Educational Games Increase Learning Effectiveness: A Case Study

Educators of all age groups-whether they be elementary, secondary, or postsecondary- have long recognized and known that there is a strong connection between student engagement in the learning process and student success. Given the environment in which we teach in today, with its growing diversity, larger class sizes, increased focus on high-stakes testing, and ever- expanding poverty levels, it is essential that teachers incorporate new teaching techniques into their classrooms as a tool for better engaging students in their own learning. To that end, this paper reviews the purported benefits of educational games in the classroom setting as a tool for increasing student interest and motivation in the learning process. It also discusses the process and results of creating an original game designed to test the idea that games can increase learning effectiveness. Through the use of that game, Knighthood: A Quest, I discovered that a well designed game can be utilized to motivate students to actively participate in the learning process, and that such games are valid replacement options for traditional skill and drill exercises used for review of information

Implications of Privacy Needs and Interpersonal Distancing Mechanisms for Space Station Design

The literature on privacy needs, personal space, interpersonal distancing, and crowding is reveiwed with special reference to spaceflight and spaceflight analogous conditions. A quantitative model is proposed for understanding privacy, interpersonal distancing, and performance. The implications for space station design is described

Implications of privacy needs and interpersonal distancing mechanisms for space station design

Privacy needs, or the need of people to regulate their degree of contact with one another, and interpersonal distancing mechanisms, which serve to satisfy these needs, are common in all cultures. Isolation, confinement, and other conditions accociated with space flight may at once accentuate privacy needs and limit the availability of certain common interpersonal contact. Loneliness occurs when people have less contact with one another than they desire. Crowding occurs when people have more contact with one another than they desire. Crowding, which is considered the greater threat to members of isolated and confined groups, can contribute to stress, a low quality of life, and poor performance. Drawing on the general literature on privacy, personal space, and interpersonal distancing, and on specialized literature on life aboard spacecraft and in spacecraft-analogous environments, a quantitative model for understanding privacy, interpersonal distancing, loneliness, and crowding was developed and the practical implications of this model for space station design were traced

The Hundredth Time

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-me/1568/thumbnail.jp

The equilibrium intrinsic crystal-liquid interface of colloids

We use confocal microscopy to study an equilibrated crystal-liquid interface in a colloidal suspension. Capillary waves roughen the surface, but locally the intrinsic interface is sharply defined. We use local measurements of the structure and dynamics to characterize the intrinsic interface, and different measurements find slightly different widths of this interface. In terms of the particle diameter $d$, this width is either $1.5d$ (based on structural information) or $2.4d$ (based on dynamics), both not much larger than the particle size. This work is the first direct experimental visualization of an equilibrated crystal-liquid interface.Comment: 6 pages; revised version, submitted to PNA

Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Theory

Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory is rooted in the idea that leaders and followers exchange benefits, and that their relationships are at the heart of the leadership process. Social scientists have long attempted to understand how people relate to each other, beginning with explorations of costs and rewards, interpersonal behavior, and human relationship. A number of theories have used the lens of interpersonal relationships to understand leadership, including Edwin Hollander\u27s focus on idiosyncrasy credits, Tom Tuyler\u27s notion of procedural justice, Dave Messick\u27s delineation of psychological exchanges, and James MacGregor Burns\u27s conceptualization of transforming and transactional leadership. Most notably, George Graen and his colleagues constructed the formal leader-member exchange theory, which began by elaborating on the nature of the leader-follower relationship and its outcomes, and later created a model for effective leadership. This entry traces the background of these ideas and discusses the Graen theory in some detail