The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge and a broader understanding for how pre-school teachers describe the importance of planned play environments including in what manner children are given influence. By qualitative interviews with five pre-school teachers from four different units I was able to gather data that shows how the planning process concerning a specific play environment had worked and why it looked as it did. The results show among other things that the pre-school teachers viewed the play environment as a vital part of the daily operation and pointed out that it was of vital importance that it came from the children?s interests. Depending on how the play environment had been organized and what its purpose was it offered different amounts of affordances..

I have written an experiential essay about my role as a preschool director and the important work decisions that I face. What is best for the child? That is something that I think is important to take into consideration.In the narrative, I describe how an induction occurs at my preschool. We use an "old" tried and true method which spans two to three weeks, which I believe is best for children under the age of two. They need to first connect withone educator who they are comfortable with before they are secure enough to play and explore the environment of the preschool.In recent years, another method has emerged which is shorter and which has quickly became popular in many preschools.

Tail-biting in pigs is an animal welfare issue and in Sweden during 2002 the producers lost tree million Swedish crowns because of tail biting. This economic loss depends on the pigs which are discarded at slaughter because of tail biting. Tail biting can be separated into two stages, "pre-injury" and "injury". The aim of this study is to investigate if tail biting depends on environment or genetic background.A lot of research on the environments effects on the behaviour of pigs but not so much on the genetic effects has been performed. The frequency of tail biting in pig farms influence among others of environment enrichment, ventilation, gender and breed of the pig.

The climate issue is a significant question, and the problem is mainly caused by human activities. Everyone can help to counteract the enhanced Greenhouse effect by reducing the amounts of energy they use and by not consuming more products then they need.Schools are some of societies many consumers and therefore contribute to the Greenhouse effect. The School also has an important task; to teach and disseminate knowledge and information about the climate and the environment. According to the Swedish National Agency for Education, Skolverket, must all schools regularly consider the environment and sustainable development throughout the entire education process. Unfortunately, this is not the case for many schools in Sweden today.One of many tools that can be used to coordinate environmental work and initiatives, and also to make it more efficient, is environmental management systems.

During the nineties, ecological handling of urban storm water became very popular in Sweden. Together with Chalmers University of Technology and two Swedish communities, DHI Water and Environment has been doing research of storm water ponds and constructed wetlands. This thesis work is a part of that research project. The work has been applied at the Bäckaslöv storm water treatment plant in Växjö, Sweden. The plant consists of one storm water pond and a downstream constructed wetland.

In Sweden, exercise takes a great part in people?s lives. Health and a good conditioned body go hand in hand. Many Swedes exercise in groups, with aerobics or a similar form of workout at a training facility. A regular workout lasts for about an hour and is accompanied by music.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Violence towards employees in the psychiatric ward is increasing at an alarming rate. Reports concerning the effect on the staff?s psychological health are disturbing. These workforces are those most affected by brutality and for ages it has been looked upon as a part of the psychiatric line of work. This viciousness is threatening the safety for both the personnel and the patients.

Background: Triage is the sorting of patients according to the severity of medical assessment. Triage has a long history of use in Anglo-Saxon countries but is a fairly new method in Sweden. Researchers have described the Manchester triage group method (MTS) and a literature review of the concept; working contentment and competence focusing on triage. Aim: The ambition with this study was to describe a number of triage nurses working conditions. The research questions were; working with MTS- does it bring work contentment? What kind of competence is needed? Method: Data was collected from 74 triage nurses by a questionnaire containing 37 questions and two questions provided the nurses the opportunities to describe their triage experiences.

New technology and urban sprawl have resulted in almost half of the population in Sweden being insufficiently physically active. The sedentary lifestyle causes heart- and vascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, stress etc. in the population. One of the biggest priorities in the society is to promote more physical activity. Through literature studies and a questionnaire this paper will examine how we can design the built environment in order to promote physical exercise and if we can change the sedentary lifestyle with a outdoor environment that invite physical exercise. There are both internal and external factors that have importance for people?s physical activity.

The research of today shows that natural environments are importantfor children's physical and mental development. It alsoshows that children often opt out of the traditional equipmentplaygrounds have to offer. By breaking the boundary betweenthe playground and park, is it possible to create a new spacethat will encourage rather than demand play? Through gatheringinformation and talking to landscape architects, designers,and children, I realized that today's parks already have environmentsand objects that could be used for playing. But whatthey need is something that makes the environment even moreinviting for children to play.

This degree project deals with the concept of creativity and the creative output based on howSwedish upper-secondary design teachers within the Technical Engineering Programexperience this from a student's perspective. The project discusses how the concept creativityis interpreted and how the creative output is regarded by educationalists and professionaldesigners and how this then can be related to literature on the subject and in the steeringdocuments. The purpose of this degree project is to visualize the interviewees' viewpoint oncreativity and the significance of experience, skills, and environment for the creative outputand within the field of design. This in order to, in the pedagogic and didactic situation, enablethe improvement of teaching so that creativity and its output come to show. Moreover, theproject aims to create a ground for discussion of the view of the importance of these skills inthe pedagogic/didactic situation.In order to reach this aim, I have read literature on creativity from several perspectives andcarried out eight qualitative structured interviews: both with three educationalists withoutexperience within the design profession, and with two educationalists who are or have beenactive within the design profession, as well as with three professional designers.

Climate change is a phenomenon that know no boundaries. While focus on environment and climate change has become highly prioritized, nationalism has spread across Europe. Nationalism is by many considered to refuse action to combat climate change although some argue that nationalism could combat global climate change. Previous research on how nationalism is implemented in environment and climate politics has mainly focused on single parties. The thesis therefore aims to give a broad approach and compare how nationalism is used in environment and climate politics by analyzing 4 European parties with either ethnic or civic nationalism and different roles in their party system. With a qualitative content analysis on party programs and election manifestos the findings imply that parties use nationalism in the climate and environment discourse in a variety of ways.

There are a lot of different sounds in our sound saturated time. Noise is an unwishable soundand a high sound level can give short- or lingering problems for both children and adults.The purpose was to find out if and in that case why children and the activity at the pre-schoolaffects by a high soundlevel. Another purpose was to examine what the effects would be if thepedagogues set about the work to get a good sound environment at pre-school.The investigation was accomplished in shape of qualitative interwievs where six pedagoguesfrom different pre-schools answered questions about a high soundlevel.All of them have been educated to hearing pilotes.The result of this investigation shows that some pre-schools have a high sound levels but notall of them. In those cases where there is a high soundlevel are there often too many childrenat the same place on the same time. That makes the soundlevel even higher and both childrenand adults are getting tired.By improving the sound environment at the pre-school both children and adults often gets abetter activity.Keywords: high soundlevel, hearingpilot, noise, affects on children..

The purpose of this thesis is to show how a good approach can be designed, focusing on the southern approach to the Swedish town Vilhelmina. Prior to the car being part of everyday life, the approach was a road where the town showed itself from the very best side. When the amount of traffic increased, so did noise and other disturbances, and as a consequence industrial areas replaced the residential buildnings at the approaches. Today, the pendulum is turning back and in recent years the approach is regarded as a place to introduce the town. The approach is also the place where cars should slow down from the speed of the main road to the speed of the city.

Abstrakt Klämning mellan dörrblad och dörrkarm är en frekvent förekommande olyckstyp som drabbar såväl barn som vuxna i alla åldrar. I genomsnitt drabbas var fjärde svensk någon gång under sin livstid av så pass allvarliga skador till följd av klämning i dörr, att sjukhusvård krävs. Som regel är det handens fingrar som skadas. På marknaden finns ett stort utbud av tekniska lösningar som i någon mån syftar till att förhindra klämskador i kontakt med dörrar. Dock är de flesta av dessa lösningar utformade för dörrens gångjärnssida.