Enhancing allocentric spatial recall in pre-schoolers through navigational training programme

Unlike for other abilities, children do not receive systematic spatial orientation training at school, even though navigational training during adulthood improves spatial skills. We investigated whether navigational training programme (NTP) improved spatial orientation skills in pre-schoolers. We administered 12-week NTP to seventeen 4- to 5-year-old children (training group, TG). The TG children and 17 age-matched children (control group, CG) who underwent standard didactics were tested twice before (T0) and after (T1) the NTP using tasks that tap into landmark, route and survey representations. We determined that the TG participants significantly improved their performances in the most demanding navigational task, which is the task that taps into survey representation. This improvement was significantly higher than that observed in the CG, suggesting that NTP fostered the acquisition of survey representation. Such representation is typically achieved by age seven. This finding suggests that NTP improves performance on higher-level navigational tasks in pre-schooler

COVID-19: Emerging Challenges for Students in Medicine and Schools in the United States

The coronavirus pandemic has changed the world everywhere, including the lives of high schoolers in America. The sudden sharp rise in coronavirus cases forced the closure of schools in Mid-March to curb the further spread of the virus. Several end-of-the-year celebrations, school activities, and examinations were canceled. At the same time, the cancellations gave a chance for the youth to adapt to uncertain situations and learn adifferent perspective of life. Living in Florida, a state that battles hurricanes for almost half a year, school closures have become the norm: it is not rare for students to be reminded to keep their textbooks and notes home for a week or two. Prepared from past closures due to hurricanes, the school district board already had a virtual school platform, and the principal instructed all students to shift to Zoom and alternative eLearning. However, when the coronavirus pandemic led to the indefinite closure of high schools across the country, thiswas something new, different, and unexpected that school communities had to face

Inside Magazine, March 2013

Iowa Department of Transportation Newsletter. INSIDE Magazine is developed to help keep all Iowa DOT employees informed about critical issues affecting them, recognize DOT employees for their excellent service and share interesting aspects in the lives of our co-workers

Each and Every Child: E-newsletter, March 2017, Vol. 7, no. 3

This e-newsletter is designed to enhance the communication between the teacher and parent. Produced by the Iowa Department of Education's Bureau of Student and Family Support Services

Development of a Method - All in the “Letters”: Exploring the Relationship Between Expressive Arts Therapy and the Grieving Process with Adolescents

There are more than 5.3 million bereaved youth in the United States (Judi’s House/JAG Institute & The New York Life Foundation, 2022), a number that is only growing. Finding effective therapeutic interventions for bereaved youth is an ethical imperative. This capstone thesis considers the relationship between expressive therapies and bereavement work with adolescents, specifically the use of expressive arts therapy. Grief theories are explored in a literature review, along with a survey of existing empirical research conducted using expressive therapies with bereaved populations. Few empirical studies have focused on expressive arts therapy and bereavement work with adolescents, an observation which sparked the method developed as part of this capstone thesis. Offered to seven parentally bereaved adolescents attending virtual peer support groups, the method was a multimodal experiential consisting of two complementary “letter-writing” prompts: the first was to “write a letter” to the person in their life who died, and the second was to “write a letter” to themselves at the time of or before the death. Responses shared by group members influenced how the method developed, and informed the artistic reflections included in this capstone thesis. Experimenting with this method strengthened the writer’s belief that the relationship between expressive arts therapy and bereavement work with adolescents merits further exploration

Leveraging Community Partnerships to Engage Digitally Foreign Learners in Response to COVID-19

This practitioner perspective discusses how creating and leveraging community partnerships in response to COVID-19 enhanced remote learning with science curriculum in an urban middle school with digitally foreign learners. The term digitally foreign learners was coined by the authors to contextualize the experiences of students with limited digital learning both at home and in school as a result of the digital divide. By developing a partnership with the nonprofit organization, I AM not the MEdia, Inc., along with parents and an external educator, the authors describe how a classroom blog site was created that enhanced remote learning engagement with students and families in a high poverty community. Strategies for addressing technology inequities and engaging digitally foreign learners through digital curriculum is provided

Developmentally appropriate guidelines for technology augmented pre-schooler toys

Kim To Tse investigated the concerns in creating developmentally appropriate technology augmented pre-schooler toys. He found that parents and child development specialists care for pre-schoolers from different angles. His research outcomes advocate and support the vision of healthy implementation of technology in early childhood while sustaining the toy industry

Influencing Middle School Students\u27 Perspective of Media Literacy

This project interrogates the influence middle school teachers have over media literacy in the classroom. It utilizes existing literature concerning media literacy and social studies curriculum. A curricular approach is offered to address media literacy in a middle school social studies classroom. By using this project, students will develop their understanding of media literacy and form the skills needed to navigate a media-saturated world

The effect of 3D-stereogram mobile AR on engineering drawing course outcomes among first-year vocational high schoolers with different spatial abilities: a Bloom�s taxonomy perspective

ABSTRACT Engineering drawing is valuable in capturing geometric features, conveying engineering ideas, and creating a blueprint of the intended product. Engineering students usually perform orthographic projections, imagining a 3D situation and sketching its 2D representation. That requires imagination and mental visualization, determined by the learner�s spatial ability. This study proposes the infusion of an AR stereogram mobile application into an engineering drawing course to establish how it influences learning outcomes among students with different spatial abilities. The quantitative experimental study involved two mechanical engineering classes in northern Taiwan, N = 69 first-year vocational high schoolers. Statistical analysis revealed that the experimental group with high spatial ability recorded better results and excellent drawing skills. Bloom�s taxonomy categorization reported that spatial ability influenced �understanding� and �applying� levels, with the strongest effect on �understanding.� Although no significant interaction existed, learning outcomes were highly affected by spatial ability in �understanding� and �applying� levels and AR in the overall performance. The findings and discussions show AR holds great potential to enhance students� spatial ability for real-time visualization and enables better concept comprehension by improving their understanding of engineering topics. Future studies should consider these implications in creating effective and immersive learning environments for different courses in engineering education