Water constructions - as a design element in public spaces is the title of this Master thesis, with a focus on waters function and meaning in the urban environment. By way of introduction, mans relationship to places is described and the factors that contribute to the reality that we prefer some places more than others. A good place to stay is open but well defined, gives protection, offers a good view and is varying in topography and vegetation, together with contents of single landscape elements like visible water. This study then continues to discuss mans relationship to water and its means for our wellbeing. Despite the fact that people have a different relations to water due to personality, background and age, it?s an element that raises positive feelings, interest and aesthetic pleasure for most people.

This graduation thesis is about baths and beach like places in city centers. It focuses on recreation and the creation and development of public, social spaces in the city containing water as a visual and useable element. The thesis is divided into three parts; background, inspiration and application. The background examines four factors which we consider important for the occurrence of inner city baths; water, the history of bathing, inner city recreation and social life in public places. A discussion of the (future) importance of inner city baths and beach like places' is then presented. The inspirational part is divided into examples of existing places and examples of types of places. The first is used in an attempt to examine the function and importance of inner city baths and beach like places as well as the opportunities and challenges associated with them. The latter contains a presentation of six categories developed by us to facilitate the planning of inner city baths and beach like places.

One of the essential needs of human beings is to be involved in a social context. The intention of this study was to see if the opportunity to have an iPod Touch, could make it possible for students with literacy difficulties to participate in the regular classes and if the implementation of iPod Touch in the school setting would result in informal learning outside the school. In this case study two pupils with literacy difficulties have been using an iPod Touch in their daily school activity. The pupils as well as their teachers have been interviewed about their experiences of implementing iPod Touch as a tool in the regular classroom teatching. The results indicate that iPod Touch can help students to be in inclusive education and that they use the iPod Touch outside school.

The aim of this study was to compare activity, lying down and getting up behaviour, weight gain and cleanliness in heifers in cubicles versus on deep-litter. The study was conducted from autumn of 2005 until autumn of 2006 in a commercial organic dairy herd with 340 cows. In 2005 the farm rebuilt half of the young stock accommodation from deep-litter pens to cubicles. The experiment used 150 heifers of the breeds Swedish Red, Swedish Holstein and crossbreeds between these, all born on the farm. The animals were divided into three blocks based on breed and within each block they were sorted after increasing age. The youngest heifer in each block was randomly allocated to one of two groups, cubicle or deep-litter pen.

The development aid from Sweden to developing countries is a activity thatinvolves a great deal of monetary founds as well as an opportunity to influence the environmental situation in a partner country. It´s also an opportunity to promote Sweden's values in a field like the environment, setting a good example is important. This thesis aims to evaluate Sida´s environmental policy and find out if there in fact is a Environmental Policy Integration Policy (EPI) taking place. EPI is a policyimplementation theory that emphasise the importance of the total integration of the environmental in the organisation as a whole. To identify this I will use a theoretical framework of indicators invented by William M.

At two nursing homes for people with dementia a qualitative study was performed. The purpose was to investigate the therapy dog?s meaning to people with dementia from their perspective. Two women and five men with dementia were interviewed, everyone being somewhere between 60 and 87 years of age. All but one had previously owned a dog at some point in their lives.

Play is an important part of children´s everyday life, it is through play children develop. Play occurs a lot in kindergarten and in this study, the aim is to examine how play activities play is used in preschool teaching and the role of the teacher´s in the play. Video recordings of play activities done and qualitative methods (conversation analysis) has been used to analyze the video recordings. The results of this study show that play are widely used as a pedagogical tool in preschool. It is through play children develop.

This is a study of the phenomenon enterprise education in a Swedish school. Enterprise education is a rather new concept in Swedish schools, and it has yet to be clearly defined and sufficiently studied. In order to investigate the various aspects of the education properly an analysis of the language used by its proponents needs to be performed. The authors have used discourse analysis from a perspective provided by Laclau and Mouffe. This is for the purpose of determining how the phenomenon is expressed by four teachers in the school mentioned previously.

The purpose of the study is to observe how the participants of the study interacted musically through verbal, non-verbal and musically resonant expressions. Verbal communication was expressed in discussion of the music's tempo and to clarify for ensemble participants from where they we?re going to play and sing. Non-verbal communication could be used to gesticulate an instrument or a melody. For example, the movement of a hand could symbolize notes on a musical stave to indicate the notes placements.

?This is a study of two school extern homework activities dedicated to helping students with their homework. The questions at issue are 1) how are the homework activities organized when it comes to financing, planning, marketing and implementation? 2) Who participates as staff as well as students and what are the requirements for participants? 3) What are the reasons for students to attend school external homework sessions? Material was gathered by a survey among the students at the activities and by interviews with principals for each activity. Two main findings are that the homework activities are almost exclusively visited by students with immigrant background and that the main reasons for participating are difficulties with the Swedish language, and parents not being able to help their children with homework.

Women experience, in a vaster extent than men, unsafety in urbanpublic spaces. This is a structural phenomenon, based on unequalpower relations. The theoretical starting-point for my thesis is that howwe choose to express ourselves shape the ways we can think about andunderstand society. In my thesis I study depictions of safety in six ofMalmö city?s action plans and guidelines towards increased safety.

This study aimed to evaluate the levels of formaldehyde and organic acids that can build up within enclosed spaces. Another goal was to compare two types of paints that can be used as coating barriers within showcases and in turn compare them to the modern, and by many highly recommended, material of Marveseal®. A low volatile waterborne alkyd/acrylate paint and a two component polyurethane paint was compared to Marveseal® in two series of experiments. One series measured the level of formaldehyde, and thus the effectiveness of the three chosen barriers, and the other series measured the level of volatile organic acids, both the acids emitted from the paint itself, and that of the wood. One box in each series were not treated at all and was used as a reference.The fact that different types of materials emit volatile organic compounds have long been known.

Alneskolans slöjdlärare Sara Edström anser att deras trä- och metallslöjdssal upplevs som trång, är oändamålsenlig och har brister utifrån de gällande arbetsmiljökraven.Syftet med denna rapport är att slöjdläraren ska få ett underlag som visar hur slöjdsalen kan utformas för att bli effektivare, trevligare och uppfylla gällande lagar och rekommendationer. Underlaget som kom att innehålla en planritning, rivningsritning, rumsbeskrivning och en kostnadsberäkning, ska sedan användas för att få till en verklig förändring av slöjdsalens utformning.Utformningen grundades på boverkets byggregler, arbetsmiljöverkets rekommendationer och slöjdlärarens anvisningar.Resultatet visade att slöjdsalen kan utformas så att den blir mer effektiv, trevligare och säkrare. Till en kostnad av 125 000 kr kan lokalen utformas så att den uppfyller alla regler och rekommendationer samt de flesta av anvisningarna som angivits. .

The purpose of this survey was to discern possible similarities and difference between how teachers in preschool and pre-class respond to children?s own initiative out of a power perspective. The results of this study is collect by observations that we have done in free and planned activity in both preschool and pre-class as well as a few interviews with some of the teachers. The results have shown that teacher?s responses to children?s own initiatives in preschool and pre-class to most part is similar, despite the difference in their commission.

Today's planning strategy, densification of cities, makes it difficult for municipal authorities to find spaces to build preschools and daycare centers on. The Planning and Building Act , Chapter 8, § 9 states that " if the site should be developed with buildings that contain one or more dwellings or premises for after-school , preschool, school or other activities, it should be on the property or near it, enough free space which is suitable for play and being outdoors. " Each municipality has to define the expression enough free space and a number of municipalities have established guidelines for preschool and daycare centers concerning dimensions. The guidelines measure the number of square meters of free space per child with the aim of contributing to a qualitative environment. But the size is just one quality and the issue is how other non-quantifiable qualities are taken into account in the planning process. The paper compares three municipalities, Gothenburg, Malmö and Lund.