is needed. In particular, parallel file system and I/O system improvements are needed to write and read large volumes of data without slowing a simulation, analysis, or visualization engine. These processes are complicated by the fact that scientific data are structured differently for specific application domains, and are stored in specialized file formats. Second, scientists require technologies to facilitate better understanding of their data, in particular the ability to effectively perform complex data analysis and searches over extremely large data sets. Specialized feature discovery and statistical analysis techniques are needed before the data can be understood or visualized. Furthermore, interactive analysis requires techniques for efficiently selecting subsets of the data. Finally, generating the data, collecting and storing the results, keeping track of data provenance, data post-processing, and analysis of results is a tedious, fragmented process. Tools for automation of this process in a robust, tractable, and recoverable fashion are required to enhance scientific exploration. The SDM center was established under the SciDAC program to address these issues. The SciDAC-1 Scientific Data Management (SDM) Center succeeded in bringing an initial set of

  17. Outlining and dictating scientific manuscripts is a useful method for health researchers: A focus group interview.

    PubMed

    Andresen, Kristoffer; Laursen, Jannie; Rosenberg, Jacob

    2018-01-01

    Young researchers may experience difficulties when writing scientific articles for publication in biomedical journals. Various methods may facilitate the writing process including outlining the paper before the actual writing and using dictation instead of writing the first draft. The aim of this study was to investigate the experiences and difficulties for young, experienced researchers when writing articles using a detailed outline and dictation of the first draft. We used qualitative focus group interviews and the study was reported according to the COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research guideline. Participants were sampled from a group of researchers participating in a writing retreat/course. The interviews were recorded on a digital recorder and transcribed. The text was analyzed according to content analysis and coded and condensed into themes and subthemes. Groups of participants were added until data saturation was reached. A total of 14 researchers participated (9 women and 5 men). Their clinical experience was median (range) of 6 (1-11) years since graduation from medical school. Two themes arose during the analyses of the data: "Process guidance with the outline as the map" and "arrival at dictation." The outline was used in the preparation phase leading up to the day of dictation and was used in collaboration with co-authors and supervisors. The participants found it to be a useful tool for preparing the manuscript and dictating their initial first full draft. Experienced young researchers found beneficial effects of using a structured outline to prepare for dictation of scientific articles. The outline was a tool that would develop in close collaboration with co-authors and mentors. With dictation, a full first draft of a manuscript can be produced in a few hours. Participants positively evaluated this structured and reproducible way of producing scientific articles.

  18. The need for a regional framework for marine scientific research in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea.

    PubMed

    Oral, Nilufer

    2014-10-01

    One of the important contributions of the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) is Part XIII on Marine Scientific Research (MSR). UNCLOS recognizes the general rule that all states have the right to conduct MSR subject to rights and duties of other states under the convention and in addition, the obligation to promote and facilitate MSR. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. SADI, SHARE, and the in silico scientific method

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background The emergence and uptake of Semantic Web technologies by the Life Sciences provides exciting opportunities for exploring novel ways to conduct in silico science. Web Service Workflows are already becoming first-class objects in “the new way”, and serve as explicit, shareable, referenceable representations of how an experiment was done. In turn, Semantic Web Service projects aim to facilitate workflow construction by biological domain-experts such that workflows can be edited, re-purposed, and re-published by non-informaticians. However the aspects of the scientific method relating to explicit discourse, disagreement, and hypothesis generation have remained relatively impervious to new technologies. Results Here we present SADI and SHARE - a novel Semantic Web Service framework, and a reference implementation of its client libraries. Together, SADI and SHARE allow the semi- or fully-automatic discovery and pipelining of Semantic Web Services in response to ad hoc user queries. Conclusions The semantic behaviours exhibited by SADI and SHARE extend the functionalities provided by Description Logic Reasoners such that novel assertions can be automatically added to a data-set without logical reasoning, but rather by analytical or annotative services. This behaviour might be applied to achieve the “semantification” of those aspects of the in silico scientific method that are not yet supported by Semantic Web technologies. We support this suggestion using an example in the clinical research space. PMID:21210986

  20. Founding editorial--forensics and TheScientificWorld.

    PubMed

    Rowe, W

    2001-10-30

    At the beginning of a new millennium it seems a good idea to stop for a moment and take stock of the current state of forensic science. As a field of scientific research and scientific application, forensic science is a little more than a century old. Forensic science may be said to have begun in 1887 with the simultaneous publication of A. Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet and Hans Gross's Handbuch f1/4r Untersuchungsrichter. Conan Doyle's novel introduced to the world the character of Sherlock Holmes, whose literary career would popularize the use of physical evidence in criminal investigations. Gross's manual for examining magistrates suggests ways in which the expertise of chemists, biologists, geologists, and other natural scientists could contribute to investigations. Gross's book was translated into a number of languages and went through various updated editions during the course of the century. The intervening century saw the development and application of fingerprinting, firearm and tool mark identification, forensic chemistry, forensic biology, forensic toxicology, forensic odontology, forensic pathology, and forensic engineering. Increasingly, the judicial systems of the industrial nations of the world have come to rely upon the expertise of scientists in a variety of disciplines. In most advanced countries, virtually all criminal prosecutions now involve the presentation of scientific testimony. This has had the beneficial effect of diminishing the reliance of courts on eyewitness testimony and defendant confessions.

  1. Design and Reflection Help Students Develop Scientific Abilities: Learning in Introductory Physics Laboratories

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Etkina, Eugenia; Karelina, Anna; Ruibal-Villasenor, Maria; Rosengrant, David; Jordan, Rebecca; Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E.

    2010-01-01

    Design activities, when embedded in an inquiry cycle and appropriately scaffolded and supplemented with reflection, can promote the development of the habits of mind (scientific abilities) that are an important part of scientific practice. Through the Investigative Science Learning Environment ("ISLE"), students construct physics knowledge by…

  2. Implications of Web of Science journal impact factor for scientific output evaluation in 16 institutions and investigators' opinion.

    PubMed

    Wáng, Yì-Xiáng J; Arora, Richa; Choi, Yongdoo; Chung, Hsiao-Wen; Egorov, Vyacheslav I; Frahm, Jens; Kudo, Hiroyuki; Kuyumcu, Suleyman; Laurent, Sophie; Loffroy, Romaric; Maurea, Simone; Morcos, Sameh K; Ni, Yicheng; Oei, Edwin H G; Sabarudin, Akmal; Yu, Xin

    2014-12-01

    Journal based metrics is known not to be ideal for the measurement of the quality of individual researcher's scientific output. In the current report 16 contributors from Hong Kong SAR, India, Korea, Taiwan, Russia, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Belgium, France, Italy, UK, The Netherlands, Malaysia, and USA are invited. The following six questions were asked: (I) is Web of Sciences journal impact factor (IF) and Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) citation the main academic output performance evaluation tool in your institution? and your country? (II) How does Google citation count in your institution? and your country? (III) If paper is published in a non-SCI journal but it is included in PubMed and searchable by Google scholar, how it is valued when compared with a paper published in a journal with an IF? (IV) Do you value to publish a piece of your work in a non-SCI journal as much as a paper published in a journal with an IF? (V) What is your personal view on the metric measurement of scientific output? (VI) Overall, do you think Web of Sciences journal IF is beneficial, or actually it is doing more harm? The results show that IF and ISI citation is heavily affecting the academic life in most of the institutions. Google citation and evaluation, while is being used and convenient and speedy, has not gain wide 'official' recognition as a tool for scientific output evaluation.

  3. Organizational structure and communication strategies of the bypass angioplasty revascularization investigation: a multicenter clinical trial.

    PubMed

    Naydeck, B L; Sutton-Tyrrell, K; Burek, K; Sopko, G S

    1996-06-01

    Efficient communication is a challenge for the many operating components of a multicenter randomized clinical trial. Traditional management theory states that communications generally flow along a path established by a hierarchical organizational structure. A multicenter clinical trial does not fit traditional organizational models well and requires modification of traditional communication techniques. While the scientific community typically views a clinical trial as one large and cohesive enterprise, at each site the trial may actually be conducted as a small project related to the medical specialty of the investigator. Therefore overall trial management must be accomplished through collaboration rather than through direct management. In the Bypass Angioplasty Revascularization Investigation (BARI), the BARI clinical coordinating center has designed and utilized several mechanisms that facilitate effective communication and administrative control of a multicenter clinical trial. These mechanisms provide a framework of communication techniques that accommodate the specific needs of a complex organization.

  4. Leadership and Learning: Facilitating Self-Directed Learning in Enterprises

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Smith, Peter J.; Sadler-Smith, Eugene; Robertson, Ian; Wakefield, Lyn

    2007-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this research is to show that a key aspect of learning and development of individual employees is that of self-directedness. This paper will consider the role of the leader in facilitating workforce development in terms of employees' self-directedness for learning. The research was designed to investigate the views that…

  5. Peer-facilitated cognitive dissonance versus healthy weight eating disorders prevention: A randomized comparison.

    PubMed

    Becker, Carolyn Black; Wilson, Chantale; Williams, Allison; Kelly, Mackenzie; McDaniel, Leda; Elmquist, Joanna

    2010-09-01

    Research supports the efficacy of both cognitive dissonance (CD) and healthy weight (HW) eating disorders prevention, and indicates that CD can be delivered by peer-facilitators, which facilitates dissemination. This study investigated if peer-facilitators can deliver HW when it is modified for their use and extended follow-up of peer-facilitated CD as compared to previous trials. Based on pilot data, we modified HW (MHW) to facilitate peer delivery, elaborate benefits of the healthy-ideal, and place greater emphasis on consuming nutrient dense foods. Female sorority members (N=106) were randomized to either two 2-h sessions of CD or MHW. Participants completed assessment pre- and post-intervention, and at 8-week, 8-month, and 14-month follow-up. Consistent with hypotheses, CD decreased negative affect, thin-ideal internalization, and bulimic pathology to a greater degree post-intervention. Both CD and MHW reduced negative affect, internalization, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and bulimic pathology at 14 months. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Nature of Science, Scientific Inquiry, and Socio-Scientific Issues Arising from Genetics: A Pathway to Developing a Scientifically Literate Citizenry

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lederman, Norman G.; Antink, Allison; Bartos, Stephen

    2014-01-01

    The primary focus of this article is to illustrate how teachers can use contemporary socio-scientific issues to teach students about nature of scientific knowledge as well as address the science subject matter embedded in the issues. The article provides an initial discussion about the various aspects of nature of scientific knowledge that are…

  7. Constructing Scientific Arguments Using Evidence from Dynamic Computational Climate Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pallant, Amy; Lee, Hee-Sun

    2015-04-01

    Modeling and argumentation are two important scientific practices students need to develop throughout school years. In this paper, we investigated how middle and high school students ( N = 512) construct a scientific argument based on evidence from computational models with which they simulated climate change. We designed scientific argumentation tasks with three increasingly complex dynamic climate models. Each scientific argumentation task consisted of four parts: multiple-choice claim, openended explanation, five-point Likert scale uncertainty rating, and open-ended uncertainty rationale. We coded 1,294 scientific arguments in terms of a claim's consistency with current scientific consensus, whether explanations were model based or knowledge based and categorized the sources of uncertainty (personal vs. scientific). We used chi-square and ANOVA tests to identify significant patterns. Results indicate that (1) a majority of students incorporated models as evidence to support their claims, (2) most students used model output results shown on graphs to confirm their claim rather than to explain simulated molecular processes, (3) students' dependence on model results and their uncertainty rating diminished as the dynamic climate models became more and more complex, (4) some students' misconceptions interfered with observing and interpreting model results or simulated processes, and (5) students' uncertainty sources reflected more frequently on their assessment of personal knowledge or abilities related to the tasks than on their critical examination of scientific evidence resulting from models. These findings have implications for teaching and research related to the integration of scientific argumentation and modeling practices to address complex Earth systems.

  8. An ethnographic investigation of healthcare providers' approaches to facilitating person-centredness in group-based diabetes education.

    PubMed

    Stenov, Vibeke; Hempler, Nana Folmann; Reventlow, Susanne; Wind, Gitte

    2017-08-22

    To investigate approaches among healthcare providers (HCPs) that support or hinder person-centredness in group-based diabetes education programmes targeting persons with type 2 diabetes. Ethnographic fieldwork in a municipal and a hospital setting in Denmark. The two programmes included 21 participants and 10 HCPs and were observed over 5 weeks. Additionally, 10 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients (n = 7) and HCPs (n = 3). Data were analysed using systematic text condensation. Hindering approaches included a teacher-centred focus on delivering disease-specific information. Communication was dialog based, but HCPs primarily asked closed-ended questions with one correct answer. Additional hindering approaches included ignoring participants with suboptimal health behaviours and a tendency to moralize that resulted in feelings of guilt among participants. Supporting approaches included letting participants set the agenda using broad, open-ended questions. Healthcare providers are often socialized into a biomedical approach and trained to be experts. However, person-centredness involves redefined roles and responsibilities. Applying person-centredness in practice requires continuous training and supervision, but HCPs often have minimum support for developing person-centred communication skills. Techniques based on motivational communication, psychosocial methods and facilitating group processes are effective person-centred approaches in a group context. Teacher-centredness undermined person-centredness because HCPs primarily delivered disease-specific recommendations, leading to biomedical information overload for participants. © 2017 Nordic College of Caring Science.

  9. A multi-ontology approach to annotate scientific documents based on a modularization technique.

    PubMed

    Gomes, Priscilla Corrêa E Castro; Moura, Ana Maria de Carvalho; Cavalcanti, Maria Cláudia

    2015-12-01

    Scientific text annotation has become an important task for biomedical scientists. Nowadays, there is an increasing need for the development of intelligent systems to support new scientific findings. Public databases available on the Web provide useful data, but much more useful information is only accessible in scientific texts. Text annotation may help as it relies on the use of ontologies to maintain annotations based on a uniform vocabulary. However, it is difficult to use an ontology, especially those that cover a large domain. In addition, since scientific texts explore multiple domains, which are covered by distinct ontologies, it becomes even more difficult to deal with such task. Moreover, there are dozens of ontologies in the biomedical area, and they are usually big in terms of the number of concepts. It is in this context that ontology modularization can be useful. This work presents an approach to annotate scientific documents using modules of different ontologies, which are built according to a module extraction technique. The main idea is to analyze a set of single-ontology annotations on a text to find out the user interests. Based on these annotations a set of modules are extracted from a set of distinct ontologies, and are made available for the user, for complementary annotation. The reduced size and focus of the extracted modules tend to facilitate the annotation task. An experiment was conducted to evaluate this approach, with the participation of a bioinformatician specialist of the Laboratory of Peptides and Proteins of the IOC/Fiocruz, who was interested in discovering new drug targets aiming at the combat of tropical diseases. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Web-Browsing Competencies of Pre-Service Adult Facilitators: Implications for Curriculum Transformation and Distance Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Theresa, Ofoegbu; Ugwu, Agboeze Matthias; Ihebuzoaju, Anyanwu Joy; Uche, Asogwa

    2013-01-01

    The study investigated the Web-browsing competencies of pre-service adult facilitators in the southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Survey design was adopted for the study. The population consists of all pre-service adult facilitators in all the federal universities in the southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Accidental sampling technique was…

  11. Making sense scientific claims in advertising. A study of scientifically aware consumers.

    PubMed

    Dodds, Rachel E; Tseëlon, Efrat; Weitkamp, Emma L C

    2008-04-01

    Evidence that science is becoming increasingly embedded in culture comes from the proliferation of discourses of ethical consumption, sustainability, and environmental awareness. Al Gore's recent award, along with UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the Nobel peace prize-- provided a recent high profile linking of consumption and science. It is not clear to what extent the public at large engages in evaluating the scientific merits of the arguments about the link between human consumption and global environmental catastrophes. But on a local scale, we are routinely required to evaluate, scientific and pseudoscientific claims in advertising. Since advertising is used to sell products, the discourse of scientifically framed claims is being used to persuade consumers of the benefits of these products. In the case of functional foods and cosmetics, such statements are deployed to promote the health benefits and effectiveness of their products. This exploratory study examines the views of British consumers about the scientific and pseudoscientific claims made in advertisements for foods, with particular reference to functional foods, and cosmetics. The participants in the study all worked in scientific environments, though they were not all scientists. The study found that scientific arguments that were congruent with existing health knowledge tended to be accepted while pseudoscientific knowledge was regarded skeptically and concerns were raised over the accuracy and believability of the pseudoscientific claims. It appears that scientific awareness may play a part in consumers' ability to critically examine scientifically and pseudoscientifically based advertising claims.

  12. Barriers and Facilitators of a Career as a Physician Scientist Among Rheumatologists in the United States

    PubMed Central

    Ogdie, Alexis; Shah, Ami A.; Makris, Una E.; Jiang, Yihui; Nelson, Amanda E.; Kim, Alfred H. J.; Angeles-Han, Sheila T.; Castelino, Flavia V.; Golding, Amit; Muscal, Eyal; Kahlenberg, J. Michelle; Barg, Frances K.

    2015-01-01

    Objectives To determine perceived barriers and facilitators to a career in rheumatology research, examine factors leading rheumatologists to leave an academic research career, and solicit ways to best support young physician-scientists. Methods A web-based survey was conducted among the domestic American College of Rheumatology (ACR) membership from January–March 2014. Inclusion criteria were ACR membership and an available email address. Non-rheumatologists were excluded. The survey assessed demographics, research participation, barriers and facilitators to a career in research, reasons for leaving a research career (when applicable), and ways in which the ACR could support junior investigators. Content analysis was used to extract relevant themes. Results Among 5,448 ACR domestic members, 502 responses were obtained (9.2% response rate). After exclusions (38 incomplete, 2 duplicates, 32 non-rheumatologists), 430 responses were analyzed. Participants included fellows, young investigators, established investigators, mentors, clinicians, and those who previously pursued a research career but have chosen a different career path. Funding and mentoring were the most highly ranked barriers and facilitators. Protection from clinical and administrative duties, institutional support and personal characteristics such as resilience and persistence were also ranked highly. The most commonly cited reasons for leaving an academic research career were difficulty obtaining funding and lack of department or division support. Conclusion This is the first study to examine barriers and facilitators to a career in rheumatology research from the perspectives of diverse groups of rheumatologists. Knowledge of such barriers and facilitators may assist in designing interventions to support investigators during vulnerable points in their career development. PMID:25708626

  13. Guiding students to develop an understanding of scientific inquiry: a science skills approach to instruction and assessment.

    PubMed

    Stone, Elisa M

    2014-01-01

    New approaches for teaching and assessing scientific inquiry and practices are essential for guiding students to make the informed decisions required of an increasingly complex and global society. The Science Skills approach described here guides students to develop an understanding of the experimental skills required to perform a scientific investigation. An individual teacher's investigation of the strategies and tools she designed to promote scientific inquiry in her classroom is outlined. This teacher-driven action research in the high school biology classroom presents a simple study design that allowed for reciprocal testing of two simultaneous treatments, one that aimed to guide students to use vocabulary to identify and describe different scientific practices they were using in their investigations-for example, hypothesizing, data analysis, or use of controls-and another that focused on scientific collaboration. A knowledge integration (KI) rubric was designed to measure how students integrated their ideas about the skills and practices necessary for scientific inquiry. KI scores revealed that student understanding of scientific inquiry increased significantly after receiving instruction and using assessment tools aimed at promoting development of specific inquiry skills. General strategies for doing classroom-based action research in a straightforward and practical way are discussed, as are implications for teaching and evaluating introductory life sciences courses at the undergraduate level.

  14. Mars scientific investigations as a precursor for human exploration.

    PubMed

    Ahlf, P; Cantwell, E; Ostrach, L; Pline, A

    2000-01-01

    In the past two years, NASA has begun to develop and implement plans for investigations on robotic Mars missions which are focused toward returning data critical for planning human missions to Mars. The Mars Surveyor Program 2001 Orbiter and Lander missions will mark the first time that experiments dedicated to preparation for human exploration will be carried out. Investigations on these missions and future missions range from characterization of the physical and chemical environment of Mars, to predicting the response of biology to the Mars environment. Planning for such missions must take into account existing data from previous Mars missions which were not necessarily focused on human exploration preparation. At the same time, plans for near term missions by the international community must be considered to avoid duplication of effort. This paper reviews data requirements for human exploration and applicability of existing data. It will also describe current plans for investigations and place them within the context of related international activities. c 2000 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Mars scientific investigations as a precursor for human exploration

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ahlf, P.; Cantwell, E.; Ostrach, L.; Pline, A.

    2000-01-01

    In the past two years, NASA has begun to develop and implement plans for investigations on robotic Mars missions which are focused toward returning data critical for planning human missions to Mars. The Mars Surveyor Program 2001 Orbiter and Lander missions will mark the first time that experiments dedicated to preparation for human exploration will be carried out. Investigations on these missions and future missions range from characterization of the physical and chemical environment of Mars, to predicting the response of biology to the Mars environment. Planning for such missions must take into account existing data from previous Mars missions which were not necessarily focused on human exploration preparation. At the same time, plans for near term missions by the international community must be considered to avoid duplication of effort. This paper reviews data requirements for human exploration and applicability of existing data. It will also describe current plans for investigations and place them within the context of related international activities. c 2000 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Speech acts and performances of scientific citizenship: Examining how scientists talk about therapeutic cloning.

    PubMed

    Marks, Nicola J

    2014-07-01

    Scientists play an important role in framing public engagement with science. Their language can facilitate or impede particular interactions taking place with particular citizens: scientists' "speech acts" can "perform" different types of "scientific citizenship". This paper examines how scientists in Australia talked about therapeutic cloning during interviews and during the 2006 parliamentary debates on stem cell research. Some avoided complex labels, thereby facilitating public examination of this field. Others drew on language that only opens a space for publics to become educated, not to participate in a more meaningful way. Importantly, public utterances made by scientists here contrast with common international utterances: they did not focus on the therapeutic but the research promises of therapeutic cloning. Social scientists need to pay attention to the performative aspects of language in order to promote genuine citizen involvement in techno-science. Speech Act Theory is a useful analytical tool for this.

  17. Facilitating Case Reuse during Problem Solving in Algebra-Based Physics

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mateycik, Frances Ann

    2010-01-01

    This research project investigates students' development of problem solving schemata while using strategies that facilitate the process of using solved examples to assist with a new problem (case reuse). Focus group learning interviews were used to explore students' perceptions and understanding of several problem solving strategies. Individual…

  18. Online interprofessional education facilitation: A scoping review.

    PubMed

    Evans, Sherryn Maree; Ward, Catherine; Reeves, Scott

    2018-04-22

    The use of online media to deliver interprofessional education (IPE) is becoming more prevalent across health professions education settings. Facilitation of IPE activities is known to be critical to the effective delivery of IPE, however, specifics about the nature of online IPE facilitation remains unclear. To explore the health professions education literature to understand the extent, range and nature of research on online IPE facilitation. Scoping review methodology was used to guide a search of four electronic databases for relevant papers. Of the 2095 abstracts initially identified, after screening of both abstracts and full-text papers, 10 studies were selected for inclusion in this review. Following abstraction of key information from each study, a thematic analysis was undertaken. Three key themes emerged to describe the nature of the IPE facilitation literature: (1) types of online IPE facilitation contributions, (2) the experience of online IPE facilitation and (3) personal outcomes of online IPE facilitation. These IPE facilitation themes were particularly focused on facilitation of interprofessional student teams on an asynchronous basis. While the included studies provide some insight into the nature of online IPE facilitation, future research is needed to better understand facilitator contributions, and the facilitation experience and associated outcomes, both relating to synchronous and asynchronous online environments.

  19. Perspectives on barriers and facilitators to minority recruitment for clinical trials among cancer center leaders, investigators, research staff, and referring clinicians: enhancing minority participation in clinical trials (EMPaCT).

    PubMed

    Durant, Raegan W; Wenzel, Jennifer A; Scarinci, Isabel C; Paterniti, Debora A; Fouad, Mona N; Hurd, Thelma C; Martin, Michelle Y

    2014-04-01

    The study of disparities in minority recruitment to cancer clinical trials has focused primarily on inquiries among minority populations. Yet very little is known about the perceptions of individuals actively involved in minority recruitment to clinical trials within cancer centers. Therefore, the authors assessed the perspectives of cancer center clinical and research personnel on barriers and facilitators to minority recruitment. In total, 91 qualitative interviews were conducted at 5 US cancer centers among 4 stakeholder groups: cancer center leaders, principal investigators, research staff, and referring clinicians. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Qualitative analyses of response data was focused on identifying prominent themes related to barriers and facilitators to minority recruitment. The perspectives of the 4 stakeholder groups were largely overlapping with some variations based on their unique roles in minority recruitment. Four prominent themes were identified: 1) racial and ethnic minorities are influenced by varying degrees of skepticism related to trial participation, 2) potential minority participants often face multilevel barriers that preclude them from being offered an opportunity to participate in a clinical trial, 3) facilitators at both the institutional and participant level potentially encourage minority recruitment, and 4) variation between internal and external trial referral procedures may limit clinical trial opportunities for racial and ethnic minorities. Multilevel approaches are needed to address barriers and optimize facilitators within cancer centers to enhance minority recruitment for cancer clinical trials. © 2014 American Cancer Society.

  20. Incorporating Primary Scientific Literature in Middle and High School Education.

    PubMed

    Fankhauser, Sarah C; Lijek, Rebeccah S

    2016-03-01

    Primary literature is the most reliable and direct source of scientific information, but most middle school and high school science is taught using secondary and tertiary sources. One reason for this is that primary science articles can be difficult to access and interpret for young students and for their teachers, who may lack exposure to this type of writing. The Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI) was created to fill this gap and provide primary research articles that can be accessed and read by students and their teachers. JEI is a non-profit, online, open-access, peer-reviewed science journal dedicated to mentoring and publishing the scientific research of middle and high school students. JEI articles provide reliable scientific information that is written by students and therefore at a level that their peers can understand. For student-authors who publish in JEI, the review process and the interaction with scientists provide invaluable insight into the scientific process. Moreover, the resulting repository of free, student-written articles allows teachers to incorporate age-appropriate primary literature into the middle and high school science classroom. JEI articles can be used for teaching specific scientific content or for teaching the process of the scientific method itself. The critical thinking skills that students learn by engaging with the primary literature will be invaluable for the development of a scientifically-literate public.

  1. Incorporating Primary Scientific Literature in Middle and High School Education†

    PubMed Central

    Fankhauser, Sarah C.; Lijek, Rebeccah S.

    2016-01-01

    Primary literature is the most reliable and direct source of scientific information, but most middle school and high school science is taught using secondary and tertiary sources. One reason for this is that primary science articles can be difficult to access and interpret for young students and for their teachers, who may lack exposure to this type of writing. The Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI) was created to fill this gap and provide primary research articles that can be accessed and read by students and their teachers. JEI is a non-profit, online, open-access, peer-reviewed science journal dedicated to mentoring and publishing the scientific research of middle and high school students. JEI articles provide reliable scientific information that is written by students and therefore at a level that their peers can understand. For student-authors who publish in JEI, the review process and the interaction with scientists provide invaluable insight into the scientific process. Moreover, the resulting repository of free, student-written articles allows teachers to incorporate age-appropriate primary literature into the middle and high school science classroom. JEI articles can be used for teaching specific scientific content or for teaching the process of the scientific method itself. The critical thinking skills that students learn by engaging with the primary literature will be invaluable for the development of a scientifically-literate public. PMID:27047607

  2. Data Catalog Series for Space Science and Applications Flight Missions. Volume 2B; Descriptions of Data Sets from Geostationary and High-Altitude Scientific Spacecraft and Investigations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schofield, Norman J. (Editor); Parthasarathy, R. (Editor); Hills, H. Kent (Editor)

    1988-01-01

    The main purpose of the data catalog series is to provide descriptive references to data generated by space science flight missions. The data sets described include all of the actual holdings of the Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), all data sets for which direct contact information is available, and some data collections held and serviced by foreign investigators, NASA and other U.S. government agencies. This volume contains narrative descriptions of data sets from geostationary and high altitude scientific spacecraft and investigations. The following spacecraft series are included: Mariner, Pioneer, Pioneer Venus, Venera, Viking, Voyager, and Helios. Separate indexes to the planetary and interplanetary missions are also provided.

  3. Data catalog series for space science and applications flight missions. Volume 3B: Descriptions of data sets from low- and medium-altitude scientific spacecraft and investigations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jackson, John E. (Editor); Horowitz, Richard (Editor)

    1986-01-01

    The main purpose of the data catalog series is to provide descriptive references to data generated by space science flight missions. The data sets described include all of the actual holdings of the Space Science Data Center (NSSDC), all data sets for which direct contact information is available, and some data collections held and serviced by foreign investigators, NASA and other U.S. government agencies. This volume contains narrative descriptions of data sets from low and medium altitude scientific spacecraft and investigations. The following spacecraft series are included: Mariner, Pioneer, Pioneer Venus, Venera, Viking, Voyager, and Helios. Separate indexes to the planetary and interplanetary missions are also provided.

  4. Between Home and Homeland: Facilitating Theatre with Ethiopian Youth

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lev-Aladgem, Shulamith

    2008-01-01

    The article discusses a community-based theatre project facilitated with a group of Jewish Ethiopian youth in a boarding school in Israel. The intention is to investigate how far a specific group of black immigrants are able to use theatre for their own needs in such a location. It begins with the presentation of the Jewish Ethiopians as a…

  5. What Makes a Scientific Research Question Worth Investigating? Students' Epistemic Criteria and Considerations of Contribution

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Berson, Eric Bruckner

    2012-01-01

    This dissertation introduces the construct of "worthwhileness" as an important aspect of students' "practical" epistemologies of science (Sandoval, 2005). Specifically, it examines how students conceptualize what makes a scientific research question worthwhile, through a close analysis of the criteria they use for…

  6. Final Scientific Report - Wind Powering America State Outreach Project

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sinclair, Mark; Margolis, Anne

    2012-02-01

    The goal of the Wind Powering America State Outreach Project was to facilitate the adoption of effective state legislation, policy, finance programs, and siting best practices to accelerate public acceptance and development of wind energy. This was accomplished by Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) through provision of informational tools including reports and webinars as well as the provision of technical assistance to state leaders on wind siting, policy, and finance best practices, identification of strategic federal-state partnership activities for both onshore and offshore wind, and participation in regional wind development collaboratives. The Final Scientific Report - Wind Powering America Statemore » Outreach Project provides a summary of the objectives, activities, and outcomes of this project as accomplished by CESA over the period 12/1/2009 - 11/30/2011.« less

  7. Investigation of the Effect of Training on the Development of High School Teachers' Attitudes towards Scientific Research and Project Competitions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Akçöltekin, Alptürk

    2016-01-01

    The main purpose of this study is to develop positive attitudes in high school teachers towards scientific research and project competitions by training them in scientific research and project preparation subjects. The study group consists of 90 high school teachers. As a result of the study, a significant difference was found in favor of…

  8. The Resourceful Facilitator: Teacher Leaders Constructing Identities as Facilitators of Teacher Peer Groups

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Allen, David

    2016-01-01

    The use of teacher peer groups is a prevalent strategy for school-based professional development and instructional improvement. Facilitation of such groups is an increasingly vital dimension of teacher leadership as a component of school improvement efforts. Drawing on a qualitative study of facilitation of teacher peer groups, the article…

  9. On toxic effects of scientific journals.

    PubMed

    Molinie, Antoinette; Bodenhausen, Geoffrey

    2013-06-01

    The advent of online publishing greatly facilitates the dissemination of scientific results. This revolution might have led to the untimely death of many traditional publishing companies, since today’s scientists are perfectly capable of writing, formatting and uploading files to appropriate websites that can be consulted by colleagues and the general public alike. They also have the intellectual resources to criticize each other and organize an anonymous peer review system. The Open Access approach appears promising in this respect, but we cannot ignore that it is fraught with editorial and economic problems. A few powerful publishing companies not only managed to survive, but also rake up considerable profits. Moreover, they succeeded in becoming influential ‘trendsetters’ since they decide which papers deserve to be published. To make money, one must set novel trends, like Christian Dior or Levi’s in fashion, and open new markets, for example in Asia. In doing so, the publishers tend to supplant both national and transnational funding agencies in defining science policy. In many cases, these agencies tend simply to adopt the commercial criteria defined by the journals, forever eager to improve their impact factors. It is not obvious that the publishers of scientific journals, the editorial boards that they appoint, or the people who sift through the vast numbers of papers submitted to a handful of ‘top’ journals are endowed with sufficient insight to set the trends of future science. It seems even less obvious that funding agencies should blindly follow the fashion trends set by the publishers. The perverse relationships between private publishers and public funding agencies may have a toxic effect on science policy.

  10. Scientific Networks on Data Landscapes: Question Difficulty, Epistemic Success, and Convergence

    PubMed Central

    Grim, Patrick; Singer, Daniel J.; Fisher, Steven; Bramson, Aaron; Berger, William J.; Reade, Christopher; Flocken, Carissa; Sales, Adam

    2014-01-01

    A scientific community can be modeled as a collection of epistemic agents attempting to answer questions, in part by communicating about their hypotheses and results. We can treat the pathways of scientific communication as a network. When we do, it becomes clear that the interaction between the structure of the network and the nature of the question under investigation affects epistemic desiderata, including accuracy and speed to community consensus. Here we build on previous work, both our own and others’, in order to get a firmer grasp on precisely which features of scientific communities interact with which features of scientific questions in order to influence epistemic outcomes. Here we introduce a measure on the landscape meant to capture some aspects of the difficulty of answering an empirical question. We then investigate both how different communication networks affect whether the community finds the best answer and the time it takes for the community to reach consensus on an answer. We measure these two epistemic desiderata on a continuum of networks sampled from the Watts-Strogatz spectrum. It turns out that finding the best answer and reaching consensus exhibit radically different patterns. The time it takes for a community to reach a consensus in these models roughly tracks mean path length in the network. Whether a scientific community finds the best answer, on the other hand, tracks neither mean path length nor clustering coefficient. PMID:24683416

  11. Scientific Networks on Data Landscapes: Question Difficulty, Epistemic Success, and Convergence.

    PubMed

    Grim, Patrick; Singer, Daniel J; Fisher, Steven; Bramson, Aaron; Berger, William J; Reade, Christopher; Flocken, Carissa; Sales, Adam

    2013-12-01

    A scientific community can be modeled as a collection of epistemic agents attempting to answer questions, in part by communicating about their hypotheses and results. We can treat the pathways of scientific communication as a network. When we do, it becomes clear that the interaction between the structure of the network and the nature of the question under investigation affects epistemic desiderata, including accuracy and speed to community consensus. Here we build on previous work, both our own and others', in order to get a firmer grasp on precisely which features of scientific communities interact with which features of scientific questions in order to influence epistemic outcomes. Here we introduce a measure on the landscape meant to capture some aspects of the difficulty of answering an empirical question. We then investigate both how different communication networks affect whether the community finds the best answer and the time it takes for the community to reach consensus on an answer. We measure these two epistemic desiderata on a continuum of networks sampled from the Watts-Strogatz spectrum. It turns out that finding the best answer and reaching consensus exhibit radically different patterns. The time it takes for a community to reach a consensus in these models roughly tracks mean path length in the network. Whether a scientific community finds the best answer, on the other hand, tracks neither mean path length nor clustering coefficient.

  12. Web-Based Inquiry Learning: Facilitating Thoughtful Literacy with WebQuests

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ikpeze, Chinwe H.; Boyd, Fenice B.

    2007-01-01

    An action research study investigated how the multiple tasks found in WebQuests facilitate fifth-grade students' literacy skills and higher order thinking. Findings indicate that WebQuests are most successful when activities are carefully selected and systematically delivered. Implications for teaching include the necessity for adequate planning,…

  13. Physician perspectives on a tailored multifaceted primary care practice facilitation intervention for improvement of cardiovascular care.

    PubMed

    Liddy, Clare; Singh, Jatinderpreet; Guo, Merry; Hogg, William

    2016-02-01

    Practice facilitation is an effective way to help physicians implement change in their clinics, but little is known about physicians' perspectives on this service. To examine physicians' responses to a practice facilitation program, focussing on their overall satisfaction, perceived most significant clinical changes, and interactions with the facilitator. The Improved Delivery of Cardiovascular Care program investigated the impact of practice facilitation on improving the quality of cardiovascular primary care in Eastern Ontario, Canada, from 2007 to 2011. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of post-intervention surveys completed by participating physicians, using a constant comparison approach framed around the Chronic Care Model. Ninety-five physicians completed the survey. Physicians overwhelmingly viewed the program positively, though descriptions of its benefits and impact varied widely. Facilitators filled three key roles for physicians, acting as a resource centre, motivator and outside perspective. Physicians adopted a number of changes in their practices. These changes include adoption of clinical information systems (diabetes registries), decision support tools (chart audits, guideline documents, flow sheets) and delivery system design (community resources). Most physicians appreciated having access to a practice facilitator and viewed the intervention positively. Insight into physicians' perspectives on practice facilitation provides a valuable counterpoint to outcomes-based evaluations of such services. Further research should investigate potential obstacles in the group of physicians who make fewer practice changes, as well as the sustainability of this type of facilitation intervention. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  14. Scientific misconduct and science ethics: a case study based approach.

    PubMed

    Consoli, Luca

    2006-07-01

    The Schön misconduct case has been widely publicized in the media and has sparked intense discussions within and outside the scientific community about general issues of science ethics. This paper analyses the Report of the official Committee charged with the investigation in order to show that what at first seems to be a quite uncontroversial case, turns out to be an accumulation of many interesting and non-trivial questions (of both ethical and philosophical interest). In particular, the paper intends to show that daily scientific practices are structurally permeated by chronic problems; this has serious consequences for how practicing scientists assess their work in general, and scientific misconduct in particular. A philosophical approach is proposed that sees scientific method and scientific ethics as inextricably interwoven. Furthermore, the paper intends to show that the definition of co-authorship that the members of the Committee use, although perhaps clear in theory, proves highly problematic in practice and raises more questions that it answers. A final plea is made for a more self-reflecting attitude of scientists as far as the moral and methodological profile of science is concerned as a key element for improving not only their scientific achievements, but also their assessment of problematic cases.

  15. Socio-scientific reasoning influenced by identities

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Simonneaux, Laurence; Simonneaux, Jean

    2009-09-01

    Based on the comments by Lopez-Facal and Jiménez-Aleixandre, we consider that the cultural identities within Europe interfere with the question of the re-introduction of the Slovenian bear, generating a kind of "discrimination." When the SAQs under debate run against the students' systems of value, it seems that the closer the connection between the SAQs (socially acute questions) and the territorial and cultural identity, the more deeply the associated systems of values are affected; and the more the evidence is denied, the weaker the socio-scientific reasoning becomes. This result shows the importance of attempting to get the students to clarify the values underlying their socio-scientific reasoning. As Sadler observed, there was no transfer of socio-scientific reasoning on the three questions considered; each SAQ, as they are deeply related to social representations and identity, generated a specific line of reasoning balancing more or less each operation. Among various methods of teaching SAQs—problematizing, genetic, doctrinal and praxeological methods--socio-scientific reasoning may be a complex activity of problematization fostering the development of critical thinking. Confronted with the refusal to analyse the evidence in the case of the bear, and because of the nature of SAQs, we explore the notion of tangible proof. We think it relevant to study, together with the students, the processes of investigation used by the actors to establish or disestablish tangible proof on SAQs by analysing the intermediary states of the systems of proof, and possibly the "weak signals" which result in calling for the implementation of the precautionary principle.

  16. Barriers and Facilitators of Mentoring for Trainees and Early Career Investigators in Rheumatology Research: Current State, Identification of Needs, and Road Map to an Inter-Institutional Adult Rheumatology Mentoring Program.

    PubMed

    Ogdie, Alexis; Sparks, Jeffrey A; Angeles-Han, Sheila T; Bush, Kathleen; Castelino, Flavia V; Golding, Amit; Jiang, Yihui; Kahlenberg, J Michelle; Kim, Alfred H J; Lee, Yvonne C; Machireddy, Kirthi; Ombrello, Michael J; Shah, Ami A; Wallace, Zachary S; Nigrovic, Peter A; Makris, Una E

    2018-03-01

    To determine perceived barriers and facilitators to effective mentoring for early career rheumatology investigators and to develop a framework for an inter-institutional mentoring program. Focus groups or interviews with rheumatology fellows, junior faculty, and mentors were conducted, audiorecorded, and transcribed. Content analysis was performed using NVivo software. Themes were grouped into categories (e.g., mentor-mentee relationship, barriers, and facilitators of a productive relationship). Rheumatology fellows and early career investigators were also surveyed nationwide to identify specific needs to be addressed through an inter-institutional mentoring program. Twenty-five individuals participated in focus groups or interviews. Attributes of the ideal mentee-mentor relationship included communication, accessibility, regular meetings, shared interests, aligned goals, and mutual respect. The mentee should be proactive, efficient, engaged, committed, focused, accountable, and respectful of the mentor's time. The mentor should support/promote the mentee, shape the mentee's goals and career plan, address day-to-day questions, provide critical feedback, be available, and have team leadership skills. Barriers included difficulty with career path navigation, gaining independence, internal competition, authorship, time demands, funding, and work-life balance. Facilitators of a successful relationship included having a diverse network of mentors filling different roles, mentor-mentee relationship management, and confidence. Among 187 survey respondents, the primary uses of an inter-institutional mentoring program were career development planning and oversight, goal-setting, and networking. In this mixed-methods study, tangible factors for optimizing the mentor-mentee relationship were identified and will inform the development of an adult rheumatology inter-institutional mentoring program. © 2017, American College of Rheumatology.

  17. The program at JPL to investigate the nuclear interaction of RTG's with scientific instruments on deep space probes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Truscello, V.

    1972-01-01

    A major concern in the integration of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) with a spacecraft designed to explore the outer planets is the effect of the emitted radiation on the normal operation of scientific instruments. The necessary techniques and tools developed to allow accurate calculation of the neutron and gamma spectrum emanating from the RTG. The specific sources of radiation were identified and quantified. Monte Carlo techniques are then employed to perform the nuclear transport calculations. The results of these studies are presented. An extensive experimental program was initiated to measure the response of a number of scientific components to the nuclear radiation.

  18. Open scientific communication urged

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Richman, Barbara T.

    In a report released last week the National Academy of Sciences' Panel on Scientific Communication and National Security concluded that the ‘limited and uncertain benefits’ of controls on the dissemination of scientific and technological research are ‘outweighed by the importance of scientific progress, which open communication accelerates, to the overall welfare of the nation.’ The 18-member panel, chaired by Dale R. Corson, president emeritus of Cornell University, was created last spring (Eos, April 20, 1982, p. 241) to examine the delicate balance between open dissemination of scientific and technical information and the U.S. government's desire to protect scientific and technological achievements from being translated into military advantages for our political adversaries.The panel dealt almost exclusively with the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union but noted that there are ‘clear problems in scientific communication and national security involving Third World countries.’ Further study of this matter is necessary.

  19. Undergraduate honors students' images of science: Nature of scientific work and scientific knowledge

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wallace, Michael L.

    This exploratory study assessed the influence of an implicit, inquiry-oriented nature of science (NOS) instructional approach undertaken in an interdisciplinary college science course on undergraduate honor students' (UHS) understanding of the aspects of NOS for scientific work and scientific knowledge. In this study, the nature of scientific work concentrated upon the delineation of science from pseudoscience and the value scientists place on reproducibility. The nature of scientific knowledge concentrated upon how UHS view scientific theories and how they believe scientists utilize scientific theories in their research. The 39 UHS who participated in the study were non-science majors enrolled in a Honors College sponsored interdisciplinary science course where the instructors took an implicit NOS instructional approach. An open-ended assessment instrument, the UFO Scenario, was designed for the course and used to assess UHS' images of science at the beginning and end of the semester. The mixed-design study employed both qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze the open-ended responses. The qualitative techniques of open and axial coding were utilized to find recurring themes within UHS' responses. McNemar's chi-square test for two dependent samples was used to identify whether any statistically significant changes occurred within responses from the beginning to the end of the semester. At the start of the study, the majority of UHS held mixed NOS views, but were able to accurately define what a scientific theory is and explicate how scientists utilize theories within scientific research. Postinstruction assessment indicated that UHS did not make significant gains in their understanding of the nature of scientific work or scientific knowledge and their overall images of science remained static. The results of the present study found implicit NOS instruction even with an extensive inquiry-oriented component was an ineffective approach for modifying UHS

  20. Promoting Scientific Literacy through the Online Argumentation System

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Tsai, Chun-Yen

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated how the scientific competencies advocated by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) could be improved by using online argumentation. An online argumentation system served as an aid for argumentation instruction and activities among students during the experiment. Seventy-one 10th grade high school…

  1. Incarceration, restitution, and lifetime debarment: legal consequences of scientific misconduct in the Eric Poehlman case: Commentary on: "Scientific forensics: how the office of research integrity can assist institutional investigations of research misconduct during oversight review".

    PubMed

    Tilden, Samuel J

    2010-12-01

    Following its determination of a finding of scientific misconduct the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) will seek redress for any injury sustained. Several remedies both administrative and statutory may be available depending on the strength of the evidentiary findings of the misconduct investigation. Pursuant to federal regulations administrative remedies are primarily remedial in nature and designed to protect the integrity of the affected research program, whereas statutory remedies including civil fines and criminal penalties are designed to deter and punish wrongdoers. This commentary discusses the available administrative and statutory remedies in the context of a specific case, that of former University of Vermont nutrition researcher Eric Poehlman, and supplies a possible rationale for the legal result.

  2. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in the IPY 2007-2009

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kennicutt, M. C.; Wilson, T. J.; Summerhayes, C.

    2005-05-01

    The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) initiates, develops, and coordinates international scientific research in the Antarctic region. SCAR is assuming a leadership position in the IPY primarily through its five major Scientific Research Programs; ACE, SALE, EBA, AGCS, and ICESTAR; which will be briefly described.Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE) promotes the exchange of data and ideas between research groups focusing on the evolution of Antarctica's climate system and ice sheet. The program will: (1) quantitatively assess the climate and glacial history of Antarctica; (2) identify the processes which govern Antarctic change and feed back around the globe; (3) improve our ability to model past changes in Antarctica; and (4)document past change to predict future change in Antarctica. Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE) promotes, facilitates, and champions cooperation and collaboration in the exploration and study of subglacial environments in Antarctica. SALE intends to understand the complex interplay of biological, geological, chemical, glaciological, and physical processes within subglacial lake environments through coordinated international research teams. Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic (EBA) will use a suite of modern techniques and interdisciplinary approaches, to explore the evolutionary history of selected modern Antarctic biota, examine how modern biological diversity in the Antarctic influences the way present-day ecosystems function, and thereby predict how the biota may respond to future environmental change. Antarctica and the Global Climate System (AGCS) will investigate the nature of the atmospheric and oceanic linkages between the climate of the Antarctic and the rest of the Earth system, and the mechanisms involved therein. A combination of modern instrumented records of atmospheric and oceanic conditions, and the climate signals held within ice cores will be used to understand past and future climate

  3. WWW: The Scientific Method

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Blystone, Robert V.; Blodgett, Kevin

    2006-01-01

    The scientific method is the principal methodology by which biological knowledge is gained and disseminated. As fundamental as the scientific method may be, its historical development is poorly understood, its definition is variable, and its deployment is uneven. Scientific progress may occur without the strictures imposed by the formal…

  4. Manifold compositions, music visualization, and scientific sonification in an immersive virtual-reality environment.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kaper, H. G.

    1998-01-05

    An interdisciplinary project encompassing sound synthesis, music composition, sonification, and visualization of music is facilitated by the high-performance computing capabilities and the virtual-reality environments available at Argonne National Laboratory. The paper describes the main features of the project's centerpiece, DIASS (Digital Instrument for Additive Sound Synthesis); ''A.N.L.-folds'', an equivalence class of compositions produced with DIASS; and application of DIASS in two experiments in the sonification of complex scientific data. Some of the larger issues connected with this project, such as the changing ways in which both scientists and composers perform their tasks, are briefly discussed.

  5. The Scientific Filesystem

    PubMed Central

    Sochat, Vanessa

    2018-01-01

    Abstract Background Here, we present the Scientific Filesystem (SCIF), an organizational format that supports exposure of executables and metadata for discoverability of scientific applications. The format includes a known filesystem structure, a definition for a set of environment variables describing it, and functions for generation of the variables and interaction with the libraries, metadata, and executables located within. SCIF makes it easy to expose metadata, multiple environments, installation steps, files, and entry points to render scientific applications consistent, modular, and discoverable. A SCIF can be installed on a traditional host or in a container technology such as Docker or Singularity. We start by reviewing the background and rationale for the SCIF, followed by an overview of the specification and the different levels of internal modules (“apps”) that the organizational format affords. Finally, we demonstrate that SCIF is useful by implementing and discussing several use cases that improve user interaction and understanding of scientific applications. SCIF is released along with a client and integration in the Singularity 2.4 software to quickly install and interact with SCIF. When used inside of a reproducible container, a SCIF is a recipe for reproducibility and introspection of the functions and users that it serves. Results We use SCIF to evaluate container software, provide metrics, serve scientific workflows, and execute a primary function under different contexts. To encourage collaboration and sharing of applications, we developed tools along with an open source, version-controlled, tested, and programmatically accessible web infrastructure. SCIF and associated resources are available at https://sci-f.github.io. The ease of using SCIF, especially in the context of containers, offers promise for scientists’ work to be self-documenting and programatically parseable for maximum reproducibility. SCIF opens up an abstraction from

  6. The Scientific Filesystem.

    PubMed

    Sochat, Vanessa

    2018-05-01

    Here, we present the Scientific Filesystem (SCIF), an organizational format that supports exposure of executables and metadata for discoverability of scientific applications. The format includes a known filesystem structure, a definition for a set of environment variables describing it, and functions for generation of the variables and interaction with the libraries, metadata, and executables located within. SCIF makes it easy to expose metadata, multiple environments, installation steps, files, and entry points to render scientific applications consistent, modular, and discoverable. A SCIF can be installed on a traditional host or in a container technology such as Docker or Singularity. We start by reviewing the background and rationale for the SCIF, followed by an overview of the specification and the different levels of internal modules ("apps") that the organizational format affords. Finally, we demonstrate that SCIF is useful by implementing and discussing several use cases that improve user interaction and understanding of scientific applications. SCIF is released along with a client and integration in the Singularity 2.4 software to quickly install and interact with SCIF. When used inside of a reproducible container, a SCIF is a recipe for reproducibility and introspection of the functions and users that it serves. We use SCIF to evaluate container software, provide metrics, serve scientific workflows, and execute a primary function under different contexts. To encourage collaboration and sharing of applications, we developed tools along with an open source, version-controlled, tested, and programmatically accessible web infrastructure. SCIF and associated resources are available at https://sci-f.github.io. The ease of using SCIF, especially in the context of containers, offers promise for scientists' work to be self-documenting and programatically parseable for maximum reproducibility. SCIF opens up an abstraction from underlying programming languages and

  7. Exploring scientific creativity of eleventh-grade students in Taiwan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liang, Jia-Chi

    2002-04-01

    Although most researchers focus on scientists' creativity, students' scientific creativity should be considered, especially for high school and college students. It is generally assumed that most professional creators in science emerge from amateur creators. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between students' scientific creativity and selected variables including creativity, problem finding, formulating hypotheses, science achievement, the nature of science, and attitudes toward science for finding significant predictors of eleventh grade students' scientific creativity. A total of 130 male eleventh-grade students in three biology classes participated in this study. The main instruments included the Test of Divergent Thinking (TDT) for creativity measurement, the Creativity Rating Scale (CRS) and the Creative Activities and Accomplishments Check Lists (CAACL ) for measurement of scientific creativity, the Nature of Scientific Knowledge Scale (NSKS) for measurement of the nature of science, and the Science Attitude Inventory II (SAI II) for measurement of attitudes toward science. In addition, two instruments on measuring students' abilities of problem finding and abilities of formulating hypotheses were developed by the researcher in this study. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlations, and stepwise multiple regressions. The major findings suggested the following: (1) students' scientific creativity significantly correlated with some of selected variables such as attitudes toward science, problem finding, formulating hypotheses, the nature of science, resistance to closure, originality, and elaboration; (2) four significant predictors including attitudes toward science, problem finding, resistance to closure, and originality accounted for 48% of the variance of students' scientific creativity; (3) there were big differences between students with a higher and a lower degree of scientific

  8. Barriers to and facilitators of employment for people with psychiatric disabilities in Africa: a scoping review.

    PubMed

    Ebuenyi, I D; Syurina, E V; Bunders, J F G; Regeer, B J

    2018-01-01

    Despite the importance of inclusive employment, described in Goal 8 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), employment of persons with psychiatric disabilities in Africa is lower than among the general population. The aim of this scoping review is to explore evidence related to the barriers to and facilitators of employment of persons with psychiatric disabilities in Africa. A literature search was conducted using six relevant electronic databases of articles published between 1990 and 2017. Eight studies were identified and analysed regarding barriers and facilitators of employment of persons with psychiatric disabilities. The dynamic adaptation of the bio-psycho-social model was used as an analytical framework. Identified barriers include ill health, (anticipated) psychiatric illness, social stigma and discrimination, negative attitudes among employers and the lack of social support and government welfare. Facilitators of employment include stability of mental illness, heightened self-esteem, a personal decision to work despite stigma, competitive and supported employment, reduction in social barriers/stigma and workplace accommodations. Employment of persons with psychiatric disabilities is essential, yet there is dearth of scientific evidence to identify contextual models that might be useful in African countries and other low-and middle countries (LMICs). This gap in information would benefit from further research to improve the employment rates of persons with psychiatric disabilities in Africa.

  9. Barriers and Facilitators to the Elimination of Asbestos Related Diseases—Stakeholders’ Perspectives

    PubMed Central

    Martuzzi, Marco; Schröder-Bäck, Peter; Paunovic, Elizabet

    2017-01-01

    Despite sound scientific knowledge and evidence that any exposure to asbestos fibers in all of its forms, are carcinogenic to humans, its presence, use and trade is still substantial, including in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region. Banning the production and use of all forms of asbestos, as recommended by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and WHO, has been proven as the most efficient evidence-based strategy to eliminate Asbestos Related Diseases (ARDs). To effectively move elimination of ARDs forward, attaining a greater understanding of key stakeholders perspectives was identified as an important action. The WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Centre for Environment and Health, undertook semi-structured interviews, and follow-up discussions with diverse representatives dealing professionally with asbestos. The interview questionnaire was developed based on the current ARDs WHO Report, the Evidence Implementation Model for Public Health and categories of the theory of diffusion. Data were attained on three main questions within the interview questionnaire: (1) Identifying barriers to implementation of WHO evidence-based asbestos recommendations; (2) Describing roles of key stakeholders; and, (3) Proposing possible solutions. The results demonstrated use of sound and convincing scientific evidence along with economic evidence and facilitators can be used to achieve evidence-based policy development, and comprehensive diverse actions. PMID:29065497

  10. Barriers and Facilitators to the Elimination of Asbestos Related Diseases-Stakeholders' Perspectives.

    PubMed

    Vincenten, Joanne; George, Frank; Martuzzi, Marco; Schröder-Bäck, Peter; Paunovic, Elizabet

    2017-10-22

    Despite sound scientific knowledge and evidence that any exposure to asbestos fibers in all of its forms, are carcinogenic to humans, its presence, use and trade is still substantial, including in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region. Banning the production and use of all forms of asbestos, as recommended by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and WHO, has been proven as the most efficient evidence-based strategy to eliminate Asbestos Related Diseases (ARDs). To effectively move elimination of ARDs forward, attaining a greater understanding of key stakeholders perspectives was identified as an important action. The WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Centre for Environment and Health, undertook semi-structured interviews, and follow-up discussions with diverse representatives dealing professionally with asbestos. The interview questionnaire was developed based on the current ARDs WHO Report, the Evidence Implementation Model for Public Health and categories of the theory of diffusion. Data were attained on three main questions within the interview questionnaire: (1) Identifying barriers to implementation of WHO evidence-based asbestos recommendations; (2) Describing roles of key stakeholders; and, (3) Proposing possible solutions. The results demonstrated use of sound and convincing scientific evidence along with economic evidence and facilitators can be used to achieve evidence-based policy development, and comprehensive diverse actions.

  11. Morgan Receives 2013 Paul G. Silver Award for Outstanding Scientific Service: Response

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morgan, Julia K.

    2014-09-01

    Thank you, Kelin, for your kind words and nomination, and thanks to the Tectonophysics, Seismology, and Geodesy sections for extending this honor. I also want to recognize the efforts of so many others who really drove the GeoPRISMS program; my job was primarily as a facilitator, channeling the great ideas of the community into distinctive scientific opportunities benefiting a large number of researchers, and what a creative, energetic, and generous community it is. It has been particularly satisfying to watch GeoPRISMS grow during my term as chair, especially with the enthusiastic involvement of the students and early-career researchers who are the future of the program.

  12. Barriers to and Facilitators of a Career as a Physician-Scientist Among Rheumatologists in the US.

    PubMed

    Ogdie, Alexis; Shah, Ami A; Makris, Una E; Jiang, Yihui; Nelson, Amanda E; Kim, Alfred H J; Angeles-Han, Sheila T; Castelino, Flavia V; Golding, Amit; Muscal, Eyal; Kahlenberg, J Michelle; Barg, Frances K

    2015-09-01

    To determine perceived barriers to and facilitators of a career in rheumatology research, examine factors leading rheumatologists to leave an academic research career, and solicit ways to best support young physician-scientists. A web-based survey was conducted among the domestic American College of Rheumatology (ACR) membership from January through March 2014. Inclusion criteria were ACR membership and an available e-mail address. Non-rheumatologists were excluded. The survey assessed demographics, research participation, barriers to and facilitators of a career in research, reasons for leaving a research career (when applicable), and ways in which the ACR could support junior investigators. Content analysis was used to extract relevant themes. Among 5,448 domestic ACR members, 502 responses were obtained (9.2% response rate). After exclusions (38 incomplete, 2 duplicates, 32 non-rheumatologists), 430 responses were analyzed. Participants included fellows, young investigators, established investigators, mentors, clinicians, and those who previously pursued a research career but have chosen a different career path. Funding and mentoring were the most highly ranked barriers and facilitators. Protection from clinical and administrative duties, institutional support, and personal characteristics such as resilience and persistence were also ranked highly. The most commonly cited reasons for leaving an academic research career were difficulty obtaining funding and lack of department or division support. This is the first study to examine barriers to and facilitators of a career in rheumatology research from the perspectives of diverse groups of rheumatologists. Knowledge of such barriers and facilitators may assist in designing interventions to support investigators during vulnerable points in their career development. © 2015, American College of Rheumatology.

  13. Visual-Motor Symbol Production Facilitates Letter Recognition in Young Children

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Zemlock, Deborah; Vinci-Booher, Sophia; James, Karin H.

    2018-01-01

    Previous research has suggested that handwriting letters may be an important exerciser to facilitate early letter understanding. Experimental studies to date, however, have not investigated whether this effect is general to any visual-motor experience or specific to handwriting letters. In the present work, we addressed this issue by testing…

  14. Ten questions you should consider before submitting an article to a scientific journal.

    PubMed

    Falcó-Pegueroles, A; Rodríguez-Martín, D

    Investigating involves not only knowing the research methods and designs; it involves knowing the strategies for disseminating and publishing the results in scientific journals. An investigation is considered complete when it is published and is disclosed to the scientific community. The publication of a manuscript is not simple, since it involves examination by a rigorous editorial process evaluator to ensure the scientific quality of the proposal. The objective of this article is to communicate to potential authors the main errors or deficiencies that typically and routinely explain the decision by the referees of scientific journals not to accept a scientific article. Based on the experience of the authors as referees of national and international journals in the field of nursing and health sciences, we have identified a total of 10 types or groups, which cover formulation errors, inconsistencies between different parts of the text, lack of structuring, imprecise language, information gaps, and the detection of relevant inaccuracies. The identification and analysis of these issues enables their prevention, and is of great use to future researchers in the dissemination of the results of their work to the scientific community. In short, the best publishing strategy is one that ensures the scientific quality of the work and spares no effort in avoiding the errors or deficiencies that referees routinely detect in the articles they evaluate. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Enfermería Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias (SEEIUC). Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  15. Proceedings of the 2013 AFENET Scientific Conference - Posters sessions

    PubMed Central

    Gitta, Sheba Nakacubo; Kamadjeu, Raoul; Mwesiga, Allan

    2015-01-01

    Biennially, trainees and graduates of Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programs (FELTPs) are presented with a platform to share investigations and projects undertaken during their two-year training in Applied Epidemiology. The African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) Scientific Conference, is a perfect opportunity for public health professionals from various sectors and organizations to come together to discuss issues that impact on public health in Africa. This year's conference was organized by the Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute in collaboration with the Ethiopia Ministry of Health, Ethiopian Public Health Association (EPHA), Ethiopia Field Epidemiology Training Program (EFETP), Addis Ababa University (AAU), Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET) and AFENET. Participants at this year's conference numbered 400 from over 20 countries including; Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe. The topics covered in the 58 presentations include: emergency response, immunization, outbreak investigation and public health surveillance. The theme for the 5th AFENET Scientific Conference was; “Addressing Public Health Priorities in Africa through FELTPs.” Previous AFENET Scientific conferences have been held in: Accra, Ghana (2005), Kampala, Uganda (2007), Mombasa, Kenya (2009) and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2011).

  16. Facilitating Argumentative Knowledge Construction through a Transactive Discussion Script in CSCL

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Noroozi, Omid; Weinberger, Armin; Biemans, Harm J. A.; Mulder, Martin; Chizari, Mohammad

    2013-01-01

    Learning to argue is prerequisite to solving complex problems in groups, especially when they are multidisciplinary and collaborate online. Environments for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) can be designed to facilitate argumentative knowledge construction. This study investigates how argumentative knowledge construction in…

  17. Science and Scientific Curiosity in Pre-school—The teacher's point of view

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Spektor-Levy, Ornit; Kesner Baruch, Yael; Mevarech, Zemira

    2013-09-01

    Nowadays, early science education is well-accepted by researchers, education professionals and policy makers. Overall, teachers' attitudes and conceptions toward the science subject domain and science education influence their ways of teaching and engagement. However, there is a lack of research regarding factors that affect this engagement in pre-school years. The main assumption of this study is that teachers' attitudes regarding science in pre-school can shape children's engagement in science and develop their scientific curiosity. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to investigate the attitudes of pre-school teachers toward engaging in science and to explore their views about the nature of curiosity: who is a curious child and how can a child's natural curiosity be fostered? An extensive survey was conducted among 146 pre-school teachers by employing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Results indicate that most of the participants believe that scientific education should begin in early childhood; very young children can investigate and take part in a process of inquiry; and scientific activities in pre-school can influence children's long-term attitudes toward science. Despite these views, most participants felt they did not possess sufficient scientific knowledge. Furthermore, participants expressed diverse opinions when asked to identify what constitutes curiosity, how the curious child can be identified and how a child's curiosity can be fostered. The research findings carry significant implications regarding how to implement scientific activities in pre-school, and how to encourage pre-school teachers to engage children in scientific activities in a way that will nurture their natural curiosity.

  18. Student Preferences for Different Sources of Scientific Information

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Fraser, Barry J.; Northfield, Jeffrey R.

    1978-01-01

    Uses four measures of attitude towards different sources of scientific information, namely experiments, experts, books and teachers, to investigate the relative preferences for the different sources among a sample of 7th grade students in Melbourne. Also explores relationships between student changes in attitude to these sources and a number of…

  19. Michael J. Meaney: Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    American Psychologist, 2012

    2012-01-01

    Presents Michael J. Meaney as one of the winners of the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions (2012). Michael J. Meaney has taken the phenomenon of "handling" of newborn rats and opened a new area of investigation that has given new meaning to epigenetics via his work demonstrating transgenerational…

  20. Secondary School Biology Teachers' Perceptions of Scientific Creativity

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ndeke, Grace C. W.; Okere, Mark I. O.; Keraro, Fred N.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary school biology teachers' perceptions of scientific creativity. Cross-sectional survey research design was employed. The population of the study comprised all biology teachers in public secondary schools in Kericho and Kajiado counties in Kenya. A sample of 205 biology teachers' was selected…