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This mathematics classroom based experimental study determined the relative effectiveness of formative assessment techniques on students' academic achievement in Mathematics. Factorial research design was adopted for the study involving 100 students from 2 co-educational secondary schools drawn through multistage sampling procedure. Mathematics Achievement Test was the instrument used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was established using Kudder Richardson (KR[subscript 20]) formula and a reliability coefficient of 0.92 was obtained. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was employed to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that the muddiest point formative assessment technique proved to be more effective in improving students' academic achievement in Mathematics than the think-pair-share technique. The findings also showed that the mean achievement scores of male and female students in Mathematics are not statistically significant. The muddiest point technique should be employed regularly by teachers for classroom assessment of the students since it is more effective in improving students' academic achievement in Mathematics.

This study determined policy initiatives for improving the contributions of university agricultural education and extension institutions to environmental and sustainable development (ESD) in agriculture. The study was carried out in Cross River State. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study of 534, comprising 195 registered farmers who have continuously participated in ADP farmer field school training from the State; 70 graduate extension personnel; 167 final year agriculture students and 102 lecturers. Agricultural education programme in the Universities in Cross River State was used for the study. The study adopted a triangulation technique involving mixed methods of data collection. Both instruments were face validated by three experts in the field of agriculture with a reliability coefficient of 0.83 obtained through Cronbach alpha reliability method. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and independent t-test statistic. The study identified (17) policy initiatives that could improve the contributions of agricultural education and extension institutions to ESD in agriculture in Cross River State. It was recommended among others that the identified policy initiatives should be integrated into university agricultural education and extension institutions and properly implemented.

This study investigated the concentrations of heavy metals and their bioaccumulation in earthworm in Lemna solid wastes dumpsite in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. Three composite samples of the depth of 30 cm each were collected from Lemna dumpsites and control from the University of Calabar Botanical garden, making a total of four composite soil samples, while samples of earthworms were collected at each sampling point. The samples were analysed for Pb, Cd, Zn and Cu. The result showed that the levels of heavy metals were all higher in dumpsite and significantly different from the control. The respective means of metal concentrations from both Lemna and control were Pb(323.99mg/kg, 89.88mg/kg), Cd(1.12 mg/kg, 0.072 mg/kg), Zn(281 mg/kg, 7.60 mg/kg) and Cu(21.58 mg/kg, 4.89 mg/kg). Pb, Cd, Zn and Cu were also higher in earthworm of dumpsite than earthworm of the control soil. Correlation between Cadmium and Zinc concentration in soil and Cadmium and Zinc concentration in earthworm displayed strong and positive relationship while weak and negative correlation was observed between Cu and Pb concentrations in soil and Cu and Pb concentrations in earthworm. Bioaccumulation of the heavy metals by earthworm was in the order of Zn (0.382) > Cd (0.170) > Pb (0.076) > Cu (0.020). The dumpsite soil was found to be contaminated with Cd, Pb and Zn as their concentrations were high above maximum permissible limits except Cu. For safe consumption of crops from Lemna dumpsite soil, remediation of heavy metals in the soil in advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the properties of soils developed on diverse parent materials in Ogoja Local Government Area. Five profile pits on five different parent materials were dug, morphologically delineated and described. The five parent materials were basement complex (BC), mudstone (MS), sandstone (SS), shalestone (SH) and limestone (LS). Morphologically, the soils were deep with varying color, structure, texture and consistency. The results of chemical analyses revealed that the soils have acid pH with means of 5.4, 5.4, 5.4, 5.3 and 5.4 in BC, MS, SS, SH and LS. Organic carbon was low (<15g/kg) across the parent materials while total N was slightly higher in MS, SS and LS with means of 0.04 g kg-1, 0.10 g kg-1, 0.04 g kg-1, 0.10 g kg-1 and 0.20 g kg-1 in BC, MS, SS, SH and LS accordingly. Available P was low (<8mg/kg) across the parent materials with slightly higher value recorded in SH than in other parent materials. Calcium and sodium were the dominant and the least bases respectively with mean values of 3.2 cmol/kg, 3.93 cmol/kg, 3.65 cmol/kg, 3.3 cmol/kg and 3.95 cmol/kg and 0.25 cmol/kg, 0.10 cmol/kg, 0.08 cmol/kg, 0.08 cmol/kg, 0.08 cmol/kg in BC, MS, SS, SH and LS respectively. Exchangeable bases were higher in MS than other soils. Both Al3+ and H+ contributed at the same level to acidity of the soils. Correlation analysis showed that sand correlated negatively and significantly with clay (-0.81), OC (-0.41), TN (-0.42), and Al+++ (-0.78) and positively and significantly with pH (0.72), Ca2+ (0.7), Mg2+ (0.64), K+ (0.56), ECEC (0.71) and BS (0.70). Correlation between pH and exchangeable bases, available P (0.83), ECEC (0.9) and base saturation (0.83) was significant and positive. However, most properties had negative and non-significant correlation with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]