When is Fiction as Good as Fact? Comparing the Influence of Documentary and Historical Reenactment Films on Engagement,Affect, Issue Interest,and Learning

This study advances documentary film effects research by comparing the influence of a political documentary with a historical reenactment film on narrative engagement, affect, learning, and interest. Using the Rwandan genocide as a context of study, a documentary film, The Triumph of Evil, and the historical reenactment fictional film, Hotel Rwanda, were examined. Results revealed significant differences between documentary and historical reenactment film exposure for affective responses and issue knowledge gain. However, increased issue interest and narrative engagement were not significantly different for the two stimulus groups, suggesting that dramatic fictional reenactments of socio-political events lead to increased issue interest as much or more than the live footage and factual account of events offered in a documentary. The results of this study are discussed in terms of their importance for key democratic outcome variables (e.g., knowledge and participation), along with suggestions for future documentary film research.     

The Bibliophile Andrei Avinoff: Additional Information Regarding Soviet Book Sales of the Interwar Period (1917–1937)

This article concludes work started for a presentation on bibliophile Andrei Avinoff made at a symposium on Russian art and Russian studies in America in 2008 and for the 2009 book Treasures into Tractors. A member of the pre-Revolutionary Russian aristocracy, Andrei Avinoff, emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and managed to collect imperial association books and books on Russian art from some of the same dealers—Simeon Bolan and Israel Perlstein—who were supplying large research institutions such as the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and Harvard University Library with the same material.     

Pageant of the Tsars: The Romanov Coronation Albums

This essay and checklist document the exhibition Pageant of the Tsars: The Romanov Coronation Albums, held at Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens February 16–June 8, 2013. The exhibition focused on the history of the Romanovs through the lens of the coronation albums of the tsars. Based on the collection of five of the seven coronation albums held in the Hillwood library, the exhibition was supplemented with objects from the museum and library collections, loans from other institutions, and electronic versions of the albums available on iPads in the exhibition and via the iBooks store. The show marked the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Romanov dynasty in 1613.     

Learning to use information: Informed learning in the undergraduate classroom

Informed learning is a pedagogy that focuses on learning subject content through engaging with academic or professional information practices. Adopting the position that more powerful learning is achieved where students are taught how to use information and subject content simultaneously, the research reported here investigated an informed learning lesson. Using phenomenographic methods, students' experiences of the lesson were compared with observations of how the lesson was enacted in the classroom. Based on an analysis of student interviews using variation theory, different ways of experiencing the informed learning lesson emerged. Some students understood the lesson to be about learning to use information, i.e., researching and writing an academic paper, while others understood it as focusing on understanding both subject content and information use simultaneously. Although the results of this study are highly contextualized, the findings suggest criteria to consider when designing informed learning lessons.     

The influence of temperature and humidity on swelling and surfactant migration in acrylic emulsion paint films

It has often been observed anecdotally and implied through experimentation that acrylic emulsion paintings accumulate and entrain soils over time due to the inherent mechanical softness in artist's acrylic paint films, through the presence of hydrophilic film components, and by virtue of the ubiquitous presence of surfactant moieties on these film surfaces once they dry. In the present study, it has been this last effect that we have sought to describe more fully in terms of surfactant responsiveness to both temperature and relative humidity (RH). Surfactant hydration and dehydration under varying temperature and RH conditions affects the ultimate partitioning of the surfactant at the paint–air interface, as well as the inherent size, aggregation tendencies, and solubility of surfactant in the bulk paint materials which contain components that are highly responsive to changes in temperature and RH (e.g. polyacrylic or polymaleic anhydride-type dispersal materials). In this work, analytical techniques including three-dimensional microscopy and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation were used to add to and reinforce current understanding of the physical and mechanical changes to acrylic paint films with temperature and RH. The migration of surfactant at the film surface was studied using desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared microscopy.     

Getting along: How teachers can support children's peer relationships

Peer relationships provide an important context for the young child's social development. Teachers can influence children's developing social competence in a variety of ways. This article describes how teachers can support children's peer relationships by intentionally shaping the classroom's physical and emotional context. With these basic supports in place, teachers can effectively use planned activities and on-the-spot guidance to help children learn to interact competently and form satisfying relationships.     

C2STEM: a System for Synergistic Learning of Physics and Computational Thinking

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Synergistic learning combining computational thinking (CT) and STEM has proven to be an effective method for advancing learning and understanding in a...     

Cultivating a Culture of Undergraduate Research at a Public Comprehensive University

Abstract

Winthrop University is a public comprehensive university of about 6000 students, 5000 of whom are undergraduates. The Department of Mathematics offers a baccalaureate degree in mathematics, but has no graduate degree programs. As late as 2009, there was essentially no undergraduate research in the department. At this time, faculty made efforts to cultivate a research program that would motivate faculty to pursue more scholarly opportunities and include undergraduates in their scholarship. These efforts began with in-house-sponsored summer programs that lasted a few weeks and grew over the subsequent 5 year period to several externally funded undergraduate research programs, including a National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates program. In this paper, we discuss some lessons we learned in developing a culture of undergraduate research. We focus on the advantages and challenges of undergraduate research at primarily undergraduate universities, offer advice for starting or growing a research program, and provide resources for funding undergraduate research.     

Comparison of examination methods used in the evaluation of prepubertal and pubertal female genitalia: a descriptive study

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of three different examination methods in their ability to help the examiner detect both acute and non-acute genital injuries in prepubertal and pubertal girls suspected of having been sexually abused. METHODS: Forty-six prepubertal and 74 pubertal girls, whose ages ranged from 4 months to 18 years, were evaluated to determine the relative effectiveness of three different examination methods. RESULTS: All the girls had sustained a recent genital injury from various causes. The mean time between an injury and the first examination was 24h for the prepubertal girls and 27h for the pubertal girls. The three "multimethod" examination approaches used were the supine labial separation method; the supine labial traction technique; and the prone knee-chest position. The supine labial separation method was useful in identifying an injury on the external portion of the genitalia in both groups of girls. Injuries within the vestibule, on the hymenal surface, or in the fossa navicularis required greater separation of the labia. This was accomplished through the use of either the supine labial traction technique or the prone knee-chest position. The prone knee-chest position was the most successful method for identifying hymenal lacerations in both groups of girls. Of the 10 hymenal lacerations detected in the prepubertal girls 20% were identified during the use of the supine labial separation method, 60% with the supine labial traction technique, and 100% with the prone knee-chest position approach. Of the 49 hymenal lacerations detected in the pubertal girls 24% were identified with the supine labial separation method, 65% with the supine labial traction technique, and 90% with the prone knee-chest position approach. The data from this study has shown that the results of a medical examination will vary by the method employed. CONCLUSIONS: While no single technique detected all the injuries, the use of the multimethod examination approach did prove to be a valuable adjunct in the evaluation of both the prepubertal and the pubertal girl's genitalia, particularly in the identification of a hymenal laceration. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This approach uses three different examination methods: the supine labial separation method, the supine labial traction technique, and the prone knee-chest position. According to the results of this study, without the combined use of these three methods a significant number of injuries, particularly hymenal lacerations, could be missed in both the child and the adolescent.