A Crocheted Model Activity for Teaching Embryonic Lateral Folding to Medical Students

Knowledge of embryology is foundational for understanding normal anatomy and birth defects, yet, embryology is a notoriously difficult subject for medical students. Embryonic lateral folding in particular is one of the most challenging concepts in embryology. Highly effective teaching methods that promote active engagement with dynamic, three-dimensional models may be helpful for teaching this content. The aim of this study was to determine whether a hands-on modeling activity utilizing premade crocheted pieces constructed from durable, inexpensive yarn helped medical students enrolled in a pre-matriculation course to understand embryonic lateral folding. Change in knowledge was assessed using a pre–post design. Students also completed subjective evaluations regarding their satisfaction with the activity. Quiz scores in means (±SD) increased from 62.7 (±24.1) % before the activity to 77.0 (±17.1) % after the activity (P = 0.0495, two-tailed paired t test; d = 0.68). Generally, students reported that the activity was helpful and enjoyable, and the model pieces were easy to manipulate. These promising results suggest that hands-on activities with dynamic, three-dimensional models constitute an effective method for teaching embryology.     

Evaluating an Inquiry-based Bioinformatics Course Using Q Methodology

Faculty at a Midwestern metropolitan public university recently developed a course on bioinformatics that emphasized collaboration and inquiry. Bioinformatics, essentially the application of computational tools to biological data, is inherently interdisciplinary. Thus part of the challenge of creating this course was serving the needs and backgrounds of a diverse set of students, predominantly computer science and biology undergraduate and graduate students. Although the researchers desired to investigate student views of the course, they were interested in the potentially different perspectives. Q methodology, a measure of subjectivity, allowed the researchers to determine the various student perspectives in the bioinformatics course.     

The development of oceanographical instruments

Oceanography is necessarily a three-dimensional science, for the open surface of the sea conceals tremendous variations in depth and marked differences in temperature, salinity, and water movement, all of which are critical for marine life. Today the major research programmes study the oceans in four dimensions, since changes with time—daily, seasonal, and year-to-year—are no less important than those in space. Oceanography and meteorology have much in common: the temperature and movement of air and water cannot be directly seen from the ground or sea level, but must be investigated by means of specialised instruments whose readings can be brought back to the observer.     

Characterizing the Pedagogical Beliefs of Future Geoscience Faculty Members: a Mixed Methods Study

The next generation of professors will come from today’s graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, but we do not know much about their preparation to use research-validated teaching practices. This study characterizes the teaching beliefs of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who represent future geoscience instructors though we believe the implications go well beyond one discipline. We analyzed results from more than 600 participants who completed the Beliefs about Reformed Teaching and Learning (BARSTL) survey and a subpopulation of sixty participants who responded to the Teacher Belief Interview (TBI). We compared teaching beliefs on the basis of several factors including gender, teaching assistant experiences, and participation in professional development.     

浅谈农业科技档案服务于新农村建设

本文从丰富馆藏、农业科技档案信息的开放和利用及科技档案的编研方面,论述了科技档案在新农村建设中的作用,结合实际提出了收集优势产业的科技档案、商品价值高的科技档案、农业技术人才档案,建立具有当地特点的农业种、养、加特色档案.     

A sociometric comparison of mainstreamed,orthopedically handicapped high school students and nonhandicapped classmates

This study explored the sociometric status of orthopedically handicapped (OH) high school students in mainstreamed classrooms. Twenty-nine students in mainstreamed classrooms (e.g., spina bifida or other paralysis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy) were compared with randomly selected classmates on the Peer Rating Scale (PRS), a class-administered sociometric scale. The OH group received significantly higher scores on 2 of 12 PRS factors, as well as directionally higher scores on 8 others. These were interpreted as reflecting either genuine liking and admiration for mainstreamed OH high school students or, alternatively, a “defensive” inability on the part of peers to express base-rate negative feelings toward the orthopedically handicapped. Recommendations for future research are made.     

Protection from extinction provided by a conditioned inhibitor

Three conditioned suppression experiments with rats as subjects investigated the influence of higher order associations in determining the response potential of a target stimulus. In these experiments, a Pavlovian conditioned inhibitor was compounded with the target cue during extinction treatment. In Experiment 1, strong suppression was observed to the target cue that was given extinction treatment in the presence of a conditioned inhibitor, relative to a target that was extinguished with an associatively neutral cue or was extinguished alone, suggestive of enhanced protection from extinction provided by a conditioned inhibitor. This effect was replicated in a sensory preconditioning preparation in Experiment 2; in Experiment 3, in a sensory preconditioning preparation, this protection effect was retroactively attenuated when the conditioned excitor used to train the conditioned inhibitor was extinguished following extinction of the target. This provides evidence that, at least in a sensory preconditioning preparation, stimuli that are only indirectly associated with the target cue can contribute to the response potential of that target.     

INSTRUMENTS AND ENDS IN SPIRITUAL WORLD CONQUEST∗

It is the conviction of the editor that there is a theological basis for a theory of Christian education. In some writings, this theological basis may be hidden or be an aspect of which one is not conscious. But today, as theological reformulations continue to challenge us, theories of Christian education also have undergone certain changes. The emphasis on kerygma among both Catholic and Protestant educators is an illustration of this

As a result of this concern, the editor wrote a number of people asking their cooperation in a brief symposium. The letter and the replies follow