Search results for "instruction"

Open-inquiry driven overcoming of epistemological difficulties in engineering undergraduates: A case study in the context of thermal science

2014

This paper addresses the efficacy of an open-inquiry approach that allows students to build on traditionally received knowledge. A sample of thirty engineering undergraduates, having already attended traditional university physics instruction, was selected for this study. The students were involved in a six- week long learning experience of open-inquiry research activities within the highly motivating context of developing a thermodynamically efficient space base on Mars. They designed and carried out their own scientific investigations, which involved gathering information, collecting and analyzing data, providing explanations, and sharing results. A questionnaire containing fifteen open-e…

An interdisciplinary school project using a Nintendo Wii controller for measuring car speed

2013

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article published in Physics Review. IOP Publishing Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0031-9120/48/2/184 This work examines the feasibility of employing a Nintendo Wii game controller for measuring car speed in an interdisciplinary school project. It discusses the physical characteristics of the controller and of vehicle headlights. It suggests how an experiment may be linked to topics in mathematics, statistics, physics and computer science. An algorithm for calculating speed from rep…

Students' Understanding of the Special Theory of Relativity and Design for a Guided Visit to a Science Museum

2009

International audience; This paper describes the design of teaching materials that are used as learning tools in school visits to a science museum. An exhibition on the A century of the Special Theory of Relativity, in the Kutxaespacio Science Museum, in San Sebastian (Spain), was used to design a visit for first year engineering students at the university and assess the learning which was achieved. The first part of the paper presents the teaching sequence which was designed to build a bridge between formal teaching and the exhibition visit. The second part analyses the potential of the exhibition and the aforementioned teaching sequence to influence the students' knowledge of three aspect…

Teaching of energy issues: A debate proposal for a global reorientatiom

2007

The growing awareness of serious difficulties in the learning of energy issues has produced a great deal of research, most of which is focused on specific conceptual aspects. In our opinion, the difficulties pointed out in the literature are interrelated and connected to other aspects (conceptual as well as procedural and axiological), which are not sufficiently taken into account in previous research. This paper aims to carry out a global analysis in order to avoid the more limited approaches that deal only with individual aspects. From this global analysis we have outlined 24 propositions that are put forward for debate to lay the foundations for a profound reorientation of the teaching o…

Biochemistry and molecular biology techniques for person characterization

2008

Using the traditional serological tests and the most novel techniques for DNA fingerprinting, forensic scientists scan different traits that vary from person to person and use the data to include or exclude suspects based on matching with the evidence obtained in a criminal case. Although the forensic application of these methods is well known, the procedures and techniques used to obtain these results are not so well studied. Here, we report a laboratory exercise aimed to familiarize the students in several of the methods and markers employed for people individualization. With this exercise, students have to characterize themselves and an unknown sample according to the following character…

A Simple Method for the Consecutive Determination of Protonation Constants through Evaluation of Formation Curves

2013

A simple method is presented for the consecutive determination of protonation constants of polyprotic acids based on their formation curves. The procedure is based on generally known equations that describe dissociation equilibria. It has been demonstrated through simulation that the values obtained through the proposed method are sufficiently consistent with the actual values. In contrast with the universally known and applied Bjerrum’s method, no differences in the accuracy of determination of subsequent protonation constant values are observed. The proposed method requires the value of one of the protonation constants (e.g., of the first one, K1) of the polyprotic acid. An iterative meth…

Estudio comparativo de dos metodologías aplicadas para la comprensión de la música contemporánea en la educación secundaria obligatoria

2016

In this paper we try to discover which methodology is more appropriate for the comprehension of the contemporary music in the Secondary Education. For that purpose by a quasi-experiment, mixed, qualitative and quantitative, the preserved results through the application of two different methodologies have been compared: a traditional one base on the masterly class and another based in different kinds of audition. The obtained results after the didactical application on the quantitative level weren´t significant, however, on the qualitative level we could also observe that the pupils who subjected to that methodology had more advantageous results regarding to the comprehension of the contempo…

Critical alignment in inquiry-based practice in developing mathematics teaching

2013

Published version of an article in the journal: Educational Studies in Mathematics. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10649-013-9489-z This paper reports a case study from a mathematics teaching developmental research project. The theoretical foundation for the research comprises communities of inquiry and critical alignment, with which the developmental methodology has a particular synergy. This synergy is the main focus of the paper. The paper elaborates theoretical and methodological antecedents of the project and traces these through a case study of developments in the practices of one upper secondary school team and a group of university didacticians (mat…

PhD revisited: English writing instruction in Norwegian upper secondaryschool

2019

Library instruction – Not just for our users: Skills upgrading for librarians as a way of increasing self-confidence

2015

Published version of an article from the journal: LIBER Quarterly: Available from the publisher: http://liber.library.uu.nl/index.php/lq/article/view/10002/10598. Open Access This article examines how librarians can improve their skills through a systematic skills upgrading programme, and how this can help improve their confidence in their own expertise. Two identical questionnaires have been issued to the same group of librarians engaged in research support services. In the time period between the two surveys, a skills upgrading programme was carried out. The aim of the second survey is to examine if the librarians’ confidence has increased after the yearlong training programme. Even thoug…