CIRRIE: an international rehabilitation resource

The CIRRIE Database of International Rehabilitation Research is an appropriate companion resource to NARIC's REHABDATA Literature Database. It is produced at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York (or SUNY-Buffalo to those from the Northeast). CIRRIE includes only published information resources that cover research that is conducted outside of the United States. Those who wish to locate information about published research conducted within the United States should consult REHABDATA. This column presents basic information about the database, its searching conventions and thesaurus, and some general information about CIRRIE as a general resource of online information.     

Identifying patterns and relationships among the responses of seventh-grade students to the science process skill of designing experiments

The development of reasoning skills, higher-level thinking skills, and science process skills are some of the benefits students can realize by participating in inquiry in the science laboratory. We used student responses to the Alternative Assessment of Science Process Skills (AASPS) developed by the Missouri Department of Education and the Department of Educational Assessment to develop the Science Process Skills Inventory (SPSI). The SPSI was then used to analyze student efforts at writing experimental designs. Our goal was to gain insight into factors that may be related to students successfully designing experiments. The instrument guides teachers and researchers in assessing seven main components of experimental designs. Each component consists of elements unique to the specific laboratory exercise. Subsequent to its development, the instrument was used to score 364 student responses to the “design an experiment” portion of an alternative assessment instrument for science process skills. Results indicate that explicit, incremental development of the science process skills of formulating hypotheses and identifying variables, together with model examples, may be a means to facilitate student success in designing science experiments. Implications for the classroom and for research are discussed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Rise and Fall of the Science Advisor to the President of the United States

The president’s science advisor was formerly established in the days following the Soviet launch of Sputnik at the height of the Cold War, creating an impression of scientists at the center of presidential power. However, since that time the role of the science advisor has been far more prosaic, with a role that might be more aptly described as a coordinator of budgets and programs, and thus more closely related to the functions of the Office of Management and Budget than the development of presidential policy. This role dramatically enhances the position of the scientific community to argue for its share of federal expenditures. At the same time, scientific and technological expertise permeates every function of government policy and politics, and the science advisor is only rarely involved in wider White House decision making. The actual role of the science advisor as compared to its heady initial days, in the context of an overall rise of governmental expertise, provides ample reason to reconsider the role of the presidential science advisor, and to set our expectations for that role accordingly.

Tackling the challenge of controlling the spin with electric field

Electric(E)fields are commonly em-ployed to control magnetization in some classes of materials such as multiferroics.However,the extreme confinement of the elec...     

Are we safe? NLM's household products database

This column features an overview of the Division of Specialized Information Services, National Library of Medicine Household Products Database. Basic searching techniques are presented, as well as a brief overview of the data contained in this file. The Household Products Database contains information on chemical ingredients in various products used in U.S. homes.     

Specific Learning Difficulties and Peer Support

This article describes a project aimed at supporting secondary-school pupils with specific learning difficulties, using a peer support approach. Feedback obtained from the school's special educational needs co-ordinator and from the pupils themselves indicated some degree of success for the project in terms of developments in the pupils' response to learning and in their self-perceptions. The involvement of older pupils as contributors to the group is identified as one factor in the success of the project. The project format and the content of the group sessions are described in sufficient detail to enable colleagues to run similar groups should they wish.