title: Marine pests in paradise: capacity building, awareness raising and preliminary introduced species port survey results in the Republic of Palau

authors: Campbell, Marnie L.

subjects: non-indigenous species

abstract: Introduced marine species can have a large impact upon small countries that are reliant on marine tourism. Non-governmental organisations, such as the World Conservation Union (IUCN), are working with technical experts to implement capacity building and awareness programs that transfers introduced marine species knowledge to countries in need of aid. The Republic of Palau is reliant on tourism and as such is proactively engaging in this process to ensure that it has the necessary skills to determine and manage its introduced marine species pathways and vectors. The IUCN with the aid of technical experts implemented a four day training workshop that provided both theoretical and practical field experience with introduced marine species port surveys. An outcome of this exercise was the detection of 11 introduced marine species, the training of 10 Palau agencies and two international organisations, and recommendations for future implementation that will aid Palau to address the problem of introduced marine species within their borders.

text: Marine pests in paradise: capacity building, awareness raising and preliminary introduced species port survey results in the Republic of Palau Introduced marine species can have a large impact upon small countries that are reliant on marine tourism. Non-governmental organisations, such as the World Conservation Union (IUCN), are working with technical experts to implement capacity building and awareness programs that transfers introduced marine species knowledge to countries in need of aid. The Republic of Palau is reliant on tourism and as such is proactively engaging in this process to ensure that it has the necessary skills to determine and manage its introduced marine species pathways and vectors. The IUCN with the aid of technical experts implemented a four day training workshop that provided both theoretical and practical field experience with introduced marine species port surveys. An outcome of this exercise was the detection of 11 introduced marine species, the training of 10 Palau agencies and two international organisations, and recommendations for future implementation that will aid Palau to address the problem of introduced marine species within their borders.

year: 2016

title: Flipped classroom learning in a large introductory undergraduate engineering course

authors: Scott, Jonathan B.

subjects: Flipped classroom

abstract: CONTEXT
The flipped-classroom model is a recent educational development that is prominent in the literature on learning. The typical flipped class scenario involves students looking up information, reading printed materials or watching videos prior to gathering in a classroom to apply the knowledge through problem solving activities with guidance from the teacher. However, there is little research available about the effects of the flipped class on students’ learning in large introductory engineering courses with a strong lab component that must be conducted in multiple streams. This current research is based at one New Zealand university with engineering student enrolments of typically 150 students. In the past few years, prior to the introduction of the flipped class, the course lecturers have been refining the teaching of the course through a focus on threshold concepts (TCs) and the introduction of online tutorials.
PURPOSE
This paper aims to address the question: Does flipping a first year electronic engineering class and changing the traditional role of the lecturer to a “learning guide” offer better value for money in terms of the lecturer’s time, resources, and student satisfaction than the traditional face-to-face lecture model? 
APPROACH
We adopted a design-based research approach to develop and trial a flipped class approach to help students learn the TCs and related concepts in electronic engineering. We will report on the design of the flipped class involving lecturer developed online videos and student collaborative problem solving activities. Data collected from lecturer reflections, student focus group interviews and student evaluation of the course will be reported and discussed. 
RESULTS
Of the 64 students who responded to the midterm survey, over 80% found the videos helpful in learning key course ideas. About 70% of respondents indicated that the problem solving sessions helped them understand concepts covered in videos, 43% found them useful in allowing them to explain what they know so far in the course, and, about a quarter found them useful for applying their knowledge in real life and to practice team work skills. The course lecturers observed that as compared to previous years, students are more on- task in the labs, and that the problem solving activities worked well despite some students reporting that some of the exercises were a bit challenging. Regardless, the lecturers felt that the problem solving activities helped to complement the online video lectures.
CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that flipping the class provides students with a more active student-centred learning context. Lecturers become learning facilitators or guide to address student queries when needed. Subsequently when lecturers and students get together in face-to-face class or lab sessions, these allow for more productive, group problem solving activities, and bolster the “esprit-de-corps” of the student cohort. It is our experience that without these changing roles and learning contexts, the flipped class loses more than it gains.

text: Flipped classroom learning in a large introductory undergraduate engineering course CONTEXT
The flipped-classroom model is a recent educational development that is prominent in the literature on learning. The typical flipped class scenario involves students looking up information, reading printed materials or watching videos prior to gathering in a classroom to apply the knowledge through problem solving activities with guidance from the teacher. However, there is little research available about the effects of the flipped class on students’ learning in large introductory engineering courses with a strong lab component that must be conducted in multiple streams. This current research is based at one New Zealand university with engineering student enrolments of typically 150 students. In the past few years, prior to the introduction of the flipped class, the course lecturers have been refining the teaching of the course through a focus on threshold concepts (TCs) and the introduction of online tutorials.
PURPOSE
This paper aims to address the question: Does flipping a first year electronic engineering class and changing the traditional role of the lecturer to a “learning guide” offer better value for money in terms of the lecturer’s time, resources, and student satisfaction than the traditional face-to-face lecture model? 
APPROACH
We adopted a design-based research approach to develop and trial a flipped class approach to help students learn the TCs and related concepts in electronic engineering. We will report on the design of the flipped class involving lecturer developed online videos and student collaborative problem solving activities. Data collected from lecturer reflections, student focus group interviews and student evaluation of the course will be reported and discussed. 
RESULTS
Of the 64 students who responded to the midterm survey, over 80% found the videos helpful in learning key course ideas. About 70% of respondents indicated that the problem solving sessions helped them understand concepts covered in videos, 43% found them useful in allowing them to explain what they know so far in the course, and, about a quarter found them useful for applying their knowledge in real life and to practice team work skills. The course lecturers observed that as compared to previous years, students are more on- task in the labs, and that the problem solving activities worked well despite some students reporting that some of the exercises were a bit challenging. Regardless, the lecturers felt that the problem solving activities helped to complement the online video lectures.
CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that flipping the class provides students with a more active student-centred learning context. Lecturers become learning facilitators or guide to address student queries when needed. Subsequently when lecturers and students get together in face-to-face class or lab sessions, these allow for more productive, group problem solving activities, and bolster the “esprit-de-corps” of the student cohort. It is our experience that without these changing roles and learning contexts, the flipped class loses more than it gains.

year: 2016

title: For staff at the Eastern Institute of Technology, is Ōtātara a placeless geography? Or a geography of significance?

authors: Passey, Emma

subjects: Ōtātara

abstract: This thesis explores the experience of place for a group of tertiary employees in a regional area of New Zealand. Staff based at EIT Hawke’s Bay in Taradale, Napier can see the Ōtātara Pā Reserve from several vantage points on campus, and often visit because of its immediate proximity. Originally, joined and now adjacent, the cultural significance of this land for Māori over some centuries prior to Pākehā settlement, is still being uncovered. Through a series of interviews, the historical significance of this place is joined with the experiences of staff in being in this space. A range of meanings including belonging, attachment and sense of location were described by participants, showing the development over time of threads of connection for themselves, family, community and also staff members.

Ideas in the literature of place were considered including attachment to meaningful locations and landscape. A particular interest in the thesis was bringing this more general literature into focus for a New Zealand place, which has substantial Māori history connections including for participants of both Māori and Pākehā backgrounds. Several methodological issues were discussed within a series of interviews including cultural appropriateness and representation. The researchers transition from an English cultural upbringing, to developing and extending indigenous landscape knowledge, illustrates the changing recognition and involvement in an increasingly bi-cultural New Zealand, and demonstrates the implications of this in understanding place attachment.

Findings from this research were organised in three main chapters. The first, recounted historical material about Ōtātara, Māori and Pākehā times, exploring ideas of place and belonging. It also provided a natural anchor for the second and third chapters, which reported the findings of EIT staff enjoying being within, and feeling the presence of that history. Several themes emerged and were summarised as embodied landscape experiences, and the intriguing dimensions of social relationships and place for these tertiary staff.
Place is important across the social sciences as it is for other disciplines. It evokes on the one hand aspirations and ideals of an aesthetic and spiritual nature but at the same time, reminds human beings of their literal and biological being in time and space. The present study has contributed to this wider narrative by looking at one example and in one national bi-cultural setting.

The question posed at the start of the thesis considered whether EIT staff view Ōtātara as a place of significance or a geography which does not matter. The historical connections and physical closeness between EIT and Ōtātara, mean that the Institution and the landscape are inextricably linked. People are equally bonded to this place through culture and lived experiences. Often unconscious or incidental associations are handed down through the generations, within the organisation and throughout the wider community.
How we now occupy this place in a modern world, how we share the (hi)stories and become authors of new ones, will have a profound influence on the ways that staff continue to connect and develop feelings of belonging. Related to this, an idea about an institutional-wide hīkoi around the boundaries of the campus and Ōtātara is offered as an addendum. Our responsibility as educators is to signal to future generations that this is a landscape of significance ensuring that Ōtātara continues to be acknowledged as a taonga for EIT employees, and that it is nurtured in the same way as it nurtures us.

text: For staff at the Eastern Institute of Technology, is Ōtātara a placeless geography? Or a geography of significance? This thesis explores the experience of place for a group of tertiary employees in a regional area of New Zealand. Staff based at EIT Hawke’s Bay in Taradale, Napier can see the Ōtātara Pā Reserve from several vantage points on campus, and often visit because of its immediate proximity. Originally, joined and now adjacent, the cultural significance of this land for Māori over some centuries prior to Pākehā settlement, is still being uncovered. Through a series of interviews, the historical significance of this place is joined with the experiences of staff in being in this space. A range of meanings including belonging, attachment and sense of location were described by participants, showing the development over time of threads of connection for themselves, family, community and also staff members.

Ideas in the literature of place were considered including attachment to meaningful locations and landscape. A particular interest in the thesis was bringing this more general literature into focus for a New Zealand place, which has substantial Māori history connections including for participants of both Māori and Pākehā backgrounds. Several methodological issues were discussed within a series of interviews including cultural appropriateness and representation. The researchers transition from an English cultural upbringing, to developing and extending indigenous landscape knowledge, illustrates the changing recognition and involvement in an increasingly bi-cultural New Zealand, and demonstrates the implications of this in understanding place attachment.

Findings from this research were organised in three main chapters. The first, recounted historical material about Ōtātara, Māori and Pākehā times, exploring ideas of place and belonging. It also provided a natural anchor for the second and third chapters, which reported the findings of EIT staff enjoying being within, and feeling the presence of that history. Several themes emerged and were summarised as embodied landscape experiences, and the intriguing dimensions of social relationships and place for these tertiary staff.
Place is important across the social sciences as it is for other disciplines. It evokes on the one hand aspirations and ideals of an aesthetic and spiritual nature but at the same time, reminds human beings of their literal and biological being in time and space. The present study has contributed to this wider narrative by looking at one example and in one national bi-cultural setting.

The question posed at the start of the thesis considered whether EIT staff view Ōtātara as a place of significance or a geography which does not matter. The historical connections and physical closeness between EIT and Ōtātara, mean that the Institution and the landscape are inextricably linked. People are equally bonded to this place through culture and lived experiences. Often unconscious or incidental associations are handed down through the generations, within the organisation and throughout the wider community.
How we now occupy this place in a modern world, how we share the (hi)stories and become authors of new ones, will have a profound influence on the ways that staff continue to connect and develop feelings of belonging. Related to this, an idea about an institutional-wide hīkoi around the boundaries of the campus and Ōtātara is offered as an addendum. Our responsibility as educators is to signal to future generations that this is a landscape of significance ensuring that Ōtātara continues to be acknowledged as a taonga for EIT employees, and that it is nurtured in the same way as it nurtures us.

year: 2021