The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge on how pedagogues use play as a way to expose children to the English language. I chose the qualitative method of interviews to conduct my study. The objects of study were four English speaking pedagogues at a preschool with English in their profile. This profile was a major factor when choosing where to carry out the study, as not every preschool in Sweden offers English.The interviews were conducted in English, as all four pedagogues were native English speakers and I did not want a possible language barrier to influence the results. The questions were composed with play as a focal point and a way to expose the children to English.My findings showed that play is an important tool for children to take part of and learn English.

The aim of this study is to increase knowledge and understanding of free play or free fun time importance for children of age around five years in preschool, in order to promote children?s development and learning. The focus was on exploring and better understanding of teacher?s and educators? approach to the free fun play time as a tool in their educational work, and also about their own role in this context as well as analyzing of forms, rules and structures spontaneously created by groups of children having free play fun time. Another important moment of this study was to give more light on approaches to this issue in education theories by Piaget, Vygotsky and Freud among others.As to the practical experimental part of the study it has been performed at a preschool and kindergarten in a suburb at the outskirts of Stockholm, with four employed educators there and with groups of children of age around five.

The aim of this report is to see whether the graphic design of a game influences children?s will to play games. I am especially looking at minimalist graphic design and how well it works for a game aimed at children age 7-9. Does the style of the game design have any impact at all concerning the children?s wish to play the game or is the game mechanic all that matters.

This thesis is based on research and observations of children on a preschool when playing in the free-play. What do the children choose to play with, when they get to choose for themselves? And how do they play? Do boys and girls together or do they divide themselves up? How important is the free-playing for the development of the child? Genus is also an important element which is interesting to observe and to see different patterns in. The abidance?s have been made while the children have been playing, and from discrete observations notes have been taken.I have been working with material, and literature from distinguished researchers within the subject.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the children?s mathematics learning through play. The questions to be answered are: how can teachers facilitate children?s mathematics learning through play? How can play affect children?s math learning? Are the children aware of the role of play in their mathematics learning?My method is based on interviews and observations. My informants are three teachers who work in two different preschools.

This study aimed to investigate whether lambs show anticipatory behaviours in a holding pen prior to entering a known arena, whether the holding pen experience prior to the arena exposure affects their play expression in the arena and whether their behaviour (in home pen) is affected if arena access is denied. Twenty pair-housed male lambs (average 14 weeks old), were exposed, in chronological order, to five treatments. Holding pen treat-ment (HP-control): Each pair was led into a holding pen (2.7 m2) and remained there for 5 minutes before returning to their home pen (6 m2). Holding pen ? arena treatment (HP-A): Each pair was led into a holding pen for 5 min and then was allowed access into the arena (22 m2, containing two hanging chains, one ball and one platform) for 15 min before re-turning to their home pen.

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the availability of construction materials affect children's constructions and play. Observations were made when the children were allowed to play and build with very little and much of the material play-doh dough in preschool. The study is aimed at children aged 3 ? 5 years. Interviews were also conducted with educators in departments where the children spent time to give support to this study.The result shows that the children create as many designs of any material amount.

A reward cycle for investigating the emotional status in animals has been developed and it requires that animals go through three main phases, i.e. anticipation, consumption and relaxation. The reward cycle has not been tested previously for access to play in pigs. Therefore, the aim of this Master thesis was to investigate if growing pigs showed more behaviours indicative of excitement than pigs that were not allowed to play, performed play in a play arena and showed more behaviours indicative of relaxation after play when they were back to their home pen than pigs that were in their home pen the whole time. Forty undocked piglets (10 litters of Specific Pathogen Free half pure-bred Yorkshire and half hybrids of Yorkshire x Landrace balanced for breed between two treatments were used.

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..

Abstract   In this thesis, my aim was to investigate how preschool teachers view their involvement in children's free play. In order to answer this, I chose to do semi-structured interviews with four preschool teachers in three different preschools. My interviews has revealed similarities and support for as how history of research looks at the involvement of educationists. Both research and my results stresses the importance of being active in children's free play and to be a supportive teacher, particulary in conflict situations. For those children who have difficulty entering into the free game its the educationists task to co-play and help the children find the game.

Test is an area in system development. Test can be performed manually or automated. Test activities can be supported by Word documents and Excel sheets for documenting and executing test cases and as well for follow up, but there are also new test tools designed to support and facilitate the testing process and the activities of the test. This study has described manual test and identified strengths and weaknesses of manual testing with a testing tool called Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) and of manual testing using test cases and test log templates developed by the testers at Sogeti. The result that emerged from the problem and strength analysis and the analysis of literature studies and firsthand experiences (in terms of creating, documenting and executing test cases) addresses the issue of the following weaknesses and strengths.

Test bench for air bearingsThis thesis work consisted of bringing forward and defining the test parameters relevant for a test bench and constructing a test bench that can test and verify the largest existing air bearings that are of use in Micronic Laser Systems AB machines. Because the knowledge about air bearings is limited it is thought that with the help of the test bench the knowledge would increase and in that way improve the air bearings.After learning more about air bearings and their purpose at Micronic Laser Systems AB, I started the concept phase for the test bench. For each part in the test bench I consulted my two tutors, Torbjörn Hedevärn and Johan Bergqvist, at Micronic Laser Systems AB. The final concepts where documented as 3D-modells in Solidworks and some of them have been tested in Solidworks FEM-program.The test bench is designed so that, with the help of a pneumatic cylinder, 25 kilo weights are placed on the air bearing to test its stiffness, damping and the pressure performance under its surface area. To test these parameters the test bench has to have a pressure meter, accelerometer and a microcator.

This paper investigates the usability of the intelligence test Wechsler Nonverbal Scale of Ability (WNV). Twenty four children in two different age-groups were tested with WNV, 10 children between ages 5 - 6, and 14 children between ages 9 - 10. The WNV turned out to be a useful test when some verbal communication was used in the test situation. This was especially apparent among the younger children, who needed extra verbal instructions and verbal support through the different subtests. The test also contained standardized verbal instructions for all ages.

This study deals with play and the importance of meaning of play in the learning process. The aim is to look in to and analyze four preschool teacher´s beliefs and views about the importance of play for children´s learning and development. The study looks at two different preschools, one based on Reggio Emilia- and the other on Montessori- pedagogy, and the aim is to compare the different views and ways of working that the preschool educators have.The theoretical basis for this study is both rooted in a socio-cultural and constructivist perspective, and deals with the relationships between theoretical concepts mean as play, learning, way of working and pedagogy.The study is based on qualitative research methods that consist of interviews and participant observations. The person?s participants in the study consisted of four active preschool educators, who work in two different preschools.The results of the investigation show that the educators have similar views on the importance of play for the children´s learning process, and this also applies to their way of working.

The purpose of my study is to describe how educators think about the play environment, the nature and its importance for the children's development and learning in preschool. The study is based on qualitative interviews with four active educators. The results of the study show that the teachers regarded the children's interests to a great extent when the different play environments were structured. They are also based on different themes that they have seen that the children were interested in, such as the fire station, hair salon or shop and café. Educators designing not only these play areas for different types of play for the children, but the different environments also have a learning purpose. The outdoor environment however attracts greater interest from children, to where they have more space to move freely in and outdoors, there are no limits to the children.