Reproducing successful rituals in bad times : exploring interactions of a new science teacher

Teaching is emotional work. This is especially the case in the first years of teaching when new teachers are particularly vulnerable. By understanding changes in teacher emotions in the early years of teaching we hope to identify strategies that might ultimately reduce teacher attrition. As part of a larger study of the transition of new teachers to the profession, this ethnographic case study explores how a new science teacher produced and reproduced positive emotional interaction rituals with her students in her first year of teaching. We show how dialogical interactions were positive and satisfying experiences for the teacher, and how they were reproduced successfully in different contexts. We also illustrate how both teacher and students used humor to create a structure for dialogical interactions. During these successful interactions the students used shared resources to satisfy their teacher that they were engaging in the relevant science content. The implications of what we have learned for the professional development of new teachers are discussed in relation to an expanded understanding of teacher emotions.

A study of laughter in science lessons

Laughter is a fundamental human phenomenon. Yet there is little educational research on the potential functions of laughter on the enacted (lived) curriculum. In this study, we identify the functions of laughter in a beginning science teacher’s classroom throughout her first year of teaching. Our study shows that laughter is more than a gratuitous phenomenon. It is the result of a collective interactive achievement of the classroom participants that offsets the seriousness of science as a discipline. Laughter, whereas it challenges the seriousness of science, also includes the dialectical inversion of the challenge: it simultaneously reinforces the idea of science as serious business.

(Anti)Queer : introduction

The ‘anti- of ‘(Anti)Queer’ is a queer anti. In particle physics, a domain of science which was for a long time peddled as ultimately knowable, rational and objective, the postmodern turn has made everything queer (or chaotic, as the scientific version of this turn is perhaps more commonly named). This is a world where not only do two wrongs not make a right, but a negative and positive do not calmly cancel each other out to leave nothing, as mathematics might suggest. When matter meets with anti-matter, the resulting explosion can produce not only energy - heat and light? - but new matter. We live in a world whose very basics are no longer the electron and the positron, but an ever proliferating number of chaotic, unpredictable - queer? - subatomic particles. Some are ‘charmed’, others merely ‘strange’ . Weird science indeed. The ‘Anti-’ of ‘Anti-queer’ does not place itself neatly into binaries. This is not a refutation of all that queer has been or will be. It is explicitly a confrontation, a challenge, an attempt to take seriously not only the claims made for queer but the potent contradictions and silences which stand proudly when any attempt is made to write a history of the term. Specifically, ‘Anti-Queer’ is not Beyond Queer, the title of Bruce Bawer’s 1996 book which calmly and self-confidently explains the failings of queer, extols a return to a liberal political theory of cultural change and places its own marker on queer as a movement whose purpose has been served. We are not Beyond Queer. And if we are Anti-Queer, it is only to challenge those working in the arena to acknowledge and work with some of the facts of the movement’s history whose productivity has been erased with a gesture which has, proved, bizarrely, to be reductive and homogenising.

A Raman spectroscopic study of the ‘cave’ mineral ardealite Ca2(HPO4)(SO4)•4H2O

The mineral ardealite Ca2(HPO4)(SO4)•4H2O is a ‘cave’ mineral and is formed through the reaction of calcite with bat guano. The mineral shows disorder and the composition varies depending on the origin of the mineral. Raman spectroscopy complimented with infrared spectroscopy has been used to characterise the mineral ardealite. The Raman spectrum is very different from that of gypsum. Bands are assigned to SO42- and HPO42- stretching and bending modes.

Body-site distribution of skin cancer, pre-malignant and common benign pigmented lesions excised in general practice

Background Concern about skin cancer is a common reason for people from predominantly fair-skinned populations to present to primary care doctors. Objectives To examine the frequency and body-site distribution of malignant, pre-malignant and benign pigmented skin lesions excised in primary care. Methods This prospective study conducted in Queensland, Australia, included 154 primary care doctors. For all excised or biopsied lesions, doctors recorded the patient's age and sex, body site, level of patient pressure to excise, and the clinical diagnosis. Histological confirmation was obtained through pathology laboratories. Results Of 9650 skin lesions, 57·7% were excised in males and 75·0% excised in patients ≥50years. The most common diagnoses were basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (35·1%) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (19·7%). Compared with the whole body, the highest densities for SCC, BCC and actinic keratoses were observed on chronically sun-exposed areas of the body including the face in males and females, the scalp and ears in males, and the hands in females. The density of BCC was also high on intermittently or rarely exposed body sites. Females, younger patients and patients with melanocytic naevi were significantly more likely to exert moderate/high levels of pressure on the doctor to excise. Conclusions More than half the excised lesions were skin cancer, which mostly occurred on the more chronically sun-exposed areas of the body. Information on the type and body-site distribution of skin lesions can aid in the diagnosis and planned management of skin cancer and other skin lesions commonly presented in primary care.

Investigating and theorizing discourse during analogy writing in chemistry

Explanations of the role of analogies in learning science at a cognitive level are made in terms of creating bridges between new information and students’ prior knowledge. In this empirical study of learning with analogies in an 11th grade chemistry class, we explore an alternative explanation at the "social" level where analogy shapes classroom discourse. Students in the study developed analogies within small groups and with their teacher. These classroom interactions were monitored to identify changes in discourse that took place through these activities. Beginning from socio-cultural perspectives and hybridity, we investigated classroom discourse during analogical activities. From our analyses, we theorized a merged discourse that explains how the analog discourse becomes intertwined with the target discourse generating a transitional state where meanings, signs, symbols, and practices are in flux. Three categories were developed that capture how students intertwined the analog and target discourses—merged words, merged utterances/sentences, and merged practices.

Raman spectroscopic study of the minerals diadochite and destinezite Fe3+2(PO4,SO4)2(OH)•6H2O – implications for soil science

The two minerals diadochite and destinezite of formula Fe2(PO4,SO4)2(OH)•6H2O have been characterised by Raman spectroscopy and complimented with infrared spectroscopy. These two minerals are both found in soils and are identical except for their morphology. Diadochite is amorphous whereas destinezite is highly crystalline. The spectra of diadochite are broad and ill-defined, whereas the spectra of destinezite are intense and well defined. Bands are assigned to phosphate and sulphate stretching and bending modes. Two symmetric stretching modes for both the phosphate and sulphate symmetric stretching modes support the concept of non-equivalent phosphate and sulphate units in the mineral structure. Multiple water bending and stretching modes imply that non-equivalent water molecules in the structure exist with different hydrogen bond strengths.

A Raman spectroscopic study of bukovskýite Fe2(AsO4)(SO4)(OH)•7H2O-a mineral phase with a significant role in arsenic migration

The Raman spectrum of bukovskýite, Fe3+2(OH)(SO4)(AsO4)•7H2O has been studied and compared with the Raman spectrum of an amorphous gel containing specifically Fe, As and S elements and is understood as an intermediate product in the formation of bukovskýite. Observed bands are assigned to the stretching and bending vibrations of (SO4)2- and (AsO4)3- units, stretching and bending vibrations and librational modes of hydrogen bonded water molecules, stretching and bending vibrations of hydrogen bonded (OH)- ions and Fe3+-(O,OH) units. Approximate range of O-H...O hydrogen bond lengths is inferred from the Raman spectra. Raman spectra of crystalline bukovskýite and of the amorphous gel differ in that the bukovskýite spectrum is more complex, observed bands are sharp, the degenerate bands of (SO4)2- and (AsO4)3- are split and more intense. Lower wavenumbers of  H2O bending vibration in the spectrum of the amorphous gel may indicate the presence of weaker hydrogen bonds compared with those in bukovskýite.

High-pressure Raman spectroscopic and other structural studies of hydrotalcites containing intercalated dicarboxylic acid anions

The results of pressure-tuning Raman spectroscopic, X-ray powder diffraction and solid-state 13C-NMR studies of selected dicarboxylate anions intercalated in a Mg-Al layered double hydroxide (talcite) lattice are reported. The pressure dependences of the vibrational modes are linear for pressures up to 4.6 GPa indicating that no phase transitions occur. The interlayer spacings show that the oxalate, malonate and succinate dianions are oriented perpendicular to the layers, but the glutarate and adipate are tilted. The solid-state 13C-NMR spectra of these materials show full chemical shift anisotropy and, therefore, the anions are not mobile at room temperature.

Biomashups: the new world of exploratory bioinformatics?

Bioinformatics is dominated by online databases and sophisticated web-accessible tools. As such, it is ideally placed to benefit from the rapid, purpose specific combination of services achievable via web mashups. The recent introduction of a number of sophisticated frameworks has greatly simplified the mashup creation process, making them accessible to scientists with limited programming expertise. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of mashups as a new approach to bioinformatic experimentation, focusing on an exploratory niche between interactive web usage and robust workflows, and attempting to identify the range of computations for which mashups may be employed. While we treat each of the major frameworks, we illustrate the ideas with a series of examples developed under the Popfly framework