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This article offers food for thought on a strategy used by seven faculty to enhance students' integrative learning by offering cross-course, cross-disciplinary projects and shared activities focused on food. The faculty teach a cluster of ten courses in natural sciences, health sciences, social sciences and humanities that address food themes. Assessment data illustrate the learning gains by students enrolled in the clustered courses and points to limitations of the strategy as well. The evaluation of the strategy includes a discussion of the costs and benefits of the effort from the perspective of the teaching faculty. (Contains 9 tables and 1 figure.)

Flying insects capable of navigating in highly cluttered natural environments can withstand in-flight collisions because of the combination of their low inertia.sup.1 and the resilience of their wings.sup.2, exoskeletons.sup.1 and muscles. Current insect-scale (less than ten centimetres long and weighing less than five grams) aerial robots.sup.3-6 use rigid microscale actuators, which are typically fragile under external impact. Biomimetic artificial muscles.sup.7-10 that are capable of large deformation offer a promising alternative for actuation because they can endure the stresses caused by such impacts. However, existing soft actuators.sup.11-13 have not yet demonstrated sufficient power density to achieve lift-off, and their actuation nonlinearity and limited bandwidth create further challenges for achieving closed-loop (driven by an input control signal that is adjusted based on sensory feedback) flight control. Here we develop heavier-than-air aerial robots powered by soft artificial muscles that demonstrate open-loop (driven by a predetermined signal without feedback), passively stable (upright during flight) ascending flight as well as closed-loop, hovering flight. The robots are driven by multi-layered dielectric elastomer actuators that weigh 100 milligrams each and have a resonance frequency of 500 hertz and power density of 600 watts per kilogram. To increase the mechanical power output of the actuator and to demonstrate flight control, we present ways to overcome challenges unique to soft actuators, such as nonlinear transduction and dynamic buckling. These robots can sense and withstand collisions with surrounding obstacles and can recover from in-flight collisions by exploiting material robustness and vehicle passive stability. We also fly two micro-aerial vehicles simultaneously in a cluttered environment. They collide with the wall and each other without suffering damage. These robots rely on offboard amplifiers and an external motion-capture system to provide power to the dielectric elastomer actuators and to control their flight. Our work demonstrates how soft actuators can achieve sufficient power density and bandwidth to enable controlled flight, illustrating the potential of developing next-generation agile soft robots. Heavier-than-air insect-scale aerial robots powered by soft artificial muscles can hover and also recover from in-flight collisions, illustrating the potential for developing next-generation agile soft robots., Author(s): Yufeng Chen [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.3] , Huichan Zhao [sup.4] , Jie Mao [sup.1] [sup.5] , Pakpong Chirarattananon [sup.6] , E. Farrell Helbling [sup.1] [sup.2] , Nak-seung Patrick Hyun [sup.1] [...]

Despite increasing number of mainland Chinese students studying in western tertiary settings, there is limited information available on their learning experiences and responses to popular educational practices in these contexts. There is an assumption in the literature that Chinese students respond well to the collaborative demands of groupwork due to the collectivist nature of their culture, however there are few reports to substantiate this claim. This paper reports on mainland Chinese students' perception of groupwork in two Australian tertiary settings. Thirteen students from mainland China were interviewed on their groupwork experiences. All interviews were completed in either Mandarin or Cantonese. Two types of groupwork were identified: assignment groupwork (AGW) and student generated groupwork (SGGW). Three criteria for collaboration: level of interaction, construction of knowledge and a shared goal were used to search for signs of collaborative elements in the Chinese students' recall of their groupwork experience. Indicators of collaboration were identified in the reports of AGWs but were less consistent in SGGWs. The findings of this study suggest that Chinese students perceive out-of-class groupwork in an Australian context as a positive learning experience, reporting enhanced understanding of academic contents, application of knowledge and socializing with other Chinese students. (Contains 1 table.)

Interactive problem solving and learning are priorities in contemporary education, but these complex processes have proved difficult to research. This project addresses the question "How do we optimise social interaction for the promotion of learning in a mathematics classroom?" Employing the logic of multi-theoretic research design, this project uses the newly built Science of Learning Research Classroom (ARC-SR120300015) at The University of Melbourne and equivalent facilities in China to investigate classroom learning and social interactions, focusing on collaborative small group problem solving as a way to make the social aspects of learning visible. In Australia and China, intact classes of local year 7 students with their usual teacher will be brought into the research classroom facilities with built-in video cameras and audio recording equipment to participate in purposefully designed activities in mathematics. The students will undertake a sequence of tasks in the social units of individual, pair, small group (typically four students) and whole class. The conditions for student collaborative problem solving and learning will be manipulated so that student and teacher contributions to that learning process can be distinguished. Parallel and comparative analyses will identify culture-specific interactive patterns and provide the basis for hypotheses about the learning characteristics underlying collaborative problem solving performance documented in the research classrooms in each country. The ultimate goals of the project are to generate, develop and test more sophisticated hypotheses for the optimisation of social interaction in the mathematics classroom in the interest of improving learning and, particularly, student collaborative problem solving.

The major premise of this project is that teachers learn from the act of teaching a lesson. Rather than asking "What must a teacher already know in order to practice effectively?", this project asks "What might a teacher learn through their activities in the classroom and how might this learning be optimised?" In this project, controlled conditions are created utilising purposefully designed and trialled lesson plans to investigate the process of teacher knowledge construction, with teacher selective attention proposed as a key mediating variable. In order to investigate teacher learning through classroom practice, the project addresses the following questions: To what classroom objects, actions and events do teachers attend and with what consequence for their learning? Do teachers in different countries attend to different classroom events and consequently derive different learning benefits from teaching a lesson? This international project combines focused case studies with an online survey of mathematics teachers' selective attention and consequent learning in Australia, China and Germany. Data include the teacher's adaptation of a pre-designed lesson, the teacher's actions during the lesson, the teacher's reflective thoughts about the lesson and, most importantly, the consequences for the planning and delivery of a second lesson. The combination of fine-grained, culturally situated case studies and large-scale online survey provides mutually informing benefits from each research approach. The research design, so constituted, offers the means to a new and scalable vision of teacher learning and its promotion.

Heterostructures formed by quantum Hall systems and superconductors haverecently been shown to support widely coveted Majorana fermion zero-modes andstill more exotic `parafermionic' generalizations. Here we establish thatprobing such zero-modes using quantum Hall edge states yields non-localtransport signatures that pave the way towards a variety of novel circuitelements. In particular, we demonstrate quite generally that at low energiesthe zero-modes convert chirally moving quasiparticles into oppositely chargedquasiholes propagating in the same direction---that is, they swap the sign ofthe chiral edge currents. One may then construct new and potentially usefulcircuit elements using this `perfect Andreev conversion' process, includingsuperconducting current and voltage mirrors as well as transistors forfractional charge currents. Characterization of these circuit elements shouldprovide striking evidence of the zero-mode physics.

Contemporary curriculum demands the development of both problem solving skills and negotiative skills required for collaborative group work. Tasks are required that create the best possible conditions for students to develop both of these skill sets. Open-ended tasks have been shown to provide these conditions, but they also require the teacher to relinquish some level of control over student activity, since the open-endedness of the tasks provides students with the opportunity to realize their intentions rather than just the teacher's. It is necessary to investigate the nature of the affordances created by the use of open-ended tasks in order to anticipate how they might best be used for both instruction and learning. What is needed is a structured way to identify the affordances offered by open-ended tasks. This paper reports a study conducted in a laboratory classroom equipped to record classroom social interactions in great detail using advanced video technology. The reported analysis addresses the following question: What are the foci of the students' social interactions during collaborative problem solving while attempting open-ended mathematical tasks? Analysis was carried out in relation to each type of data generated: written response, transcripts and videos. Our research has identified structures to represent these affordances so that teachers can both anticipate them and draw on them in monitoring and facilitating student collaborative problem solving. The structured identification of affordances in relation to (a) written product and (b) negotiative focus provides teachers with two frameworks by which to scaffold student collaborative work while attempting open-ended tasks.

Stimulating thinking related to mathematical content is the focus of many tasks in the mathematics classroom. Beyond such content-related thinking, promoting forms of higher order thinking is among the goals of mathematics instruction as well. So-called hybrid tasks focus on combining both goals: they aim at fostering mathematical thinking and higher order thinking through the same mathematical activities--an aim which requires empirical examination. For empirically valid hybrid task design, evidence is required about the nature of the interrelatedness of content-related and higher order thinking. In this article, we choose the example of statistical thinking and critical thinking for exploring the interrelatedness of these different modes of thinking when solving hybrid tasks. Even if theories about statistical thinking and critical thinking have so far followed almost separate strands, there are commonalities at the theoretical level, which facilitate hybrid task design. We report an empirical study, in which a bottom-up analysis of thinking-aloud interviews with adult learners around solution processes of hybrid tasks affords insight into how these modes of thinking may interact when solving such tasks. The results show that the tasks did evoke both statistical thinking and critical thinking: Both modes of thinking entered in an interplay in which we observed instances of mutual support of both modes of thinking, but also cases in which a strong focus on statistical thinking or critical thinking appeared to impede the other mode of thinking, respectively. The findings can inform the further development of hybrid tasks: Based on the observations, the task format can be enriched with specific reflective stimuli intended to support a fruitful interplay of statistical thinking and critical thinking.

We articulate a student perspective on task design in mathematics education, foregrounding a dynamic relationship between intentions of task designers, teachers, and students. First, we characterize a student perspective on task design. Second, we provide theoretical perspectives that we use as tools to account for different facets of task design from a student perspective. Third, we elaborate on "tensions of intentions" between designers, teachers, and students when considering the use of tasks to promote students' mathematical learning. Fourth, we address mathematical tasks and the student: characterizing task context from a student perspective, contrasting reflective and emergent task design, and discussing theoretical and methodological approaches that take into account the student perspective. We conclude with implications for research and practice.

This article describes the research landscape related to the use of video for promoting teacher learning, drawing on a variety of research studies to illustrate the breadth of approaches that have been employed. One particular research study is reported in some detail since, it is argued, this represents a new level of devolution of agency to teachers to play a self-scaffolding role in their own professional education. The study involved the investigation of an approach to the provision of feedback to teachers about their practice that involved stimulating teacher self-reflection and juxtaposed structure and agency. An observation framework grounded in classroom practice research was developed, and teachers selected elements of that framework to serve as the focus for examining their practice and seeking feedback about that practice. Teachers and researchers examined video-recorded lessons focusing on the teachers' selected observation elements, and then engaged in feedback conversations about their observations and analyses, and the implications of these for future practice. The approach identified the video record as an artefact of the teacher's own practice and one which demanded a professional response from the teacher. The balance between structure and agency realised in the study, in combination with the use of video for observation and analysis of practice, facilitated teacher self-reflection and functioned to both support and provoke teacher learning.