Teacher responses to a planning framework for junior technology classes learning outside the classroom

This paper describes teacher responses to a framework designed to support teacher planning for technology. It includes a learning experience outside the classroom [LEOTC] and is designed specifically for five-year-old students. The planning framework draws together characteristics of technology education, junior primary classrooms and LEOTC to describe the role of the teacher, parent helpers and students as they work through three identified phases - preparing for a visit outside the classroom, participating in a learning experience outside the classroom, and post-visit activities in the classroom. This framework was trialled using a case study approach in two new-entrant classrooms in which students made chocolates for Mother's Day as part of a technology unit. Students partook in a LEOTC visit to a chocolate factory in order to examine the practice of experts before designing and making their own chocolate gift. Data sources for this paper included interviews with two participating teachers. The analysis of these suggest the use of the planning framework led to the thorough preparation of parent helpers and students, clearly defined roles for both the teachers and the parents, and the use of valuable strategies which enhanced students memories of their visit enabled them to apply aspects of the knowledge gained to their own technological practice

Additional Comments on the Reported Impact of Service Dogs on the Lives of People with Severe Ambulatory Disabilities: A Reply to Karen Allen

Produced by Hawai'i University Affiliated Program on Disabilities, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawai'i and Sawyer School of Management, Suffolk University, Boston, MA

Learning science and technology through cooperative education.

Cooperative education, a form of experiential or work‐integrated learning is common in tertiary educational institutions worldwide. However, in New Zealand few institutions provide work‐integrated learning programs in science or technology, and the management and process of work‐integrated learning programs is not that well understood. How well do such programs work? What infrastructure is needed to ensure learning actually occurs? Are graduates of work‐integrated learning programs able to satisfy employer needs? This chapter synthesizes decades of work around such issues, and details research initiatives that provide valuable insights into how students learn science on in the workplace, how their skill development matches that desired by employers, and best practice for management of work‐integrated learning in science and engineering (Asia‐Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 2007, 8(2), 131‐147)

Infiltration into inclined fibrous sheets

The flow from line and point sources through an inclined fibrous sheet is studied experimentally and theoretically for wicking from a saturated region and flow from a constant-flux source. Wicking from a saturated line generates a wetted region whose length grows diffusively, linearly or tends to a constant, depending on whether the sheet is horizontal or inclined downwards or upwards. A constant-flux line source generates a wetted region which ultimately grows linearly with time, and is characterized by a capillary fringe whose thickness depends on the relative strength of the source, gravitational and capillary forces. Good quantitative agreement is observed between experiments and similarity solutions.Capillary-driven and constant-flux source flows issuing from a point on a horizontal sheet generate a wetted patch whose radius grows diffusively in time. The flow is characterized by the relative strength of the source and spreading induced by the action of capillary forces, gamma. As gamma increases, the fraction of the wetted region which is saturated increases. Wicking from a saturated point corresponds to gamma = gamma(c), and spreads at a slower rate than from a line source. For gamma < gamma(c), the flow is partially saturated everywhere. Good agreement is observed between measured moisture profiles, rates of spreading, and similarity solutions.Numerical solutions are developed for point sources on inclined sheets. The moisture profile is characterized by a steady region circumscribed by a narrow boundary layer across which the moisture content rapidly changes. An approximate analytical solution describes the increase in the size of the wetted region with time and source strength; these conclusions are confirmed by numerical calculations. Experimental measurements of the downslope length are observed to be slightly in excess of theoretical predictions, though the dependence on time, inclination and flow rate obtained theoretically is confirmed. Experimental measurements of cross-slope width are in agreement with numerical results and solutions for short and long times. The affect of a percolation threshold is observed to ultimately arrest cross-slope transport, placing a limitation on the long-time analysis

Predicting the Output From a Stochastic Computer Model When a Deterministic Approximation is Available

The analysis of computer models can be aided by the construction of surrogate models, or emulators, that statistically model the numerical computer model. Increasingly, computer models are becoming stochastic, yielding different outputs each time they are run, even if the same input values are used. Stochastic computer models are more difficult to analyse and more difficult to emulate - often requiring substantially more computer model runs to fit. We present a method of using deterministic approximations of the computer model to better construct an emulator. The method is applied to numerous toy examples, as well as an idealistic epidemiology model, and a model from the building performance field

Economic Consequences of Partnership with Service Dogs

Produced by Suffolk University, Sawyer School of Management, Department of Public Management, Eight Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108-2770

Energy simulations of a transparent-insulated office facade retrofit in London, UK

Purpose – Transparent insulation materials (TIMs) have been developed for application to building facades to reduce heating energy demands of a building. The purpose of this research is to investigate the feasibility of TI-applications for high-rise and low rise office buildings in London, UK, to reduce heating energy demands in winter and reduce overheating problems in summer. Design/methodology/approach – The energy performance of these office building models was simulated using an energy simulation package, Environmental Systems Performance-research (ESP-r), for a full calendar year. The simulations were initially performed for the buildings with conventional wall elements, prior to those with TI-systems (TI-walls and TI-glazing) used to replace the conventional wall elements. Surface temperatures of the conventional wall elements and TI-systems, air temperature inside the 20mm wide air gaps in the TI-wall, dry-bulb zone temperature and energy demands required for the office zones were predicted. Findings – Peak temperatures of between 50 and 70°C were predicted for the internal surface of the TI-systems, which clearly demonstrated the large effect of absorption of solar energy flux by the brick wall mass with an absorptivity of 90 percent behind the TIM layer. In the office zones, the magnitude of temperature swings during daytime was reduced, as demonstrated by a 10 to 12 h delay in heat transmission from the external façade to the office zones. Such reduction indicates the overheating problems could be reduced potentially by TI-applications. Originality/value – This research presents the scale and scope of design optimisation of TI-systems with ESP-r simulations, which is a critical process prior to applications to real buildings

The disappearance of viscous and laminar wakes in complex flows

The singular effects of steady large-scale external strain on the viscous wake generated by a rigid body and the overall flow field are analysed. In an accelerating flow strained at a positive rate, the vorticity field is annihilated owing to positive and negative vorticity either side of the wake centreline diffusing into one another and the volume flux in the wake decreases with downwind distance. Since the wake disappears, the far-field flow changes from monopolar to dipolar. In this case, the force on the body is no longer proportional to the strength of the monopole, but is proportional to the strength of the far field dipole. These results are extended to the case of strained turbulent wakes and this is verified against experimental wind tunnel measurements of Keffer (1965) and Elliott & Townsend (1981) for positive and negative strains. The analysis demonstrates why the total force acting on a body may be estimated by adding the viscous drag and inviscid force due to the irrotational straining field. Applying the analysis to the wake region of a rigid body or a bubble shows that the wake volume flux decreases even in uniform flows owing to the local straining flow in the near-wake region. While the wake volume flux decreases by a small amount for the flow over streamline and bluff bodies, for the case of a clean bubble the decrease is so large as to render Betz's (1925) drag formula invalid. To show how these results may be applied to complex flows, the effects of a sequence of positive and negative strains on the wake are considered. The average wake width is much larger than in the absence of a strain field and this leads to diffusion of vorticity between wakes and the cancellation of vorticity. The latter mechanism leads to a net reduction in the volume flux deficit downstream which explains why in calculations of the flow through groups of moving or stationary bodies the wakes of upstream bodies may be ignored even though their drag and lift forces have a significant effect on the overall flow field