published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Arts in Education

Nowdays, when people travel all around the world and they can become infected with different parasites, teaching about human parasites shouldn't be neglected even in education on primary and grammar schools. In my work, I have mapped the basic knowledge of parasitology and human parasites of students from the selected primary schools and lower grades of grammar schools. For this purpose, I have created a test which examined the knowledge and attitude of the students. The work has also sought to propose a new approach to teaching of the subject in biology lessons. Two different teaching concepts were tested and compared in two paralel classes of the same grammar school. Presented representatives of human parasites, were chosen on the basis of analysis of biology textbooks for basic schools. Final suggestion of teaching at schools, which was teste dat three schools contains powerpoint presentations suitable for use in the lessons and practical exercise taken like didactical games.

The Diploma thesis deals with the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) educational method integrating the fields of human biology and Russian language. The goal of the thesis is to prepare lectures and study materials, its testing and verifying its efficiency in teaching process on two groups of subjects - two grammar school classes (students at the age of 18-19). The input level of knowledge was tested on both classes through the pretesting. The first group of students was afterwards taught with "soft" CLIL method (the theory explained in native language), the second group with "hard" CLIL. The questionnaire showed neutral attitude of the students towards the CLIL method with rather more positive approach from the females compared to the male students. The posttests followed, showing only a marginal difference between input and output level of knowledge on both groups. KEYWORDS CLIL, Human biology, Teaching of biology, Didactics of Biology

Digital technologies have been present in the educational environment in the Czech Republic and other countries for many years. Not only are they becoming a relatively frequent means of making education more attractive, but they also have a great potential for improving methods of illustration in areas difficult to visualize, such as human biology and anatomy. The presented thesis is divided into the theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part summarizes available specialized literature covering the bases for utilizing digital technologies in the practice of teaching; maps out the process of implementing digital technologies into schools in the Czech Republic; and last but not least, describes key elements and methods of teaching with the help of digital technologies. The practical part introduces the results of a survey which took the form of a mixed methods research among elementary and high school pupils, teachers, and students of Teaching Preparation programs. In the final discussion, the amassed data are compared to some of the relevant past surveys conducted by various subjects. In addition, the practical part also includes model activities for using digital technologies in human biology teaching; a description of their pilotage; and a critical reflection on the process. KEYWORDS...

This thesis deals with the knowledge testing of the natural history at pupils in 9th classes of primary and lower secondary schools by means of the didactic test which was created by students of Masaryk´s University in Brno (Kokošínská, Slavíčková) in 2009. Output knowledge of natural history was tested with 302 students (156 boys and 146 girls) in South Bohemia region (České Budějovice, Tábor, Soběslav). The comparison of the knowledge of the natural history was carried out at primary school leavers a graduates of lower secondary school cycle. The respondents from secondary school showed better knowledge than pupils of the natural history of the 9th classes of the primary school. The pupils achieve the highest knowledge in the field of human biology, the lowest one in the field of inanimate nature. The results of the thesis were compared with the results of the survey in primary and lower secondary schools in Brno (2009) and Central Bohemia Region (2009, 2011). The results were in all tested regions comparable and a statistically significant difference was not proved.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-79). / In vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is an imaging technique that allows the chemical study of human tissue non-invasively. The method holds great promise as a diagnostic tool once its reliability has been established. Inter-scanner variability has, however, hampered this from happening as results cannot easily be compared if acquired on different scanners. In this study a phantom was constructed to determine the localisation efficiency of the 3 T Siemens Allegra MRI scanner located at the Cape Universities Brain Imaging Centre (CUBIC). Sufficient localisation is the key to acquiring useful spectroscopic data as only the signal from a small volume of interest (VOI) is typically acquired. The phantom consisted of a Perspex cube located inside a larger Perspex sphere. Solutions of the cerebral metabolites N-acetyl aspartate (NAA) and choline (Cho) were placed in the inner cube and outer sphere respectively. The phantom was scanned at a range of voxel sizes and echo times in order to determine parameters that typically indicate the performance of the scanner in question. The resultant full width at half maximum (FWHM) and signal to noise ratio (SNR) values indicated that optimal results were obtained for a voxel with dimensions 20 x 20 x 20 mm3. The selection efficiency could not be measured due to limitations in the scanner, but two other performance parameters ' extra volume suppression (EVS) and contamination ' could be determined. The EVS showed that the scanner was able to eliminate the entire background signal from the out-of-voxel region when voxel sizes with dimensions (20 mm)3 and (30 mm)3 were used. This performance decreased to 96.2% for a voxel size of (50 mm)3. The contamination indicated that the unwanted signal, weighted by the respective proton densities of the chemicals, ranged from 12% in the (20 mm)3 voxel to 24% in the (50 mm)3 voxel. These ranges are well within acceptable limits for proton MRS. Analysis of the water suppression achieved in the scanner showed an efficiency of 98.84%, which is acceptable for proton spectroscopy. It was also found that manual iv shimming of the scanner improved the spectra obtained, as compared to the automated shimming performed by the scanner. The second objective of the study was to quantify absolute metabolite concentrations in the familiar SI units of mM as results were previously mostly expressed as metabolite ratios. The LCModel software was used to assess two methods of determining absolute metabolite concentrations and the procedure using water scaling consistently showed superior performance to a method using a calibration factor. The method employing water scaling was then applied to a study of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) where the deep cerebellar nuclei of children with FASD and a control group were scanned. The cerebellar nuclei were of interest as children with FASD show a remarkably consistent deficit in eye blink conditioning (EBC). The cerebellar deep nuclei is known to play a critical role in the EBC response. The results show significant decreases in the myo-inositol (mI) and total choline (tCho) concentrations of children with FASD in the deep cerebellar nuclei compared to control children. The FAS/PFAS subjects have a mean mI concentration of 4.6 mM as compared to a mean of 5.3 mM in the controls. A Pearson correlation showed that there was a significant relationship between decreasing mI concentrations with increasing prenatal alcohol exposure. The mean tCho concentrations are 1.3 mM for FAS/PFAS and 1.5 mM for the controls. There was no significant differences between the heavily exposed group and either the FAS/PFAS or the control subjects for either metabolite. The decreased mI and tCho concentrations may indicate deficient calcium signalling or decreased cell membrane integrity ' both of which can explain the compromised cerebellar learning in FASD subjects.

The thesis "Analysis of used Natural history and Biology textbooks in terms of anthropology, the morphology and anatomy of human" is largely empirical work. The aim was to determine the didactis and the difficulty of textbooks which are available in the Czech Republic for the 8th grade of elementary school. The work is complemented with research of using the textbooks in primary schools and lower grammar school in Trebic. The used methods were 2 analysis, according to the specific criteria and own questionnaire for teachers of the subject. Analysis of textbooks is based on the methodology of Prof. Průcha a Doc. Hrabí. Keywords: textbooks, biology, human biology, equipment, level of difficulty, analysis, Trebic .

For birthing parents, the quality of care falls flat in the United States relative to other developed countries as rates of pregnancy-related deaths (PRD) continue to rise. California has in recent years made extraordinary progress in decreasing birthing parent mortality across the board. Yet, health disparities remain between race/ethnicities as Black birthing parents die at three to four times the rate of white birthing parents. In comparison to white Americans marginalized ethnic/racial groups in the United States have less access to quality care, experience and receive lower quality of health care and have less access to quality care, with few exceptions. Intersecting factors such as education, socioeconomic status and acculturation are investigated. Implicit bias, or racism is often overlooked within the medical professions that has real implications on the above-mentioned sociological factors and in turn birthing mortality rates. Institutional and grassroot methods to bring attention to these factors should be referenced for a more intentional approach to solving this social problem historically engrained in our medical institutions.

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