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1. Investigating the Development of Preservice Science Teachers’ Nature of Science Instructional Views Across Rings of the Family Resemblance Approach Wheel

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-023-00418-7  

   Voss, Sarah; Kent-Schneider, Isaiah; Kruse, Jerrid; Daemicke, Ren (February 2023, Science & Education)

   While much is known about teacher learning of nature of science (NOS) concepts, less is known about how teachers develop an understanding of how to effectively teach NOS or how instructional views might differ across levels of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) wheel. Therefore, this study investigated the NOS instructional views related to different levels of the FRA wheel of preservice secondary science teachers as they completed a semester-long NOS course. At four times during the semester, data was collected through written documents and interviews about NOS instructional views. Participant NOS instructional views were evaluated in terms of three aspects of NOS teaching: explicit, reflective, and role of context (McComas et al., 2020). In terms of the explicit and reflective components of NOS instruction, participants generally progressed from utilizing inaccurate representations of NOS to inclusion of accurate implicit messages, and finally to explicit reflective instruction often mimicking course activities. As the semester progressed, their questioning also moved toward targeting more specific NOS aspects. As far as the role of context, participants moved from treating NOS as its own topic to a more embedded approach. Other findings include that preservice teachers tended to use more abstract and contextualized activities for social institutional aspects of NOS as opposed to concrete and moderately contextualized activities for cognitive-epistemic NOS. Features of the NOS course may account for some aspects of the learning progressions observed. 

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2. A New Nature

   Dorf, Mark; CaraDonna, Paul J; Aloi, Giovanni (June 2023, Antennae)
3. Impacts of nature imagery on people in severely nature-deprived environments

   Nadkarni, N; Hasbach, P.; Thys, T.; Gaines, E.; Schnacker, L. (September 2017, Frontiers in ecology and the environment)

   An estimated 5.3 million Americans live or work in nature-deprived venues such as prisons, homeless shelters, and mental hospitals. Such removal from nature can result in an “extinction of experience” that can further lead to disinterest or disaffection toward natural settings, or even biophobia (fear of the natural environment). People who infrequently – or never – spend time in nature will be deprived of the numerous physical and emotional benefits that contact with nature affords. We report on the effects of vicarious nature experiences (nature videos) provided to maximum-security prison inmates for one year, and compared their emotions and behaviors to inmates who were not offered such videos. Inmates who watched nature videos reported feeling significantly calmer, less irritable, and more empathetic, and committed 26% fewer violent infractions as compared to those who did not watch the videos. Prison staff corroborated these findings. This research reinforces the value of nature exposure as a powerful tool not only for corrections administrators, but also for urban planners and policy makers, to promote socially desirable behaviors. 

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4. Toward Family-Robot Interactions: A Family-Centered Framework in HRI

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3610977.3634976  

   Cagiltay, Bengisu; Mutlu, Bilge (March 2024, ACM)

   As robotic products become more integrated into daily life, there is a greater need to understand authentic and real-world human-robot interactions to inform product design. Across many domestic, educational, and public settings, robots interact with not only individuals and groups of users, but also families, including children, parents, relatives, and even pets. However, products developed to date and research in human-robot and child-robot interactions have focused on the interaction with their primary users, neglecting the complex and multifaceted interactions between family members and with the robot. There is a significant gap in knowledge, methods, and theories for how to design robots to support these interactions. To inform the design of robots that can support and enhance family life, this paper provides (1) a narrative review exemplifying the research gap and opportunities for family-robot interactions and (2) an actionable family-centered framework for research and practices in human-robot and child-robot interaction. 

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5. Supporting Caring among Intergenerational Family Members through Family Fitness Tracking

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3421937.3422018  

   Li, Qingyang; Caldeira, Clara; Epstein, Daniel A.; Chen, Yunan (May 2020, Proceedings of the 14th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare)

   null (Ed.)

   We present results from a qualitative study involving eight intergenerational families (27 participants) to understand how a family tracking intervention can help support care among intergenerational family members. Our findings show that family members communicate and stay aware of each other's' health through shared fitness data and conversations triggered by fitness sharing. We identified different challenges and preferences among the three age groups in our study: older adults enjoyed family fitness sharing but often encountered various technical challenges, the middle-aged group served as a key person to care for the rest of the family members, and the young generation could not fully engage in fitness sharing due to their busy schedule and privacy concerns. These findings suggest the design of family fitness sharing to account for the age differences in intergenerational families and support the unique needs of family fitness sharing. 

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