Preparing Science Teachers in an Era of Reform: Practitioners' Perspectives of Methods Courses

With recent national calls for the reform of science education have come standards that delineate not only science content but also assessment, pedagogy, and teachers’ professional development. If teachers must teach science differently, then teacher preparation must change. This study asked 31 inservice secondary science teachers to complete a survey about topics for inclusion in a secondary science methods course. Respondents ranked a list of prespecified topics and had an opportunity to suggest other topics for inclusion in the course. Results showed that the majority of prespecified potential topics were judged important enough by these teachers to warrant inclusion in a methods course, though no individual added topic appeared on more than two surveys. Results demonstrate that these teachers believe teaching many of the traditional topics in science methods courses is still needed. In addition, they advocated the inclusion of several topics that either represent recent technological and theoretical advances, or longstanding ideas that have recently received considerable attention.     

The stress-deformed state of a packet of cylindrical shells taking account of friction

We propose a method of determining the contact pressures between the shells in a packet under the influence of nonlinear internal and constant external pressure. Using the equations of the general moment theory of shells we determine the stress-deformed state of a packet of finite cylindrical shells taking account of frictional forces on the contacting surfaces. One table. Bibliography: 10 titles.Translated fromMatematicheskie Metody i Fiziko-Mekhanicheskie Polya, Issue 30, 1989, pp. 94–98.     

Interaction of 4-aminobenzofurazan with aryldiazonium salts

The reaction of 4-aminobenzofurazan with aryldiazonium salts leads to the formation of 4-amino-5-aryl-azobenzofurazans and 5-amino-2-aryl-4-nitroso-2H-benzotriazoles, products of the rearrangement of the initially formed 4-amino-7-(arylazo)benzofurazans. Oxidation of the benzofurazan as well as of the triazole derivatives gives 7-aryl-1,2,3-triazol[4,5-e]benzofurazans. The chemical properties of some of the compounds obtained have been investigated.Novosibirsk Institute of Organic Chemistry, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090. Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 10, pp. 1432–1438, October, 1994. Original article submitted July 25, 1994.     

Hydroxyl-containing mesogens. Synthesis and liquid-crystalline properties of 2-o-hydroxyarylpyrimidines

We have synthesized 5-alkyl(alkoxy)-2-(o-lzydroxy-p-alkoxyphenyl)pyrimidines and considered the effect of the OH group on the inesomorphism. We have found that in binuclear o-hydroxyarylpyrimidines, an ortho OH group forming an intramolecular hydrogen bond increases T_mp, inhibits the appearance of nematic properties, and promotes the appearance of a smectic A.Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 90–92, January, 1994.     

Electrohydraulic effect in heterodisperse water-plant systems. II. Chemical nature of the suspended particles

On the basis of the results of acid hydrolysis, chromatographic analysis of the hydrolysates, and a study of IR spectra, it has been established that the suspended particles liberated under the action of electrohydraulic shocks on heterodisperse water—plant systems consist of small fragments of the lignocarbohydrate complex of the plant tissue.     

Lipids of cottonseed and palm oils and compositions based on them

The phsicochemical indices and the fatty-acid and triacylglycerol compositions of cottonseed and palm oils, of cottonseed oil hydrogenate, and of compositions based on them have been determined with the aid of IR and UV spectroscopies, GLC analysis, and chemical transformations. The compositions and amounts of the main classes of lipids in the initial oils and the hydrogenate have been studied. It has been found that in the process of hydrogenation the amount of oxygenated components falls. The work was conducted with the financial support of the Uzbek Fund for Fundamental Investigations.     

Methylphosphonothionates of N-(β-hydroxypropyl)anabasine — Synthesis,structure, and sensitivity of cholinesterases to them

The synthesis has been effected of alkyl anabasinoprop-2-yl and alkyl piperidinoprop-2-yl methylphosphonothionates. It has been shown by¹H,¹³C and³¹P NMR spectroscopies that the anabasine derivatives exist in solution as four diastereomeric forms. The kinetics of the interaction of the compounds synthesized with two types of cholinesterases has been studied.A. S. Sadykov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Fax 627071. Translated from Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, No. 1, pp. 70–74, January–February, 1994.