brickwork deleon: May 2012

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

New museum-university partnership ushers in new era of environmental science education

Public release date: 15-May-2012
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Contact: Rachel Ewing
raewing@drexel.edu
215-895-2614
Drexel University

Drexel, Academy of Natural Sciences partnership emphasizes experiential learning early and often

PHILADELPHIA (May 15, 2012) This fall, Drexel Environmental Science students will have a breadth of new research and academic opportunities locally and across the globe as a result of the University's unique academic affiliation with the Academy of Natural Sciences. Out of the affiliation comes the Department of Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science (BEES), where students will work and learn among some of the world's leading scientists and have access to the Academy's extensive natural science collections and community outreach programs.

"Our motto is 'experiential learning early and often,' which means incoming freshmen won't have to wait until classes start to roll up their sleeves," said Dr. David Velinsky, head of the new BEES department at Drexel, and vice president for Environmental Research at the Academy.

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is America's oldest natural history museum and a world leader in biodiversity and environmental research. For 200 years, the Academy has encouraged and cultivated the sciences, exploration of biodiversity and sharing discoveries with the public.

Freshmen entering Drexel's environmental science major in the fall of 2012 will be the first to enroll in a newly redesigned environmental science bachelor's curriculum, which features a weeklong interactive courseprior to orientationat the Barnegat Bay Field Station in New Jersey. The field station provides opportunities for biological surveys and estuary studies of over 180 acres of diverse coastal and forest habitats; students will gain hands-on research experience in turtle ecology, wetland processes and climate change, fisheries biology and nutrient dynamics during their pre-orientation week.

In addition to the redesigned bachelor's degree in environmental science, the department will offer a minor in ecology as well as master's and doctoral degrees in environmental scienceall previously housed in the Department of Biology at Drexel.

"After the pre-term fieldwork at Barnegat Bay," said Velinsky, "our students will continue their experiential learning for the rest of their academic careers at Drexel through basic and applied research and opportunities to work in field stations in the U.S. and abroad."

In Philadelphia, students will have access to the Academy's natural science collections, some of the most extensive in the world, which provide an exceptional context and resources for the assessment of environmental change on a local and global scale. Through Drexel's cooperative education program (co-op), students can gain full-time work experience at the Academy in research and education positions, and can also get involved in the Academy's extensive community outreach work, including public seminars and educational events and programs with Philadelphia high schools.

Across the U.S. and the globe, the Academy affiliation is also expanding field research opportunities for Drexel environmental science students. In addition to existing opportunities in Patagonia, Costa Rica and Bioko Island in West Africa, new study and co-op abroad programs are now available at Academy field sites, including Upper Mongolia, Jamaica and Arctic regions of Canada.

The new BEES department in the College of Arts and Sciences brings together more than a dozen scientists from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University with the exceptional environmental science faculty from Drexel's Department of Biology.

"I am excited about the expanded opportunities Drexel students will experience as a result of our affiliation with the Academy," said Dr. Donna Murasko, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "We are proud to welcome the Academy's scientists to our faculty and look forward to new collaborations and a brilliant future for the BEES Department."

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New museum-university partnership ushers in new era of environmental science education

Public release date: 15-May-2012
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Rachel Ewing
raewing@drexel.edu
215-895-2614
Drexel University

Drexel, Academy of Natural Sciences partnership emphasizes experiential learning early and often

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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Young people are too pressured to choose

Public release date: 15-May-2012
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Contact: Goran Puaca
goran.puaca@sociology.gu.se
033-435-4277
University of Gothenburg

Young people are forced to choose an educational path early in life. International trends in the educational sector have led to reduced opportunities to change direction later on, according to a new doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

In his doctoral thesis, Goran Puaca is studying the educational and professional choices that upper-secondary and higher education students are forced to face, as well as how the choices have changed over time. His study shows that the pressure to make the right choice early in life has increased.

'The whole thing has become unreasonable. Young teenagers are expected to know what they want to do when they are 25 or 30,' says Goran Puaca.

The changes made in the last decade have made it more difficult to change from one upper-secondary programme to another. It has also become harder to top-up your education with new focus areas later in life. The political agenda has changed from a focus on reduced social differences and young people's self-realisation to an emphasis on employability and on reducing the costs of having young people make the 'wrong' choices.

Pauca says that these changes in the Swedish school system reflect international trends that have put more responsibility on the individual, whose educational choices are expected to contribute to a better match between education and working life.

Puaca's study is based on policy texts concerning how education shall contribute to an effective transition to working life, as well as interviews with teachers, study advisers, educational leaders and higher education and upper-secondary students regarding how education is matched with working life in practice. The expectations of the students regarding education and future jobs were also explored via a qualitative survey.

'The study points to a lack of agreement between, on the one hand, political notions of how rational choices should be made based on effective matching of education and working life and, on the other hand, how young people form their paths into the future in real life,' says Puaca. 'Many students made their educational choices due to lack of better alternatives, and are often very unsure about where their choices will take them in life.'

'My thesis shows that there is a need for concrete support in schools in order to turn students' insecurity about the future into useful strategies and solid educational and professional paths. This type of support is an important democracy issue in a time when the opportunity to choose among different alternatives in upper-secondary school is diminishing and it is getting more difficult to correct educational mistakes later in life. Otherwise there is a clear risk for increased class differences', says Puaca.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Young people are too pressured to choose Public release date: 15-May-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Goran Puaca
goran.puaca@sociology.gu.se
033-435-4277
University of Gothenburg

Young people are forced to choose an educational path early in life. International trends in the educational sector have led to reduced opportunities to change direction later on, according to a new doctoral thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

In his doctoral thesis, Goran Puaca is studying the educational and professional choices that upper-secondary and higher education students are forced to face, as well as how the choices have changed over time. His study shows that the pressure to make the right choice early in life has increased.

'The whole thing has become unreasonable. Young teenagers are expected to know what they want to do when they are 25 or 30,' says Goran Puaca.

The changes made in the last decade have made it more difficult to change from one upper-secondary programme to another. It has also become harder to top-up your education with new focus areas later in life. The political agenda has changed from a focus on reduced social differences and young people's self-realisation to an emphasis on employability and on reducing the costs of having young people make the 'wrong' choices.

Pauca says that these changes in the Swedish school system reflect international trends that have put more responsibility on the individual, whose educational choices are expected to contribute to a better match between education and working life.

Puaca's study is based on policy texts concerning how education shall contribute to an effective transition to working life, as well as interviews with teachers, study advisers, educational leaders and higher education and upper-secondary students regarding how education is matched with working life in practice. The expectations of the students regarding education and future jobs were also explored via a qualitative survey.

'The study points to a lack of agreement between, on the one hand, political notions of how rational choices should be made based on effective matching of education and working life and, on the other hand, how young people form their paths into the future in real life,' says Puaca. 'Many students made their educational choices due to lack of better alternatives, and are often very unsure about where their choices will take them in life.'

'My thesis shows that there is a need for concrete support in schools in order to turn students' insecurity about the future into useful strategies and solid educational and professional paths. This type of support is an important democracy issue in a time when the opportunity to choose among different alternatives in upper-secondary school is diminishing and it is getting more difficult to correct educational mistakes later in life. Otherwise there is a clear risk for increased class differences', says Puaca.

###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Virgin Mobile USA and Boost take WiMAX live, ship HTC EVO V 4G and EVO Design 4G on May 31

In sync with Sprint's plans to get its sub-brands on 4G using its legacy WiMAX network, both Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile have trotted out their initial 4G lineups. The early Virgin mix includes retreads of two Sprint data-only devices -- a Broadband2Go-badged version of the Sierra Wireless Overdrive Pro 3G/4G hotspot and a matching version of the Franklin U600 previously seen at Clear. Virgin's real star, however, is the HTC EVO V 4G: though it's ultimately the EVO 3D with a slightly more 2D name, it's shipping with Android 4.0 from the start and has HTC's Frankenstein-like Sense 3.6 rather than the 4.0 of the One series. The network upgrade and all three new devices swing into action on May 31, and while your $35 minimum monthly plan will stay in effect even with unlimited on-device 4G, you'll need to spend $300 (contract-free) to take home an EVO V 4G, $150 on the Overdrive Pro or $100 on the U600 stick.

Boost Mobile is also going the Sprint rebadge route through the HTC EVO Design 4G. As with its bigger brother over at Virgin, the single-core EVO Design 4G is identical in hardware to its Sprint equivalent but slaps Android 4.0 and Sense 3.6 on top to keep the software fresh. The update does mark the first time a Boost phone gets Visual Voicemail, so you can feel slightly less guilty when you miss a call. HTC's phone will oddly cost the same $300 off-contract as the more advanced EVO V 4G, although Boost is likely counting on customers sticking around long enough for an all-inclusive unlimited plan to drop to $40 per month and make it worthwhile.

Gallery: Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile 4G devices