Beyond stacking in American football towards an understanding of cultural transmission,social identity and self-categorization

Relying on cultural transmission, social identity and self-categorization theories, this study uses an innovative two-part photo-pasting and survey method to investigate quantitatively and qualitatively non-fans’, fans’ and players’ assumptions about what positions black and white players should occupy in American football. Both white and black players and fans showed evidence of being cultural transmitters of racial ideologies associated with the quarterback position in American football. Overall, the respondent choices for quarterback diverged significantly from equality but not significantly from the reality of the National Football League. Players and fan and non-fan participants alike showed evidence of being cultural consumers and transmitters of racial ideologies associated with the quarterback position. Narrative reasons for player choices aligned with past literature about racial stereotypes. On most measures, the findings did not differ greatly among the institutions from which study participants were drawn, their diversity in geography, racial composition, ideology, athletic division and public–private status notwithstanding.     

Development of system thinking skills in the context of earth system education

The current study deals with the development of system thinking skills at the junior high school level. The sample population included about 50 eighth‐grade students from two different classes of an urban Israeli junior high school who studied an earth systems‐based curriculum that focused on the hydro cycle. The study addressed the following research questions: (a) Could the students deal with complex systems?; (b) What has influenced the students' ability to deal with system perception?; and (c) What are the relationship among the cognitive components of system thinking? The research combined qualitative and quantitative methods and involved various research tools, which were implemented in order to collect the data concerning the students' knowledge and understanding before, during, and following the learning process. The findings indicated that the development of system thinking in the context of the earth systems consists of several sequential stages arranged in a hierarchical structure. The cognitive skills that are developed in each stage serve as the basis for the development of the next higher‐order thinking skills. The research showed that in spite of the minimal initial system thinking abilities of the students most of them made some meaningful progress in their system thinking skills, and a third of them reached the highest level of system thinking in the context of the hydro cycle. Two main factors were found to be the source of the differential progress of the students: (a) the students' individual cognitive abilities, and (b) their level of involvement in the knowledge integration activities during their inquiry‐based learning both indoors and outdoors. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An examination of the interactions between museum educators and students on a school visit to science museum

Today, science is a major part of western culture. Discussions about the need for members of the public to access and understand scientific information are therefore well established, citing the importance of such information to responsible citizenship, democracy, socially accountable scientific research and public funding (National Research Council [2009] Learning science in informal environments: People, places, and pursuits. National Academies Press). In recent years there has been an increased interest in investigating not just what visitors to informal environments have learnt after a visit, but also how visitors interact and engage with exhibits during the visit (Davidsson & Jakobsson [2012] Understanding interactions at science centers and museums: Approaching sociocultural perspectives. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers). Within the field of school visits to science museums, however, interactions between students and museum educators (MEs) remain relatively unexplored. In our study of such school visits, we are mainly interested in the interactions that take place between three agents—the students, the museum educator and the physical setting of the exhibit. Using moment-to-moment fine grain analysis of multiple interactions allowed us to identify recurring patterns between students and the museum educators around exhibits, and to examine the MEs’ mediational role during the interactions, and the practices they employ to engage students with exhibits. Our study revealed that most interactions between MEs and students consist of technical explanations of how to operate the exhibits. The interactions that do move past this stage often include two main practices, which the MEs use to promote students’ engagement with the exhibits: physical instruction and engaging the students emotionally. Understanding what is actually happening in the learning process that occurs during students’ interactions with exhibits can help museum educators and exhibit designers improve the experiences of students on school visits.     

The effect of beetroot juice supplementation on repeat-sprint performance in hypoxia

This investigation assessed the effect of dietary nitrate (NO₃^?) supplementation, in the form of beetroot juice (BR), on repeat-sprint performance in normoxia and normobaric hypoxia. 12 male team-sport athletes (age 22.3 ± 2.6 y, VO_2peak 53.1 ± 8.7 mL.kg^?1.min^?1) completed three exercise trials involving a 10 min submaximal warm-up and 4 sets of cycling repeat-sprint efforts (RSE; 9 × 4 s) at sea level (CON), or at 3000 m simulated altitude following acute supplementation (140 mL) with BR (HYP_BR; 13 mmol NO₃^?) or NO₃^–depleted BR placebo (HYP_PLA). Peak (PPO) and mean (MPO) power output, plus work decrement were recorded during the RSE task, while oxygen consumption (VO₂) was measured during the warm-up. There were no significant differences observed between HYP_BR and HYP_PLA for PPO or MPO; however, work decrement was reduced in the first RSE set in HYP_BR compared with HYP_PLA. There was a moderate effect for VO₂ to be lower following BR at the end of the 10 min warm-up (ES = 0.50 ± 0.51). Dietary NO₃^? may not improve repeat-sprint performance in hypoxia but may reduce VO₂ during submaximal exercise. Therefore, BR supplementation may be more effective for performance improvement during predominantly aerobic exercise.     

Does STES‐Oriented Science Education Promote 10th‐Grade Students’ Decision‐Making Capability?

Today’s society is continuously coping with sustainability‐related complex issues in the Science‐Technology‐Environment‐Society (STES) interfaces. In those contexts, the need and relevance of the development of students’ higher‐order cognitive skills (HOCS) such as question‐asking, critical‐thinking, problem‐solving and decision‐making capabilities within science teaching have been argued by several science educators for decades. Three main objectives guided this study: (1) to establish “base lines” for HOCS capabilities of 10th grade students (n = 264) in the Israeli educational system; (2) to delineate within this population, two different groups with respect to their decision‐making capability, science‐oriented (n = 142) and non‐science (n = 122) students, Groups A and B, respectively; and (3) to assess the pre‐post development/change of students’ decision‐making capabilities via STES‐oriented HOCS‐promoting curricular modules entitled Science, Technology and Environment in Modern Society (STEMS). A specially developed and validated decision‐making questionnaire was used for obtaining a research‐based response to the guiding research questions. Our findings suggest that a long‐term persistent application of purposed decision‐making, promoting teaching strategies, is needed in order to succeed in affecting, positively, high‐school students’ decision‐making ability. The need for science teachers’ involvement in the development of their students’ HOCS capabilities is thus apparent.     

A medical journal's beta site: experimentation at NEJM

When continuous development becomes the norm on the social web, finding a way to put forward new development ideas to your audience and get their feedback at an early stage is the natural result. This article discusses how one major medical journal created a ‘beta’ site to support new online development and gather user feedback, speeding development initiatives and creating intrinsic value in the experimental environment. The goals of the site, organization of the teams, and practical and brand benefits are discussed.     

Measuring Socioeconomic Status at the School Level

Why is there an increased need for quantitative indicators of student socioeconomic status at the school level? What alternative approaches have been used to measure SES? Can principals accurately estimate the SES distribution of their student populations? How do their estimates correlate with other indexes o f family SES?