Integrating Environmental Education Into Business Schools' Educational Plans in Finland

Environmental education in business school context has a significant effect on the way companies view environmental problems. Business schools train the future decision makers who can, with their own attitudes and practical actions, influence the contribution of business to the process of ecologically sustainable development. However, several studies show that no systematic thinking has been undertaken within business education as to what the educational prerequisites of the process of ecologically sustainable development are. In this article, I will firstly analyze by means of environmental education how business polytechnics in Finland have taken into consideration ecologically sustainable development. Secondly, I will raise the starting points for the development of the implementation of environmental education as part of the business schools▪ educational plans. Integrating environmental education into the vocational courses is identified as being one of the most effective ways of increasing the effectiveness of environmental education. Thirdly, the emphasis is on identification of barriers of integrating environmental education into the educational plans of business polytechnics. Theoretically, the article is attached to the objectives and learning concepts of environmental education and to educational planning theory in general. The empirical data are based on interviews I conducted 1999–2000 in all Finnish polytechnics offering business education. My article increases theoretical and practical understanding of how environmental education should be implemented in business education and how the current situation could be developed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Holiday in Cambodia: Perceived effects of a New Zealand high school international field trip on students

Using an exploratory case study approach, this research used semi‐structured interviews to investigate the motivations, expectations and experiences of high school students in New Zealand who travelled to Cambodia on a school supervised field‐trip. Findings suggest students are motivated by altruistic behaviour and the desire for unique experiences. Students had very high expectations, predicting the experience to be either life changing or incredibly important. Post‐trip interviews revealed that the volunteer work undertaken was perceived as positive and that experiences of poverty were challenging and influential. Finally, personal development and an increased sense of social responsibility were identified as important effects of the trip.     

运用人工鱼群算法的3D扫描碎片重建探究

针对传统三维碎片拼接匹配过程中依赖单一特征及存在误差累积的问题,提出了一种运用鱼群算法的全局最优匹配方法。该方法先对碎片点云数据进行多特征提取,结合纹理、专家经验信息对混合在一起的多种类型碎片进行粗糙集分类,之后采用鱼群算法的最优解求得最佳匹配方案。实例验证所提全局匹配方法具有能力强、与初始位置无关及较强的稳健性等特点,为三维碎片的全局匹配提供了一种有效的解决方案。     

动机、成本、风险：家长视角下研学旅游产品价值感知研究

以中小学生自然教育研学旅游作为具体情境,基于539份家长问卷数据阐释研学旅游动机与价值感知之间的关系,并通过成本感知和风险感知探讨其内在机制和边界条件。结果表明,家长感知的研学旅游动机越强烈,越容易感知到研学旅游产品所传递的价值,验证了研学旅游情境下动机对价值感知的积极影响,也形成了对动机与价值之间关系研究的理论补充。并且,这一动机除了直接作用于价值感知外,还会通过成本感知的部分中介作用影响价值感知,揭示了中国家长对于教育价值的重视会削弱其对“利失”的感知。此外,进一步验证了风险感知的积极影响,即家长感知研学旅游的不确定性水平越高,动机对价值感知的积极影响越明显,且会抑制成本感知对价值感知的负向作用,但风险感知水平达到一定高度时,其对成本感知与价值感知间的抑制作用将不显著。因此,面向需求设计打造产品,突出产品价值、加大宣传营销力度、把控活动安全、合理制定价格,获取家长群体的认同接受,将是研学旅游进一步拓展市场的重要考量。     

It starts at home? Climate policies targeting household consumption and behavioral decisions are key to low-carbon futures

Through their consumption behavior, households are responsible for 72% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, they are key actors in reaching the 1.5 °C goal under the Paris Agreement. However, the possible contribution and position of households in climate policies is neither well understood, nor do households receive sufficiently high priority in current climate policy strategies. This paper investigates how behavioral change can achieve a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in European high-income countries. It uses theoretical thinking and some core results from the HOPE research project, which investigated household preferences for reducing emissions in four European cities in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden. The paper makes five major points: First, car and plane mobility, meat and dairy consumption, as well as heating are the most dominant components of household footprints. Second, household living situations (demographics, size of home) greatly influence the household potential to reduce their footprint, even more than country or city location. Third, household decisions can be sequential and temporally dynamic, shifting through different phases such as childhood, adulthood, and illness. Fourth, short term voluntary efforts will not be sufficient by themselves to reach the drastic reductions needed to achieve the 1.5 °C goal; instead, households need a regulatory framework supporting their behavioral changes. Fifth, there is a mismatch between the roles and responsibilities conveyed by current climate policies and household perceptions of responsibility. We then conclude with further recommendations for research and policy.     

武汉市初中毕业生地震知识调查

为了解初中毕业生地震科普知识的掌握情况，自行设计了武汉市初中毕业生地震科普知识调查问卷，对100名武汉市初中毕业生进行现场调查。调查结果为良、中、差等级分别占4%、18%、78%。 说明武汉市初中毕业生地震科普知识掌握情况令人堪忧，应尽早加强中学生地震科普知识教育， 以提高全民防震减灾意识。     

Personal experience with climate change predicts intentions to act

The public's willingness to engage in mitigation actions has not received as much attention as the level of belief in Global Warming (GW), especially on the international stage. Research in Western nations indicates that people systematically misunderstand GW and the actions required for mitigation. Important factors that influence judgments about mitigation actions include personal experiences, beliefs, knowledge, values, and worldviews. We present results of an international survey (25 samples from 24 countries) measuring general intentions to act and willingness to engage in specific actions. Our analysis reveals that endorsement of specific actions is (a) lower than general endorsement of mitigation, (b) accompanied by higher intra-individual variance, and (c) more strongly related to personal experiences with GW. This pattern can be attributed to the compatibility between the proximal construal of specific actions and the nature of the personal experience. Lastly we provide recommendations on how these findings can be used to encourage mitigation action.     

Intermediate school's trip to India: Preparing for competence

In November 2010, students from a Palmerston North intermediate school embarked on a 2‐week excursion to India. Qualitative research was carried out before, during and after the trip. Results discussed in this article focus primarily on the students' account of their trip, especially their perceived cultural competence and their explanation for it. Accounts of their competence are also offered by the parents and teachers, for example, they especially valued the students' extensive school‐based preparation. Insights gained from the experiences of this trip may be applied to other, including older, cohorts of students embarking on overseas school field trips.     

Using simulated data to investigate the spatial patterns of obesity prevalence at the census tract level in metropolitan Detroit

Obesity is a serious public health problem in the United States. It is important to estimate obesity prevalence at the local level to target programmatic and policy interventions. It is challenging, however, to obtain local estimates of obesity prevalence because national health surveys such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) are not designed to produce direct estimates at the local levels (e.g. census tracts) due to small population samples and the need to preserve individual confidentiality. In this study we address the problem of estimating local obesity prevalence rates by implementing a spatial microsimulation modeling technique to proportionally replicate the demographic characteristics of BRFSS respondents to census tract populations in metropolitan Detroit. Obesity prevalence rates are examined for high and low spatial clusters and studied in relation to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) measures of low-income neighborhoods and local food deserts and CDC's measure of healthy and less healthy food environments currently used to target obesity reduction initiatives. This study found that obesity prevalence was largely clustered in the City of Detroit extending north into contiguous suburbs. The spatial patterns of highest obesity prevalence tracts were most similarly aligned with USDA-defined low-income tracts and CDC's less healthy food tracts. The locations of USDA's food desert tracts rarely overlapped with the highest obesity prevalence tracts. This study demonstrated a new methodology by which to assess local areas in need of future obesity interventions.     

教育公共服务设施可达性评价与规划——以江苏省仪征市高级中学为例

学校是公共服务设施的重要组成部分,其空间分布以及可达性的优劣,直接影响到受教育者接受教育的机会和方便程度。把可达性的概念引入到教育公共设施的规划中,利用Mapinfo公司的控件MapX和Borland公司的可视化编程语言Delphi,开发了基于时间最短的路径选择信息系统,生成了学校可达性的等时线图和学校服务范围图,通过该系统可直观地看到区域内任何一点到达学校所花费的最短时间以及通过的路径。以江苏省仪征市的高级中学为例,运用该系统对高级中学的可达性进行了评价,并提出了其规划方案。