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Evolution is the integrative framework of the life sciences. Even though the topic is often not formally introduced before high school, young children already have various ideas about evolutionary principles (variation, inheritance, and selection) and their underlying key concepts (e.g., differential fitness, reproduction, and speciation). Describing and refining those ideas has increasingly received attention over the last two decades. However, we see two scopes of improvement in the field: (1) There is a need to examine children's ideas about evolutionary concepts holistically rather than focusing at specific aspects. (2) Although research has shown that older students have different ideas about animal and plant evolution, there is little data on children's ideas about plant evolution to compare with their ideas about animal evolution. All of this results in an incomplete record of children's pre-existing ideas that would help to design assessments or interventions. Consequently, we developed a set of questions, about the evolutionary principles and interviewed 24 kindergarten children. Most children had basic ideas about individual variation in animals and plants but experienced a lack of knowledge about the origin of variation. Most children seemed to acknowledge plants as living beings and reasoned equally about animals and plants for most concepts. However, many children failed to reason about reproduction and inheritance in plants because they believed plants would not reproduce sexually. Confronted with a selection scenario, most children struggled applying concepts previously shown on an individual level to a population level. Considering our findings, we propose ideas about how to measure and foster children's pre-existing ideas about evolution.

The use of digital technology has the potential to support students' understanding in the mathematics classroom with the teacher playing a vital role. However, teaching with digital technology is not trivial, especially for teachers who are new to this. In this paper, we present an analysis of the enactment of a function lesson of a Sri Lankan mathematics teacher who used digital technology for the first time in her teaching. We combined the instrumental orchestration and ROG (resources, orientations and goals) frameworks into a conceptual framework to analyse her teaching. In particular, we used instrumental orchestration to identify how the teacher orchestrated the resources in her technology-rich classroom. This was combined with ROG theory to understand the reasons underpinning the decisions involved in moving from one orchestration to another. We demonstrate that this teacher showed diverse orchestrations and use the ROG framework to present these in the sequences in which they were used, formed into chains of orchestrations linked by goals. We propose that her didactical performance is a function of orchestration types over in-the-moment decision-making.

BackgroundTo demonstrate the value of implementation of an artificial intelligence solution in health care service, a winning project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Hacking Medicine Brazil competition was implemented in an urgent care service for health care professionals at Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo during the COVID-19 pandemic. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of implementation of the digital solution in the urgent care service, assessing the reduction of nonvalue-added activities and its effect on the nurses’ time required for screening and the waiting time for patients to receive medical care. MethodsThis was a single-center, comparative, prospective study designed according to the Public Health England guide “Evaluating Digital Products for Health.” A total of 38,042 visits were analyzed over 18 months to determine the impact of implementing the digital solution. Medical care registration, health screening, and waiting time for medical care were compared before and after implementation of the digital solution. ResultsThe digital solution automated 92% of medical care registrations. The time for health screening increased by approximately 16% during the implementation and in the first 3 months after the implementation. The waiting time for medical care after automation with the digital solution was reduced by approximately 12 minutes compared with that required for visits without automation. The total time savings in the 12 months after implementation was estimated to be 2508 hours. ConclusionsThe digital solution was able to reduce nonvalue-added activities, without a substantial impact on health screening, and further saved waiting time for medical care in an urgent care service in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inquiry includes a broad spectrum of approaches, depending on students' responsibility over the process and the extent of the teacher's guidance. While numerous studies have examined students' achievements and engagement across different types of inquiry-based environments, analyses of teachers' guidance during the process are lacking. Therefore, our overarching goal was to examine the interplay between characteristics of the inquiry-based environment and teacher's just-in-time support. Specifically, we examined the learning processes and achievements of middle-school students as they collaboratively engaged in either a "structured" or a "guided" inquiry-based task and were supported by their teacher. "Structuring" scaffolds were designed to support the structured inquiry task, while "problematizing" scaffolds were designed to support the guided inquiry task. Post-test scores indicated a similar significant increase in students' scientific understanding for both research conditions, despite significant differences in students' engagement in metacognitive processes during their scientific trials. Students from the guided inquiry group engaged in longer discussions and made more references to metacognitive processes, in comparison to students from the structured inquiry group. A low to moderate correlation between students' engagement in metacognitive processes and test-scores was identified. The teacher's regulation of students' discourse in the structured inquiry group was significantly greater than in the guided inquiry group, though the nature of regulation was similar. We propose that the teacher's regulation of students' metacognitive discourse outweighed the differences between students' learning processes in the two learning environments, resulting in similar achievements in the two conditions albeit differences in metacognitive engagement. Implications are discussed.

Let {Xn,k, 1 ≤ k ≤ mn, n ≥ 1} be an array of independent random variables from the Pareto distribution. Let Xn(k) be the kth largest order statistic from the nth row of the array and set Rn,in,jn = Xn(jn)/Xn(in) where jn < in. The aim of this paper is to study the complete convergence of the ratios {Rn,in,jn, n ≥ 1}.

ABSTRACT IMPACT: We are adapting a global telehealth platform and model of care to the U.S. context in order to solve the problem of undertreatment of age-related hearing loss and, in turn, facilitate healthy aging and social engagement among older adults. OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Intelehealth is a nonprofit startup that provides medical care to last-mile populations in India by equipping frontline health workers with an open-source digital assistant and telemedicine platform. Here, we explore how this technology and model of care might be adapted to address health inequities in the context of the U.S. healthcare system. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We first sought to identify a specific healthcare need that we could address as a case study on applying the Intelehealth model more broadly in the U.S. context. We began with a needs assessment, wherein we conducted primary ethnographic research, expert interviews, and literature review to identify problems in the general areas of health disparities, community health workers, and telemedicine accessibility. We then scored each need on clinical impact, feasibility, business potential, and strategic fit. After a top need was selected, a root cause analysis was performed. Brainstorming and solution concepting will be followed by prototyping, iterative design with primary stakeholder feedback, usability testing, and finally implementation and validation of the solution. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Of 106 needs, the most highly scored was undertreatment of age-related hearing loss (ARHL). The third most common chronic condition in the U.S., ARHL presents a significant barrier to healthy aging and the single largest modifiable risk factor for dementia; yet only 15% of those with ARHL regularly use hearing aids. Thus, a large market segment - nearly 30 million Americans - is underserved by the current hearing care paradigm. Root cause analysis revealed that the primary reasons for hearing aid non-use include stigma around aging, denial of hearing loss, poor awareness of resources, and insufficient education around proper use and maintenance. These barriers, being primarily sociocultural in nature, may be optimally addressed by community health workers, making ARHL an ideal fit for the Intelehealth model. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDINGS: We have identified ARHL as an optimal test market for Intelehealth in the U.S. By developing a targeted intervention to improve hearing aid access and acceptability among older adults, we will create a generalizable model for delivering care through community health workers equipped with a decision support and telemedicine platform.

While more universities are including IT accessibility in their computer science programs for undergraduate and graduate students, there is little accessibility training available for K-12 teachers. We created an intervention through which postsecondary students had opportunities to experience five computer games with a simulated impairment (color-blindness, auditory impairments, physical disabilities, blindness, or low-vision); first they played the game that was inaccessibly designed and then they played a version that was accessibly designed. The activity ended with a discussion of accessible design techniques. We tested the intervention with 18 teachers who were students in a university web development course that was part of their computer science training. Results show that teachers were very receptive to including accessibility topics in their future classrooms and thought the intervention was an effective method for teaching high school, middle school, and elementary school students about accessible design.

Computer-based simulations are highly effective in supporting students' deep conceptual understanding of scientific ideas. However, in the unprecedented era of the COVID-19 outbreak, students around the world experienced an induced state anxiety, which may have affected their engagement with the learning environments and ultimately their academic outcomes. This crisis underscores the global need to examine the learning processes and identify means of supporting students' engagement under stressful conditions. With this goal in mind, the current study evaluated the impact of COVID-19 induced anxiety on the learning process of 187 undergraduate students by means of computer-based simulation during a quarantine. Findings show that 56% of the students reported experiencing anxiety following the COVID-19 outbreak. A bivariate parametric analysis demonstrated that this COVID-19 induced anxiety had a negative impact on students' engagement. Indirect model analysis revealed that emotional disaffection in terms of boredom mediated the negative effect of COVID-19 induced anxiety on students' engagement. From a theoretical perspective, these findings highlight the pivotal role of boredom in students' learning processes in times of externally induced anxiety. From a pedagogical perspective, our findings highlight the necessity to implement teaching approaches that attend to boredom to mitigate the negative effects of externally induced anxiety.

Background: To accurately measure students' science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career interest, researchers must get inside the 'black box' to understand students' conceptualizations of STEM careers. Aims: The aim of Study 1 was to explore whether students' conceptualizations of STEM included medical careers. The aim of Study 2 was to explore whether predictors of STEM career interest (e.g., gender and motivation) varied by STEM definition (inclusion/exclusion of medical careers). Samples: In Study 1, the sample was US college students (N = 125) who were mostly White (80%). In Study 2, the sample was US 10th-grade high school students (N = 455) who were mostly Black (79%). Methods: In Study 1, students completed an online questionnaire. In Study 2, students completed various measures of math achievement, motivation (science and math expectancies of success, interest and importance value) and career interest with an importance. Results: In Study 1, medical careers were less often classified as STEM careers than traditional STEM careers, but more often classified as STEM than non-STEM careers. In Study 2, science importance value was the only motivational predictor of students' STEM+Medicine career interest, and no motivation constructs predicted traditional STEM career interest. Boys expressed greater interest in traditional STEM careers, while girls expressed greater interest in STEM+Medicine careers. Conclusions: Students' conceptualizations of STEM are not binary. Thus, we recommend researchers are explicit about their definition of STEM with study participants, in their coding and in their publications.

The body of work regarding gender bias in academia shows that female instructors are often rated lower by students than their male counterparts. Mechanisms are complex and intersectional and often associated with role congruity theory. Little research has examined parallel patterns in graduate teaching assistant (TA) evaluations. In research institutions, TAs make up a large portion of teaching teams. Identifying bias and working to remove it is critical to shifting the already-well-documented gender imbalance in higher education. To evaluate gender-associated perceptions of graduate TAs' teaching skills, we analyzed Likert-scale, mid-semester survey data using ordinal logistic regression models for PhD TAs in five (pre-COVID) semesters in the College of Engineering at Cornell University, a large R1 institution in the United States. We also regressed scores for each survey question against the overall TA quality rating for male- and female-identifying TAs to compare the strength of those relationships and explore potential differences in student expectations associated with gender roles. A subset of narrative comment data were coded into themes, analyzed, and triangulated with other observed patterns. Male TAs had a higher likelihood of receiving a better rating than female TAs for all survey questions in which students rated performance. Statistical evidence of different slopes of relationships between particular questions and overall TA quality rating suggested that female and male TAs were "valued" more for behaviors/attributes congruent with roles ascribed to that gender in broader society. Female TAs received a higher proportion of positive comments for communication skills and more comments regarding supportiveness than male TAs. Males received more comments about their overall value as TAs, however all comments regarding overall quality as TAs were positive regardless of gender. The amount and proportion of comments that were positive or negative for knowledge, enthusiasm, preparedness or fairness were the same for male and female TAs. Gender-based disparity is occurring in TA evaluations and aligns with patterns observed in research on teaching evaluations for faculty. Correlation between overall TA ratings and scores for specific survey questions and narrative responses indicate that role congruity influences traits that students perceive as important and positive in TAs of different genders.

Students often perceive school science as purely theoretical, overloaded with facts, and mostly disconnected from their school, home, and community life. One way to bridge the disconnection between school science and lived experiences, and support students in realizing the relevance of science to their everyday life, is by enabling them to integrate their "funds of knowledge" (FoK), the knowledge and expertise people have because of their roles in their families, communities, and culture, within science. To support students in this task, we developed "Together with Science," a series of Vlogs (video blogs) designed to guide families and students through home-based experiments and support the emergence of a "third space," where science and everyday life intersect. The Vlogs provided the necessary scientific background for the experiments and encouraged participants to share aspects of their lived experiences and reflect upon the realization of scientific phenomena in their lives. Using videotaped discussions of students and family members, we examined the interactions between them, as well as the FoK addressed in the conversation. The results indicate that multiple types of interactions emerged between students and family members, as they jointly conducted the science experiments and discussed their findings. Shifts in these interactions were associated with the development of a "shared third space," in which both students and family members were able to concurrently relate everyday life to the scientific phenomenon. Most FoK were associated with participants' homes and culture. Our results suggest that family members can serve as "brokers" to support their children in realizing the relationship between science and their everyday life, by bringing in their unique FoK into the scientific discussion, and highlighting the importance of thoughtfully designed learning environments to support them in the process.

This paper establishes conditions that secure the almost sure upper and lower bounds for a particular normalized weighted sum of independent nonnegative random variables. These random variables do not possess a finite first moment so these results are not typical. These mild conditions allow us to show that the almost sure upper limit is infinity while the almost sure lower bound is one.