The Social Studies Curriculum in Atlanta Public Schools During the Desegregation Era

This historical investigation explores how teachers, students, and education officials viewed the social studies curriculum in the local context of Atlanta, and the broader state of Georgia, during the post-Civil Rights era, when integration was a court-ordered reality in the public schools. During the desegregation era, Atlanta schools were led by Atlanta Public Schools (APS) Superintendent, Dr. Alonzo Crim. Brought to Atlanta as part of a desegregation compromise, Dr. Crim became APS\u27s first African American superintendent. In particular, the authors investigate how national social studies movements, such as Man: A Course of Study (MACOS), inquiry-based learning, co-curriculum activities, and standards movements, adapted to fit this Southeastern locale, at a time when schools were struggling to desegregate. Local curriculum documents written in the 1970s reveal a traditional social studies curriculum. By the 1980s, APS\u27s social studies curriculum guides broadened to include a stronger focus on an enacted community—inside the classroom and around the world. In oral history interviews, however, former teachers, students, and school officials presented contrasting perspectives of how the social studies curriculum played out in the reality of Atlanta\u27s public schools during the desegregation era

Concordance between vocal and genetic diversity in crested gibbons

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gibbons or small apes are, next to great apes, our closest living relatives, and form the most diverse group of contemporary hominoids. A characteristic trait of gibbons is their species-specific song structure, which, however, exhibits a certain amount of inter- and intra-individual variation. Although differences in gibbon song structure are routinely applied as taxonomic tool to identify subspecies and species, it remains unclear to which degree acoustic and phylogenetic differences are correlated. To trace this issue, we comparatively analyse song recordings and mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequence data from 22 gibbon populations representing six of the seven crested gibbon species (genus <it>Nomascus</it>). In addition, we address whether song similarity and geographic distribution can support a recent hypothesis about the biogeographic history of crested gibbons.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The acoustic analysis of 92 gibbon duets confirms the hypothesised concordance between song structure and phylogeny. Based on features of male and female songs, we can not only distinguish between <it>N. nasutus</it>, <it>N. concolor </it>and the four southern species (<it>N. leucogenys, N. siki, N. annamensis</it>, <it>N. gabriellae</it>), but also between the latter by applying more detailed analysis. In addition to the significant correlation between song structure and genetic similarity, we find a similar high correlation between song similarity and geographic distance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results show that the structure of crested gibbon songs is not only a reliable tool to verify phylogenetic relatedness, but also to unravel geographic origins. As vocal production in other nonhuman primate species appears to be evolutionarily based, it is likely that loud calls produced by other species can serve as characters to elucidate phylogenetic relationships.</p

Social polyandry among siamangs: the role of habitat quality

In species where females do not associate spatially with other females, males usually range over an area including the home ranges of multiple females or defend the home range of one female. Nevertheless, social polyandry (multimale-unifemale grouping) occurs in some species. We examine an ecological constraints model relating habitat quality to facultative social polyandry in siamangs, Symphalangus syndactylus, by testing predictions of two hypotheses: (H1) variation in the size and density of important food trees affects the size of siamang home ranges and areas of exclusive use; (H2) socially polyandrous groups benefit from cooperative defence of the home range and area of exclusive use. Crown volume/ha of freestanding or strangler figs (Ficus), the most important siamang food, was negatively related to the size of the home range but not to the size of the area of exclusive use. Density and crown volume/ha of the second-most important plant food, Dracontomelon dao, was not related to the size of the home range or to the size of the area of exclusive use. Multimale groups had larger home ranges and areas of exclusive use than unimale groups, and the home ranges and areas of exclusive use of multimale groups encompassed more freestanding or strangling figs than those of unimale groups. Models of home range size including fig abundance (density or crown volume/ha) and the number of males as predictor variables suggested that multimale groups have larger home ranges than predicted by the relationship between fig abundance and home range size alone. While some other facultatively polyandrous species have larger home ranges in areas of poorer habitat quality, our results suggest a more complex situation for siamangs at our study site. Specifically, the density of large figs may constrain siamang ranging patterns, but multimale groups live in home ranges with more figs than those of unimale groups. Our results suggest that multimale groups may defend higher-quality territories than unimale groups