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A PILOT STUDY OF BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION EDUCATION FOR STEM: ATTITUDES PROMOTED AMONG JAPANESE FEMALE STUDENTS
Get PDFBelonging in Physics
Get PDFMany students in first year physics often struggle to feel like they belong in their physics classes or in the physics community. This may be due to their belonging to a minority group such as gender, cultural or being the first in their family to attend university. Hearing and sharing lived experiences in physics from their teachers and fellow students can help students understand that they are not alone and that having such feelings and experiences will not exclude them from studying physics in the future. Helping students to understand they have similar experiences to their colleagues and observe the success of past students, enables a sense of belonging and strengthens connections and engagement.
This workshop will explore the idea of creating the sense of belonging in the physics classroom and work through student activities developed by Professor Chandralekha Singh and colleagues* that you can take back to your own classrooms.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui07PwurAns ‘How to Enhance Physics by Making it Inclusive’
Intended Audience: Undergraduate Physics Educator
Makerspaces in Physics
Get PDFMakerspaces are becoming increasingly common in Universities and Schools. However, it has been reported that Makerspaces are not well integrated into educational curricula. In this workshop, we provide some examples of Makerspace projects, we offer a tour of a Makerspace in Northern Thaliand, and engage participants in a ‘Design Thinking’ workshop. These ideas will provide participants with examples of how to effectively use Makerspaces to teach Physics.
Intended Audience: School Teacher
Collaborative science inquiry with the CoSci virtual lab
Get PDFThe CoSci Virtual Lab (https://cosci.tw/), standing for “Collaboration” and “Science Learning”, is developed by Professor Chen-Chung Liu (National Central University), Emeritus Professor Fu-Kwun Hwang (National Taiwan Normal University) and Professor Francisco Esquembre (Universidad de Murcia). The CoSci Virtual Lab allows students to conduct physics experiment collaboratively and to explore and examine their science ideas with more than 100 physics simulations.
Intended Audience: University and Secondary-School Educator
Using LEGO race cars in the Physics lab
Get PDFStudents often find learning about uncertainties dry and boring. In order to engage students and simulate their interest, I have been using LEGO race cars to teach measurement more fun while allowing them to quickly repeat their experiments. Students can then perform uncertainty propagation calculations. My research found that these hands-on LEGO activities were instrumental in improving students’ confidence with physics experiments, especially in dealing with uncertainties. LEGO lab was also a key factor in reducing the early attrition rate at the first-year level.
The Experimental Activities that I have designed cover a range of topics, including the concept of uncertainty, the number of variables in an experiment, and the fairness of an experiment (i.e., whether the experiment, as designed, biased the result). In each of the experimental tasks fundamental concepts are introduced, including the various formulae for speed, velocity and acceleration, potential and kinetic energy, as well as the calculation of the track angles. Further, uncertainty analysis is introduced and explained for each experiment, with the students being required to identify the sources of the uncertainty (and if it can be determined, the magnitude) and for the quantifiable sources, and then propagate that uncertainty into the final result. For each experiment, the students are asked to discuss the limitations and drawbacks of the experiment and suggest improvements.
In this workshop, I will discuss some LEGO experimental activities that can be used in lab classes, helping students comprehend the quite abstract concept of uncertainty. These activities can be modified and used to teach school students about energy conservation, sources of energy, different types of energy etc.
Intended Audience: Undergraduate and Secondary-School Physics Educator
Exploring the use of Virtual Reality to manage distress in adolescent patients in the Emergency Departments
No full textBackground: Adolescents are more likely than others to use emergency departments and find them distressing due to long waits, loud sounds, bright lights, privacy intrusions, and exposure to the distress of others. VR could be effective in not only dealing with pain while in emergency, but also blocking out distressing stimuli for a calming experience that could assist them in regulating their emotions.Aims: To explore the potential benefits of deploying VR for adolescents in the emergency department.Methods: Twenty-six participants who had voluntarily attended the ED in two university teaching hospitals received the VR intervention. Pre and post measures assessing changes in state anxiety, stress and affect, and physical bio-markers, were obtained.Results: The use of VR intervention was associated with significant reductions in distress (SSSQ-D; p<0.001) and negative affect (I-PANAS-SF; p<0.001). Most participants chose ‘Netflix’ as their content of choice. The technology was well received by the participants of the study with subjective reports indicating that receiving VR intervention was “insanely cool”, “takes you away from what’s actually happening”, and some participants felt “privileged to get this experience in a hospital.”Conclusions: VR technology can effectively be used in emergency departments to assist adolescents and young adults better manage their distress and take steps toward activating more self-control mechanisms that will in turn allow for more meaningful engagements to be established with health clinicians. This technology has broad implications for reducing distress in adolescents in a variety of clinical contexts
Navigating the online world of lifestyle health information: an adolescent perspective
No full textBackground: Lifestyle health related trajectories, including dietary behaviours, physical activity, body weight and sleep are established in adolescence. Generation Z (born 1995-2015) are the most internet-dependent generation in history with >90% smartphone ownership. Gaps exist in understanding of what online platforms adolescents are using and barriers and facilitators of these to seek lifestyle health information.Aims: To explore adolescents’ perceptions on use of contemporary digital platforms (websites, social media, smartphone apps) to seek information or advice related to lifestyle heath.Methods: Focus groups were held via Zoom (Jul-Aug 2021). Eligible participants were 13-18 years, living in Australia and searched for online lifestyle health information in previous three months. Participants were recruited through an existing database. Focus groups were transcribed verbatim, independently coded by two researchers and analysed thematically (Framework approach). Results: Five focus groups were held (n=32, mean age 16.3±1.4, 56% female). Thematic analysis revealed participants searched for information both actively (e.g., on Google or YouTube) and passively (e.g., scrolling social media and preloaded smartphone apps). Participants identified that most helpful information was well-organised (aesthetic appeal and layout), came from a credible and reliable source (e.g. sponsorships disclosed) and expressed the need for relatability. Mixed views were reported for application of lifestyle health information found online. Conclusions: This study highlights the complexity of lifestyle health information online for adolescents. Adolescents seek to access information that is appealing, credible, relevant and actionable. Future interventions must consider co-design with adolescents. Furthermore, the regulation of lifestyle health information available online warrants further investigation
Using social media to build social cohesion for health promotion among low-resourced mothers
No full textBackground: Physical activity (PA) is an essential component of chronic disease prevention, yet most Americans do not meet the recommended PA guidelines. Rates of chronic disease are also higher among low-income communities.Aims: This study aimed to co-design and test the feasibility of a digital health intervention for low-income mothers in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Methods: The co-design phase consisted of interviews (n=10) to identify barriers and opportunities for health and wellbeing and a co-design workshop (n=16) to develop the intervention activities. Next, the intervention phase consisted of a pilot feasibility study (n=21) of the intervention, consisting of weekly dance and yoga classes, food pantry visits, and group playdates. The activities were coordinated through a text-message group and a NextDoor group, and free professional childcare was provided during wellness activities. Participation rates, social cohesion, physical activity, and health status and wellbeing were measured at baseline and follow-up via questionnaire.Results: 90% of participants attended one or more FT4W activities. The questionnaire was completed by 100% of participants indicating it was easy to understand and not too burdensome. All measures detected change in constructs from baseline to follow-up. Availability of childcare was the most commonly (66%) reported reason participants were able to engage in the offered wellness activities.Conclusions: Using co-design methods ensured that the intervention met the needs of low-income mothers and led to the inclusion of components such as free professional childcare. Recruitment, retention, and acceptability rates were high; however, moms need additional support to increase participation in wellness activities and improve technology literacy. Finally, a planned component of the intervention was to include a Community Champion as a group facilitator, but this role proved difficult to fill. These lessons will be applied to a future, larger-scale trial of this intervention.
What do I say? How do I say it? Twitter as a knowledge dissemination tool for Australian mental health research
No full textMental health disorders are among the leading causes of disease burden worldwide, and research dissemination is receiving increasing focus. Twitter produces more mentions of scholarly research than any other alternative metric, yet there is a lack of guidance for how to use it. This study aims to answer the questions of ‘what do I say’ and ‘how do I say it’ by analysing a large sample of mental health research Tweets.Three hundred mental health research Tweets were sampled from two large Australian mental health research organisations. Twenty-seven predictor variables were coded for each Tweet across five thematic categories. Variables were subject to inter-rater reliability testing, and regression analyses were conducted to determine associations with engagement outcomes of Favourites, Retweets, and Comments.Less than half (n=12) of the predictor variables passed validity tests. Notably, conclusions could not reliably be drawn on whether a Tweet featured evidence-based information. Tweets were significantly more likely to be Retweeted if they contained multimedia. Tweets were significantly more likely to receive Comments if they focused on a specific population group. These associations remained significant when controlling for organisation.These findings indicate that researchers may be able to maximise engagement on Twitter by focusing on specific population groups and enriching Tweets with multimedia content. Care should be taken to ensure users can infer which messages are evidence-based. Guidelines and an accompanying resource are proposed for researchers