Facility design and learning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Facility design and learning - Research Paper Example Free education as we know it today did not come into existence until the 1840s, when a popular movement began with education reformers Horace Mann and Henry Barnard. Working in Massachusetts and Connecticut, these two men helped to create statewide â€Å"common-school† systems that would provide education for everyone. (â€Å"Honor America’s Schools†, 2002). Aided by common-school advocates, they worked to establish a free elementary education accessible to everyone and financed by public funds. (â€Å"Honor America’s Schools†, 2002). Public education across the United States remains much the same as the common-school movement that was started in Massachusetts and Connecticut over a century ago. Public education is still free to those that wish to use it; however, American students are scoring lower than other countries in subjects such as science and math (â€Å"Associated Press†, 2007), and the very buildings that were constructed for their education are now being examined as the cause behind the lower test scores. The first cause that is being examined in the correlation between learning and learning facilities are the buildings themselves. According to a study conducted by the Tennessee Advisory Committee on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) in 2003, school facility factors such as building age and condition, among others, can affect student health, safety, sense of self, and psychological state. Further evidence of this was determined by Glen I. Earthman in his 2002 study entitled School Facility Conditions and Student Achievement. In this study, Mr. Earthman stated that, when the socioeconomic factors of a classroom were controlled, researchers frequently found a difference between 5 and 17 percentile points between achievements of students in poor quality school buildings when compared with students in standard quality school buildings. Though the terms of poor quality and standard quality were not specifically defined in the study, the evidence was clear – the quality of the building affected the ability of students to learn. The elements of facility design that can affect learning go far beyond the ‘brick and mortar’ approach to a school. Perhaps the biggest contributor inside a school to a student’s learning is the air that they breathe. According to the National Center for Education Statistics 2003 Planning Guide for Maintaining School Facilities, Indoor Air Quality, commonly referred to as IAQ, encompasses almost anything and everything that affects air in an educational building, from mold and pollens to dust, paint odors and other allergens. In 1995, the General Accounting Office (GAO) found that fifteen thousand schools in America suffered from poor IAQ, which affected more than eight million children in the American public school systems across the country (Schneider, 2002). Poor IAQ has been linked to a number of issues that affect student performance. Among the issues are eye, nose, and throat irritation, fatigue, headache, nausea, and sinus problems (Szuba, & Young, 2003). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a 2000 study, referred to these symptoms in total

Motivation, preparation and experiences of teaching Headteachers in Essay

Motivation, preparation and experiences of teaching Headteachers in Retirement in Ireland - Essay Example By following a well a systematic collection, data analysis and interpretation (Cohen & Manion, 1994, p. 40; Marshall and Rossman, 1999, p. 21: McMillan & Schumacher, 2001, p. 35), undertaken by inductive analytical strategies (McMillan & Schumacher, 2001; Ritchie & Lewis, 2003). A review of pertinent literature provides a prediction that the number of principal retirees in Ireland. The growing numbers of them, in light of motivating factors like age and health provides an opportunity for researchers to conduct research studies on this topical issue. In chapter 1 as indicated, the motivation, preparation and experiences of individual head teachers are investigated. This will satisfactorily be studied by the researchers as they seek to build on the hypothesis. This hence indicates that the research study is explanatory, exploratory and descriptive in its natural setting (Babbie & Mouton, 2001, pp. 79-81; Marshall & Rossman, 1999, p. 33.). The exploratory part of the study seeks and aims to investigate the underresearched phenomena, with a sole aim of developing and providing an understanding, shading more light and providing substantive arguments in s research area least understood. In essence, this research consequently provides a platform and invents new ideas for conducting further research. In respect to further research, scientific determination and identification of argumentative categories of hypothetically proven meaning is achieved. In such cases, more knowledge is added in identifying plausible relationships that shape up phenomenon (Marshall & Rossman, 1999, p. 33). The research is descriptive as it describes underlines and documents complexities associated with the phenomena under research, how personalities influence it, differences in opinions on critical issues and the extent to which opinion differences defines and influences the outcome (Merriam,

Internal weaknesses of Walt Disney company- only THEME PARKS part Research Paper

Internal weaknesses of Walt Disney company- only THEME PARKS part - Research Paper Example rough the Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix and SWOT that’s a tool that strategically studies the functions of an organization be they weak or strong. One main internal weakness includes the high overhead expenditures that the company accrues. First, the company targets top talent employees and this is done through attractive offers that beat other competitors. They are given inflated bonuses and exorbitant salaries. The frequent refreshment of the company’s work force especially in top management leads to huge costs. Other costs include the setting up of theme parks, repair and maintenance, technology and construction of vacation units which cost billions together with the expenditure for publicity and promotions that are done. Dissatisfaction of employees is another weakness. Such discriminated payments bring other tensions like disputes from the labor people who cause unrest and tension and this causes internal weaknesses. Those who work on the theme parks including the writers, actors and network operators may complain through their unions as their pays are meagre compared to those of the management. A contrasting weakness is the cost cutting measures that may be may be caused by the situation of over the roof costs that the company would incur. Sometimes, the management may introduce new structures, systems and designs for its theme parks and this would in the end sabotage the upward growth of the company. Without quality investments, the services and experiences of their customers would go down and later their reputation might be harmed. The lack of enough developmental property or assets like land is another internal weakness. Although the company is big, matters like the acquisition of new pieces of land require a lot of hierarchy involvement and consultations and this has led to the fact that the Walt Disney Company land for resorts has been landlocked to Florida and the speculative front in California and this means that there are no new

My Journey to outer space Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

My Journey to outer space - Essay Example My presence on the spaceship put me in a state of shock but gradually I adapted to the situation. The spaceship was headed towards the planet Saturn where the team members of my crew were to witness certain changes in the outer shell of the planet. This change was considered to have happened because of a reported explosion. I wandered around the spaceship and was delighted by seeing objects and machines that I had never seen. Despite of being in a different place, I started to like my surroundings. My attention drifted to one of my crew members, Ronald, who was sitting around a table that had navigation and mapping devices. The charm of those devices attracted me towards Ronald and lured me to ask the meaning of the terminologies that he was mentioning to the pilot of the ship. Later, it was Ronald and the pilot who explained to me that the term light year and Parsec were both units of length and that the spaceship had to travel 4.28 light years to reach Saturn and to ascertain the distance, a method referred to as parallax was used. During our journey, I witnessed different stars, meteors and asteroids. Few of the celestial bodies that I witnessed glowed in such a way that it displayed a red shade; this was referred to as Red shift in the astronomical language. When I first heard about the distance I thought that it would take many years to reach the destination but within a few hours, I heard an announcement which stated that we were approaching our destination. I was really looking forward to step on Saturn but at that particular moment, I fell with a thud on the floor and my eyes opened. I realized that it was just a

Standardized Terminology in Nursing Practice Research Paper

Standardized Terminology in Nursing Practice - Research Paper Example The 514 NIC interventions will usually be found arranged in thirty classes and seven domains. The terminology is often used along with the development of electronic health records, (EHRs) (Cordova et. al., 2010). Other nursing terminologies include the Nursing Outcomes Classification, (NOC) and Standardized Nursing Diagnoses (NANDA). None of the above nursing taxonomies however have been included in a system of health information that considers the entire care that nurses provide to patients. NIC is advantageous over the other terminologies since its link to Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED) proves more important because of its ease of comprehensibility and more controlled vocabulary for biomedical sciences (Cordova et. al., 2010). This mapping integrates the NIC with other healthcare disciplines and is used in more than twenty-five countries. The NIC can also be closely related to the international method for classifying nurses, which is a base for providing a common st ructure for nursing interventions, diagnoses and outcomes. It was developed to determine the nursing costs based on interventions that have undergone standardization. The NIC terminology provides a foundation for capturing a valid measure of the nursing workload (Cordova et. al., 2010). The nature of nursing would require that the nurse engage in the care of a patient from the less complicated outpatient routines to the invasive hemodynamic procedures. The nursing process underpins nursing in five inter-related and recurrent stages: data gathering, planning, implementation and examination. The application of this process has enabled the use of standard language for the major practise situations, which are diagnosis, results and interventions (Herdman & NANDA International, 2011). The interest in using standardized language during nursing became deeper when the NANDA’s classification for nursing diagnoses developed. The

Cause & Effect of Sept. 11th Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cause & Effect of Sept. 11th - Essay Example The social effect is captured by the way the catastrophe altered the American people’s perception, behavior and interaction towards Muslims living within and outside the country. The political effect is manifested by the labeling of certain states as the axis of evil and the American-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The economic effect can be seen from the increased use of resources to secure production, distribution, finance, and communication at the expense of national productivity. What caused the September 11 attacks? In retrospect the big question still is: what led to 9/11 in the first place? There is no clear answer to this question; however, numerous conjectures have been raised. Even the US government’s 9/11 commission failed to provide clarity on the real causes of September 11. The commission only gave an unqualified response on who was responsible for the heinous act. There is not a single event in modern times that has elicited as many explanations as this tragedy. According to Bergen (2006) the theories on the causes of the September 11 attacks could be categorized into three: (1) the outright absurd, which state that the attacks were orchestrated by the US government; (2) the believable but flawed that argue that the attacks were done as a response to foreign occupation in the Arab lands; and (3) the credible, which postulates that September 11 was simply a collateral damage resulting from a clash within Islam. The al Qaeda angle In its findings, the US 9/11 commission concluded that the al Qaeda was solely responsible for the terrorist attacks. Osama Bin Laden was at war unambiguously with the United States. Levingston (2010) argued that this was the case because Osama was irked by the multiple engagements of the US in the Arab lands and its unequivocal support for Israel. This theory fits the second categorization of Bergen (2006); the-believable-but-flawed argument. At this juncture, it is important to note that Osama ’s critique towards America had never been cultural. Osama was not fighting Western culture; his was a personal war against the US. Bergen (2006) stated that Bin Laden was astute enough to know that he could not wage an all-out battle against the world’s sole superpower. He therefore craftily embodied his vision inside al Qaeda and attracted similar disgruntled Islamists whom he managed to convince that America was the enemy. Osama saw terrorism as the only achievable mode of operation to wage war against the US. This argument is believable but flawed because it fails to provide sufficient reasons as to why an individual in the Middle East would be so obsessed with waging a war against the US. Western interference The second plausible root cause of al Qaeda’s attack was perpetual Western interference in the oil-rich Persian Gulf. This interference can be traced back to colonization of Arab states by France and Britain, the creation and unequivocal support for the Jewish state – Israel, and currently American hegemony that is exemplified by acts such as the Gulf War in 1990. Western interference is a broader cause than Osama’s war in that it does not merely point the finger at one Western state – America – but at the entire Western world. The heart of this argument on Western interference is that the West has slowly and steadily been eroding the Arab culture by permeating Western ideologies in the Persian

Negotiations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Negotiations - Essay Example This was the case of a miner who lost his boots at work, and the managers did not agree to lend him a pair or even buy him a new pair. The non-compliance by the shift boss led to a dispute of interests and led the employee to go on strike. Ury, et.al, (1988) explain that a dispute starts when a claim or demand is made and is generally based on a need or aspiration. In the case where the miner complained of the lost boots, he was in directly expecting the company to take responsibility and to remedy the issue, however due to the rejection, this led to a dispute (Ury, Brett, & Goldberg, 1988). Here this led to a conflict of interests, i.e. the interest of the miner was to get back his pair of boots, while the interest of the shift boss was not to spend extra as the company cannot be held liable for the loss of property. Interests are the needs, desires, concerns, and fears, basically, the things that an individual cares about or wants. Reconciliation of such interests is the key and is the most concerning aspect of any negotiation. Here these can lead to creative solutions, or making trade- offs, or even concessions. The crux is to reach to an agreement. However, not all the negotiations are a means to reach an agreement. Some negotiations are focused on reconciling of interests, while others on determining who is right and a few others are based on who is more powerful (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2010). However, there are a number of negotiations which is a mix of all three of the elements, i.e. to satisfy the interests, discussion of rights and also focus on the power of the parties involved. In the case that the negotiations are focused on a single aspect, then they are referred to as, either, ‘interest-based’, ‘rights-based’, or ‘power-based’ (Lewicki, Saunders, Minton, & Barry, 2010). The relationship of the three can be understood better in the form of concurrent circles, with the inner most circle being interest, the outer circle being rights and the outer most circle being power (see figure below). (Ury, Brett, & Goldberg, 1988) The diagram clearly explains that any reconciliation of interests is basically within the rights and power of the parties. Similarly, the determination of the rights is based on the levels of power. The three are interrelated and the overall resolution of a dispute can have a continuous shift between the interests, rights or power (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2010). Each of the three has a different impact on the overall costs, satisfaction and also the outcomes. There are four possible criteria in every negotiation. a) The transaction costs, i.e. the cost of the overall negotiation. In the case of the Boots dispute, it would have been better for the shift boss to resolve the dispute without the strike. The escalated issue of strike, simply led the overall costs to increase to a great extent (Brett, 2007). b) Outcome satisfaction is another crucial element that needs t o be considered. Here the outcome was not to satisfaction for the business, or the employee alike. The business was faced with loss of money, while the employee did not receive a new pair of boots. However the employee was satisfied as this allowed him to vent out the anger. c) Impact on relationships, is the next crucial criteria. Negotiations are a part of day to day life (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2010). With the type of negotiation chosen, there can be an impact on the ove