<p> Cohorts of 48 entering biological science majors was recruited in the fall of 2007 and again in 2008 and 2009 for the Interdisciplinary Science Experience (ISE). These ISE students enrolled in their own sections of standard courses of physics, chemistry, and biology. In these courses average ISE student out-performed their non-cohort peers by up to a full letter grade. A qualitative analysis of ISE student interviews illuminates the student experience and shows how the ISE students perceived themselves to be different than their non-cohort peers. Quantitative modeling of student performance shows that higher grades are correlated with multiple factors. These factors includes admissions characteristics such as high school GPA, and SAT scores, as well as demographic information. These trends support and elaborate on the selection narratives told by participants. Additionally the quantitative model found that higher student performance is predicted by structural aspects of the ISE program, specifically the timing of course, enrolling as a freshmen in many of their courses, and the sequencing of physics and chemistry courses. There is a statistically significant benefit to student performance in general and organic chemistry courses associated with completing the first quarter of the Physics for Bio-Science majors prior to enrollment. Further the combination of quantitative and qualitative data suggest that there is a epistemological transfer of problem solving skills and outlook from the physics to the chemistry courses.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Chicago, 1937. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Chicago, 1937. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

The difficulties in understanding science particularly laboratory learning at undergraduate level were reported by many researchers and authorities. The literature on Science Education contains many examples of teachers' attempts to change laboratory practice to overcome the problem that "much of the student behaviour in laboratories is that of recipe following: they gain hand skills but it is all too possible to follow mindlessly the instructions in a manual". The student will have to cope with many types of learning stimuli that may lead to a state of working memory overload. So it is not surprising that the attempts made to measure the learning outcomes from practical work have produced disappointing results. There are only few systematic, theory-driven measurements reported particularly in the field of physics education. The psychological background guiding our thinking throughout has been derived from information processing theory. This theory attempts to identify what happens during the acquisition, storage and retrieval stages of learning. A model was presented at the Centre For Science Education Glasgow University, which represents the thinking process in a predictive way. Using the model, it was decided to concentrate on the principal and inter-linked strategies to improve the laboratory teaching (1) Use pre-labs to involve students in a more 'expert' role, (2) Revise the manual to reduce noise and so reduce overload. Special consideration was given to student perception, the ever-present possibility of working memory overload and the necessity for students to construct for themselves sound and branched mental structures to help them to approach practical bench problems by lateral thinking. The changes to the physics-II laboratory programme were made and evaluated over two years. This study is an evaluation of the effectiveness of changes made to the undergraduate Physics-II laboratory course at Glasgow University.

The primary purpose of this work was to identify the process by which the control of variables' strategy develops. Investigations are described which indicate that the strategies used on 'control of variables' tasks are task specific. The quasi/empirical nature of science tasks is shown to affect the use of the control strategy. Further investigations are described that indicate the existence of a concrete operational control strategy which has as its basis negation by elimination and cancellation, and not Piaget's formal level operation of negation by neutralisation. Two major studies, one at the Secondary School and one at the Junior School level, are described in which four parallel substages in the development of the control strategy were noted. At the concrete operational level these substages represented an increasing ability to produce a consistency between judgments and experimental results through the formation of increasingly sophisticated strategies, i.e. through attendance to first order relations. At the formal operational level the substages represented an increasing ability to compare criteria for the use of strategies, i.e. attendance to second order relations. Neo-Piagetian procedures are applied and the calculation of the M demand for the substages tends to confirm a static model for the size of M space.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: B, page: 3041. Adviser: Douglas H. Beck. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-185) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> Although a large part the Physics Education Research (PER) literature investigates students' conceptual understanding in physics, these investigations focus on qualitative, conceptual reasoning. Even in modeling expert problem solving, attention to conceptual understanding means a focus on initial qualitative analysis of the problem; the equations are typically conceived of as tools for "plug-and-chug" calculations. In this dissertation, I explore the ways that undergraduate physics students make conceptual sense <i>of physics equations</i> and the factors that support this type of reasoning through three separate studies.</p><p> In the first study, I investigate how students' can understand physics equations intuitively through use of a particular class of cognitive elements, <i> symbolic forms</i> (Sherin, 2001). Additionally, I show how students leverage this intuitive, conceptual meaning of equations in problem solving. By doing so, these students avoid algorithmic manipulations, instead using a heuristic approach that leverages the equation in a conceptual argument. </p><p> The second study asks the question why some students use symbolic forms and others don't. Although it is possible that students simply lack the knowledge required, I argue that this is not the only explanation. Rather, symbolic forms use is connected to particular <i>epistemological stances,</i> in-the-moment views on what kinds of knowledge and reasoning are appropriate in physics. Specifically, stances that value <i>coherence</i> between formal, mathematical knowledge and intuitive, conceptual knowledge are likely to support symbolic forms use. Through the case study of one student, I argue that both reasoning with equations and epistemological stances are dynamic, and that shifts in epistemological stance can produce shifts in whether symbolic forms are used to reason with equations. </p><p> The third study expands the focus to what influences how students reason with equations across disciplinary problem contexts. In seeking to understand differences in how the same student reasons on two similar problems in calculus and physics, I show two factors, beyond the content or structure of the problems, that can help explain why reasoning on these two problems would be so different. This contributes to an understanding of what can support or impede transfer of content knowledge across disciplinary boundaries.</p>

What is queer? What is queer? What is queer theory? Where can it go from here? This thesis sets out to explore the origins and influences of queer theory before investigating the present and the future spaces (ie, bodies and settlements) it can potentially move into. Three distinct experiments of fieldwork and ethnographic filmmaking test the truths and potentialities of queer theory when relating to queer bodies and settlements. That is to say that each chapter balances a film and its supporting text by embracing the value and urgency of practice led research. The first chapter questions queer history and details the importance of emerging trans politics in the post-gender, leftist, avant-garde, queer activist and militant space of Bologna. Queer bodies, case one: transgender and transsexual perspectives. Settlements, case one: Bologna and Lido di Classe (Italy). The second chapter considers the interface between disability theory and queer theory with particular attention paid to the practical theory of ‘curative education’. Defined by Rudolf Steiner in 1922 and further developed by Karl König with the foundation of the Camphill movement in 1944, curative education privileges the social model over the medical model in the field of disability so that disability is in fact ability. Queer bodies, case two: learning differences and disabilities perspectives. Settlements, case two: Berlin (Germany), Chatou and La Rochelle (France), Barry and Glasallt Fawr (Wales, United Kingdom). The third chapter uses queer perspectives to promote the relevance of quantum physics to the human body, thus involving contemporary dance, physical theatre and the arts more generally to address and redress the chiasm between science and technology on the one hand, and arts, humanities and socio-cultural sciences on the other. Queer bodies, case three: the inescapably queer reality of the physical world. Settlements, case three: multiple locations in Tuscany (Italy), and Thamesmead, London (England, United Kingdom). This thesis brings notions of queer and otherness deceptively close to notions of the self. Otherness and queerness become mirrors in which our own queerness comes into view.

Title: Chemistry - Physics Relatives in the Science Education Department: Department of Teaching and Didactics of Chemistry Abstract (in English): Within the master's degree thesis was conducted a literary research. Overview of interdisciplinary relatives in science education was done based on this research. The interdisciplinary relatives are described in the work as well as a historical development of integrated science education in the Czech Republic and in Europe. Three teaching tasks were created for use in science lessons with the following topics: The universe evolution and formation of elements, Luminescence, and The substance composition. Teaching tasks can be used during the class work or as a material for talented students and have both theoretical and practical parts. The teaching tasks were evaluated by teachers who used them during their chemistry lessons. The final part of the master thesis is a survey, in which teachers answered the questions concerning the establishing of new conference called "Chemistry Teachers' Inventions Fair" for secondary school and high school teachers. Keywords: interdisciplinary relatives, physics, chemistry, science eduaction, integrated teaching