All-Day School in Cyprus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

All-Day School in Cyprus - Essay Example Large extended families have given way to nuclear families. Also, the increasing divorce rate has also led to an increase in single-parent households (Employment developments in childcare services for school-age children, p.3, www.eurofound.eu.int)1 All-day school: Schools in Cyprus work on half-day basis, ending at 13.00. All-day schools offer school services till late in the afternoon. All-day schools are considered an extension of childcare; since it is voluntary and caters to children aged 9 to 11, not many children attend All-Day school. Only 37% of the total child population attends All-Day school, according to the Ministry of Education and Culture. The government thus plans to bring children of all ages under this scheme. The government plans to initiate policies to implement this scheme in Cyprus shortly. Children attending all-day schools from 07.30 till 16.00 will be provided with lunch at 13.00. After this, another teacher will supervise the children until 16.00. The all-day school remains functional in October to May. The months of June to September will be holidays. The curriculum consists of carrying out assigned homework, four teaching periods of reinforced teaching, and four teaching periods of any of the following two: English, Information Technology, Music, Physical Education, Art, Design and Technology. Additional subjects on Modern Greek and mathematics are also available. The Ministry of Education and Culture piloted the 'all-day school' concept in 1999-2000, an initiative considered successful by the Special Evaluation Committee, as it elicited positive response from parents for its enhancement of knowledge in the children. In 2003-2004, these schools increased to 110. The Ministry of Education and Culture decided to increase All-Day schools in July 2005 (Employment developments in childcare services for school-age children, p.8-9, www.eurofound.eu.int).2 The Cyprus educational system is undergoing changes. The main factors, leading to such a change are: 1. Challenges in the international arena; challenges revolving around the development of science and technology, including Information Technology and Globalization. This factor cannot be overlooked as Cyprus is increasingly reliant on its human resources for development. 2. The European dimension is another factor that required attention, as it needed to harmonize its educational system in analogy to the rest of Europe. 3. A third factor could be the social values and requirements of the people of Cyprus. Cypriots considered education as a

Velocity of Sound Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Velocity of Sound - Lab Report Example Sound is often part and parcel of our entire surrounding and has great significance in our daily life. Generally, sound is a form of energy that is majorly produced and propagated through the longitudinal waves. They can also be termed as being elastic waves that requires a medium for transmission. The other fact is that, sound cannot be transmitted through a vacuum. It basically travels in liquids, solids and gases. The rate of velocity of sound varies from one medium to the other. For instance, it is higher in solids as compared to liquids and gases respectively (SpinART, 2002). Sound can be classified as being either musical, noise, high pitched, among other categories. In the undertaken lab experiment, the velocity of sound was measured using a method that is referred to as the Kundt’s tube technique. This was ascertained by allowing the sound to travel through a given metal rod, so as to determine its frequency as well as the speed. Sound is often propagated by longitudinal waves. These are waves whereby the particles movement consists of various oscillations to and fro within the direction and magnitude of propagation. Within a metal rod, sound can either be transmitted by transverse or longitudinal waves. In this lab experiment, longitudinal waves were produced in an air column and a metal rod. The sound frequency was then determined by use of wave motion concept. In this ultimate equation, f is taken as the frequency while  l  is the wavelength. When the rod set into vibration through proper stroking, the standing waves are hence produced within the vibrating rod. Due to the clamping of the rod at its mid- point, the clamped point is taken as a node with zero amplitude, whereas the ends that vibrates are taken as antinodes with maximum amplitudes. Vibration of the rod in such a manner means that its wavelength and fundamental frequency are twice the rod length (SpinART, 2002). After assembling