title: Society Gets the Individual it Deserves: Engaging Learners for the Flat World

authors: Pope, Clive C.

subjects: learning

abstract: Historically the individual and society pendulum has swung back and forth between individuals and conformity and individuals and community. Individuals and society are mutually dependent yet conflicts of interest have shown how one has sometimes flourished at the expense of the other. As the world and society changes, learning must follow so individuals or groups can participate in society. And because participation in society inherently involves learning physical educators and kinesiologists (among others) need to address how we can assist students to be engaged learners who transform experiences into fruitful knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and beliefs and give meaning to their lives. The paper will situate learning and in particular, student engagement, as a vector for the pervasive change and the associated profound challenges that will be presented to individuals and society this century. Student engagement, particularly at a philosophic level, has essentially been ignored within our field.

text: Society Gets the Individual it Deserves: Engaging Learners for the Flat World Historically the individual and society pendulum has swung back and forth between individuals and conformity and individuals and community. Individuals and society are mutually dependent yet conflicts of interest have shown how one has sometimes flourished at the expense of the other. As the world and society changes, learning must follow so individuals or groups can participate in society. And because participation in society inherently involves learning physical educators and kinesiologists (among others) need to address how we can assist students to be engaged learners who transform experiences into fruitful knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and beliefs and give meaning to their lives. The paper will situate learning and in particular, student engagement, as a vector for the pervasive change and the associated profound challenges that will be presented to individuals and society this century. Student engagement, particularly at a philosophic level, has essentially been ignored within our field.

year: 2012

title: Evolution of Bacillus subtilis: A Novel Phenotype and its Challenges

authors: Murray, Mitchell John

subjects: Evolution

abstract: The enzyme LeuB from the last common ancestor of the firmicutes has been statistically recreated using several different methods. This project deals with two versions, Rec/LG and Rec/EX. To better understand these resurrected enzymes, the proteins were crystallised. Despite extensive efforts to produce crystals of diffraction quality, none of the crystals developed during this project were large enough to be of any use in X-Ray crystallography. Strains of Bacillus subtilis were genetically modified to each have one of either Rec/LG or Rec/Rec/EX in place of the native leuB gene, and then were allowed to evolve alongside an unmodified strain for 500 generations. Attempts were made to extract DNA from the evolved strains at different points throughout the evolution experiment for whole genome sequencing, and to amplify the leuB gene via PCR for direct comparisons of changes that may have occurred to the leuB gene over the course of the evolution experiment. These attempts were ultimately unsuccessful. In lieu of this genetic data, phenotypic changes to the evolved strains were characterised. A new phenotype appeared extremely early on in the experiment (by generation 54), and in less than 300 generations had swept to fixation in 9 independent strains. In all cases, this phenotype included poor growth on LB agar plates, small colonies, and small cells. Similar changes have been observed before in laboratory experiments of B. subtilis, but none occurred so quickly or so uniformly across independent samples.

text: Evolution of Bacillus subtilis: A Novel Phenotype and its Challenges The enzyme LeuB from the last common ancestor of the firmicutes has been statistically recreated using several different methods. This project deals with two versions, Rec/LG and Rec/EX. To better understand these resurrected enzymes, the proteins were crystallised. Despite extensive efforts to produce crystals of diffraction quality, none of the crystals developed during this project were large enough to be of any use in X-Ray crystallography. Strains of Bacillus subtilis were genetically modified to each have one of either Rec/LG or Rec/Rec/EX in place of the native leuB gene, and then were allowed to evolve alongside an unmodified strain for 500 generations. Attempts were made to extract DNA from the evolved strains at different points throughout the evolution experiment for whole genome sequencing, and to amplify the leuB gene via PCR for direct comparisons of changes that may have occurred to the leuB gene over the course of the evolution experiment. These attempts were ultimately unsuccessful. In lieu of this genetic data, phenotypic changes to the evolved strains were characterised. A new phenotype appeared extremely early on in the experiment (by generation 54), and in less than 300 generations had swept to fixation in 9 independent strains. In all cases, this phenotype included poor growth on LB agar plates, small colonies, and small cells. Similar changes have been observed before in laboratory experiments of B. subtilis, but none occurred so quickly or so uniformly across independent samples.

year: 2018

title: Māori medium children’s views about learning mathematics: possibilities for future directions

authors: Hāwera, Ngārewa

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: Pre-European traditional Māori education in New Zealand was integrated and holistic. With Western influence many Maori children struggled to achieve at school. Māori medium education based on retaining Māori values, language and culture therefore emerged to provide an alternative avenue for education. A key element in this initiative is to increase children’s engagement with, and learning of, mathematics. Views from 61 Year 5-8 children in Māori medium contexts have been sought to provide insights about their mathematics education. This paper discusses some of these views and raises possibilities for future directions to support the momentum of this positive initiative.

text: Māori medium children’s views about learning mathematics: possibilities for future directions Pre-European traditional Māori education in New Zealand was integrated and holistic. With Western influence many Maori children struggled to achieve at school. Māori medium education based on retaining Māori values, language and culture therefore emerged to provide an alternative avenue for education. A key element in this initiative is to increase children’s engagement with, and learning of, mathematics. Views from 61 Year 5-8 children in Māori medium contexts have been sought to provide insights about their mathematics education. This paper discusses some of these views and raises possibilities for future directions to support the momentum of this positive initiative.

year: 2011