Today's Dilemma in Engineering Education

The present wide-scale activity to increase the science content of engineering curricula can, if not skillfully accomplished, result in the teaching of science, and not the engineering of science, to engineers. The changes experienced in the substance of the curricula are sometimes so great that faculties encounter great difficulty in providing worthwhile engineering examples to support their presentations of engineering science.     

Spatial pattern learning in the radial arm maze

Rats experienced a spatial pattern of baited and unbaited arms in an eight-arm radial maze. The spatial pattern remained constant over trials, but the spatial locations that were baited varied unpredictably. Although there was no evidence of control by the spatial pattern during free choice training trials, the rats’ ability to locate baited arms in forced choice test trials was superior to that of animals in a control condition for which maze arms were not baited in a consistent spatial pattern. This is consistent with the results of experiments showing that spatial choices by rats in a pole box maze are controlled by abstract spatial patterns.     

e-Learning Object Portals: a new resource that offers new opportunities for librarians

e-Learning Object Portals are emerging as a new form of electronic information. Four portals most effective in providing health care information are identified: The Medical Library Association's Center of Research and Education (CORE), the Health Education Assets Library (HEAL), the American Academy of Medical College's MedEDPortal, and the Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT). Various user groups such as librarians, educators, and students are discussed, as well as their reasons for using e-learning object portals. New roles for librarians in promoting and developing these portals are also reviewed.