The Van Hiele Theory Of Geometric Thinking

The Van Hiele Theory Of Geometric Thinking This chapter will provide a brief explanation of the theoretical framework on Van Hiele theory of geometric thinking. Consequently review and discuss on literature involving van Hiele theory and dynamic geometry software, follow by review of literature on teaching and learning of geometry by dynamic geometry software Cabri 3D as an instructional tool. Then chapter conclude by reviewing literature on designing learning activities. The Van Hiele Theory of Geometric Thinking The van Hiele model of geometric thinking is one theory that offers a model for explaining and describing geometric thinking. This theory resulted from the Dutch mathematics educator doctoral work of Dina van Hiele-Geldof and Pierre van Hiele at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands which completed in 1957. Pierre van Hiele formulated the five levels of thinking in geometry and discussed the role of insight in the learning of geometry in this doctoral thesis. Van Hiele reformulated the original five levels into three during the 1980s. Dina van Hiele-Geldorfs doctoral thesis, which was completed in 1957, focused on the role of instruction in the raising of a pupils thought levels. Her study centered on thinking of geometry and the role of instruction in assessing pupils to move though the levels. The following summary of Van Hiele theory history is taken from Hanscomb,Kerry, (2005, p.77): A convenient location for many primary sources on the Van Hiele model is Fuys et al. (1984).Other primary sources are van Hiele and Van Hiele-Geldof (1958) and Van Hiele (1986). Secondary sources for Van Hiele research are Mayberry (1983), who found that students may operate at different levels for different concepts; Mayson (1997),who claims that gifted students may skip van Hiele levels; and Clements and Battista (1992),who cite finding indicating that the van Hiele levels involve cognitive developmental factors as well as didactical factors. The van Hiele theory has been applied to clarify students difficulties with the higher order cognitive processes, which is necessary to success in high school geometry. In this theory if students do not taught at the proper Hiele level that they are at or ready for it, will face difficulties and they cannot understand geometry. The therapy that offered for students by this theory is that they should go through the sequence of levels in a specific way. (Usiskin, 1982b). It is possible to generalize the Van Hiele model to the other topics such as physics, science and arts. Because the main idea of this theory is the consequence of levels and believing that each level is built on properties of the previous level as many researches has done based on this theory on science education. Characteristics of Van Hiele level of geometric thought Van Hiele theory argues there are some misconstructions in teaching of school mathematics and geometry, which was existed for long time based on the formal axiomatic geometry and was created by Euclid more than two thousand years ago. Euclid logical construction is based on his axioms, definitions, theorems, and proofs. Therefore, the school geometry that is in a similar axiomatic fashion assumes that students think in a formal deductive level. However, it is not usually the case and the students have the lack of prerequisite understanding about geometry. Van Hiele discusses this lack creates a gap between their level of geometric thinking that they are, and the level of geometric thinking that they required for and they expected to learn. He supports Piagets points of view Giving no education is better than giving it at the wrong time. Teachers should provide teaching that is appropriate to the level of childrens thinking. Van Hiele theory suggests: It depends on the students level of geometric thinking the teacher can decide in which level the teaching should be begun.(Van Hiele, 1999) According to the van Hiele theory, a student moves sequentially from the initial level (Visualization) to the highest level (Rigor). Students cannot achieve one level of thinking successfully without having passed through the previous levels. Furthermore, Burger Shaughnessy (1986) and Mayberry (1983) have found that the level of thinking at an entry level is not the same in all areas of geometry. During last decades many researchers and investigators tried to support the Van Hiele model or disapprove of it and still some try to improve or adjust this model. Many of the researcher used Van Hiele level of geometric thought as a suitable and proper theory in their research using dynamic geometry software (Smart, 2008). The Van Hiele levels have certain properties specially for understanding the geometry. First of all, the stages have fixed sequence property. The five levels are hieratically, it means students must go through the levels in order. He/she cannot fit in level N without having gone through the previous level (N-1). Students cannot engage in geometry thinking at higher level without passing the lower levels. Second property is adjacency of the levels. At each level of thought what is essential in the previous level become extrinsic in the existing level. Individual understanding and reflection on geometric ideas are needed to move from one level to the next one, rather than biological maturation. Third each level has its own symbols and linguistic and relationships for connecting those symbols. This property is a distinction of the stages. For example when a teacher use a language for higher level of thinking than students level of thinking, students cannot understand the concepts and try to just memorizing the proofs and do the rote learning. In this case miscommunication emerge (Hong Lay, 2005). The next characteristic, clarifies two persons in different levels cannot understand each other. As each level of thinking has its own language and symbols so students in different levels cannot understand each other. Lastly, the Van Hiele theory emphasize on pedagogy and the importance of teacher instruction to assist students transition through one level to the next one. This characteristic indicates that appropriate activities which allow students to explore and discover geometric concepts in appropriate levels of their thinking are the best activities to advance students level of thinking. Phases of learning geometry Van Hiele theory defines five levels of learning geometry which students must pass in order to obtain an understanding of geometric concept. To progress from one level to next level should be involve these five levels as Usiskin argued: The learning process leading to complete understanding at the next higher level has five phases, approximately but not strictly sequential, entitled: Inquiry Directed orientation Explanation Free orientation Integration (p.6)(Usiskin, 1982a). These five level are very valuable in designing activities and design instructional phases. Phase one: Inquiry First phase of learning geometry starts with inquiry or information satge. In this stage students learn about the nature of the geometric objects.in order to design appropriate activities, Teacher identify students prior knowledge about new concept which need to be learnt. Then teacher design proper activities to encourage and encounter students with the new concept which is being taught. Phase two: Directed orientation During this phase while students doing their short activities with set of outcomes like: measuring, folding and unfolding, or geometry games, teacher provides appropriate activities base on students levels level of thinking to encourage them be more familiar with the concept being taught. Phase three: Explanation As the name of this phase demonstrates, in this stage students try to describe their learning of new concept in their own words. Students in this phase start to express their conclusions and finding with their other classmates and teacher in their own words. They communicate mathematically. The role of teacher in this stage is supplying relevant mathematical terminology and language in a proper manner, by using geometrical and mathematical language accurately and correctly. Phase four: Free orientation In this phase geometrical tasks that appeal to numerous ways is presented to the students. This is the students who decide how to go about accomplishing these tasks. As the way of solid geometry, they have learned to investigate more complex open-ended activities. Phase Five: Integration In this stage students summarize completed tasks and overview whatever they have learned to develop a new network of concepts. By completing this stage it is expected that students attained a new level of geometric thought. One of important properties of these phases of learning in Van Hiele theory is not linear in nature. Sometimes students need a cycle form of these phases by repeating more than one time to overcome certain geometrical concepts. The role of teaches here is providing suitable activities based on these five phases to develop each level of van Hiele geometric thinking. The Van Hiele level of geometric thinking According to Van Hiele theory, the development of students geometric thinking considered regarding the increasingly sophisticated level of thinking. These levels are hierarchies and able to predict future students enactment in geometry(Usiskin, 1982a). This model consists of five levels in understanding, which numbered from 0 to 4. However, in this research we defined these levels from 1 to 5 to be able categorize students, who are not fitted in the model as level 0. Level 1, Visualization Level 2, Analysis Level 3, Informal deduction Level 4, deduction Level 5, rigor Level 1: Visualization The base stage of Van Hiele geometric thinking which is encountered with goals of mathematical domain is Level 1. The objectives of the first level are functions like the underpinning elements of everything that are going to be studied. Understanding at this stage includes visualizing base objects. At this level visualization defines as comprehension or seeing initial objects in students minds. For instance, a number line in this stage could be defined as real numbers in the domain of real numbers. Vectors and matrices can be seen as basic objects in the domain of leaner algebra. So perceiving vector as a directed segment or matrices as a rectangular table of numbers lies in level 1. Elementary teachers know that it takes a few years of school for pupils to master visualization level. For example, it takes long time for students to see real numbers in a number line format. Similarly, perception of an ordered list or array of numbers, or an ordered pair of points is not something that occurs to an untaught mind and eye. Hence, serious teaching effort and introduction needed to students achieve Level 1and it is not assumed the visualization of initial objects to be obvious or trivial for students. Geometry in Iran starts in elementary school and continues until level 8 with introducing geometry shapes like circles, squares, triangles, straight lines, etc. At the level 1 student learn to recognize geometric characteristics in objects that can be physically seen. At this stage student are assumed to be able to categorize geometric shapes by visual recognition, and know their names, for example, in solid geometry in level 1, if shown a picture of a polyhedron like a cube, students would be able to say that it is a cube because it looks like one for him or her. At this stage, it is not required to think of a cube, or any other geometric object, in terms of its properties, like saying a cube has 6 faces and 12 edges. With visual recognition a student would be able to make a copy, by drawing, plotting or using some sort of dynamic geometry software, of a shape or configuration of shapes if they could be shown or told what it is they were supposed to be copying. In this stage, the instruction should be based on the name the student has memorized for the object and not the objects properties. For instance, it could be draw a cube not draw a polygon with 12 equal edges that are perpendicular to the base and 6 equal faces. Level 2: Analysis Stage At analysis stage, students begin to analysis objects that were only visually perceived at pervious level, identifying their parts and relations among these parts. They focus on the properties of these objects. For example, focus on Real Numbers in this stage can be closure under operations. This property can be leading to distinguishing subsets of Real Numbers inside the set which are Integers and Rational Numbers. In solid geometry, the analysis stage is where students begin seeing the properties associated with the different shapes or configurations. A cube will now become a shape with 6 equal faces which opposite faces are parallel and 12 edges and adjacent angles right angles and having opposite faces equal, as well as having the diagonals intersect in their middle. However, at this stage, it is not assumed that students will be seeking logical relationships between properties such as knowing that it is enough for a Parallelepiped as a solid with parallel opposite faces and all the other properties follow. Neither is it assumed that students will think about a cuboid as a special type of Parallelepiped. Therefore, students will identify shapes and solids based on the wholeness of their properties. In other words, relationships between shapes and configurations remain merely on the list of properties they have. At this stage if a student were asked to describe a shape or solid, the description would be based on the objects properties. At the same time, if a student were asked to reproduce a shape or solid based on the list of properties, they would be capable of do so. Students would also be able to verify figures and solids hieratically by analyzing their properties. In this stage student can recognize the interrelation between figures and their properties. For example, knowing the property that the Parallelepiped the student would be able to deduce that cuboid is special kind of Parallelepiped. Level 3: Informal Deduction Stage Informal deduction is known as the third level of geometric thinking. Some of researchers name this level as abstract/Relation level too(Battista, 1999; Cabral, 2004). In this stage students can reason logically. This stage is achieved when a student can operate with the relation of figures and solids and is able to apply congruence of geometric figures to prove certain properties of a total geometric configuration of which congruent figures are a part. They become aware about sufficient and necessary condition for a concept. A student fit at this level after achieving pervious levels (visualization and analysis). At this level more attention given to relations among properties. In other words, in this stage focus is properties of sets of properties. In this level according to relationship between properties of objects students attempt to group these properties into subgroups. Students try to find out what are the minimum of properties that needed to describe of the initial base elements. They intend to categorize properties which are equivalent in certain situation. The mathematical relationships between properties are the main focus in this stage. Understanding and finding these relationships is a kind of informal deduction. For example, in this stage students would start to improve the idea that some operations in real numbers follows from other sets like natural numbers. Then they would start making an approach understanding the Real Numbers axiom as a systematic commutative field. But they cannot make proofs for such informal observation. Just in the next stage student would be able to produce proofs and deductions. That is where using the tools like Cabri 3D as a dynamic geometry software play very important roles. For most of the students jump to the third level, informal deduction, is not easy. Now they can group the properties and identify the minimum amount of the needed properties. For example a cube, which might have had at level 2 the properties of six equal square faces, twelve equal edges with equal diagonal, parallel edges, perpendicular Adjacent edges, now would describe with the smaller amount of the properties such as shape composed of six equal squares. As it is seen, students in this level start formulation definitions for classes of objects and figures. For instance, a right triangle can be defined as a special kind of triangle that has two perpendicular sides or a right angle. As in this stage parallelogram and rectangle are not independent shapes, cube and cuboid also would be a special model of Parallelepiped. In this level students could give informal arguments to prove geometric results. They start deductively thinking about geometry and it is one of important aspects of the present stage. Some simple rules may be using here, because students follow just simple logics. For example, if A=B and B=C then A=c. Most of fitted students in the informal deduction level would able to justify arguments that they presented before with informal logic relationships. Therefore, at this level they can give informal logical relationships and use them about earlier identified properties. All in all, students now start to recognize the significance of the deduction and logic in the Geometry. Level 4: Deduction Deduction is the fourth level of Van Hiele theory of geometric thinking. In this level students start to construct rather than just memorize the proofs. They are able to find differences between the same proofs. The goal of the previous level was discovering the relations among properties of the bases element by the students. At level 4 those relations are used to deduce theorems about base elements based on laws of deductive logic. The main purpose of level 4 is the organization of the statements about relations from level 2 and 3 into deductive proofs. Discussing to the real number example, at this level, it is expected of the students to prove, for real numbers if. Students are ready to accept a system of axioms, theorem, and definitions. They can create the proofs form the axioms and just using the models or diagrams to support their arguments. Thus, students are able to formally prove what they had proved previously in level 3 using diagrams and informal arguments. They also start to distinguish the need for undefined terms in Geometry, which is very hard concept to understand in purely logical system. Another point in this stage is that, students begin to become aware, understand and identify the differences between contrapositive, converse, and a theorem. They can also prove or disprove any of those relationships. In this level students become aware of relationships and connections between theorems and group them correspondingly. These level is the stage at which high school students are taught in Iran. Mesal 3d Level 5: Rigor In level fifth which named rigor, traditionally students hyper analysed the deductive proofs from level 4. They are looking to find the relationships between proves. This level looks to identified organizations of pervious level. For example, at this level the questions of are the proofs consistent with each other, how strong of a relationship is described in the proof and how do they compare with other proofs would be asked. The level of Rigor involves a deep questioning of all of the assumptions that have come before. This type of questioning also involves a comparison to other mathematical systems of similar qualities. For example, in Level 5if we considered Real Numbers we would begin to compare them as a field to other fields in general. It is fair to say that this level is usually only undertaken by professional mathematicians.(Smart, 2008) At Level 5 of van Hiele theory students can work in non-Euclidean of geometric system. So this level does not met by the high school students and it is usually assigned to college or university students in higher education. At non-Euclidean geometry constructing visual models for recognition is not easy and useful, so the focus is more on abstract concepts. So, most of geometry which is done in this level is based on abstract and proof-oriented. Students in this stage are capable to compare axioms systems such as Euclidean and Non-Euclidean. Most of the students who have fitted in this level become professionals in geometricians and geometry so they are able to carefully develop the theorems in different axiomatic geometric systems. Therefore as smart (2008) emphasis, this level usually is the work of professional mathematicians and their students in higher education that conduct research in other areas of the geometry. The Van Hiele started his research after he found that most of the students have difficulty with learning geometry. He observed that these students struggled with geometry, although they easily understood other mathematics topics. The results of their study showed, most of the High school students are taught at level 3and 4. Then van Hiele deduced most of the students had difficulty in learning geometry at level 3 and 4, because they could not understand geometry at level 2 to be able to move onto grasping level. Therefore, for melting this problem more focus is needed at second stage, analysis level and more emphasis on third stage, informal deduction. Then it can be expected that they are able to success at the deduction level.(Battista, 1999) Van hiele noted that students should pass through lower levels of geometric thinking smoothly and master them before attaining higher levels. Van Hiele theory recommends achieving higher level of thought needs a precise designed instructions. Since students are not able to bypass levels and achieve understanding, permanently dealing with formal proof can cause students to relay on memorization without understanding. In addition, geometric thinking is inherent in the types of skills we want to nurture in students. Research involving the van Hiele Model of Geometric Thinking and Interaction with dynamic geometry software Van Hiele described in his article (1999) that the learning geometry can be started in a playful environment to explore geometrical concepts with certain shapes, and properties, parallelism, and symmetry. He advised some mosaic puzzles in this purpose. In the line of his work, geometry based software provide the more powerful environment which can be used to enhance the level of geometric thinking. There are several studies carried out on effects of using some dynamic geometry software such as (geometers Sketchpad) GSP on levels of van Hiele . Different researches had been involving the Van Hiele geometric thinking since last decades. Some researchers used van Hiele Model as the theoretical framework while others used it as an analytic tool. Moreover many researches conduct study on geometric softwares like: Geometry Scratchpad used van Hiele theory to find out their effects on geometric reason, geometric thinking and other aspects. In order to find out whether dynamic geometry software is able to enhance the level of geometric thinking or not several researches has been conducted. In general, the van Hiele Model has been used in their research as an analytic tool and theoretical framework. For example, July (2001) documented and described 10th-grade students geometric thinking and spatial abilities as they used Geometers Sketchpad (GSP) to explore, construct, and analyze three-dimensional geometric objects. Then he found out the role that can dynamic geometry software, such as GSP, play in the development of students geometric thinking as defined by the van Hiele theory. He found there was evidence that students geometric thinking was improved by the end of the study. The teaching episodes using GSP encouraged level 2 thinking of the van Hiele theory of geometric thinking by helping students to look beyond the visual image and attend to the properties of the image. Via GSP students could resize, tilt, and manip ulate solids and when students investigated cross sections of Platonic Solids, they learned that they could not rely on their perception alone. In addition teaching episodes using GSP encouraged level 3 of the van Hiele thinking by aiding students learn about relationships within and between structure of Platonic solids(July, 2001). Noraini Idris (2007) also found out the positive effects of using GSP on level of Van Hiele among Form Two students in secondary school. In addition she reported the positive reaction of students toward using this software in learning geometry. In contrast Moyer,T(2003) in his PhD thesis used a non-equivalent control group design to investigate the effects of GSP on van Hiele levels. His research carried out in 2 control groups and 2 experimental groups in one high school in Pennsylvania. He had used Van Hiele tests written by Usiskin. However, Comparison of pre-test and post-test did not show a significant difference on increasing Van Hiele level of geometric thinking(July, 2001; Moyer, 2003). Fyhn (2008) categorized students responses according to the van Hile levels in a narrative form of a climbing trip(Fyhn, 2008). The theoretical framework used Smart(2008) for his research Introducing Angles in Grade Four was a combination of a teaching theory called Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) and a learning theory called the van Hiele Model of Geometric Thinking. His research findings suggest the usefulness of using lesson plans based on the two theoretical frameworks in helping students develop an analytical conceptualization of mathematics. In this study the model was neither proved nor disproved but just accepted as an analytic framework. Gills,J (2005) investigated students ability to form geometric conjectures in both statistic and dynamic geometry environments in his doctoral thesis. All participates were exposed to both environment and take parted, up to eight lab activities. He also used van Hiele theory as the main theoretical framework with more emphasis on geometric reasoning.(Gillis, 2005) Research that used the van Hiele Model as an accepted framework covers variety of different topics. For example, Gills,J (2005) find out the mathematical conjectures formed by high school geometry students when given identical geometric figures in two different, dynamic and statistic of geometric environments. Burger and Shaughnessy (1986) tested students from grade one to first year of university to determine in what level the students are functioning regarding triangles and quadrilaterals. Cabri 3D Most of the dynamic geometric software until 2005 has been constructed in 2 dimensions. Just a few dynamic geometry software, has constructed on Three-dimensional dynamic geometric software such as, Autograph and Cabri 3. Focus of present study is on Cabri 3D, which is a new version of Cabri II (2 dimensional software). Cabri 3D is a commercial interactive geometry software manufactured by the French company Cabrilog for teaching and learning geometry and trigonometry. It was designed with the ease-of-use in mind. Cabri 3D as dynamic and interactive geometry provides a significant improvement over those drawn on a whiteboard by allowing the user to animate geometric figures, relationships between points on a geometric object may easily be demonstrated, which can be useful in the learning process. There are also graphing and display functions, which allow exploration of the connections between geometry and algebra. The program can be run under Windows or the Mac OS(CABRILOG SAS, 2009). From Euclidean geometry, Compass, straightedge and ruler, for many years, have been used in as the unique method of teaching and learning geometry, and tools used to aid people in expressing their knowledge. With the creation of computers, new world opened up to teaching and learning geometry. The speed and memory of modern PCs, together with decreasing prices, have made possible the development of `virtual reality computer games making use of the 3D graphics chips included on modern graphics cards. some educational spin-off from this has been the development of 3D interactive geometry software such as Cabri 3D, Autograph ,etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ But tools can contain particular conceptions so; the aim of designing a dynamic geometry software package is to provide new instructional tools to study, teaching and learning geometry. While all the dynamic geometry software attempt to model use of straightedge, compass and ruler in Euclidean geometry, other futures like measuring capability and dragging possibilities and changing the view of objects in 3 Dimensional (Gonzaà ­lez Herbst, 2009). Cabri 3D launched in September 2004 by Cabrilog, this software has the capacity to revolutionize teaching and learning of 3D geometry, at all levels, in the same way that dynamic geometry software has for 2D (CABRILOG SAS, 2009). Cabri 3D can share the same aptitude for making new discoveries as a research tool. There are some important practical features of Cabri 3D. First, This program is capable to store the files as text in Cabrilogs development of the Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML is the simplest version of the SGML standard for creating and designing HTML documents (suitable for use on Internet sites).XML designed by the World Wide Web Consortium as a more flexible replacement for HTML. Next, as Oldknow discussed, Files developed in Cabri 3D can be inserted as active objects in web-pages, spread sheets, word documents and etc. It is an interesting future because this objects which inserted in the files can be manipulated by users who do not own a copy of Cabri 3D in the ir computers.(Oldknow, 2006) One of the important charactirisitc of Cabri package is draging.Arzarello, Olivero, Paola, Robutti (2002) found that dragging in Cabri allows students to validate their conjectures. They claimed that work in Cabri is enough for the students to be convinced of the validity of their conjectures. If the teacher does not motivate students to find out why a conjecture is true, then the justifications given by students may remain at a perceptive-empirical level. Students would claim that the proposition is true because the property observed on the Cabri figure stays the same when dragging the drawing, given the hypotheses do not change. When such a belief is shared in the classroom, then Cabri might become an obstacle in the transition from empirical to theoretical thinking, as it allows validating a proposition without the need to use a theory. These researcher asserted, if teacher makes explicit the role of proof in justification, then students will be motivated to prove why a certain pr oposition is true (within a theory), after they know within the Cabri environment, that it is true. To paraphrase Polya (1954), first we need to be convinced that a proposition is true, then we can prove it.(Arzarello, Olivero, Paola, Robutti, 2002). In some researches the centrality has given to dragging in 2D dynamic geometry software and its implications for developing different types of reasoning (Arzarello et al. 2002).in addition because dragging is something which might make motion in 3D (on the 2D screen), it is more difficult to interpret and understand by the user. The various aspects of dragging in 3D DGE are issues that could usefully be the focus for research.(Hoyl

Student Critique of The Jungle By Upton Sinclair :: Upton Sinclair

The book The Jungle was introduced as a novel by Upton Sinclair was financed and published with his own money. Upton Sinclair was a famous novelist and social crusader from California. He was born on 20 September 1878 in Baltimore Md. He was the only child of Priscilla Harden and Upton Beall Sinclair. Upton Sinclair’s childhood was lived in poverty, one where his father was an alcoholic, his job as an alcohol salesman most likely contributed to his disease. And although his own family was extremely poor, he spent periods of time living with his wealthy grandparents. By living from one end of the extreme to the other he argued that this is what turned him into a socialist.1 His family moved to New York and at fourteen he enrolled in the City College of New York. He wrote dime novels and stories for magazines and newpapers to pay for his college tuition. It was in New York where he became a fan of the Socialists Party’s politics. Later in life Upton Sinclair would run for the Governor of California where he would get 37% of the vote, and if it were not for his honesty at expressing his views Upton Sinclair would have won his bid for Governor. During the later course of his life he went on to write more muckraking novels. "The Jungle" was his groundbreaking novel, it was told as a fictional story of Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant working in Packingtown. Jurgis sees his American dream of a decent life dissolve into nightmare as his job hauling steer carcasses in the stockyards leaves him so physically drained that he was unable to support his family. This was not the life this immigrant expected when arrived in America. He loses his job when he beats up his boss, angry about finding out he had raped his wife, then in a sense held her hostage as his mistress knowing that Jurgis wife is doing this to for the sake of her family. This character then loses the wife to disease and his son to drowning. Through this story telling Upton Sinclair had hoped the book would ignite a powerful socialist movement on behalf of America's workers. The public's attention was directed instead to his fewer than a dozen pages of supposed descriptions of unsanitary conditions in the meat packing plants. The Jungle hit upon more than his hatred of the meat packing industry.

Sheriffs Aims in Writing Journeys End :: R.C. Sheriff Journeys End Literature War Essays

Sheriff's Aims in Writing Journey's End What were Sheriff’s aims in writing ‘Journey’s End’ and how successful was he in achieving those aims? Drama has been with us since the times of the Greeks. It is very popular among all age groups. The main aims of a drama are to entertain and to provide a message to the audience. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is one of the most popular dramas to date. It is a romantic tragedy and is greatly appreciated, even today. It was written by one of the greats, Shakespeare, in the year 1595. The drama that we have in discussion is set in the times of the World War 1. During World War 1, R C Sheriff was an officer in the East Surrey Regiment and was wounded in the battle of Passchendale in 1917. R C Sheriff’s play Journey’s End is based upon his real life experiences during the war – reflecting the way he and his comrades lived and fought throughout the war. The play was first performed in 1928, which is 10 years from the First World War. At this time, people were disillusioned and were ready to face the truth about war. In Journey's End, Sheriff presents a realistic picture of life in the trenches as he had known it and a portrayal of the horrors of the War. This is an anti war story and it is trying to convey peace to the audience. As well as entertaining us, he provides a moral message of peace. There is also a personal touch to the play, as this is reality as seen by him. He manages to provide a social and moral message. In order to achieve these aims he uses literary and dramatic features. Journey's End is set in 1918 when the German army was preparing a massive attack against the allies once again. It is in this backdrop that the play opens. The whole play takes place in the trenches. It is basically the life of the soldiers in the trenches. The dug-out, where they spend their time when off-duty is a dark, enclosed structure. This heightens tension and also involves the audience in the events of the play. The characters are well etched to put forward Sheriff's aims. The focus is on the character of Stanhope, who shows varied emotions as the play proceeds. He is portrayed as a brave company commander out at front but within him, he is falling apart. Professionally, he is trying to control and command the company but personally, he is shattered. Sheriff uses Stanhope as a protagonist to show the long term effects of war on a person.

How Guns Work :: essays research papers

How Guns Work A gun is a weapon that uses the force of an explosive propellant to project a missile. Guns or firearms are classified by the diameter of the barrel opening. This is known as the calibre of the gun. Anything with a calibre up to and including . 60 calibre(0.6 inches) is known as a firearm. The precise origin of the gun is unknown, although they were in use by the early 14th century and were common place in Europe by mid-century. These early guns were nothing more than large calibre cylinders of wrought iron or cast bronze, closed at one end and loaded by placing gunpowder and projectile in the muzzle, or open end. Nowadays firearms are a little more sophisticated. However, the physics behind all guns remain the same. Weapons such as cannons, shotguns and rifles, work on the basic idea of conservation of momentum and the change in energy from potential to kinetic. When the trigger is pulled the hammer hits the firing pin. The firing pin then hits the primer which causes the powder to burn hence producing lots of gases. This causes the volume behind the bullet to fill with extremely high pressure gas. The gas pushes on every surface it encounters, including the bullet in front of it and the base of the gun barrel behind it. The increase in pressure caused by the gases causes the bullet to be forced into the barrel hence causing the bullet to come out the muzzle at very high speeds. Once the bullet is fired, it remains in motion from its momentum. The momentum will carry the bullet until it strikes an object or gravity pulls the bullet towards the earth. Firearms change potential chemical energy into kinetic energy in the actual firing of the gun. Many people do not realise that the force imparted by accelerating the bullet is not the only force acting on the gun, or the shooter. Grains of burned gun powder are sent out the muzzle at high velocity. When the trigger is pulled, the hammer strikes a small charge at the end of the shell, the ammunition. This charge ignites black gun powder packed behind the lead ball bearings. When the black gun powder burns, it produces gas that rapidly expands with the burning of more black gun powder. High pressure gases exert forces on the back of the bullet and on the gun. The only way for the gas to escape is to push the bullet out of its way through the end of the barrel. This is how a bullet is fired from a gun.

Analyze the Tension Rising Between the Northern and Southern States Between the Time Period of the 1800-1860’s Essay

From 1800 to 1860 the relationship between the Northern, and Southern States grew worse and the threat for the formation of 2 cooperate unions was drawing nearer. This change on the relationship can be attributed to industrial development to a fairly large extent, however it should be noted that there are also other factors, which contributed, in large part to this change in the relationship. Industrial development was a factor in the relationship between the Northern and Southern states with regard to the industrial boom in the northern states and the creation of increase tariffs, as well as the big businessmen and bankers in the North and the fact that Northern Industries did not need slavery while Southerners claimed their agriculture society did. Because of the significant increase in industries in the North protective tariffs such as the tariff of 1828 greeted extreme tension between the north and the south. The tariff of 1828 was keyed the term â€Å"the tariff of abominations† by many southern because of as extreme rates. This tariff under president Jackson was opposed by V. P Calhoun who wrote the South Carolina exposition and protests, which similarly to the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions under Thomas Jefferson, stated that the federal government did not have the right to set these tariffs and that particular right is reserved for the states; Calhoun was a strong advocate of the states rights. South Carolina threatened to succeed the union with Calhoun saying â€Å" the union next to our liberty most dear.. † in response to Jackson’s strong statement â€Å" our union it must and shall be preserved. Henry Clay, the great compromiser, comes up with a compromise for the tariff, substantially while South Carolina agrees not to succeed the union. Tariffs such as the tariff of abominations created greater tension between the North and the South; Which cause for the tariffs can to go back to the industrial development in the north. Big businesses and bankers which like wise grew in port because of the industrial development created greater tensions between the north and the south as these bankers where in the north. However it should be noted that the major deserters against the bankers came from the farmers in the West . Although many in the south were against these bankers as well. Especially with the creation of the bank of the united states, initially apart of Alexander Hamilton’s debt assumption scheme and later apart of Henry Clay’s American System. President Jackson tried to kill the B. U. S by vetoing it even after the Supreme Court declared the B. U. S constitutionally in Mccollugh vs. Maryland, 1819. Jackson believed the B. U. S only favored the rich northerners and because Jackson was an advocator of the common man, he was against it. Southerners can also be seen to go against the Bank as it did little to help them. This issue of the Bank, which can be given the name Bank War, caused the relations between the North and the south to become worse and the industrial development in the North. Also the industrial development further portrayed the lack of need for slavery in the North. Which became a major issue in the relationship between the North and the South as the Southerners’ economy was based on a plantation society, which benefitted from slaves. The Southern economy relied on cotton gin by Eli Whitney, slaves were now being used to produce more and more cotton. Cotton which was used by the industries in the South, such as clothing industries. Because of this difference in the economy with the North being industrial and the South being agricultural. The issue of slavery increased the problems in the relations between the North and the South. However despite the industrial development being a factor in the relationship between the northern and southern states it should be noted that the new territories in the west caused even more issues between the North and the South. Despite that, the relationship between the Northern and Southern States from 1800 to 1860 can be in a large extent because of the factor of industrial development.

Deception in ResearchÂÂ

Deception in Research The article I chose from Capella Library was about Deception in Research. While exploring my area of interest may require misleading or not completely informing your subjects about the true nature of your research, as a general rule, serious deception should be avoided whenever possible, since it put at risks the integrity of informed authority. For research involving deception the use of deception must be justified in the procedure to show that the research cannot be performed in the absence of deception and the benefits of the research will sufficiently be more important than any risks that deception may create.Research participants cannot be deceived about significant aspects of the research that would affect their willingness to participate or that would cause them physical or emotional harm. Deception must be explained to participants (debriefed) as early as reasonable. A debriefing script must be included in the procedure and should include a detailed desc ription of the ways in which deception was used and why; when and by whom the debriefing will be administered should also be included.True â€Å"informed consent† cannot be given if the true nature of the research is deceptively presented. This situation is dealt with administratively via a waiver of portions of the information consent regulations. Deception is a word used to end arguments, not to begin them. To accuse researchers of deception is to remove them from the ranks of those with whom legitimate human relationships can be pursued. For an example, let’s look at in the article of Deception in Research on the Placebo Effect.Experiments exploring the placebo effect, however, suggest justifiable ethical concerns, owing to the use of deception. The ethical intend to conduct of deceptive placebo research include (1) review and approval by an independent research ethics to establish the use of deception and that the study protocol offers sufficient value to justify t he risks it poses to participants, including the use of deception; (2) disclosure in the informed-consent document that the study involves the use of deception; and (3) participants at the conclusion of research participation.This also concludes that in order to supply to public accountability, articles reporting the results of research using deception should describe temporarily loyalty with these participant-protection rules. Ethics is one of the most crucial areas of research, with deception and research increasingly becoming a crucial area of discussion between psychologists, philosophers and ethical groups.Examples of Deception and Research to show how ethical concerns have changed during the 20th century, it is useful to look at some examples such as Deception in Psychological Research. Deception has been attacked repeatedly as ethically unacceptable and morally reprehensible. However, research has revealed that subjects who have participated in deception experiments versus no deception experiments enjoyed the experience more, received more educational benefit from it, and did not mind being deceived or having their privacy invaded.Such evidence suggests that deception, although unethical from a moral point of view, is not considered to be aversive, undesirable, or an unacceptable methodology from the research participant's point of view. The repeated assumption of the unacceptability of deception seems to be due to the fact that deception has been evaluated only from the viewpoint of moral philosophizing. This has led to the repeated conclusion that deception is reprehensible and seems to have created a perceptual set to view deception immediately as aversive.However, the perception of the unethical nature of deception seems to be minimal in studies that investigate innocuous public behaviors and enhanced in studies that run the risk of harming research participants or in studies that investigate private behaviors. When this knowledge is combined with t he fact that research participants do not mind being deceived, and that it can also be viewed as immoral not to conduct research on important problems, the scale seems to be tilted in favor of continuing the use of deception in psychological research.Is it ethically permissible to use deception in psychological experiments? We argue that, provided some requirements are satisfied, it is possible to use deceptive methods without producing significant harm to research participants and without any significant violation of their autonomy. We also argue that methodological deception is at least at the moment the only effective means by which one can acquire morally significant information about certain behavioral tendencies. Individuals in general and research participants in particular, gain self-knowledge which can help them improve their autonomous decision-making.The community gains collective self-knowledge that, once shared, can play a role in shaping education, informing policies a nd in general creating a more efficient and just society. Reference: 1. Deception in Research on the Placebo Effect Franklin G Miller,*  David Wendler, and  Leora C Swartzman Author information  Copyright and License information  See â€Å"Placebo: Physician, Heal Thyself† , e388. This article has been  cited by  other articles in PMC. 2. Harrington A, editor. (1997) The placebo effect: An interdisciplinary exploration.Cambridge (Massachusetts): Harvard University Press. 272 p. 3. Deception in psychology: moral costs and benefits of unsought self-knowledge. Bortolotti L, Mameli M. SourcePhilosophy Department, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, 2006 Jul-Sep;13(3):259-75. 4. 2002;12(2):117-42. Deception in research: distinctions and solutions from the perspective of utilitarianism. Pittenger DJ. Source Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 615 McCallie Ave. , Chattanooga, TN 37403, USA

Global Warming Essay

There are many causes of Global Warming. The destruction and burning down of tropical forests , traffic clogging up the city streets , rapid growth of unplanned industries, the use of CFCs in packaging and manufacturing products, the use of detergents etc. cause Global Warming. Besides, overpopulation, deforestation are the causative factors of Global Warming. The setting up of mills and factories in an unplanned way has a great effect on environment. These mills and factories produce black smoke which gets mixed with air and increases the amount of CO2. Burning of Gas such as Methane (CH4) and fuel also increase CO2Â ­ in the environment. Killing animals like birds, big cats, lions, tigers is also a alarming cause of Global Warming. The effects of Global Warming is very dangerous for our existence and survival. The sun’s scorching heat comes to earth in a direct way. Therefore, the earth’s surface becomes seriously heated. Agriculture, forestry and fishery is seriously be damaged. This can catastrophically reduce mankind’s ability to grow foods, destroy wildlife. Global Warming also cause sea-water to swell up. All species are important for maintaining ecological balance. If one is lost, the whole natural environment changes. To prevent the dangerous effects of Global Warming necessary steps should immediately be taken. People should not be allowed to cut off trees which causes deforestation. Rather they should be advised and suggested to plant more and more trees in accordance with their capability and convenience. Forests also control the natural balance. People should be made aware of it. Mills, factories, brick-fields should be set up in a very good planned way. There should be well drainage system to pass away waste materials, wastages and poisonous chemicals. The alarming world’s climate is very dangerous for mankind and ecological balance. Unless Global Warming is not controlled, no men, animals will be able to live, grow and thrive. So, we should try maintain the ecological balance to decrease the effects of Global Warming.