Can the Arts Get Under the Skin? Arts and Cortisol for Economically Disadvantaged Children

This within-subjects experimental study investigated the influence of the arts on cortisol for economically disadvantaged children. Participants were 310 children, ages 3–5 years, who attended a Head Start preschool and were randomly assigned to participate in different schedules of arts and homeroom classes on different days of the week. Cortisol was sampled at morning baseline and after arts and homeroom classes on two different days at start, middle, and end of the year. For music, dance, and visual arts, grouped and separately, results of piecewise hierarchical linear modeling with time-varying predictors suggested cortisol was lower after an arts versus homeroom class at middle and end of the year but not start of the year. Implications concern the impact of arts on cortisol for children facing poverty risks

The double disparity facing rural local health departments: A short report

Rural residents in the U.S. face significant health challenges, including higher rates of risky health behaviors and worse health outcomes than many other groups. Rural communities are also typically served by local health departments (LHDs) that have fewer human and financial resources than their suburban and urban peers. As a result of history and need, rural LHDs are more likely than urban LHDs to provide direct health services, which may result in limited resources for population-based activities. This review examines the double disparity facing rural LHDs and their constituents: pervasively poorer health behaviors and outcomes and a historical lack of investment by local, state, and federal public health entities

Complementary Lenses: Using Theories of Situativity and Complexity to Understand Collaborative Learning as Systems-Level Social Activity

This article highlights possibilities for understanding challenges related to collaborative learning by bringing two complementary lenses into theoretical and empirical conversation—complexity and situativity. After presenting a theoretical comparison that characterizes complementarity between complexity and situativity in order to frame their relative contributions to a systems-level understanding of learning processes, we examine persistently unproductive social activity during a 14-session, collaborative engineering design project in a fifth-grade peer group from both perspectives. We do so in order to demonstrate the value of these complementary perspectives for understanding collaborative learning processes and to suggest different explanations of why unproductive social activity sometimes persists and possibilities for interrupting such dynamics. We thus suggest a shift from explanatory accounts of system processes to prospective processes for systems of action within social ecologies of change. Such a framework can resolve the social activity of collaborative learning around a systems-level orientation

Effectiveness of Webinars as Educational Tools to Address Horse Industry Issues

A series of six webinars was developed and presented as part of an eXtension HorseQuest/My Horse University online educational program funded by the USA Equestrian Trust. The webinars addressed topics consistent with the goal of improving equine health and management practices through dissemination to horse owners of relevant research findings on current horse industry issues. The webinars were presented and recorded and then archived to both eXtension.org/horses and myhorseuniversity.com. Data from a voluntary postwebinar survey showed that a viable tool was successfully created and used to disseminate current research-based information to the industry

The Double Disparity Facing Rural Local Health Departments

Residents of rural jurisdictions face significant health challenges, including some of the highest rates of risky health behaviors and worst health outcomes of any group in the country. Rural communities are served by smaller local health departments (LHDs) that are more understaffed and underfunded than their suburban and urban peers. As a result of history and current need, rural LHDs are more likely than their urban peers to be providers of direct health services, leading to relatively lower levels of population-focused activities. This review examines the double disparity faced by rural LHDs and their constituents: pervasively poorer health behaviors and outcomes and a historical lack of investment by local, state, and federal public health entities

Planting the Seeds: Orchestral Music Education as a Context for Fostering Growth Mindsets

Growth mindset is an important aspect of children\u27s socioemotional development and is subject to change due to environmental influence. Orchestral music education may function as a fertile context in which to promote growth mindset; however, this education is not widely available to children facing economic hardship. This study examined whether participation in a program of orchestral music education was associated with higher levels of overall growth mindset and greater change in levels of musical growth mindset among children placed at risk by poverty. After at least 2 years of orchestral participation, students reported significantly higher levels of overall growth mindset than their peers; participating students also reported statistically significant increases in musical growth mindset regardless of the number of years that they were enrolled in orchestral music education. These findings have implications for future research into specific pedagogical practices that may promote growth mindset in the context of orchestral music education and more generally for future studies of the extra-musical benefits of high-quality music education

Science Librarian Internship as a Way to Get Started in E-Science

OBJECTIVETo demonstrate how a science librarian internship program can be used to jumpstart an e-sciences initiative in a university research library.METHODSCurrent library science students were hired, as paid interns, to work with an established Science Librarian Bibliographers Group. While the position included exposure to the wide variety of activities undertaken by science librarians, the most recent intern, arriving with a strong interest in e-Science, was also tasked with assisting in specific assignments designed to further the Library’s understanding of and participation in the area of e-Science. Specifically, the intern was asked to design a brochure about e-Science, develop a faculty survey to gauge interest in library involvement in data management, assist Science Librarians in an environmental scan/best practices review of relevant e-science initiatives, to serve as a roadmap in this area for the Boston College Libraries, and, finally, to further the education of all library staff with a presentation on e-Science.RESULTSBuilding upon the intern’s extensive literature review, draft brochure and PowerPoint presentation/synthesis, the Science Bibliographers’ Group has continued work on next steps in e-Science, with the development of a Vision Statement and Action Plans, as well as draft faculty/student/staff survey. The intern was exposed to a wide variety of typical science librarian job functions.CONCLUSIONSAn internship program can provide current knowledge and skills to educate and support a university research library through the early learning stage of developing an e-Sciences program, while simultaneously providing a valuable hands-on learning experience for a potential science librarian