Während des programmierten Zelltods (=Apoptose) kommt es zur Bildung von DNA-Fragmenten unterschiedlicher Größe. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, die Fragmentierung des Chromatins während der Apoptose zu untersuchen, um Erkenntnisse über den zeitlichen und räumlichen Ablauf und die Zusammenhänge zwischen der Apoptose-bedingten Chromatinfragmentierung und der Chromatinstruktur zu gewinnen. Zur Untersuchung der Apoptose-bedingten Fragmentierung des Chromatins wurden verschiedene Zellinien, Induktoren mit Wirkung auf die verschiedenen Apoptose-Signalwege, die Anreicherung von apoptotischen Zellen durch magnetische Separation, die Induktion der Apoptose auf verschiedenen Stufen des Signalwegs, "in vitro"-Assays mit isolierten Kernen sowie die vorherige Synchronisierung der Zellen in Kombination mit einem Zellzyklus-Phasen-spezifischen Apoptose-Induktor getestet, etabliert und optimiert. Die Fragmentierung der DNA wurde sowohl im Vergleich funktionell verschiedener Chromatinregionen (Zentromer/Telomer/LINE/SINE-Elemente), als auch im Detail in einer Modellregion, dem Histongencluster auf Chromosom 6 untersucht.

This is a four year longitudinal study into learner experiences of transition from the General Education and Training band to the Further Education and Training band in science. The study focused on Natural Science in the GET band and Physical Science in the FET band and used both quantitative and qualitative methods. The learners who participated in the study were a unique cohort. They were in grade 1 when Curriculum 2005 was introduced in 1997. They were also the last group of learners in 2005 that completed their compulsory schooling (grade 9) under the outcomes based C2005 in which content was not prescribed. The curriculum was revised and content was re-introduced in 2006 when they started grade 10 (FET) with teachers who were mostly not trained in Outcomes Based Education. In 2008 they were the first matriculants from the new curriculum. Their progress and experiences from the GET band to the FET band should have therefore generated a lot of interest from both the political and educational perspectives. This study is exploring their particular situation. There is a gap between curriculum 2005 and the National Curriculum Statement. Learners in this study who were doing grade 9 Natural Science in 2005 under c2005 were greatly disadvantaged by the curriculum that did not prepare them adequately for grade 10 Physical Science. Initially, there was an increase shown in interest in science from grade 9 to grade 10 but this interest declined as learners progressed to grade 12. During their progress from the GET phase to the FET phase their transition was characterized by a decline in interest in Physical Science caused by lack of practical work, loss of the closer student-teacher relationships and disappointment when their expectations of teaching strategies were not met. They themselves described the transition as difficult. However, the achievement in the examination of those who were post positivist-oriented was better than the achievement of those who were empiricist-aligned. When faced with problems of conceptual understanding, they resorted to guess work and rote application of concepts and algorithms. Although these findings were derived from a study of learners in only one school from a poor township in South Africa, they are consistent with other reports in the literature. Copyright / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

Studiens syfte var att ta reda på vilka uppfattningar barn i åldern 4–6 har om olika näringsämnen i livsmedel. Dessutom att undersöka vilka ord de använder sig av när de beskriver detta samt vilka kopplingar de gör mellan olika livsmedels innehåll och roll i kroppen.  I studien har 11 barn från två olika förskolor intervjuats genom semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer. Det sociokulturella perspektivet har använts då det är barns samtalande och uppfattningar som arbetets fokus riktats åt. I resultatet framkommer att barnen besitter olika uppfattningar kring vad livsmedel innehåller. De hade en relativt likvärdig syn på vilken roll livsmedlens innehåll har för roll i människokroppen. Flertalet av barnen kopplade livsmedel till hälsa och fysisk rörelse eller styrka, medan några få barn beskrev livsmedlets nedbrytning och omvandling på en översiktlig nivå. Barnen förklarade att många av de begrepp som specifikt berörde näringsämnen var helt okända sedan tidigare.  Studien ger en bild av barns uppfattningar om näringsämnen och dess roll i människokroppen. Studien kan också fungera som ett verktyg i förskolan för att planera undervisning inom ämnet. / The purpose of the study was to find out preschool children’s perceptions of food based on the main nutrients in the food, what words they use when describing this and what connections they make between food content and role in the human body.  In the study, 11 children from two different preschools were interviewed through semi structured qualitative interviews. The sociocultural perspective has been used because focus in the study was directed at children’s conversations and perceptions. The result shows that the children have different opinions about what foods contain. They had a relatively similar view of the function of food in the human body. Most children linked food to health and physical movement or strength, while a few children described the food’s degradation and transformation at a general level. The children explained that many of the concepts that specifically touched on nutrients were completely unknown since before. The study provides a picture of children’s perceptions of nutrients and their role in the human body and can serve as a tool in preschool to plan teaching on the subject.

The aim of our study is to investigate what possibilities and challenges Ghanaian teacher students express regarding outdoor pedagogy, in order to find out their view on using it as a method when teaching natural science in primary school. The teacher education in Ghana has not yet a course in outdoor pedagogy to offer their students. The view of outdoor pedagogy that is presented in this paper shows a learning situation where the learning context is moved to the natural landscape, which opens up for practical learning and the interaction between the senses of the pupils and the environment. Furthermore, reflection and concrete experiences in authentic situations are highlighted. The research took place at the University of Education, Winneba and the method consisted of qualitative interviews and a workshop with 20 teacher students of the department of basic education. We gathered our data before, during and after the workshop, therefore our result is divided as such. The results of the analysis show three main themes of the teacher students’ view on outdoor pedagogy; the learning context, teacher’s and student’s role. In the results section, each of these themes are categorized in possibilities and challenges expressed by the teacher students.Possibilities that can be found in the results is the fact that the learning will become practical and hands-on, it will involve the senses and therefore lead to deeper memories. Furthermore, the teacher students express a possibility for the pupils as they get an opportunity to take control of their own learning when sharing their knowledge with their peers. This affects the teacher's role which becomes more guiding than authoritarian.Difficulties the students expressed includes issues on behalf of the teacher in keeping control of the class due to the great number of pupils in the classes and the safety aspect with dangerous animals. Another category that recurred was the challenge with placebound prerequisites; to find a safe place suitable for the topic to teach. A difficulty on behalf of the students might be a fear of contributing to the teaching due to the lack of experience in sharing and talking in the classroom environment.

This study analyzed representations of Nature of Science (NOS) and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in three South Africa Grade 9 Natural Science textbooks. The textbooks were purposefully selected from a possibility of ten textbooks available on the public market and used in science classrooms in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. The aim of the analysis was to determine the extent to which both NOS and IKS were represented and to ascertain whether the representations were: naïve or informed; and implicit or explicit. The content analysis of the textbooks was based on adaptations of analytical frameworks developed by Akerson, Abd-El-Khalick and Lederman (2000) for NOS and Ninnes (2000) for IKS, respectively. For NOS the analysis focused on seven tenets, which are; science is empirical, the difference between observation and inference, functions and relations between theories and laws, the role of creativity and imagination in science, the tentativeness of scientific knowledge, the social and cultural embeddedness of the scientific process, and subjectivity of science. The analysis for IKS representations focused on four pillars of IKS which are; indigenous legends and myths, indigenous technology, indigenous knowledge of the natural world, and indigenous social life. It was found that, for the NOS, in all the three textbooks, only the empirical nature of science and observation and inference are represented to a considerable extent and mainly in a naïve and implicit manner. The other investigated tenets are either minimally represented or not represented at all. Representations of IKS in the three textbooks were also found to be very minimal and mainly naïve and implicit. It is concluded the selected science textbooks do not respond well to the NCS mandate of integrating NOS and IKS into mainstream science education. Recommendations for improving integration of NOS and IKS into the school science curriculum are suggested for textbooks authors, curriculum developers and science educators. Key words nature of science, indigenous knowledge systems, textbooks, natural science, naive, informed, implicit, explicit, positivism, constructivism

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2014. / Prior to democracy in South Africa, education was used as a means to achieve segregation, privileging a minority of the population in both economic and worldview domination. With the attainment of democracy in 1994, educational reform was aimed at getting rid of both apartheid content and method. The aims and principles of the new curricula (the Revised National Curriculum Statement Grades R-9, the National Curriculum Statement Grades 10-12, and later on, the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements) were aligned to those of the national constitution, which include the establishment of human rights, inclusivity, environmental and social justice, and valuing of Indigenous knowledge systems. In the science subjects, teaching and learning are expected to acknowledge the existence of different knowledge systems. In the absence of clear guidelines as to which Indigenous knowledge to include and how, the recognition of IKS in science classroom has largely been left to the teachers’ discretion. The purpose of this interpretive research study, carried out in collaboration with a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal Province, was three-fold. The first was to identify the Indigenous knowledge held by the community and the worldview underpinning that knowledge. The second was to find out what knowledge could be integrated with classroom science, and explore ways in which such integration could be done, considering students’ and community worldviews. The third was for the research to contribute to transformation in Indigenous knowledge research by following methods that recognised Indigenous knowledges, practices and languages as valuable. The findings from this study underscore the importance of extending the thinking about IKSscience integration beyond aspects that suit science content, to considering methods of teaching and learning science, as well as considering relevance to community needs.

The aim of this study is to illustrate and contribute to the knowledge and understanding of children’s perception of the vaporization of water. The purpose is also to distinguish the children’s use of important notions within the subject. The study is a descriptive case study and the data was collected through qualitative interviews. The respondents were a group of five-year-old children. The questions focused on the children’s descriptions of and discussions about the chemical process of water vaporizing. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The material was then analyzed from a sociocultural perspective, in accordance with the method described by Säljö, R (2011). The results show that the children’s knowledge and understanding of the topic was based on their previous experiences. Furthermore, they used simplified expressions and only a few of the children applied the necessary chemical notions. / Målet med denna studie är att belysa och bidra med kunskap och förståelse kring barns meningsskapande om vattenånga och kondensering, också för att urskilja deras användande av betydande och grundläggande begrepp inom ämnet. Studien är en deskriptiv fallstudie och data samlades in genom kvalitativa intervjuer. Respondenterna var en grupp femåringar. Intervjufrågorna handlade om hur barnen beskriver den kemiska processen kring kokande vatten och hur diskussionen såg ut emellan barnen. Intervjuerna spelades in och transkriberades. Det insamlade materialet analyseras utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv i enlighet med Säljö (2011) metod. Resultatet visade att barnens kunskap och förståelse kring mitt ämne skedde utifrån deras tidigare erfarenheter. Dessutom skedde deras förklaringar genom förenklade uttryck och få barn använde de begrepp som är behövliga i kemiska processer.

This design project explores the complexity of witchcraft, focusing on the socio-cultural and ecological levels. The project’s transdisciplinarity bridges the historical facts of witchcraft, folktales, culture, and natural science practice with speculative design. It studies how, in the past, witchcraft was used against women as a patriarchal system of oppression and the ways in which it has been reclaimed through feminism in the present. It also looks into how women’s scientific participation and contributions have been partly and entirely erased or wrongly credited to men. Through practice-based research and multispecies collaboration, this project aims to empower women to learn and experiment with natural science through an ecofeminist lens and framework. The project offers a speculative design exploration of how today's witches can contribute to environmental restorative practices, through a communicational tool with the incredible mycorrhizal network found underground. This is directed toward young women who represent the future of environmental science and justice.

This study investigates the advantages and disadvantages of outdoor pedagogy for years F-3. By spending time outdoors, the pupils take part in activities they are unable to experience in the classroom. Outdoors, the pupils get the opportunity to investigate, discover and explore with all their senses. This makes the learning experience more profound. Children are currently spending more time than ever inside and infront of different types of screens, which is yet another reason why it is of great importance to allow the children to spend more time outside and in nature. Teaching outdoors enables the children to move around more freely and get fresh air, which promotes good health and an increased ability to concentrate. We have decided to investigate the advantages and difficulties with outdoor pedagogy. This study has been conducted through systematically searching for reports about outdoor pedagogy and its advantages and difficulties. The method used is based on searches in different data bases, using relevant terminology. The results of this study have shown several advantages such as increased knowledge, mental and physical health benefits, and a positive attitude towards caring for the environment among the children. The difficulties that have appeared are lack of time and the restrictions placed on the teachers due to the curriculum, but mainly the teacher's own lack of knowledge and confidence regarding outdoor pedagogy.

No description available.