The purpose of this study is to examine how respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is affected across paced breathing, attention, inhibition, and emotion-eliciting tasks and how those relationships may be mediated by emotion regulation strategies in children with different levels of externalizing and internalizing behaviors between the ages of 8 and 12 years. The first aim was to determine whether externalizing and internalizing symptoms during a paced breathing or natural breathing task better predicted RSA levels. The hypothesis was that internalizing and externalizing behaviors would be more predictive of RSA baseline levels when utilizing a paced-breathing method of measuring RSA. The second aim was to determine how RSA levels across an attention, inhibition, sad, and anger task are predicted by internalizing and externalizing symptoms after controlling for baseline RSA levels. There were four hypotheses: (1) as levels of externalizing behaviors increase, levels of baseline RSA would decrease, (2) as levels of internalizing behaviors increase, levels of baseline RSA will decrease, (3) there will be significantly smaller changes in RSA reactivity) as the level of externalizing behaviors increases, and (4) as levels of internalizing symptoms increase, there will be significantly larger changes in RSA levels relative to RSA baseline levels (RSA reactivity).The results showed that externalizing and internalizing behaviors did not predict RSA levels during a paced or natural breathing task. Additionally, there was very little difference in the outcomes when used either a natural or paced breathing method of RSA as a control variable except when predicting RSA levels during a sad emotion-eliciting task. Although RSA levels during three experimental tasks (attention, inhibition, and sad) were not significant, there were moderate effect sizes for externalizing and/or internalizing symptoms predicting various RSA reactivity (i.e., RSA levels after controlling for baseline) across these conditions. One model was significant in predicting the level of variance of RSA reactivity during an anger emotion-eliciting task, with internalizing and hyperactivity/inattention symptoms contributing the most variation in the model. Findings point towards understanding how internalizing and externalizing symptoms may impact an individual's physiological response during a task.

This work stems from the fact that objectively assessing student “mastery” of science concepts without truly understanding how they are making sense of these concepts, continues to be one of the most difficult tasks I face as an educator. A model eliciting activity (MEA) is an instructional tool that provides students and teachers with plenty of opportunities to express, test, and refine their thinking while simultaneously providing a document trail of thinking. Model eliciting activities allow teachers, students, and researchers to gain valuable information about how students construct, test, and revise models. Essentially, they are rich metacognitive tools that encourage students to express and refine their own thinking while simultaneously providing an opportunity for teachers and students themselves to gain insight on how their students are learning. However, two difficulties arise in the implementation of MEAs: (1) assessing the quality of the tasks involved in MEAs, and (2) assessing student knowledge demonstrated through MEAs (Wang et.al., 2009). This report reviews the literature on assessing MEAs and focuses on the development of a generalized assessment framework for model eliciting activities in a middle school science context. / text

Undergraduate engineering education is designed to prepare students for their careers. The rise of technology in modern engineering allows for a shift in the way undergraduates are prepared for the modern workplace. Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) allow students to think critically about their own work and allow instructors to analyze the students’ problem solving methods. To ensure that new MEAs are as effective as possible they are subject to six basic principles: model construction, reality, generalizability, self-assessment, model documentation, and effective prototype. This document focuses on evaluating new MEAs for their adherence to the six principles from an instructor's and student's perspective. Four new MEAs were created and implemented in the school year of 2009-2010. Two of the MEAs were designed to target a sophomore level thermal engineering class. The first was an introduction to data acquisition systems (DAQs) and the second was an introduction to strain gauges. These two MEAs were tested on two separate classes and were evaluated strictly from an instructor’s perspective. The two MEAs met their objectives for introducing DAQs and strain gauges respectively and managed to reinforce existing ideas at the same time. However, the MEA about DAQs appeared to adhere to all of the six principles while the MEA about strain gauges did not. The other two MEAs were designed for an introductory thermodynamics course. The students' solutions to the MEAs were analyzed to determine the MEAs' effectiveness as well as how well they follow the six principles of MEAs. The first MEA was centered around a supermileage vehicle and asks the students to model an engine cycle from a P-V diagram of a real engine cycle. Careful analysis of the solutions that the students turned in found that the MEA did not provide a way for the students to verify their models. It was also found that students were learning about isothermal and adiabatic curves on their own which satisfied the main goal of the MEA which was to familiarize the students with simple processes. The second activity was based upon an industrial process that delivered waste energy into a river and the students were asked to model a power plant that could use the energy and lower the amount of heat dumped into the river. The objective was to get the students to think about entropy and how much energy can be salvaged in the system. A vast majority of students enjoyed the activity saying it was well worth their time, while only half of the students identified that entropy had some part in the MEA. Whether or not the objective to get the students to associate usable energy with entropy production was accomplished is uncertain. What was determined was that some students were unable to check their answers and they developed models that were inaccurate. From this observation it was seen that the self assessment principle was not being properly addressed. All of the developed MEAs satisfied their end goals of teaching the students the material that the MEA was developed around. The two most prominent issues were students misunderstanding the problem statement and students not being able to verify their models. These are important observations for these particular MEAs that were only possible through intensive analysis of the solutions from a student's perspective. The detailed analysis of the solutions using the six principles as a guideline provided insight to some of the problems students were having. For future work, these same MEAs could be improved upon and then analyzed again to see if the analysis is consistent and that the identified problems were corrected.

The Gazebo Project is an open ended, generative, model eliciting project that was designed to allow students to develop their own understanding of fractions rather than receiving direct instruction. The students were placed in three different sections to work on the project, a group section that allowed for collaborative work, a peer tutoring section and an individual section. All students were given a pre-project clinical interview to assess their knowledge prior to beginning The Gazebo Project. They were then separated into one of the three sections for the project. The Gazebo Project charged the students with the task of designing a gazebo that would maximize the amount of seating and minimize the size of the entrance, which needed to be a whole side length. By challenging the students to minimize the entrance they were guided to explore the relationship between side length and number of sides. Upon completion of the project all students were then given a post-project clinical interview to determine the growth in their understanding of fractions. The study suggested that The Gazebo Project was effective in helping students develop their understanding of fractions, but only when the students worked in the group section or the peer tutoring section. The element of student discourse created an environment where students could create, and critique each other’s plan and in the process student discourse contributed to revised thinking. This study challenges educators to consider the benefits of open ended generative activities and discourse in student learning and also encourages the use of regular clinical interviews to assess student reasoning. / text

Vários são os problemas que afligem o desenvolvimento de software. Estes problemas, que originaram a crise do software nos anos 60, perduram ate hoje. Praticas de Engenharia de Software tem sido adotadas em todas as fases do ciclo de vida para tentar minimizá-los. A etapa de definição de requisitos é considerada como a atividade mais importante, decisiva e ao mesmo tempo critica do desenvolvimento de software, principalmente no que diz respeito a elicitação. A Engenharia de Requisitos é a disciplina que procura sistematizar o processo de definir requisitos. Muitas vezes os sistemas de informação das organizações são complexos e/ou informais, apresentando características que dificultam o seu entendimento. Além disso, a maioria das metodologias existentes não enfatiza a aquisição de conhecimento sobre o problema a ser resolvido. Este trabalho apresenta um método para auxiliar a aquisição de conhecimento de sistemas de informação, bem como sua representação e validação. O método proposto, que tem a finalidade de sistematizar uma tarefa anterior a definição de requisitos do software, ou seja, é um método de apoio a elicitação de requisitos, inclui as etapas de elicitação, modelagem e validação. Na etapa de elicitação é feita a aquisição de conhecimento dos fatos e das situações que compõem o sistema de informações vigente, utilizando para isso, técnicas como entrevistas, observações e uma abordagem baseada em etnografia. Para guiar esta etapa foi elaborada uma sistematização combinando as técnicas anteriormente citadas. No final da etapa de elicitação são produzidas representações textuais dos objetos elicitados e o Léxico Ampliado da Linguagem, que descreve a linguagem da aplicação em estudo. A partir dessas representações é feita a modelagem através de Workflow. Na etapa de validação, as representações produzidas pelas etapas de elicitação e modelagem são validadas junto aos atores do sistema de informação. A partir das representações produzidas o engenheiro de requisitos poderá definir os requisitos funcionais do software a ser construído. A aplicação do método é adequada para ambientes que já possuem um sistema de informação definido, seja ele formal ou informal. O método proposto foi aplicado a uma situação real e parte deste estudo de caso é apresentado neste trabalho. / There are many problems in software development. These problems, which had started the software crisis in the 1960s, still exist. Software Engineering practices have been adopted in all fases of the life cycle as an attempt to minimize them. The requirements definition is considered the most important, decisive and difficult activity in software development, particularly the elicitation of the system requirements. The Requirements Engineering is the discipline that try to sistematize the requirements definition process. Information systems are often complexes, informals and present features that make difficult to understand them. Besides, most of the existing metodologies do not handle procedures for knowledge acquisition about the problem to be solved. This work proposes a method to help knowledge acquisition of information systems, and also representation and validation of the acquired knowledge. The proposal method which support the requirements elicitation, anticipate the software requirements definition process. The method includes three stages: elicitation, modeling and validation. The elicitation stage comprises knowledge acquisition of the facts and situations of the information system, through the application of techniques such as interviews, observations and a based approach on ethnography. Textual representations are produced at the end of the elicitation stage to represent the elicited objects. The Language Extended Lexicon, which describe the language used in the information system, is also produced in this stage. In the modeling stage workflow representations are produced based on those initial representations. In the validation stage all the representations produced are validated by the actors working on the information system. Based on those representations the requirements engineer can define the functional software requirements. The method can be applied to environments where a defined information systems exists. The proposal method was applied in a real world situation and part of this case study is presented in this work.

Vários são os problemas que afligem o desenvolvimento de software. Estes problemas, que originaram a crise do software nos anos 60, perduram ate hoje. Praticas de Engenharia de Software tem sido adotadas em todas as fases do ciclo de vida para tentar minimizá-los. A etapa de definição de requisitos é considerada como a atividade mais importante, decisiva e ao mesmo tempo critica do desenvolvimento de software, principalmente no que diz respeito a elicitação. A Engenharia de Requisitos é a disciplina que procura sistematizar o processo de definir requisitos. Muitas vezes os sistemas de informação das organizações são complexos e/ou informais, apresentando características que dificultam o seu entendimento. Além disso, a maioria das metodologias existentes não enfatiza a aquisição de conhecimento sobre o problema a ser resolvido. Este trabalho apresenta um método para auxiliar a aquisição de conhecimento de sistemas de informação, bem como sua representação e validação. O método proposto, que tem a finalidade de sistematizar uma tarefa anterior a definição de requisitos do software, ou seja, é um método de apoio a elicitação de requisitos, inclui as etapas de elicitação, modelagem e validação. Na etapa de elicitação é feita a aquisição de conhecimento dos fatos e das situações que compõem o sistema de informações vigente, utilizando para isso, técnicas como entrevistas, observações e uma abordagem baseada em etnografia. Para guiar esta etapa foi elaborada uma sistematização combinando as técnicas anteriormente citadas. No final da etapa de elicitação são produzidas representações textuais dos objetos elicitados e o Léxico Ampliado da Linguagem, que descreve a linguagem da aplicação em estudo. A partir dessas representações é feita a modelagem através de Workflow. Na etapa de validação, as representações produzidas pelas etapas de elicitação e modelagem são validadas junto aos atores do sistema de informação. A partir das representações produzidas o engenheiro de requisitos poderá definir os requisitos funcionais do software a ser construído. A aplicação do método é adequada para ambientes que já possuem um sistema de informação definido, seja ele formal ou informal. O método proposto foi aplicado a uma situação real e parte deste estudo de caso é apresentado neste trabalho. / There are many problems in software development. These problems, which had started the software crisis in the 1960s, still exist. Software Engineering practices have been adopted in all fases of the life cycle as an attempt to minimize them. The requirements definition is considered the most important, decisive and difficult activity in software development, particularly the elicitation of the system requirements. The Requirements Engineering is the discipline that try to sistematize the requirements definition process. Information systems are often complexes, informals and present features that make difficult to understand them. Besides, most of the existing metodologies do not handle procedures for knowledge acquisition about the problem to be solved. This work proposes a method to help knowledge acquisition of information systems, and also representation and validation of the acquired knowledge. The proposal method which support the requirements elicitation, anticipate the software requirements definition process. The method includes three stages: elicitation, modeling and validation. The elicitation stage comprises knowledge acquisition of the facts and situations of the information system, through the application of techniques such as interviews, observations and a based approach on ethnography. Textual representations are produced at the end of the elicitation stage to represent the elicited objects. The Language Extended Lexicon, which describe the language used in the information system, is also produced in this stage. In the modeling stage workflow representations are produced based on those initial representations. In the validation stage all the representations produced are validated by the actors working on the information system. Based on those representations the requirements engineer can define the functional software requirements. The method can be applied to environments where a defined information systems exists. The proposal method was applied in a real world situation and part of this case study is presented in this work.

Vários são os problemas que afligem o desenvolvimento de software. Estes problemas, que originaram a crise do software nos anos 60, perduram ate hoje. Praticas de Engenharia de Software tem sido adotadas em todas as fases do ciclo de vida para tentar minimizá-los. A etapa de definição de requisitos é considerada como a atividade mais importante, decisiva e ao mesmo tempo critica do desenvolvimento de software, principalmente no que diz respeito a elicitação. A Engenharia de Requisitos é a disciplina que procura sistematizar o processo de definir requisitos. Muitas vezes os sistemas de informação das organizações são complexos e/ou informais, apresentando características que dificultam o seu entendimento. Além disso, a maioria das metodologias existentes não enfatiza a aquisição de conhecimento sobre o problema a ser resolvido. Este trabalho apresenta um método para auxiliar a aquisição de conhecimento de sistemas de informação, bem como sua representação e validação. O método proposto, que tem a finalidade de sistematizar uma tarefa anterior a definição de requisitos do software, ou seja, é um método de apoio a elicitação de requisitos, inclui as etapas de elicitação, modelagem e validação. Na etapa de elicitação é feita a aquisição de conhecimento dos fatos e das situações que compõem o sistema de informações vigente, utilizando para isso, técnicas como entrevistas, observações e uma abordagem baseada em etnografia. Para guiar esta etapa foi elaborada uma sistematização combinando as técnicas anteriormente citadas. No final da etapa de elicitação são produzidas representações textuais dos objetos elicitados e o Léxico Ampliado da Linguagem, que descreve a linguagem da aplicação em estudo. A partir dessas representações é feita a modelagem através de Workflow. Na etapa de validação, as representações produzidas pelas etapas de elicitação e modelagem são validadas junto aos atores do sistema de informação. A partir das representações produzidas o engenheiro de requisitos poderá definir os requisitos funcionais do software a ser construído. A aplicação do método é adequada para ambientes que já possuem um sistema de informação definido, seja ele formal ou informal. O método proposto foi aplicado a uma situação real e parte deste estudo de caso é apresentado neste trabalho. / There are many problems in software development. These problems, which had started the software crisis in the 1960s, still exist. Software Engineering practices have been adopted in all fases of the life cycle as an attempt to minimize them. The requirements definition is considered the most important, decisive and difficult activity in software development, particularly the elicitation of the system requirements. The Requirements Engineering is the discipline that try to sistematize the requirements definition process. Information systems are often complexes, informals and present features that make difficult to understand them. Besides, most of the existing metodologies do not handle procedures for knowledge acquisition about the problem to be solved. This work proposes a method to help knowledge acquisition of information systems, and also representation and validation of the acquired knowledge. The proposal method which support the requirements elicitation, anticipate the software requirements definition process. The method includes three stages: elicitation, modeling and validation. The elicitation stage comprises knowledge acquisition of the facts and situations of the information system, through the application of techniques such as interviews, observations and a based approach on ethnography. Textual representations are produced at the end of the elicitation stage to represent the elicited objects. The Language Extended Lexicon, which describe the language used in the information system, is also produced in this stage. In the modeling stage workflow representations are produced based on those initial representations. In the validation stage all the representations produced are validated by the actors working on the information system. Based on those representations the requirements engineer can define the functional software requirements. The method can be applied to environments where a defined information systems exists. The proposal method was applied in a real world situation and part of this case study is presented in this work.

This thesis focuses on a year-long project of implementing active learning in undergraduate dynamics courses at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo from 2012-2013. The purpose is to increase conceptual understanding of critical dynamics concepts and to repair misconceptions of the students. Conceptual understanding in Dynamics is vital to understanding the big picture, building upon previous knowledge, and better understanding the behavior of engineering systems. Through various hands-on activities, students make predictions, test their conceptions, and solve real world problems. These active learning methods allow students to improve their learning of Dynamics concepts. Education research on active learning is present in Physics and Mathematics disciplines, yet is still growing in Engineering. Four Inquiry-Based Learning Activities (IBLAs) and two Model-Eliciting Activities (MEAs) are discussed in this thesis. Inquiry-Based Learning Activities feature student prediction and experimentation in which the physical world acts as the authority. On the other hand, Model-Eliciting-Activities prompt students to solve real world problems and deliver results to a client. From the results, some activities yield an increase in conceptual understanding, as measured by assessment items, while others do not yield a significant increase. These activities not only help to promote conceptual gains, but also to motivate students and offer realistic engineering contexts. In conclusion, the six total IBLA and MEAS will continue in practice and be improved in their implementation. This thesis work will contribute to engineering education research of active learning methods, and improve the undergraduate dynamics curriculum locally at Cal Poly.

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The majority of children with ASC are educated within a mainstream secondary setting. The challenges within the new environment may lead to some children experiencing a breakdown in provision resulting in temporary or permanent exclusions. A gap in the literature highlights a need for research which seeks to understand the views and experiences of year 7 children with ASCs about theirtransition to mainstream secondary school. The research involved four year 7 children with ASC, from across three settings, who had recently transitioned from a mainstream primary school to a mainstream secondary school (without resource based provision). The views of their parents and teachers were also sought. A multiple-embedded case study design was employed involving four cases from across three school settings. This involved utilising a transition Q-sort and a semi-structured interview with four children and semi-structured interviews with six parents and three teachers. The data was analysed using content analysis and thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The findings highlight a need for individualised transition planning for the child with ASC; consideration of co-occurring difficulties and the importance of including the views of the child and parents in transition planning. The findings are discussed in relation to psychological theories and existing literature. The implications for future research, local authority policy, school staff, parents and educational psychologists are considered.