Individual differences in young children's recall and clustering of pictures

Children's incidental recall of pictures was examined in two related experiments. Extrapolating from adult research, it was predicted that categorizing pictures with respect to their semantic properties would yield greater recall than categorizing them according to their physical properties. In Experiment 1, second-grade children were exposed to 16 line drawings cross-classified to represent four taxonomic categories and four shape categories, with four instances per category. Control subjects simply looked at pictures. Semantic subjects identified each picture's semantic category, and Physical subjects identified each physical category. In Experiment 2, first graders freely sorted the pictures and were classified as Semantic or Physical sorters based on their predominant bases for sorting. Following exposure (Experiment 1) or sorting (Experiment 2), all subjects were asked to recall the picture names. Results of both experiments show that semantic classification yields greater recall than physical classification. Experiment 2 also shows that semantic sorting yields greater semantic clustering in recall and that sorting by physical category yields greater physical clustering. It was suggested that children's preferences for a mode of processing (Experiment 2) may constitute an individual difference dimension with fairly clear-cut instructional implications.     

NASA Education: Using Inquiry in the Classroom So that Students See Learning in a Whole New Light

This article addresses how NASA uses inquiry in the classroom so that students can see learning in a whole new light. The goal is to increase scientific literacy among Americans and to entice a greater number of students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Although NASA offers a diverse array of programs that incorporate inquiry learning through a well-established distribution network, this article examines two programs: the Virtual Design Center (VDC), created by the Classroom of the Future^TM, and the NASA Explorer Schools program, one of four pathfinder initiatives that the Agency launched to inspire the next generation of space explorers.     

Weeding without Walking: A Mediated Approach to List-Based Deselection

Weeding an academic library is a complicated practice that tends to arouse debate. Despite these contentions, weeding is necessary to deal with the changing needs for space in many libraries. This article describes a holistic weeding project at LaGuardia Community College Library. It reviews several approaches the project team considered and draws on research, practice, and discussion to evaluate them. It concludes that weeding requires a balance between objective rules and professional judgment. The resulting workflow uses an interactive spreadsheet to automate some of the research work involved in deciding the fate of a book, allowing librarians to practice subjective weeding without walking through the stacks.     

Gauging the gaps in student problem-solving skills: assessment of individual and group use of problem-solving strategies using online discussions

For the past 3 yr, faculty at the University of New Mexico, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology have been using interactive online Problem-Based Learning (PBL) case discussions in our large-enrollment classes. We have developed an illustrative tracking method to monitor student use of problem-solving strategies to provide targeted help to groups and to individual students. This method of assessing performance has a high interrater reliability, and senior students, with training, can serve as reliable graders. We have been able to measure improvements in many students' problem-solving strategies, but, not unexpectedly, there is a population of students who consistently apply the same failing strategy when there is no faculty intervention. This new methodology provides an effective tool to direct faculty to constructively intercede in this area of student development.     

Movie Stars and the Distribution of Financially Successful Films in the Motion Picture Industry

Audiences choose to see films using information from previous films. A stochastic consumer choice process based on this assumption generates a particular distribution of financially successful films among film types. Movie stars can be used to mark these successful film types. Thus, their star power originates not only from box-office appeal but also from marking power. Evidence of 960 top 20 films released in the United States and Canada between 1940–1955 and 1960–1995 is consistent with this model.     

Increasing state public health professionals' proficiency in using PubMed

Objective: The paper provides an overview of a strategy to increase utilization of online bibliographic databases by public health workers.Methods: A web-based survey of professional staff in the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services was conducted to assess their use of and interest in training in online bibliographic databases. Based on the findings from the assessment, the department, in collaboration with the state university, provided brief ninety-minute training sessions for interested staff on the use of PubMed.Results: Seventy of 115 (61%) of staff completed the survey. Only 39% of staff reported using an online bibliographic database to conduct a literature search in the past year, and only 10% (n=7) reported having ever received any training in their use. Perceived proficiency with the use of PubMed was higher upon completion of the brief training. The majority of training participants (n=27) indicated that they were very likely to use PubMed in the next year to search the literature.Conclusions: A collaboratively designed training can increase public health workers'' proficiency in and intentions of using online bibliographic databases.

Highlights

• A web-based assessment of Montana public health workers identified a lack of training in and use of online bibliographic databases and an interest in receiving training in their use.
• Brief training in the use of online bibliographic databases increased state public health workers'' self-assessed proficiency in and intentions of using these resources.

Implications

• Low-cost strategies, such as inexpensive web-survey tools, to assess staff needs and brief training sessions for public health workers were effective in increasing public health workers'' self-assessed proficiency in using online bibliographic databases.
• Collaboration between state health departments and universities to design and provide relevant training in the use of online bibliographic databases is an effective approach to addressing public health workers'' skills in using these resources.