The emergence of Cantilever Neon Signage has accompanied with the grown-up of Hong Kong urban development after World War II. This enormous steel frame covered with bent neon lights has been erected onto the external wall over the streets of Hong Kong city in the past few decades. Its image has been firmly imprinted on every citizen’s memory by its multi-colored and eye-catching gesture. The signal itself embodies part of the social and urban development history of Hong Kong. However, its role in this city has been fading out following with the city’s renewal and advancement in information technology. It is afraid that the Cantilever Neon Signage will end up with a calamitous fate one day as all of them will be eradicated from our city. Throughout this dissertation, we tried to unveil some hidden stories behind this mysterious mask by unravelling the development history and exploring this fading industry in person throughout face-face site visits. The results were astonishing as less people would commit to this handicraft driven industry and it coupled with austere statutory controls which have inevitably halted further potential successors to enter into the industry. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Thesis (MSc. (Physics)) --University of Limpopo, 2015 / This study investigated the extent to which learners from rural and peri-urban areas understand what the symbols represent and their roles in simple direct current resistive electrical circuits. The emphasis was on simple direct current resistive electrical circuits that consist of batteries and bulbs. The study was carried out with Grade 12 learners at high school level in the Limpopo Provincial Department of Education. It used both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods to investigate learners’ understanding of direct current resistive electrical circuits at rural and peri-urban schools. It used questionnaires and structured interviews to collect the data so that the results could provide in-depth understanding and generalizability. The results revealed that learners knew the symbols used in direct current resistive circuits, however, when the circuit was populated with a number of known symbols it became complex to such an extent that some learners struggled to identify the symbols. As it appeared, learners could not conceptualize the role played by a battery, conductor, ammeter and voltmeter in direct current resistive electrical circuit. In addition, the study also revealed that learners experience difficulties when translating a real circuit to a schematic circuit. This study suggests that deeper focus has to be directed towards developing leaners’ understanding of the working and role played by each symbol in a schematic circuit. Learners were operating at far lower conceptual basis and thought of conductor as a hollow pipe like material. Results were also compared in terms of geographical location of the school, and findings indicate that the rural school was performing better than peri-urban school. The results highlight a number of the frequently encountered alternative frameworks which learners come across when they are faced with schematic circuit diagrams. Most of the alternative frameworks found are well documented in literature (for example current consumption, difficulty with understanding electric concepts, difficulty with concept differentiation, and no firm alternative frameworks). vi The participants in this study were not exposed to practical work. This suggests the results might be different with learners exposed to practical work. It is therefore recommended that future studies look at the understanding of the role played by individual electrical components with learners who had practical experience with real electrical circuits. Majority of learners in this study could not communicate their scientific conclusions using English, as the English is their second language.