Integrating Natural Resources Education and Citizen Science Communication through the Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones)

Science communication is increasing through the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones. Within the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU), UASs such as the DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Mavic Mini2 drones were used by students and faculty to study mistletoe, crapemyrtle and fire ants and then drone images were uploaded to iNaturalist, the largest repository for flora and fauna specimens to share with the scientific community and general public. The benefits of using a UAS is that nadir (directly above) images of the specimens increase the locational accuracy of each specimen compared to distance images acquired from a smartphone. By incorporating drones into course works at SFASU, faculty are increasing the technological abilities of students to communicate natural resource information to a greater audience as a citizen scientist. With ever increasing capabilities and lower cost, UAS are becoming a viable alternative to smartphones for communication of science, especially for iNaturalist. The ability to communicate science information and display images adds a dimension for the citizen scientist to use a UAS in teaching and information exchange while creating a well-rounded, better informed, and more employable student upon graduation.

Metacognition, systems thinking, and problem-solving ability in school-based agriculture, food, and natural resources education

Problems within agriculture, food, and natural resource (AFNR) systems are increasingly complex, expanding the need for students to develop problem-solving abilities alongside an understanding of their own thinking. In this effort, we explored the problem-solving abilities, metacognition, and systems thinking of current AFNR secondary school students. A descriptive correlational study design was employed. Data were collected via an online, Qualtrics survey. Student responses on the metacognition, systems thinking, and problem-solving ability survey items suggested opportunities for increased focus on these areas throughout their educational experience. In addition, statistically significant relationships between metacognition and systems thinking and systems thinking and problem-solving ability reinforced the importance of these topics within AFNR Education. Recommendations emerging from this work include additional emphasis on metacognition, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills within secondary school AFNR classrooms; utilization of specific strategies to increase systems thinking; operationalizing specific strategies to increase metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation; along with a cross-cutting recommendation for teachers to make their thinking more explicit during instruction to increase metacognition, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills among learners.

The determinants of democracy: a sensitivity analysis

Numerous studies—operating with diverse model specifications, samples and empirical measures—suggest different economic, social, cultural, demographic, institutional and international determinants of democracy. We distinguish between democratization and democratic survival and test the sensitivities of 67 proposed determinants by varying the control variable set, democracy measure, and sample time period. Furthermore, we go beyond existing sensitivity analyses and unpack the aggregate results by analyzing how theoretically motivated control variables affect sensitivity for two prominent determinants in the democracy literature: income and Islam. Overall, our results reveal a far larger number of robust determinants of democratization than of democratic survival. For democratic survival, the only robust factors are income and a law-abiding bureaucracy. In addition, our results highlight uncertainty surrounding the relationship between income and democratization, but show that broader development processes enhance the chances of democratization. Moreover, chances of democratization are lower in countries with large Muslim populations, but that relationship is sensitive to controlling for natural resources, education and neighborhood characteristics. Other results of the sensitivity analysis show that political protests, a democratic neighborhood, and the global proportion of democracies positively influence democratization, while natural resources, majoritarian systems, and long-tenured leaders make countries less likely to democratize.

Collaboration as an Essential Key to Education for Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development deals with issues like climate change, disaster risk, biodiversity, poverty, environmental degradation, pollution, overconsumption, gender inequality, health, quality education and economic growth. As evident from the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, every aspect of natural, social and economic field has become an area of concern for sustainability at local as well as global level. Collaboration promotes peace worldwide and brings effectiveness and accountability at institutional level. This would facilitate their contribution towards sustainability as an underlying force towards sustainable development. Human settlements with fast growing industrialization have to keep balance with other forms of life on the planet and also with its natural resources. Education serves as a basis to sustainable development as it is through education only that global citizens can be created who have the competencies to sustainable development now and in the future. Education for sustainable development requires coordination and collaboration among all these different fields and they all must support education. People and organizations from diverse fields need to come together and make collaborative efforts in education for sustainable development. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to throw light on the need and importance of collaboration and interrelation of education sector with various other sectors of society such as economics, business, health, environment and legal framework.

Strategic Staffing and Motivation in the Nigerian Civil Service (Kaduna State as a Case Study)

The study "strategic staffing study of Kaduna state civil commission both by academic and service commission continue to be well-research topic both by academic and commercial firms. The aim of strategic staffing and motivation is to have well motivated employee as well as having managers with the possibility to motivate others. The focus is on the factors managers use to motivate employees and differences regarding gender and age. The purpose with the study is to provide a better understanding of the employee motivation issues in Kaduna state government, with emphasis on the five selected ministries in Kaduna state, Nigeria. i.e. Ministry of Environmental and Natural Resources, Education, Town Planning, water Resources and Youth and Sports. The findings show that motivation in its various forms has a direct impact on the performance Of employees. Today employees are more motivated by intrinsic factors rather than extrinsic which dominated in the past, but none of the two can be overlooked by managers when motivating their employees, It is recommended that both internal and external motivational factors should be explored by managers while managers themselves should be performance driven, an attribute which is a motivational factor in itself. Survey method was used in the research and simple percentages were also used in the interpretation of the data analysis.Â