Childhood Cancer Rates and Exposure to Vehicle Pollutants

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among children ages zero to 15 in the United States (Gouveia-Vigeant & Tickner, 2003, p. 1). Rates for childhood cancer have increased nearly 21 percent between 1975 and 1998 (Gouveia-Vigeant & Tickner, p. 1). Multiple factors can be attributed to this increase. Possible explanations include: increased surveillance, changes in diagnostic criteria, improvements in medical imaging and diagnostic techniques, genetic predisposition as well as environmental factors. Experts recently concluded that genetic predisposition accounts for no more than 20 percent of all childhood cancers (Gouveia-Vigeant & Tickner, p. 1). While this demonstrates a significant contribution, it leaves the majority of cancer etiology unexplained

Female High School Biology Students\u27 Biofilm -Focused Learning: the Contributions of Three Instructional Strategies to Patterns in Understanding and Motivation.

This exploratory study examined three instructional strategies used with female high school biology students. The relative contributions of the strategies to student understanding of microbiology and motivation in science were analyzed. The science education community targeted underachievement in science by implementing changes in content and practices (NRC, 1996). Research suggested that teachers facilitate learnirig environments based on human constructivism (Mintzes, Wandersee, & Novak, 1997) that is rooted in meaningful learning theory (Ausubel, Novak & Hanesian, 1978). Teachers were advised to use both visual and verbal instructional strategies (Paivio, 1983) and encourage students to construct understandings by connecting new experiences to prior knowledge. The American Society for Microbiology supports the study of microorganisms because of their prominence in the biosphere (ASK 1997). In this study, two participating teachers taught selected microbiology concepts while focused on the cutting edge science of biofilms. Biology students accessed digitized biofilm images on an ASM web page and adapted them into products, communicated with biofilm researchers, and adapted a professional-quality instructional video for cross-age teaching. The study revealed improvements in understanding as evidenced on a written test; however, differences in learnirig outcomes were not significant. Other data, including student journal reflections, observations of student interactions, and student clinical interviews indicate that students were engaged in cutting edge science and adapted biofilm images in ways that increased understanding of microbiology (with respect to both science content and as a way of knowing) and motivation. An ASM CD-ROM of the images did not effectively enhance learning and this study provides insights into what could make it more successful. It also identifies why, in most cases, students\u27 E-mail communication with biofilm researchers was unsuccessful. The positive experiences of successful students indicate that teacher management could maximize the benefits of experiencing cutting edge science this way. Cutting edge science can be used to make science more relevant to students, enhance science learning, and insure a more scientifically literate society. Cross-age teachers effectively adapted an instructional video, communicated science, and increased their understanding of selected microbiology concepts and self-confidence. They also increased or maintained their motivation to study science

Assessing knowledge, motivation and perceptions about falls prevention among care staff in a residential aged care setting

Falls are a serious problem in residential aged care settings. The aims of the study were to determine the feasibility of surveying care staff regarding falls prevention, and describe care staff levels of knowledge and awareness of residents\u27 risk of falls, knowledge about falls prevention, motivation and confidence to implement falls prevention strategies. A custom designed questionnaire was administered to care staff at one site of a large residential aged care organization in Australia. The survey response was 58.8%. Feedback from staff was used to inform the administration of the survey to the wider organization. Seven (29.2%) care staff reported they were unsure or thought residents were at low risk of falls. Only five (20.8%) care staff were able to suggest more than three preventive strategies. These preliminary findings suggest that education to change care staff behavior regarding falls prevention should target improving care staff knowledge and awareness of falls

Introduction: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Sociological Perspective on Ethics and Society

Social Ethics: Sociology and the Future of Society provides a complex yet accessible statement of Charlotte Perkins Gilman\u27s mature sociological theory of ethical life. Her perspective is welded intellectually to sociology and evolutionary thought and concretely to the well-being of children throughout the world. We have failed, writes Gilman in Social Ethics, to teach even a simple, child-convincing ethics based on social interactions, because we have not understood sociology (emphasis added). For Gilman, a world in which children are not loved, well fed, properly clothed, thoughtfully educated, and humanely disciplined is a world ethically at odds with logic and itself. From this fundamental premise, all else follows. Thus: war, barbarism, waste, religious bigotry, conspicuous consumption, greed, environmental degradation, preventable diseases, and patriarchal oppression in all its manifestations-all these for Gilman are highly unethical and must not be allowed to stand if society is to be a good place for children. If, as readers of Social Ethics, we sense that we are being firmly lectured as well as cajoled by Gilman\u27s penetrating wit and obvious intellect-that is because we are. Gilman pulls no punches, she really intends us to change our ways, and to use sociological insights to improve our future society. Social Ethics first appeared in 1914 in serial form in Gilman\u27s extraordinary pedagogical experiment in adult education, a self-published monthly sociological journal, issued from 1909 to 1916, written entirely by Gilman and called, aptly enough, The Forerunner

Dogs & Society: Anglo-American Sociological Perspectives (1865-1934)

HUMANS AND DOGS have a long, wonderful and sometimes problematic association. At a personal level, dogs have been integral to our lives, and our parents’ lives, for as long as the two of us can remember. As sociologists, we also recognize that dogs are important at the macro level. Here, we introduce a selection of early sociological arguments about dogs and their social relationships with humankind. Our interest in developing this book began when we encountered the delightful essays on dogs by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Annie Marion MacLean — two insightful Anglo-American sociologists who present opposing sympathies regarding the canine world. Admirers and detractors of dogs reflect important sensibilities within Anglo-American society. This book is a smorgasbord of sociological standpoints, all written by some of sociology’s most perceptive practitioners, from 1865 to 1934. We are delighted with the opportunity to make these essays more widely available. As these readings document, dogs are intrinsically social beings. Likewise, our observations of dogs, our interactions with dogs, and our writings about dogs are markedly social phenomena. Dogs are not only part of our social world, they also inform our sociological imagination at both micro and macro levels.https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/1045/thumbnail.jp

Centenary of the First Sociology Doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

On June 10,1905, the Faculty of the Graduate School in the University of Nebraska formally recommended that Anderson William Clark “receive the degree of Doctor of Philosophy” in Sociology.’ Clark, who had completed a dissertation on “State Control and Supervision of Charities and Corrections,” was a Baptist minister and the founding Superintendent of Omaha’s Child Saving Institute.2 Based on extensive firsthand observations, interviews, and examinations of records in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and other states, Clark concluded, “Immediate state control is demanded in order to save the lives of thousands of infants and small children who are today in the hands of ignorant and sentimental nurses and caretakers, where they suffer from poor ventilation, unsuitable food, and bad sanitary conditions. . . . State control is required to correct such abuses”(pp. 39% 399). Clark’s dissertation exemplified the practical applications of sociology emphasized by Amos G. Warner, a former Nebraskan, in his influential 1894 work, American Charities: A Study in Philanthropy and Economics

Centenary of the First Sociology Doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

On June 10,1905, the Faculty of the Graduate School in the University of Nebraska formally recommended that Anderson William Clark “receive the degree of Doctor of Philosophy” in Sociology.’ Clark, who had completed a dissertation on “State Control and Supervision of Charities and Corrections,” was a Baptist minister and the founding Superintendent of Omaha’s Child Saving Institute.2 Based on extensive firsthand observations, interviews, and examinations of records in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and other states, Clark concluded, “Immediate state control is demanded in order to save the lives of thousands of infants and small children who are today in the hands of ignorant and sentimental nurses and caretakers, where they suffer from poor ventilation, unsuitable food, and bad sanitary conditions. . . . State control is required to correct such abuses”(pp. 39% 399). Clark’s dissertation exemplified the practical applications of sociology emphasized by Amos G. Warner, a former Nebraskan, in his influential 1894 work, American Charities: A Study in Philanthropy and Economics

Doctoral Dissertations as Liminal Journeys of the Self: Betwixt and Between in Graduate Sociology Programs

The sociology dissertation process is a liminal journey, a passage characterized by ambiguity, uncertainty, and crisis in which the student self is abandoned and a new professional self claims a world of power. authority, maturity, and responsibility. The theoretical perspectives of Victor Turner, Arnold Van Gennep, and George H. Mead are extended to conceptualize the “liminal self who undertakes this difficult and problematic journey of transformation. Experiential methodology, in which theory and autobiography are combined, is employed to explicate the dissertation as a conflictful rite de passage and to critique doctoral projects that unrefexively adopt “technical formulas” for success and thus deny the possibility of liminal transformation