Education Curriculum of Learning In Children

To develop in children a broad range of skills, including the problem solving, interpersonal and communication skills that are essential for successful living in a rapidly changing society.  The curriculum encourages student initiative by providing children with materials, equipment, and time to pursue activities they choose.  At the same time, it provides teachers with a framework for guiding children’s independent activities toward sequenced learning goals. There are seven specific types of learning styles. Visual learners prefer to learn mathematics through pictures, diagrams etc.  A well-balanced intelligent child is able to develop all the types of learning styles. The students have to understand and accept their type of learning style earlier so that learning becomes easier and less stressful in the future. But it is important to train and practice the other types of learning styles so that the children can utilize them as effectively as possible. The teacher plays a key role in instructional activities by selecting appropriate, developmentally sequenced material and by encouraging children to adopt an active problem-solving approach to learning. This teacher-student interaction teachers helping students achieve developmentally sequenced goals while also encouraging them to set many of their own goals uniquely distinguishes the High/Scope Curriculum from direct-instruction and child-centered curricula (high/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 1989).  Teachers keep notes about significant behaviors, changes, statements, and things that help them better understand a child’s way of thinking and learning.  Teachers use two mechanisms to help them collect data: the key experiences note form and a portfolio.  The High/Scope Child Observation Record is also used to assess children’s development.  According to Ronald Barnett, learning may or may not take place when a subject is taught.  While discussing this point he has presented two contrasting images of quality.  They are institutional performance and student experience, student learning or student achievement.  The teacher in his opinion is central to higher education.  Teaching may be able to improve the quality of student’s learning but the teacher should remind himself that it may also impair the quality of student’s learning.  This is partly because student’s learning strategies vary under two polarities, one between deep and surface understanding and the other between holistic and atomistic understanding of their learning experiences.  He goes on to add that for a student, learning has three distinct aspects: learning style, motivation and curriculum demands.  Therefore teachers have to pursue, beyond teaching strategies to enable their students to attain certain specific skills.

Utilization of Industrial Wastes for the Production of Amylase from Thermophillic Actinomycetes

Actinomycetes are a facultative thermophilic group of gram-positive bacteria which produce antibiotics and a range of hydrolytic enzymes including amylases, proteases and lipases. Some Actinomycetes are pathogenic but the majority is saprophytic inhabiting soil, water plants and other habitats, where they play an important role in soil structure and composition. In the present study, bacterial strains from three soil samples obtained from a hot water stream were screened for their potential to produce α -amylase. Out of twenty isolated strains, four were selected due to their amylase producing ability as determined through production of a zone of hydrolysis. These strains were identified by morphology, biochemical tests and PCR amplification. Bacterial strain W1 giving a 3.8 mm zone of hydrolysis was identified to be Actinomycete and N3, U1, and U4 giving 3.6, 3.8 and 3.6 mm zones of hydrolysis, respectively were identified as Bacilli. Growth of Actinomycete and amylase production was optimized on four different nutrient media. Highest growth and amylase activity( 3.882 OD and 132.3 AU, respectively after 72 hours at 60oC) were obtained by using medium-4. Conditions for the maximum production of amylase in submerged culture fermentation were optimized using medium-4. It was found that by using 5% inoculum of 30 hours age, amylase activity of 140.8 AU was obtained. Optimization of agitation speed (150 rpm), temperature (60 oC), pH (7.5), starch (2.5 %) and glucose (3%) increased activity from 140.8 AU to 162.4 AU. Growth and amylase production were then optimized by using agro-industrial waste as sole source of carbon and nitrogen in the modified AGS medium. Nine agro-industrial wastes namely soybean meal, wheat bran, peanut meal, mustard meal, sunflower meal, linseed meal, cottonseed meal, corn meal and molasses were used individually and in combinations to optimize amylase production. Soybean meal and wheat bran were found to be more effective nutrient sources with amylolytic activities of 176.2 AU and 171.6 AU respectively. Soybean meal in combination with molasses at 2:1 ratio were found to bethe best carbon and nitrogen sources giving amylolytic activity of 230.6 AU. In solid state fermentation, maximum amylolytic activity( 186.2 AU) was obtained by using wheat bran and molasses in 2:1 ratio at 55oC after 72 hours of incubation. The enzyme was purified 24-fold by acetone precipitation and gel filtration. Single peak during gel filtration indicated presence of only one type of alpha-amylase. Crude and partially purified enzyme find vital application in desizing of cotton cloth. Desizing of cotton pieces 15x15 cm by acid hydrolysis (0.1 M HCl) resulted in 0.7725g removal of starch. This value served as standard for 100% starch removal. Crude enzyme gave 98.39% removal after 90 minutes of soaking at pH 7.0. However, 98.92 % removal was achieved with partially purified enzyme after 60 minutes of soaking. Optimization of temperature and pH revealed that 100 % desizing was obtained at pH 6.0 when incubated at 60oC for 60 minutes. Studies proved to be successful in utilizing agro-industrial waste for producing thermostable alpha-amylase from Thermoactenomyces sacchari and its application as a desizer. The process is recommended for large production of thermostable alpha-amylase in the future.