Young Science Research Articles

Using simulations to teach young students science concepts: An Experiential Learning theoretical analysis

Early research investigated young students' understandings of science concepts using physical equipment, but technological advances now mean there are new options to introduce these ideas, through devices such as iPads and simulations. However, research investigating the use of simulations in early years' science learning is limited. This study applied revisions of Kolb's Experiential Learning theoretical model to determine if age-indicated science simulations were effective for teaching 5 year olds simple circuit building procedures and electricity concepts, and the function of circuit components. It also explored whether their engagement with the simulations provided worthwhile opportunities to exercise higher order capabilities such as reflective thinking and abstraction – skills oftencited in literature as valuable outcomes from older student and adult use of simulations. Findings indicate students developed a solid base of procedural knowledge about constructing different circuits, and functional knowledge about circuit components they applied to different circuit designs. The emergence of tentative, generalised theories about current and the effects of different circuit designs on the performance of resistors - linked to the exercise of reflective and descriptive thinking, were also noted in many students. However, examples were found of some simulations appearing to foster common misconceptions, such as current being ‘consumed’ by resistors – indicating teachers need to be highly vigilant and work closely with students, to ensure accurate understandings are developed. Overall, with appropriate teacher support and careful selection and review, the study concludes simulations can be effective for introducing young students to simple physical science concepts, and for providing them with opportunities to engage in higher order thinking processes.

Improving the quality of Young-Scholar-Science-Foundation project application by means of the mentorship scheme-Practice and experience

Objective To improve the success rate of hospital Young Scholar Science Foundation project application, promote the rapid growth of young scientific talents; enhance the capacity of scientific research talents in hospitals Methods The status quo and existing problems of the application and funding of hospital youth science fund were analyzed; explore the construction of youth science fund mentor mechanism, measurements, such as setting up tutoring group, formulate tutoring plan, clarify mentoring details and follow-up implement supervision assessment were developed to strengthen the guidance of young scientific talents. Results Compared to last year, the number of acquisition of Young-Scholar-Science-Foundation projects has risen by 7, and the rate of acquisition in the 30 applications involved in the mentorship scheme reached up to 33.3%, and the difference between Mentorship-Scheme-Group and the other was statistically significant(P<0.05). Conclusions The implementation of the mentor system has significantly improved the quality of the application of the hospital's youth science fund. The next step is to continually improve the mentor system management and operation mechanism, strengthen the preliminary work support and project implementation guidance for young scientific talents, ensure the stable and well development of the application work of Young-Scholar-Science-Foundation projects. Key words: Mentorship scheme; Young scholar science foundation; Application quality; Practice; Experience

Viewpoint: Parasites and partnerships

This text grew from a series of talks between a young science journalist trained in history and Marcel Tanner, global health expert with forty years of field experience in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. At the very core of the series was the question of the successes and failures of global health initiatives at various points in time and in different locations. It also tackled the issue of which of the lessons learned in global health over the past thirty years could possibly be of importance for future scholars and decision-makers in the field. The topics touched upon ranged from new global partnerships to sustain the efforts to eradicate malaria and other diseases to new innovations in personalised health, not least for the world's most neglected populations. The views expressed here are based on scientific findings as well as personal experiences and hence are also inherently subjective. Having said this, we still hope that the rich body of evidence assembled over years of extensive field-work and research partnership is of some value to all those how still dare to embark on the adventure of global health research in a spirit of “mutual learning for change.”

Order and Chaos in Young Adult Science Fiction: A Critical Stylistic Analysis

With the challenges and revolutionary changes in the world, it is essential that the sources of social power direct the communities towards the right path that leads to a brighter future, especially when it comes to young adults. Young adults represent a critical social group that needs special attention. Therefore, the present paper tackles one of the fascinating literary genres to young adults; young adult science fiction. The paper attempts to investigate how the social themes of order and chaos are delivered to young adults in young adult science fiction through conducting a critical stylistic analysis of certain extracts in selected young adult science fiction novels. The linguistic tool employed for the critical stylistic analysis is negation for its prevalent use in the discourse, in general, and for its textual effectiveness in rendering hidden ideologies, whether intended or unconscious.

Issues of the Qualitative Research on Police Communication

Fundamentally, researching police communications exists on the boundary of two young sciences that have won independent recognition nearly simultaneously. Géza Finszter, the President of the Police Science subcommittee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, has given voice to his concern in recent years that the police is uncovering the dysfunctions of its organization by employing authoritarian communications and citing secrecy considerations, thereby inhibiting the transformation of the police into a high status occupation, cooperation with the citizenry, and the creation of mutual trust. In this article, I am going to review the history and opportunities, as well as the challenges of research in police communications; what dilemmas the communications researcher must face in the diversity of methodologies.

Blood Type Diets (BTD) and Aging: An Overview

It has recently been proposed that glycans, being the third alphabet of life, interact intricately with endogenous biomolecules to modulate tolerance, immune and inflammatory responses. Specifically, food glycans could impact health and be a source of inflammation and age-related diseases. These special carbohydrates are present as glycoconjugates (glycoproteins or glycolipids) in and on the surface of all the cells (glycocalyx) of all organisms or are found in free form in biological fluids. Recent advances in glycobiology and glycochemistry have shown how glycans bind with naturally present human proteins (lectins), through protein-carbohydrate interactions (or PCI), but also how oligosaccharides can interact with other glycans, present throughout the human body (through carbohydrate-carbohydrate interactions, or CCI). Oligosaccharides present in food sources, which go beyond the definition of normal fibers, once ingested are then either absorbed in the bloodstream, where they are recognized by the immune system, or interact with the surface of GI epithelial cells, thus generating appropriate biochemical cascades that induce a tolerance or immune/inflammatory response. Because the ABO epitopes have been encountered on all human cells, not just erythrocytes and based on the different biotypology (A, AB, B, and O) impose morphic changes in the distribution of the glycans on the glycocalyx (lipid rafts and clustered saccharide patches), their CCI with food and microbe glycans will be different, thus, eliciting contrasting responses. This can explain the epidemiological data for blood type diets (BTD). Through continuous consumption of the wrong types of glycans, processes of chronic inflammation could be initiated and progress to accelerated aging. Four basic modes of action have been identified showing how glycans can trigger inflamm-aging. Since glycobiology is a young science, further studies with newer technologies are warranted for advancement in this field.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ СОЗДАНИЯ КАРТОГРАФИЧЕСКОЙ ОСНОВЫ ГЕОМОРФОЛОГИЧЕСКОЙ КАРТЫ МОНГОЛИИ

It is an alternative science, as the geomorphology plays out in a complex geographic, topo-graphic setting in which both the tectonic and climate processes responsible for driving evolution of the topography change in style and intensity. Geomorphology is a relatively young science, growing along with interest in other aspects of the earth sciences in the mid-19th century. While geomorphological development continues to grow steadily today, there is a need to use some advanced theoretical and mapping techniques. This paper is issued to cover the creation of topographic maps with a scale of 1 : 50 000 of geodetic measurements by terrestrial a laser scanner and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for geomorphological map.

The social network of a science park: a study of heterogeneity.

The study analyses whether heterogeneity exists in the social network of a young Spanish science park. In this sense, we check the existence of business and innovation networks and analyse how the member firms are located within (central and peripheral positions). Furthermore, we analyse the differences in the network position depending on the type of firm, their access to resources for innovation and the sector. By means of social network analysis, we analyse those aspects related to heterogeneity within the social network of the science park. Results show that stand-alone companies tend to position themselves centrally, whereas corporate companies take peripheral positions. Differences in access to external resources for innovation between the central and peripheral subnetworks are observed in the innovation network, but not in the business network. Moreover, firms in the ICT industry tend to occupy central positions whereas firms in other sectors tend to occupy peripheral positions.

Urban Trees in Sync with Urban Climate – Phenology and Microclimate Monitoring using Geocommunication and Citizen Science

In this paper, we demonstrate environmental monitoring in a young citizen science project. The dynamics of urban tree phenology and microclimate regulation throughout the growing season is measured in a cross-city approach, along intra- and inter-urban gradients and for a set of the most common urban tree species. We equipped urban trees in five European cities with beacons that connect via Bluetooth to a tailor-made app. The app is used for phenological monitoring, to display microclimate measurements, and to broadcast information on the trees' microclimate-regulating ecosystem services. The approach and setting are scalable to other citizen-engagement and VGI projects. It fosters an understanding of how urban trees are in sync with urban climate, and deepens our understanding of systemic feedback, which is key for implementing urban tree management. Results show inter-species differences in the length of the growing season as measures of the delivery of regulatory ecosystem services and as responses to urban heat island intensity.

Концепт БОГ у творах про національно-визвольний рух першої половини ХХ ст.

The main concepts of theolinguistics, its history, actual state and prospects for the further development have been analyzed in this article. Religious linguistics is currently in the process of establishing: not only Ukrainian, but also foreign, as a consequence of the post-Soviet Renaissance. A little researchness of a such young linguistic science, as theolinguistics, the formation of its methodology and a number of terms, the use of the writers theories in fiction works and their functional load formulate the relevance of the chosen topic. The motives of using the theonim «God» in the fiction and memoir works about the national liberation movement of the first half of the twentieth century have also been determined with its quantitative functioning in the texts. The variability of using the theonim «God» have been described in the article, as well as its functional load in constant expressions, phrases, verbal constructions. Despite the fact that the analyzed 19 fiction and memoir novels are mostly military and social oriented, and yet the concept of «God» is present in all works perfectly. Since Ukraine, thanks to St. Vladimir, is a Christian state, and actually was Christian in 1917-1954, despite the prohibition of believing in God by the Soviet state, the texts mostly are the most part, are the deities of the Christian belief. «God» as a single-element proper name is mentioned approximately 228 times in the seven novels about the liberation movement of UPA. In addition, the anthroponimicon of the texts about the liberation period of 1917-1922 years (12 novels) counts 1930 units, where there are separately 135 references to the theonim «God». These numbers are not the final measure of the degree of the use of the theonim «God» in the analyzed novels, as we do not take into account its variants. To analyze the variability of the theonim «God» we point out the following subgroups: a) variants of the use of the theonim «God» in the texts of the novels: we have identified 10 variants of the use of the theonim «God» from 19 analyzed novels that writers point in the texts through the speech of the characters’ speech; b) reduced-caress names;c) gratitude to God and His praise; d) the use of the theonim to express a wish or a blessing; e) expression of hope in God's power; f) «God» as a way of expressing a cry in the sentence; g) the concept of «God» in theological texts, greetings, proverbs, which function in the texts of the analyzed novels.

Арт-педагогічні технології як засіб формування мовно-літературної компетентності учнів початкової школи

Nowadays there are changes in the modern national education system that represent the stage of formation of a new Ukrainian school, oriented on the active inclusion of our state in the world educational space. This process involves the definition of approaches to the education and upbringing of the young generation of our compatriots, which, in its turn, determines a different format of relations and types of behavior for both the specialist and the students (“a teacher and a student are partners”), as well as a new pedagogical mentality. That is why we believe that one of the topical issues at this stage is the introduction into the educational activity of the institution of general secondary education of artpedagogical teaching technologies, which is based on a fairly young science – artpedagogy – a peculiar integration of pedagogy, psychology, cultural studies and art. The article is devoted to the problem of introducing in the process of language and literary education of elementary school students the artpedagogical teaching technologies. The purpose of the article is to investigate the peculiarities of the organization of the process of forming the language and literary competence of the mentioned above contingent of children with the help of strategies of artpedagogical technologies. The author emphasizes the fact that today the concept of art pedagogy still has no certain definition, which causes the identity of completely different definitions, such as artpedagogy and art therapy. In the proposed publication, this term is interpreted as an innovative scientific trend that is yet to be developed and involves studying the nature, laws, principles, mechanisms of influence of art and artistic creativity on the formation of the individual in the context of education. The scientist notes that modern elementary school teachers are almost unaware of the palette of artpedagogical teaching technologies, as evidenced by the results of specialists’ questionnaires from the mentioned above field. The reason for this L. Chemonina sees in the absence of a sufficient number of methodological literature, which would disclose the peculiarities of the introduction of this innovation in the educational process. Concrete examples of the formation of junior pupils’ competences at the lessons of Ukrainian language and literary reading through proven artpedagogical technologies, namely: artistic and applied (drawings contests, 3d-installation, collage), game (sand therapy), photo and video strategies are given in the article. The article will be useful for students, teachers and other workers in the educational field. Key words: artpedagogics, artpedagogical technologies, language literary competence, collage, 3d-installation, sand therapy, photo storytelling.

Z Generation Youth and Interest in Science

Each year there is increasing the behavior of dependence on individuals in relation to the use of technologies, especially among the young people of Z Generation, born after the year 2000 and currently attending high school. Despite this, the relationship of science with these technologies seems not to be observed, since in several countries there is a decrease in the interest of young people for science. In view of this, aiming to investigate the interest of the young people of Z Generation by school science, this article wants to give the students of Canoas/RS a voice about this theme. The methodology adopted involved the application of a questionnaire called "Barometer: young people and science", belonging to the Project Sapiens that investigates nationwide the opinions, attitudes and interests of young people in relation to science and technology. The data presented here were collected in 19 schools, with the participation of 1.331 young people. The results show that they have more interest in other areas of science, such as health sciences, for example, than in relation to technological science. Being this low interest more evidenced in the girls than in the boys. This fact leads to the conclusion that young Z are effective in making use of technologies, however, do not reveal an interest in understanding it. In view of this, it is up to reflection on the need for educational actions that can make science teaching, especially that which involves the most interesting technologies, since the perception of students about science is certainly Influence on your academic and professional choices.

Forensic DNA phenotyping: the geneticist's guide to solving murder mysteries

The Science Communication Competition is now in its eighth year. As in previous years, it aims to find young talented science writers and give them the opportunity to have their work published in The Biochemist. In 2015, a new branch of the competition was launched to include video entries. Overall this year's competition attracted 47 entries and these were reviewed by our external panel of expert judges. The third prize in the written category was awarded to Corina Lagewaard from the University of Tasmania, whose article is presented here. The third prize in the video category went to Julia Schulz from the University of Kentucky. Julia's video, “The BloodBrain Barrier – Protecting the Body's Control Center”, can be viewed at bit.ly/scicomm32018.

A life without microbes: How “germ-free” research is revealing the necessity of bacteria for our brains

The Science Communication Competition is now in its eighth year. As in previous years, it aims to find young talented science writers and give them the opportunity to have their work published in The Biochemist. In 2015, a new branch of the competition was launched to include video entries. Overall this year's competition attracted 74 entries and these were reviewed by our external panel of expert judges. The second prize in the written category was awarded to Jenna Herbert from the University of Oxford, whose article is presented here; the second prize in the video category was Ellie Staniforth from the University of Glasgow. Ellie's video can be viewed at bit.ly/scicomm22018.

The future has roots in the past: the ideas and scientists that shaped mycorrhizal research.

Contents Summary 982 I. Introduction 982 II. The portraits of our ancestors: a gallery of ideas from more than100years of mycorrhizal research 983 III. Mycorrhizal fungi in the 'omics' era: first puzzle, how to name mycorrhizal fungi 985 IV. Signalling: a central question of our time? 987 V. The colonization process: how cellular studies predicted future 'omics' data 989 VI. The genetics underlying colonization events 991 VII. Concluding thoughts: chance and needs in mycorrhizal symbioses 992 Acknowledgements 992 References 992 SUMMARY: Our knowledge of mycorrhizas dates back to at least 150years ago, when the plant pathologists A.B. Frank and G. Gibelli described the surprisingly morphology of forest tree roots surrounded by a fungal mantle. Compared with this history, our molecular study of mycorrhizas remains a young science. To trace the history of mycorrhizal research, from its roots in the distant past, to the present and the future, this review outlines a few topics that were already central in the 19th century and were seminal in revealing the biological meaning of mycorrhizal associations. These include investigations of nutrient exchange between partners, plant responses to mycorrhizal fungi, and the identity and evolution of mycorrhizal symbionts as just a few examples of how the most recent molecular studies of mycorrhizal biology sprouted from the roots of past research. In addition to clarifying the ecological role of mycorrhizas, some of the recent results have changed the perception of the relevance of mycorrhizas in the scientific community, and in the whole of society. Looking to past knowledge while foreseeing strategies for the next steps can help us catch a glimpse of the future of mycorrhizal research.

About cats, mice and behaviour-changing parasites

The Science Communication Competition is now in its eighth year. As in previous years, it aims to find young talented science writers and give them the opportunity to have their work published in The Biochemist. In 2015, a new branch of the competition was launched to include video entries. Overall this year's competition attracted 74 entries and these were reviewed by our external panel of expert judges. The first prize in the written category was awarded to Victoria Bolton from the University of Glasgow, whose article is presented here; the winner of the video category was Jirayu Tanprasertsuk from Tufts University. Jirayu's winning video can be viewed at bit.ly/scicommvid2018.

Evidence, engagement and informed policy making

June 2018 saw the successful launch of the UK's first Evidence Week, a collaboration between Sense About Science, The House of Commons Library, and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). A week-long event filled to bursting with high-profile speakers, workshops and roundtable discussions, Evidence Week highlighted the importance of evidence-based policy making in the heart of Parliament. Members of both Houses couldn't escape the stands, the banners and the Voice of Young Science Network who were enthusiastically sharing the importance of evidence against a broad backdrop of issues ranging from solving the UK housing crisis to regulating genome editing.

Effect of flash thermal annealing by pulsed current on rotational anisotropy in exchange-biased NiFe/FeMn film**Project supported by the Young Science and Technology Innovation Team of Sichuan Province, China (Grant No. 2017TD0020).

In this paper, Ta/[NiFe(15 nm)/FeMn(10 nm)]/Ta exchange-biased bilayers are fabricated by magnetron sputtering, and their static and dynamic magnetic properties before and after rapid annealing treatment with pulsed current are characterized by using a vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and a vector network analyzer (VNA), respectively. The exchange bias field He and static anisotropy field decrease from 118.45 Oe (1 Oe = 79.5775 A·m−1) and 126.84 Oe at 0 V to 94.75 Oe and 102.31 Oe at 90 V, respectively, with increasing capacitor voltage, which supplies pulsed current to heat the sample. The effect of flash thermal annealing by pulsed current on the rotational anisotropy (Hrot), the difference value between static and dynamic magnetic anisotropy, is investigated particularly. The highest Hrot is obtained in the sample annealing with 45-V capacitor (3300 μF) voltage. According to the anisotropic magnetoresistance measurements, it can be explained by the fact that the temperature of the sample is around the blocking temperature of the exchange bias system (Tb) at 45 V, the critical temperature where the formation of more unstable antiferromagnetic grains occurs.

Out-of-school Activity: A Comparison of the Experiences of Rural and Urban Participants in Science Fairs in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

The paper compares the experiences of rural and urban learners who participate in Eskom Expo for Young Scientists science fairs in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Within an exploratory case study in the Limpopo province, a third-generation activity-theory framework was applied as an analytical tool to determine differences in activities between learners from rural and urban schools. To address triangulation, personal meaning mapping, interviews, focus-group discussions, and observations were used. The study involved eleven learners, six from rural schools and five from urban schools. Themes were identified to present the learners` view on science fairs and possible reasons for their performance or failure. The results revealed that the differences in activities of rural learners are due to: poor school facilities, lack of support, lack of mentors, lack of equipment, lack of computers and computer illiteracy. Two new areas are confirmed namely the level of attention with regards to learner`s engagement and readiness to learn and depth of knowledge of learners – factors that were not identified in previous studies on science fairs.

Effect of 1,2,4-triazole on galvanic corrosion between cobalt and copper in CMP based alkaline slurry * * Project supported by the Major National Science and Technology Special Projects (No. 2016ZX02301003-004-007), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province, China (No. F2015202267), and the Outstanding Young Science and Technology Innovation Fund of Hebei University of Technology (No. 2015007).

Cobalt has become a new type of barrier material with its unique advantages since the copper-interconnects in the great-large scale integrated circuits (GLSI) into 10 nm and below technical nodes, but cobalt and copper have severe galvanic corrosion during chemical–mechanical flattening. The effect of 1,2,4-triazole on Co/Cu galvanic corrosion in alkaline slurry and the control of rate selectivity of copper and cobalt were investigated in this work. The results of electrochemical experiments and polishing experiments had indicated that a certain concentration of 1,2,4-triazole could form a layer of insoluble and dense passive film on the surface of cobalt and copper, which reduced the corrosion potential difference between cobalt and copper. Meantime, the removal rate of cobalt and copper could be effectively controlled according to demand during the CMP process. When the study optimized slurry was composed of 0.5 wt% colloidal silica, 0.1 %vol. hydrogen peroxide, 0.05 wt% FA/O, 345 ppm 1,2,4-triazole, cobalt had higher corrosion potential than copper and the galvanic corrosion could be reduced effectively when the corrosion potential difference between them decreased to 1 mV and the galvanic corrosion current density reached 0.02 nA/cm2. Meanwhile, the removal rate of Co was 62.396 nm/min, the removal rate of Cu was 47.328 nm/min, so that the removal rate ratio of cobalt and copper was 1.32 : 1, which was a good amendment to the dishing pits. The contact potential corrosion of Co/Cu was very weak, which could be better for meeting the requirements of the barrier CMP.