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Conducting Demonstration Studies

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• Charles P. Friedman 4 ,
• Jeremy C. Wyatt 5 &
• Joan S. Ash 6  

Part of the book series: Health Informatics ((HI))

This chapter is the first of four that describe the challenges that arise in designing and analyzing the result of demonstration studies, and focuses specifically on descriptive studies. It considers first the key characteristics of demonstration studies and how the three kinds of demonstration studies (descriptive, interventional and correlational studies) differ, then discusses the challenges of conducting descriptive studies, dividing these into threats to internal and external validity. The chapter then describes some methods to analyse the results arising from descriptive studies.

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As will be seen later in this chapter, “validity” takes on very different meanings when discussed in the contexts of measurement and demonstration. All the authors can do is apologize for this confusion—we did not invent this terminology!

Confusingly, participants in a demonstration study are sometimes called “subjects”, and can be the equivalent of objects in a measurement study!

Note again the difference in the terminologies of measurement and demonstration studies. Validity of a demonstration study design, discussed here, is different from validity of a measurement method, discussed in Chap. 7 .

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Department of Learning Health Sciences, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Charles P. Friedman

Department of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education, School of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

Jeremy C. Wyatt

Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA

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Answers to Self-Tests

Self-test 10.1.

(a) Descriptive

(b) Correlational

(c) Interventional

(d) Descriptive. (Note that there is no independent variable here because the company’s goal was not measured in any way.)

(e) Correlational

(a) The continuous dependent variable is the number of requests; no independent variable since the study is descriptive.

(b) Dependent variable is h-index (continuous); independent variables are student enrollment, endowment, and annual IT expenditure (all continuous).

(c) Dependent variable is ease of use (continuous due to 10 item survey with scores that will be summed across items, as discussed in Chap. 8 ); independent variable (discrete) is telehealth platform with three possible values.

(d) The continuous dependent variable is the number of user accounts; no independent variable since the study is descriptive.

(e) The continuous dependent variable is rate of new asthma diagnoses; the discrete independent variable is postal codes with the number of values equal to the number of distinct postal codes in the region being studied.

Self-Test 10.2

External validity

Internal validity (since the nurses were randomly sampled)

Internal validity

Self-Test 10.3

Assessment bias is a factor. The staff member doing the comparison may be biased toward minimizing the difference because s/he participated in the tablet application’s development.

Hawthorne effect is a factor. Because parents are aware they are in the study, they may think “extra hard” about their child’s medical history.

Incomplete data is unlikely to be a factor because parents must use the tablet before their child will be seen by a clinician.

Insufficient data is unlikely to be a factor because statisticians have predetermined the number of visits likely to be needed and the study will be extended until that number is reached.

Use of different codes: it is likely that the resource uses internal codes for elements of children’s medical records. This could be a factor unless codes are standardized across the three sites.

The Volunteer Effect is unlikely to be a factor because it is unlikely that parents will refuse to consent to participate, so a high proportion of eligible parents will probably participate.

Age, ethnic group or gender biases are a concern because the study is being run in a relatively small number of centers in metropolitan areas. The study sample will be skewed toward the population demographics of the selected metropolitan areas.

Study setting bias is probably not a concern because the study is being conducted in the kinds of centers where larger scale deployment will take place. However, if metropolitan area centers are better funded, for example, this could be a concern.

Implementation bias is likely to be a factor. Since this is a pre-implementation study, the level of assistance available to parents using the tablet is likely to be greater than that available during routine implementation.

Self-Test 10.4

The data plot looks like this:

The distribution is almost bimodal, with a small peak around 53 and another higher peak at 58. The graphing tool has sketched a normal approximation, but in this case it is far from convincing.

It is a challenge to describe the central tendency here. Even though the mean and median as very similar, at 54.9 and 55 respectively, this is in many ways misleading. Equally, the spread is much wider than the SD of 2.8 suggests, as a third (6/18) of the observations lie at one extreme of the data values. The lesson here is that, especially with small numbers of observations, it can be extremely valuable to construct a simple plot of the data, even if the summary statistics seem to indicate a fairly normal data distribution. The only subtle warning sign here from the descriptive statistics is that the mode is 58, quite a distance from the mean and median.

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Friedman, C.P., Wyatt, J.C., Ash, J.S. (2022). Conducting Demonstration Studies. In: Evaluation Methods in Biomedical and Health Informatics. Health Informatics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86453-8_10

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Effective Educational Videos: Principles and Guidelines for Maximizing Student Learning from Video Content

Educational videos provide an important content-delivery tool in many classes. Effective use of video is enhanced when instructors consider cognitive load, student engagement, and active learning. This essay reviews literature relevant to these elements and suggests practical ways instructors can use these principles when using video as an educational tool.

Educational videos have become an important part of higher education, providing an important content-delivery tool in many flipped, blended, and online classes. Effective use of video as an educational tool is enhanced when instructors consider three elements: how to manage cognitive load of the video; how to maximize student engagement with the video; and how to promote active learning from the video. This essay reviews literature relevant to each of these principles and suggests practical ways instructors can use these principles when using video as an educational tool.

Video has become an important part of higher education. It is integrated as part of traditional courses, serves as a cornerstone of many blended courses, and is often the main information-delivery mechanism in online courses. Several meta-analyses have shown that technology can enhance learning (e.g., Means et al ., 2010 ; Schmid et al ., 2014 ), and multiple studies have shown that video, specifically, can be a highly effective educational tool (e.g., Allen and Smith, 2012 ; Kay, 2012 ; Lloyd and Robertson, 2012 ; Rackaway, 2012 ; Hsin and Cigas, 2013 ; Stockwell et al ., 2015 ). Video may have particular value for student preparation in biology classes, in part because students may find it more engaging ( Stockwell et al ., 2015 ) and because it can be well suited to illuminating the abstract or hard-to-visualize phenomena that are the focus of so many biology classes (e.g., Dash et al ., 2016 ; see Video Views and Reviews features in CBE—Life Sciences Education for other examples). The medium is not inherently effective, however; Guo et al . (2014) have shown that students often disregard large segments of educational videos, while MacHardy and Pardos (2015) demonstrate that some videos contribute little to student performance. What, then, are the principles that allow instructors to choose or develop videos that are effective in moving students toward the desired learning outcomes? Consideration of three elements for video design and implementation can help instructors maximize video’s utility in the biology classroom:

• Cognitive load
• Student engagement
• Active learning

Together, these elements provide a solid base for the development and use of video as an effective educational tool.

COGNITIVE LOAD

One of the primary considerations when constructing educational materials, including video, is cognitive load. Cognitive load theory, initially articulated by Sweller (1988 , 1989 , 1994 ), suggests that memory has several components. Sensory memory is transient, collecting information from the environment. Information from sensory memory may be selected for temporary storage and processing in working memory, which has very limited capacity. This processing is a prerequisite for encoding into long-term memory, which has virtually unlimited capacity. Because working memory is very limited, the learner must be selective about what information from sensory memory to pay attention to during the learning process, an observation that has important implications for creating educational materials.

Based on this model of memory, cognitive load theory suggests that any learning experience has three components. The first of these is intrinsic load, which is inherent to the subject under study and is determined in part by the degrees of connectivity within the subject. The common example given to illustrate a subject with low intrinsic load is a word pair (e.g., blue = azul ); grammar, on the other hand, is a subject with a high intrinsic load due to its many levels of connectivity and conditional relationships. In an example from biology, learning the names of the stages of mitosis would have lower intrinsic load than understanding the process of cell cycle control. The second component of any learning experience is germane load, which is the level of cognitive activity necessary to reach the desired learning outcome—for example, to make the comparisons, do the analysis, and elucidate the steps necessary to master the lesson. The ultimate goal of these activities is for the learner to incorporate the subject under study into a schema of richly connected ideas. The third component of a learning experience is extraneous load, which is cognitive effort that does not help the learner toward the desired learning outcome. It is often characterized as load that arises from a poorly designed lesson (e.g., confusing instructions, extra information) but may also be load that arises due to stereotype threat or imposter syndrome. These concepts are more fully articulated and to some extent critiqued in an excellent review by deJong (2010) .

These definitions have implications for design of educational materials and experiences. Specifically, instructors should seek to minimize extraneous cognitive load and should consider the intrinsic cognitive load of the subject when constructing learning experiences, carefully structuring them when the material has high intrinsic load. Because working memory has a limited capacity, and information must be processed by working memory to be encoded in long-term memory, it is important to prompt working memory to accept, process, and send to long-term memory only the most crucial information ( Ibrahim et al ., 2012 ).

The cognitive theory of multimedia learning builds on the cognitive load theory, noting that working memory has two channels for information acquisition and processing: a visual/pictorial channel and an auditory/verbal-processing channel ( Mayer, 2001 ; Mayer and Moreno, 2003 ). Although each channel has limited capacity, the use of the two channels can facilitate the integration of new information into existing cognitive structures. Using both channels maximizes working memory’s capacity—but either channel can be overwhelmed by high cognitive load. Thus, design strategies that manage the cognitive load for both channels in multimedia learning materials promise to enhance learning.

These theories give rise to several recommendations about educational videos (see Table 1 ). Based on the premise that effective learning experiences minimize extraneous cognitive load, optimize germane cognitive load, and manage intrinsic cognitive lead, four effective practices emerge.

Practices to maximize student learning from educational videos

Signaling , which is also known as cueing ( deKoning et al ., 2009 ), is the use of on-screen text or symbols to highlight important information. For example, signaling may be provided by the appearance of two or three key words ( Mayer and Johnson, 2008 ; Ibrahim et al ., 2012 ), a change in color or contrast ( deKoning et al ., 2009 ), or a symbol that draws attention to a region of a screen (e.g., an arrow; deKoning et al ., 2009 ). By highlighting the key information, signaling helps direct learner attention, thus targeting particular elements of the video for processing in the working memory. This can reduce extraneous load by helping novice learners with the task of determining which elements within a complex tool are important, and it can also increase germane load by emphasizing the organization of and connections within the information. Mayer and Moreno (2003) and deKoning et al . (2009) have shown that this approach improves students’ ability to retain and transfer new knowledge from animations, and Ibrahim et al . (2012) have shown that these effects extend to video.

The benefits of signaling are complemented by segmenting , or the chunking of information in a video lesson. Segmenting allows learners to engage with small pieces of new information and gives them control over the flow of new information. As such, it manages intrinsic load and can also increase germane load by emphasizing the structure of the information. Segmenting can be accomplished both by making shorter videos and by including “click forward” pauses within a video, such as using YouTube Annotate or HapYak to provide students with a question and prompting them to click forward after completion. Both types of segmenting have been shown to be important for student engagement with videos ( Zhang et al ., 2006 ; Guo et al ., 2014 ) and learning from video ( Zhang et al ., 2006 ; Ibrahim et al ., 2012 ).

Weeding , or the elimination of interesting but extraneous information that does not contribute to the learning goal, can provide further benefits. For example, music, complex backgrounds, or extra features within an animation require the learner to judge whether he or she should be paying attention to them, which increases extraneous load and can reduce learning. Importantly, information that increases extraneous load changes as the learner moves from novice toward expert status. That is, information that may be extraneous for a novice learner may actually be helpful for a more expert-like learner, while information that is essential for a novice may serve as an already known distraction for an expert. Thus, it is important that the instructor consider his or her learners when weeding educational videos, including information that is necessary for their processing but eliminating information that they do not need to reach the learning goal and that may overload their working memory. Ibrahim et al . (2012) has shown that this treatment can improve retention and transfer of new information from video.

Finally, the utility of video lessons can be maximized by matching modality to content. By using both the audio/verbal channel and the visual/pictorial channel to convey new information, and by fitting the particular type of information to the most appropriate channel, instructors can enhance the germane cognitive load of a learning experience. For example, showing an animation of a process on screen while narrating it uses both channels to elucidate the process, thus giving the learner dual and complementary streams of information to highlight features that should be processed in working memory. In contrast, showing the animation while also showing printed text uses only the visual channel and thus overloads this channel and impedes learning ( Mayer and Moreno, 2003 ). In another example, using a “talking head” video to explain a complex process makes productive use only of the verbal channel (because watching the speaker does not convey additional information), whereas a Khan Academy–style tutorial that provides symbolic sketches to illustrate the verbal explanation uses both channels to give complementary information. Using both channels to convey appropriate and complementary information has been shown to increase students’ retention and ability to transfer information ( Mayer and Moreno, 2003 ) and to increase student engagement with videos ( Guo et al ., 2014 ; Thomson et al ., 2014 ).

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Another lens through which to consider educational video is student engagement. The idea is simple: if students do not watch videos, they cannot learn from them. Lessons on promoting student engagement derive from earlier research on multimedia instruction and more recent work on videos used within MOOCs (massive open online courses; see Table 1 ).

The first and most important guideline for maximizing student attention to educational video is to keep it short . Guo and colleagues examined the length of time students watched streaming videos within four edX MOOCs, analyzing results from 6.9 million video-watching sessions ( Guo et al ., 2014 ). They observed that the median engagement time for videos less than 6 minutes long was close to 100%–that is, students tended to watch the whole video (although there are significant outliers; see the paper for more complete information). As videos lengthened, however, student engagement dropped, such that the median engagement time with 9- to 12-minute videos was ∼50%, and the median engagement time with 12- to 40-minute videos was ∼20%. In fact, the maximum median engagement time for a video of any length was 6 minutes. Making videos longer than 6–9 minutes is therefore likely to be wasted effort. In complementary work, Risko et al . (2012) showed 1-hour videos to students in a lab setting, probing student self-reports of mind wandering four times in each lecture and testing student retention of lecture material after the lecture. They found that student report of mind wandering increased and retention of material decreased across the video lecture ( Risko et al ., 2012) .

Another method to keep students engaged is to use a conversational style . Called the personalization principle by Mayer, the use of conversational rather than formal language during multimedia instruction has been shown to have a large effect on students’ learning, perhaps because a conversational style encourages students to develop a sense of social partnership with the narrator that leads to greater engagement and effort ( Mayer, 2008 ). In addition, some research suggests that it can be important for video narrators to speak relatively quickly and with enthusiasm . In their study examining student engagement with MOOC videos, Guo and colleagues observed that student engagement was dependent on the narrator’s speaking rate, with student engagement increasing as speaking rate increased ( Guo et al ., 2014 ). It can be tempting for video narrators to speak slowly to help ensure that students grasp important ideas, but including in-video questions, “chapters,” and speed control can give students control over this feature—and increasing narrator speed appears to promote student interest.

Instructors can also promote student engagement with educational videos by creating or packaging them in a way that conveys that the material is for these students in this class . One of the benefits for instructors in using educational videos can be the ability to reuse them for other classes and other semesters. When creating or choosing videos, however, it is important to consider whether they were created for the type of environment in which they will be used. For example, a face-to-face classroom session that is videotaped and presented within an online class may feel less engaging than a video that is created with an online environment as the initial target ( Guo et al ., 2014 ). A video’s adaptability can be enhanced, however: when reusing videos, instructors can package them for a particular class using text outside the video to contextualize the relevance for that particular class and lesson.

ACTIVE LEARNING

As biology educators, we have abundant evidence that active learning in the classroom provides clear advantages over passive encounters with course material through lecture (e.g., Knight and Wood, 2005 ; Haak et al ., 2011 ; Freeman et al ., 2014 ). Similarly, elements that promote cognitive activity during video viewing can enhance student learning from this medium (see Table 1 ).

Schacter and Szpunar (2015) propose a conceptual framework for enhancing learning from educational videos that identifies online learning as a type of self-regulated learning. Self-regulation of learning requires students to monitor their own learning, to identify learning difficulties, and to respond to these judgments; in other words, it requires students to actively build and interrogate mental models, practicing metacognition about the learning process. Novices within a field, however, have difficulty accurately judging their understanding, often overestimating their learning ( Bjork et al ., 2013 ). This problem may be enhanced when new information is delivered via video, which students report as easier to learn and more memorable than text ( Salomon, 1994 ; Choi and Johnson, 2005 ). Incorporating prompts for students to engage in the type of cognitive activity necessary to process information—to engage in active learning—can help them build and test mental models, explicitly converting video watching from a passive to an active-learning event. The means to do this can vary, but the following strategies have demonstrated success in some contexts.

Package Video with Interactive Questions

Szpunar et al . compared the test performance of students who answered questions interpolated between ∼5 min video lectures and students who did unrelated arithmetic problems between the videos, finding that the students in the interpolated question group performed significantly better on subsequent tests of the material and reported less mind wandering ( Szpunar et al ., 2013 ). Students who received the interpolated questions also exhibited increased note taking, reported the learning event as less “mentally taxing,” and reported less anxiety about the final test. These results suggest that interpolated questions may improve student learning from video through several mechanisms. First, they may help to optimize cognitive load by decreasing extraneous load (i.e., anxiety about an upcoming test) and increasing germane load (i.e., note taking, reduced mind wandering). Further, interpolated questions may produce some of their benefit by tapping into the “testing effect,” in which recall of important information strengthens students’ memory of and ability to use the recalled information ( Roediger and Karpicke, 2006 ; Brame and Biel, 2015 ). Finally, interpolated questions may help students engage in more accurate self-assessment ( Szpunar et al ., 2014 ), an important benefit for a medium that students may perceive as “easier” than text. Tools like HapYak and Zaption can also allow instructors to embed questions directly into video and to give specific feedback based on student response. This approach has similar benefits to interpolated questions in increasing student performance on subsequent assessments ( Vural, 2013 ) and has the additional benefit of making the video interactive (see following section).

Use Interactive Features That Give Students Control

Zhang and colleagues compared the impact of interactive and noninteractive video on students’ learning in a computer science course ( Zhang et al ., 2006 ). Students who were able to control movement through the video, selecting important sections to review and moving backward when desired, demonstrated better achievement of learning outcomes and greater satisfaction. One simple way to achieve this level of interactivity is by using YouTube Annotate, HapYak, or another tool to introduce labeled “chapters” into a video. This not only has the benefit of giving students control but also can demonstrate the organization, increasing the germane load of the lesson.

Use Guiding Questions

Lawson and colleagues examined the impact of guiding questions on students’ learning from a video about social psychology in an introductory psychology class ( Lawson et al ., 2006 ). Building on work from Kreiner (1997) , they had students in some sections of the course watch the video with no special instructions, while students in other sections of the course were provided with eight guiding questions to consider while watching. The students who answered the guiding questions while watching the video scored significantly higher on a later test. Guiding questions may serve as an implicit means to share learning objectives with students, thus increasing the germane load of the learning task and reducing the extraneous load by focusing student attention on important elements. This strategy is often used to increase student learning from reading assignments (e.g., Tanner, 2012 ; Round and Campbell, 2013 ), and it can translate effectively to helping students learn from video.

Make Video Part of a Larger Homework Assignment

MacHardy and Pardos (2015) have developed a model relating educational video characteristics to students’ performance on subsequent assessments. One observation from their analysis of Khan Academy videos was that videos that offered the greatest benefits to students were highly relevant to associated exercises. This result is supported by results observed in a “teaching-as-research” project at Vanderbilt University (for background on teaching as research, see www.cirtl.net ). Specifically, Faizan Zubair participated in the BOLD Fellows program, in which graduate students develop online learning materials for incorporation into a faculty mentor’s course and then investigate their impact in teaching-as-research projects. Zubair developed videos on that were embedded in a larger homework assignment in Paul Laibinis’s chemical engineering class and found that students valued the videos and that the videos improved students’ understanding of difficult concepts when compared with a semester when the videos were not used in conjunction with the homework ( Zubair and Laibinis, 2015 ; see also Summary ).

The important thing to keep in mind is that watching a video can be a passive experience, much as reading can be. To make the most of our educational videos, we need to help students do the processing and self-evaluation that will lead to the learning we want to see.

Video may provide a significant means to improve student learning and enhance student engagement in biology courses ( Allen and Smith, 2012 ; Kay, 2012 ; Lloyd and Robertson, 2012 ; Rackaway, 2012 ; Hsin and Cigas, 2013 ; Stockwell et al ., 2015 ). To maximize the benefit from educational videos, however, it is important to keep in mind the three key components of cognitive load, elements that impact engagement, and elements that promote active learning. Luckily, consideration of these elements converges on a few recommendations:

• Keep videos brief and targeted on learning goals.
• Use audio and visual elements to convey appropriate parts of an explanation; consider how to make these elements complementary rather than redundant.
• Use signaling to highlight important ideas or concepts.
• Use a conversational, enthusiastic style to enhance engagement.
• Embed videos in a context of active learning by using guiding questions, interactive elements, or associated homework assignments.

Acknowledgments

This content was largely presented first on the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching website at https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/effective-educational-videos/ .

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Narrative Report on the School-based Demonstration Teaching

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cecep hermawan

The demonstration model aims to achieve two learning outcomes, namely the mastery of well-structured knowledge and the mastery of all types of skills. There is no previous research that investigates the demonstration model in the first grade of elementary school, especially in mathematics. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the demonstration model and illustrate the application of the demonstration model. This class action research uses the R&H class action research model. Participants in this study were first-grade students in one of the Public Elementary Schools in South Tangerang, Banten Province, Indonesia, in learning the reduction numbers. Data has been collected through tests, observations, and documents. Data were analyzed using text analysis and descriptive statistics. Research data shows that the use of demonstration models can significantly improve students' understanding of mathematics, and can improve cognitive and student involvement. In the pre-cycle, stu...

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SOME SCHOOL ASSESSMENTS INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE USED AS A STRATEGY IN THE LEARNING PROCESS (Atena Editora)

Atena Editora

This article presents notes on school assessment and some suggestions for differentiated assessment instruments, as a strategy for the learning process, using technologies with research on websites, use of software or applications of graphics or games, in pairs or in groups, with consultation, with glue allowed and prepared previously, with internet research, report, produced and corrected by groups of students, evaluation in phases and others, emphasizing that the moment of evaluation is a continuation of learning and making a comparison of how the evaluation occurs nowadays in our classrooms, how it can be updated, continued, which allows the student to understand their level of evolution, monitor and actively participate, being subject to their learning process. The use of various instruments is necessary to identify how the student is learning, what he is learning about a certain content, which content must be resumed and how he can collaborate with his process of knowledge evolution and not just to fulfill a moment of political bureaucracy. - Pedagogical of the school environment. It must be a guide to innovate teaching practices, understanding the assessment of school learning as a basis to help students with learning difficulties and that it be a moment of self-assessment about the practice in the classroom. Using these various instruments, the evaluation will no longer be a moment of stress, an attempt to cheat, panic and become part of the teaching and learning process.

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Assessment has got many purposes and may serve various formative and summative functions. In our paper we deal with assessment for learning which is process-oriented, helps learners improve and enhance their learning and understand it better. In order to achieve that learners need to know their learning objectives and the criteria which are used to assess their performance, they should be given a lot of descriptive feedback and have many opportunities to self-assess. In our study we analyze if assessment for learning is implemented at gymnasia in Slovakia, how students are assessed, if the focus of assessment is on the product (summative assessment) or on the process (formative assessment) and if teachers facilitate self-assessment. The results which we arrived at indicate that assessment for learning is not done at the observed schools, the feedback students get on their learning is evaluative and as such it does not help them improve their learning, succeed in achieving the object...

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Astrophysics > High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Title: a cyclic spectroscopy scintillation study of psr b1937+21 i. demonstration of improved scintillometry.

Abstract: We use cyclic spectroscopy to perform high frequency-resolution analyses of multi-hour baseband Arecibo observations of the millisecond pulsar PSR B1937+21. This technique allows for the examination of scintillation features in far greater detail than is otherwise possible under most pulsar timing array observing setups. We measure scintillation bandwidths and timescales in each of eight subbands across a 200 MHz observing band in each observation. Through these measurements we obtain robust, intra-epoch estimates of the frequency scalings for scintillation bandwidth and timescale. Thanks to our high frequency resolution and the narrow scintles of this pulsar, we resolve scintillation arcs in the secondary spectra due to the increased Nyquist limit, which would not have been resolved at the same observing frequency with a traditional filterbank spectrum using NANOGrav's current time and frequency resolutions, and the frequency-dependent evolution of scintillation arc features within individual observations. We observe the dimming of prominent arc features at higher frequencies, possibly due to a combination of decreasing flux density and undetermined effects due to the interstellar medium. We also find agreement with arc curvature frequency dependence predicted by Stinebring et al. (2001) in some epochs. Thanks to the frequency resolution improvement provided by cyclic spectroscopy, these results show strong promise for future such analyses with millisecond pulsars, particularly for pulsar timing arrays, where such techniques can allow for detailed studies of the interstellar medium in highly scattered pulsars without sacrificing the timing resolution that is crucial to their gravitational wave detection efforts.

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Researchers detect a new molecule in space

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New research from the group of MIT Professor Brett McGuire has revealed the presence of a previously unknown molecule in space. The team's open-access paper, “ Rotational Spectrum and First Interstellar Detection of 2-Methoxyethanol Using ALMA Observations of NGC 6334I ,” appears in April 12 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters .

Zachary T.P. Fried , a graduate student in the McGuire group and the lead author of the publication, worked to assemble a puzzle comprised of pieces collected from across the globe, extending beyond MIT to France, Florida, Virginia, and Copenhagen, to achieve this exciting discovery. 

“Our group tries to understand what molecules are present in regions of space where stars and solar systems will eventually take shape,” explains Fried. “This allows us to piece together how chemistry evolves alongside the process of star and planet formation. We do this by looking at the rotational spectra of molecules, the unique patterns of light they give off as they tumble end-over-end in space. These patterns are fingerprints (barcodes) for molecules. To detect new molecules in space, we first must have an idea of what molecule we want to look for, then we can record its spectrum in the lab here on Earth, and then finally we look for that spectrum in space using telescopes.”

Searching for molecules in space

The McGuire Group has recently begun to utilize machine learning to suggest good target molecules to search for. In 2023, one of these machine learning models suggested the researchers target a molecule known as 2-methoxyethanol. 

“There are a number of 'methoxy' molecules in space, like dimethyl ether, methoxymethanol, ethyl methyl ether, and methyl formate, but 2-methoxyethanol would be the largest and most complex ever seen,” says Fried. To detect this molecule using radiotelescope observations, the group first needed to measure and analyze its rotational spectrum on Earth. The researchers combined experiments from the University of Lille (Lille, France), the New College of Florida (Sarasota, Florida), and the McGuire lab at MIT to measure this spectrum over a broadband region of frequencies ranging from the microwave to sub-millimeter wave regimes (approximately 8 to 500 gigahertz). 

The data gleaned from these measurements permitted a search for the molecule using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations toward two separate star-forming regions: NGC 6334I and IRAS 16293-2422B. Members of the McGuire group analyzed these telescope observations alongside researchers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (Charlottesville, Virginia) and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. 

“Ultimately, we observed 25 rotational lines of 2-methoxyethanol that lined up with the molecular signal observed toward NGC 6334I (the barcode matched!), thus resulting in a secure detection of 2-methoxyethanol in this source,” says Fried. “This allowed us to then derive physical parameters of the molecule toward NGC 6334I, such as its abundance and excitation temperature. It also enabled an investigation of the possible chemical formation pathways from known interstellar precursors.”

Looking forward

Molecular discoveries like this one help the researchers to better understand the development of molecular complexity in space during the star formation process. 2-methoxyethanol, which contains 13 atoms, is quite large for interstellar standards — as of 2021, only six species larger than 13 atoms were detected outside the solar system , many by McGuire’s group, and all of them existing as ringed structures.  

“Continued observations of large molecules and subsequent derivations of their abundances allows us to advance our knowledge of how efficiently large molecules can form and by which specific reactions they may be produced,” says Fried. “Additionally, since we detected this molecule in NGC 6334I but not in IRAS 16293-2422B, we were presented with a unique opportunity to look into how the differing physical conditions of these two sources may be affecting the chemistry that can occur.”

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Advancing County Progress: Research & Demonstration Farm Plans, Driving Forward Housing Initiatives and Capital Improvements

April 24, 2024 (BARNSTABLE, MA) —  Today’s Commissioners meeting at Barnstable County showcased progress updates on the future Research and Demonstration Farm planned by the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, updates on the County’s 10-Year Capital Improvement Plan, ARPA awards for affordable housing initiatives, and received an update from the Cape Cod Commission on the Cape Cod Canal Bridges Program.

The Future of Sustainable Agriculture at the Research & Demonstration Farm

Today, Mike Maguire, Director of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, alongside Russ Norton, the Extension’s Horticulturist, unveiled their vision for transforming underutilized land into the future Barnstable County Research & Demonstration Farm. This site, which partially continues to serve as the Extension’s office space despite some operations moving to Yarmouth, is largely preserved under a conservation restriction, covering a total of 97 acres. The project, managed by the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, is designed to serve the entire county.

“This project is vital—not just for growing food, but for empowering everyone to cultivate their own delicious, nutritious produce. Understanding how to do this is incredibly beneficial, and we’re excited to spread that knowledge,” said Sheila Lyons, Vice Chair of the Board of Regional Commissioners.

The farm is poised to become a central educational and resource hub for sustainable agriculture across Cape Cod. It will allow for demonstrations for sustainable landscaping, the use of native plants, the creation of pollinator habitats, and the cultivation of various crops. The emphasis will be on promoting educational programs that involve hands-on, experiential learning, along with conducting practical research on techniques such as season extension, protected agriculture, and intensive farming methods. This initiative aims to boost community engagement and support local food production, thereby becoming an essential component of the county’s sustainable development efforts.

Update on Cape Cod Canal Bridges Program

During the Commissioners meeting, Steve Tupper, Deputy Director at the Cape Cod Commission, provided an in-depth update on the Cape Cod Canal Bridges Program. He covered several key topics, including outreach efforts, funding status, and the environmental permitting process for replacing the nearly 90-year-old Bourne and Sagamore Bridges. Highlighting the financial progress, Tupper noted that a significant federal allocation of $350 million has been secured for the project under the Fiscal Year and Water Development Appropriations Act. Furthermore, the state is actively seeking an additional $1.06 billion through the Bridge Investment Program grant, specifically for the Sagamore Bridge, while reaffirming its commitment to replacing both bridges.

The update also detailed forthcoming opportunities for public engagement. MassDOT will host a Virtual Public Information Meeting on April 25, 2024, at 6:00 PM, where the community can share their views and comments online. For more details and to participate, visit the MassDOT Cape Bridges webpage. Additionally, an In-Person Open House is scheduled for May 13, 2024, at the Bourne Veteran’s Memorial Community Center, providing another platform for the public to discuss project progress and offer feedback. More information is available at  Cape Bridges | Mass.gov

Update on Barnstable County’s 10-Year Capital Improvement Plan

Paul Ruszala, Assets and Infrastructure Manager at Barnstable County led a presentation on the 10-year Capital Improvement Planning. This comprehensive plan addresses property and building space needs, departmental and operational requirements, and long-term growth strategies. Key elements of the plan include PFAS groundwater treatment initiatives, courthouse restorations, and other infrastructure improvements. Funding opportunities were discussed, detailing a total project cost of $5.25 million, with specific yearly budgets like $2 million for FY 24 and $3.25 million for FY 25. The schematic design phase alone projected a design and construction cost of $7.9 million, with a potential 75% reimbursement from the state. Additionally, a Congressionally Directed Spending Application was submitted in April 2024.

Driving Forward Housing Initiatives

The Commissioners also approved a significant initiative aimed at enhancing the county’s affordable housing. They authorized a $1,100,000 grant from the County’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to Province Post LLC. This funding will support construction costs for a new project at 3 Jerome Smith Road, Provincetown, which aims to create 61 units of affordable rental housing. This initiative addresses the urgent need for accessible living options in the area. Additionally, the Commissioners are supporting other affordable housing efforts, including the development of the Henry T. Wing School site into affordable residences.

ABOUT BARNSTABLE COUNTY REGIONAL GOVERNMENT OF CAPE COD : Barnstable County provides exemplary government functions and services to keep our community healthy and safe, promote sustainable growth, and offer a proactive, open government that enhances the quality of life for the citizens of Barnstable County. Learn more at www.capecod.gov .  

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More From Forbes

Venus exploration remains key to understanding exo-earths, says paper.

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NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 5: In this handout image provided by NASA, Liz Heller and Andriel Mesznik watch ... [+] the transit of Venus on June 5, 2012 in New York, New York. The Transit of Venus involves the planet Venus crossing in front of the sun. The next pair of events will not happen again until the year 2117 and 2125. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, our sister planet Venus remains a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Remarkably similar in size, mass, and bulk makeup, today, Earth and Venus couldn't be more different. Earth is an ecological utopia while Venus is a poster child for planetary desolation.

The conventional view is that Venus simply formed too close to our evolving yellow dwarf star to maintain liquid water at its surface. But in the last few decades, that view has come to be seen as simplistic. That’s because this explanation fails to adequately answer why Venus came to have surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead and atmospheric surface pressures ninety times that of Earth.

Even so, the authors of a new paper being published today in the journal Nature Astronomy argue that Venus remains crucial to understanding earth-mass and earth-like planets circling other stars.

Venus represents an astrobiological cautionary tale. That’s because observations of terrestrial mass exoplanets that —- at first glance —- would appear to be habitable may simply be producing an abundance of abiotic oxygen. That is, oxygen that has nothing to do with life on the planets’ surfaces.

Venus. The planet Venus, the second planet from the Sun, has the longest rotation period (243 days) ... [+] of any planet in the Solar System. It orbits the Sun every 224.7 Earth days, making a Venusian year shorter than an Earth year. Artist NASA. (Photo by Heritage Space/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

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In the late 1970s, NASA’s Pioneer Venus orbiter mission detected evidence for the catastrophic outgassing of an ocean’s worth of water. The abiotic oxygen produced during this outgassing would have been readily visible to alien astronomers if they were looking our way. We can only speculate whether some other intelligent civilization at the time might have misinterpreted our own Venus as being habitable due to this putative abundance of abiotic oxygen.

Such scenarios only illustrate how difficult it is going to be to say with any certainty that a given exoplanet may harbor life.

Venus As Research Lab

We are extremely lucky to have Venus right next door; it's likely the only other large rocky world we will ever get to, Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, and the paper’s co-author, told me via email. Earth-size worlds in other planetary systems are light years away; we have no foreseeable means of reaching them, says Byrne.

In order to really understand how you obtain conditions which are suitable for life to form in the first place, you really need to understand the past the present and future of planets and how they evolve with time, Stephen Kane, the paper’s lead author and a planetary astrophysicist at the University of California, Riverside, told me via phone. That's why we argue that Venus is really the key to that because it shows an extremely different evolution from Earth, he says.

In contrast to Earth, Venus has a rotational period of 243 days. Its atmosphere is almost entirely Carbon Dioxide CO2 (with a small amount of nitrogen and trace abundances of other gases) such as sulfur dioxide, argon and water vapor, the authors write. Moreover, the planet is cloaked in a global layer of sulfuric acid clouds, they note.

Byrne points out that although Venus and Earth formed in the same manner as the other rocky planets in our solar system, it’s still a puzzle as to why they took such divergent evolutionary paths.

If you move a planet too close to the star, then it's going to lose the primary atmosphere that it formed with and it's going to create a secondary atmosphere, says Kane. But if it's too close to the star, the planet will also lose its secondary atmosphere, he says.

Illustration of NASA's Pioneer Venus Orbiter mission.

Kane says that one of the most interesting things about Earth is that it has had surface liquid water for about 4 billion years. This means that Earth has had to maintain a very narrow temperature range, which he calls “extraordinary.”

As For A Solar System Without A Venus Analog?

If we did not have Venus, you can only imagine what we would be inferring about the Earth size planet population that we're currently discovering around other stars, says Kane. That’s because our models would never predict Venus, he says.

Earth and Venus are the same size and the same mass, but on a planetary scale everything else about Venus is different, says Kane. The magnetic field is different, the rotation rate is different, and Venus doesn't have a moon, so its axial tilt is different, he says.

Kane is also puzzled by Venus’ slow rotation rate and how it’s changed over time.

With Venus, we now think that the atmosphere itself has slowed the planet down, says Kane. It’s been assumed that Venus always was a slow rotator, but we don't know that, he says. And we don't fully understand the effect that the change in Venus' rotation rate has had on its climate evolution, says Kane.

Is there hope of ever understanding our sister planet?

For a start, a fleet of spacecraft will investigate Venus over the next decade, says the European Space Agency. They include ESA’s Envision mission, NASA’s VERITAS orbiter and DAVINCI probe, and India’s Shukrayaan orbiter.

These upcoming missions represent the best next step in making Venus a research priority.

As we discover more and more Earth- size worlds orbiting other stars we'll need to figure out how to distinguish those that are like Venus from those that are like Earth, says Byrne. If it's solely based on distance to the host star, then distinguishing that will be straightforward, he says. But if it's more complicated, and Earth-like worlds can form and be stable closer in to their parent stars, then we're going to have to understand why Venus and Earth turned out so differently, Byrne notes.

But Was Venus Ever Earth-Like?

Whether the answer is yes or no, figuring out this mystery is going to be a big deal, says Byrne.

And it will help us better understand our own planet.

Figuring out when, why, and how Venus ended up different to Earth will tell us how Earth has managed to stay habitable for almost its entire lifetime, says Byrne.

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About 1 in 5 U.S. teens who’ve heard of ChatGPT have used it for schoolwork

Roughly one-in-five teenagers who have heard of ChatGPT say they have used it to help them do their schoolwork, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17. With a majority of teens having heard of ChatGPT, that amounts to 13% of all U.S. teens who have used the generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in their schoolwork.

Teens in higher grade levels are particularly likely to have used the chatbot to help them with schoolwork. About one-quarter of 11th and 12th graders who have heard of ChatGPT say they have done this. This share drops to 17% among 9th and 10th graders and 12% among 7th and 8th graders.

There is no significant difference between teen boys and girls who have used ChatGPT in this way.

The introduction of ChatGPT last year has led to much discussion about its role in schools , especially whether schools should integrate the new technology into the classroom or ban it .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand American teens’ use and understanding of ChatGPT in the school setting.

The Center conducted an online survey of 1,453 U.S. teens from Sept. 26 to Oct. 23, 2023, via Ipsos. Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents, who were part of its KnowledgePanel . The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey was weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with their parents by age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income, and other categories.

This research was reviewed and approved by an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, an independent committee of experts specializing in helping to protect the rights of research participants.

Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

Teens’ awareness of ChatGPT

Overall, two-thirds of U.S. teens say they have heard of ChatGPT, including 23% who have heard a lot about it. But awareness varies by race and ethnicity, as well as by household income:

• 72% of White teens say they’ve heard at least a little about ChatGPT, compared with 63% of Hispanic teens and 56% of Black teens.
• 75% of teens living in households that make $75,000 or more annually have heard of ChatGPT. Much smaller shares in households with incomes between $30,000 and $74,999 (58%) and less than $30,000 (41%) say the same.

Teens who are more aware of ChatGPT are more likely to use it for schoolwork. Roughly a third of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT (36%) have used it for schoolwork, far higher than the 10% among those who have heard a little about it.

When do teens think it’s OK for students to use ChatGPT?

For teens, whether it is – or is not – acceptable for students to use ChatGPT depends on what it is being used for.

There is a fair amount of support for using the chatbot to explore a topic. Roughly seven-in-ten teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use when they are researching something new, while 13% say it is not acceptable.

However, there is much less support for using ChatGPT to do the work itself. Just one-in-five teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to write essays, while 57% say it is not acceptable. And 39% say it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT to solve math problems, while a similar share of teens (36%) say it’s not acceptable.

Some teens are uncertain about whether it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT for these tasks. Between 18% and 24% say they aren’t sure whether these are acceptable use cases for ChatGPT.

Those who have heard a lot about ChatGPT are more likely than those who have only heard a little about it to say it’s acceptable to use the chatbot to research topics, solve math problems and write essays. For instance, 54% of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to solve math problems, compared with 32% among those who have heard a little about it.

Note: Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

• Artificial Intelligence
• Technology Adoption
• Teens & Tech

Olivia Sidoti is a research assistant focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center

Jeffrey Gottfried is an associate director focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center

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