Urbanization has for a long time been a threat to our biodiversity. Epiphytic organisms such as lichens have been negative affected by traffic pollution and the new urban environment surrounding their old habitat (van Her 2001). Another epiphytic organism is the green algae Desmococcus olivaceus. Unlike lichens the green algae is favoured by polluted areas. The aim of this study was to investigate if time in urban environments affected the cover of the green algae on old oaks.

To work with environments outdoors for people, animals and plants is the main topic for the landscapearchitect. On several occasions the work is about public places that is to be in relation with other parts of the town. It is about the activities and the life that take place. The physical environment and the interpretation of it gives possibilities or obstructions for people who moves around or spend time in it.Since public places, parks and places for movement are used in daily life they strongly effect the people who use the places. The concequences of this effect can be positive or negative experiences.A positive example is a passage over a brook on the way to school while a negative one is to be afraid while passing a tunnel when it is dark outside. Other examples of concequences are stress effect from traffic noice or calming environments with twitter of birds. The physical environment is also a part of the total interpretation of a town.

Swedish as a second language and special education are two topics that have a lot in common. I have chosen to in my study look at something that is covered by the two subjects: Swedish as a second language education that is taking place in a group segregated from the class. I have interviewed students in preschool, grade one and grade two to learn details of their experience of the segregation. Finding out that it is mostly bad planning and trouble getting the schedule together that?s affecting the pupils in a negative way.

This study examines the use of building modeling and energy simulations in the design process  of  a  building.  The  take-off  point  is  the  notion  of  energy  simulations  being needed early and throughout the building design process, and that the lack of energy simulations may be explained by the fact that they are time consuming and therefore often too expensive. A greater interoperability between software tools used by relevant disciplines,  such  as  the  architect  and  the  energy  specialist,  would  create  smoother workflows, which would reduce this cost and open up for more frequent and iterative energy  simulation  processes.  The  study  is  an  assessment  of  the  modeling  tool  Revit and  the  simulation  tool  Virtual  Environment  and  whether  they  can  create  smoother workflows, and make leeway for a more frequent use of energy simulations throughout the  design  process.  It  also  investigates  the  limitations  of  what  can  be  examined  by simulations in Virtual Environment. This will hopefully help clarify the future role of energy  simulations  in  design  processes.  The  method  is  a  trial  by  error  approach  of testing the two software tools by building and simulating a model. The results of these tests  show  that  the  workflow  is  not  optimal  (and  therefore  time  consuming)  for frequent  and  iterative simulations  throughout the  design  process,  but  it  also  reveals some  great  possibilities  of  what  can  be  performed  with  these  two  powerful  tools  at hand.  Further  development  with  regards  on  platform  independency  of  the  building information  model,  including  seamless  exporting  and  importing,  seems  necessary  to strengthen the future role of energy simulations..

Todays board game manuals have many shortcomings. One of them is that they are not always adapted to the game's target audience.Adapting the language and shape of a game manual for the the target group children, can save time for both parents and teachers, and give the children a chance to conquer the game by themselves. In addition, playing board games can lead to children developing other important properties such as problem solving and independence.This study found that the game manuals inconsistency, tone and the way they adress the reader makes it difficult for children to grasp the content. Many game manuals do not speak directly to the reader, and often describes gameplay in a passive way, which has been shown by this study.This study has resulted in 12 guidelines for writing game manuals for children. In addition, they have been tested with a sample study.

The main purpose of this C-essay is to answer the question: What have been the consequences and effects of the merit point system on language studies and the parties concerned (teachers, students and principals) during the school year of 2010/11?The merit point system is the result of a political decision and was implicated for the first time in the Swedish upper secondary school during the school year 2010/2011. Being a completely new phenomenon it is of great interest and importance to study its effects.The study in this essay also aims to verify, falsify or nullify two hypotheses very often referred to in the political discussions regarding the merit point system:The merit point system will replace affection and interest as main reasons for language studies in upper secondary school and cause a rectification amongst the students choices of additional courses.The merit point system will have a segregating effect upon society and make it harder for people to rise in society through education in the future.A verification of these hypotheses would imply the appearance of an increased rectification amongst students as well as an orientation towards an in the future more segregated society.The empiric material has been collected and examined with qualitative as well as quantitative methods (questionnaires and interviews) and belongs epistemologically to the phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions..

The aim of this essay is to investigate which of the goals in the syllabus, and with that what knowledge of Swedish, four students taking the SFI (Swedish for Immigrants) level 3 course believed themselves to have attained and to compare their self-assessments with their results on the National Test of Swedish for adult immigrants.The method used for the investigation is the individual interview. In addition to taking the National Test, the participants in the investigation were asked to mark the goals they believe themselves to have attained.The results show that the informants who best demonstrated awareness of their own knowledge are able to talk freely about their knowledge and difficulties, and when they mark the goals they believe they have attained, these correspond, on the whole, to how they responded in the interviews.One of the informants finds it more difficult than the others to assess her knowledge. A comparison between her experiences and the National Test results revealed several inconsistencies. For example, she claims that she can communicate in Swedish, but still she didn?t pass the test..

In this study I examine the debates, intentions and ideas concerning the physical and created schoolroom as they appeared in the journal Lärarnas Tidning - Svensk Skoltidning (Teachers Journal ? Swedish School journal) during the period 1962-1974. The built and created school building and its environment has been a relatively neglected topic in Swedish pedagogical research.When the Swedish comprehensive system transformed during the sixties, with new curricula and a common nine year school, many school professionals realised the need for a new and pedagogically adjusted schoolhouse.The early seventies marked a decline after a ten year period with an extensive building program affecting large parts of Sweden, and where schoolhouses had been an important part. The debate concerning the new Swedish school building was sometimes inspired and refreshing, but resistance and bitterness was also expressed. In part, this should be seen against the backdrop of the introduction of a new educational system, using new and sometimes untested pedagogical ideas, together with the fast transformation of the Swedish society.The research method is an exploratory textual analysis focused on five different issues: ideas concerning community centres and integration, participatory and democratic issues about the built environment, the school building as a pedagogical tool, aesthetic considerations, and the working environment.

In my study I have chosen to examine the mathematics in children's free play and everyday situations, with focus on sorting and classification. The purpose of the study was to see how children express their mathematical knowledge. I have chosen to use a qualitative method in my examination, here I did observations in a children's group where the children were between three and six years old. I also did interviews with the teacher's on the department to see how they relate to the mathematics and how they formulate the department to achieve as good a learning environment as possible.The result shows that the teacher's approach is incredible important to the children's learning ability and that they are always present to challenge and discuss together with the children. The observation indicates that children use mathematics all the time in their everyday situations and that it is the interaction between individuals and environment that affects children's development. .

This report is about accessibility in a station environment. Studies have been made about how an accessible building should be designed. Accessibility is an important issue when striving for a society with equality as the foundation. Sweden is one of the most accessible countries when speaking about the built environment. A result of prosperity and a well-managed democracy.

Föreliggande arbete inriktar sig på lärares sätt att kommunicera i undervisning av ensemble där de bemöter flera elever samtidigt. Med hjälp av videoobservationer av fyra lärare som bedriver undervisning av mindre ensembler på gymnasiet har jag analyserat fram vilka kommunikationssätt som används samt hur de används. Resultatet visar att lärarna använder sig av så väl verbal som icke-verbal kommunikation i sin undervisning. Via flertalet multimodala och semiotiska resurser kommunicerar musiklärarna med sina elever under lektionens gång. De kommunikationsspråk som förekommer är ett socialt, humoristiskt, auktoritärt, gestaltande, kunnigt och målande språk.

The aim of this paper is to study how multiculturalism is expressed in the Swedish labour market policy. The method used for the investigation is a discourse analysis which study social and political processes in the society as created through language. The perspective of the discourse analysis is a social construction that considers that language is a social production created in a discursive way. It produces and reflects social process in the language.By using theories of national identity and multiculturalism we aim to investigate how multiculturalism is expressed in the labour market policy. With this method we aim to analyze the discourse of a political report made 2008 by the current government about integration strategies in Sweden.

Many people choose to live in urban environments. Since everyday life in many cities is characterized by a high pace it is important that good recreational areas, with the possibility of recovery, are available to the population.This paper is based on a case study of Växjö city park, which is the area surrounding the lake Växjösjön. The park and the lake are of great importance to the citizens. The lake Växjösjön has for a long time been affected by eutrophication, which has caused major problems as algal blooms and fish mortality. An extensive lake restoration was carried out in the 1990s in order to save the lake.

Previous research on philosophy for children in schools has almost exclusively focused on how it is perceived by students. The aim of this study is to focus on how it is perceived by five teachers and other adults involved in implementing philosophy for children in schools, in total four teachers participated and one adult who worked with implementing took part in the study. The theoretical background is composed of Olga Dysthes view that knowledge is not only constructed but that the object that one intends to gain knowledge of has to be interacted with and how she applies this view dialogues in the classroom. The study was conducted by interviewing the participants. The results found that the teachers saw philosophy for children as something more than a tool to work with questions that were important to students, they were also viewed as a way to work with language and building solidarity within the class.

In this paper, generic reference in a collection of juridical texts is examined, with focus on third person singular pronouns. The object of the study is to find out which generic pronouns occur in the material along with their relative distribution, but also to display further use patterns and to offer plausible explanations for these patterns. Another object is to evaluate whether the use of generic pronouns corresponds with language planners? recommendations for non-sexist language. The corpus studied consists of Rikspolisstyrelsens författnings­samling (?Statute Book of the Swedish National Police Board?), comprising 172 documents written between 1974 and 2009.The study is divided into two parts.