The purpose of this evaluation study was to compare students' perceptions of their science classroom environment when using science kits, textbooks or a combination of science kits, textbooks and teacher-created materials. This year-long study involved using a learning environment questionnaire, namely the My Class Inventory (MCI), interviews and observations to assess which of the three treatments leads to a more positive learning environment. Three questions investigated were whether (1) the learning environment can be reliably and validly assessed among Grade 3-5 students in Texas, (2) instruction using textbooks, science kits, or a combination of textbooks and science kits is more effective in terms of changes in student attitudes and learning environment perceptions, and (3) there are associations between student attitudes toward science classes and the classroom environment? Administrators and teachers in Texas are searching for ways to improve the scores received on standardized tests. For more than 40 years, research has shown that positive classroom environments can lead to improvement in achievement. Therefore 1 chose to investigate the above questions using a learning environments framework. This study was conducted in three urban elementary schools in North Texas. There were a total of 588 students in 28 classrooms with 16 different teachers involved in this research. The schools were similar in demographic features such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Analyses of data collected with the My Class Inventory (MCI) supported the instrument's factorial validity, internal consistency reliability, and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. / Also, simple correlation and multiple regression analyses indicated reasonably strong and positive associations between each classroom environment scale and the students' satisfaction. The Satisfaction scale was used as an outcome variable, following the lead of Majeed, Fraser and Aldridge (2002). Results h m the MCI, interviews and observations indicated that students preferred a more positive classroom environment in terns of Cohesiveness, Competition, and Friction. Importantly, the group of students using science kits experienced greater pretest-posttest changes in satisfaction and classroom cohesiveness than did either the textbook group of the combination group. This study supports previous research that combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. Qualitative methods suggested that students preferred a more hands-on presentation of science lessons rather than a textbook presentation. This was suggested in interviews with students and teachers and by observations of students in their science classes. This research evaluated three educational methods to determine which instructional method would produce a more positive learning environment and student satisfaction. These results suggest that the utilization of science kits achieves this goal as measured by student satisfaction and cohesiveness.

The issues of wetland protection has been looked at attentively in Taiwan. However, the action of protecting wetlands can not replace the wetlands lost in speedy developments, which causes the wetland ecosystem in natural environment of Taiwan vanished stage by stage. The idea of ¡§created wetland¡¨ refers to the conversion of a persistent upland or shallow-water area into a wetland by human activity to help to compensate the natural wetlands lost due to destruction by human beings. Such kind of wetland is used to restore wetlands or to let it become a parkland. Created wetlands are different from ¡§constructed wetland¡¨ emphasize the function of wastewater treatment. In the past, park in urban area was usually designed for human use which caused other organisms can not abundantly, and thus the ecosystem in municipal areas became poor. Hence, there is a new concept that we combine the created wetland and park together in order to improve the biodiversity of the ecosystem in urban area. The Zhou-zai wetland park is located beside the Lotus pond in Zuo-ying of Kaohsiung City. This created wetland was initially wanted to attract Pheasant-tailed Jacana come Kaohsiung through the ecosystem. The park was not only designed for human activities but also for other creatures. We tried to use ¡§ecological engineering methods¡¨ to build this artificial habitat. We hope it can promote the biodiversity in urban city by this wetland ecosystem. In this study, we use Zhou-zai wetland park as a case study, and probed into the principles of planning and management in urban created wetland park. It was hoped that the result of this research can provide some consults about constructing created wetland parks in the feature in Taiwan, so that the strategies of wetland protection can then become positive.

¡§Zhou-Zai Wetland Park¡¨ is a specific prototype of created wetland ecosystems constructed in urban areas, This park represents integration between development and preservation of a wetland habitat through ecotechnology. It is a created wetland designed to conserve the endangered species of Jacanas in Taiwan, which were suffered from the destruction of habitat in the past. The wetland comprises pool and marsh types of wetland systems, and the inflow of the systems is pumped from the Lian-Chih Lake. Several problems were found when we operated and managed the park including eutrophication, low water exchange rate, and hypoxia in some water areas, emergence, and invasive alien species. The current management strategies are difficult to improve the status. Therefore some suggestions are given to solve such problems including constructing a treatment wetland in injection area in order to improve the water quality of influent and then provide a better water environment of habitat for water fowls as well as to prevent the intrusion of invasive alien species.

No description available.

In Alberta, almost all created wetlands accepted as compensation have been naturalized stormwater management facilities. Our investigation of 32 created and natural wetlands in central Alberta determined that created wetlands have steeper shoreline slopes, largely as a result of their primary function as stormwater retention ponds. This resulted in distinctly different vegetation zonation, with the steeper slopes of created wetlands resulting in fewer, narrower wetland vegetation zones. This was reflected in reduced species richness and abundance of wetland songbirds at created wetlands. This study also discusses the development of a Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) approach, a standardized, quantitative approach to measuring wetland condition, for Albertas Parkland and Boreal natural regions. I present plant survey data from the 32 wetlands as validation of the effectiveness of this approach. This study provides information on current wetland compensation practices and a potential wetland assessment tool; both topics that are directly relevant to the implementation of wetland compensation policies in Alberta. / Ecology

This research has been based on my experiences of London taxi drivers, both before I entered the London Taxi Industry, whilst studying to be a London taxi driver and during the thirty years I spent within the industry in a number of roles. My research has been undertaken in an inductive, broadly ideographic style. The study has been developed through initially narrating my experiences and observations in the industry and then analysing this account reflexively. The material that formed the basis of my narrative account was collected in an ethnographic style. In addition to my narrative account I also referenced the small amount of published material concerning the London taxi industry and interviewed a number of taxi drivers. A significant constraint was the lack of peer reviewed literature concerning taxi drivers and the taxi industry. Once I had developed my narrative account I then interpreted it in order to better understand the experiences and observations, the institutions and the people within the industry to understand and relate how they react and behave within their environment. The analysis involved deconstruction and interpretation against a framework of relevant literature to facilitate my understanding and assist sense making. I also interpreted the interactions with those outside of the taxi drivers' environment and analysed the persona that journalists and others have constructed that is meant to represent the London Taxi Driver. I considered the identity and characteristics implied by journalists with the prevailing culture and the identity that taxi drivers and the industry sought to portray. The qualification to become a taxi driver is known as the Knowledge of London. The Knowledge, as it is known in the industry, is recognised as an onerous task and has developed according to many in the industry into a rite of passage. I found that this process, with its rituals and arcane practices, which are accepted consensually by the industry, had a significant effect on the taxi drivers' identity and their status amongst non-taxi driver peers. Taxi driving is considered in working class circles to be at the upper end of a hierarchy of professional driving roles largely due to the achievement of passing the Knowledge of London together with the earning opportunity, perceived job security and flexibility afforded by being one's own boss. Knowledge of London students and taxi drivers appear to demonstrate common behavioural traits which I have explored in my research. London's taxi drivers appear to fear an assimilation of their role with other lower status driving roles and this fear has a significant effect on any attempts at change within the industry or within its institutions. The institutions within the industry provided much material for me to consider in the context of their alignment or clash with the culture of the industry. Changes in business processes and some of the institutions' relationships with their taxi driver stakeholders and the challenges to the industry's culture are considered as case studies within my reflexive account. The contribution to original knowledge is the insight into the culture and identity of London's Taxi Drivers, the behaviours and relationships within the industry both between drivers and the institutions that regulate, represent and benefit from the industry. Taxi drivers' responses to organisational and business process change. Further contributions to original knowledge are provided from the realisation that much of the structure developed within conventional organisations by management has developed organically without management intervention in the taxi industry. Many of the traits of life in offices and factories are likewise present in the London Taxi Industry despite the disparate and virtual nature of the industry and its reliance on consensual adoption of rules and practice rather than managerial influence and formal processes and procedures.

This project seeks new forms of housing production that answer to the disappearance of the welfare state and provides structures for self-organization. It stretches the limits of the housing policies and explores new flexible design solutions. It addresses social and economical adaptability where both the city and the dwellers have responsibility for the process and development of new housing. The adaptable city is a city where dwellers co-create their housing environment.

The problem of demarcation continues to attract attention, in part because solutions are perceived to have enormous social significance. The civic motivation, however, I argue is in tension with the heterogeneity of the sciences. Philosophers of science would be better employed reflecting on the features, causes, and consequences, of created, scientific controversies. These arise when relevant experts are in broad agreement about what conclusions can sensibly be drawn from available evidence, but the public perceives an expert community deeply divided and conclusions that are plagued by profound and systemic uncertainty. In the second part of the paper I explore this concept further.

Purpose- This article examined the post-game debriefing of a student-created board game on the topic of malaria, taken from UNICEF and other international agencies’ Facts for Life. Design/Methodology/Approach- A group of university health students participated in the play of the game and the debriefing. Initial debriefing of seven steps(key themes) occurred through written format, followed by an oral debriefing. Findings – Major categories from the written debriefing by steps, key category response, and number of categories were as follows: For experience recall – how to prevent malaria, nine response categories; for feelings – felt informed, felt happy, nine response categories; for enjoyment – learned new information, game was fun, 11 response categories; for importance – malaria prevention, 12 response categories; for new information learned – malaria affects pregnancy, 10 response categories; for new information to learn – multiple topics such as strategies to prevent malaria, 13 response categories; for improvements as suggestions – add more questions, nine response categories. Follow up oral debriefing supported the written debriefing categories, as well as yielding some additional categories. The students suggested at least 70 response categories after the play of the game. Conclusion- This study demonstrates the applicability of a student created and played board game based on the Facts for Life topic of malaria, as a vehicle for health topic discussion. A combined written and oral debriefing approach complimented each other in an educational gaming strategy. Recommendations – Game debriefing is a valuable and essential tool to be included in a health educational gaming strategy. The use of this malaria game should be extended for play in other non-formal settings. Key words: Malaria, board-game, written debriefing, oral debriefing, student created games, public health education, health education

Having students create Learning Objects (LOs) through renewable assignments has proved more helpful to the student creators compared to disposable assignments in some aspects. Additionally, some researchers have presented evidence where the student-created LOs could benefit the users of the LOs more than traditional learning resources. In this study, I examined a collection of LOs created by college students in the subject of mathematics to understand the nature of the value that a student-created LO could bring to other learners. By extending a framework for non-disposable assignments (Seraphin et al., 2019), I evaluated 3 components that affect the value of the LOs: design, accuracy, and visibility. The results show that some intended users of the student-created LOs could benefit from using the LOs. However, the intended users of the LOs may not come across those LOs even if they searched specifically for the LOs. Subsequently, it is concluded that LOs created to be used in future iterations of the same class may be more practical in bringing value to the broader community.