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Visibility is a significant parameter for defining, developing, and evaluating space in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) Industry. Therefore, visibility is considered when designing visually comfortable buildings. Visibility is also a significant parameter in building appraisal. Therefore, in this study, visibility was examined through 3-dimensional (3D) isovists, which are thought to represent the human perception of vision. Visibility was examined regarding spatial openness and mathematically calculated “visual openness indexes” were developed for building valuation. The analysis area was selected in Istanbul, and the urban model was created by using Geographic Information System (GIS) data in Building Information Modelling (BIM) software. Due to, economic reasons affecting different stakeholders in building valuation, it is necessary to create an accurate urban model. For this reason, in the study, the process of obtaining current and accurate GIS data covering the world from open sources is preferred. Then, the process of correctly transferring GIS data to BIM is explained. A sufficient urban model for analysis is created. To calculate the openness indexes, the dormitory in the Golden Horn was modelled in BIM, and different rooms' openness indexes were calculated. Some solutions have been presented to ensure the modelling process with large file sizes and in the calculation of visibility factors. To allow different AEC stakeholders to calculate these indexes, modelling, and calculation is done within BIM. Eventually, it was calculated how much the building users cognitively perceive the openness of the view, and a mathematical comparison of the different rooms' openness indexes was provided.

This research aimed to investigate and compare teachers' conceptualizations of their students' and their own outcomes of our earlySTEM program at the K4 level in two distinct roles: practitioners only and practitioners and program developers jointly. The study group included 66 teachers, 26 of whom had actively contributed to the development of the earlySTEM program. Teachers in both roles were supported by teacher guides, student books and workshops throughout the 8-month long academic year. Data was collected at the end of the academic year through an open-ended survey. The program developer teachers identified more student outcomes under more diverse categories while the practitioner teachers mainly concentrated on cognitive outcomes and limited their conceptualizations to the national curriculum. In addition, the program developer teachers valued their involvement in the program development process and expressed more diverse professional outcomes referring to different types of teacher knowledge.

Conceptually grounded curricular materials in the context of professional development programs facilitate teachers' adoption of new pedagogies. Even though science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional development opportunities for early grade level teachers continue to receive attention, one existing challenge is to support teachers further in implementing well-defined integrated STEM curricula. The earlySTEM program supports K--4 teachers with the systematically developed earlySTEM curriculum, its associated curricular materials, and year-long mentoring. The program was implemented in 26 schools. This mid-evaluation investigated teacher perceptions of the earlySTEM program with a focus on contributions and challenges. A total of 134 teachers from the 26 schools responded to a survey with open-ended questions. Survey data were analyzed using a descriptive approach. The findings indicated that the teachers had positive experiences with the earlySTEM program. The results revealed that the earlySTEM program is perceived to have contributed to (a) teachers' STEM teaching skills and STEM conceptualizations and (b) students' skills development and awareness on the connection of the curriculum content to real-world problems. The results also document the perceived challenge in implementing the earlySTEM curriculum: need for more classroom time. The conclusions offer insights for similar program designs.

Teaching engineering at the middle and high school levels has been a topic of discussion among scholars regarding the challenges it creates. One of the most critical challenges at the school level is identifying qualified teaching staff to lead engineering courses. The present study explored teachers' willingness to lead an engineering course and the reasons behind their willingness or unwillingness to do so. The study involved 434 participants, who were enrolled in a STEM professional development program and were diverse regarding their teaching subjects, the grade levels they taught, and the locations of their schools in Turkey. In this mixed-methods study, researchers collected data at the beginning of an online professional development program. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, while qualitative data were analyzed with a data-driven codebook. Almost two-thirds of the participants were keen to teach an engineering course, yet differences were observed according to the subjects they taught and their professional backgrounds. Most of the mathematics teachers, the group with the highest percentage of willingness, seemed to have a holistic approach towards engineering, with half emphasizing collaboration between teachers and engineers. The study provided further insights into how initial teacher training and continuous professional development programs can be structured based on teacher expectations and needs.

Gender equity is a critical agenda for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education to increase women involvement in the STEM pathway. Our study is about the impact of a project in which all-girl teams participated to an educational robotics program. We used quantitative and qualitative data to determine the impact and understand the girls' program experiences. After the participation of the program, the mean scores have increased in interest in STEM, interest in STEM careers, STEM identity, and understanding of STEM scales. The groups underlined their problem solving and group work experiences, as well as their excitement and motivation related with the STEM activities.

New approaches to instruction are needed in all educational levels in order to develop the skills suited to the twenty-first century (i.e., inquiry, problem solving, innovation, entrepreneurship, technological communication, experimental design, and investigativeness). This research evaluated the outcomes of an approach aiming to develop such skills based on students' assessments of themselves and their peers with regard to investigative projects and course grades. The study is chiefly based on a quantitative paradigm with a multi-method approach. Data were primarily collected using a form to evaluate scientific investigation skills and learning gains; students' project reports and examination papers were the other data sources, which were evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results revealed a low-to-moderate level of improvement in skills. In addition, the authors discovered that students were overestimating their gains, and that peer-evaluations seemed to function better than self-evaluations.

Scientific inquiry helps students develop critical thinking abilities and enables students to think and construct knowledge like a scientist. The study describes a method course implementation at a major public teachers college in Turkey. The main goal of the course was to improve research and teaching abilities of prospective physics teachers (N=48) by developing scientific inquiry skills. The impact of the course was measured in two-folds: (a) The results obtained from pre- and post-course scientific inquiry self-evaluations of student teachers, which showed a statistically significant improvement, (b) independently measured scientific inquiry levels, which were found highly correlated with student grades from practical courses. Qualitative data indicated that the student teachers were having difficulties in applying mathematical formula into physics applications. (Contains 3 figures and 4 tables.)

Students need to achieve automaticity in learning mathematics without sacrificing conceptual understanding of the algorithms that are essential in being successful in algebra and problem solving, as well as in science. This research investigated the relationship between science-contextualized problems and computational fluency by testing an instructional method that was implemented as a non-traditional drill exercise. The study employed a quantitative analysis of pre- and post-test scores of Turkish middle and high school students after two interventions. The questions addressed were: Do the science-contextualized drill practices (SCP) improve students' computational fluency better than traditional drill practices (TP)? Is there any statistical significance between middle and high school students in terms of their benefit from SCP? This study showed that science-contextualized drill exercises produced higher gains for both middle and high school students' computational fluencies than the traditional context-free drill exercises. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)

Post-secondary institutions within the European Higher Education Area have been adapting quality assurance mechanisms for course design, delivery, and evaluation following a learner-centered approach. The purpose of this exploratory study was to delineate the teaching practices in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at the postsecondary level through an assessment of course syllabi. An analytical rubric was developed with the STEM community, STEM education, and STEM assessment factors in order to assess teaching practices through syllabi of the courses offered at a public university within the European Higher Education Area. Data were analyzed at the item level using a Mann-Whitney non-parametric test and at the factor level with an independent t-test. Results showed that there were statistically significant differences between the externally accredited and non-accredited programs in STEM-education and STEM-assessment variables (p < 0.01), which indicated a practical significance in favor of accredited programs. There was reason to believe that the external accreditation process has a positive impact on instructors in encouraging them to align their syllabi with the STEM education praxis under the influence of the student-centered teaching and learning paradigm.

The goal of this study was to establish a procedure for gene delivery mediated by cationic liposomes in quiescent differentiated HepaRG™ human hepatoma cells. We first identified several cationic lipids promoting efficient gene transfer with low toxicity in actively dividing HepG2, HuH7, BC2 and progenitor HepaRG™ human hepatoma cells. The lipophosphoramidate Syn1-based nanovector, which allowed the highest transfection efficiencies of progenitor HepaRG™ cells, was next used to transfect differentiated HepaRG™ cells. Lipofection of these cells using Syn1-based liposome was poorly efficient most likely because the differentiated HepaRG™ cells are highly quiescent. Thus, we engineered the differentiated HepaRG™ Mitogenic medium supplement (ADD1001) that triggered robust proliferation of differentiated cells. Importantly, we characterized the phenotypical changes occurring during proliferation of differentiated HepaRG™ cells and demonstrated that mitogenic stimulation induced a partial and transient decrease in the expression levels of some liver specific functions followed by a fast recovery of the full differentiation status upon removal of the mitogens. Taking advantage of the proliferation of HepaRG™ cells, we defined lipofection conditions using Syn1-based liposomes allowing transient expression of the cytochrome P450 2D6, a phase I enzyme poorly expressed in HepaRG cells, which opens new means for drug metabolism studies in HepaRG™ cells.