Science-based Activities Research Articles

Assessing Scientific Literacy of College Students with TOSLS (Test of Scientific Literacy Skills)

This study aims to identify the scientific literacy skills of students at Malang State University based on gender, year of study, and study program. The research method uses quantitative description. The sampling technique uses purposive random sampling. The population of the study is S1 students at Universitas Negeri Malang who are pursuing education programs. The sample consists of 208 students, divided into 62 males and 146 females. The data collected includes the results of scientific literacy tests using the TOSLS (Test of Scientific Literacy Skills) instrument and demographic data from the respondents obtained through questionnaires. The test instrument is divided into nine indicators of scientific literacy, including the ability to identify scientific concepts, evaluate the validity of sources, and interpret graphs. Data analysis was conducted using the KR20 reliability test, Shapiro-Wilk normality test, and non-parametric analysis such as Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis. The results of the study showed that the average level of success in questions was 73.37%, based on gender, with details of male respondents with a score of 74.38% and female respondents with a score of 72.36%. The level of scientific literacy of students based on the year of study in working on questions decreased from the first year to the third year (first year = 37%; second year = 46%; third year = 17%). There was a difference in the level of success in completing questions statistically based on the study program, which showed significance (H = 47.93; p <0.05). Geography education students' scores in solving test questions were second worst compared to students studying Biology, Physics, and Chemistry, so they had to do more science-based activities in each lecture activity.

Trends in trust of professional groups in Portugal during COVID-19.

We repeated a Portuguese study, 5 months after a first evaluation, to observe any change in the average levels of trust of professional groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. From our sample of the Portuguese population, 1455 completed the questionnaire from June through September 2020, and 1156 during 2 months, February and March 2021. We found a trend toward higher trust of medical doctors, nurses, and researchers. Analysis of changes between the two pandemic periods (first and second lockdown) showed a statistically significant increase in trust in nurses (t = - 2.01; p = 0.04) and researchers (t = - 2.40; p = 0.02), and the opposite trend for journalists and politicians. This study shows a trend in increasing trust of the Portuguese people toward science-based activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Effect on Confidence Levels of Portuguese Towards People of Different Professions.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is emerging in a world where science is highly developed. Nevertheless, science is not the only resource that people resort to when they have difficulties. In this pandemic context, some professions became more relevant, including front-line professionals, such as medical doctors and nurses, and those who may have an indirect role. The aim of this study is to understand whether there is a strengthening of people’s confidence, in politicians, journalists, science-based activities, and in more mystical dimensions.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out to understand the levels of confidence of the Portuguese population in several professional groups, measured in two pandemic moments. Participants were recruited to participate in the study through online platforms. The sample was randomly collected from the Portuguese population. The sample was composed of 1455 Portuguese people with a mean age of 44 years, and 1080 were female.ResultsWe found high levels of confidence in medical doctors and nurses, as well as in other health professions, science, and education. We detected the opposite trend for politicians and journalists. Measured in two pandemic moments, we found confidence levels in these professionals were lower in September than in July with statistical significance differences [(politicians (t = 3.15, p = 0.00); journalists (t = 2.49, p = 0.01)].ConclusionIt is important to improve a joint action between politicians, journalists, health and science professionals to communicate measures to increase confidence from people. There is a need for the engagement of the population in the adoption of protective measures and contribute to easier control in pandemic situations.

Public Happiness through Manufacturing and Innovation

This article uncovers the theory of industrialization of the eighteenth-century German Cameralist Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi, who was the most important figure in German Cameralism. This topic is highly underexamined. This article finds that Justi proposed four reasons for industrialization in order to promote economic development: (1) manufacturing had a highly differentiated division of labor; (2) manufacturing was an innovation- intensive activity; (3) manufacturing was a science-based activity; and (4) manufacturing cultivated people’s psychological qualities which were required to realize economic development. Based on these findings, this thesis argues that Justi’s theories of industrialization and innovation contemplated a model of economic development similar to what is known today as “Schumpeterian growth.” This article aims to deepen our understanding of the significance of manufacturing and innovation in the early modern mercantilist and Cameralist economic theories.

Investigating Science Together: Inquiry-Based Training Promotes Scientific Conversations in Parent-Child Interactions.

This study examined the effects of two pedagogical training approaches on parent-child dyads’ discussion of scientific content in an informal museum setting. Forty-seven children (mean age = 5.43) and their parents were randomly assigned to training conditions where an experimenter modeled one of two different pedagogical approaches when interacting with the child and a science-based activity: (1) a scientific inquiry-based process or (2) a scientific statement-sharing method. Both approaches provided the same information about scientific mechanisms but differed in the process through which that content was delivered. Immediately following the training, parents were invited to model the same approach with their child with a novel science-based activity. Results indicated significant differences in the process through which parents prompted discussion of the targeted information content: when talking about causal scientific concepts, parents in the scientific inquiry condition were significantly more likely to pose questions to their child than parents in the scientific statements condition. Moreover, children in the scientific inquiry condition were marginally more responsive to parental causal talk and provided significantly more scientific content in response. These findings provide initial evidence that training parents to guide their children using scientific inquiry-based approaches in informal learning settings can encourage children to participate in more joint scientific conversations.

PERANCANGAN E-LEARNING MENGGUNAKAN PHP MYSQL PADA SMP MUHAMMADIYAH CIMANGGU

We all realize and feel that today the world is moving fast towards the formation of a science-based society, science-based business activities and the realization of a new culture based on science and technology, especially information and communication technology or also known as information and communication technology whose main form is the internet. One form of using internet technology to support the learning process is E-Learning. With this E-Learning, educators or tutors can put learning materials, give assignments, collect assignments, and quizzes for evaluation.
 In the process of this research, the author uses a methodology that is commonly used by other research, the methodologies used include the method of literature study, observation, interviews with teachers, and literature studies. The purpose of this paper is to create a web-based learning media (e-Learning) that can be used by teachers as a learning tool with various sources for providing learning materials.
 The results achieved are the authors try to design a web-based learning media or better known as E-Learning. It is hoped that later the school can implement this E-Learning so that it can improve the performance of teachers as teachers and increase the absorption of students in mastering the material. The conclusion of this paper is that with E-Learning teachers and students are given convenience in the teaching and learning process and increase creativity for teachers and students.

Produksi kompos dari aneka limbah jagung

PPUPIK Business Unit Muhammadiyah University Certified Plant Seed Production Center Makassar is a science and technology-based business unit that aims to develop campus entrepreneurship based on research results. The main product of this business unit is hybrid corn seeds, but in the process of producing corn seeds in addition to producing economically valuable corn seeds also produce corn waste which can cause problems if not handled. PPUPIK developed various waste corn compost products for the development of new business units. The production activities of various corn waste into compost products aim to make corn waste as a product of economic value and also as a place of practice for students in the application of science and technology and science-based entrepreneurial activities. The method of implementing the activity is divided into 5 stages, namely: 1) Production of various waste corn compost; 2) Analysis of nutrient content of compost; 3) Product label design; 4) Compost packaging; 5) Promotion and marketing of products. This activity involved students of the Faculty of Agriculture, the University of Muhammadiyah Makassar in the production, label design and promotion and marketing of products. The results obtained from this activity include; 1) students have experience in compost production, label design and product promotion and marketing; 2) the formation of a new business unit in PPUPIK activities; 3) produce economic value products from waste; 4) potential to get IPR.

LEARNING ECOLOGICAL CONCEPTS BEFORE-AFTER TRACKING IN ENVIRONMENTAL TRAIL

Environmental-science education has aimed to educate about environmental aspects with theoretical and practical science-based activities involving both trails and laboratoryactivities. Here we assessed the effectiveness of using environmental trail in an Atlantic Forest fragment to improve ecological and biological concepts learning. The hypotheses tested were that there is biological and ecological concepts acquisition following the visit to the trail and that the activity increases the comprehension about the multiple functions of species and ecosystem processes. Eight groups of undergraduates and teachers from public schools (N = 161 people) participated of a three-step activity by: i) answering a questionnaire (pre-test); ii) discussing ecological subjects and observe scientific experiments while walking by trail; and iii) answering the questionnaire after the visit (post-test). Results showed significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test for all groups (p = 0.000), indicating that the use of trails increased the understanding of ecological and biological concepts. Furthermore, scores in multiple choices questions were always higher in the post-test showing that participants understood the multiple functions of ecosystem’s elements, enhancing their view and comprehension of ecosystem as a whole. The use of ecological restoration experiments seemed to be a new valuable approach to achieve these outcomes.

Towards linking environmental law and science

Gaps between environmental science and environmental law may undermine sound environmental decision-making. We link perspectives and insights from science and law to highlight opportunities and challenges at the environmental science–law interface. The objectives of this paper are to assist scientists who wish to conduct and communicate science that informs environmental statutes, regulations, and associated operational policies (OPs), and to ensure the environmental lawyers (and others) working to ensure that these statutes, regulations, and OPs are appropriately informed by scientific evidence. We provide a conceptual model of how different kinds of science-based activities can feed into legislative and policy cycles, ranging from actionable science that can inform decision-making windows to retrospective analyses that can inform future regulations. We identify a series of major gaps and barriers that challenge the successful linking of environmental science and law. These include (1) the different time frames for science and law, (2) the different standards of proof for scientific and legal (un)certainty, (3) the need for effective scientific communication, (4) the multijurisdictional (federal, provincial, and Indigenous) nature of environmental law, and (5) the different ethical obligations of law and science. Addressing these challenges calls for bidirectional learning among scientists and lawyers and more intentional collaborations at the law–science interface.

The human resource dimension of science-based technology transfer: lessons from Russian RTOs and innovative enterprises

This study addresses ‘science-based’ technology transfer by research and technology organizations (RTO) whose mission is to combine intramural R&D and technology extension for industrial application. The paper is based on a unique database of Russian RTOs relating their science-based activity to technology transfer performance, on the one hand, and the contribution of R&D personnel sourced from universities to R&D output, on the other. The outcomes suggest a positive relationship between RTO scientific publication and technology transfer activity. Moreover, science-based outputs are contributed mostly by researchers coming to RTOs from academia. Such results are important to countries like Russia with many RTOs that play an important intermediary role between science and technological innovation. The study offers more fine-grained results regarding the differential impact of various types of academic personnel inflows in public versus private RTOs.

DEVELOPING CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS THROUGH LOVE, UNDERSTANDING AND RATIONALITY

Children with Special Needs refers to a specific group of children and youngsters who require additional assistance due to their physical, mental and/or intellectual disabilities and limited physical development. And Special Educational Need: SEN is one of their usual requirements. Additional assistance is to be given to those with impaired visibility, impaired audibility, Short Attention Disorder and multiple disabilities. Special Needs refers to additional support and assistance specifically given to this group of youth by surrounding people such as their family members, their teachers and classmates at school. So they can perform their daily tasks and pursue their studies like everyone else. To state an example, Ramkamhaeng University students with impaired audibility have shown improvement in their studies after participating in science-based activities: creating scientific picture frames. Engaged in social activities, they have more social interaction and communication with their classmates and teachers. They have become more supportive for one another. And due of the moral and academic support they mutually get, they perform better in class. Some even got an academic honour. Offering additional assistance to these youngsters is important and the family and society shall be fully aware. For the parents, choosing a right school for them is one of the priorities. The school should provide proper education and care with the suitable teaching and learning approaches in order to encourage their development and progress. Teachers also play an important role in assisting and resolving problems. They should understand each individual’s nature so that they can adjust their teaching methods and techniques to motivate the student to learn. Teachers should also be sensitive and attentive to students’ requirements and limitations. Students should be encouraged to do what they are good at so they can be proud and think positively about themselves. This will encourage them to live happily in the society, not feeling they are a burden to other people. Key Words: Children with Special Needs, Developing Children with Special Needs

Comment on “Determinants of International Research Collaboration: Evidence from International Co‐Inventions in Asia and Major OECD Countries”

Tsukada and Nagaoka (2015) highlights the role of cultural distance in shaping the pattern of innovative activity in Northeast Asia. The paper demonstrates the intuitively plausible notion that lack of facility in English hinders international research collaboration, a fact of life that creates challenges for populations whose languages are, linguistically speaking, far from English. Such challenges are particularly acute for native Japanese, Korean, and Chinese speakers, but also present difficulties for native speakers of other languages such as Arabic that are quite distinct from English. Beyond the language issue, however, there are marginal differences in the patterns of cooperation and ownership across the reporting countries with one exception – China – which really stands out. It is the only country where domestic sole ownership is not the dominant mode of patenting. The China difference strikes me as worth exploring. Is it due to China simply being at a much lower level of income than the others? That is to say, if one added other middle- or low-income countries into the sample, would one obtain similar results, or do the Chinese results reflect something distinctive about China per se? If the answer is the latter, then what makes China different? Where the paper might go further is in the exploitation of sectoral results. Specifically, Arora et al. (2013) demonstrate that software patents have become an increasingly prominent component of patenting overall and that this sector is associated with some distinctive patterns. The rise of software has had a significant impact on Japanese patenting behavior and its pattern of international collaboration. As Tsukada and Nagaoka (2015) observe on page 15, the estimated regression coefficients for Japan, while having the same sign pattern as those obtained for the USA and Korea, are only about one-tenth the magnitude, “which may imply significant opportunity less from realizing the gains from international co-inventions in Japan.” Japan lags in international cooperation and exhibits relative weakness in the rapidly growing software sector. Specifically, Japan absorbs far fewer immigrant information technology (IT) workers than does the USA; by 2001, labor inflow into the software sector from homegrown and immigrant sources was three times as large in the USA as Japan, driven in significant part by the US importation of software professionals via its H-1B visa program. In addition to its greater importation of talent, American firms were more active than their Japanese counterparts in offshoring software activities as well. So the USA appears to engage in international cooperation in this crucial sector far more intensively than does Japan on both as a sender and as a receiver. An open issue is whether this pattern reflects a failure of Japanese management. One hypothesis is that Japanese managers are simply blind to what is happening around them. Another is that they understand their predicament, but are constrained by the attenuated supply of software professionals at home. If the latter is the case, then it is possible that Japanese firms will exhibit compensatory behavior in their international collaboration activities undertaken abroad. Arora et al. (2013) show that in fact, software patents account for only 6% of overall Japanese patents, but 24% of Japanese patents issued in the USA, which is higher than the 17% share prevailing among American firms. This is to say that Japanese managers seem to understand their problem and use international collaboration to compensate. The deeper policy issue confronting Japan is how do deal with the underlying weakness. Should Japan redouble its efforts to teach English in its educational system? Should Japan relax its immigration laws? Should it adopt changes in its pension and promotion systems to make it easier for Japanese scientists and engineers to change jobs? These questions are particularly important as Japan (and Korea for that matter) move into more long-cycle and science-based activities.

Understanding the Wonders of Science through Creative Play

The need to make science appealing to students is one of several challenges that surface continually for science teachers in Malaysia due to the significant decline of interest in science. An interest in the scientific world can be developed at a young age and a connection has been found between positive experiences gained through playful and creative science-based activities and the development of interest in science. This study explores the idea of nurturing interest in science through the creative integration of performance art and multimedia for Malaysian students at the primary school level. The objective of this paper is to examine how creating animations for a presentation could influence the science learning of primary students. Through a collaborative creative project, students are encouraged to create stories on their own based on their exploration and understanding of science concepts. These stories are created through an active learning process of script writing, storyboarding, creating clay models, and taking digital images to finally produce an animation, which was then used as part of a play performed in front of their peers and teachers. Findings in this study suggest that the ‘ArtsMedia’ science project has enabled students to explore science concepts creatively through play which actually drives and sustain their interest to understand the science concept being studied. Therefore, the integration of performing arts and multimedia as a creative way of learning science has the potential to empower students to develop their own understanding of science concepts.

Forging School–Scientist Partnerships: A Case of Easier Said than Done?

Since the early 1980s, a number of initiatives have been undertaken worldwide which have involved scientists and teachers working together in projects designed to support the science learning of students. Many of these have attempted to establish school–scientist partnerships. In these, scientists, teachers, and students formed teams engaged in mutually beneficial science-based activities founded on principles such as equal recognition and input, and shared vision, responsibility and risk. This article uses two partnership programmes run by a New Zealand Science Research Institute, to illustrate the challenges faced by scientists and teachers as they attempted to forge meaningful and effective partnerships. It argues that achieving the theorised position of a shared partnership space at the intersection of the worlds of scientists and teachers is problematic, and that scientists must instead be prepared to penetrate deeply into the world of the classroom when undertaking any such interactions. Findings indicate epistemological differences, curriculum and school systems and issues, and teacher efficacy and science knowledge significantly affect the process of partnership formation. Furthermore, it is argued that a re-thinking of partnerships is needed to reflect present economic and education environments, which are very different to those in which they were originally conceived nearly 30 years ago. It suggests that technology has an important role to play in future partnership interactions.

Indigenous community based participatory research and health impact assessment: A Canadian example

The Environmental Health Research Division (EHRD) of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, Health Canada conducts science-based activities and research with Canadian Indigenous communities in areas such as climate change adaptation, environmental contaminants, water quality, biomonitoring, risk assessment, health impact assessment, and food safety and nutrition. EHRD's research activities have been specifically designed to not only inform Health Canada's policy decision-makers but as well, Indigenous community decision-makers. This paper will discuss the reasons why Indigenous community engagement is important, what are some of the barriers preventing community engagement; and the efforts by EHRD to carry out community-based participatory research activities with Indigenous peoples.

Scientists Without Borders

A new database aims to foster partnerships among scientists in the developed and developing world and to coordinate science-based activities to help solve some of the big challenges that the developing world faces.

An Early Introduction to Earth System Science through Elementary GLOBE

Recognizing the current emphasis on basic literacy skills in elementary grades and the need to address the dearth of primary level (K-2) educational resources concerning Earth System Science (ESS), we developed Elementary GLOBE -- a suite of science-based storybooks and learning activities that build a foundation during primary grades that can serve as a step towards more advanced understanding of Earth as a system in subsequent grades. As a part of The GLOBE Program (www.globe.gov), these resources can engage the youngest GLOBE students at an age-appropriate level by providing science instruction with connections to literacy. Elementary GLOBE forms an instructional unit comprised of five modules that address ESS and interrelated subjects including weather, hydrology, phenology, and soils. Each module contains a science based storybook, classroom learning activities that complement the science content covered in each book, and teacher's notes. The storybooks explore a component of the Earth system and the associated learning activities further engage students in exploration of those science concepts. The Elementary GLOBE books and activities are disseminated via online free .pdf/downloadable files available on the GLOBE Web site. For more information go to www.globe.gov/elementaryglobe

The Questionable Effectiveness of Science Spending by International Conservation Organizations in the Tropics

The general context of conservation in the tropics--in the Amazon basin and elsewhere--is stagnant or declining funding and rapidly growing threat levels. For conservation programs this makes strategic deployment of limited conservation resources all the more important. International conservation organizations active in the tropics increasingly define themselves as science driven and expend considerable resources on science-based activities such as ecoregional analysis, field research, and monitoring of ecological variables. l argue that an overemphasis on science has generated a series of unintended but serious problems for conservation in the tropics. Spending on monitoring and ecoregional analysis has effectively starved protection and threat analysis of resources. A decoupling of biology from serious cost-benefit analysis has led to the privileging of small-scale and local analyses, rather than the systemic analyses essential for the strategic allocation of scarce conservation resources. Successful conservation in the tropics depends on the crossing of biogeography with sophisticated threat analysis to identify priority geographies for protection. This should be combined with much more systematic engagement with the principal drivers of tropical deforestation, especially agribusiness. Caution and a sense of proportion are required when balancing the financial demands of science and those of protection. I suggest that conservation organizations should cooperate far more in assembling and analyzing information on conservation spending and on threat levels and biogeography at the continental, national, and regional levels. Site selection should follow rather than precede this kind of strategic analysis, and sites should be considered elements of a network rather than stand-alone projects. More attention should be paid to market-driven conservation through techniques such as certification and responsible supply-chain management.

The Fizz-Keeper: A Useful Science Tool

Even though the Fizz-Keeper does not function as it is marketed (to keep soft drinks from going flat for extended periods of time), this toy is well suited for a great variety of science-based activities. Several abbreviated pressure-based activities are given.

Organizational designs for R&D

Executive OverviewResearch and development is becoming increasingly business-oriented, and corporate reliance on new technology and innovation is greater than ever. How can R&D activities be organized to yield the greatest value for the enterprise? A study of 14 leading technology-intensive companies in six industries illustrates how three organizational designs are being used to manage distributed, flexible R&D organizations: (1) decentralized, (2) networked, and (3) integrated. Decentralized designs limit the role of a central R&D group; they direct R&D resources more toward products and markets rather than basic scientific activities. Networked designs push the boundaries of R&D outside the confines of a central R&D group and the firm as a whole. Integrated models use sophisticated communication linkages to tie centralized, science-based activities with the business needs of the corporation. Within the three design approaches, there are design variants, each with its positive and negative tradeoffs. We show how some designs for R&D are more effective than others and provide suggestions for how companies in search of an ideal organization design for R&D can select among possible configurations to promote adaptive, value-oriented R&D organizations.