A bio-physical model of sardine larvae off the Atlantic Portuguese coast, incorporating a three-dimensional circulation model, was used to estimate changing biomass during winter upwelling and downwelling events. The growth rate of larvae was modelled as a function of age, temperature, and prey concentration and the mortality rate as a function of age and temperature. Numerical results indicate that upwelling events during the spawning season may have a negative impact on larval survival. Total larval biomass seems to be mainly controlled by larval prey relative to temperature. This preliminary study does not account for the dynamics of the food chain and therefore the intense biological activity associated with an upwelling event, as well as the influence of river plumes in retention mechanisms.

This paper presents protests from academically successful students who privately conveyed to the researchers their feelings of personal discontent with schools. The criterion to select this "sample" was that these students, dissatisfied with school but having good marks, would reveal what others, academically less successful, could not express, by not knowing the syllabus as well as those students. However, their complaints are followed by suggestions of changes to be analyzed in this study. Our questions focused especially on the tenth grade, as this grade starts the three-year-cycle preceding university. We attempt to contribute to the issue of teacher education, by focusing on the stream of participative research in educational institutions, conducted by external researchers in cooperation with the institution's stakeholders, students, and teachers in this study. The data analyzed for this paper came from in-depth interviews conducted, in a non-directive way, with students and their teachers. From the proposals of the students and the comments from teachers, we conclude it is crucial to substantially reduce the predominant teacher-centered methodology of verbal presentation by engaging in students' activities, including the model of problem-based learning or alike in opposition, in order to rote memorization activities.

In this study we have attempted, firstly, to describe programming protocols developed for the teaching of an Electromagnetism course in the university degrees of Electrical Engineering and Energy Engineering, and secondly, to evaluate students’ satisfaction with the simulation practices through MATLAB® programming. The main objective of the protocols is to allow students to model and visualize the electric field and magnetic field (both static) and understand the approximation that is made when considering certain distributions of electric charges and electric currents. To evaluate the usefulness of this computational methodology, eighteen students from the two engineering degrees answered a questionnaire with seven questions related to the Electromagnetism course and to the benefits of using computer programming. Their answers are measured by a Likert scale. From the analysis of the results, we can conclude, in a general way, that the use of this methodology has positive effects in the learning of Electromagnetism in these two degrees.

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This work aims to understand how the use of problem-based learning (PBL), from an interdisciplinary point of view, can enhance the integration of concepts in different disciplines. In addition, the study strives to verify whether the use of computer programming can enhance this integration. In this sense, an interdisciplinary inquiry learning space (ILS) was implemented in the physics module of some lectures of undergraduate engineering degrees. For this study, the authors analyzed the learning evolution of two groups: the first with the application of ILS without a computer programming component and the second with the same ILS but with a computer programming component in MATLAB©. The ILS was organized around Newtonian mechanics, focused on the problem of planetary orbits and the possibility of orbiting around a black hole. From the observation conducted and the results of a survey, it is concluded that this type of approach can enhance the learning of physics, not only by increasing the motivation to learn, but also by the use of computer programming.