From crime to court - an experience report of a digital forensics group project module.

This paper discusses the large-scale group project undertaken by BSc Hons Digital Forensics students at Abertay University in their penultimate year. The philosophy of the project is to expose students to the full digital crime "life cycle", from commission through investigation, preparation of formal court report and finally, to prosecution in court. In addition, the project is novel in two aspects; the "crimes" are committed by students, and the moot court proceedings, where students appear as expert witnesses for the prosecution, are led by law students acting as counsels for the prosecution and defence. To support students, assessments are staged across both semesters with staff feedback provided at critical points. Feedback from students is very positive, highlighting particularly the experience of engaging with the law students and culminating in the realistic moot court, including a challenging cross-examination. Students also commented on the usefulness of the final debrief, where the whole process and the student experience is discussed in an informal plenary meeting between DF students and staff, providing an opportunity for the perpetrators and investigators to discuss details of the "crimes", and enabling all groups to learn from all crimes and investigations. We conclude with a reflection on the challenges encountered and a discussion of planned changes.

Beiträge zum Mathematikunterricht 2015. Vorträge auf der 49. Tagung für Didaktik der Mathematik vom 09.02.2015 bis 13.02.2015 in Basel [Band 1]

Die Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Didaktik der Mathematik fand im Jahr 2015 zum dritten Mal in der Schweiz statt. [...] Mit rund 300 Vorträgen, 16 moderierten Sektionen, 15 Arbeitskreistreffen und 21 Posterpräsentationen eröffnete sich ein breites Spektrum an Themen und unterschiedlichen Zugangsweisen zur Erforschung von Fragen rund um das Lernen und Lehren von Mathematik. (DIPF/Orig.)

Inge Hansen-Schaberg: Minna Specht - Eine Sozialistin in der Landerziehungsheimbewegung (1918 bis 1951). Untersuchung zur pädagogischen Biographie einer Reformpädagogin. (Studien zur Bildungsreform. Bd. 22). Frankfurt a.M./Bern: Lang 1992 [Rezension]

Rezension von: Inge Hansen-Schaberg: Minna Specht - Eine Sozialistin in der Landerziehungsheimbewegung (1918 bis 1951). Untersuchung zur pädagogischen Biographie einer Reformpädagogin. (Studien zur Bildungsreform. Bd. 22). Frankfurt a.M./Bern: Lang 1992, 406 S.

Translation – The fifth language skill? A comparison of the role of translation in Finnish lukio and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

This study attempts to answer the question “Should translation be considered a fifth language skill?” by examining and comparing the use of translation as a language learning and assessment method in the national Finnish lukio curriculum and the curriculum of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). Furthermore, the students’ ability to translate and their opinions on the usefulness of translation in language learning will be examined. The students’ opinions were gathered through a questionnaire that was given to 156 students studying in either lukio or the IBDP in Turku and Rovaniemi. I present and compare the role of translation in selected language teaching and learning methods and approaches, and discuss the effectiveness of translation as a language learning method and an assessment method. The theoretical discussion provides the basis for examining the role of translation as a language learning method and an assessment method in the curricula and final examinations of both education programs. The analysis of the two curricula indicated that there is a significant difference in the use of translation, as translation is used as a language learning method and as an assessment method in lukio, but is not used in either form in the IB. The data obtained through the questionnaire indicated that there is a difference in the level of language competence between the lukio and IB students and suggested that the curriculum in which the student studies has some effect on his/her cognitive use of translation, ability to translate and opinions concerning the usefulness of translation in language learning. The results indicated that both groups of students used translation, along with their mother tongue, as a cognitive language learning method, and, contrary to the expectations set by the analysis of the two curricula, the IB students performed better in the translation exercises than lukio students. Both groups of students agreed that translation is a useful language learning method, and indicated that the most common dictionaries they use are bilingual Internet dictionaries. The results suggest that translation is a specific skill that requires teaching and practice, and that perhaps the translation exercises used in lukio should be developed from translating individual words and phrases to translating cultural elements. In addition, the results suggest that perhaps the IB curriculum should include the use of translation exercises (e.g., communicative translation exercises) in order to help students learn to mediate between languages and cultures rather than learn languages in isolation from each other.

Starch analysis as a method to discover subsistence strategies in prehistoric Finland and Estonia

Ancient starch analysis is a microbotanical method in which starch granules are extracted from archaeological residues and the botanical source is identified. The method is an important addition to established palaeoethnobotanical research, as it can reveal ancient microremains of starchy staples such as cereal grains and seeds. In addition, starch analysis can detect starch originating from underground storage organs, which are rarely discovered using other methods. Because starch is tolerant of acidic soils, unlike most organic matter, starch analysis can be successful in northern boreal regions. Starch analysis has potential in the study of cultivation, plant domestication, wild plant usage and tool function, as well as in locating activity areas at sites and discovering human impact on the environment. The aim of this study was to experiment with the starch analysis method in Finnish and Estonian archaeology by building a starch reference collection from cultivated and native plant species, by developing sampling, measuring and analysis protocols, by extracting starch residues from archaeological artefacts and soils, and by identifying their origin. The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the suitability of the method for the study of subsistence strategies in prehistoric Finland and Estonia. A total of 64 archaeological samples were analysed from four Late Neolithic sites in Finland and Estonia, with radiocarbon dates ranging between 2904 calBC and 1770 calBC. The samples yielded starch granules, which were compared with the starch reference collection and descriptions in the literature. Cereal-type starch was identified from the Finnish Kiukainen culture site and from the Estonian Corded Ware site. The samples from the Finnish Corded Ware site yielded underground storage organ starch, which may be the first evidence of the use of rhizomes as food in Finland. No cereal-type starch was observed. Although the sample sets were limited, the experiment confirmed that starch granules have been preserved well in the archaeological material of Finland and Estonia, and that differences between subsistence patterns, as well as evidence of cultivation and wild plant gathering, can be discovered using starch analysis. By collecting large sample sets and addressing the three most important issues – preventing contamination, collecting adequate references and understanding taphonomic processes – starch analysis can substantially contribute to research on ancient subsistence in Finland and Estonia.

Metoda projektów w uczeniu się i nauczaniu fizyki w gimnazjum

Wydział Studiów Edukacyjnych: Zakład Pedeutologii

Self-regulated learning in higher education : strategies adopted by computer programming students

Trabalho apresentado em PAEE/ALE’2016, 8th International Symposium on Project Approaches in Engineering Education (PAEE) and 14th Active Learning in Engineering Education Workshop (ALE)

Literatura e emigração : olhares cruzados (Nita Clímaco, Assis Esperança, Olga Gonçalves e Amândio Sousa Dantas) : estudo comparatista para utilização desta temática no ensino secundário

O principal objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar uma análise da temática da emigração nas obras de quatro autores que se mantêm afastados dos programas curriculares: António Assis Esperança, com Fronteiras, Nita Clímaco, com A salto, Olga Gonçalves, com Este verão o emigrante là-bas e Amândio Sousa Dantas com Poesia da emigração. Numa primeira parte são definidas as noções de Literatura, História, Ficção e Contexto histórico e explicitadas as relações existentes entre conceitos. A segunda parte aborda a Imagologia enquanto teoria satélite da disciplina de Literatura Comparada. Neste âmbito, apresenta brevemente as várias tendências comparatistas e detém-se nas noções de ficcionalidade, teoria da receção e intertextualidade. Define e estabelece distinções entre Tema e Motivo, e por fim propõe uma abordagem comparativa dos temas: “Representações do Feminino” e “Imagem do Estrangeiro”. Na terceira parte, recorrendo à metodologia comparatista foi realizada uma análise transversal dos motivos: “Retrato de um país – Portugal nas décadas de 1960 - 1980”, “A Emigração”, “ A Viagem – o Salto”, “O choque cultural e linguístico” e “ A Saudade”. Todas as abordagens dos temas e dos motivos iniciam com uma apresentação teórica, resultado das leituras feitas ao longo da investigação. Por fim, o último capítulo expõe algumas propostas para o tratamento das obras e da temática nas aulas de Português no ensino secundário, para um trabalho interdisciplinar com História e um Projeto de Turma envolvendo as restantes disciplinas.

A REPORT ON THE MITEP PROGRAM AND ITS IMPACT ON MY TEACHING

This report has two major objectives. First, the results of an action research project conducted at my high school concerning the use of graphic organizers and their effects on students' written expression abilities. The findings from this action research project indicate that the use of graphic organizers can prove beneficial to students. The second major objective of this report is to provide a reflection and evaluation of my experiences as a participant in the Michigan Teacher Excellence Program (MiTEP). This program provided middle and high school science teachers with an opportunity to develop research based pedagogy techniques and develop the skill necessary to serve as leaders within the public school science community. The action research project described in the first chapter of this report was a collaborative project I participated in during my enrollment in ED 5705 at Michigan Technological University. I worked closely with two other teachers in my building - Brytt Ergang and James Wright. We met several times to develop a research question, and a procedure for testing our question. Each of us investigated how the use of graphic organizers by students in our classroom might impact their performance on writing assessments. We each collected data from several of our classes. In my case I collected data from 2 different classes over 2 different assignments. Our data was collected and the results analyzed separately from classroom to classroom. After the individual classroom data and corresponding analysis was compiled my fellow collaborators and I got together to discuss our findings. We worked together to write a conclusion based on our combined results in all of our classes.

INCORPORATING STIMULATING QUICK-WRITE PROMPTS WITHIN A SECONDARY SCIENCE CLASSROOM: A CASE STUDY IN LESOTHO

The use of intriguing open-ended quick-write prompts within the Basotho science classroom could potentially provide a way for secondary teachers in Lesotho to have a time-efficient alternative to stimulate student thinking and increase critical thinking or application of scientific principles. Writing can be used as a powerful means to improve the achievement of students across many subject areas, including the sciences (Moore, 1993; Rivard, 1994; Rillero, Zambo, Cleland, and Ryan, 1996; Greenstein, 2013). This study focuses on the use of a non-traditional nor extensively studied writing method that could potentially support learning in science. A quasi-experimental research design, with a control and experimental group, was applied. The study was conducted at two schools, with one experimental classroom in one school and a second control group classroom in the second school for a period of 4 weeks. 51 Form B (US Grade 9 equivalent) students participated as the experimental group and 43 Form B students as the control group. In an effort to assess learning achievement, a 1 hour (35 mark) pre-test evaluation was made by and given to students by Basotho teachers at the beginning of this study to have an idea of student’s previous knowledge. Topics covered were Static Electricity, Current Electricity, Electromagnetic Waves, and Chemistry of Water. After the experimental trial period, an almost completely identical post-test evaluation was given to students in the same fashion to observe and compare gains in achievement. Test data was analyzed using an inferential statistics procedure that compared means and gains in knowledge made by the experimental and control groups. Difference between the gains of mean pre-test and post-test scores were statistically significant within each group, but were not statistically significant when the control and experimental groups were compared. Therefore, there was no clear practical effect. Qualitative data from teachers’ journals and students’ written feedback provides insight on the assessments, incorporation of the teaching method, and the development of participating students. Both mid and post-study student feedback shows that students had an overall positive and beneficial experience participating in this activity. Assessments and teacher journals showed areas of strength and weaknesses in student learning and on differences in teaching styles. They also helped support some feedback claims made by students. Areas of further research and improvement of the incorporation of this teaching method in the Basotho secondary science classroom are explored.

Prediction of adult height in girls: the Beunen-MalinaFreitas method

The purpose of this study was to validate and cross-validate the Beunen-Malina-Freitas method for non-invasive prediction of adult height in girls. A sample of 420 girls aged 10–15 years from the Madeira Growth Study were measured at yearly intervals and then 8 years later. Anthropometric dimensions (lengths, breadths, circumferences, and skinfolds) were measured; skeletal age was assessed using the Tanner-Whitehouse 3 method and menarcheal status (present or absent) was recorded. Adult height was measured and predicted using stepwise, forward, and maximum R2 regression techniques. Multiple correlations, mean differences, standard errors of prediction, and error boundaries were calculated. A sample of the Leuven Longitudinal Twin Study was used to cross-validate the regressions. Age-specific coefficients of determination (R2) between predicted and measured adult height varied between 0.57 and 0.96, while standard errors of prediction varied between 1.1 and 3.9 cm. The cross-validation confirmed the validity of the Beunen-Malina-Freitas method in girls aged 12–15 years, but at lower ages the cross-validation was less consistent. We conclude that the Beunen-Malina-Freitas method is valid for the prediction of adult height in girls aged 12–15 years. It is applicable to European populations or populations of European ancestry.

Novel efficient technologies in Europe for axle bearing condition monitoring – the MAXBE project

Axle bearing damage with possible catastrophic failures can cause severe disruptions or even dangerous derailments, potentially causing loss of human life and leading to significant costs for railway infrastructure managers and rolling stock operators. Consequently the axle bearing damage process has safety and economic implications on the exploitation of railways systems. Therefore it has been the object of intense attention by railway authorities as proved by the selection of this topic by the European Commission in calls for research proposals. The MAXBE Project (http://www.maxbeproject.eu/), an EU-funded project, appears in this context and its main goal is to develop and to demonstrate innovative and efficient technologies which can be used for the onboard and wayside condition monitoring of axle bearings. The MAXBE (interoperable monitoring, diagnosis and maintenance strategies for axle bearings) project focuses on detecting axle bearing failure modes at an early stage by combining new and existing monitoring techniques and on characterizing the axle bearing degradation process. The consortium for the MAXBE project comprises 18 partners from 8 member states, representing operators, railway administrations, axle bearing manufactures, key players in the railway community and experts in the field of monitoring, maintenance and rolling stock. The University of Porto is coordinating this research project that kicked-off in November 2012 and it is completed on October 2015. Both on-board and wayside systems are explored in the project since there is a need for defining the requirement for the onboard equipment and the range of working temperatures of the axle bearing for the wayside systems. The developed monitoring systems consider strain gauges, high frequency accelerometers, temperature sensors and acoustic emission. To get a robust technology to support the decision making of the responsible stakeholders synchronized measurements from onboard and wayside monitoring systems are integrated into a platform. Also extensive laboratory tests were performed to correlate the in situ measurements to the status of the axle bearing life. With the MAXBE project concept it will be possible: to contribute to detect at an early stage axle bearing failures; to create conditions for the operational and technical integration of axle bearing monitoring and maintenance in different European railway networks; to contribute to the standardization of the requirements for the axle bearing monitoring, diagnosis and maintenance. Demonstration of the developed condition monitoring systems was performed in Portugal in the Northern Railway Line with freight and passenger traffic with a maximum speed of 220 km/h, in Belgium in a tram line and in the UK. Still within the project, a tool for optimal maintenance scheduling and a smart diagnostic tool were developed. This paper presents a synthesis of the most relevant results attained in the project. The successful of the project and the developed solutions have positive impact on the reliability, availability, maintainability and safety of rolling stock and infrastructure with main focus on the axle bearing health.

Equivalent Hearing Loss in Children

Early intervention is the key to spoken language for hearing impaired children. A severe hearing loss diagnosis in young children raises the urgent question on the optimal type of hearing aid device. As there is no recent data on comparing selection criteria for a specific hearing aid device, the goal of the Hearing Evaluation of Auditory Rehabilitation Devices (hEARd) project (Coninx & Vermeulen, 2012) evolved to collect and analyze interlingually comparable normative data on the speech perception performances of children with hearing aids and children with cochlear implants (CI). METHOD: In various institutions for hearing rehabilitation in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands the Adaptive Auditory Speech Test AAST was used in the hEARd project, to determine speech perception abilities in kindergarten and school aged hearing impaired children. Results in the speech audiometric procedures were matched to the unaided hearing loss values of children using hearing aids and compared to results of children using CI. 277 data sets of hearing impaired children were analyzed. Results of children using hearing aids were summarized in groups as to their unaided hearing loss values. The grouping was related to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) grading of hearing impairment from mild (25–40 dB HL) to moderate (41–60 dB HL), severe (61-80 dB HL) and profound hearing impairment (80 dB HL and higher). RESULTS: AAST speech recognition results in quiet showed a significantly better performance for the CI group in comparison to the group of profoundly impaired hearing aid users as well as the group of severely impaired hearing aid users. However the CI users’ performances in speech perception in noise did not vary from the hearing aid users’ performances. Within the collected data analyses showed that children with a CI show an equivalent performance on speech perception in quiet as children using hearing aids with a “moderate” hearing impairment.

The Arts in Basic Curriculum Project : Looking at the Past and Preparing for the Future

The primary findings of this evaluation are (1) that the ABC Project has built and supported a strong network that measurably strengthens arts education, and (2) for the reform to continue, there must be new initiatives. The Project has made a significant first step toward providing quality opportunities for all children in South Carolina, but the gap between the current state of arts education and the stated goal of the Project is very wide. Therefore, these new initiatives must be bold, innovative, strongly funded, and backed with the energies and passions of those in the core arts education network. The basic recommendation that subsumes all the specific recommendations in this report is to develop a data-informed strategic plan for arts education, then determine funding priorities based on this plan.

Prediction of adult height in girls: the Beunen-MalinaFreitas method

The purpose of this study was to validate and cross-validate the Beunen-Malina-Freitas method for non-invasive prediction of adult height in girls. A sample of 420 girls aged 10–15 years from the Madeira Growth Study were measured at yearly intervals and then 8 years later. Anthropometric dimensions (lengths, breadths, circumferences, and skinfolds) were measured; skeletal age was assessed using the Tanner-Whitehouse 3 method and menarcheal status (present or absent) was recorded. Adult height was measured and predicted using stepwise, forward, and maximum R2 regression techniques. Multiple correlations, mean differences, standard errors of prediction, and error boundaries were calculated. A sample of the Leuven Longitudinal Twin Study was used to cross-validate the regressions. Age-specific coefficients of determination (R2) between predicted and measured adult height varied between 0.57 and 0.96, while standard errors of prediction varied between 1.1 and 3.9 cm. The cross-validation confirmed the validity of the Beunen-Malina-Freitas method in girls aged 12–15 years, but at lower ages the cross-validation was less consistent. We conclude that the Beunen-Malina-Freitas method is valid for the prediction of adult height in girls aged 12–15 years. It is applicable to European populations or populations of European ancestry.