Selected outreach programs at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications

Many engineering outreach programs use building a bridge as a hands-on activity for multiple grade levels and audiences. South Dakota State University (SDSU) has used bridge building activities, with slight modifications for grade level and time allowed, for over 10 years in outreach at schools and campus workshops. In recent years, it has been noted that the same level of students attending these outreach events are either performing the same or a similar activity at their school or another event outside of our outreach program which has affected the effectiveness of using this activity to stimulate interest in engineering. In the last two years, modifications have been made to create a bridge builder challenge that incorporates measurement, experimentation, simulation, design, and redesign for middle and high school students. Therefore, -incorporation of design standards and performance as well as economic efficiency has been the key to linking science principles to engineering principles. Details of the activity and its implementation are discussed. Background A common goal for outreach activities is to increase the interest that participants have for math and science and, in turn, engineering. In an effort to entice more people to study engineering, outreach activities to schools and through workshops have increased in recent years 1 . One staple activity in many of these outreach activities is building a bridge. Many different bridge activities are available on-line for use in outreach or teaching 2-5 . Contests have been created to build and test balsa wood bridges and also virtual bridges, formerly known as West Point Bridge challenge 6 . The following article describes bridge building activities and anecdotal observations from 15 years of outreach workshops that have featured bridge building.

This study focuses on the application of dynamic assessment (DA) for pedagogical purposes. It is aimed at investigating how the students' English speaking skill could be improved through DA, which is grounded in Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD). The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate to what extent DA assists EFL undergraduate students to improve their English speaking skill, (2) to explore the students' perceived self-efficacy in their English speaking skill through DA, and (3) to examine the students' attitudes toward DA. The participants of the study were 10 university students who studied in an EFL classroom of Foundation English I (ENG 101). Both qualitative and quantitative research instruments were employed in this study. As for the qualitative instruments, the participants' verbal report, semi-structured interviews, and diaries were adopted. The quantitative instruments employed in this study were the three tests (pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest), a self-efficacy questionnaire, and an attitude questionnaire. The results of the study revealed that through the test-train-retest design, DA improved the students' English speaking skills and their perceived self-efficacy toward English speaking skills. The data from qualitative instruments showed that the participants gained meaningful learning experiences through DA procedures. All participants expressed positive attitudes toward DA. The results of this study indicated that DA encouraged the students to construct a sense of ownership in their own learning and to become actively engaged in the test tasks. Thus, this study has shed light on the possible application of DA for a remedial classroom in an EFL context.

The research paper describes mixed-methods Experience Design research instruments that investigate the relationship between cross-cultural identity and location. Qualitative research instruments were designed to initially locate connections between conceptions of the self and symbolic pathways, and then to push out from conceptual paths to find boundaries and key connections between them. This paper details qualitative research into how an African university deploys place-based identity through its website, and how university students navigate through the university portal to desired information. This research uncovered whether the structure of a website reinforced audience notions of place through their use of metaphor, image, and navigation cues. The paper outlines the creation of the research instrument, discusses how early data collection guided later data collection, and finally details how these methods solicit users to define the significance of the data during research method shifts.

Learning and teaching languages in technology-mediated environments : why modes and meaning making matter

Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies, suppliers, service providers, and institutions working together at economically linked activities in a particular sector. Clusters play an important role to improve development through associative organizational forms. Many factors contribute to clusters’ competitiveness (e.g. trust and collaboration among firms, and cluster governance). However, the literature about these factors is broad and their definitions vary according to different disciplines. Moreover, these factors were object of study in industrial settings. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present a qualitative research instrument to analyze clusters’ competitiveness factors. The final instrument created is a continuity of the work published by Rigoni and Saccol (2012) and it was empirically tested it in a cluster of flower growers. Most of the competitiveness factors of our instrument stemmed from the literature, while others emerged from the field, contributing to foster the development of theory on clusters' competitiveness. This instrument has several applications, such as to qualitatively analyze the level of competitiveness of clusters, helping their members adopt a cluster approach, and assisting police makers to design more effective cluster development policies. Keywords: clusters, competitiveness factors, qualitative research instrument.

Review question/objective The objective of this systematic review is to provide a narrative summary synthesis of the quality of existing Husserlian phenomenological research studies in the health sciences. As a methodological systematic review, only studies that focus on adult patients’ experiences of preventive, screening, diagnosis, treatment or rehabilitation interventions/procedures will be considered to serve as a paradigm “case” of the use of the Husserlian phenomenological approach within the broad field of health. The review question is: What is the quality of existing Husserlian phenomenological research studies in the health sciences? The motivation for this systematic review is not to fault authors of existing Husserlian phenomenological research, but to explore the problems encountered in existing research literature, if any, and to provide guidance to authors for future health research guided by this specific philosophical perspective. In order to avoid repetition, the term ‘Husserlian phenomenological approach’ as used in the text refers to the approach described by Edmund Husserl in English translations of his own published work; or as described in English language commentaries by internationally recognized scholars; or from Husserlian phenomenological scholars including the structured framework presented by Spiegelberg. Each time the ‘content of Husserlian phenomenological research studies’ is used in the text it should be understood to mean ‘content of Husserlian phenomenological research studies as reflected in the stated philosophical perspective, research methodology, data collection methods, data analysis methods, presentation and interpretation of the results, and the conclusions’. Definition of terms: 1. Husserlian phenomenological research studies refers to primary qualitative research studies that are explicitly grounded in the work of Husserl reflected in explicit statements or descriptions by the authors. 2. Quality refers to the extent to which there is congruence between the Husserlian phenomenological approach and the content of Husserlian phenomenological research studies. These stipulative definitions are intended to preclude the need to cite the scientific literature as there is no need to demonstrate their ‘validity’ or ‘acceptability’ by the communities of scholars. TRUNCATED AT 350 WORDS.

The objective of this article is to analyze how the minicyclones of expansive learning occurred during the development of mathematical tasks that involve the production of digital mathematical cartoons with 6th students at an elementary school in the interior of Brazil during the pandemic, Covid-19. 19. Thus, we base ourselves on the humans-with-media system and on qualitative research, whose sources and data production instruments were: field notes, questionnaires, audiovisual recordings, and student handouts. We analyzed the data through the method of analytical induction considering the analytical tool of minicyclones of expansive learning. The results indicated that minicyclones of expansive learning occur with expansion movements — questioning, criticism, and relationships between mathematics and society — at certain times and retraction movements — structured tasks and ready-made answers — at others. We conclude that thinking about approaches to break with the stable pattern of teaching and learning mathematics is something complex.

Research into the effectiveness of cooperative learning for students who encounter barriers to participation and learning, and for those who show resistance to cooperative learning, produces poor results because learning strategies do not always incorporate the essential elements of cooperative learning. For this reason, in this study we intend to show how the factors of competence for cooperative learning evolved over 6 terms in base teams, in students with resistance to cooperative learning and in one student diagnosed with ADHD. This was a longitudinal case study where qualitative research instruments were used, carried out in a rural classroom. The results show how the base teams (class-group) evolved, how the resistant students and the ADHD student evolved, and offer pointers to cooperative proposals that should be developed in a class-group, considering the different learning needs of students.

There is ample consensus among many English scholars that pronunciation is a fundamental component of communicative competence. This research sought to investigate the relationship between EFL students’ self-efficacy in pronunciation and their emotional engagement in classroom conversations, and to measure their levels of self-efficacy and emotional engagement. A mixed-method cross-sectional design was employed to accomplish the aims of the current study, encompassing both quantitative and qualitative research instruments, particularly a survey complemented by focus-group interviews. Using a purposive sampling technique, 86 Iraqi university EFL students were involved in this research. Quantitatively, the findings showed that the participants (n = 86) reported a score in the upper-middle range, moderately high levels, self-efficacy in pronunciation was (mean = 28.755; SD = 4.437), and emotional engagement in conversation was (mean = 29.034; SD = 4.134). Besides, the quantitative results reported a significant positive correlation between self-efficacy in pronunciation and emotional engagement in class conversations, r (84)= .705, p ˂ .001, suggesting that boosting EFL students’ confidence in pronunciation may foster their positive emotions and willingness to participate in classroom conversations and discussions. Qualitatively, findings uncovered that increased confidence among participants correlates with a heightened interest in engaging in conversations with enjoyment, disregarding the potential negative emotions associated with making pronunciation errors. The findings of this study implied that increasing students’ level of self-efficacy will positively impact their emotional engagement during conversations, suggesting that improving EFL students’ confidence in pronunciation may boost their positive emotions and willingness to engage in classroom conversations and discussions.

Bullying continues to be a social issue affecting millions of students of all ages worldwide. Research on bullying seems to be dominated by quantitative research approaches employed standardized categories and measures, ultimately limiting our knowledge about children’s own view on bullying. Our research follows another direction, aiming to explore the representation of bullying in a sample of Italian primary school children by using and comparing the functioning of two qualitative research instruments: interviews, and children’s drawings. In addition, aided by quantitative analyses, we aimed to investigate whether students’ involvement in different bullying roles (as bullies, victims, or defenders), as measured by self-assessment, correlated with different characteristics of the representation of bullying emerging from children’s drawings and interviews. We recruited a convenient sample of 640 primary school students (mean age = 9.44; SD = 0.67), 53.3% of whom were male. The results showed that all forms of bullying, i.e., physical, verbal, and social bullying, could be identified in interview and drawing data, although references to all types of bullying were more frequent in interview data. In terms of bullying criteria, the presence of a power imbalance between the bully and the victim was most frequently detected in both the interview data and the drawing data, while repetition was more easily detected in the interview data. The interview data showed that sadness was the most frequently reported victim emotions, followed by fear, anger, and lack of emotion. The drawing data showed a similar pattern, although victims were more frequently described as lacking emotions compared to the interview data. In both interview and drawing data, age and female gender were positively associated with references to verbal bullying, and negatively associated with references to physical bullying. Additionally, bully/victim children were more likely than uninvolved children to depict physical bullying in the drawings, while this association was not detected in interview data. In summary, our study shows that, compared with drawings, interviews tend to provide a more comprehensive view of children’s own representation of bullying, while drawing data tend to show stronger connections with children’s current personal experiences of bullying.

Recent approaches to second language learning have focused on the role of individual differences, out of which beliefs seem increasingly to be drawing researchers’ attention. While focus on teachers’ beliefs has been theorized with regard to their definitions and content, there is a dearth of empirical research on beliefs as to how much changeable or unchangeable they can be. The study to be presented examines stability and variability of two pre-service language teachers’ beliefs—a very motivated student who intends to become a professional language teacher and an unmotivated one who has joined language teaching studies in order to learn foreign languages, with no intention of becoming a professional teacher. The focus of the study was on both generic and domain beliefs, the former comprising the perception of different aspects of the teaching profession in general, whereas the latter presenting the subjects’ opinions on three language subsystems (vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation). The study was a longitudinal one lasting almost 3 years, and the data obtained within that time comes from the use of the following qualitative research instruments: the subjects’ narrative accounts, their choice of metaphors, mind-mapping, diaries on their teaching practice, interviews and the researcher’s observations. The results showed that the change on some of the beliefs did occur, although there were areas where the beliefs changed very insignificantly.

This case study aimed to determine the rehabilitation program for typhoon Pablo victims in the province of Davao del Norte. Using the purposive sampling technique, twelve (12) informants were interviewed in three (3) municipalities, namely the municipality of Kapalong, San Isidro, and Talaingod, Davao del Norte covering three (3) commodities such as; banana, cacao, and coffee rehabilitation program. A qualitative research instrument was used to capture all data relevant to their experiences, challenges, and overcoming strategies. Thematic analysis by Creswell (2009) was employed to analyze the data. Under the experiences, the result revealed the following themes; living comfortably after the typhoon, damaged farmlands and crops, income loss in agriculture, generation of alternative income and employment, the existence of disaster resiliency and management, provision of inputs, and cash assistance and implementation of the rehabilitation program. Furthermore, the challenges experienced by the victims are climate change, market instability, financial incapacity, lack of information and education, low-quality seedlings and high cost of production, lack of crop insurance, and delayed distribution of seedlings. The overcoming strategies they identified were as follows; develop a positive attitude toward family welfare, develop ways for sustainable farming, availing of the loan program, and intensify coordination for assistance. Finally, the success stories revealed the following cluster; development of self-reliance and perseverance, recovery as a result of hard work and assistance, development of a positive outlook for the future, and government response helped to expedite rehabilitation. The implementation of the typhoon Pablo rehabilitation program must couple with appropriate policy frameworks and political and financial support for the farmers to bridge the gap. Thus, creating a sustainable agricultural program and planning a disaster response will benefit the farmers in the long term. Farmers, scientists, and institutions continually aim to uncover techniques that boost crop yields, improve agricultural productivity, minimize loss due to disease, insects, and disasters, create more efficient equipment, and improve food quality overall. Lastly, the Department of Agriculture, Local Government Units, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, Non-government Organizations, and other concerned agencies can help the farmers live a decent life by providing appropriate intervention and assistance that promote the interests and needs of the agricultural sector.

The current study aims to compare the adoption of quality assurance and quality control standards in the forensic fingerprints laboratories (FFPL) in Bahrain and Dubai. Particularly, the study aims to: 1) identify the differences in the adoption of QA/QC (ISO/IEC 17025) in FFPL between Bahrain and Dubai; 2) to identify the advantages of adopting a specialized accreditation scheme such as ISO 17025 and ILAC; and 3) to identify the extent to which the accreditation by ISO 17025 and ILAC in forensic labs in Bahrain improve the QA practices. The researcher adopted the descriptive research method. A mixed-method approach was utilized by the researcher, where both quantitative and qualitative research instrument, i. e. a questionnaire and an in-depth interview, were employed to collect the data from the sample of the study which consisted of (68) employees from forensic fingerprint laboratories in Bahrain and UAE-Dubai (quantitative sample) and (2) interviewees representing highly authorized personnel in the two countries (qualitative sample). The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The findings of the study demonstrated that there are statistically significant differences in quality management responsibility between FFPL in Bahrain and FFPL in Dubai, for the benefit of FFPL in Dubai. It indicated that although the forensic fingerprints both laboratories in Bahrain and Dubai have gained ISO 9001, however Dubai's forensic fingerprints laboratories demonstrated a better performance in accordance with the quality assurance and quality control standards.

The increase in data confirmed by the coronavirus virus continues to increase, resulting in a lot of pressure on all health workers and the covid-19 volunteer team. The pressure that occurred on the volunteer team partly experienced fatigue where the highest argument was the use of PPE completely and the number of procedures, the discomfort when wearing PPE was very tired, coupled with the environment with hot weather. So the factors that cause fatigue in the volunteer team are age, gender, working period, work shift, physical environment, and the length of time using PPE. The research approach method is a combined method of quantitative and qualitative or a mixed method approach. This research was conducted at the main Covid-19 post in the city of Binjai by taking samples at the keyperson for the interview stage. This qualitative research instrument is the researcher himself who adheres to the questionnaire guidelines conducted face-to-face. The data analysis technique is the analytic descriptive technique. The purpose of this study was to look at the factors that influence fatigue in the Covid-19 volunteer team in the city of BinjaiKey words: Fatigue factor, volunteers

The Relaxation Program in Bintaro Village is a policy to overcome obstacles in building construction permits. The aim of this research is to implement the IMB relaxation policy in Bintaro Village, South Jakarta. In this qualitative research, the South Jakarta Building Licensing Sub-Department and Bintaro Subdistrict demonstrated significant efforts in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the licensing process. Implementation shows significant efforts from the South Jakarta City Administration Building Licensing Department and Bintaro Subdistrict, with certain aspects, such as Communication, Resources and Disposition having become the focus in assessing the success of this policy. Since the implementation of the IMB Relaxation Program in Bintaro Subdistrict, South Jakarta, interview results show a positive impact and effective policy implementation. Effective communication through various outreach activities has increased public understanding. Evaluation of human resources and redistribution of tasks as well as special training have been carried out to deal with the surge in demand for building permits. Although there are challenges regarding levy payments and community concerns about the financial burden, in general, the community accepts levy payments as a reasonable contribution to development. Recommendations for improvement include strategies to reduce administrative and financial burdens, maintaining a balance between development and community financial capacity. Overall, the implementation of the IMB Relaxation Program policy in Bintaro Subdistrict shows positive steps in increasing efficiency, transparency and community involvement in the building permit process.