Reconstructing science teacher education within communities of learners

This article is based on a paper which received the “Innovation in Teaching Science Teachers” Award at the 1993 annual meeting of the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science.     

Thyroid hormone levels and psychological symptoms in sexually abused adolescent girls

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationships between psychological symptoms and thyroid hormone levels in adolescent girls who had experienced the traumatic stress of sexual abuse. METHOD: The study design was cross-sectional/correlational. Subjects (N=22; age range=12-18 years) had their blood drawn, and they completed 2 psychological tests (depression and general distress/posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]). A pediatrician completed a sexual abuse questionnaire after reviewing law enforcement and Child Protective Services reports and conducting forensic interviews and medical examinations. RESULTS: Girls' average free T4, total T4, free T3, total T3, and TSH levels were within age-specific laboratory reference range limits, as were most individual concentrations. The strongest correlations (p<.05) were between free T3 and PTSD total score (-.50), PTSD-avoidance/numbing (-.49), and general distress (-.48); and between total T3 and depression (-.46), general distress (-.45), and PTSD-arousal (-.44). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support one of the two contemporary models of the relationships between thyroid hormones (i.e., free and total T3) and psychological symptoms (i.e., depression, general distress, and PTSD)--one of "shutting down" (vs. "activation") in the face of trauma.     

Not just for celebrities: collaborating with a PR representative to market library education services

Hardin Library for the Health Sciences offers an education service called Hardin House Calls. In collaboration with the University of Iowa libraries' public relations coordinator, the education team developed a marketing campaign for Hardin House Calls. Marketing strategies included designing a new logo, meeting with external relations representatives and faculty, distributing a user survey, and producing and distributing posters and advertisements. These marketing strategies greatly increased the visibility and use of Hardin House Calls. The campaign also led to a series of faculty development sessions, education collaborations with smaller health sciences departments, and collection development opportunities. Promoting an instructional service through a public relations frameworkwas found to be a highly successful strategy.     

SABCO—An experiential learning project for introductory managerial accounting

This teaching brief presents a capstone project designed to provide students with a contextual understanding of introductory management accounting theories through hands-on, experiential learning. It also exposes them to cross-disciplinary roles from operations management. Using this capstone approach, students quickly learn to prepare financial projections, either manually or in Microsoft Excel, to secure financing for their start-up business (Sand Art Brownie Company or SABCO) to produce and sell brownie mix during the holiday season. Students then assemble ingredients and create jars of brownie mix to gather the necessary data to evaluate initial projections and problem-solve for future production. This role play contextualizes the elements of direct and indirect labor, fixed and variable costs, and their impact on profit and borrowing. Postproduction reflection on the manufacturing activities and discussion of actual results of operations emphasizes the improvement and decision-making responsibilities in the management process. Feedback demonstrates that students find the exercise challenging and valuable and that it deepens their understanding of managerial accounting and its purpose in a company's management process.     

An Examination of the Effects of Situational Constraints on Appraised Performance

Most workers are subject to factors in the work place that are beyond their power to control and that act to restrict their performances. Despite the uncontrollable nature of these ‘“situational constraints,” there is evidence that appraisals of work performance tend lo unfairly blame the worker for the shortfalls in performance that these constraints cause. The magnitude of this tendency may be unclear due to the ways in which constraints have been assessed in previous research. A lab study was conducted to obtain a better estimate of the magnitude of situational constraint “bias” using a relativistic rating method that factors out the influence of constraints from performance appraisals. The results indicated that this bias is considerably stronger than previous reports had indicated and may be the dominant source of unfairness in performance appraisals.