Building Teacher‐Scientist Partnerships: Teaching About Energy Through Inquiry

This study evaluated the effectiveness of teacher‐scientist partnerships for increasing the use. of inquiry in precollege classrooms. It assessed the influence of the Teaching About Energy Through Inquiry Institutes for middle and high school teachers and energy scientists on participants' attitudes about science and science education, use of inquiry instructional techniques, and student attitudes about their classroom environments. Participant surveys, institute and classroom observations, lesson plans, and interviews indicated increased appreciation for inquiry, greater confidence in teaching using inquiry, and greater use of inquiry in the classroom. Student surveys and classroom observations pointed to higher levels of student satisfaction and less friction among classmates during inquiry‐based investigations implemented after the institutes. Moreover, scientist partners reported increased familiarity with principles of science education and best teaching practice, which are essential skills and knowledge for disseminating results of scientific research to nonscientific audiences, as well as their own students. These results suggest that collaborations between teachers and research scientists can positively affect the environment for learning science in precollege and college classes. Successful collaborations are most likely to occur when equal status for teachers and scientists in the partnership is stressed and partners have the opportunity to explore inquiry‐based curricula together.     

High‐spatial‐resolution mapping of superhydrophobic cicada wing surface chemistry using infrared microspectroscopy and infrared imaging at two synchrotron beamlines

The wings of some insects, such as cicadae, have been reported to possess a number of interesting and unusual qualities such as superhydrophobicity, anisotropic wetting and antibacterial properties. Here, the chemical composition of the wings of the Clanger cicada (Psaltoda claripennis) were characterized using infrared (IR) microspectroscopy. In addition, the data generated from two separate synchrotron IR facilities, the Australian Synchrotron Infrared Microspectroscopy beamline (AS‐IRM) and the Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC), University of Wisconsin‐Madison, IRENI beamline, were analysed and compared. Characteristic peaks in the IR spectra of the wings were assigned primarily to aliphatic hydrocarbon and amide functionalities, which were considered to be an indication of the presence of waxy and proteinaceous components, respectively, in good agreement with the literature. Chemical distribution maps showed that, while the protein component was homogeneously distributed, a significant degree of heterogeneity was observed in the distribution of the waxy component, which may contribute to the self‐cleaning and aerodynamic properties of the cicada wing. When comparing the data generated from the two beamlines, it was determined that the SRC IRENI beamline was capable of producing higher‐spatial‐resolution distribution images in a shorter time than was achievable at the AS‐IRM beamline, but that spectral noise levels per pixel were considerably lower on the AS‐IRM beamline, resulting in more favourable data where the detection of weak absorbances is required. The data generated by the two complementary synchrotron IR methods on the chemical composition of cicada wings will be immensely useful in understanding their unusual properties with a view to reproducing their characteristics in, for example, industry applications.     

A THEORETICAL COMPARISON OF THE TEACHING OF MENTAL CALCULATION STRATEGIES IN ENGLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS

This comparative study aims to identify the philosophical underpinnings of the principles of two approaches to the teaching of primary mathematics, the English Numeracy Strategy and the Dutch Realistic Mathematics Education and to discuss pedagogical implications. Philosophical views of knowledge as personal'subjective' and culturally'constructed' are considered in relation to inter subjectivity as a state of shared knowledge within a community of mathematicians. The didactics of the teaching of mental calculation strategies from the two approaches are used to illustrate a key epistemological difference in the mathematics that is presented to children.     

Recent Trends in Green and Sustainable Chemistry & Waste Valorisation: Rethinking Plastics in a circular economy

The review presents the recent trends in green and sustainable chemistry, as well as waste valorization and their applicability to understand and realize the concept of a circular economy. It also provides a comprehensive global perspective of the linear plastics economy and makes the case for its transformation into a circular plastics economy. Furthermore, bioconversion in a food waste biorefinery to produce fructose as an example of a high value-added product is given as a case study to demonstrate the feasibility of a circular economy.     

Normal droplet impact on horizontal moving films: an investigation of impact behaviour and regimes

Investigations of the impact regimes for a liquid droplet impacting onto horizontal moving liquid films are presented here for the first time. The aim of this study is to show the main impact outcomes and to highlight the effect the movement of films has upon these outcomes. The droplet diameters used in this experiment were 2.47 and 3.86 mm with impact Weber number of between 0.6 and 460. The Reynolds number of the moving film was between 351 and 1,818 depending on the flow rate (1–5.5 L/min) with changes in the film height of between 4.3 and 9.4 mm. The results showed that the impact outcomes exhibit the same regimes established for the impact on static liquids but with different transition boundaries. Moreover, the shape of the impact outcomes is unsymmetrical similar to the inclined impact on static liquids. The impact outcomes are shown to undergo a transition as the Reynolds number of the film increases, this occurs at a threshold value close to the expected transition between laminar and turbulent flow.