Dominio de habilidades del pensamiento computacional en los estudiantes del Instituto Tecnológico Superior Sucre de Quito - Ecuador

El pensamiento computacional y las habilidades relacionadas con él son de interés tanto para el campo educativo, así como para el campo profesional, pues la habilidad de resolución de problemas apoyada en la informática se convierte en un elemento necesario para las personas que viven en la sociedad actual. La investigación tuvo como propósito dos situaciones: diagnosticar el nivel de desarrollo del pensamiento computacional en los estudiantes del Instituto Tecnológico Superior “Sucre”, así como establecer las relaciones existentes entre las habilidades seleccionadas del mismo como son orientación espacial, toma de decisiones, empleo de bucles y elaboración de funciones o subrutinas para la resolución de problemas. Con esta finalidad se aplicó un instrumento validado que consta de 32 problemas para resolver en un ambiente gráfico conformadas de la siguiente manera: 4 preguntas acerca de direcciones, 8 sobre bucles definidos e indefinidos, 12 sobre toma de decisiones, 8 acerca de funciones y subrutinas. Las conclusiones más importantes establecen fortalezas de los estudiantes en relación con el empleo de algoritmos de dirección y empleos de bucles para la resolución de problemas algorítmicos, así como hallaron dificultades en el empleo de toma de decisiones y uso de subrutinas. Además, establece que existe relación entre el desarrollo que tengan en la habilidad toma decisiones y otras habilidades como empleo de bucles de repetición o elaboración de subrutinas, que se expresa en la dificultad de los estudiantes a tomar una decisión razonada y lógica al momento de resolver un problema. Computational thinking and its skills are of interest for the educational field, as well as for the professional field, since the problem-solving ability supported by computer science becomes a necessary element for people living in the actual society. The aim of the investigation was two situations: to diagnose the level of computational thinking development in the students of the Instituto Tecnológico Superior “Sucre”, as well as to establish connections between the selected skills, such as spatial orientation, decision making, employment loops and elaboration of functions or subroutines for problem solving. For this purpose, a validated instrument was applied; it consists of 32 problems to solve in a graphic environment formed as follows: 4 questions about directions, 8 about defined and indefinite loops, 12 about conditional ones, 8 about functions and subroutines. The most important conclusions establish students’ strengths in relation to the use of management algorithms and loop jobs, similarly, difficulties in the use of conditions and use of subroutines were found. Besides, it establishes that there is a relationship between the development they have in the decision-making ability and other skills such as the use of repetition loops or the elaboration of subroutines, which is expressed in the students' difficulty in making a reasoned and logical decision at the time of solve a problem.

Rescuing the Environment: Turning (Micro)plastics into Energy Through Gasification

Plastics are a common residue of our activities and, when incorrectly disposed, high quantities of this type of products end up in the environment, namely through landfilling and dumping into the aquatic compartments. Therefore, water streams and basins are contaminated threatening wildlife, which ultimately can entail human toxicity by means of the food-chain effect. One of the major concerns relies on microplastics which, due to its size and nature, constitute a more difficult to handle residue.This paper presents an endeavour to control, reduce or even mitigate the presence of plastic debris in the environment, with the benefit of converting them into energy or other valuable commodities for the actual society. Gasification can be seen as one of the most effective techniques for this purpose, featuring a more environmental friendly scheme for treating this kind of residues, avoiding their overspread throughout Nature, as well as complying with environmental policies.

MATH AND ART CONVERGENCE FOR EDUCATION

According to worldwide surveys (such as PISA and TIMSS), European students often lack both mathematical and key basic competencies in science and technology. The mean scores for mathematics obtained by students are below the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average (OECD). The learning of the mathematics literacy enables students to contribute effectively in actual society, enhancing their employment prospects. This paper intends to describe an innovative learning and teaching approach, actually in the development phase, in the field of mathematics for 14-16 years old students through the combination of current approaches used in Europe (such as inquiry based learning and technology-enhanced learning) and the Asian one, the Singapore’s method based on three phases, concrete-pictorial-abstract, through the use of artworks. This intends to allow the development of a more effective educational and training environment for teachers and their students who will benefit from the use of more attractive and fun pedagogical tools in the study of mathematics.

Different Aspects of Involving Family in School Life

The school has come to not have a huge credibility even, sometimes being abandoned, primarily because, nowadays, no matter hierarchy and is not perceived as a value. The actual society no longer has trust in the educational establishment, the values acquired and ranked by the amount of learning embedded in it. Such an attitude is reflected by the relationship between “parent - teacher” and “student - teacher”. Based on these findings, the present study aims to investigate the main features of the relationship that is established between school and family, concerned how parents can get involved in school life effectively. The lot of subjects was represented by 212 teachers from secondary schools in Bihor, Romania and the instrument used in the research was a questionnaire consisting of 46 objective and subjective items. The results are very interesting and shows that many respondents argue that parents show indifference to the formal education of their children, not involved in the didactic or extracurricular activities and in school life, not take part in parent meetings or when called for, is difficult to communicate with parents etc. There are some cases when, because of the family economic situation is poor, parents send their children to work, offering less time and interest in their education and instruction.

Struktur Keluarga Jepang Kontemporer dalam Tiga Novel Karya Ogawa Yoko

Ogawa Yoko as a Japanese novelist mostly features the life of contemporary Japanese society in her novels. One that stands out from her works is the image of the Japanese family structure. Ogawa outlines the Japanese family structure in contrast to the Japanese family structure in actual society, as in the novel Kifunjin A No Sosei, Hakase No Aishita Suushiki, and Miina No Koushin. These three novels depict Japanese family structure more complex than her other novels. How Ogawa described Japanese family structure in the three novels is the issue on this article. This article is a literature study; data were collected from the three novels and analyzed using sociological literature approach and the concept of Japanese traditional family known as ie system. This paper shows that there was an implementation of the ie system in the three novels yet it was only a part of the ie concept.

Post-Consumer Waste

The complexity of purchase decision process goes beyond economic and human rationality boundaries, leading to increased amounts spent inappropriately, including, implicitly, significant quantities of post-consumer waste. Excessive waste of resources, reflected in massive quantities of abandoned goods on the one hand, and on the other - insufficient access to resources for a significant part of the world population - are topical issues that are based on overall irrational behavior of consumers and society, requiring global and local optimization by strategies involving all interested parties. The paper aims to formulate and emphasize actual problems and prospects regarding the rationality of consumer behavior towards waste creating and disposal, trying to answer the following question: given that the actual society is facing a series of irreversible ecological problems, what needs to be done in order to reduce post consumer-waste and to promote environmentally and resources friendly behaviors?

Knowledge Management as the Future of E-Learning

Since technological changes are touching many aspects of today’s society, education cannot stay behind; in a world where information is the key to progress, the education of its citizens should not be based on expositive means alone (Adell, 1997). The inevitable increase in complexity and quantity of the information that is available and necessary has led to a need for continuous learning. Information handling requires a profound transformation of learning and teaching methods: from a model in which the teacher is the monopolizing agent and the authorized representative of knowledge, we must move towards a model that offers the student room for individual exploration and self-learning. The student needs to build relations, discover the process from within, and feel stimulated to draw his own roadmap (Piaget, 1999). This way, he will not only learn, but learn to extract the relevant information, that is to say, he will “learn to learn” in actual society.

Knowledge Management as the Future of E-Learning

Since technological changes are touching many aspects of today’s society, education cannot stay behind; in a world where information is the key to progress, the education of its citizens should not be based on expositive means alone (Adell, 1997). The inevitable increase in complexity and quantity of the information that is available and necessary has led to a need for continuous learning. Information handling requires a profound transformation of learning and teaching methods: from a model in which the teacher is the monopolizing agent and the authorized representative of knowledge, we must move towards a model that offers the student room for individual exploration and self-learning. The student needs to build relations, discover the process from within, and feel stimulated to draw his own roadmap (Piaget, 1999). This way, he will not only learn, but learn to extract the relevant information, that is to say, he will “learn to learn” in actual society.

British Red Cross cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross: delegated water project in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Cooperation between the International Committee of the Red Cross and the British Red Cross has traditionally been limited to the National Society providing cash, delegates and contributions in kind for ICRC programmes. At most, actual Society involvement in ICRC operations has extended to earmarking contributions for a particular country or programme; the Society has not been involved in planning, implementing or reviewing ICRC work. However, it has consistently contributed at least 25% of its budget for international activities to the ICRC and provided it with field delegates. The proportion is growing and, over the past three years, British Red Cross contributions to the ICRC have increased to over 50% of its international budget, more than £15 million in 1996. In addition, the Society currently provides 12% of the ICRC's delegates.