Science Administrators Research Articles

Assessment of the level of technological literacy among non-teaching staff in selected universities in Edo State, Nigeria

The purpose of the study was to assess the level of technological literacy among non-teaching staff (NTS) in selected public universities in Edo State, Nigeria. Two research questions were raised to guide the study and two corresponding hypotheses were formulated and were also tested at 0.05 level of significance. A survey research design was used for the study. The population of the study comprised 1520 NTS obtained from both public and private universities in Edo State used for this study. A forty-item questionnaire structured on a five-point rating scale was the instrument used for data collection. The content and face validity of the instrument were carried out by experts in measurement and evaluation and a science educator A reliability coefficient of 0.80 was obtained. A reliability test of the instrument was also conducted and analysed using mean, standard deviation, and Z-test statistics. Findings show that non-teaching staff in Edo State selected universities possess moderate level knowledge of: (1) technological literacy, and (2) nature of technology. The study also revealed that there were high differences in technological skill levels between public and privately owned universities. Implication of the study was highlighted as being of great benefit to science and technology education planners and administrators, technical instructors and students. Based on the findings of the study, appropriate recommendations were made and if adopted it will enhance the level of technological literacy among non-teaching staff in universities in Edo State, Nigeria.

Digitized Printed Strategic Intervention Material in Science in District I of Antipolo City: Basis for Enhancement Model

Digitization, technology, and scientific education are strong educational reform drivers. Modern educational institutions use computers and the Internet for all their activities. It’s everywhere now. Thus, digitally printed science intervention material is crucial in schools and society. Today, digitalized printed materials are the main teaching and learning channel. The Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) uses extracurricular activities to help students who struggle in science, technology, and other subjects. Educators, administrators, and curriculum planners use digitally enhanced printed materials and multimedia instructions to develop every aspect of teaching and learning. This study assessed the validity and acceptability of the Digitized Printed Strategic Intervention Material (DPSIM) in teaching Science as expected against evaluation. The respondents of the study were one (1) Technology Expert, five (5) Science Administrators, and one hundred (100) Science teachers who were described in terms of position, educational attainment, training attended in ICT, teaching experiences, and the ability to handle ICT. The validity is assessed in terms of content, manner of presentation, language and style, and evaluative tools. Acceptability is assessed in terms of clarity, usefulness, suitability, adequacy, and timeliness. Various resources such as books, published studies on the net, and other materials were gathered in the construction of the research questionnaire. Descriptive Statistics such as Mean and Frequency, T-test, and ANOVA were utilized to test the statistical significance of the variables presented. Results revealed that there is no significant difference in the assessment of the two groups (expected and evaluated responses) of respondents on the validity of the Digitized Printed Strategic Intervention Material (DPSIM), but there is a significant difference in the assessment of respondents in terms of acceptability of DPSIM. When respondents were grouped according to their profile in terms of position, educational attainment, training attended in Information Communication Technology (ICT), teaching experience, and the ability to handle ICT in Teaching, it was identified that differences in the responses for validity were brought about by the respondent’s difference in ICT training attended and their ability to handle ICT in teaching. The validity of DPSIM is perceived to be a high extent, with Application, Method of Presentation, Language and Style, and Evaluative Tools as the criteria that need further improvement. For the acceptability of DPSIM, there is a significant difference in the responses when grouped according to profile. However, it is worth noting that overall, no criteria were perceived to be needing improvement. Acceptability has also been categorized to a very high extent. It concluded that the Digitized Printed Strategic Intervention Material (DPSIM) is an effective tool in teaching Science. The study included that school administrators should evaluate the DPSIM whether its contents conform to the curriculum standards. Teachers should first examine the DPSIM use to determine the contents that align with the objective of the lesson. Parents should support children with technology materials that supplement the lesson; pupils can explore the DPSIM, which promotes independent learning; and future researchers can conduct similar studies that assess developed DPSIM if the same education will be conducted in the future. Keyword: Digitized Printed Strategic Intervention Material (DPSIM)

The Many Pollutant Identities of Carbon Dioxide: Global Climate Monitoring and Air Pollution Research in New Zealand, 1968–1975

In the late 1960s, New Zealand and the United States collaborated to establish a southern hemispheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) monitoring station on New Zealand’s coastal cliffs. The New Zealand CO 2 Project, as it came to be known, is an underappreciated landmark in the history of environmental monitoring. The archival record of its early years reveals the extent to which efforts to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations interacted closely with one of the most hotly debated political issues of the mid-twentieth century: urban air pollution. The designation of CO 2 as air pollution on a planetary scale had profound legal implications in an era in which clean air legislation increasingly brought air pollution within the scope of governmental regulation, and administrative agencies began to jostle for control of the monitoring enterprise. The precise nature of CO 2 as an air pollutant, however, was difficult to pin down. In these initial years of concerted carbon dioxide monitoring, when the lines between climate science and air pollution research were still blurred, CO 2 developed its many pollutant identities. The nature of these identities – and the ways in which scientists and science administrators negotiated their boundaries – retain their relevance today, as nations continue to link air pollution and climate legislation in the twenty-first century.

A Gender-Based Comparison of Science Teachers’ Knowledge about Instructional Strategies

This research study delves into the realm of science education, specifically focusing on the knowledge and utilization of instructional strategies by science teachers. The primary objective is to investigate whether there are discernible gender-based differences in science teachers' awareness, understanding, and implementation of various instructional strategies, encompassing lecture-based methods, demonstration techniques, problem-solving approaches, questioning and inquiry-based strategies, as well as cooperative learning strategies within the classroom. The study employs a quantitative methodology, utilizing multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQs) to gather data from a diverse sample of 826 secondary school science teachers and analyze the gender-based level of secondary school science teachers’ knowledge about instructional strategies using Microsoft Excel and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS-24). This study uncovers that gender-based differences exist not only in the level of awareness and understanding of instructional strategies but also in their practical implementation. The outcomes of this study hold significance for both educational theory and practice. By identifying gender-related trends in science teachers' instructional strategy awareness and application, science teachers, administrators, and policymakers can gain insights into areas that might necessitate targeted professional development or intervention.

The Many Pollutant Identities of Carbon Dioxide: Global Climate Monitoring and Air Pollution Research in New Zealand, 1968–1975

In the late 1960s, New Zealand and the United States collaborated to establish a southern hemispheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) monitoring station on New Zealand’s coastal cliffs. The New Zealand CO 2 Project, as it came to be known, is an underappreciated landmark in the history of environmental monitoring. The archival record of its early years reveals the extent to which efforts to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations interacted closely with one of the most hotly debated political issues of the mid-twentieth century: urban air pollution. The designation of CO 2 as air pollution on a planetary scale had profound legal implications in an era in which clean air legislation increasingly brought air pollution within the scope of governmental regulation, and administrative agencies began to jostle for control of the monitoring enterprise. The precise nature of CO 2 as an air pollutant, however, was difficult to pin down. In these initial years of concerted carbon dioxide monitoring, when the lines between climate science and air pollution research were still blurred, CO 2 developed its many pollutant identities. The nature of these identities – and the ways in which scientists and science administrators negotiated their boundaries – retain their relevance today, as nations continue to link air pollution and climate legislation in the twenty-first century.

Researchers on ice? How the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Antarctic researchers

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-related measures have impacted the lives and work-related activities of Antarctic researchers. To explore these impacts, we designed, piloted and disseminated an online survey in English, Russian, Spanish and Chinese in late 2020 and early 2021. The survey explored how the pandemic affected the productivity of Antarctic researchers, their career prospects and their mental wellbeing. Findings exposed patterns of inequities. For instance, of the 406 unique responses to the survey, women appeared to have been affected more adversely than men, especially in relation to mental health, and early-career researchers were disadvantaged more than their mid- or late-career colleagues. Overall, a third of the research participants reported at least one major negative impact from the pandemic on their mental health. Approximately half of the participants also mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic had some positive effects, especially in terms of the advantages that working from home brought and opportunities to attend events, network or benefit from training workshops online. We conclude with a series of recommendations for science administrators and policymakers to mitigate the most serious adverse impacts of the pandemic on Antarctic research communities, with implications for other contexts where scientific activities are conducted under extreme circumstances.

A Snapshot of Science Education During Covid-19 in the Spring of 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed many unique challenges on our education system. Unpacking the many issues that educators faced will allow researchers to understand some of the impacts that resulted from this unique phenomenon. This exploratory qualitative research study sought to understand how science educators and administrators made sense of science instruction during the spring of 2021. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and online observations with ten K-12 science teachers and four administrators across two different counties within Virginia. Thematic coding was employed to analyze the findings, and results were validated through member checking with participants. Participants shared that the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to be extremely resilient and flexible to cope with the changing landscape. For science instruction issues of scientific engagement, inquiry instruction, and equity were present for science educators.

Supporting students’ career development: A call to action

AbstractDrawing from examples of career development initiatives implemented by SAGE 2YC Faculty Change Agents, this chapter illustrates the role of career development in supporting the success of all community college students and guides faculty, administrators, and professional societies on how to advance student career development on a variety of scales. Career development as an integral component of community college science courses has major implications for increasing the diversity of science professionals, conveying the importance of science and scientific literacy in career sectors within and outside of the sciences, reducing equity gaps in students’ career development as undergraduates, and facilitating skill‐building necessary for the workforce. We urge community college science faculty and administrators to consider the powerful impact that career skill‐building and career exploration have on students and encourage the adoption of career development activities at the classroom, program, and institutional levels.

The New “Normal”: Online Tools for In‐Person Learning in the Molecular Life Sciences

In the spring of 2020, the world experienced one of the worst pandemics in a century, forcing educators to almost immediately shift from on campus to online instruction. Given that most universities were largely built for teaching in person, the transition to distance learning required a rapid expansion of internet infrastructure and the mid‐semester implementation of online instructional tools. After the initial shock, confusion, and adjustment experienced in the spring of 2020, the continuation of the pandemic led many institutions to maintain a predominantly online or hybrid instruction model for the 2021 academic year. Although not as rushed as the previous semester, many faculty members were still trying to navigate the online landscape and adjust their curriculum to meet course objectives as defined during pre‐pandemic times. With universities inviting students back into the classroom and departments shifting more activities back to campus in the current academic year, we wanted to see what, if any, processes or activities implemented because of the pandemic would be retained or expanded post‐pandemic, specifically looking from the perspective of biochemists, molecular biologists, and science administrators. This feedback included information about alterations to in‐person instruction, communication with students outside of the classroom or laboratory, student assessment, additional educational opportunities that were not easily accessible previously, and enhanced research collaborations. Our conclusion is that, while few faculty members were interested in maintaining a primarily online format in future semesters, some distance learning tools were transferable to in‐person instruction and, in fact, enhanced the in‐person experience.

Science Tutors’ Use of ICT in Planning: The 21st Perspective

The purpose of the study was to find out how Science Tutors use ICT in planning Science Education lessons in Primary Teachers’ Colleges (PTCs) in Uganda. A mixed methods approach was adopted where survey and case study designs were used. The data was collected using survey, interviews, documentary analysis and observation. The respondents used for data collection were administrators, student teachers and science tutors. The objectives that guided the study were finding out ICT tools used by science tutors and investigating how science tutors use ICT Tools in planning Science Education Lessons. It was discovered that ICT tools in PTCs were inadequate, science tutors mainly used smart phones and calculators, and developed text-based materials and had some ICT skills. In conclusion, colleges are less equipped with ICT tools and tutors need to be empowered with current ICT skills for planning science lessons. It was recommended that government organizes ICT refresher courses for science tutors, Colleges be equipped with ICT tools and administrators to provide broad band internet connection. This article is intended to help science teacher educators, administrators and science tutors in reflecting on their roles in promoting the teaching of science education using ICT.

Soil Erosion Assessment of Alpine Grassland in the Source Park of the Yellow River on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China

The source park of the Yellow River (SPYR), as a vital ecological shelter on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, is suffering different degrees of degradation and desertification, resulting in soil erosion in recent decades. Therefore, studying the mechanism, influencing factors and current situation of soil erosion in the alpine grassland ecosystems of the SPYR are significant for protecting the ecological and productive functions. Based on the 137Cs element tracing technique and machine learning algorithms, five strategic variable selection algorithms based on machine learning algorithms are used to identify the minimal optimal set and analyze the main factors that influence soil erosion in the SPYR. The optimal model for estimating soil erosion in the SPYR is obtained by comparisons model outputs between the RUSLE and machine learning algorithms combined with variable selection models. We identify the spatial distribution pattern of soil erosion in the study area by the optimal model. The results indicated that: (1) A comprehensive set of variables is more objective than the RUSLE model. In terms of verification accuracy, the simulated annealing -Cubist model (R = 0.67, RMSD = 1,368 t km–2⋅a–1) simulation results represents the best while the RUSLE model (R = 0.49, RMSD = 1,769 t⋅km–2⋅a–1) goes on the worst. (2) The soil erosion is more severe in the north than the southeast of the SPYR. The average erosion modulus is 6,460.95 t⋅km–2⋅a–1 and roughly 99% of the survey region has an intensive erosion modulus (5,000–8,000 t⋅km–2⋅a–1). (3) Total erosion loss is relatively 8.45⋅108 t⋅a–1 in the SPYR, which is commonly 12.64 times greater than the allowable soil erosion loss. The economic monetization of SOC loss caused by soil erosion in the entire research area was almost $47.90 billion in 2014. These results will help provide scientific evidences not only for farmers and herdsmen but also for environmental science managers and administrators. In addition, a new ecological policy recommendation was proposed to balance grassland protection and animal husbandry economic production based on the value of soil erosion reclassification.

Developing an assessment index for collection-user suitability: Application of information entropy in library science

What is lacking from the literature and practice of library print collection assessment is a mathematical function that can integrate variables and quantify the overall measurement of the collection as a final score for the library science practitioners and administrators. The study uses the information entropy to explain a mathematical procedure on how to define variables from the regular circulation statistics. Based on the assessment concepts of circulation statistics and user behavior, the study explores to develop mathematical functions and proposes a Collection-User Suitability index to quantify the suitability measurement of the overall collection and the user intention. The study then considers the extreme conditions to validate the functions and verifies the application of the function via empirical and simulated data. Finally, the authors developed a computing tool and uploaded it to GitHub for free access based on the study's results. It is hoped that library science practitioners and administrators can utilize the mathematical function.

The Economics of Crisis Innovation Policy: A Historical Perspective

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers, researchers, and journalists have made comparisons to World War II. In 1940, a group of top US science administrators organized a major coordinated research effort to support the Allied war effort, including significant investments in medical research that yielded innovations like mass-produced penicillin, antimalarials, and a flu vaccine. We draw on this episode to discuss the economics of crisis innovation. Since the objectives of crisis R&D are different than ordinary R&D, we argue that appropriate R&D policy in a crisis requires going beyond the standard Nelson-Arrow framework for research policy.

The Economics of Crisis Innovation Policy: A Historical Perspective

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers, researchers, and journalists have made comparisons to World War II. In 1940, a group of top U.S. science administrators organized a major coordinated research effort to support the Allied war effort, including significant investments in medical research which yielded innovations like mass-produced penicillin, antimalarials, and a flu vaccine. We draw on this episode to discuss the economics of crisis innovation. Since the objectives of crisis R&D are different than ordinary R&D (prioritizing speed, coordination, redundancy, and more), we argue that appropriate R&D policy in a crisis requires going beyond the standard Nelson-Arrow framework for research policy.

The Evolution of Evolutionary Medicine

For several decades interdisciplinary research has been pushed by funding agencies, science administrators and generations of well-intentioned scientists. Interdisciplinary research is needed, so the argument goes, because the problems we face in medicine, environmental sciences, sociology or anthropology - the list can go on - are too complex to be mapped onto one traditional discipline. While the motivation for interdisciplinary research is clear, its actual success is less obvious. For one, we don’t quite know how to measure interdisciplinarity. While there have been many attempts at measuring interdisciplinarity, they typically refer to simple collaborations between field $A$ and field $B$ without taking into account the knowledge exchange at the heart of interdisciplinarity. Multiple studies find the need to distinguish interdisciplinary from multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary; where interdisciplinary combines disciplines in an integrative approach, multidisciplinary simply uses two separate approaches from different disciplines, and transdisciplinary occurs when disciplines are integrated but the product transcends disciplines and becomes more than the sum of its parts. Here, we exposed the heterogeneity of interdisciplinarity through computation.

COVID-19, Incarceration, and the Criminal Legal System

Even before the pandemic, contact with the criminal legal system resulted in health harms on both individual and community levels, with disproportionate impact on people of color. The COVID-19 crisis magnified the deleterious public health impact of policing, prisons, community supervision, and other elements of the United States’ vast system of control and punishment. Despite the scientific consensus that prisons and jails needed to be rapidly depopulated to avert disaster, the number of people released has remained small, resulting in explosive outbreaks of COVID-19 behind bars. Depopulation of correctional settings is also rarely paired with meaningful efforts to connect reentering individuals to vital supports. Community supervision systems failed to relax onerous probation/parole requirements, while police have taken on enforcement of physical distancing and other public health orders. Even as COVID-19 is raging, the criminal legal system is resisting changes necessary to facilitate pandemic response. With a focus on incarceration, this Chapter provides an overview of how the U.S. criminal legal system has shaped its COVID-19 response, situating prescriptions in the current debate about divestment from structures of social control in favor of a renewed focus on the social contract. This Chapter will discuss (1) how the criminal legal system has exacerbated the current public health emergency and (2) how the United States can use this moment to reform this system and its legal underpinning.This paper was prepared as part of Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19, a comprehensive report published by Public Health Law Watch in partnership with the de Beaumont Foundation and the American Public Health Association.

The scientist and the advertisement: Reklamegutachten in imperial Germany.

In late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Germany, the integration of product-evaluating certificates and reports (Gutachten) into advertisements triggered repeated condemnations of "advertisement-Gutachten" (Reklamegutachten), and scientists and science administrators introduced various restrictions to prevent the appearance of such documents. At the same time, the provision of Gutachten to private individuals and firms seemed crucial to the success of many private and public laboratories. Some chemical and other professionals, moreover, argued that the authoring and use of Reklamegutachten could represent a "scientific" and, therefore, ethical practice. By examining the contested history of the advertisement-Gutachten, this article reveals how a previously tolerated knowledge service lost its legitimacy in a particular place and period of time, and highlights the challenges of eliminating this practice or restoring its legitimacy afterward. The article also explores how professional scientists' approaches to maintaining a reputation for integrity in the face of commercial and competitive pressures related to the better-known efforts of professionals in other fields, particularly the medical. I emphasize that, in determining whether a Gutachten qualified as scientific, the nature and transparency of the underlying research process was only one of the criteria that were considered, and often not the most significant yardstick. At the same time, however, ideas about the personal and professional/institutional integrity of providers of Gutachten were inextricably connected with assessments of the honesty and objectivity of their research.

Adhering to the “Flashing Yellow Light”

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, despite growing political, scientific, and popular concern about the prospect of melting glaciers, sea-level rise, and more generally, climate-induced societal instability, American high-level science advisers and administrators, scientific committees, national and international scientific organizations, and officials within the Carter administration engineered a politics of restrained management of climate risk. Adopting a strategy of restraint appeared optimal not because of a pervasive disinterest in or ignorance of the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change. Rather, this administrative decision was rooted in widespread skepticism of the public’s ability to regulate their panic given popular dissemination of alarming scenarios of the future. Their concerns were not epistemic; they were sociopolitical. Broad-based appeals to moderation directly informed both scientists and the administration’s eventual decision in 1980 to minimize executive involvement. Despite some environmentalists’ and scientists’ calls for a more proactive position aligned with their ethical perspectives about the future implications of climate change, these linguistic cues of moderation became powerful heuristics that helped shape and anchor assessments of climate risk, calibrate scientists’ advice to policy makers, and regulate public apprehension about climate risk. Ultimately, officials within and outside the science community concluded that the likely short-term costs incurred from immediate action to curb fossil fuel emissions were greater than the social and political costs incurred from maintaining what was considered to be a tempered approach to climate governance in the near-term.

Situating science in Africa: The dynamics of computing research in Nairobi and Kampala.

Since the turn of the century, both Kampala and Nairobi have experienced a dramatic growth of computer science research, challenging accepted views of science in Africa. We deploy qualitative methods to follow active computer science researchers, graduate students, policy makers, administrators and entrepreneurs, in order to understand how computer science is enacted in these two cities. Our analysis focuses on four interrelated areas of labor, institutions, identities and scale. We illustrate the dynamics and frictions of computer science research across these areas, revealing the interlacing of moral economies of science and the political economy of higher education, the management of precarious professional lives and desire to get research done, and the pluralistic imaginations and multiple scales of computer science. Urban centers in East Africa are increasingly active in supporting granular and connective research communities that are socially transformative in ways that challenge conventional views of Africa as technologically dry. In this way, the computer science communities of Nairobi and Kampala are instructive for thinking about new geographies of science and technology studies.

Between mice and sheep: Biotechnology, agricultural science and animal models in late-twentieth century Edinburgh

In this paper, we investigate the ways in which a group of scientists in Edinburgh worked across mice and sheep during the last quarter of the twentieth century. With this local episode, we show the utility of an interspecies perspective to investigate recent historical transformations in the life sciences. We argue that the emergence of animal biotechnology was the result of interactions between neoliberal policymakers, science administrators, molecular biologists, agricultural breeders, and the laboratory and farm organisms with which they worked. During the early 1980s, all these actors believed that the exportation of genetic engineering techniques from mice to farm animals would lead to more effective breeding programmes in the agricultural sciences. However, the circulation of people, money, expertise and infrastructures that the experiments required, as well as the practical constraints of working with mice and sheep, resisted a simple scaling-up from one organism to the other. This displaced the goals of the Edinburgh scientists from the production of transgenic sheep to stem cell research and human regenerative medicine. We account for this unexpected shift by looking at the interplay between science policy and its implementation via collective action and bench work across different organisms. The emergence of animal biotechnology in Edinburgh also provides historiographical insights on the birth of Dolly the sheep and, more generally, on the interactions between the molecular and the reproductive sciences at the fall of the twentieth century.