An ecological analysis of after-school program participation and the development of academic performance and motivational attributes for disadvantaged children

This longitudinal study evaluated after-school program (ASP) participation and the development of academic performance (school grades, reading achievement) and teacher-rated motivational attributes (expectancy of success, effectance motivation) over a school year. Participants were 599 boys and girls (6.3 to 10.6 years) from an urban, disadvantaged city in the United States. An ecological analysis of after-school arrangements identified 4 patterns of care: ASP care, parent care, combined parent/self-sibling care, and combined other-adult/self-sibling care. Aspects of academic performance and motivational attributes were significantly higher (p<.05) at the end of the school year for children in ASP care compared with those in the 3 alternative patterns of care. Differences were marked for children rated as highly engaged in ASP activities.     

Immersive training systems: Virtual reality and education and training

This paper provides an introduction to the technology of virtual reality (VR) and its possibilies for education and training. It focuses on immersion as the key added value of VR, and analyzes what cognitive variables are connected to immersion, how it is generated in synthetic environments, what immersion is, and what its benefits are. The central research question is the value of tracked, immersive visual displays over non-immersive simulations. The paper provides a brief overview of existing VR research on training and transfer, education, and procedural, cognitive and maintenance training.     

Inescapable shock interferes with the acquisition of a low-activity response in an appetitive context

This study investigates the effects of exposure to inescapable shock on the acquisition of a low-activity appetitive response using a trial procedure. Inescapable shock was found to interfere with the acquisition of a nose-poke response to obtain food as compared with animals exposed to either escapable shock or no shock. In addition, general activity levels were measured separately during the trial and the intertrial interval during the appetitive test. Inescapably shocked animals were less active during the trial component than were either the escapably shocked or the nonshocked animals. However, no differential levels of activity were observed during the intertriai interval component of the appetitive test. The relevance of these findings for both the learned helplessness and the learned inactivity hypotheses is discussed.     

The Long Decay Model of One-Dimensional Projectile Motion

This article introduces a research study on student model formation and development in introductory mechanics. As a point of entry, I present a detailed analysis of the Long Decay Model of one-dimensional projectile motion. This model has been articulated by Galileo (in De Motu) and by contemporary students. Implications for instruction are discussed.

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The Effectiveness of Internet-Controlled Astronomical Research Instrumentation for Education

Over the last decade, remote instruments have become widely used in astronomy. Educational applications are more recent. This paper describes a program to bring radio astronomy into the undergraduate classroom through the use of a remote research-grade radio telescope, the MIT Haystack Observatory 37 m telescope. We examine the effectiveness of such remote access in the classroom. The remote use of the large telescope has opened up a research facility for undergraduate students. The experience has been largely successful with over 150 students from about 20 colleges using the telescope every year. The student experiments have included classroom demonstrations by faculty, and short-term laboratory experiments and long-term research experiments performed by students. Although a visit to the site provided students with a sense of the scale of the antenna, operating on a purely remote basis still gave the students a rewarding research and learning experience. The effectiveness of the remote instrument is judged mainly by the student presentations and papers that have been generated, by the enthusiasm of the faculty to continue using the facility as part of their curricula, and through a survey of students and faculty.