Investigating Conceptual Understanding of DC Circuits Amongst South African University Physics Students: Implications for Curriculum and Teaching

References

Referebces

Engineering Physics? Many A-level physics students do not go on to study physics. For them physics is a support subject, either just for fun or just for the grade. Where physics is a lead subject some students go on to study physics but many more go on to study engineering. So can we deliberately give some aspects of an A-level course an engineering flavour? Electromagnetism would seem a good place to start. There is a clear `physics' route into this topic, a microscopic forces and fields view of the situation. But do our students really need to look at it this way? All electromagnetic machines are linked magnetic and electric circuits. The design idea is to link these circuits as closely as possible. The electric circuits must be as good as possible, with a high conductivity. The magnetic circuits must be as good as possible, with high permeance. Conductivity depends on area/length. So does permeance. The goodness of an electromagnetic machine (how good it is at its job, which is linking electric and magnetic circuits) scales as the square of its linear dimensions. That means small electromagnetic machines are harder to make, and so the very smallest nanomotors are electrostatic. None of this is new, but many teachers are uncomfortable with it. We are thinking like physicists. Many of our students are not. They deserve us to take the trouble every now and again to encourage them to think a bit differently about a topic, to look at practical ways of discussing design and to give their course an engineering flavour. Philip Britton Coursework in A-level Physics The criteria for the new AS and A-levels have provided the teams developing the specifications with an opportunity to think creatively about how internal assessment is used within post-16 physics courses. Teachers may be concerned that allowing 30% of the marks to be internally assessed will create a burden for them. However, it is possible to look at this in a much more positive light. Provided the tasks are well defined and the marking criteria are straightforward to apply, internally assessed work provides an opportunity for real positive achievement; students are able to control the task they set themselves, and have every opportunity to maximize their marks. In the past most syllabuses used the coursework simply to assess experimental and investigative skills, through a series of experiments or a practical investigation. Two of the new specifications have taken the opportunity to broaden the scope of coursework. The Edexcel Salters - Horners Advanced Physics AS course includes a report on a visit. Students must make a visit to an establishment where physics is in action, and then report on how physics is used there. The visit may be to a local garage, supermarket or hospital, but could use any other local resource - or indeed justify that trip to CERN. The location of the visit is limited only by the imagination of teachers and students. In the AS course of OCR Advancing Physics students must make a presentation about a material they have studied. The presentation may be a talk, a poster or even a series of web pages. This gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their key skills in communication alongside collecting some marks towards their AS in Physics. In the A2 year students develop their research skills further by producing a research report on a topic of their choice. Students must show how they can draw together ideas from different aspects of physics in discussing their chosen subject. These two developments lead the way in encouraging teachers and examiners to take physics out of the school laboratory and into the world. Mary Whitehouse

The large number of studies about market orientation is concentrated on domestic environments. The approach to international activities of the organizations has not been enough explored yet. This article analyzes the theories about international market orientation and strategies of entrance in international markets, offering propositions discussed with executives and academicians related to international business. It is based on an exploratory research, and its data collection was made with a semi-structured questionnaire applied in interviews with four executives responsible for international business in different types of companies and with three academicians who do research on this subject. It presents a conceptual model for the relationship between the level of international market orientation, international performance and the strategies of entrance in international markets adopted by the organizations. It argues that the adoption of more complex strategies of entrance in international markets, for example, through direct foreign investments, implies the need to increase international market orientation and performance levels, given the influence that these strategies have on the constructs of intelligence generation and dissemination, response and interfunctional coordination. Key words: international market orientation, strategies of entrance in international markets, international performance.

Alberto Vinicio Baez was a pioneer in the field of international science education. He was a physicist who played a leading role in UNESCO’s efforts to support science education globally. His research in the physics of light led to the development of an X-ray microscope and of imaging optics. He participated in projects to improve science education in high schools in the United States in the 1950s, a period of intense interest on this topic. In 1961 he was invited to join UNESCO to establish the Division of Science Education. In this position he wrote numerous papers, organized and participated in regional and international conferences, and studied and supported the development of projects to advance science and technology education in developing countries, with a special focus in secondary schools. The programme established the importance of science education, developed low-cost science kits, films and a structured, high-quality curriculum to support physics teachers in Latin America, chemistry education in Asia, biology education in Africa and mathematics education in the Arab States. Baez’s chief intellectual contributions to the field of science education centered on the development and dissemination of the ideas that it was necessary to democratize access to high-quality education in developing countries, that science education should focus on developing the capabilities needed to solve practical problems, and on the role of interdisciplinarity and social responsibility as core foundations of science education. He also articulated why high-quality science and technology education to improve living conditions in developing nations would contribute to addressing common global challenges faced by humanity, particularly achieving sustainable forms of human environmental interaction, reducing poverty and uncontrolled demographic expansion, and promoting peace. His writings and work to improve science education in developing countries reflect a theory of educational change that recognizes the synergies that result from engaging multiple stakeholders to initiate and sustain innovation and to institutionalize large-scale change. He favoured approaches that brought together scientists and teachers, and

The objective of this paper is to identify emotional involvement and cognitive dependence among students in the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, as well as to prepare measures of these two concepts. To fit the needs of the current study, the researchers employed a descriptive technique that included predictive studies, correlational correlations, and the survey method. Students from the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, comprising 110 male and female students, were part of the research community. For the academic year 2023-2024, there were 81 male students and 29 female students at the University of Kufa. The proportional selection approach and the random stratified method were used to choose the research sample. One of the crucial phases and phases in the research process is the selection of the study sample. Among the researcher's most significant findings are the following: Students at the College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences exhibit both emotional involvement and cognitive dependence, and the researchers' emotional engagement and cognitive dependence scales are valid. Among the researchers' most crucial suggestions is the following: Paying attention to the cognitive skills and scientific experiences of College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences students and using them to improve the nation's educational standing, and conducting ongoing courses to lessen cognitive dependency among College of Physical Education and Sports Sciences students.

The text of the article is available in the PDF.

Screening tools for the individual risk of injury in athletes have gained high popularity lately. Not only professional athletes, but also college students are in need for cost efficient and quick screening tools to allow targeted injury prevention. The applicability of the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) as a valid screening tool for injury prediction among various populations has been evaluated in several studies. Most studies have drawn their conclusions from the composite score. Only a few studies have examined the validity of single items for injury prediction. In addition, gender differences have only been taken into account to a limited extent. PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to determine the applicability of the FMS composite score and its seven single items for the sex-specific prediction of injury among German physical education and exercise science students. METHODS: Overall, N = 99 physical active college students (female: 53, male: 46) between 18-29 years of age were recruited. All participants performed a FMS at the beginning of two consecutive semesters. All injuries were recorded monthly for the entire semester. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under the curve (AUC) were used to estimate an optimal cut-off score for females and males separately and to assess the ability of the FMS sum score to predict an injury. Logistic regression analysis was utilized to assess odds ratios for the chance of injury related to single items of the FMS. RESULTS: The ROC curves indicated moderate ability in the injury prediction for women (AUC: 0.66, p= 0.02) and poor injury prediction for men (AUC: 0.40, p= 0.19). However no satisfying cut-off score could be determined for any gender due to poor sensitivity and specificity. The logistic regressions revealed the Deep Squat (DS) to be significant for women (p= 0.03, OR= 0.2). CONCLUSION: The FMS is frequently cited as a useful screening tool for subsequent injury. In this regard, cut-off values are used to identify persons at high risk for injury. The DS was the only significant single item for women in this study, but had no strong prediction effect. Results of this study cannot provide solid gender-specific recommendations for the use of the FMS composite score or single items as an injury screening tool for German physical education and sports science students.

Note from the EditorsToo often, biology has been considered by both students and faculty as the ideal major for the scientifically inclined but mathematically challenged, even though the advantage of quantitative approaches in biology has always been apparent.Increasingly, biologists are utilizing mathematical skills to create simulations or manage and query large data sets.The need for basic mathematical and computer science (CS) literacy among biologists has never been greater.But does this require a fundamental change in the organization of the undergraduate biology curriculum?What is the utility of math/CS in different areas of biology?How can we best provide math/CS instruction to biologists so that the utility is appreciated?Do all biology students require a stronger math/CS foundation, or only those interested in research careers?Given the speed at which technology changes, what is the best preparation?Three different points of view are offered below.Dr. Roger Brent, President and Director of the Molecular Sciences Institute, reflects on the "innumeracy" common among biologists and argues that significant insights into biological problems may be gained from better mathematical intuition.

Proceedings of the Symposium on International Science and Engineering Education: An Overview

This study used the Relevance of Science Education (ROSE) survey (Sjoberg & Schreiner, 2004) to examine topics of interest and perspectives of secondary science students in a large school district in the southwestern U.S. A situated learning perspective was used to frame the project. The research questions of this study focused on (a) perceptions students have about themselves and their science classroom and how these beliefs may influence their participation in the community of practice of science; (b) consideration of how a future science classroom where the curriculum is framed by the Next Generation Science Standards might foster students' beliefs and perceptions about science education and their legitimate peripheral participation in the community of practice of science; and (c) reflecting on their school science interests and perspectives, what can be inferred about students' identities as future scientists or STEM field professionals? Data were collected from 515 second year science students during a 4-week period in May of 2012 using a Web-based survey. Data were disaggregated by gender and ethnicity and analyzed descriptively and by statistical comparison between groups. Findings for Research Question 1 indicated that boys and girls showed statistically significant differences in scientific topics of interest. There were no statistical differences between ethnic groups although. For Research Question 2, it was determined that participants reported an increase in their interest when they deemed the context of the content to be personally relevant. Results for Research Question 3 showed that participants do not see themselves as youthful scientists or as becoming scientists. While participants value the importance of science in their lives and think all students should take science, they do not aspire to careers in science. Based on this study, a need for potential future work has been identified in three areas: (a) exploration of the perspectives and interests of non-mainstream students and urban students whose representation in this study was limited; (b) investigation of topics where students expressed low interests topics; and (c) development and design of authentic communities of practice in the science classroom.

This study aimed to determine the lexical word-class distribution in research articles of four subject areas: social sciences, health sciences, physical sciences and life sciences. Total 5,754,560 tokens or running words were extracted from research articles published by Elsevier for examination. Results show both similarities and differences in distribution across the four subject areas. For health, physical and life sciences, the noun is the most dominant lexical word class, followed by the adjective, verb and adverb. For social sciences, the verb is more dominant than the adjective. This finding reflects that research articles in social sciences use the highest number of words and are more conversational in nature. For types of nouns, singular nouns are used more often than plural nouns in all subject areas; this usage might indicate that research articles tend to focus on a single research object. For types of verbs, research articles in health, life and physical sciences tend to prefer using past tense and past participle forms over others; this usage indicates emphasis on reporting what has been done. In contrast, social sciences research articles show more frequent use of the verbs’ base form, and this usage possibly signifies arguments regarding general truths. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.33.0.19945

According to the significance of patient education, new conceptual models are constantly required to promote pedagogical competences of health educators. In the field of educational sciences, aesthetic-based education is known as one of the effective types of curriculum planning which has shown many positive pedagogical outcomes. Thus, the researcher's assumption is that, the concept of "aesthetic education" could be transposed from educational sciences to health sciences in order to develop a new formula in the patient education process. The purpose of this study is to explain methods in detail, to develop an aesthetic-based patient education conceptual model through the concept derivation strategy. 1. Scoping review and inductive data analysis using Walker and Avant's approach to achieve conceptual categories of the concept "aesthetic education." 2. Semi-structured qualitative interviews and directed content analysis to extract the main categories of the concept "aesthetics in the patient education process." 3. Drawing an aesthetic-based patient education conceptual model by allocating new conceptual components to each general step of the patient education process, including needs assessment, goal setting, implementation, and evaluation. 4. Modified Delphi technique to validate the final conceptual model. The first phase will represent the main categories and subcategories of attributes, antecedents, and consequences of "aesthetic education." The second phase will show the main categories and subcategories of attributes, antecedents, and consequences of the new concept named "aesthetic-based patient education." In the third phase, it is expected to achieve a new conceptual model representing the components of aesthetics in the general steps of the patient education process. The fourth phase will propose the final validated conceptual model. The provided study protocol can be a road map to developing derivative models through concept derivation strategy in health sciences.

A Manual for the Scientific (Teaching) Revolution

When I think of teaching in 3D, my thoughts go understanding and manipulating protein structure models, diagrams, metabolic maps, and other images. Indeed, being able to “see in 3D” is a skill that is vital to understanding biochemistry and molecular biology, as is the ability to “zoom” between the macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic levels of resolution 1. But there is another “3D” that we as biochemical educators should be aware of: the “three dimensions” presented in the Framework for K-12 Science Education 2 that form the basis of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The “three dimensions” of framework are science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. These “three dimensions” are found in all years of the proposed curriculum, and are developed at a deeper level as students progress. Each of the standards in the NGSS incorporates all three of these aspects. The NGSS standards were released on April 9, 2013 by a broad-based team from 26 states 3, and will presumably shape the elementary and high school science curricula and experiences for students in those states and beyond, although only two states have formally adopted them so far. Comparing to the vision and change in undergraduate biology education 4 and the ASBMB concept inventory project 5 can not only help us understand where our students are coming from, they also help us critically examine our own structure, standards, and strategies for educating students. The first dimension, science and engineering practices, emphasizes how scientists and engineers conduct investigations and build models and theories about the natural world. The eight practices listed in Fig. 1. These are mostly proficiencies, focusing on experimental, mathematical, and critical thinking skills. The practices are meant to dovetail with the disciplinary core ideas. This interconnectedness of process skills and content was explicitly stated in the framework 2: “students cannot fully understand scientific and engineering ideas without engaging in the practices of inquiry and the discourses by which such ideas are developed and refined. At the same time, they cannot learn or show competence in practices except in the context of specific content.” Vision and Change (V&C) also included a list of core competencies and disciplinary practices that is similar to the NGSS competencies; however, it groups the skills associated with conducting experiments into one broad category, and adds additional categories about connecting to other scientific fields and society at large (Fig. 1). The disciplinary core ideas are fundamental, unifying concepts that have broad importance across Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields or are a key organizing concept of a single field, key to understanding or investigating more complex ideas, connect to real life or societal concerns that require scientific or technical knowledge, or be teachable and learnable at many levels of depth and sophistication. The four categories of disciplinary core ideas are physical sciences, life sciences, earth and space sciences, and engineering design. The life sciences disciplinary core ideas are listed in Table 1. Compared to the core concepts of V&C, the NGSS separates the concepts of heredity and evolution, while V&C separates the NGSS's “Structures and Processes” into three separate topics, structure/function; pathways and transformations of energy and matter; and information flow, exchange and storage. In both the NGSS and V&C, the core concepts can be interpreted on a cellular, organismal, and ecological level. Crosscutting concepts are fundamental ideas that are found throughout STEM fields, and are listed in Table 2. While these concepts have been found as underlying concepts in previous recommendations [“themes” in Science for All Americans (AAA 1989) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993), “unifying principles” in National Science Education Standards (1996), and “crosscutting ideas” NSTA's Science Anchors Project (2010)], including them as a separate category was a conscientious decision by the committee to ensure that students would be exposed to these fundamental ideas in an intentional manner. There is not a parallel category in V&C, but the ongoing work on foundational concepts by the ASBMB (see the special section in this issue “Foundational Concepts and Assessment Tools for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Educators, Part 1: Essential Concepts and Skills.”) emphasizes how biochemistry and molecular biology are rooted in mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry. The crosscutting ideas allow students to connect ideas from different fields of science and prepare them for interdisciplinary work by providing a common language and understanding. The standards are set up so that the practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts are interwoven. Table 3 shows how this is done in one of the high school standards on heredity. While not all of any one category are present in a single standard, the practices and crosscutting concepts are taught each year, and the core ideas are presented at least once every three years. The NGSS places much greater emphasis upon how science is done. Instead of hands on work being the final wrap-up of the unit (if there is time), the emphasis on process moves observation and experimentation to the beginning of the unit, and embeds it throughout the discussion. This change may have significant impact on how we assess student mastery of the subject; will state annual standardized tests and college entrance examinations reflect this increased emphasis on process and depth instead of fact acquisition and breadth? Will it change student expectations for what science is when they get to the college level? One of the striking features of the NGSS is the emphasis on curricular coherence and repeated exposure to important topics, both within and among courses. Instead of science being viewed as a collection of distinct facts, it emphasizes overarching principles and depth of study. Topics are covered with increasing sophistication in over several years—for example, the heredity standard is included in first grade, third grade, middle school, and high school. The first grade theme is “how are parents and their children similar and different?” while the third grade themes include “How do organisms vary in their traits? How are plants, animals, and environments of the past similar or different than current plants, animals and environments?” The middle school level introduces the mechanics of traits being passed from one generation to the next, while the high school level builds on this to include variation among members of a species or family. This is an area where colleges and university level programs may learn from the K-12 learning community. Faculty often say, “that was taught in (name a prerequisite course) so I don't need to cover it,” when presenting it, even briefly, at a more sophisticated level may both cement the prior learning and assist in understanding the current topic 6. All together, the NGSS provide a coherent set of “big ideas” in science. The emphasis on depth and the process of science can help students understand how discoveries are made. There are, however, always concerns; will emphasis on these core ideas mean there are other topics that are not discussed? How will they be implemented, both in the classroom and in how learning is assessed? How widely will the standards be adapted? As a community of educators, we can think about how to both support these changes in K-12 science education and how it may affect future generations of collegiate students. The parallels between the NGSS and the work done by the Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE) (described in this issue) committee described in this issue are remarkable. Considering the work was done essentially in parallel, the inclusion of core content, skills, and underlying understanding by both shows the importance of all three dimensions at all levels of learning.