THE FUNCTION OF THE HOME

Several months ago, while on a trip East, the editor conversed with a fellow‐traveller about a projected plan for introducing weekday religious education in Ellwood City, Pa. The plan as developed contains several rather interesting features, which may be of value to those planning week‐day instruction in other places. With the consent of Rev. Arthur M. Stevenson, to whose tact and good judgment the successful outcome is largely due, we print his letter giving details.     

Cross-cultural homestays: An analysis of college students' responses after living in an unfamiliar culture

The purpose of the present exploratory study was to Jnvestigate the effects of the Johnston College cross-cultural homestay program upon student attitudes and health. During the four years of the program. 59 students lived fora period of one month in unfamiliar cultures in the Southwest and Mexico. Subjects for this study were 45 undergraduate students with a median age of 19 who came from relatively affluent family backgrounds. A one-group protest, posttest design was used employing five instruments. Participating students resembled, in most respects, other Johnston College students. It was concluded that the experience was more unsettling for the men students than it was for the women students. Future research was recommended to determine the extent to which there are sex differences in cross-cultural adaption.     

The Topical Museum of Natural History: A Walking Paper

Abstract As museums enter a new century, they are challenged to demonstrate their relevance to society. Increasingly, institutions have recognized that in order to thrive, they must ensure that mission‐related activities—exhibits and programs, collections and research—are meaningful to the public they rely on for support. Numerous deeply‐ingrained habits of practice and of thought have prevented object‐based exhibits from responding effectively to visitor interests. For museums to be truly relevant to their audiences, this paper argues for a fundamental shift in how they think about and organize exhibits. Exhibits need to become more topical and issue‐oriented, rather than generalized and systematic. Furthermore, a successful topical exhibit program needs to operate on two separate, yet integrated, levels: long‐term exhibits providing context on broadly relevant, interdisciplinary themes shorter‐term exhibits on specific, current issues embedded within the longterm exhibits, linking that broad content to visitors' lives Beyond the crucial role of increasing the museum's relevance to its audience, such an exhibits program would have numerous ancillary benefits, including more evenly distributed costs, greater creativity, lessened job burnout, and new funding opportunities. Though specifically addressing natural history museums, aspects of this paper should be relevant to museums of all kinds.     

Experiential archaeology: Is virtual time travel possible?

Advances in computing hardware coupled with its software counterparts have, for the past decades, influenced to a greater extent both the workflow of archaeologists and their interpretation of archaeological data. On the leisurely periphery, the synergy that arises between entertainment demands and commercial driven developments of interactive 3D (i3D) computer games has pushed these technologies beyond the expectations of the Virtual Reality (VR) community. This phenomenal growth in useable technology and its proportionate decrease in price have benefited the applicability of VR which in turn, have made it more accessible for researchers wishing to harness its benefits. The last 10 years have seen a steady increase in the use of VR technology to restore, preserve, reconstruct, recreate, and visualise ancient sites, monuments and artefacts. But, is technology ready for virtual time travel (VTT)? This article examines the possibility of experiential archaeology in voltage and silicon with the aim of formulating a strategy for VTT.     

The prediction of drought: a meteorological perspective

Prospects for drought prediction up to a few seasons in advance seem a bit brighter than a decade ago. This is due in part to advances in the numerical modelling of the coupled atmosphere-ocean-land surface system, and is particularly true for the tropics, where a better understanding of the relationship between sea surface temperature anomalies and interannual climate variability has emerged. On longer time-scales, efforts to predict runs of predominantly dry years or multi-year trends in precipitation will continue to be hazardous and highly controversial until the controlling processes are better understood.