Search results for "Instruction"
showing 10 items of 443 documents
Engaging with mathematics in the kindergarten. Orchestrating a fairy tale through questioning and use of tools
2013
ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to analyse how a kindergarten teacher orchestrated a mathematical activity involving a fairy tale. Taking a sociocultural perspective on learning and development, naturally occurring talk-in-interaction has been analysed in order to scrutinise the subtleties of the orchestration. The fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears was used both as context for the activity, but also as a means through which mathematical concepts were engaged with. The analysis shows that the orchestration bears characteristics of questioning and use of tools such as voice, facial expressions, and concrete materials. The orchestration is also characterised by sincere planning in adv…
Just in case, just in time, or just don't bother? Assessment of one-shot library instruction with follow-up workshops
2015
Published version from the journal: LIBER Quarterly. Available from the publisher at: http://liber.library.uu.nl/index.php/lq/article/view/URN%3ANBN%3ANL%3AUI%3A10-1-116866 This article examines if the timing of library instruction courses is an important part of how students experience library instruction as a means of developing information literacy skills. Two student groups, belonging to different academic subjects, have received the same training and the same assessment questionnaire afterwards. One of the groups was in the middle of writing their student thesis as a part of their final year of their bachelor degree work, the other group consisted of different subjects within the human…
Cursos en línea masivos y abiertos en educación superior. Un análisis desde su oferta
2016
Purpose: The aim of this study is to analyze the factors influencing the MOOC supply level. Specifically, this paper analyzes certain internal and strategic factors associated with universities, such as prestige, public or private status, age, size (measured by the number of faculty members or students) and region. Design/methodology: We apply a descriptive methodology and then use multivariate analysis to test five hypotheses related to the institutional profile of 151 universities in 29 countries. Empirical evidence is provided from universities offering MOOCs through the four of the most commonly used private global platforms that emerged as part of the booming MOOC movement (Udacity, Co…
Five Years of Game Programming Outreach : Understanding Student Differences
2014
This paper presents lessons learned from five years of teaching a five-day game design and programming outreach course. The course was offered in summer time and targeted at middle and high school students. In total, 462 youngsters have taken part in 21 course instances. We describe our course concept, and discuss our successes and challenges. In particular, we focus on understanding our student populations by presenting descriptives and statistics of the events, and performing a statistical cluster analysis based on pre- and post-surveys. The cluster analysis was complemented with an analysis of the qualitative data, also originating from the surveys. Taken together, students could be clas…
Effects of emergency remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic on university physics students in Italy
2021
We surveyed a convenience sample of 362 Italian university physics students, asking them to retrospectively assess their experience of emergency remote instruction due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We looked at their psychological well being, motivation for physics, academic orientation, attitude towards physics and physicists, and tried to link these factors to their overall perception of the online instruction. Our results show a general appreciation for the organization and effectiveness of online courses. However, online teaching negatively impacted on engagement and interaction between peers and with the instructors. Only 22% of students in our sample complained of the psychological distre…
'School adopts an experiment': the photoluminescence in extra-virgin olive oil and in tonic water
2011
We report a laboratory activity, carried out along with high- and secondary-school students, that can be done to increase the interest of the young in scientific studies. Groups of selected students ‘adopted’ experiments at physics research laboratories, under the guidance of university researchers. Subsequently, the students demonstrated the experiments to the public at large during the annual science festival organized in Palermo by the association PalermoScienza, in collaboration with the University of Palermo. Experiments on the magnetic levitation of superconductors and on the photoluminescence of several substances were proposed. We discuss the experiment on photoluminescence as a cas…
A 16 channel high resolution (<11 ps RMS) Time-to-Digital Converter in a Field Programmable Gate Array
2012
A 16-channel Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) was implemented in a general purpose Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The fine time calculations are achieved by using the dedicated carry-chain lines. The coarse counter defines the coarse time stamp. In order to overcome the negative effects of temperature and power supply dependency bin-by-bin calibration is applied. The time interval measurements are done using 2 channels. The time resolution of channels are calculated for 1 clock cycle and a minimum of 10.3 ps RMS on two channels, yielding 7.3 ps RMS (10.3 ps/√2) on a single channel is achieved.
A pedagogical approach to the Boltzmann factor through experiments and simulations
2009
The Boltzmann factor is the basis of a huge amount of thermodynamic and statistical physics, both classical and quantum. It governs the behaviour of all systems in nature that are exchanging energy with their environment. To understand why the expression has this specific form involves a deep mathematical analysis, whose flow of logic is hard to see and is not at the level of high school or college students' preparation. We here present some experiments and simulations aimed at directly deriving its mathematical expression and illustrating the fundamental concepts on which it is grounded. Experiments use easily available apparatuses, and simulations are developed in the Net-Logo environment…
An experiment on wind energy
2012
We discuss an experiment on wind energy performed with home-made apparatus. The experiment reproduces a laboratory windmill, which can pump water from a lower level to a higher one. By measuring the gain of the gravitational potential energy of the pumped water, one can determine the power extracted from the wind. The activity was carried out with high-school students, in the framework of the Italian National Plan for Scientific Degrees-Physics. The proposed experiment allows teachers to discuss renewable energy sources with students whose knowledge of physics is limited to mechanics. It gives students the possibility to gain experience with energy and to increase their awareness of this re…
Design and development of a microscopic model for polarization
2009
As research shows that the knowledge and use of models and modelling by teachers is limited, particularly for predicting phenomena, we developed and applied a sequence of three representations of a simulated model focusing on polarization and specifically showing the behaviour of an atom, and forces exerted on a dipole and an insulator, when a charged particle is placed anywhere near them. The sequence was tested with beginning student teachers. They worked with specially developed worksheets in which the simulated model was treated, before carrying out hands-on experiments embedded in a model-based instructional unit which aimed to help the student teachers understand polarization and beco…