The purpose of this study is to develop an instrument to assess civic scientific literacy in media (SLiM). A total of 50 multiple-choice items were developed based on the 95 most common scientific terms appearing in media covering the subjects of biology (45.26%, 22 items), earth science (37.90%, 19 items), physics (11.58%, 6 items) and chemistry (5.26%, 3 items) in Taiwan. A total of 1034 students from three distinct groups (7^th graders, 10^th graders and undergraduates) were invited to participate in this study. The reliability of this instrument was 0.86 (KR20). The average difficulty of the SLiM ranged from 0.19 to 0.91, and the discrimination power is 0.1 to 0.59. According to participants’ performances on SLiM, it was revealed that 10^th graders (Mean = 37.3±4.2) performed better than undergraduates (Mean = 33.0±5.5) and 7^th graders (Mean = 26.7±8.3) with significant differences (p< .05).

The ability of citizens to be able to understand and critically read and discuss the scientific reports presented in media is of inc creasing importance in science education. The SLiM (Scientific Literacy in Media) approach, on which this study is based, gives a possibility to measure scientific literacy based on the most commonly appearing scientific terms in news media. This study analyzed the 22 biology items from the prior SLiM study and identified the most difficult biology concepts for Taiwanese (N=619) and Swedish (N=117) non-science majors from university and upper secondary levels. The correct rate (%) of each item was analyzed to present students’ performances on each item. From the results, in general, it was found that Taiwanese students performed better than Swedish students at both university and upper secondary levels. However, Swedish university students were a bit better than the Taiwanese in definition-based (DB) items. Looking at the individual country, both Swedish and Taiwanese students’ performances on context-based (CB) items were better than DB items with significant difference (p<.01). Among the four items that were found difficult for both Swedish and Taiwanese students, two relates to biotechnology, and the other two are about function of enzymes and cell biology.

Based upon the goal of scientific literacy and the importance of socioscientific issues (SSIs), the purpose of this study was to investigate the Taiwanese public’s awareness of, inclinations to buy/use, and their attitudes towards three attributes of SSIs including genetically modified food (GM food), organic food, and DDT and malaria (DDT). Data from a total of 865 participants across ten populations (six different educational levels and four different vocations) were validated and analyzed. The results revealed that the awareness regarding GM food and DDT increased with the levels of education. The inclinations to buy/use and the attitudes towards the three SSIs, were not related to levels of education, vocation or gender, but were related to attributes of the SSIs. The implications for education and policy development are discussed.

Based upon the goal of scientific literacy and the importance of socioscientific issues (SSIs), the purpose of this study was to investigate the Taiwanese public’s awareness of, inclinations to buy/use, and their attitudes towards three attributes of SSIs including genetically modified food (GM food), organic food, and DDT and malaria (DDT). Data from a total of 865 participants across ten populations (six different educational levels and four different vocations) were validated and analyzed. The results revealed that the awareness regarding GM food and DDT increased with the levels of education. The inclinations to buy/use and the attitudes towards the three SSIs, were not related to levels of education, vocation or gender, but were related to attributes of the SSIs. The implications for education and policy development are discussed

In recent IC designs, the risk of early failure due to electromigration wear-out has increased due to reduced feature dimensions. To give a warning of impending failure, wearout monitoring approaches have included delay measurement circuitry on-chip. Due to the high cost of delay measurement circuitry this paper presents a method to reduce the number of necessary measurement points. The proposed method is based on identification of wear-out sensitive interconnects and selects a small number of measurement points that can be used to observe the state of all the wear-out sensitive interconnects. The method is demonstrated on ISCAS85 benchmark ICs with encouraging results.

When confronted with the representations and terms of science, students make meaning using the knowledge and language they possess. They make frequent use of conventional expressions, but they also use words that seemingly have no conventional meaning, here labelled help-words. This study explores the verbal resources upper secondary students use to make meaning of molecular life science. The paper gives a description of the phenomenon of non-conventionalised expressions, help-words, based on a study of 20 upper secondary students. The results indicate that help-words are meaningful in learning situations, especially in abstract disciplines such as molecular life science.