FACTORS INFLUENCING TEACHERS USE OF GAMES AS STRATEGY FOR PEDAGOGY OF PRIMARY SCIENCE IN SCHOOLS: THE ROLES OF LIBRARIES
This study investigates the effectiveness of games as technique for teaching and learning of primary science in schools and the role play by library services. Game, when carefully employed and executed served as an integral part of teaching method and measure of effectiveness of instruction. Research has shown that educational games can have positive impacts on student learning and motivation. The success of a game played in an instruction class depends on the type of game selected, the development of learning outcomes, and the flexibility of library in providing library unit that is equipped with multimedia equipments where learners can interact. The study was restricted to 600 male and female respondents’ teachers in Ojo Local Educational District of Lagos State. Data were collected through 18 items questionnaire. The three generated hypotheses for the study were rejected, while the result of the finding revealed that significant difference exists between factors influencing teachers’ choice of game, its usefulness and problems hindering the effectiveness of game(s) for teaching and learning process of primary science in schools. Conclusion and recommendation were also proffered.
Simple HTML Templates for Creating Science-Oriented Jeopardy! Games for Active Learning
of words = 148) To enable more faculty to use another component of Active Learning in their multimedia equipped classrooms, we have developed a comprehensive Sciences Jeopardy! games web site. Jeopardy! is a unique way to help students master the content of their local course. For faculty, Jeopardy! is an engaging, alternative exercise that can enliven lectures or recitations. The freely accessible web site (http://chemed.chem.pitt.edu/Jeopardy) offers a number of complete Jeopardy! games for Organic Chemistry, General Chemistry, and Biochemistry (both in web accessible or zipped, downloadable formats). More importantly, instructions, design aids, blank Jeopardy! files, and content templates (both in ChemDraw and PowerPoint formats) are provided so that anyone can create their own customized Jeopardy! game with no prior coding or programming experience needed. For the more experienced web programmer, adaptation of the html template files is straightforward if one wishes to include molecular animations (e.g., Chime images), sound, or other web-accessible enhancements.
The New ‘U’
Today's talk about tenure must be framed within broader discussions about the role of the university. Our university system is now over one hundred years old, the “Old-Time College” is gone, the “cold war” university is no longer viable, and the foundations of the modern “multiversity” are cracking, so it is time to talk about change. But change is not necessarily reform, and resisting change probably will not keep things the way they are, so academics must understand the forces reshaping the university. Whenever I listen to colleagues defend the status quo by saying that the United States has a university system that is the envy of the world, I hear echoes of the Detroit automobile industry's casual dismissal of foreign competitors in the early 1960s. The decision not to change did not preserve the auto industry, and it is unlikely to preserve public universities as we know them. The current debates about tenure began with ideological attacks on “tenured radicals” who used their secure jobs to subvert conservative cultural values. The attack on tenure gathered steam as fiscal hawks in financially-strapped states looked for ways to save money and found huge state university systems with budgets to match. When asked why he robbed banks, the legendary Willie Sutton replied, “Because that's where the money is.” When asked why they are robbing tenure, legislators, regents, and administrators reply, “Because that's where the money is.” Personnel costs are a large share of university budgets and tenure ties the hands of administrators and legislators accustomed to using purse strings to control universities.