Search

High-resolution benthic habitat data fill an important knowledge gap for many areas of the world and are essential for strategic marine conservation planning and implementing effective resource management. Many countries lack the resources and capacity to create these products, which has hindered the development of accurate ecological baselines for assessing protection needs for coastal and marine habitats and monitoring change to guide adaptive management actions. The PlanetScope (PS) Dove Classic SmallSat constellation delivers high-resolution imagery (4 m) and near-daily global coverage that facilitates the compilation of a cloud-free and optimal water column image composite of the Caribbean’s nearshore environment. These data were used to develop a first-of-its-kind regional thirteen-class benthic habitat map to 30 m water depth using an object-based image analysis (OBIA) approach. A total of 203,676 km2 of shallow benthic habitat across the Insular Caribbean was mapped, representing 5% coral reef, 43% seagrass, 15% hardbottom, and 37% other habitats. Results from a combined major class accuracy assessment yielded an overall accuracy of 80% with a standard error of less than 1% yielding a confidence interval of 78–82%. Of the total area mapped, 15% of these habitats (31,311.7 km2) are within a marine protected or managed area. This information provides a baseline of ecological data for developing and executing more strategic conservation actions, including implementing more effective marine spatial plans, prioritizing and improving marine protected area design, monitoring condition and change for post-storm damage assessments, and providing more accurate habitat data for ecosystem service models.

While many tools are now available for optical acquisition of depth information, most have limited tolerance for object motion and/or strong variations in ambient lighting. Here we describe Symbolic Light, a new approach to 3D image capture that handles object motion and operates in a range of lighting conditions from darkness to daylight.

It has been suggested that focusing on the metacognitive skills secondary students need to make informed decisions about literacy challenges they encounter is a central element in raising literacy achievement. However, it is also recognised that struggling students are often not metacognitively skilful and are reluctant to use skills once taught them. This article uses findings from years 3 and 4 of a 5-year project in the south-west of the United States to discuss the approaches used to support students in raising their literacy achievements through a focus on metacognition.

This Teaching Tips article describes a classroom-based research project conducted between a teacher and a researcher. The topic arose from the teacher's concern about the inaccuracies and misconceptions exhibited by many of her third-grade students as they fluently decoded unfamiliar expository texts. The teacher researched her practice and the students' learning as she implemented an approach called “focused feedback,” to support their acquisition of retelling, with evidence and inference as comprehension strategies. The article describes how the research project informed the teaching. It explains the use of observations, research literature, a student survey, and a teacher designed assessment task to build the teacher's knowledge and to refine her instruction. It illustrates how the students' abilities to identify literal information from which they then made inferences could increase their knowledge of an unfamiliar topic.

This Research Connections column describes the background to and the research base for the San Diego Unified School Districts' federally funded Striving Readers Project. The curriculum for the project was developed out of a longitudinal study into the literacy experiences of secondary students in New Zealand and from exploratory work in San Diego from 2003–2005. The curriculum emphasizes the importance of a routine of literacy teaching and learning approaches and for the development of a knowledge base amongst students of the ways in which the literacy routine they learn can support them in their reading and writing across the content areas. يصف عمود صلات الأبحاث هذا خلفية مشروع القراء المحاولين الممول فدراليا لمدارس محافظة سان دياغو الموحدة وقاعدة أبحاثها. وقد تم تطوير المنهاج الدراسي للمشروع من دراسة تتبعية في تجارب معرفية لدى طلاب الثانوية العامة في نيو زيلاند ومن الأعمال الاستكشافية التي قامت في سان دياغو في الفترة ما بين 2003 و2005. ويؤكد المنهاج الدراسي أهمية روتين لطرق فهم تعليم معرفة القراءة والكتابة وتعلمها ولتنمية قاعدة معرفة بين الطلاب بالطرق التي قد يدعمهم من خلالها الروتين التعلمي في كتابتهم وقراءتهم في مجالات المحتوى. 本期的《研究联结》专栏描述一个名为「阅读者毅进计划」的背景与研究基础，该计划是由美国圣地亚哥联合学区的联邦政府拨款所资助。「阅读者毅进计划」的课程发展，是源自一项新西兰中学生读写学习经验的纵向研究，及另一项在2003-2005年间在圣地亚哥的探索性研究。课程强调惯常读写教学和学习方法的重要性，课程并且是为了在学生之间发展一个知识库，让他们认识到在惯常读写教学所学到的，能在多方面为他们的跨学科阅读与写作学习提供支援。 Cette rubrique « Connexions avec la recherche » presente l'arriere-plan et la base de recherche du « Projet lecteurs en lutte » soutenu au niveau federal par les districts des ecoles unifiees de San Diego. Le programme de ce projet a ete developpe a partir d'une etude longitudinale d'experiences de litteratie concernant des eleves du second degre en Nouvelle Zelande et d'un travail exploratoire a San Diego en 2003–2005. Ce programme met l'accent sur l'importance de routines dans l'enseignement de la litteratie et les approches de l'apprentissage, et du developpement d'une base de connaissances chez les etudiants quant a la facon dont les routines de litteratie qu'ils apprennent peuvent les aider dans leurs activites de lecture et d'ecriture dans les differentes matieres. В этом выпуске рубрики “Научные связи” описаны история Проекта для детей, испытывающих трудности с чтением и научная база, которая легла в его основу. Проект проводится в Объединении школьных округов Сан-Диего и финансируется на федеральном уровне. Учебная программа для проекта была разработана в ходе долгосрочного исследования становления грамотности учащихся средних школ и их опыта общения со словом, проводившегося в Новой Зеландии и Сан-Диего (США) с 2003 по 2005 год. Программа делает упор на повторение и оттачивание навыков в практике обучения грамотности и на успешное применение навыков чтения и письма при изучении различных учебных предметов. Esta columna de Conexiones de Investigacion describe el trasfondo y la base de investigacion del Proyecto Striving Readers, financiado por el gobierno federal, del San Diego Unified School District. El curriculo para el proyecto fue desarrollado a base de un estudio longitudinal de las experiencias de alfabetizacion de estudiantes de segundo grado en Nueva Zelanda y de un estudio de exploracion en San Diego entre 2003–2005. El curriculo enfatiza la importancia de una rutina de alfabetizacion y de acercamientos al aprendizaje. Tambien aboga por el desarrollo de una base de conocimiento entre los estudiantes de las maneras en que la rutina de las competencias que aprenden les puede apoyar al leer y escribir en las clases de contenido.

Examinations of effective professional learning in the literature rarely document the work of teachers as facilitators of professional learning for their colleagues. We would suggest that given the multiple and sometimes competing demands of simultaneously being a teacher, a colleague and a facilitator of professional learning, the role is complex. This chapter focuses on three educators as they led projects in schools over one school year to bring about changes in teacher practice and student achievement.

In pursuit of more equitable outcomes for students, the curriculum reforms of the early 1990s in New Zealand have required schools to develop strategic plans that align their strengths and needs with goals and activities designed to achieve growth and improvement in teaching and learning (Ministry of Education, 2008a). In support of this change, the Ministry of Education has funded professional learning programmes to address the goals identified by schools (Ministry of Education, 2008b).