Thesis (M. Ed. (Science Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2018 / This study explored the science teachers' views about the nature of science and how these views influenced their classroom. The study was conducted in three public quantile-three schools in Dimamo Circuit of Capricorn District-Limpopo Province. It was a case study with twenty participants filling the open-ended questionnaire with four teachers who were observed and interviewed. The teachers were from the FET band with teaching experience ranging between one year and thirty years. The essential research questions addressed in this study are, namely: What are science teachers’ views about the nature of science? How do the science teachers’ views about the nature of science influence their classroom practices? Data were collected all the way through open-ended questionnaires, classroom observations and semi-structured interviews. The data collected were analysed through groups of themes. The four teachers observed and interviewed were grouped as one case. It was found that most of the teachers held informed views about the nature of science from both data collected from the open-ended questionnaires and semi structured interviews. There was a group of teachers whose views about the nature of science being tentative reflected uninformed views and the majority of teachers revealing uninformed views about the difference between scientific law and scientific theory. The teachers believed that theories develop into laws. There was also a majority of teachers who believed that scientific investigation follows only one universal route. It was also found that the same teachers who reflected informed views were not able to back them in their classroom practices. The majority of those teachers reflected no informed views in their classroom as such it was impossible to tell how their views influenced their classroom practices. KEY WORDS Nature of science, Classroom practice, Scientific law, Tentative, Scientific theory

Unstructured simplicial mesh is an integral and critical part of many computational electromagnetics methods (CEM) such as the finite element method (FEM) and the boundary element method (BEM). Mesh quality and robustness have direct impact on the success of these CEM methods. A combined quadtree/Delunay 2D mesh generator, based on the early work of Schroeder (1991, PhD), is presented. The method produces a triangulation that approximates the original geometric model but is also topologically consistent. The key advantages of the method are: (a) its robustness, (b) ability to create a-priori graded meshes, and (c) its guaranteed mesh quality. The method starts by recursively refining the grid and using a 2:1 balanced quadtree data structure to index each cell. Once the quadtree grid is refined at a user-defined level associated with each geometrical model topological entity, each cell in the grid is successively triangulated using the Delaunay method. Finally, the method handles some modeling errors by merging vertices and allowing overlapped faces.

Increasing science literacy among all students is a longstanding goal of science education. The most recent national attempt to improve science education, and thereby increase science literacy, came in the form of the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards, which include 3 dimensions: scientific and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. The purpose of this content analysis was to examine the alignment between 4 of the scientific practices (Asking Questions; Constructing Explanations; Engaging in Argument from Evidence; and Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information) and a widely used commercial literacy program, Reading Wonders, with the goal of beginning an investigation into whether or not general literacy instruction might be useful in developing science literacy. The science texts and their accompanying recommended instruction in 4th grade Wonders were coded and analyzed using categories derived from the key features of each scientific practice. Findings showed partial, although most often minimal, alignment between Wonders and each of the four practices. Scientific questions were present in Wonders, but rarely asked by students. The analyzed texts included some explanations of how or why scientific phenomena occur, but they were rarely supported by evidence. Similarly, in terms of scientific argument, the texts included some opportunities for students to observe claims being made and supported and to make and support their own claims, but these claims were rarely linked to disciplinary core ideas. Finally, Wonders offered many opportunities for students to observe and/or engage in Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information. However, these opportunities mainly involved obtaining information from a single traditional print text and then summarizing it. Teachers who are hoping to use Wonders to help students understand scientific practices should be aware that such integration will require additional planning and instruction. Alignment between Wonders and these four practices was minimal and rarely authentic to the discipline of science. Future research should continue the investigation this study began, thereby increasing generalizability, by expanding the focus to include other elementary grade levels, as well as other commercial literacy programs.

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<p>The 2-D INADEQUATE experiment is a useful experiment for determining carbon structures of organic molecules known for having low signal-to-noise ratios. A non-linear optimization method for solving low-signal spectra resulting from this experiment is introduced to compensate. The method relies on the peak locations defined by the INADEQUATE experiment to create boxes around these areas and measure the signal in each. By measuring pairs of these boxes and applying penalty functions that represent a priori information, we are able to quickly and reliably solve spectra with an acquisition time under a quarter of that required by traditional methods. Examples are shown using the spectrum of sucrose. The concept of a non-uniform Fourier transform and its potential advantages are introduced. The possible application of this type of transform to the INADEQUATE experiment and the previously explained optimization program is detailed.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

<p>We present an extension to the language of Atomic Verifiable Operation (AVOp) streams to allow the expression of loops which are rewritable via an arbitrary permutation. Inspired by (and significantly extending) hardware register rotation to data buffers in multi-core programs, we hope to achieve similar performance benefits in expressing software pipelined programs across many cores. By adding loops to AVOp streams, we achieve significant stream compression, which eliminates an impediment to scalability of this abstraction. Furthermore, we present a fast extension to the previous AVOp verification process which ensures that no data hazards are present in the program’s patterns of communication. Our extension to the verification process is to verify loops without completely unrolling them. A proof of correctness for the verification process is presented.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)

<p>Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Ernst Mach expressed his worries about obscurities and metaphysical elements in scientific knowledge, and consequently contributed to the development of a Viennese tradition. Later on, Vienna Circle further extended Mach's ideas and led to the development of the logical positivist movement. Among the main tenets of this movement is the view that scientific theories are to be reduced to an empirical base capable of conclusive verification. But scientific theories are usually based on unverified and occasionally unverifiable hypotheses and principles. Thus, once this is realized, positivism in spite of itself will contribute to the development of scepticism about scientific knowledge.</p> <p>In reaction to the verificationism, however, Karl Popper developed his thesis of falsificationism or fallibilism; but this principle also leads to scepticism at least about certainty claims, with far reaching consequences. This chain of events leads to the development of Paul Feyerabend's epistemological anarchisma a rejection of all rules and methods in science in an attempt to reduce science to the level of irrationality and mythology.</p> <p>Against the negativist conclusions of these positions about science, the integrity of scientific knowledge is defended in this thesis. It is shown how scientific knowledge can be defended against scepticism of the type to which verificationism tends: this is done by examining one recent and rigorous sceptical position which undermines not only certainty and rationality of knowledge claims, but the very possibility of knowledge. By examining Popper's fallibilism, it is shown that science can also be defended against the negativist conclusions of fallibilism. Similarly, it is shown that Feyerabend's epistemological anarchism cannot either undermine scientific knowledge.</p> <p>These negativist positions, though they have received strong criticisms in some quarters, yet have not been examined all together, from the standpoint of their impact on the integrity of scientific knowledge. This task is undertaken in this thesis; we thus arrive at a positive and correct evaluation of scientific knowledge in the context of contemporary negativist epistemological trends. It has been shown that in spite of all the negativist arguments of the above positions, we can obtain certainty, justification, and truth in science, and thus we can obtain knowledge. But my rejection of negativism in science does not entail, and should not be construed as an advocacy of a return to, positivism.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Магистерская диссертация «Концепция сайта российского научного журнала» состоит из трех глав – теоретической, аналитической и практической, заключения и библиографического списка, включающего 88 наименований. Цель исследования – разработать универсальную концепцию сайта научного журнала. Объект: сайты российских научных журналов. Предмет: параметры сайтов российских научных журналов. В первой главе диссертации изучено понятие сайта как издательского продукта и отражена его специфика. Сайт представлен как комплекс сведений, состоящий из концепции, проработанного понимания целевой аудитории, семантического ядра, структуры, дизайна и контента. В ходе изучения были сопоставлены основные черты изданий и сайтов для определения зоны работы специалистов издательского дела, а также обозначены ключевые различия между этими информационными продуктами. Во второй главе представлен редакторский анализ сайтов российских научных журналов, в результате которого было выяснено состояние 50 сайтов научных журналов, оценена их эффективность и приведена характеристика внешнего вида, структуры и юзабилити. В итоге были обнаружены достоинства и недостатки сайтов научных журналов, которые были учтены при разработке универсальной концепции. В третьей главе предложена универсальная концепция сайта научного журнала, которую можно использовать при разработке конкретного проекта сайта журнала с учетом проработки указанных в концепции аспектов, зависящих исключительно от тематического направления будущего СМИ, предпочтений и возможностей его разработчиков и учредителей. / The master thesis "The concept of the site of the Russian scientific journal" consists of three chapters – theoretical, analytical and practical, conclusion and bibliography, which includes 88 titles. The purpose of the study is to develop a universal concept for a scientific journal site. Object: sites of Russian scientific journals. Subject: site parameters of Russian scientific journals. In the first chapter of the thesis, the concept of a site as a publishing product is studied and its specificity is reflected. The site is presented as a complex of information consisting of a concept, a well-developed understanding of the target audience, a semantic core, structure, design and content. During the study, the main features of publications and websites were compared to determine the working area of publishing specialists, and the key differences between these information products were identified. The second chapter presents an editorial analysis of the sites of Russian scientific journals, as a result of which the status of 50 sites of scientific journals was determined, their effectiveness was evaluated and the characteristics of appearance, structure and usability were given. As a result, the advantages and disadvantages of scientific journal sites were discovered, which was taken into account when developing a universal concept. The third chapter proposes a universal concept of a scientific journal site, which can be used for developing a specific project of a journal site, taking into account the development of aspects specified in the concept that depend solely on the thematic direction of the future media, preferences and capabilities of its developers and founders.