The compartmental model has been shown to be a suitable model for egg production based on physiological age of the hen. Assumptions made in developing the compartmental model are consistent with the physiology of egg production in poultry. However, when it is applied to egg production data from hen populations where the increasing slope of the egg production curve is jointly affected by the actual rate of change in the egg production and the variation in age at sexual maturity, the compartmental model cannot accurately characterize the change in the initial period of lay, due to limitations in its mathematical properties. In addition, the parameters for the initial age of egg laying and the rate of increase in egg laying no longer make reasonable biological sense.The new model derived in the present study incorporates a component of variation in sexual maturity, with two parameters defined in relation to the characteristics of sexual maturity in the flock. Thus the model will provide more information about the flock and can accurately characterize the whole period of lay. It may be reasonable to consider that the compartmental model and the modified compartmental model have respective suitable application areas and could complement each other. From a practical point of view, the modified compartmental model would have a wider application because it does not rely on synchronized egg production data which are of limited availability in practice. (

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A scaffolding-based mind tool was designed to allow teachers to easily create lesson plans for in-class gamified activities and to embed various scaffoldings in the lesson plan design. The purpose of this study was to investigate the learning outcomes of a scaffolding-based mind tool integrated with gamified learning activities applied to a science course. The study was conducted to investigate students' learning outcomes, flow, and qualitative feedback on the scaffolding-based mind tool. A total of 134 high school students participated in the experiment. The results showed that the gamified activity with the scaffolding-based mindtool significantly improved students' learning effectiveness, but the learning effectiveness did not differ significantly from that of the students in the lecture-based instruction. In addition, the study found that the learners' flow was high, the students were engaged in the activity. The qualitative feedback analysis also revealed high positive evaluations of the usefulness of the gamified activity, mind tool, and scaffolds. In addition, students with low prior knowledge or low learning effectiveness had significantly higher active engagement in flow than those with high prior knowledge/learning effectiveness.

Game-based learning with scaffolding is expected to provide learners with an effective and positive learning environment. This study developed a scaffold-oriented educational game editor that allows teachers to design educational game activities that combine physical board game cards. Players could obtain mobile-based scaffolding by manipulating and scanning the cards. We used the editor to develop a game activity, "Return," for a high school chemistry course, and conducted a preliminary empirical evaluation of the mobile-based scaffolding game. Participants were students in a high school in northern Taiwan. The study analyzed the learning effectiveness, anxiety level, and learning behavior patterns of the learners. Results showed that learners' learning effectiveness improved significantly, and their anxiety level decreased after using the game. Analysis of learning behavior patterns revealed that learners were able to fully utilize the mobile-based cognitive scaffolding and real-time feedback provided in the game to try to combine various hidden clues to solve problems.

In recent years, gamification in learning has been a proliferative topic and is regarded as an effective way to promote students' learning motivation and engagement in learning. This study applied a Gamified model -CSLS teaching model, which integrated Card-game, Slides, and Learning Sheets for designing a collaborative learning activity to support organic chemical compounds learning. A collection of online materials, which could be accessed via mobile devices, were used as cognitive scaffoldings. The learning activity was employed in a high school of northern Taiwan with 72 participants. In addition, as a comparison to the CSLS model, a conventional lecture-based instruction was employed with 79 participants in the same school. Both groups were taught by the same teacher. Results of comparing the learning performance between the two groups indicated that the students in the gamified learning activity showed significantly greater improvement than students in lecture-based teaching model did. This study also introduced a formative approach to oversee and analyze students' learning progress in the collaborative learning process. Results indicated that students showed progressive improvement while the learning activity in progress. These findings suggested that CSLS teaching model could be an effective approach to promote learning.