Issue Of The Conflict Between Israel And The Palestinians Essay

Issue Of The Conflict Between Israel And The Palestinians - Essay Example Films such as Exodus, together with the horrific images that emerged from Germany’s concentration camps left an indelible mark on humanity, and rightly so. The effects of these images have also played a crucial role in what has evolved into a crisis in the Middle East that has one party, the Palestinians, crying foul, and the other, the Israelis, claiming rights to land Palestinians have lived on for 1300 years. In assessing any perspective, the temptation to see things from one side or the other is a very real problem. The Zionists, searching for Palestinian roots, wrote their history of the Jews in Palestine in the Middle Ages; the European Christians did the same. As Barnai (1992) suggests, history is often written through nationalistic eyes and as such may be rife with distortions that favor the side writing it. Abdullah’s and other arguments must be subject to that scrutiny. His first argument that Jews and Arabs lived in harmony for centuries, and that â€Å"For nearly 2,000 years Palestine has been almost 100 percent Arab† is faulty. His contention that current animosities have nothing to do with tribal enmity is doubtful as well from a historical perspective. What Slovan (2010) refers to as the Jewish insistence that Judenhass or Jew Hate is largely responsible appears to have weight when evidence is examined. While few reliable documents from very early times exist pertaining to the Jewish presence in Palestine and their treatment there, documents from the Ottoman Empire of the sixteenth century indicate they were there in significant roles. Barnai (1992) writes, â€Å"Jews were quickly integrated into the Ottoman Empire... [and] acquired key economic positions and were active  in...industry, trade, and finance† (p.11). Jews even then were persecuted by local Arab officials. Barnai found, [There were] â€Å"laws discriminating against the Jews...prohibitions on buying land, on building houses and synagogues, and on riding horses, and restrictions in matters of dress and inheritance...† (p. 13).

Cross Cultural Beliefs About the Afterlife Essay Example for Free

Cross Cultural Beliefs About the Afterlife Essay Abstract A study of American undergraduates indicated that the beliefs about the nature of life after death were quite complicated. A 41-item questionnaire produced 12 independent groups of beliefs. Belief in an internal locus of control and that one’s life is owned by God were associated with a more positive view of the afterlife, as was being Roman Catholic rather than Protestant. The most common beliefs were that one is reunited with family and friends, that the afterlife is comforting, that there is Heaven and that the transition is peaceful, all believed by more than 90 percent of the students. The afterlife is an idea that the conscious or mind of a being continuous after physical death occurs. There are many different believes about how the afterlife will be and what effects that outcome. In many popular views, this continued existence often takes place in an immaterial or spiritual realm. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion. Deceased people are usually believed to go to a specific planet after death. Regardless of the lack of evidence that is typically believed to be determined by a God. This is based on their actions during physical life. In contrast, the term reincarnation refers to an afterlife in which only the â€Å"essence† of the being is preserved, and the â€Å"afterlife† is another life on Earth or possibly within the same universe. Lester, Aldrige, Aspenberg, Boyle, Radsniak, and Waldron (2001-2002) based their research proposal on what Flynn and Kunkel (1987) found. Flynn and Kunkel (1987) used data from about one thousand respondents in the 1983 from a General Social Survey to analyze beliefs that the people had for life after death. They found three groups of beliefs. One is Otherworldly: life of peace, tranquility, paradise of pleasure and delight, loving intellectual communication, union with god and reunion with loved ones. Worldly Rewards: life of intense action like it is here on earth but a paradise of pleasure and delight. The third group was No Rewards: life without many earthly joys, a pale, shadowy sort of life, spiritually involving mind and not the body. The researchers found that the type of belief held about life-after-death was related to social class, financial status, and a history of trauma. No recent studies were identified on this issue until Lester et al. (2001-2002). The designing of this study was made to explore and expand the beliefs that people held about life-after-death. They used a 21-item questionnaire of the concepts of the afterlife. In the first method the questionnaire was given to 50 students who were enrolled in social science undergraduate courses. The mean age was 23.8 years old and the participants were mainly white. In the first method nine factors ever extracted about beliefs about afterlife. There were three major findings from the research that was obtained. One was that 19.8 percent accounted for that the life is much like the life on earth. There is a good and an evil. Not everyone is equal and that there are material objects in the afterlife. 13.4 percent accounted for that the cause of death, rituals carried out for you, the physical and psychotically state at death has an effect on how the afterlife would be. Lastly 8.5 percent accounted for the belief that the afterlife is a specific place, there is a day of judgment, and there is eternal bliss and that that is the final destinations. The second method was designed to enlarge properties, increase sample size and explore other personality correlates of beliefs, specifically belief on external locus of control. The research study consisted of 152 male and180 female participants who were undergraduate students from the same state college as the participants in the first method. The second method was expanded into a 41-item questionnaire. The mean age in the second method was 22.5 years old and the participants were mainly white. In this method twelve factors were identified about beliefs about afterlife. Three of the major factors were that 12.1 percent believe in Heave and Hell. 7.9 percent believe in reincarnation and 6.6 percent believed that there ate material objects and sexual desire in the after life. The gender differences that were found are that men are not less likely to believe in afterlife but they were less likely to believe in Heaven, reuniting with loved ones, communication with the living and request for forgiveness before death. Men were more likely the women to believe that there are material objects, that spirits have human form, that there is pain, hunger, thirst and that rituals carried out after death are important. The religious differences they found were that Protestant students were less likely to believe in life-after-death then Roman Catholic students. On the other hand, Protestant students were more likely to believe that there is Hell and that forgiveness needs to be requested to get into Heaven.One of the strengths that this article has is that they provided a broad hypothesis. It was not specific and that gave them more room to play around with how they want to test the beliefs on life-after-death. They basically just wanted to explore from what was found in previous search on the afterlife and find more detailed data. Another strengths in this article were the specific questions that the participants were asked about their beliefs in the afterlife. The researchers made the questions into simple yes or no answer kinds. This made it easier for the participants to answer what they believe in about the afterlife and it also made it easier and clearer for the researchers to extract the exact data that they were looking for. Also the researchers conducted two methods. There were extra questions that were added also. This helped the researchers find other specific beliefs. Overall, having two methods gives a better view of what data is best to keep and present. The first weakness of this article is that the date was only consumed from one specific university. This has a major limit on how this data will be taken into account by others. When data is taken only from one part of he country it limits how credible the findings are and how they can be used in future research. Another weakness is that the researchers only conducted a questionnaire in their method to finding data on beliefs about the afterlife. Another weakness is that the sample size was small in the first method. It may be hard to compare data between method one and method two because they have significant difference in sample size. Lastly, a major weakness would be the data expenditure of only undergraduate students with mean ages of 23.8 and 22.5 within the two methods verses consuming data from many different age groups. Cross-cultural research on beliefs about the afterlife is one of the major directions that can be taken with this research topic just as it was done by: Ambwani, Warren, Gleaves, Benito and Fernandez (2007) in their research on fear of fatness across the world. The data they conducted showed differences in beliefs on what body shape is socially acceptable in the United Sates verses Spain. There are so many different religions, cultures and individual beliefs regarding how life should be lived and what will come out of that. Some religions do not believe in the afterlife at all and some believe that this life is just a test for what will be the ever-lasting life after death. These differences need to be taken into considerations and research on more to further our understanding about all the cultures in our environments. Another future directions that can be taken with beliefs about the afterlife can be of great importance to the medical fields in research. Patients that have experienced trauma in their lives may have very important data that can help understand why people may have the different thoughts and beliefs about how the afterlife will and what will be in it. Research Purpose Cross-cultural Research would be a key direction to take beliefs about afterlife on. This would assess the differences in beliefs about afterlife beyond America. Cross-cultural research is beneficial because it covers a much wider range of variations in cultural activities then other studies that are based on single societies. For this particular subject on afterlife a comparison between America and Croatia will be done. The cultural differences about what beliefs individuals hold will be taken. The purpose is to show how different cultures may have different dynamics in how they believe their life had effected the belief they hold on afterlife. Croatians compared to Americans on average will believe in afterlife more. Another proposal is to test participants that have experienced trauma verses participants that have not experienced trauma. This would show how experience of trauma can affect a person view on life and how they may feel about afterlife. For this particular research it would show the difference been the two countries and between experience with trauma and experience with no trauma. On average participants that have experienced trauma will have a greater belief in afterlife verses participants with no experience with trauma. Research Methods The budget for this research proposal is 12,000.00 dollars. There are 400 participants to which 20.00-dollar Starbucks gift card will be given. That is 40020, which equals 8,000.00 dollars. The money for the Starbucks gift cards will be transferred from here to Zagreb Croatia trough Bank of America free of charge. There are also four research assistants. Two native speaking Croatians that also speak English from the University of Zagreb and two Americans from Oakland University. Each of the assistants receive 1,000.00 dollars 41000, which equals to 4,000.00 for a total of 12,000.00-dollar research budget. The ideal characteristic for the participants in this research would be that they are college health college students that have a global point of view so that the date that will be collected from them is from a point of view that has seen more then just one way to live. The participants would also be ideal if they are completely honest about their answers since these are completely confidential items on the questionnaire. An equal amount of men and women would also be ideal. Although, that may be a difficult task it can be established by keeping track of how many men and women have come to take the online questionnaire. There will be 400 student participants will be chosen from America and Croatia. From America the participants will be gathered from Oakland University in Rochester Michigan and from Croatia the participants will be gathered from University of Zagreb in Zagreb. The participants will not be from a specific major study or group but randomly selected individuals. They will all be undergraduate students. There will be a total of 400 participants. Students will be split, 200 from Oakland University and 200 from University of Zagreb. The sampling methods will proceed in the fallowing order. The questionnaire will be taken online on a website make just for this research. The website that will be made by the Oakland Universities IT departments assistance free of charge. The online questionnaire will be taken individually in a room that will be provided for the research. This way the students do will feel more comfortable and less anxious about answering the questionnaire. There will be a research assistant present in that room during the time when participants take the online questionnaire to assist them of they have any questions about how to start the questionnaire and to assist them when they are done. After the participant completes the online questionnaire the research assistant will grant them with a twenty-dollar Starbucks gift card. The Measurements will be done with the questionnaire from method two of the original research study. The questionnaire will be back translated to Croatian. Items 1 to 41 will aid in determine if the participants believe in afterlife and what specific facts they believe about afterlife. How will the afterlife be? What will be in the afterlife? These items are very specific and will with no trouble help distinguish between participants that believe in afterlife verses those participants that do not in America and Croatia and it will help find the specifics that participants believe in about afterlife. Items that do not pertain to research purposes will be taken out and replaced with more appropriate items for the research. The participants will be asked to report their age. Also other items will be added to the questionnaire to fit the need for data consumption for the research of effect of trauma on participants and their beliefs (see appendix 1 for questionnaire items). Items 42 to 55 have been added to assist in finding the right data that is needed. These specific items in the questionnaire will help determine what kind of traumatic even the participant has experienced. Do they believe this has changed how they think and feel the afterlife will be like? Also a consent form and confidentiality agreement will be given to participants to sign. The data analytic plan will consist of Two-way ANOVA. A Two-way ANOVA of variance is an extension to the one-way analysis of variance. There are two independent variables. Some of the assumptions for Two-way ANOVA are that the population from which the samples are obtained must be somewhat normally distributed. The sample must be independent. The variance of population must be equal and the groups must have the same sample size. The two independent variables in Two-way ANOVA are called factors. The idea is that there are two variable, factors, that effect the dependent variable. Each factor will have two or more factors within it. For this research study the two independent variables (factors) are American students and Croatian students. Each of the factors has two other factors in it. In this case study the participants with trauma versus participants with no trauma are the factors within the independent variable. When using Two-way ANOVA the main effect, interaction effect and within variation are also establish. The main effect involves the independent variable one at a time. The interaction effect is the effect one factor has on the other factor. Lastly the within effect is the sum of squared within each treatment group. Two-way ANOVA will provide all the necessary dynamics need to aid in this research in finding and separating the data. The research procedure will consist of the fallowing method to assemble the participants and obtain the data needed. Back-translate the original questionnaire to Croatian. Invite participants to take part in the study via email and announcements by the staff member that are chosen as assistants in this study to their students in class. As participants walk in they will be guided to a computer in the designated room to take the online questionnair. Before participants take the online questionnaire they will be asked to sign a consent and confidentiality form. After taking the online questionnaire participants will receive their twenty-dollar Starbucks gift card. Then data will be collected and analyzed from America and Croatia. The significance of this research proposal is simply that it can be used in many ways for future research. This is simple because researching on culture always brings up interesting data apart from what the researches goal was to find in first place. However, to focus on the main significance of this research is health care. It is always the fasted growing field and the most advanced in technology but there is also always room for more improvement for people skills and knowledge about diversity. Being that America is the melting pot of the world, knowledge about cultural differences is always needed. This future direction can serve nurses and doctors and other medical professionals in understanding and communicating better with their patients. Since trauma is nothing new to the health care world it is a major fact that all health care professionals need to advance and keep getting educated about. Trauma has major effects on an individuals and it will have a major effect on what they believe after the traumatic experience. Some people may have come close to death in their traumatic experience. This might have taken them to the thought about what may be next? Is this it? These are just some of the questions people may wonder about. On the other hand people that have ever had major trauma may and may just have a broad belief about what they think the afterlife will be. Research on afterlife would benefit the medical fields in a great way. The nurses and other health care professionals would have a deeper understanding on what their patients that have chronic illnesses are feeling intrinsically. It would also give them a better chance of understanding different culture and know what the patient feels or does not feel comfortable with. This research can also benefit social worker and counselors and educators in connecting with their patients or students in a better way. Education about how traumatic experiences effect how people believe their afterlife will be can also be a factor of why they feel the way they do right now. This research will also open many more doors for future research on sub topics regarding afterlife and other interesting factors that may rise from this. Since there is not much research on afterlife this can be the icebreaker. References Ambwani, S., Warren, C., Gleaves, D., Benito, A., and Fernandez, M. (2008). Culture, Gender and Assesment of Fear of Fatness. European Journal of Psychological Assesment. 24, 81-87. Flynn, C. p., Kunkel, S. R. (1987). Deprivation, compensation, and conception of an afterlife. Sociological Analysis, 48, 58-72. Lester, D., Aldridge, M., Aspenberg, C., Boyle, K., Radsniak, P., and Waldron, C. (2002). What Is the Afterlife like? Undergraduates Believes about the Afterlife. Omega Center for the Study of Sluiced. 44, 113-126.

Search for Identity in Amy Tans The Joy Luck Club Essay -- Joy Luck C

Search for Identity in The Joy Luck Club "Imagine, a daughter not knowing her own mother!" And then it occurs to me. They are frightened. In me, they see their own daughters, just as ignorant, just as unmindful of all truths and hopes they have brought to America. They see daughters who grow impatient when their mothers talk in Chinese, who think they are stupid when they explain things in fractured English. (Tan 40-41) Amy Tan frames The Joy Luck Club with Jing-mei Woo's search for identity. When Jing-mei's mother's friends tell Jing-mei that her sisters have at long last been found and insist that she tell her sisters about their mother's life, Jing-mei emotionally replies that she does not know her mother. However, her mother's friends' generosity helps Jing-mei to realize how much she wishes that she had understood her mother, how desperately she would like to question her if only she could. It is in this moment that Jing-mei recognizes the necessity of understanding her mother's life in order both to figure out who her mother was and to understand herself. Jing-mei's placement at the mah jong table already suggests a link between Jing-mei and her mother that parallels Jing-mei's position in the rest of the novel, for wherever Suyuan should be telling her story, it is told through the voice of Jing-mei instead. While Suyuan should be the one to reconcile with her lost daughters, Jing-mei will go in her place. This planned act of reconciliation where Jing-mei will fulfill her mother's dream foreshadows the other mother-daughter stories in the novel where An-mei, Lindo, and Ying-ying are just as eager to reclaim their daughters as Suyuan, in order to help in their daughters' struggles ... ...perately to connect with her mother. In her quest to close the cultural gap between her Chinese heritage and her American upbringing, she questions what it means to be Chinese. Suffering from a disadvantage compared to the other daughters in the story, since her mother is dead, Jing-mei struggles to remember the foods her mother cooked, her relatives' names, and the stories her mother told. However, it is when Jing-mei finally embraces her sisters, and they observe in the polaroid shot how they all look like their mother, that it occurs to Jing-mei that her family is the part of her that is Chinese. Therefore, in order to understand that part of her identity, she must embrace the memory of her dead mother. With the sisters linked by their mother in their family likeness, the photograph symbolically reconciles the two generations, as well as the two cultures.

Ashford University Essay

Pornography is very addictive and can destroy someone’s marriage and life. This addiction can, and in many cases, lead to someone committing very serious sexual crimes. People who look at porn often look for more perversity in different areas. The resources from which I found my information on is the Ashford Library and a couple credible internet sites. There are several reasons why people turn to porn. Some reasons are for seeing their own fantasies acted out because they can’t act them out with their own partner / spouse, some people want to avoid intimacy within their own relationship for personal reasons, some just do it for personal pleasure. But for whatever reason, there is always a consequence that will follow. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), 56% of divorces occur because one spouse keeps returning to a pornographic website. These men / women feel as though they are being compared to these people in the pornographic films or pict ures. Whether it’s the man or the woman who is watching porn inside the marriage, in most cases, they are doing this against their spouses wishes. This leads to lack of intimacy, low self esteem, shame, and lack of trust. This also makes the spouse feel as if they are no longer found attractive. â€Å"Just ask your spouse how confident they feel being naked in front of you after you’ve looked at pornography and you’ll understand this one.† ( http://www.debttolife.com ). Many people say that they introduce porn into their marriage to spice their love life up but in the end all this does is slowly destroy the intimacy that was there. After watching pornography people’s views are completely changed. After being exposed to R-  rated material men no longer see their spouse as they once did. They look at them now more as an object rather than an individual that they love. Studies have shown (http://www.webmd.com ) that pornography can be just the same as an addiction. Some experts who have studied porn addiction have called the effects of porn on the brain toxic and also compared it to the deadly drug cocaine (WebMD, 2014). These addicts no longer just suffer from nights without sleep or unpaid credit card bills but they are also becoming more engaged in group sex and sexual contact with animals. Other effects that have surfaced from pornography include acting out what they have seen in porn material, sexual acts towards children both boys and girls, and rape using foreign materials / objects. (The Forerunner, 1991). Child pornography is a disgusting fact that we hear about every day. â€Å"Child pornography is the visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct includes acts such as intercourse, bestiality and masturbation as well as lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area.† (Pulido, 2013). Recently, there were 71 people, 70 men and 1 woman, who were arrested in child pornography charges. Among that 70 included a police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi, an airline pilot, an architect, and a Boy Scout leader. Many of these people who were arrest had search the phrases â€Å"real child rape† and â€Å"family sex† into their computers search engines turning up extremely disturbing images (Hays, 2014). With so many people connected to the internet it has made this type of crime so easy. Perverts and pedophiles search the web everyday to find new victims. â€Å"The victims are getting younger, and the images more violent.†(Flack). When a picture of a child circles the internet going from one person to another, that child is being re-abused. No child should have to endear that type of suffering, never! A peer – to – peer, also known as P2P, file sharing network, that allows people to share music, videos, and pictures, was under investigation by authorizes and had 3,000 child pornography consumers with tens of thousands of child pornographic images  traded. â€Å"The investigation began after agents, using software available to law enforcement, were able to trace files of child pornography to an I.P. address on a computer used by Brian Fanelli, 54, who until January was the police chief of Mount Pleasant, N.Y† (Berger, 2014). Another, earlier, report back in 2009, out of all the arrest made on P2P users, 33 percent of those arrested had images of children three years old and younger and 42 percent had images of children showing some type of sexual explicit material. (Pulido, 2013). Virtue Ethics is â€Å"A person’s character is the totality of his character traits. Our character traits can be good, bad or somewhere in between. They can be admirable or not. The admirable character traits, the marks of perfection in character, are called virtues, their opposites are vices.†(Garrett, 2005)., I believe that this theory is a big part of someone who is willing to put everything at risk for something so degrading and disrespectful to themselves. A persons character says a lot about who that person is and what that person may be capable of doing. Not everyone has good virtue ethics and this is when one’s character and moral traits come in play. One’s character is shown through their ac tions and behavior, whether this is being good or bad. One’s moral values are shown through their honesty, their loyalty, and their respect for others. As we all know pornography is very popular but it can also cause serious problems. Many people look at the disturbing images not thinking about the consequences, they are only thinking about what is happening at that moment and at that moment that’s what they want to do. I look at this issue using the deontology theory. â€Å"Rather than looking at the consequences of an act, deontology looks at the reason for which an act is done, and the rule according to which one chooses to act.† (Mosser, 2013). I take that as someone doing something on impulse rather than thinking about the consequences that they will face when they act upon their decision. If someone knew that they was going to destroy their marriage by watching porn, if someone knew that by watching porn it would make them fall behind on their bills, or  if someone knew that by watching porn they would go out and commit sexual crimes, do you think they would have continued or even started looking at these image s, I think not! REFERENCES: Berger, J. (2014, May).71 Are Accused in a Child Pornography Case, Officials Say. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/nyregion/dozens-arrested-in-new-york-state-child-pornography-investigation.html?_r=0 Dr. Garrett. (2005, Nov.) Virtue Ethcs. Retrieved from http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/ethics/virtthry.htm Editorial Staff. (1991, Nov.). The Documented Effect of Porn. The Forerunner, X(VI). Retrieved from http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0388_Effects_of_Pornograp.html Flack, (Date, N/A)E. Bill Calls For Harsher Penalties For Possessing Child Porn. Retrieved from http://www.wave3.com/story/4639194/bill-calls-for-harsher-penalties-for-possessing-child-porn Hays, T. (2014, May). Cop, rabbi among 71 charged in child porn case. Telegraph – Herald Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1527156210?accountid=32521 Mosser, K. (2013). Ethics and social responsibility (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Pulido, Ph.D. ( Oct, 2013). Child Pornography: Basic Facts About A Horrific Crime. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-l-pulido-phd/child-pornography-basic-f_b_4094430.html

Democratic Society Essay

The conducted study revealed that both external and internal factors are of great importance for facilitation democratic changes in developing countries. Some observers argue that democratic outcomes are strongly related to the extent to which power holders have been encouraged by pressure from various external and domestic sources – for example, internationally, from foreign governments granting financial aid and, at home, from civil and political society to allow citizens greater participation in the political arena. Others suggest that democratic progress is primarily associated with an array of domestic factors affecting political outcomes, including level of economic development, quality of political leadership and political culture. It seems that truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between. Without a doubt, globalization of democratization encourages developing countries to keep up to date and join the process of internationalization of economic growth and get profit from widening of free markets, reinforced by new means of international communication. But our study proves that to promote democratization the developing nation has to maintain multiple domestic conditions such as adherence to sustainable economic development and willingness to allocate public resources in equitable manner, strong middle class, powerful and soundly structured civil society, effectively functioning multi-party system, and liberal political culture. Thus, economic development proved to be the most important predictor of democratization. It seems that, once a country achieves a certain degree of economic development, additional economic growth is an important ingredient for the developing country’s continued progress toward further democratization. Our study demonstrated that continued democratization of developing countries depends heavily on their economic liberalization, supported by the increased purchasing power of the people. The empirical findings cited in our study clearly showed that the ‘unique’ Confucian or Islamic political culture/civilization does not prevent the internationalization of national economies from affecting the degree of democracy. It seems, therefore, that states may be able to delay, but not negate, the process of political liberalization induced by economic liberalization. As the economic opportunities increase for individuals and private businesses, their awareness of the potential for improving their civil liberties also increases. Subsequently, they will begin to demand more freedom. It seems, therefore, that the improvement of the standard of living and the popular involvement in the economic and political decision-making are critical for long-term democratization in developing countries. References Arblaster, A. (1999). Democratic Society and Its Enemies. In P. Burnell & P. Calvert, (Eds. ), The Resilience of Democracy: Persistent Practice, Durable Idea, special issue of Democratization, 6(1), 33-49.

Learn How to Design the Perfect Poster

Learn How to Design the Perfect Poster Posters are one of the most basic and versatile forms of advertising, and they remain one of my favorite things to design. They are commonly used to advertise an upcoming event, but their simplicity allows them to communicate a wide array of messages and campaigns, from the local, community level to the national platform. Because they employ the most basic design principles and are generally simple to produce, designing posters can be an ideal way to practice and hone your design skills.Here are a few important tips that will help to make your poster design successful and effective. Along every step of the process, keep your audience in mind, and think about what other kinds of posters and ads will be vying for their attention.Develop a concept with impactCreating a concept for your poster design is the key first step to ensure your message comes across in a compelling, impactful way. Think conceptually about how you can represent your main message as engaging imagery- whether that b e through illustrations, photography, or type treatments. For example, if youre designing a poster for a 5k race, you could select or create imagery that has a sense of movement. Start with a few concepts in mind, sketch them out, and then narrow down your favorites and start to flesh them out. Consider the context your poster will be placed in as you develop your concepts.Making your visuals high-contrast will make your poster both eye-catching and easy to distinguish, regardless of the visual approach you decide to take. Try using a large, dominant image on a simple background, or try the opposite–make a pattern of many interesting shapes or lines. Use a big photo or create a unique illustration. In some cases, using typography alone can be the most effective solution and provides you with some freedom to play with the way the headline looks as a dominant visual element. Consider using color to help elements stand out, and play with the scale of elements. Remember, the desi gn choices you make should refer back to and support your concept.When developing your poster concept, dont be afraid to try something new, unorthodox, or unusual. Poster design is a terrific opportunity to learn new skills and to try something novel, and its also a chance to step away from your screen and put some ideas down on paper first.Think outside the rectangleAs you start concepting and designing your poster, its important to consider the scale and format that your final printed poster will be. Picking a standard size has its advantages- you may be able to print cheaper if you dont choose a custom size. If youre working with a client, the size and specifications may already be predetermined, so make sure youre familiar with the specs of your project.A few specific poster sizes have become standard in the industry over time- a standard large poster size is 24x36, a medium poster is 18x24, and a small poster is 11x17.However, depending on how you plan to have your poster print ed and your production budget, you may have more flexibility with the size of your poster and the ability to choose a custom size. In this case, dont be afraid to try a unique proportion or orientation to help your poster stand out. Vertical rectangular posters are generally considered the norm, but rotating the poster to landscape format or trying a square or die-cut poster could earn your piece a second glance from a viewer. Size is also important- again, think about the context of your poster and how it will be viewed. A very large poster may be more eye-catching, but using the same budget to print several smaller posters might reach a broader audience. The general distance your audience will be from your posters should also determine the size and amount of information you present.Visibility is keyPosters will generally be viewed from a distance in a visually noisy environment, and other advertisers will be competing with you for viewers attention. Regardless of whether your post er will be on a community bulletin board or in front of a concert hall, all essential elements of your layout should be clear and easy-to-read, even from far away. A viewer should be able to quickly process and comprehend the message youre communicating, both through copy and visuals that support the message. Be sure to test this yourself by printing quick proofs to look at the sizing of text off-screen. Along with a large headline, big or brightly colored imagery can also help grab the attention of a viewer.Create a clear visual hierarchyOne of the most important aspects of a poster is its visual hierarchy or how the layout is organized. The layout should have a clear flow of information so that a viewers eye is directed from a focal point to the details of the message and the call to action. Choose a main headline that is short and to the point, and make it the largest typographic element on the page. As a general rule, the supporting details should be significantly smaller than t he headline, but not too small that they cant be read from a few feet away. These details should also be as concise as possible, and a viewer should easily be able to locate essential details about the event or campaign, like dates, times, contact info, and location within a few seconds of viewing the poster.Creating a decisive and clear call-to-action allows viewers the opportunity to interact with the message if theyre interested, and it can be as simple as visiting a website for more information. The effectiveness of QR codes has been debated, but designers and marketers still frequently use them as a relatively simple way for viewers to interact with a poster. Company or sponsor logos, if included, need to be sized and placed in a way that doesnt distract from the main message. An easy way to do this is to have logos placed at the bottom of the poster, anchored in a corner.Make sure that there is an appropriate amount of space between elements and that none of the text is too cr owded or tightly kerned- this can inhibit readability from a distance. Also, choose fonts that are clean and appropriate for your concept, and limit yourself to two or three fonts at most. Keep enough space around the outer margins so that no element sits too close to the edge of the poster, and consider using a grid to add structure and intentionality to your design.Keep it simpleThis tip is essential to creating effective posters- try to keep your poster as simple as possible. Weve all had that one client who wants to cram too much information onto an ad, but like I mentioned before, the more concise your message, the more likely it is to be effective and memorable to the viewer. Keep copy minimal and direct, and remove any visual element that doesnt support your concept. Dont feel like you have to use every inch of the page- a healthy amount of negative space can add contrast to your composition and help your concept stand out from the noise.Create a campaignDepending on your cli ent or situation, creating a poster might seem like a one-off project for a one-time event or show. However, even on a tight budget a simple poster design can be fleshed out into other avenues that can help your event or message gain more visibility. Convert your poster into a square format and youve got a graphic to share on social media for free. Consider sending a digital poster via email or creating a flyer or direct mail piece out of your design. Creating this kind of repeated branding for your message will help viewers to remember it and to spread the word around, giving your message more attention and visibility, and your client will appreciate the extra exposure.Break the rulesThe final tip is to forget all the previous tips! (Well, maybe not all of them.) Keeping general rules in mind will help you to create a professional-looking, considered piece, but dont get too hung up on the rules that they inhibit your creativity. In our ever-changing digital world, posters are a gre at print exercise to stretch your creative muscles. In my experience, Ive met many designers who use posters as their medium of choice for personal projects because theyre a quick and easy way to express an idea with lots of artistic freedom. Because of their accessibility and versatile nature, there are a million different possibilities for a design, and posters remain a relatively inexpensive way to get an idea into the world.In short, building your poster design on a solid concept and keeping details to a minimum will help you to create better posters that communicate more effectively to viewers. Use the flexibility of posters to your advantage to try something new and unique, and dont forget to have fun in the design process.

Immigration, aculturation and Balkanization. essays

Immigration, aculturation and Balkanization. essays We Americans have a very important decision to make. It will affect the future of our country, maybe even its future existance. Unfortunately, most Americans are not even aware of what's happening. It all has to do with immigration, legal and illegal. When I was a boy, my favorite uncle was my Uncle Fritz. His name was actually John, but when he went to work in the saw blade factory there were already several guys named John. His thick German-Swiss accent quickly earned him the nickname "Fritz" and it stuck. For the rest of his life, he was Fritz. Uncle Fritz came here from Switzerland during the Great Depression in the 30's. As a Swiss-trained machinist, he had no trouble finding a job. He got settled quickly, met and married my mother's sister, bought a house and became a citizen. He went back to Switzerland only once to visit his family there. When he came back to the US, he remarked that he was glad to be "home." Someone asked him "Fritz, when exactly did you stop thinking of yourself as Swiss and start thinking of yourself as an American?" He pondered for a moment and answered "When I realized I was thinking in English." For generations, the waves of immigrants who came to the US thought "job one" was to learn English. They simply assumed that part of being "American" meant speaking and understanding English. They came from Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweeden, Russia, the Ukraine, etc. And they all learned English as quickly as they could. Those who came before didn't coddle them or make any allowances. If you wanted to succeed here, you learned English. This is no longer true. Today, especially but not exclusively among the Spanish speaking immigrants, there are a great number of immigrants who try to retain their old language. They want TV and radio in their old language. They want schools to teach in their old language. They expect bi-lingual instructions and labeling on the products they buy. They expect bi-lingual signage...

Ten tips for better sales proposals - Emphasis

Ten tips for better sales proposals Ten tips for better sales proposals Remember your prospect Dont get so carried away with what youre offering that you forget the person that youre trying to persuade. Always put the prospect first, by starting with their situation and the problems they need to solve. Remember other readers Are there other influencers and decision-makers who might read your proposal, and have you met them? If you havent, your proposal will be all they have to go on, so its vital that you address their needs too. Show understanding Impress your prospect by showing an understanding of their problems and how to fix them, rather than trying to dazzle them with how wonderful your company is. Your company facts and testimonials should just confirm that you know what youre talking about. Persuade You still need to sell the solution(s) youre proposing, so remember to write a persuasive sales argument dont just let the spec speak for itself. Check your facts Simple mistakes will seriously undermine even the best offering. One senior buyer of billion-pound contracts told Emphasis that he always circled the stupid mistakes first such as spelling product or place names incorrectly. Factual inaccuracies create a poor impression thats very hard to shift. Get the basics right Likewise, dont let your spelling, punctuation or grammar let you down. Basic errors do nothing to create a good impression. Dont waffle You may be very proud of your proposal, but your prospect probably has several others to read alongside yours. Even if they dont, theyll certainly have a backlog of other documents to read through. In a recent Emphasis survey, some buyers said that 90 per cent of what they read was badly written or hard to follow. So write to express, rather than to impress them with your splendid vocabulary. Cut and paste with care Cutting and pasting can be a good short cut if two proposals share common material. But its also fraught with danger. One Emphasis client told us of how theyd forgotten to take out a rival clients company name when they did this. It sounds obvious, but its easily done. The answer is to get someone else to proofread what youve written, as youll miss many of your own mistakes. Remember: love is blind. Take care with layout No matter how persuasive your argument, presentation is key and a poor layout can still let you down. Keep your layout uncluttered, crisp and professional. Use plenty of white space, and resist the temptation to cram too much information into every page. Less is definitely more. Talk them through it Finally, if you want to win, take it in. Make an appointment to talk your prospect through your proposal if at all possible. That way youll be able to handle any objections there and then, and maximise your chance of a successful close.

Management Styles and Insights Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management Styles and Insights - Term Paper Example They are the drivers, the goal seekers who manage a broad spectrum of responsibilities. They are responsible in meeting a set of objectives and manage a group of people that work towards these goals. More than the glamour that is attached to the title, they are really the moving force behind every company. They make things happen. Having spoken with Ms. Elizabeth Meyer, Senior Product Manager for an international bank, we get a glimpse of how grueling this job can be. The targets can be daunting and extremely overwhelming. Managing her team alone is a challenge because she deals with five people from different backgrounds and with diverse personalities. She has to serve as the medium to enable to make the team fully functional, creating harmony and ensuring that individual differences are complimented and talents are maximized. There is also that challenge of managing the relationships with coordinating departments, who have as much quirks as her own. And of course, there is this muc h greater challenge of managing her superiors, the senior management team, ensuring that expectations are met at exceeding levels. It’s quite a tough, but rewarding job, she says. MANAGING PEOPLE Ms. Meyer says she is part democratic, part autocrat when asked what type of leader she is. It’s a challenge managing people who have different temperaments and moods, and different working styles. She has five highly experienced and greatly skilled product managers under her wing, one of which is much senior than her in terms of age. When she came in as their department head, Ms. Meyer was only 29 years old, and her age was one of the challenges she had to tweak to work to her advantage. During her previous stint in another international bank, she says she was 90% democratic, with the goal to empower each teammate to make their decisions. However, having a 35-year old team member who was not exactly thrilled to be under her management was what drove her to become more firm in her leadership style. Age seemed to have become an issue for this particular subordinate who felt like she was underrated. The attitude affected the boss-subordinate relationship such that there was too much resistance. Ms. Meyer felt that she could not afford to risk the ire of this team member as she is also deemed to be the top performer, albeit lacking in management skills to take over the Senior Management/ Department Head position. Today, she exercises her role as a manager whenever a crucial decision to be made, reminding her team that at the end of the day, she is still liable for each move the team makes. She feels that she was able to earn the trust of this subordinate by injecting the right amount of balance – she listens to this subordinate’s suggestions but also makes sure that she has a firm stance on certain issues, whenever needed. The road was not exactly smooth, so to speak, as she had her own personal challenges to address and a few unwise business decisions as well. But in the end, a good relationship founded the way to harmony in their workplace. Ms. Meyer enjoys being a leader, as she exactly knows how to motivate her team towards their goals. She is results oriented, and she makes sure that her people share her vision. They set short term and long term goals and conduct regular meetings to update each other on their own tasks. She also enjoins the participation of

Drawing & CAD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Drawing & CAD - Essay Example In my project, the major problem I faced was the right code to use. This is because AutoCAD is not that intuitive like other drafting programs. I was able to learn the commands and codes in the two main tool bars: draw, edit, and I were able to draw the commands for various parts after 2 to 3 weeks. On the other hand, a problem came about when I had to type the same line of code in different parts of the project, which proved to be tedious and time consuming. Through learning of the different concepts, I was able to realize the technique of code reuse that enables to me work efficiently in beating the deadline in the various repetitive tasks. In the solid Works Modeling Process, I happened to experience some difficult when it came to modeling brackets. I had to go the long way in sketching the offset and dimensioning the sketch, which was hard, and time consuming. After continuous use and practice I came to realize the simpler approach that involved the use of extrude thin feature where the sketch is first created and then directly extruded as shown in figure 1.1 Dimensioning in AutoCAD is used to create and design clear drawings. The dimensions are automatic since arrows, lines, and the associated texts are manipulated using the specified dimension commands. The different approaches to dimensioning include An approach used to dimension along straight lines. The associated commands include DIMLINEAR, DISCONTINUE, DIMBASELINE AND DIMALIGNED and it is used to draw horizontal and vertical dimensions. To create a linear dimension, you first start the command and specify the starting and end points and the pick a point that would specify the position of the dimension line as shown in figure 1.2 When it comes to parts that require creation of circles and radius Radial dimensions is the most appropriate and consists of two commands, the DIMDIAMETER and the DIMRADIUS. They are both similar thus; AutoCAD automatically inserts an R to indicate radius and the

8 Forms of Waste in real Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

8 Forms of Waste in real Life - Essay Example This ensured that there was minimum time wasted by any of them waiting for the next step in production (Sarkar 76). The chefs were further required to assemble all their working tools before commencing their work to avoid unnecessary movement of materials and people during the process. The school further ensured that the required amount of baking flour was used. There had been concerns from the school management that the catering department had looked too much into the quality of snacks provided at the school canteen and failing to check on the quantity. As a result, the department was required to change its system so that unnecessary time was not spent in baking. This helped to scrap off extra processing and consequently increase on quantity. The last step taken by the school was ensuring that all the chefs assigned to preparing snacks adhered to their work so as to ensure that there were no non-utilized workers (Sarkar

Orozco's Short Story in the Classroom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Orozco's Short Story in the Classroom - Essay Example Orozco's work is filled with material that is almost Kafka-esque in its absurdity. For example, People at this company must arbitrarily fill their day with what is in their inbox, no matter how long it would take, instead of simply changing their workflow. â€Å"You must pace your work. What do I mean? I’m glad you asked that. We pace our work according to the eight-hour workday. If you have twelve hours of work in your IN box, for example, you must compress that work into the eight-hour day. If you have one hour of work in your IN box, you must expand that work to ï ¬ ll the eight-hour day. That was a good question. Feel free to ask questions. Ask too many questions, however, and you may be let go†. This quote alone can be used to generate two exercises. First: Is Orozco's character an actual person, or intended to represent one? I think not. Orozco's introduction character is some dream figure, some devilish mockery, much like a character in a Dilbert strip. A Dilbe rt strip of the Pointy Haired Boss could be compared to Orozco's orientation with fruitful results. Second: Students could be asked to write a story that plays up the absurdity of everyday moments too. An exercise on Kafka, Dilbert and Orozco, creating a short story that uses magical realist elements to highlight absurdity in the real world, would be a fantastic exercise in composition. The orientation is being offered to the reader: It is second-person narration, and particularly skillful at that. Second-person narration is difficult for many reasons, not the least of which being the way that is constrains the likely description and characterization approaches. In a first-person narration, where the protagonist is the narrator, the reader is given easy insights into the narrator's mind. The narrator can tell what he thinks about people, what he sees, describe rooms and situations, and make clear his motivation. A third-person narration, either omniscient or not, can similarly descr ibe characters, environments, settings and motivations without seeming out of place or jarring. But a second-person narration will rarely have these elements, because most people do not say, â€Å"Do you see how that desk is brown and the chair is red? Enjoy the comfortable leather of the chair†. Making what the second-person storytelling says plausible is difficult, but Orozco accomplishes it beautifully. Orozco is able to describe a workplace without describing it specifically, both as emotional and physical setting. We learn about fire exits, the Mr. Coffee, and get a

Using Borrowed Material Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Using Borrowed Material - Essay Example Copyright material provides some rights to the person acquiring the licence under copyright laws. The material that is authorized to the person who owns it has the authority to permit or stop others from using it. It is an intellectual property of the original owner and permission must be obtained before using that material for any purpose regardless of the issues relating to its use e.g. urgency, relevance or compulsion. The case in question relates to the use of copyrighted pictures without prior permission and provides an evaluation of alternative choice that was available and more appropriate. In the scenario in question, there are a few facts that are relevant to the act done by Sam Jones. The decision of Sam Jones to use copyrighted material was not an independent factor for using it. Time constraints also led him to use the material without ‘prior’ permission. Time limitation was the greatest fact that led to such a step. In addition, the scenario clearly explains the pressure and compulsion on him to do this unethical and undesirable activity of using copyrighted material without prior permission of the original owner of the photos. Copyrighted material is basically an intellectual property of the original owner of the material published. The copyright laws are connected to the copyrighted material and require every person to take permission before anyone uses the copyrighted material. ‘Prior’ permission to use the copyrighted material is mandatory or else the use of such material will be held liable for infringement (Zimberoff, 2002 p. 188-192). The problem in the above scenario is hence the credibility of the action done by Sam Jones. Was it reasonable and fair to use the material without obtaining permission beforehand? Was it a nice idea to contact the owner of the copyrighted material after using the material?

Orozco's Short Story in the Classroom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Orozco's Short Story in the Classroom - Essay Example Orozco's work is filled with material that is almost Kafka-esque in its absurdity. For example, People at this company must arbitrarily fill their day with what is in their inbox, no matter how long it would take, instead of simply changing their workflow. â€Å"You must pace your work. What do I mean? I’m glad you asked that. We pace our work according to the eight-hour workday. If you have twelve hours of work in your IN box, for example, you must compress that work into the eight-hour day. If you have one hour of work in your IN box, you must expand that work to ï ¬ ll the eight-hour day. That was a good question. Feel free to ask questions. Ask too many questions, however, and you may be let go†. This quote alone can be used to generate two exercises. First: Is Orozco's character an actual person, or intended to represent one? I think not. Orozco's introduction character is some dream figure, some devilish mockery, much like a character in a Dilbert strip. A Dilbe rt strip of the Pointy Haired Boss could be compared to Orozco's orientation with fruitful results. Second: Students could be asked to write a story that plays up the absurdity of everyday moments too. An exercise on Kafka, Dilbert and Orozco, creating a short story that uses magical realist elements to highlight absurdity in the real world, would be a fantastic exercise in composition. The orientation is being offered to the reader: It is second-person narration, and particularly skillful at that. Second-person narration is difficult for many reasons, not the least of which being the way that is constrains the likely description and characterization approaches. In a first-person narration, where the protagonist is the narrator, the reader is given easy insights into the narrator's mind. The narrator can tell what he thinks about people, what he sees, describe rooms and situations, and make clear his motivation. A third-person narration, either omniscient or not, can similarly descr ibe characters, environments, settings and motivations without seeming out of place or jarring. But a second-person narration will rarely have these elements, because most people do not say, â€Å"Do you see how that desk is brown and the chair is red? Enjoy the comfortable leather of the chair†. Making what the second-person storytelling says plausible is difficult, but Orozco accomplishes it beautifully. Orozco is able to describe a workplace without describing it specifically, both as emotional and physical setting. We learn about fire exits, the Mr. Coffee, and get a

Commercialization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Commercialization - Essay Example The accomplishment of various objectives and goals of the organization will be done through excellent commercialization techniques (Environment.fi, 2012). Commercialization includes technological services like linking of technological delivery and endorsements (Harzing & Noorderhaven, 2000; Cai, 2000). In order to commercialize new product development the technology used must match with the specifications and requirements (Santamaria & Ni, 2008). Commercialization of a new product allows the company to create differentiated products with and against the customer’s choices along with various values dimensions (Narotama, n.d.). To gain maximum value from the products and product developments services commercialization helps in gaining high return on investment from product development and also attain a market position relative to its competitors (Shirani, 2009). External Factors Responsible for Commercialization in the International Markets Cost: The cost of the raw materials an d labor is required for the manufacturing of a new product and whether these factors would turn out to be costly or cheap or huge determinants for the success of the new product development. Materials and technology: The availability of the raw materials and technology influence the product design. Customer Requirements: The customer tastes, preferences and requirements influence the product design. The changes in the product design are done accordingly to the customer wants and requirements. Culture: Culture plays an important role in the determination of the new product launch. The culture of a particular country plays an important role in determining the success of new product launch. Environment factors: While designing a new product, factors like whether the materials (Edgell, Ruf & Agarwal, n.d.) can be recycled or they are environment friendly or not are important determinants for new product development. Company Image and Identity: Perception of the brand image among the cus tomers plays an important role in the new product development process and the product design. Competitors: The impact of the brand image of the competitors needs to be considered while executing a new product development process. Government rules and regulations: The government rules and regulations play an important role in the development and commercialization of new product. Internal Factors Responsible for Commercialization Changing Market Dynamics: The standardization of the product design would be affected by changing market dynamics and would be established which would lead to an increase in the organizational outcome. Dominant Product Design: Dominant design would be defined as establishing a standard which would be inherent to the overall industry standards. Network Externalities: Network externalities would be existent only in those products where the perceived customer utility is available and the success of the product depends upon the taste of the existing customers and the easy availability of the complementary products (Morrello, 2013). Commercialization Models: A commercialization model is prerequisite for the companies

Research on Science Essay Example for Free

Research on Science Essay ABSTRACT The study explores ways in which students who have participated in a curriculum innovation, Science ALIVE! acquire Science process skills and perceive the relevance of Science in everyday life. It investigates whether students have, after the programme, perceived an improvement in applying Science process skills. Four classes of Secondary 2 Express students attended one of four modules in the Science ALIVE! programme and responded to a pre- and post-course survey to measure their perceived skill competency for each process skill. They also responded to questions on whether the programme enhanced their awareness of the relevance of Science in everyday life. Five students from each module were selected to provide written feedback at mid-course and write a journal after the course. The content of their feedback and journals were analysed to provide deeper insight of the results of the perception surveys. The data was triangulated with teachers’ feedback, which was used to provide insight of the factors that affect the acquisition of the process skills. The findings show significant increase in students’ perception of skill competency while a high percentage of students indicated that the programme has made them more aware of the relevance of Science in their lives. INTRODUCTION Traditional learning approaches in which students are passive recipients of knowledge are inconsistent with the call for Singapore schools to Teach Less, Learn More (TLLM). There is a need to allow learning to occur in settings that are relevant to students’ experiences and real world problems. In Clementi Town Secondary School (CTSS), Project Work was used as a platform for students to transfer their learning and apply in authentic applications. However, teachers who had conducted Project Work for Science at Secondary 2 observed that students’ projects lacked depth in the specific content area, and the skills needed for scientific investigations. This spurred the need to cover content knowledge relevant to the projects assigned. It also raised the concern that Science process skills, as stipulated in the MOE Lower Secondary Science (LSS) Syllabus, were not sufficiently emphasised compared to acquiring scientific knowledge. Teachers also indicated that students were una ble to appreciate the relevance of Science in solving problems in their lives after past Project Work tasks. Science Process Skills â€Å"Science process skills† is commonly used to describe a set of broadly transferable abilities that are reflective of what scientists do. These skills are grouped into two types – basic and integrated. Basic process skills provide a foundation for learning the integrated skills, which are more complex skills for solving problems or doing Science experiments. In this study, reflecting is listed as a process skill to be investigated, though it is usually considered part of thinking skills which is a broader category that subsumes process skills. Some Science educators have argued that â€Å"teaching students Science facts is not as important as developing their Science process skills so that they can learn this knowledge on their own† (Young, 1995). Studies in the United States have shown that elementary school students who are taught process skills, not only learn to use those processes, but also retain them for future use. In Singapore, the MOE Primary Science syllabus also emphasises the teaching of basic process skills and some integrated skills, while the LSS syllabus emphasises the use of process skills for planning investigations and creative problem solving, and other thinking skills. Curriculum design plays an important role in the acquisition of Science process skills. The MOE Assessment Guidelines for LSS recommends an explicit teaching of the process skills, followed by the integration of these skills by students in experimenting or carrying out investigative projects. Padilla (1990) pointed out that â€Å"when Science process skills are a specific planned outcome of a Science programme, those skills can be learned by students Teachers need to select curricula which emphasise Science process skills.† These basic skills are learnt more effectively if they are considered an important object of instruction and if proven teaching methods are used. There must be a deliberate effort to focus on teaching process skills through a modified LSS curriculum. Young (1995) recommended that if teachers have the freedom to select their own topics, they should choose topics of direct interest to themselves and which would excite students. Science knowledge serves as background for lessons but should not take up the whole lesson. Instead, more time should be spent on activities that enhance the understanding of Science concepts and improve Science skills. Some studies have shown that instead of using the didactic approach, teaching Science through the use of activity-based approaches significantly improved students’ achievement in Science process skills (Beaumont-Walters, 2001). Berry et al (1999) suggested a few crucial factors that influence the acquisition of process skills used in laboratory work. Firstly, students need the relevant content knowledge that is assumed by the task to be mentally engaged. For example, a more knowledgeable student would be able to explain an observation, which in turn â€Å"validates† his knowledge and gives him a certain amount of intellectual satisfaction. The ‘doing’ of Science has to be coupled with ‘learning about’ Science, if students are to appreciate the value of scientific inquiry (Haigh et al, 2005). A second factor suggested by Berry et al (1999) is students’ ownership of laboratory tasks. Ownership would be more apparent in open laboratory tasks, where the student has to design his own experiment than in closed laboratory tasks, where the â€Å"correct† experimental procedure is written out in a â€Å"cookbook† style and the student is likely to carry out the tasks unthinkingly. Another effective strategy to enhance students’ process skills would be to let students keep a â€Å"scientific journal† (Tomkins Tunnicliffe, 2001). It was observed that diary writers tend to build more confidence in their own interpretations, engage in intellectual debates with themselves over the plausibility of their explanations and ask questions that are more quantifiable. Relevance of Science in everyday life Research studies conducted in recent decades on students’ perception of school Science have consistently shown that they perceive Science as not relevant (Bennett, 2001). Similar findings have raised a serious concern in several countries. For instance, a report by the Dutch Ministry of Education in 2002 observed that secondary school students did not see a connection between what they learnt in Chemistry lessons and the chemistry happening around them (Van Aalsvoort, 2004a). A subsequent report recommended teaching Science in context. However, a study carried out on a contextualised Science curriculum introduced to Swaziland students highlighted some shortcomings (Campbell et al, 2000). The findings showed that less than half of the sample students could draw on Science concepts to explain everyday experiences or solve everyday problems. It was suggested that contextualised learning could be made more effective through student-initiated project work on everyday problems. Van Aalsvoort (2004b) suggested using activity theory to address the issue of the relevance of Chemistry in chemical education, where reflection plays a key role in evaluating and developing an activity. Reflection could be carried out through writing reflection journals, which also helped enhance the acquisition of process skills, as mentioned earlier (Tomkins Tunnicliffe, 2001). According to Van Aalsvoort (2004a), relevance can be defined in four aspects: (i) personal relevance – Science education makes connections to students’ lives; (ii) professional relevance – Science education offers students a picture of possible professions; (iii) social relevance – Science education clarifies the purpose of Science in human and social issues; and (iv) personal/social relevance – Science education helps students develop into responsible citizens. This study considers relevance in three aspects – personal, professional and social. INTERVENTION Project Work aims for students to transfer the learning of concepts into applications in authentic settings. To address the areas of concern raised by teachers teaching Project Work, the Science ALIVE! programme was conceived to integrate Project Work and the LSS syllabus. This 13-week programme was conducted during Semester 2 of the Secondary 2 Express Science curriculum and used alternative assessment to replace the traditional end-ofyear examination. In this programme, a team of teachers crafted four modules which covered a variety of topics from Biology, Chemistry and Physics. As a motivating factor, students could choose from one of the four modules offered: Aroma Chemistry, Biodiversity, Life Science and Water Rockets. In each Science ALIVE! module, specific content knowledge was taught using hands-on strategies such as laboratory work, field trips, journal writing and group discussions. These strategies were intended to promote student engagement. Most importantly, the programme addressed the three key issues of concern in the following ways: 1. Content knowledge covered was specific to each module and relevant to the projects that students were assigned. This enabled students to better transfer the concepts to the projects. 2. Science process skills could be applied by students through journal writing, laboratory work and investigative project work. Science process skills were used as criteria for assessment to emphasise their importance and focus. 3. To enhance the relevance of Science, students were given a choice of the elective module to study, and to decide on the problem to work on for their projects. Contextualised learning, which draws on scientific understanding to explain everyday situations, was consciously infused into the curriculum design for each module. Reflection journals were written after selected activities, which according to activity theory helped students evaluate their learning (Van Aalsvoort, 2004b). RESEARCH QUESTIONS The two research questions are: (1) How does the Science ALIVE! programme help students to apply their Science process skills? And (2) How can the Science ALIVE! programme enhance the relevance of Science in students’ lives? METHODOLOGY Participants 147 students from all four Secondary 2 Express classes attended the Science ALIVE! programme and participated in the study. Pre- and post-course perception surveys were conducted for all students to measure their perception of their skill competency and their awareness of the relevance of Science in their lives through the programme. In addition, five students were selected from each module to give written feedback in week 8 (mid-course) and write a journal in week 13 (at the end of the course). To provide maximum variation, the five students from each module were selected based on their Science grade in Semester 1 and their reasons for selecting the module which reflected their motivational level. Instruments In the pre- and post-course surveys, students were asked to rate their perception of their Science process skills using a four-point Likert scale. The post-course survey included an item to measure students’ perception of increased awareness of the relevance of Science in their lives. Data Analysis For survey items on Science process skills, the mean value of each skill was calculated for the individual module (Table 2) as well as across all modules (Table 1). Skills with ratings of less than 3 (out of 4) were identified and analysed. The differences in mean values for pre- and post-course surveys were compared. The differences were considered significant if there was an increase or decrease of at least 0.3 in value (or 10% of the range of scale used). Journals and mid-course written feedback of the 20 selected students were used to surface possible reasons for these perceptions. The data was triangulated with teachers’ feedback, which was used to provide insight of the factors that affect the acquisition of the process skills. For the survey item on the relevance of Science, the total percentage of students who indicated an â€Å"Agree† or â€Å"Strongly Agree† was computed for each module. Content analysis of the journals and written feedback from the selected students were carried out. Frequency counts of the responses were based on three categories: personal, professional and social relevance. Teachers’ feedback was used to provide depth to the findings. RESULTS Acquisition of Science process skills The perception of all students on the level of their skill competency before and after the Science ALIVE! programme was measured through surveys. The survey results were compared using the mean values for each process skill, as shown in Table 1. Table 1: Comparison of students’ perception of skills before and after Science ALIVE! Mean value (scale 1 – 4) Pre-Course Post-Course 3.1 3.2 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 3.1 2.8 2.6 3.0 3.0 2.7 3.1 3.2 Process Skill (a) Elaborating (Research) (b) Conducting scientific investigations (Planning investigations) (c) Conducting scientific investigations (Using scientific apparatus) (d) Conducting scientific investigations (Analysing data) (e) Communicating (Writing scientific reports) (f) Reflecting (g) Questioning (Learning by asking questions) In the pre-course survey, the items which scored less than 3 are the skills of ‘planning investigations’, ‘using scientific apparatus’, ‘analysing data’, ‘writing scientific reports’ and ‘learning by asking questions’. Students’ perception rating increased in the following skills ‘using scientific apparatus’, ‘analysing data’ and ‘learning by asking questions’ suggesting that the Science ALIVE! programme had benefited them in these areas, with the exception of ‘planning investigations’ and ‘writing scientific reports’ where there was marginal increase or no change between the pre- and post-course rating. This revealed that in general, students still did not have much confidence in these skills and suggests that more could be done in the next cycle to guide students in these aspects. The changes in the rating for items (b), (c) and (d) in the pre- and post-course surveys suggest that students’ perceptions that their skills in handling apparatus and equipment have improved. This could be attributed to the fact that students were introduced to various new apparatus or equipment during project experiments in all modules. For example, the Biodiversity module used dataloggers which was equipment new to students. Skills in items (b), (c) and (d) are all part of the process of conducting scientific investigations. However, there was only a marginal increase in the rating for (b) ‘planning investigations’ after the programme. This could be because planning investigations is a higher order process skill which encompasses making hypothesis, identifying variables and writing the experimental procedures. Analysis of Science process skills by skill category The results were further categorised to compare and study the changes in students’ perception of skill competency for the individual modules, as shown in Table 2. Table 2: Comparison of perception of skill competency by module Mean value (Scale 1 – 4) BioLife diversity Science Pre Post Pre Post 2.9 3.2 3.0 3.3 2.3 2.4 2.6 2.9 3.3 2.9 2.4 2.9 2.8 2.4 3.3 3.3 2.4 2.9 2.7 2.5 3.1 2.9 2.8 3.0 3.1 2.9 3.2 3.0 Module Process Skill (a) Elaborating (Research) (b) Conducting investigations (Planning investigations) (c) Conducting investigations (Using scientific apparatus) (d) Conducting investigations (Analysing data) (e) Communicating (Writing scientific report) (f) Reflecting (g) Questioning (Learning by asking questions) Elaborating Aroma Chemistry Pre Post 3.3 3.2 2.6 2.4 2.6 2.7 3.1 3.0 2.7 3.1 2.9 2.7 2.8 3.2 Water Rockets Pre Post 3.1 3.1 2.3 2.4 2.6 2.5 2.9 2.6 2.5 3.0 2.9 2.7 3.0 3.2 The results of item (a) in the pre- and post-surveys showed an increase in rating for this skill for the Biodiversity and Life Science modules. This could be because these modules are more content-based topics, which require greater use of such skills. It should, however, be noted that for Aroma Chemistry module, the pre-course survey score was already high and it might be difficult to make further significant improvement. From the written feedback of selected students in the 8th week of the programme, half indicated that they had learnt to research to look for more information. All five students from the Biodiversity module wrote that they had learnt to assess â€Å"how reliable the sources are†. For example, one student from the module wrote in her journal that â€Å"before creating our ecosystem, we need to do research on the organisms that we choose, on what they feed on and their suitable habitat† (Student S8). Teachers conducting the programme felt that most students were still at the developmental stage of doing research, as they could not extract relevant information from sources. They also observed that some students lacked the initiative and discipline to do research work, though teachers had provided a list of resources. This could be seen in project reports, where the evidence of research is lacking. A likely explanation for this observation is the past practice of didactic teaching, resulting in students â€Å"so used to being given all materials and information by teachers that they do not know how to get started† (Teacher T3). Teacher T1 recommended the need to balance between providing students with information and allowing them to be independent in their learning. Conducting Scientific Investigations For item (b) on ‘planning investigations’, the Life Science module had the largest increase in perception rating (more than 10%). Here the Life Science teacher explained that students were taught how to design experiments step-by-step with given examples. The importance of planning in investigations is stated by one of the students in the module: When we need to choose something, we need to think about all its aspects. After everything is ok, we can start work (Student S14). However, Teacher T2 commented that students still needed a lot of hand-holding and practice to be competent. A student from another module echoed this: â€Å"I am not sure how to design an experiment on my own†. Item (c) on the practical skill of ‘using scientific apparatus’ or equipment had the largest increase for all modules, except Life Science where the initial pre-course rating was already high (mean 2.9). All modules were designed to include more hands-on activities, which required the use of apparatus and equipment. One student wrote about the importance of using the right procedures as he â€Å"learnt how to use steam distillation by setting up the apparatus correctly and doing the extraction properly† (Student S2), while another student shared her new skill of using â€Å"dataloggers to measure the different abiotic factors from the †¦forests† (Student S7). Teachers observed that the students were excited and enjoyed themselves when using new apparatus. On their part, teachers also sought to infuse rigour by ensuring that students perform the experimental procedures accurately. The enjoyment of Science through hands-on activities, particularly laboratory work, was a motivating factor in learning Science. The rating for the skill of analysing or inferring from experimental data in item (d) increased more for three modules than for the Biodiversity module. This could be the result of students being given more opportunities to handle experimental data in their projects and make conclusions for the Aroma Chemistry, Life Science and Water Rockets modules. On the other hand, the investigative project for Biodiversity was of a smaller scale, and students’ main form of project assessment was a conservation proposal. One factor which attributed to the increase in perception rating was group collaboration. As students did their projects in groups, they could discuss how to analyse the data obtained from the investigations. Students analysed their data in various ways depending on the type of data collected in each module. For example, Student S11 commented: â€Å"I got a chance to compare and compile the results of surveys, test the reliability of our product, put into tables and identify the similarities and differences present. Others learnt to analyse the cause of problems in their projects, as noted by Student S16: â€Å"†¦ our rocket failed in launching and we realise that the problem is due to the leaking of our rocket†. Teachers however concurred in their observations that though students could comment on their data, their analysis lacked depth. Besides these investigative skills, many students also reflected in their journals that they had developed observation skills during practical work and investigations. One student wrote: â€Å"In the past, I would have just used my eyes. Now I have learnt to use all of my five senses to know more about the subject I am observing† (Student S10). Communicating In item (e), ‘writing scientific reports’ was the focus in the skill of communicating. Though there was no change in overall student perception (see Table 1), Table 2 showed a significant drop in the rating for Biodiversity module compared to an increase in Life Science module. The Biodiversity teacher attributed the drop in rating to students’ â€Å"realisation and shock† in receiving feedback on their first report draft, as they â€Å"did not anticipate scientific reports to be of slightly different nature and demands though they were briefed†. But she noted that the provision of formative feedback and the re-drafting of reports helped students in this skill. The Life Science teacher linked the increased rating to having provided illustrative examples and templates for students, but she felt that they were still lacking in the skill and could be given more practice. Students’ journals hardly mentioned this skill, except Student S10 who wrote that he â€Å"learnt to sieve through the report for important points to put in the abstract†. Reflecting Generally, students felt that they were able to reflect on their lessons. Item (f) in Table 2 showed an initial high rating which was unchanged after the programme. Students saw their journals as an â€Å"opportunity to clarify and reflect upon their learning† (Student S3). At the end of the programme, a few students said that the reflections helped to monitor their understanding of lessons, and one student mentioned that she would research on the internet to address questions she had (Student S1). Teachers believed that â€Å"journal writing and providing consistent formative feedback help(ed) the students develop reflection skills† (Teacher T1). However, specific journal prompts are necessary to guide students so that they do not simply give a detailed account of the activities and concepts covered without reflecting on the learning points (Teacher T2). Questioning The survey results of item (g) showed more significant increase in the Biodiversity and Water Rockets modules. For each module, students acquired this skill through reflecting on their lessons in their journals and then asking relevant questions to find out more. One student reflected that she dared to ask more questions in class after learning to ask questions through journals (Student S6). Students had opportunities to generate questions when they were verifying the reliability of information. They also formulated questions prior to industrial visits and field trips, and posed them to the experts. At the mid-course feedback, a few students mentioned that they learnt to â€Å"raise questions in class† through ways such as â€Å"being a questioner in group discussions† (Student S13). The Biodiversity teacher attributed this improvement to conducive â€Å"lesson environment and delivery (that) promotes questioning†. Such lesson delivery may include guiding questions in class activities and journal prompts that encouraged further questioning, and peer evaluation where students critiqued the projects of other groups. The Water Rockets teacher reflected that in comparison to traditional Science lessons, â€Å"there was more chance for students to ask questions as things are now less predictable† as in most real world situations. The post-course survey included an item which required students to state whether â€Å"Science ALIVE! lessons have made them more aware of the relevance of Science in their lives†. Table 3 shows the percentage of students who â€Å"agreed† or â€Å"strongly agreed† with the statement. Table 3: Percentage of students who indicated that the programme had made them more aware of the relevance of Science in their lives Module Aroma Chemistry Biodiversity Life Science Water Rockets % Agree 73.5 47.2 64.1 73.0 % Strongly Agree 17.7 50.0 23.1 10.8 % (Agree + Strongly Agree) 91.2 97.2 87.2 83.8 The results in Table 3 show a very high concurrence with the statement for all modules. This is consistent with the programme objective of enhancing the relevance of Science in students’ lives. Students’ journals were analysed for indications of the relevance of Science in three areas: personal, professional and social. A frequency count of the responses showed 82% for personal relevance, 24% for professional relevance and 65% for social relevance. This revealed that students perceived the relevance of Science as mostly related to their personal lives. Only a handful of students could relate the relevance to their future career prospects. Further probing into students’ definition of personal relevance showed an extensive range of interpretation depending on the modules taken. Enhancing one’s quality of life is frequently mentioned in terms of personal relaxation and cure for illnesses. Students from the Aroma Chemistry module stated that they â€Å"could use essential oils to calm a person if he feels nervous† (Student S2). Life Science students surfaced the use of medicines when they fall sick and the growing of genetically modified food (GMF) for convenience (Student S15). Students also stated the importance of process skills in their lives, such as questioning the reliability of information sources. The majority of students could not appreciate Science as having professional relevance. Those who were able to see career possibilities were students who had gone for field trips, where they were introduced to experts in the related field. They saw the knowledge and skills gained through the programme as relevant to their â€Å"future education and working career† (Student S11). Others used the knowledge gained to better understand the requirements of various jobs. A student stated that she â€Å"could understand how people designing furniture, buildings and other things require this knowledge (of centre of gravity)† (Student S16). Three out of five students could relate Science to social relevance, which included how Science affected interaction between people and the environment. One Biodiversity student wrote: â€Å"This also taught me that in school or at work, we have to depend on one another for a living† (Student S10), while another could â€Å"understand nature better† and learnt not to pollute the environment (Student S7). Life Science students pointed out various applications in social and ethical issues, such as the use of forensic Science by police to solve crime (Student S11), knowledge of DNA in cloning (Student S15), and even checking via blood tests whether a child is biologically conceived or adopted (Student S12). Teachers’ feedback indicated that students were generally able to â€Å"connect Science to reality and †¦ in explaining happenings in their lives† (Teacher T2). These observations were made through students’ group discussions and written journals. Examples quoted by the teachers were mostly related to personal and social relevance. It showed that students had an increased awareness of scientific discovery (e.g. antibiotics, genetics) and technology (e.g. making of soap and sweets) that were directly related to their lives and the lives of those around them. The main catalyst that enhanced their awareness was personal experiences through engaging them in experiments that relate to real life and exposing them to more field trips (e.g. Yakult factory, flavour and fragrance industry, nature reserve). DISCUSSION Key features in Science ALIVE! that have helped students acquire Science process skills include scaffolding, group collaboration and journal writing. Scaffolding guides students in learning new or complex skills. Nelson (2004) pointed out that more scaffolding is required for students to be able to do research independently. To illustrate this, the increase in rating for skills on ‘planning investigations’ and ‘writing of scientific report’ in the Life Science module was attributed to â€Å"a lot of hand-holding† and exemplars provided by the teacher. Scaffolding in the form of specific journal prompts can also be adopted to ensure greater depth in student reflection. Teachers, however, will need to balance between providing students support and allowing them to be independent learners. Group collaboration is deployed extensively in the programme, where students worked in groups of three on projects, laboratory work and group assignments. This concurs with findings of a study conducted by Hofstein et al (2004), where cooperative learning in laboratory work helped students construct knowledge. Hofstein et al argued for more time to be spent on laboratory tasks, so that students could reflect on findings and also discuss with their peers. This would be one way to further improve students’ analytical skills, which they are still lacking. Journal writing in Science ALIVE! proves to be very useful in informing teachers of students’ conceptual understanding, acquisition of skills such as reflecting and questioning, and how students relate Science to their everyday life. It allows teachers to give regular feedback as part of assessment for learning. It is also of considerable value to students as it promotes greater ownership to their learning (Tomkins and Tunnicliffe, 2001). This leads to independent learning and moves students to a higher level of thinking, according to the principle on ‘Experience of learning’ in the Principles of Engaged Learning (MOE, 2005). Science ALIVE! lessons are different from the didactic traditional Science lessons, as they focus largely on the application of Science process skills. Hence there is a need to prepare students for the change, for example, from structured experiments to partially open investigations (Haigh et al, 2005). The need for such preparation was evident in the Biodiversity module as students were surprised to learn that scientific reports were different from other project reports, but they managed to overcome it after a few rounds of re-drafting. After the pilot run of Science ALIVE! programme, the teachers recommended that process skills be explicitly taught first followed by opportunities â€Å"created on purpose† for students to practise the skills. This is consistent with Padilla (1990) who suggested the need to provide students with â€Å"multiple opportunities to work with these skills in different content areas and contexts†. To enhance students’ investigative skills, Haigh et al (2005) proposed that teachers provide ‘refresher’ courses to cue students in the planning and conducting of their investigations .On completion of the investigation, students should be given the opportunity to evaluate their work so as to make it more meaningful. In Aroma Chemistry, students were asked to compare the quality of two batches of soap that they had made from different laboratory sessions and analyse the possible causes for the difference, while Biodiversity students had to reflect on the additiona l learning gained after a second trip to the nature reserve. Besides using appropriate strategies to help students adapt to the shift, it is also crucial to rectify students’ mindset on the importance and relevance of acquiring Science process skills. This is because students will be more motivated if they consider process skills an important object of instruction (Padilla, 1990). Thus teachers need to make explicit the â€Å"why† of teaching process skills (Haigh et al, 2005). The deliberate infusion of relevant Science applications in the curriculum of each module has succeeded in enhancing students’ awareness of the usefulness of Science in everyday life. Personal and social relevance dominated students’ ideas of the relevance of Science, though exposure to related industries and appropriate working environments could further promote an awareness of professional relevance. CONCLUSION Going forward, the Science ALIVE! programme would be refined in the next cycle to enhance students’ acquisition of Science process skills. Successful strategies such as the use of reflection journals, activity-based learning, group collaboration and contextualised learning will continue to be used. There would be more emphasis on the explicit teaching of process skills. In addition, more opportunities would be provided for the application of process skills in the core curriculum. RECOMMENDATION Further research on the Science ALIVE! programme could focus on the process skills which students found more difficult to master. With explicit teaching of these skills in the core curriculum prior to Science ALIVE!, the impact could be investigated. The usefulness of Science process skills acquired through the programme could be studied in terms of its impact on Upper Secondary Science, for example, the sustainability of student motivation in Upper Secondary Science. The findings in these research areas will help to inform the effectiveness of future Science ALIVE! programmes. REFERENCES Beaumont-Walters, Y. (2001). An analysis of high school students’ performance on five integrated Science process skills. Research in Science Technological Education, 19(2), 133-145. Bennett, J. (2001). Science with attitude: the perennial issue of pupils’ responses to Science. School Science Review, 82(300), 59-67. Berry, A., Mulhall, P., Gunstone, R., Loughran, J. (1999). 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