Bike Athlete Performance, Blog 8

Student blog posts from the Great VCU Bike Race Book

Critique [of The Challenges and Limitations of Conducting Research Among the Old Order Amish by Jerry Savells and Thomas Foster]

Savells and Foster in individual settings and circumstances have conducted research among members of the Old Order Amish using interviews and questionnaire surveys. While they report their efforts in one paper, this reviewer suspects each author had very different purposes in mind as he conducted his individual ethnographic research project. Savells\u27s and Foster\u27s research may have generated new information, but this information needs to be linked with earlier research findings which in turn can be used to create new knowledge. The theoretical framework from which each worked is not clear, although both authors do attempt to place their findings within the historical, social, and cultural framework of the Amish communities they studied

Critique [of Equity and Excellence in Education--Compatible Concepts or Hostile Abstractions? by Theresa E. McCormick]

Theresa McCormick argues that equity and excellence in education should not be accepted as being on opposite ends of a continuum, but rather should be viewed as two related components of education. The twin concepts of equity and excellence are compatible and must be identified as important goals of education. Educators at all instructional levels in all subject disciplines need to include a study of and value these educational and social concepts. These concepts can be taught to young people as fairness and goodness. More mature students can examine the concepts from the perspective of several academic disciplines

[Review of] James A. Banks and Cherry A. McGee Banks, eds. Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives

With a rapidly increasing minority population in the United States, it is more important than ever for both future and experienced teachers to recognize and appreciate the diversity of young people enrolled in our schools. By the year 2000 it is projected that one of three or more students will be part of an ethnic minority. In some cities and states, minority background students are already the majority school population. Teachers will be facing more and more students from different ethnic, cultural, language, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds. Many classes will include special needs students who are gifted, handicapped, or both. It is also important for teachers to keep in mind that most students will represent several of these backgrounds, and their behaviors and values will be influenced accordingly. In addition, teachers will need to be sensitive to gender differences. All in all, teachers\u27 responsibilities will increase in the coming years

Applying trait-based models to achieve functional targets for theory-driven ecological restoration

Manipulating community assemblages to achieve functional targets is a key component of restoring degraded ecosystems. The response-and-effect trait framework provides a conceptual foundation for translating restoration goals into functional trait targets, but a quantitative framework has been lacking for translating trait targets into assemblages of species that practitioners can actually manipulate. This study describes new trait-based models that can be used to generate ranges of species abundances to test theories about which traits, which trait values and which species assemblages are most effective for achieving functional outcomes. These models are generalisable, flexible tools that can be widely applied across many terrestrial ecosystems. Examples illustrate how the framework generates assemblages of indigenous species to (1) achieve desired community responses by applying the theories of environmental filtering, limiting similarity and competitive hierarchies, or (2) achieve desired effects on ecosystem functions by applying the theories of mass ratios and niche complementarity. Experimental applications of this framework will advance our understanding of how to set functional trait targets to achieve the desired restoration goals. A trait-based framework provides restoration ecology with a robust scaffold on which to apply fundamental ecological theory to maintain resilient and functioning ecosystems in a rapidly changing world

[Review of] Philip S. Foner and Josephine F. Pacheco. Three Who Dared: Prudence Crandall, Margaret Douglass, Myrtilla Miner-Champions of Antebellum Black Education

Foner and Pacheco have written biographical sketches of three women who endured personal hardship and suffered persecution because they decided to teach non-slave black children in antebellum America. While the three teachers, Prudence Crandall, Margaret Douglass, and Myrtilla Miner, lived and taught in different parts of the country, Connecticut, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., respectively, they shared similar experiences and provided antislavery proponents with evidence of the many personal hardships and indignities blacks experienced and suffered. In general, most members of the antislavery movement agreed on the importance of education for blacks and worked to establish educational institutions through fundraising efforts and letter writing. Each woman had strong supporters as well as detractors. Each learned firsthand that prejudice and racism were not confined to a specific geographic location