Science and Literacy? That’s NEWS to Us!

Evaluating claims in media reports, as NGSS requires, is a challenge, demanding science knowledge and literacy skill. Workshop exploring how to “use the news” to develop your students’ critical abilities.

The Critical Reading of the Images Associated with Science-Related News Reports: Establishing a knowledge, skills, and attitudes framework

For the majority of adults, the media constitute their main source of information about science and science-related matters impacting on society. To help prepare young people to engage with science in the media, teachers are being exhorted to equip their students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to respond critically to science-related news reports. Typically, such reports comprise not only text, but also visual elements. These images are not simply adjuncts to the written word; they are integral to meaning-making. Though science teachers make considerable use of newspaper images, they tend to view these representations unproblematically, underestimating their potential ambiguity, complexity, and role in framing media messages. They rarely aim to develop students’ ability to ‘read’, critically, such graphics. Moreover, research into how this might be achieved is limited and, consequently, research-informed guidance which could support this instruction is lacking. This paper describes a study designed to formulate a framework for such teaching. Science communication scholars, science journalists and media educators with acknowledged relevant expertise were surveyed to ascertain what knowledge, skills, and attitudes they deemed useful to engagement with science related news images. Their proposals were recast as learning intentions (instructional objectives), and science and English teachers collaborated to suggest which could be addressed with secondary school students and the age group best suited to their introduction. The outcome is an inventory of learning intentions on which teachers could draw to support their planning of instructional sequences aimed at developing students’ criticality in respect of the totality of science news reports.

Developing students’ ability to engage critically with science in the news: identifying elements of the ‘media awareness’ dimension

Worldwide, science education reform movements are stressing the need to promote ‘scienti?c literacy’ among young people. Increasingly, this is taken to include empowering students to engage critically with science-related news reporting. Despite this requirement now featuring in statutory curricula throughout the UK, there has, to date, been a dearth of research-informed advice to assist science teachers as they identify appropriate instructional objectives in this regard and design relevant learning activities through which these might be achieved. In this study, prominent science communication
scholars, science journalists, science educators and media educators were interviewed to determine what knowledge, skills and habits of mind they judged valuable for individuals reading science-related news stories. Teachers of science and of English from nine secondary schools in Northern Ireland addressed the same issue. A striking – and signi?cant – ?nding of the study was the very substantial number of statements of knowledge, skill and disposition o?ered by participants that relate to ‘media awareness’, an issue largely overlooked in the science education literature. The school-focused phase of the research suggests that cross-curricular approaches involving teachers of science collaborating with those of English/media education or media studies may best serve to address this important curricular goal.

Promoting science literacy via science journalism: Issues and challenges

Science journalism is the source of much of the science an individual will encounter beyond formal education. Science-based media reports, which might have been associated with informal education, are increasingly becoming incorporated into formal school contexts. Unlike science textbooks, the science reported in the news is often tentative and sometimes contested. It can involve difficult socio-scientific issues. Descriptors of ‘science literacy’ generally include reading and responding critically to media reports of science. The challenge of using science-based news effectively encourages teachers to reassess their knowledge and pedagogical practices.
In addition to creating interest in science and making links beyond the classroom, news media can be used to introduce pupils to elements of science enquiry and teachers can promote basic literacy and critical reading skills through systematic and imaginative use of media reports with a science component.
This chapter explores the knowledge, skills and attitudes that underpin the use of science journalism in the classroom. The unique characteristics and constraints of science journalism that influence the way science is presented and perceived are considered, and the importance of media awareness as a foundation for critical reading of science news is argued. Finally the characteristics of teaching programmes to support critical engagement with science-based media reports are outlined and the opportunities for cross-curricular initiatives highlighted.

On the reasons for stepwise changes in the tunnelling current across nanogaps

The role of the crystalline orientation of the STM tip in the generation of metal clusters is studied by atom dynamics simulations. When a (111) facet is facing the surface, the process is accompanied by a perturbation of the surface stronger than that observed for more open tip structures. This implies a technological application: the possibility of orienting a nanocrystallite deposited on a tip according to the changes observed in the force on the tip.

Predation on mayfly nymph, Baetis rhodani, by native and introduced Gammarus: direct effects and the facilitation of predation by salmonids.

1. In a series of laboratory experiments, we assessed the predatory nature of the native Irish amphipod, Gammarus duebeni celticus, and the introduced G. pulex, towards the mayfly nymph Baetis rhodani. We also investigated alterations in microhabitat use and drift behaviour of B. rhodani in the presence of Gammarus, and indirect predatory interactions with juvenile Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. 2. In trials with single predators and prey, B. rhodani survival was significantly lower when Gammarus were free to interact with nymphs as than when Gammarus were isolated from them. The invader G. pulex reduced the survival of B. rhodani more rapidly than did the native G. d. celticus. Both Gammarus spp. were active predators. 3. In `patch' experiments, B. rhodani survival was significantly lower both when G. pulex and G. d. celticus were present, although the effect of the two Gammarus species did not differ. Again, active predation of nymphs by Gammarus was observed. Significantly more nymphs occurred on the top and sides of a tile, and per capita drifts were significantly higher, when Gammarus were present. Baetis rhodani per capita drift was also significantly higher in the presence of the introduced G. pulex than with the native G. d. celticus. 4. Gammarus facilitated predation by salmon parr of B. rhodani by significantly increasing fish–nymph encounters on exposed gravel and in the drift. There were no differential effects of the two Gammarus spp. on fish –B. rhodani encounters or consumption. 5. We conclude that Gammarus as a predator can have lethal, nonlethal, direct and indirect effects in freshwaters. We stress the need for recognition of this predatory role when assigning Gammarus spp. to a `Functional Feeding Group'.

On the Diversity-Multiplexing Tradefoff for Wireless Cooperative Multiple Access Systems

A spectrally efficient strategy is proposed for cooperative multiple access (CMA) channels in a centralized communication environment with $N$ users. By applying superposition coding, each user will transmit a mixture containing its own information as well as the other users', which means that each user shares parts of its power with the others. The use of superposition coding in cooperative networks was first proposed in , which will be generalized to a multiple-user scenario in this paper. Since the proposed CMA system can be seen as a precoded point-to-point multiple-antenna system, its performance can be best evaluated using the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff. By carefully categorizing the outage events, the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff can be obtained, which shows that the proposed cooperative strategy can achieve larger diversity/multiplexing gain than the compared transmission schemes at any diversity/multiplexing gain. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the proposed strategy can achieve optimal tradeoff for multiplexing gains $0leq r leq 1$ whereas the compared cooperative scheme is only optimal for $0leq r leq ({1}/{N})$. As discussed in the paper, such superiority of the proposed CMA system is due to the fact that the relaying transmission does not consume extra channel use and, hence, the deteriorating effect of cooperative communication on the data rate is effectively limited.

Feeding on micro-algae in the invasive Ponto-Caspian amphipod Dikerogammarus villosus (Sowinsky, 1894)

Feeding on micro-algae is shown in the invasive Ponto-Caspian amphipod Dikerogammarus villosus. Compared with controls, males, females and juveniles of this species significantly reduced the concentration in suspension of unicellular micro-algae. Juveniles had higher concentrations of algae in the cardiac gut than adults. The presence of these algae in the mid- and hindgut was also recorded. This feeding behaviour was filmed and the mechanisms involved are described and discussed. We comment on the use of the Functional Feeding Group (FFG) concept to classify feeding in amphipods. The role of being a feeding-generalist in aiding the invasion process is also discussed.