A comparison between mainstream and action sport industries in Australia: A case study of the skateboarding cluster

The action sport industry is a high growth sector that attracts the lucrative Generation Y market. Although there is a growing body of literature that examines the characteristics and traits of the Generation Y market as consumers of action sports, little is known about the supply side of the action sports industry. This paper illustrates through the example of the skateboarding sport cluster, that this sector has evolved in an organic, almost chaotic manner very different to that of the mainstream sports industry. Entrepreneurs have taken advantage of the open system, the lack of formal boundaries and the risk loving nature of the market to grow the sector into a very profitable industry. The paper specifically illustrates the differences to mainstream sports in relation to provision of facilities, program development and pathways and the roles of suppliers, councils and program developers.     

But I like PE: factors associated with enjoyment of physical education class in middle school girls

The current study examined associations between physical education (PE) class enjoyment and sociodemographic, personal, and perceived school environment factors among early adolescent girls. Participants included 1,511 sixth-grade girls who completed baseline assessments for the Trial of Activity in Adolescent Girls, with 50% indicating they enjoyed PE class a lot. Variables positively associated with PE class enjoyment included physical activity level, perceived benefits of physical activity, self-efficacy for leisure time physical activity, and perceived school climate for girls' physical activity as influenced by teachers, while body mass index was inversely associated with PE class enjoyment. After adjusting for all variables in the model, PE class enjoyment was significantly greater in Blacks than in Whites. In model testing, with mutual adjustment for all variables, self-efficacy was the strongest correlate of PE class enjoyment, followed by perceived benefits, race/ethnicity, and teachers' support for girls' physical activity, as compared to boys, at school. The overall model explained 11% of the variance in PE class enjoyment. Findings suggest that efforts to enhance girls' self-efficacy and perceived benefits and to provide a supportive PE class environment that promotes gender equality can potentially increase PE class enjoyment among young girls.     

The Sword and the Sun: The Old World Drought Atlas as a Source for Medieval Mediterranean History

The release of the Old World Drought Atlas (OWDA) in November 2015 provides historians with an unprecedented glimpse into the climate of the medieval world. Through the careful examination of tree-ring data provided by the OWDA, historians can better gauge how the environment affected the course of medieval Mediterranean history, particularly in times and places where textual data is sparse, such as North Africa. The case studies of the Norman conquest of the coast of Ifrīqiyya in the 1140s and the invasion by the Banū Hilāl in the mid-eleventh century show the utility of the OWDA for gaining a better understanding the medieval Mediterranean. In particular, OWDA data shows that the arrival of the Banū Hilāl into Ifrīqiyya coincided with a period of extended drought that is not documented in the written sources and suggests that increased competition for scarce resources was instrumental to their entrance into the region.     

Children's ideas about evaporation

This article reports on research conducted as part of the Primary Science Processes and Concept Exploration (space) Project. The background to, and orientation of, space is briefly described.

Classroom‐based research into children's thinking about evaporation is reported. This work was conducted in close collaboration with teachers of the 5‐11 years age range with the intention of establishing the viability of the techniques for eliciting ideas and managing subsequent interventions within classrooms.

Children's thinking in relation to three main evaporation phenomena are discussed. Ideas about evaporation were categorized by reference to notions of conservation, change of location and change of form of the water.     

Creating,implementing and integrating a first‐year statistics requirement

We present the process our institution used to create a statistics requirement for almost all incoming first‐year students. From conception and planning, to hiring and acceptance by the university community, we offer lessons learned should you consider making such a shift in your own curriculum.