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In this study, the experiences of science teachers who applied the design-based learning (DBL) method in science lessons and received mentoring support towards technology integration were analyzed. Using a nested mixed design, the study included 43 science teachers who participated in a professional development program carried out with a mentoring model in a national project. In the study, face-to-face and online training were given to teachers, and mentoring was provided. Lesson plans and technology integration were evaluated with an online form. It was observed that teachers mainly tried to integrate technology into DBL activities but not as a component of the design process. The teachers integrated technology when teaching DBL STEM activities by using new teaching methods that incorporated instructional technologies. They carried out the integration, especially in the stages of solution development, prototyping/testing, and communication. Teachers who believed that technology supported their professional development recommended improving professional development programs to help overcome the challenges of technology integration.

It is important to raise enterprising individuals in STEM fields so that countries have individuals, who will play a role in global competition, and this is possible with effective STEM education. This research aims to reveal the impact of STEM activities, which were designed using the 6E learning byDeSIGN™ model, in terms of developing middle school students’ entrepreneurial skills, STEM attitude, and career interests. The STEM activities were applied for seven weeks / twenty-eight hours with 50 (26 female, 24 male) students in the research which was carried out by the mixed-method methodology. Before and after the application, the quantitative data collection tools (STEM Attitude Scale, Interest towards STEM Professions Scale, and Entrepreneurship Scale) were applied and statistically analyzed. The qualitative data were collected by semi-structured interviews and evaluated with content analysis at the end of the application to interpret and support the findings obtained from these quantitative data. As a result of the research, it was concluded that the attitude and interests of the students towards STEM increased, their entrepreneurship skills improved and the effect of 6E teaching strategy was great in these positive developments. Student opinions were also got and discussed for supporting these results.

Bu çalışmanın amacı, bilimsel tartışma destekli örnek olayların ilköğretim 8.sınıf öğrencilerinin “Genetik” konusundaki kavramsal öğrenmelerine ve okuduğunu anlama becerilerine etkisini incelemektir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda ilköğretim sekizinci sınıf fen ve teknoloji müfredatının “Hücre Bölünmesi Ve Kalıtım” ünitesi seçilmiştir. Araştırmada deneysel araştırma modellerinden ön test- son test deneme modeli kullanılmıştır.AraĢtırmada bir deney ve bir kontrol grubu oluĢturulmuĢtur. AraĢtırmanın örneklemini Ġstanbul ili Sultangazi ilçesindeki bir devlet ilköğretim okulunun ön-test baĢarı testi sonuçları birbirine yakın 8/B sınıfındaki 50 öğrenci ve 8/C sınıfındaki 51 öğrenci oluĢturmaktadır. ÇalıĢma kontrol grubunda programın önerdiği yapılandırmacı yaklaĢım yöntem ve teknikleriyle iĢlenirken, deney grubunda programın önerdiği yöntem ve tekniklere ilaveten bilimsel tartıĢma destekli örnek olay etkinlikleri ile iĢlenmiĢtir. Dersler deney ve kontrol gruplarında araĢtırmacı tarafından yürütülmüĢtür.AraĢtırmanın verileri nitel ve nicel olmak üzere iki aĢamadan elde edilmiĢtir. AraĢtırmanın nicel verileri araĢtırmacı tarafından hazırlanan bilimsel baĢarı testi ve okuduğunu anlama becerileri testi ile toplanırken, nitel verileri de literatürden de yararlanarak Bedir (2007)‟in hazırlamıĢ olduğu konu ile ilgili kavramsal anlama testinin açık uçlu soruları ile araĢtırmacı tarafında oluĢturulan sorular içeren kavramsal anlama testi ile toplanmıĢtır. Testler oluĢturulurken konu bütünlüğü ve kazanımlar dikkate alınmıĢtır.Uygulanan yöntemlerin etkililiğini karĢılaĢtırmak amacıyla ön ve son testte örneklem grubunu oluĢturan deney ve kontrol grubu öğrencilerine genetik konusunda bilimsel baĢarı testi, açık uçlu sorulardan oluĢmuĢ kavram testi ve okuduğunu anlama becerisi testi uygulanmıĢ ve gruplar arası puanları karĢılaĢtırılmıĢtır.Bilimsel baĢarı testi ve okuduğunu anlama becerileri testi soruları SPSS13 paket programı kullanılarak analiz edilmiĢtir ve veriler normal dağılım gösterdiğinden ttesti kullanılmıĢtır. Kavramsal anlama testinin açık uçlu soruları içerik analizi yapılarak kodlama yöntemi ile analiz edilerek, frekans dağılımı incelenerek değerlendirilmiĢtir. AraĢtırmanın nitel verileri doğrultusunda öğrencilerin kavram yanılgıları ve kavramsal anlama düzeyleri ortaya çıkarılmıĢtır.Tüm bulgular doğrultusunda bilimsel tartıĢma destekli örnek olay etkinliklerinin geleneksel öğretime göre bilimsel bilgi, kavram öğrenme ve okuduğunu anlamada daha etkili olduğu sonucuna varılmıĢtır.

The aim of this research is to introduce an interdisciplinary project about air pollution that is organized and applied for Community Service Practice Course. In order to organize this project 32 pre-service primary school teachers and 120 students' awareness toward air pollution (4th grade) have been determined through The Air Pollution Awareness Questionnaire. The results obtained from the needs analysis indicate that learning environments need to be designed that focus on fundamental concepts, causes-effects, future situation and precautions in order to increase air pollution awareness. To achieve an interdisciplinary approach, a two stage learning environment has been designed by relating these focus points with Turkish, Social Studies, Science, Mathematics and Public Administration disciplines respectively. These two stages are preparing the discipline-based course plans and materials; and carrying out the interdisciplinary plans with students by pre-service teachers. In this article, the design, development and implementation process of this learning environment are presented in detail. As a result of this research, a roadmap for how to deal with the Community Service Practices Course in an interdisciplinary manner has been established.

The aim of this study, conducted as qualitative-case study, is reveal opinion of teachers, who participated voluntarily to \"Practical examples activities for Engineering Design-Based Science Education (EDBSE) workshop, about EDBSE. Qualitative data, collected via Participant's Opinion Form, was analyzed using content analysis. In addition, the findings are also included to support research experiences by researcher/s. In the result of the study, even if the teachers have negative opinions towards EDBSE, they usually have submitted a positive opinion. They indicated that they want to apply EDBS while teaching science in their classrooms, even if have doupt because of these negative opinions. In order to overcome the concerns of teachers, pre- and in-services teacher education on EDBSE should be done. Also most of the teachers indicated recommendations and that EDBSE can be applying in our country if it happens theserecommendations.

The aim of this study is to reveal pre-service science teachers’ cognitive structures regarding Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and science education. The study group of the study consisted of 192 pre-service science teachers. A Free Word Association Test (WAT) consisting of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and science education concepts and semi-structured interview records were utilised to reveal their opinions regarding these concepts and inter-conceptual relations were used as data collection tools. While the WAT was implemented with all of the pre-service teachers, semi-structured interviews were carried out with only eight of the pre-service science teachers. Using two data collection tools via triangulation, enabled the researchers to obtain similar and varied findings. According to the frequencies, WAT was analysed using the cut-off point (CP) method; hence, concept network maps were composed and interviews were descriptively analysed. The findings of the study revealed that pre-service teachers’ cognitive structures involved STEM disciplines and science education were quite independent from each other. Also, they could not make a distinction between science concept and science education concept, nor associate ‘technology, engineering and mathematics’ concepts with science and science education’ concepts.

The connections between the cerebellum and the hypothalamus have been well documented. However, the specific cerebellar peduncle through which the hypothalamo-cerebellar and cerebello-hypothalamic connections pass has not been demonstrated. The present study aims to define the specific cerebellar peduncle through which connects the cerebellum to specific hypothalamic nuclei. Seventeen male albino rats received 20–50-nl pressure injections of either Fluoro-Gold (FG) or biotinylated dextran amine (BDA) tracer into the superior (SCP), middle (MCP), and inferior (ICP) cerebellar peduncle. Following 7–10 days of survival period, the animals were processed according to the appropriate protocol for the two tracers used. Labeled cells and axons were documented using light or fluorescence microscopy. The present study showed connections between the hypothalamus and the cerebellum via both the SCP and the MCP but not the ICP. The hypothalamo-cerebellar connections via the SCP were from the lateral, dorsomedial, paraventricular, and posterior hypothalamic nuclei, and cerebello-hypothalamic connections were to the preoptic and lateral hypothalamic nuclei. The hypothalamo-cerebellar connections via the MCP were from the lateral, dorsomedial, ventromedial, and mammillary hypothalamic nuclei; and cerebello-hypothalamic connections were to the posterior, arcuate, and ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei. The hypothlamo-cerebellar connections were denser compared to the cerebello-hypothlamic connections via both the SCP and the MCP. The connection between the cerebellum and the hypothalamus was more prominent via the SCP than MCP. Both the hypothlamo-cerebellar and cerebello-hypothalamic connections were bilateral, with ipsilateral preponderance. Reciprocal connections were with the lateral hypothalamic nucleus via the SCP and the ventromedial nucleus via the MCP were observed. Cerebellum takes part in the higher order brain functions via its extensive connections. The knowledge of hypothalamo-cerebellar and cerebello-hypothalamic connections conveyed within the SCP and MCP can be important for the lesions involving the MCP and SCP. These connections can also change the conceptual architecture of the cerebellar circuitry and deepen current understanding.

Purpose-The purpose of this study is to investigate efficiency and productivity of Turkey's both brokeragesector and intermediary institutions (IIs) that have been active in Turkish capital markets.Design/methodology/approach-Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist total factorproductivity index (MPI) are used to analyze efficiency and productivity of Turkey's both brokerage sectorand 51 Turkish IIs constantly operated between the years 2008 and 2018. Paid-in capital, administrativeexpenses and trading volumes are used as input, while net trading commissions and net profit/loss are used asoutput in analysis. The calculations of this analysis are made with DEAP 2.2 program and Python.Findings-The results reveal that during the analysis period, percentage of efficient institutions among 51 IIswas between 18% and 39% while the sector's mean efficiency score ranged between 52% and 65%. While 2009is the year with the highest number of efficient institutions, 2013 is observed to be the least. Finally, the resultsof productivity analysis indicate that all types of IIs are not fully productive during the related period. Thestriking finding obtained is that though there is a decrease in total productivity change, the technologicalchange has a positive effect on their productivity change.Originality/value-This study is a double-layered research paper that includes efficiency analysis by DEA inthe first step and productivity analysis by using MPI in the second step.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a major polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) in the phospholipid fraction of the brain, is essential for normal cellular function. Neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease (PD) often exhibit significant declines in PUFAs. The aim of this study was to observe the effects of DHA supplementation in an experimental rat model of PD created with '1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine' (MPTP). Adult male Wistar rats were divided into four groups: (1) Control; (2) DHA-treated; (3) MPTP-induced; and (4) MPTP-induced + DHA-treated. Motor activity was investigated using the 'vertical pole' and 'vertical wire' tests. The dopaminergic lesion was determined by immunohistochemical analysis for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-immunopositive cells in substantia nigra (SN). Immunoreactivities of Bcl-2, Akt and phosphorylated-Akt (p-Akt) in SN were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. MPTP-induced animals exhibited decreased locomotor activity, motor coordination and loss of equilibrium. Diminished Parkinsonism symptoms and decreased dopaminergic neuron death were detected in the MPTP-induced + DHA-treated group compared to the MPTP-induced group. Moderate decreases in Akt staining were found in the MPTP-induced and MPTP-induced + DHA-treated groups compared to controls. p-Akt immunoreactivity decreased dramatically in the MPTP-induced group compared to the control; however, it was increased in the MPTP-induced + DHA-treated group compared to the MPTP-induced group. The staining intensity for Bcl-2 decreased prominently in the MPTP-induced group compared to the control, while it was stronger in the MPTP-induced + DHA-treated group compared to the MPTP-induced group. In conclusion, DHA significantly protects dopaminergic neurons against cell death in an experimental PD model. Akt/p-Akt and Bcl-2 pathways are related to this protective effect of DHA in experimental PD.