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The surge of interest in speciality colourants in recent years shows no signs of diminishing despite the scarcity of some of the dyestuffs and pigments necessary to achieve unusual effects. Such an upward trend may be common to many industries, but suppliers of daylight fluorescent pigments have not been the slowest to develop new effects for innovative customers. Shortly after the introduction by Sterling Industrial Colour Ltd of its FLARE 920 Series of high strength polyamide based daylight fluorescent pigments for blow moulded plastics, it was discovered that this range could be combined with other speciality colourants to achieve startling effects, not only in plastics but in a variety of other applications. Previously fluorescent pigments were used alone and against a white background for best effect in inks, paints and plastics because the slightest contamination was known to reduce the fluorescent effect. But the exceptional strength of the FLARE 920 range permits its reduction with pearlescents and/or opaque whiteners in all these and other applications.

The purpose of this paper is to study the use and value of practical work in the secondary school science classroom. Informed by the findings of a large survey of students from a wide variety of schools, a case study of pupils in the middle secondary range sought to investigate the precise role of practical work in the learning of a specific topic over a series of lessons.

Qualitative and quantitative assessment of academic progress of two classes of pupils revealed that students who undertook practical tasks made greater gains in knowledge and understanding than those who undertook non-practical alternatives. In order to explore students’ views about the practical tasks and whether they found them to be an affective and effective aid for their learning, data were collected using questionnaires, lesson observations and interviews of focus groups.

The data suggest three reasons why practical work supported pupils’ learning. First, practical work supported their visualisation of abstract concepts and provided a stimulus for the recall of key facts later. Second, it provided a distinctive opportunity for pupils to work collaboratively, with associated gains. Finally, hands-on tasks promoted a classroom atmosphere rich in variety, semi-autonomous learning and self-discovery, which pupils found intrinsically motivational.

This study, which responds to the criticism practical work has received in recent years, sheds some light on the mechanisms through which the strategy supports learning in certain contexts. Moreover it argues that practical work needs to be effectively planned to maximise the learning gains made by pupils.

It is a sunny, windy, and cool spring day as I sit down to write my reflections on the preceding papers. It is the end of another semester and the final grades have been turned in. Forty years ago I began my academic career at the University of Iowa and two weeks ago my departmental colleagues and my family staged a symposium to mark my retirement. On my desk, just to my right, is a draft of an article requiring my next attention for a special issue of Symbolic Interaction on the past and future of the perspective. So, it feels fitting to comment on my career and scholarly corpus, and the sense-making and framing of it by my gracious, learned and most collegial fellow travelers. I am honored by their willingness to participate in this endeavor and their generous accountings and interpretations. But I can write no further without acknowledging the respectful but strong directing of Shing-Ling Chen in planning and producing the session and the publication of these papers. She gets us all organized, despite our tendencies to procrastination.

This paper aims to discuss fire safety design of single-story, single compartment buildings and evaluates whether time to structural damage is a relevant criterion when lethal fire conditions develop long before any structural fire damage can occur.

The proposed approach is demonstrated in a design case study of a steel truss in a typical Swedish single-story steel frame building.

While not complying with deemed to satisfy fire resistance ratings, it is argued that the proposed design still can fulfill the life safety objective.

This paper presents practical application of a conceptual paper presenting a general approach to structural fire safety design and the life safety objective.