Editorial

Science &; Education -     

Measuring the impact of a science center on its community

A range of sources support science learning, including the formal education system, libraries, museums, nature and Science Centers, aquariums and zoos, botanical gardens and arboretums, television programs, film and video, newspapers, radio, books and magazines, the Internet, community and health organizations, environmental organizations, and conversations with friends and family. This study examined the impact of one single part of this infrastructure, a Science Center. This study asked two questions. First, who in Los Angeles (L.A.) has visited the California Science Center and what factors best describe those who have and those who have not visited? Second, does visiting the California Science Center impact public science understanding, attitudes, and behaviors and if so, in what ways? Two random telephone surveys of L.A. county adults 18 years of age and over (n = 832; n = 1,008) were conducted; one in 2000, shortly after the opening of the totally redesigned and rebuilt Science Center and one in 2009, roughly a decade after opening. Samples were drawn from five racially, ethnically, and socio‐economically diverse communities generally representative of greater L.A. Results suggest that the Science Center is having an important impact on the science literacy of greater L.A. More than half of residents have visited the Science Center since it opened in 1998 and self‐report data indicate that those who have visited believe that the Science Center strongly influenced their science and technology understanding, attitudes, and behaviors. Importantly, Science Center visitors are broadly representative of the general population of greater L.A. including individuals from all races and ethnicities, ages, education, and income levels with some of the strongest beliefs of impact expressed by minority and low‐income individuals. The use of a conceptual “marker” substantiates these conclusions and suggests that the impact of the Science Center might even be greater than indicated by the mostly self‐report data reported here. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 1–12, 2011     

Muskuläre Regulation bei ermüdungsinduzierter Vorbelastung im Krafttraining

International sport strives for increasing the level of performance in sports. Risks of manipulating the performance are not unusual. At the same time, improvements in science, engineering and data processing offer further opportunities for planning effective, low-risk and year-round training programmes for specific sports. This paper presents new approaches based on the example of techniques for strength training. Selected experimental results highlight the limitations and provide conclusions for the scientific foundation and individualization of high performance training. The approach of “muscle pre-fatigue” is verified in a training study with high jumpers. The statements show how important scientifically controlled analysis is for individual training programmes and what high significance they have for optimizing the training process. These will be essential requirements for a legal improvement of high performance in international sport.     

Comparison of the men's and the women's pole vault at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games

The aim of this study was to identify differences between elite male and female pole vaulters in terms of their mechanical energy and angular momentum. The vaulter's total mechanical energy and angular momentum were calculated from the three-dimensional kinematic data of the pole vault finals at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The development of total, kinetic and potential energy showed similar characteristics for men and women. The initial energy of the vault, the energy at maximum pole bend position and the final energy were significantly higher for male athletes (P <0.05), while the energy gain produced by the athletes during the vault showed no significant differences (male vaulters 5.88 +/- 1.02 J.kg(-1), female vaulters 5.74 +/- 1.63 J.kg(-1)). Time-related parameters relating to pole bending and recoiling also showed no significant differences (P <0.05). In contrast to the male vaulters, the female vaulters did not show a free upward flight phase. The angular momentum was significantly higher for the female vaulters during the initial pole bend and during the bar clearance (P <0.05). We conclude that the pole vaulting technique of female elite athletes is not a projection of the technique of male elite vaulters at a lower jump height, but rather a different way of jumping and interacting with the elastic pole. The current technique of elite female pole vaulters still has potential for further improvement.     

An Identity‐Centered Approach to Understanding Museum Learning

This paper advances the thesis that museum visitors' identities, motivations and learning are inextricably intertwined. All individuals enact multiple identities, many of which are situational and constructed in response to a social and physical context. Identity influences motivations, which in turn directly influence behavior and learning. Visitors to museums tend to enact one or various combinations of five museum‐specific identities, described here as: explorer; facilitator; professional/hobbyist; experience seeker; and spiritual pilgrim. Preliminary findings suggest that these identity‐specific motivational categories might help to explain the long‐term learning impacts of a museum visit.     

Numbers defy the law of large numbers

As the number of independent tosses of a fair coin grows, the rates of heads and tails tend to equality. This is misinterpreted by many students as being true also for the absolute numbers of the two outcomes, which, conversely, depart unboundedly from each other in the process. Eradicating that misconception, as by coin‐tossing experiments, should be incorporated early on into learning the law of large numbers.     

Semiparametric Item Response Functions in the Context of Guessing

We present a logistic function of a monotonic polynomial with a lower asymptote, allowing additional flexibility beyond the three‐parameter logistic model. We develop a maximum marginal likelihood‐based approach to estimate the item parameters. The new item response model is demonstrated on math assessment data from a state, and a computationally efficient strategy for choosing the order of the polynomial is demonstrated. Finally, our approach is tested through simulations and compared to response function estimation using smoothed isotonic regression. Results indicate that our approach can result in small gains in item response function recovery and latent trait estimation.