A Comparison of Two Methods of Teaching a Remedial Mathematics Course at the Community College

Problem This study was concerned with the effectiveness of two different programs for teaching remedial mathematics to community college students. An individualized instruction program, making use of independent study and the small group setting, was compared with the traditional lecture-textbook instruction program to determine if there existed significant differences in (a) the rate of attrition, and (b) mathematics performance. A secondary objective was to determine if significant differences existed between students enrolled in remedial mathematics classes at 9 AM and those enrolled at 12 Noon. Method The target population consisted of all students in fourteen community colleges in the Los Angeles area. The sample consisted of all students enrolled in the 9 AM and 12 Noon elementary algebra classes at Rio Hondo College during the fall semester, 1972. One experimental group and one control group were randomly formed from all the students enrolled at 9 AM. The same procedure was used at 12 Noon. The posttest-only control group design was utilized in the study. A chisquare test was used to determine if frequency of dropout is associated with being in the control or experimental groups. Mean scores on a mathematics posttest of achievement were analyzed by two -way analysis of covariance to determine if mathematics performance is associated with being in the control or experimental groups, and if mathematics performance is associated with being in the 9 AM or 12 Noon classes. Results According to the study, there appeared to be no significant differences, at the .05 level, in either the rate of attrition or mathematics performance of community college students taught remedial mathematics under an individualized instruction program as compared with those students taught under the traditional lecture-textbook instruction program. Also, there appeared to be no significant difference, at the .05 level, in the mathematics performance of community college students enrolled in 9 AM remedial mathematics classes compared to students enrolled in 12 Noon remedial mathematics classes. Conclusions As a result of the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn. Community college remedial mathematics classes using an individualized instruction program as described in this study did not have significantly fewer dropouts than those classes using the traditional lecture-textbook approach. Community college students enrolled in remedial mathematics courses taught under an individualized instruction program as described in this study did not receive significantly higher scores on a mathematics posttest of achievement than those students taught under the traditional lecture-textbook instruction program. There was no significant difference in mathematics performance of community college students enrolled in remedial mathematics courses taught at 9 AM and those taught at 12 Noon. The study, even though the results did not show significant differences at the .05 level, proved to be very helpful in planning for further mathematics classes at the community college

The Differential Impact of Physical Abuse, Witnessing Violence, and Psychological Abuse on Children\u27s Internalizing, Externalizing, and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

Children commonly witness violence in their family, fall victim to violent acts by caregivers, or suffer from psychological abuse from caregivers. Independent examinations of these experiences have suggested that each can act as a precursor to internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and posttraumatic stress symptoms later in life. There is growing recognition that these forms of maltreatment are highly correlated, and some research has already shown that accounting for multiple forms of maltreatment can alter associations with psychological difficulties. This research sought to simultaneously explore the unique relations of psychological abuse, physical abuse, and witnessing familial violence to internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. The study also probed the possibility that each of the three forms of maltreatment might impact the relation between the other types of maltreatment and the psychological adjustment outcomes. Further, the project sought to explore the specificity of the results by evaluating the possibility that associations between each of the psychological adjustment outcomes could alter the findings of the first three goals. Results identifies several unique associations for the maltreatment variables that varied by outcome and suggested that several important interactions may exist. Further, accounting for correlated outcome variables in the analyses resulted in some deviations in these results, suggesting that specificity is a concern for research of this type. Overall, the study suggested that psychological abuse may be a particularly robust predictor of each of the three outcomes variables, and that violence-related maltreatment may have a closer nexus with posttraumatic stress symptoms

Comparison of Peak Power on Four Cycling Modes

There has been a vast amount research conducted concerning many different aspects of cycling performance. This is, in part, due to the relative ease with which variables can be isolated and tested. The equipment used for cycling research is generally compact, stationary, and relatively inexpensive, which make cycling a convenient method to test a variety of variables. In a laboratory setting, researchers often utilize cycle rollers, ergometers, and trainers to best simulate road cycling. Rollers allow subjects the familiarity of using their personal bicycles, and the ability to experience typical factors of cycling such as angular and lateral movement. Trainers also allow the familiarity of personal bicycles, but the front wheel is immobilized while the rear wheel is placed on a roller, which restricts the angular and lateral movement of cycling. Cycle ergometers are stationary bikes that give researchers control of specific variables such as resistance, and also tend to be more restrictive than actual bicycles. What these three modes have in common is the perceived ability to accurately imitate the motions involved in road cycling, as well as the characteristics that make them convenient to laboratory testing: they are small which allow them to fit in the smallest of labs, they are stationary which makes it possible to perform several tests on them which include heart rate, blood pressure, VO2 and other metabolic tests, and many more. While these different modes make isolating variables for testing convenient, the extent to which the results transfer to the field, or the external validity, must be considered

NASA's climate data system primer, version 1.2

This is a beginner's manual for NASA's Climate Data System (NCDS), an interactive scientific information management system that allows one to locate, access, manipulate, and display climate-research data. Additional information on the use of the system is available from the system itself

Value added or misattributed? A multi-institution study on the educational benefit of labs for reinforcing physics content

Instructional labs are widely seen as a unique, albeit expensive, way to teach scientific content. We measured the effectiveness of introductory lab courses at achieving this educational goal across nine different lab courses at three very different institutions. These institutions and courses encompassed a broad range of student populations and instructional styles. The nine courses studied had two key things in common: the labs aimed to reinforce the content presented in lectures, and the labs were optional. By comparing the performance of students who did and did not take the labs (with careful normalization for selection effects), we found universally and precisely no added value to learning from taking the labs as measured by course exam performance. This work should motivate institutions and departments to reexamine the goals and conduct of their lab courses, given their resource-intensive nature. We show why these results make sense when looking at the comparative mental processes of students involved in research and instructional labs, and offer alternative goals and instructional approaches that would make lab courses more educationally valuable.Comment: Accepted to Phys Rev PE

Kennedy Space Center Timing and Countdown Interface to Kennedy Ground Control Subsystem

Kennedy Ground Control System (KGCS) engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (KSC) are developing a time-tagging process to enable reconstruction of the events during a launch countdown. Such a process can be useful in the case of anomalies or other situations where it is necessary to know the exact time an event occurred. It is thus critical for the timing information to be accurate. KGCS will synchronize all items with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) obtained from the Timing and Countdown (T&CD) organization. Network Time Protocol (NTP) is the protocol currently in place for synchronizing UTC. However, NTP has a peak error that is too high for today's standards. Precision Time Protocol (PTP) is a newer protocol with a much smaller peak error. The focus of this project has been to implement a PTP solution on the network to increase timing accuracy while introducing and configuring the implementation of a firewall between T&CD and the KGCS network