Socio-scientific issues provide a great platform to both engage students in scientific topics and assess their understanding of scientific concepts. Nancy R. Singer, Amy Lannin, Maha Kareem, William Romine, and Katie Kline report on the STEM Literacy Project, a three-year National Science Foundation grant that aimed to improve STEM teachers’ knowledge and integration of literacy in their classrooms. They describe teachers’ professional learning, scenario-based assessments and other strategies they incorporated in their STEM classrooms, and how writing enables students to understand real-world issues.
Abstract
Locally natural occurring Iraqi rocks of Bauxite and Porcelanite (after pre calcinations at 1000oC for 1hr) were used, with the addition of different proportions of MgO and Al2O3, to prepare refractory materials. The effects of these additives on the physical and thermal properties of the prepared refractories were investigated.
Many batches of Bauxite/MgO, Bauxite/Al2O3, Bauxite/MgO/Al2O3, and Porcelanite/ MgO/Al2O3 were prepared. The mixture is milled and classified into different size fractions; fine (less than 45μm) 40%, middle (45-75μm) 40%, and coarse (75-106μm) 20% .
... Show MoreData steganography is a technique used to hide data, secret message, within another data, cover carrier. It is considered as a part of information security. Audio steganography is a type of data steganography, where the secret message is hidden in audio carrier. This paper proposes an efficient audio steganography method that uses LSB technique. The proposed method enhances steganography performance by exploiting all carrier samples and balancing between hiding capacity and distortion ratio. It suggests an adaptive number of hiding bits for each audio sample depending on the secret message size, the cover carrier size, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR). Comparison results show that the proposed method outperforms state of the art methods
... Show MoreAn intelligent software defined network (ISDN) based on an intelligent controller can manage and control the network in a remarkable way. In this article, a methodology is proposed to estimate the packet flow at the sensing plane in the software defined network-Internet of Things based on a partial recurrent spike neural network (PRSNN) congestion controller, to predict the next step ahead of packet flow and thus, reduce the congestion that may occur. That is, the proposed model (spike ISDN-IoT) is enhanced with a congestion controller. This controller works as a proactive controller in the proposed model. In addition, we propose another intelligent clustering controller based on an artificial neural network, which operates as a reactive co
... Show MoreMany studies have been published to address the growing issues in wireless communication systems. Space-Time Block Coding (STBC) is an effective and practical MIMO-OFDM application that can address such issues. It is a powerful tool for increasing wireless performance by coding data symbols and transmitting diversity using several antennas. The most significant challenge is to recover the transmitted signal through a time-varying multipath fading channel and obtain a precise channel estimation to recover the transmitted information symbols. This work considers different pilot patterns for channel estimation and equalization in MIMO-OFDM systems. The pilot patterns fall under two general types: comb and block types, with
... Show MoreWith the development of computer architecture and its technologies in recent years, applications like e-commerce, e-government, e-governance and e-finance are widely used, and they act as active research areas. In addition, in order to increase the quality and quantity of the ordinary everyday transactions, it is desired to migrate from the paper-based environment to a digital-based computerized environment. Such migration increases efficiency, saves time, eliminates paperwork, increases safety and reduces the cost in an organization. Digital signatures are playing an essential role in many electronic and automatic based systems and facilitate this migration. The digital signatures are used to provide many services and s
... Show MoreIn this paper, the behavior of structural concrete linear bar members was studied using numerical model implemented in a computer program written in MATLAB. The numerical model is based on the modified version of the procedure developed by Oukaili. The model is based on real stress-strain diagrams of concrete and steel and their secant modulus of elasticity at different loading stages. The behavior presented by normal force-axial strain and bending moment-curvature relationships is studied by calculating the secant sectional stiffness of the member. Based on secant methods, this methodology can be easily implemented using an iterative procedure to solve non-linear equations. A compari
The present study discusses the problem based learning in Iraqi classroom. This method aims to involve all learners in collaborative activities and it is learner-centered method. To fulfill the aims and verify the hypothesis which reads as follow” It is hypothesized that there is no statistically significant differences between the achievements of Experimental group and control group”. Thirty learners are selected to be the sample of present study.Mann-Whitney Test for two independent samples is used to analysis the results. The analysis shows that experimental group’s members who are taught according to problem based learning gets higher scores than the control group’s members who are taught according to traditional method. This
... Show MoreThe transmitting and receiving of data consume the most resources in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The energy supplied by the battery is the most important resource impacting WSN's lifespan in the sensor node. Therefore, because sensor nodes run from their limited battery, energy-saving is necessary. Data aggregation can be defined as a procedure applied for the elimination of redundant transmissions, and it provides fused information to the base stations, which in turn improves the energy effectiveness and increases the lifespan of energy-constrained WSNs. In this paper, a Perceptually Important Points Based Data Aggregation (PIP-DA) method for Wireless Sensor Networks is suggested to reduce redundant data before sending them to the
... Show MorePhotonic crystal fiber interferometers are used in many sensing applications. In this work, an in-reflection photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based on Mach-Zehnder (micro-holes collapsing) (MZ) interferometer, which exhibits high sensitivity to different volatile organic compounds (VOCs), without the needing of any permeable material. The interferometer is robust, compact, and consists of a stub photonic crystal fiber of large-mode area, photonic crystal fiber spliced to standard single mode fiber (SMF) (corning-28), this splicing occurs with optimized splice loss 0.19 dB In the splice regions the voids of the holey fiber are completely collapsed, which allows the excitation and recombination of core and cladding modes. The device reflection
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