Year Of Junior High School Research Articles

Pedometer-determined physical activity among youth in the Tokyo Metropolitan area: a cross-sectional study.

BackgroundProviding large-scale descriptive data of objectively measured physical activity in youth is informative for practitioners, epidemiologists, and researchers. The purpose of this study was to present the pedometer-determined physical activity among Japanese youth using the Tokyo Metropolitan Survey of Physical Fitness, Physical Activity and Lifestyle 2011.MethodsThis study used a school-based survey. The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education originally collected pedometer-determined steps per day in the fall of 2011. Data were collected from 15,471 youth aged 6 to 18 years living in Tokyo. Participants were asked to wear pedometers for 14 consecutive days, and daily steps logged in the final 7 days were selected for this analysis.ResultsAt the primary and junior high school levels, boys (12,483 and 9476, respectively) had a significantly higher mean number of steps per day than did girls (10,053 and 8408, respectively). There was no significant difference in the mean number of steps per day between the sexes at the high school level. Mean steps per day decreased consistently with age and grade level; the lowest overall steps per day was observed in the last year of junior high school, although there was a slight increase in the subsequent year, the first year of high school.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates a trend toward reduced physical activity with age in Japanese youth and a substantial difference in the number of steps per day between boys and girls in Tokyo. The age-related reduction in steps per day was greater in boys because they attained a higher peak value prior to this reduction, and sex-related differences in the step count disappeared in high school students.

Does Student Effort Respond to Incentives? Evidence from a Guaranteed College Admissions Program

This paper studies the effects of guaranteed college admission on student effort and achievement. In 1997, Texas enacted the “Top Ten Percent” law, which guarantees admission to any public college for students in the top ten percent of their high school class. In practice, eligible students become aware of their admission status at the end of their junior year in high school—more than 1 year prior to attending college. We use data from a large, urban school district and regression discontinuity methods to test for effects on effort. Our preferred estimates show that students who barely qualify for the admissions guarantee earn marginally lower grades and take fewer advanced courses in their senior year compared to students who do not qualify for guaranteed admission and learn their status in the final senior year term. We find qualitatively similar results when limiting our sample to finer bandwidths, although the estimates are imprecise.

Characterizing Design Cognition of High School Students: Initial Analyses Comparing those With and Without Pre-Engineering Experiences

Reported in this article are initial results from of a longitudinal study to characterize the design cognition and cognitive design styles of high school students with and without pre-engineering course experience over a 2-year period, and to compare them with undergraduate engineering students. The research followed a verbal protocol analysis based on the function– behavior–structure (FBS) ontology, which employs a task-independent approach that is distinct from a task-based or an ad hoc approach. This approach to protocol analysis is applicable across any process-based view of designing and generates results based on a common comparative measure independent of the design task. In this article, Year 1 results are presented comparing only students in their junior year of high school who had formal pre-engineering course experience (experiment group) with those who did not have formal pre-engineering course experience (control group). Specifically, data collected from design sessions were analyzed for comparison of design issues and processes between experiment and control groups, respectively. Results from analysis of Year 1 data did not reveal any significant differences between the experiment and control groups in engineering design cognition. Based on these results, one would conclude that students with pre-engineering course experience do not demonstrate a stronger focus on the process of producing design solutions than do students without such experience. Although analysis of demographic data from high school participants indicates some degree of common prior preengineering experiences, it did not provide a sufficient explanation for why no significant differences in engineering design thinking were found between these groups. The researchers anticipate that Year 2 data will indicate that as the preengineering students continue engaging in formal engineering design experiences during their final year of high school, some degree of difference in design cognition will be demonstrated.

FALA E ESCRITA: CAMINHOS QUE SE CRUZAM NO ENSINO LINGUÍSTICO

Analisamos, a luz de abordagens que explicam o processo de aquisição da escrita e de considerações sobre aspectos sociolinguísticos, desvios de grafias encontrados em cinquenta textos produzidos por alunos dos ciclos inicial e final do ensino fundamental, de escolas públicas da Grande BH. Os resultados indicam distintas causas dos ‘erros” de ortografia e evidenciam maior frequência dos desvios provocados por interferências do dialeto dos aprendizes.

Production and Evaluation of Educational Material Using Augmented Reality for Teaching the Module of “Representation of the Information on Computers” in Junior High School

The purpose of this study was the investigation of the added value of technology of Augmented Reality in education and, particularly, whether this contributes to both student performance improvement, as well as the appearance of the psychological condition of Flow, which, according to research, has had a positive effect on their performance when experienced during learning process. The research involved a total of 42 students in their second year of junior high school who were taught the module “representation of the information on computers” using two different technologies, those of Augmented Reality and the Web. Research data showed that both technologies contributed to student performance improvement and to the appearance of Flow to pupils, with apparently better results with the student group who utilized the technology of Augmented Reality, though.

Does amotivation matter more than motivation in predicting mathematics learning gains? A longitudinal study of sixth-grade students in France

This study examines the change trajectories of different types of motivation proposed by self-determination theory and their relationships with mathematics achievement during the first year of junior high school. Multilevel growth models were used to describe the trajectories of motivation regulation in 1082 students over the course of one year. On average, all types of motivation, whether self-determined or non-self-determined, declined throughout the school year. Conversely, the trajectory of amotivation increased continuously. The growth parameters of these trajectories extracted and utilized as covariates in explaining mathematics achievement at the end of the school year. The mean initial levels of motivation contributed to the explanation of the variance in mathematics performance, as did their rates of change during the school year. Second, amotivation was the only motivation type to be significantly associated with mathematics achievement over the school year. Theoretical and applied implications are discussed.

Complicating Conditions: Obstacles and Interruptions to Low-Income Students' College “Choices”

Although a major focus of current research and policymaking efforts involves understanding and minimizing the barriers to postsecondary access, conventional reform strategies do not appear to be effecting substantial change in the college-going opportunities for students from low-income and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. This article presents the results of a qualitative, longitudinal study of the high school-to-college transition for a sample of 16 low-income, Black and Latino students at two inner-city high schools in the Northeastern United States. Drawing on interviews with students over a three-year period—from their junior year of high school through one year after high school graduation—this analysis highlights the interruptions to students' postsecondary plans. In this sample, students' actual postsecondary paths, which included delayed college enrollment and two-year college matriculation, diverged substantially from the initial plans participants developed during high school. Ultimately, the findings illustrate how these students' life circumstances engender decisions that preclude the kinds of choices assumed in the college choice model.

Complicating Conditions: Obstacles and Interruptions to Low-Income Students’ College “Choices”

Although a major focus of current research and policymaking efforts involves understanding and minimizing the barriers to postsecondary access, conventional reform strategies do not appear to be effecting substantial change in the college-going opportunities for students from low-income and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. This article presents the results of a qualitative, longitudinal study of the high school-to-college transition for a sample of 16 low-income, Black and Latino students at two inner-city high schools in the Northeastern United States. Drawing on interviews with students over a three-year period—from their junior year of high school through one year after high school graduation—this analysis highlights the interruptions to students’ postsecondary plans. In this sample, students’ actual postsecondary paths, which included delayed college enrollment and two-year college matriculation, diverged substantially from the initial plans participants developed during high school. Ultimately, the findings illustrate how these students’ life circumstances engender decisions that preclude the kinds of choices assumed in the college choice model.

Every Little Bit Counts: The Impact of High-speed Internet on the Transition to College

This paper investigates the effects of high-speed Internet on students' college application decisions. We link the diffusion of zip code-level residential broadband Internet to millions of PSAT and SAT takers’ college testing and application outcomes and find that students with access to high-speed Internet in their junior year of high school perform better on the SAT and apply to a higher number and more expansive set of colleges. Effects appear to be concentrated among higher-SES students, indicating that while, on average, high-speed Internet improved students’ postsecondary outcomes, it may have increased pre-existing inequities by primarily benefiting those with more resources.

Polymer Education in Japan

SummaryEducation in Japan is segmented into 6 years of elementary school, 3 years of junior high school, 3 years of high school, and 4 years of university, with elementary and junior high education compulsory. Polymer education in Japan starts at the elementary school level, where the iodine‐starch reaction is taught, typically as hands‐on, experimental lessons in a science class. At the high school level, the concepts of “polymers” and “polymerization” are taught in chemistry class but not in detail. Details are treated as optional subjects in the curriculum and are not included in university entrance exams; students generally do not choose to spend much time and efforts on subjects that are not applicable to the exams. Polymer science is taught as an independent subject or an area of organic chemistry or material science at the university level.

The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels by Gaylon H. White, and: The Continental League: A Personal History by Russell D. Buhite

Reviewed by: The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels by Gaylon H. White, and: The Continental League: A Personal History by Russell D. Buhite Lee Lowenfish Gaylon H. White. The Bilko Athletic Club: The Story of the 1956 Los Angeles Angels. Lanham, md: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014. 301 pp. Cloth, $38.00. Russell D. Buhite. The Continental League: A Personal History. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. 201 pp. Cloth, $24.95. When it comes to writing baseball history about the 1950s, Steve Bilko and the Continental League are not topics that immediately come to mind. Among the big stories of the period were westward expansion and the emergence of such African American superstars in the National League as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Frank Robinson. Yet there is a place in the annals of history for the tales of legendary slugger Steve Bilko, belter of 389 home runs (all but 76 in the minor leagues), and the abortive Continental League of 1959–60, which tried under Branch Rickey’s leadership to create a third major league. Though there are weaknesses in each endeavor, authors Gaylon White and Russell Buhite have made worthwhile contributions. Steve Bilko’s story is the stuff of legend. Born in 1930 in the southeastern Pennsylvania coal-mining town of Nanticoke, Bilko was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals before his junior year in high school by scout Bennie Borgmann. “I was convinced that here was a guy who one day would hit sixty-five home runs in a single season,” Borgmann said upon the premature death of Bilko in 1978 (84). (Borgmann was a well-regarded talent hunter who, incidentally, [End Page 179] was a great basketball player honored in the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts—unfortunately, his name is misspelled by White with only one n in his last name.) The Cardinals brought up Bilko for a cup of coffee as a twenty-year-old in 1949; and in 1953, he enjoyed his best year in the majors when he hit 21 homers with 84 rbi. He collected a respectable 70 walks; but he hit only .251, with 125 strikeouts, a disturbing number at a time when a stigma was placed on striking out more than 100 times a season. Bilko was fated to play at a time when Stan Musial was being shuffled from the outfield to first base. “I always had Musial hanging over my head,” Bilko later reflected. “Like if I went oh-for-four or oh-for-ten . . . Stan comes in and plays first” (84). Another strike against Bilko was his excessive weight, which bordered on three hundred pounds—his postgame beer consumption was the stuff of liquid legend! “Few sports were as intolerant of excess flab as baseball,” White notes accurately (73). Soon the nicknames of Stout Steve, Lard Zeppelin, and Big Boy Balloon were hung on Bilko, who was sensitive to criticism. In one of the more profound comments in the book, outfielder Albie Pearson, who was later Bilko’s teammate on the American League expansion Los Angeles Angels, remarks, “Steve was constantly fighting a complex that everybody was against him. He didn’t handle rejection very well” (81). Another teammate, the pitcher-turned-author Jim Brosnan adds, “He was an introverted man. He was like Ferdinand the Bull” (81). The Cardinals let Bilko go to the Chicago Cubs in 1954, but he never came close to duplicating his best year. By 1955, Bilko was toiling for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, where his legend really took flight. When comedian-actor Phil Silvers was looking for a name for his conniving army sergeant in the cbs network tv show You’ll Never Get Rich, he chose the name Ernie Bilko. “I could just as well have been Corporal Hodges or Private First Class Musial,” Silvers explained. “I gave it to a guy who needed it” (91). Bilko got off to a great start in 1956 and by mid-July had equaled his 37 home runs of the previous year. He became not only a local phenomenon but a national one. Los Angeles Times columnist Ned Cronin suggested...

The Impact of Family Relationships on the Smoking Habits of University Students

Smoking habits are thought to be strongly impacted by family relationships. In this study, we looked specifically at family relationships with the aim of finding effective anti-smoking education measures. We surveyed 290 university students in order to establish their current smoking habits, along with their family relationships from primary and junior high school until now. The results showed that students with one or more smokers in their family were clearly more likely to smoke. Furthermore, a poor relationship between the student’s parents and a poor relationship with his/her father are believed to have a causal relationship with the student smoking. In the section in which students were asked how often they were told to study, we found that students who smoked had been instructed to study a significantly higher number of times. It is believed that the stress experienced by students frequently told that they must study during their elementary or junior high school years leads to a tendency to smoke. Among the group of non-smokers, we found many who ate breakfast with their parents during elementary or junior high school, along with many who regularly went on holidays with their families. The lack of these things appears to distance parents from children and may be a factor regarding why children end up smoking. In this study, while no clear correlation was found between family relationships and smoking, several types of family relationships that may lead to smoking were suggested.

Groping for a new English teaching strategy

By the time a student reaches college, he or she has studied English for approximately ten years. As if that were not sufficient, English education continues for up to two additional years in college. The outcome of these years of arduous toil produces results that are far below expectations. Hence, English falls among students' most loathed subjects. The clear villain for this paltry progress is not the students but a victimising system. From the first year of junior high school through the freshman or sophomore years of college, English is monotonously taught with almost no variation whatsoever. The curriculum consists mostly of grammar and translation, in that order. Many teachers force rote memorisation of grammar on hapless kids while not even realising the proper methods of language acquisition. Because English in Korea begins in earnest in junior high school, pupils should first be exposed to spoken English, with an emphasis on listening and speaking, duly followed by reading and writing. More specifically, only after reviewing systematic structure and syntax should college students focus on reading and writing.

Outreach Program in Electrical Engineering: Pre-College for Engineering Systems (PCES)

This paper presents the outcome of a summer precollege engineering enrichment program. The purpose of the summer outreach program is to promote and expose pre-college students to electrical engineering concepts and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) topics as well as hands on research projects. The summer program is typically a six-week summer outreach program that attracts U.S. high school students and international students from abroad. Sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Science Foundation (NSF), the summer program is generally offered to under-represented high school students who have completed their junior year of high school and for seniors who plan to attend universities in the fall semester in the area of engineering. The program has demonstrated the potential to attract and graduate talented youth, including college students as mentors, who later enrolled in advanced degree programs at college and university levels. This Pre-College for Engineering Systems is a residential program coordinated by the Center for Energy Systems and Control (CESaC), within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Howard University. CESaC hopes that this summer program can serve as a national model for increasing the number of under-represented groups in electrical engineering and system. Based on the objectives and subsequent outcomes, the program can serve as a national model for increasing the number of under-represented groups in electrical computer engineering with an emphasis in power and energy specialization.

The Readability of Science: Student’s Book for Junior High School Year VIII Viewed From The Lexis and Grammatical Aspects (A Content Analysis of Science Lesson of Junior High Schools of Surakarta)

This research aims at finding out the readability of Science Student’s Book for Junior High School Year VIII of science lesson of Junior High Schools of Surakarta in 2011/2012 academic year through lexis and grammatical analysis. This research applies a descriptive qualitative method specifically a content analysis. The primary data are the lexis and sentences used in Science Student’s Book for Junior High School Year VIII while the secondary data are test scores obtained with cloze test. The data were obtained by applying several methods, i.e. content analysis of the book, test, observation and interview. Data source and method triangulation were applied to obtain validity. Meanwhile to analyze the data, the ethnography technique proposed by Spreadly was employed. The research findings show that in terms of the lexis used in Science: Student’s Book for Junior High School Year VIII specifically in chapter I, II, IV, and VI as the sample of the research, the total number is 13.908. This consists of 13.421 content words and 487 function words. Based on the questionaire distributed to 151 respondents of SMPN I Surakarta, SMPN 4 Surakarta, SMP Kalam Kudus Surakarta, and SMP Al- Islam I Surakarta, 1634 words are considered new words and 833 words out of 2876 words are considered unknown. There are 1631 simple sentences or 63 % of the whole, 485 compound sentences or 90% and 413 complex sentences or 17 %. It is found that the complexity of the sentences is high approximately 14 words per sentence. Based on the research, the result of the cloze test done by the respondents and the computation using Flesch Reading Ease Formula show that the readability of Science Student’s Book for Junior High School Year VIII is low. The cloze test result shows that the readability gained from the respondents of SMPN I Surakarta is 31%, SMPN 4 Surakarta 28%, SMP Kalam Kudus 24% and SMP Al-Islam I 14%. It is concluded that the mean score of the readability is 24%. Whereas the readability obtained from Flesh Reading Ease Formula is 57.8%. Some factors causing the low readability of Science Student’s Book for Junior High School Year VIII are some of the students are not keen on reading English texts, some of them do not read English articles on Science very often outside the class which results in inadequate prior knowledge. Furthermore, the students have low intrinsic motivation in reading English text.

The relation between student motivation and student grades in physical education: A 3‐year investigation

Enhancing students' academic engagement is the key element of the educational process; hence, research in this area has focused on understanding the mechanisms that can lead to increased academic engagement. The present study investigated the relation between motivation and grades in physical education (PE) employing a 3-year longitudinal design. Three hundred fifty-four Greek high school students participated in the study. Students completed measures of motivation to participate in PE on six occasions; namely, at the start and the end of the school year in the first, second, and third year of junior high school. Students' PE grades were also recorded at these time points. The results of the multilevel growth models indicated that students' PE grades increased over the 3 years and students had better PE grades at the end of each year than at the beginning of the subsequent year. In general, students and classes with higher levels of controlling motivation achieved lower PE grades, whereas higher levels of autonomous motivation were associated with higher PE grades. These findings provide new insight on the associations between class- and individual-level motivation with objectively assessed achievement in PE.

質問紙による中学生期における身体活動と健康関連QOLおよび抑うつ傾向の実態調査

質問紙による中学生期における身体活動と健康関連QOLおよび抑うつ傾向の実態調査

Verb movement as a teaching tool

Abstract – The article discusses the results of an experiment conducted as a follow-up to a previous research (Formisano, 2013) in which the theory of Verb Movement (Pollock, 1989) was used to teach the position of English adverbs to Italian students of English as a foreign language. The hypothesis underlying the experiment is that an explicit explanation of the deep computational mechanisms of a language should be more effective in resetting a parameter than a traditional descriptive explanation. The first experiment was conducted in 2008 with a total of 67 participants of which 38 were in their second year of Junior High School (mean age 12) and 29 were in their third year of High School (mean age 17). Eighteen students in their first year of university (mean age 20) participated to the follow-up experiment carried out in 2011. The methodology was the same for both studies. In the first phase the participants were tested to record their knowledge of the position of English adverbs. Then they were divided into two groups (for each age range). One was given a descriptive account of adverb placement, and the other was given a linguistic account of the reason why the two languages differ on adverb position, namely the verb movement theory. They were tested immediately after the explanation and again after 10 weeks. Results show a greater and longer lasting improvement in the ability to place adverbs correctly in those participants who were exposed to the linguistic account of the difference between the two languages compared to the ones who were only given the descriptive explanation

Influence of stressors and possible pathways of onset of seventh graders’ suicidal ideation in urban and rural areas in Taiwan

BackgroundSuicide is the second leading cause of death among young people in Taiwan. However, few studies have investigated children’s suicidal ideation, and longitudinal studies are particularly rare. The purposes of this study were: (1) to describe the proportion of students with suicidal ideation in one month and incidence of suicidal ideation in the 7th graders (the first year of junior high school) living in urban and rural areas; (2) to realize the influence of perceived stressors on the onset of 7th graders’ suicidal ideation; and (3) to explore possible pathways through which trigger factors and perceived stressors lead to suicidal ideation.MethodsA total of 1,589 students were followed from grade 4 to grade 7. Logistic regression was then used to investigate the influence of perceived stressors on the onset of suicidal ideation in grade 7. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze possible pathways through which trigger factors led to increased pressure from certain stressors which in turn resulted in suicidal ideation.ResultsThe proportion of students with suicidal ideation in one month was 2 to 3 times higher in both areas compared to that in elementary school. However, the incidence in the rural area showed a large increase from 10.2% and 9.5% in grades 5 and 6 to 15.5% in grade 7. Urban–rural difference was observed. Important stressors and pathways of suicidal ideation differ between urban and rural areas.ConclusionsThis study showed that the influential stressors in urban and rural areas might be different. Thus, interventions focused on coping skills for regional specific stressors and trigger factors could be beneficial in the transition time.

IMPROVING THE STUDENTS’ ABILITY IN TRANSLATING ENGLISH INTO INDONESIAN BASED ON DUFF’S PRINCIPLES

This research aimed at finding out the improvement of the students’ ability in translating English into Indonesian especially for Recount text in terms of the meaning and style of the original text. The researcher used a Classroom Action Research (CAR) to explain the improvement, which was conducted in two cycles in which every cycle consisted of four meetings. The location of this research was taken in the second year of Junior High School 2 Sungguminasa with the number of the subject i.e. 36 students. The research findings indicate that the application of Duff’s Principles is significant in improving the students’ translating ability in terms of meaning and style of the original text. It is proved by the mean score of the cycle I is 60.27 then improved to be 72.49 in cycle II. They are higher than the mean score of diagnostic test namely 56.45. It means that there is the improvement of the students’ translating ability in terms of meaning and style of the original text.Keyword: Ability, translating, English, Indonesian, Duff, principle