Field Studies

This final report of the Family and Community Studies Project (part of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory) presents an investigation of the impact of three types of parent education programs on the participant families. The study examines the underlying change philosophy of each program and the changes that families participating in the programs are undergoing. Three processes of change were proposed as a focus of study: cultural elaboration, cultural reorientation, and cultural reinforcement. Case studies were done of actual programs that exemplified these three processes. Researchers obtained data through participant observation and interviewing methods. Conclusions about impact were based on self-reported statements by participants concerning changes in their ideas or behaviors, and on analyses conducted by researchers concerning the match and mismatch between changes intended by programs and changes that parents reported. Each case study discusses: (1) the history, community context, setting, goals, organization, recruitment procedures, and curriculum of each program: (2) the lives of the parents who participate in the program: (3) a summary of the participants' evaluations and conclusions about the impact of the program; and (4) generalizations about the program and its participants as instances of the models of cultural change proposed-In addition, field work at a school-community liaison program is described in the Appendices. (Author/SS)

In Continuous Education curricula in Spain, the programs on sciences of the environment are aimed toward understandings of sustainability. Teaching practice rarely leaves the classroom for outdoor field studies. At the same time, teaching practice is generally focused on examples of how human activities are harmful for ecosystems. From a pedagogic point of view, it is less effective to teach environmental science with negative examples such as catastrophe, tragedy, and crisis. Rather, teaching environmental sciences and sustainable development might be focused on positive human-environment relationships, which is both important for the further development of students and educators. Within rural settings, there are many such examples of positive relationships that can be emphasized and integrated into the curriculum. In this article, we propose teaching environmental sciences through immersion in rural cultural life. We discuss how fieldwork serves as a learning methodology. When students are engaged through research with traditional cultural practices of environmental management, which is a part of the real and traditional culture of a region, they better understand how positive pedagogy instead of pedagogy structured around how not-to-do examples, can be used to stimulate the interactions between humans and the environment with their students. In this way, cultural goods serve as teaching resources in science and environmental education. What we present is authentic cases where adults involved in a course of Continuous Education explore 'environmentally-friendly' practices of traditional agriculture in Asturias (north of Spain), employing methodologies of cultural studies.

Non-point source (NPS) pollution, unlike point source pollution from domestic and industrial wastewater treatment plants, comes from many diffuse sources. It is caused by the movement of rainfall or snowmelt that picks up and carries pollutants to receiving waters. NPS pollution represents the main cause of contamination of many rivers, streams and other water bodies of many developed countries. Best management practices (BMPs) are intended to reduce NPS pollutants, particularly those from highway runoff, e.g., oil and grit separators, grassed swales, vegetated filter strips, retention ponds, and catch basin inserts. A catch basin insert (CBIs) is a device that reduces stormwater pollution from runoff, without requiring any land use because it is typically mounted within a catch basin. In this study, six commercially-available CBIs were installed and monitored at sites along highways in Westchester County that are under the jurisdiction of the New York State Department of Transporta...

This research was an initial study designed to explore differences in the frequency of stress behaviors exhibited by children (n = 37) in developmentally appropriate (n = 20) and developmentally inappropriate (n = 17) kindergarten classrooms. Results indicated that children in the developmentally inappropriate classroom exhibited significantly more stress behaviors than children in the appropriate classroom. In looking at stress within various activity types, higher frequencies of stress behaviors were found during whole group and workbook/worksheet activities for children in the inappropriate classroom, whereas those in the appropriate classroom had higher levels of stress during center and transition activities. Differences were also found between the two classrooms in amount of time spent in various activities. More center, group story, and transition activities were found in the appropriate classroom, whereas there were more whole group and workbook/worksheet activities in the inappropriate classroom. Marginal gender differences were also noted, with males exhibiting more overall stress behaviors than females.

The CRC canducts longitudinal research ^.orribining intensive case studies of public and independent schools and teachers with analyses of national survey data to assess factors that either constrain or enable the best work of teachers and students. The research analyzes organizational, policy, and social-cultural conditions of the embedded context of the classroom, the subject area department, the school, the local community, and the Khoo] district. The CRC is developing grounded theory on how context conditions affect high school teaching and framing policy recommendations for improving secondary education.

Human responses to thermal environments in naturally ventilated (NV) buildings in hot-humid area of China were systematically investigated in the present study. Thirty local inhabitants long-time living in NV buildings participated in the study and reported their thermal sensations and perceptions and adaptive behaviors while all physical and personal variables were collected. Based on a year-long survey, a close match of indoor physical variables and occupants' clothing insulation with outdoor climate was found as an important feature of NV buildings. Integrated indices can capture more thermal contexts in the NV buildings in hot-humid area of China than simple indices. Thermal sensation was found to be a good linear function of SET* with the thermal neutrality of 25.4 C and the 90% (80%) acceptable range of 23.5e27.4 C (22.1e28.7 C) in SET*. The adaptive evidences were obtained for clothing adjustment, window opening and using fan respectively and the modified PMV model was validated to be applicable in NV buildings in hot-humid area of China with an expectancy factor of 0.822. Comparisons with other field studies indicate that people can develop various human-environment relationships through thermal adaptation to local climate, resulting in different thermal neutral temperatures in various climates. The subjects in hot-humid area of China are more acclimated and tolerable with hot and humid environments and more uncomfortable and intolerable with cold environments while compared with those in temperate climates.

The purpose of this study was to field-test several conferencing technologies in regional schools in Victoria to determine whether the technologies are appropriate for the needs of the university supervisor, trainee teachers and supervising teachers with regard to practicum placements. The study also explored the potential of technology for other related purposes. Three technologies (m-View, Skype, Adobe Connect) were trialed. Pre-service teachers reflected on the conferencing experience and university supervisors compared the remote supervision using the technologies with traditional on-site supervision. This paper describes the findings of the project and suggests implications for professional experience and pedagogy.

To achieve the radical improvements in building energy efficiency being called for by the State of California, it will be necessary to apply an integrated approach involving new designs, new technologies, new ways of operating buildings, new tools for design, commissioning and monitoring, and new understanding of what comprises a comfortable and productive indoor environment. All of these themes define important goals that have guided the broad and comprehensive research effort described in this report. Research methods have included field studies, laboratory studies, energy and thermal comfort modeling, and technology transfer through participation on American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers standards and technical committees. Center for the Built Environment research is also guided by its 40 industry partners, who serve as the project advisory board for the project.

During the last years, development of open learning environments that support effectively their users has been a challenge for the research community of educational technologies. The open interactive nature of these environments results in users experiencing difficulties in coping with the plethora of available functions, especially during their initial efforts to use the system. In addition,-from the tutors' perspectivethe problem solving strategies of the students are often particularly difficult to identify. In this paper, we ...

Human responses to thermal environments in naturally ventilated (NV) buildings in hot-humid area of China were systematically investigated in the present study. Thirty local inhabitants long-time living in NV buildings participated in the study and reported their thermal sensations and perceptions and adaptive behaviors while all physical and personal variables were collected. Based on a year-long survey, a close match of indoor physical variables and occupants' clothing insulation with outdoor climate was found as an important feature of NV buildings. Integrated indices can capture more thermal contexts in the NV buildings in hot-humid area of China than simple indices. Thermal sensation was found to be a good linear function of SET* with the thermal neutrality of 25.4 C and the 90% (80%) acceptable range of 23.5e27.4 C (22.1e28.7 C) in SET*. The adaptive evidences were obtained for clothing adjustment, window opening and using fan respectively and the modified PMV model was validated to be applicable in NV buildings in hot-humid area of China with an expectancy factor of 0.822. Comparisons with other field studies indicate that people can develop various human-environment relationships through thermal adaptation to local climate, resulting in different thermal neutral temperatures in various climates. The subjects in hot-humid area of China are more acclimated and tolerable with hot and humid environments and more uncomfortable and intolerable with cold environments while compared with those in temperate climates.

A written questionnaire was used to obtain information regarding Greek kindergarten teachers' personal views on the concept of Environmental Education (EE). The questionnaire was also designed to obtain the teachers' views relative to a series of theoretical and methodological issues concerning the application of EE. It was ascertained that the prevalent conception of the kindergarten teachers includes the following: (a) it is directed towards a knowledge-centered type of EE, (b) it is primarily centered on nature and its protection in terms of EE content, (c) it aims not only to shape citizens willing to adopt environmental measures recommended by the experts, but who will also actively participate in social actions for the protection of the environment, (d) it favors learning procedures in the environment with field study activities, (e) it must be compulsory in the kindergarten level.

In this study, culturally sensitive visual aids designed to help convey drug information to nonliterate female adults who had a prescription for a solid oral dosage form of antibiotic medications were developed and evaluated. The researchers conceptualized the educational messages while a local artist produced the visual aids.

This article evaluates an adaptation of the human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS) adopted by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to classify factors that contribute to incidents. Three field studies were undertaken to assess the reliability of HFACS-ADF in the context of a particular ADF air traffic control (ATC) unit. Study one was designed to assess inter-coder consensus between many coders for two incident reports. Study two was designed to assess inter-coder consensus between one participant and the previous original analysts for a large set of incident reports. Study three was designed to test intra-coder consistency for four participants over many months. For all studies, agreement was low at the level of both fine-level HFACS-ADF descriptors and high-level HFACS-type categories. A survey of participants suggested that they were not confident that HFACS-ADF could be used consistently. The three field studies reported suggest that the ADF adaptation of HFACS is unreliable for incident analysis at the ATC unit level, and may therefore be invalid in this context. Several reasons for the results are proposed, associated with the underlying HFACS model and categories, the HFACS-ADF adaptations, the context of use, and the conduct of the studies.

Suggested are methcds for the collection cf field evidence about processes that form plutonic and metamorphic rock. Desc-iption and discussion of these types of rocks arc prtvided. The .ing and execution of a successful field trip is discussed. Advanced field projects are also discus"sed. Included arc five appendices, references, and a glessary. (PE)

This paper briefly discusses three studies aimed at exploring the overload hypothesis posited by Stanley Milgram. That hypothesis suggests that impoverished social interaction in the city is an adaptation to overload of interpersonal contacts. The three studies examine various aspects of the phenomenon using different methodologies. Comparing city and town dweller behaviors, one survey indicates that city respondents have fewer.but longer contacts with friends and acquaintances, both by telephone and face-to-face. In terms of feelings of overload, city and town both evince low levels of feeling overloaded with interpersonal contact. Another study, of an experimental nature, indicates that interaction with a stranger is avoided in the city as opposed to encouraged in a suburb or small town. These studies suggest that Milgram's hypothesis is too general and undifferentiated. (SJL) * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original.

Claims of taste based discrimination are common but difficult to prove in the field. Furthermore, much of the research on discrimination focuses on evaluation. However, discriminatory patterns of competition, such as use of aggressive strategies based on opponents' gender, may produce similar discriminatory outcomes. We report evidence for discrimination using data from The Price Is Right television show, an environment that combines high stakes for making correct decisions with arbitrary assignment of players to groups. Analysis of over 3,900 games reveals that contestants are 19% more likely to use an efficient but aggressive strategy against opposite-gender opponents. In women, this bias appears to be driven by incorrect beliefs that men are better bidders. In men, the bias is traceable to increased competitiveness toward female bidders. Favorable treatment of same-gender opponents costs players an average of $193 in prize winnings across all games, increasing to $425 in the ...

Objectives: To examine strategies for using the mass media effectively in drug prevention campaigns targeting high sensation seekers. Methods: Both experimental lab and field studies were used to develop a comprehensive audience segmentation strategy targeting high sensation seekers. Results: A 4-pronged targeting strategy employed in an antimarijuana media campaign yielded significant drops in 30-day marijuana use by adolescents. Other research demonstrates how high and low sensation seekers process antidrug ads differently. Conclusions: Mass mediated antidrug campaigns aimed at high sensation seekers are effective tools for drug prevention.

In 2003 the Ohio Department of Transportation ͑ODOT͒ implemented a new culvert management program. Simultaneously, a team of researchers from the Ohio Research Institute for Transportation and the Environment ͑ORITE͒ and engineers from a private consulting firm conducted a joint study to evaluate the effectiveness of field culvert inspection and rating procedures proposed by the ODOT's new program and describe the best remedial measures currently available for highway culverts. This paper focuses on the first component and addresses it relative to concrete culverts. The new inspection procedure for concrete culverts was applied at 25 sites. Inspection data were examined to detect common problems existing at concrete culvert sites in Ohio. The field data were also analyzed using statistical software to identify factors that contribute to the degradation of concrete culverts. Despite the limited amount of data, the results indicated that the ODOT approach was basically sound. The final segment of the paper presents a risk assessment method developed by the ORITE researchers. The proposed risk assessment method computes the overall structural health rating for any inspected culvert and recommends a course of action.

Recently accepted revisions to ASHRAE Standard 55—thermal environmental conditions for human occupancy, include a new adaptive comfort standard (ACS) that allows warmer indoor temperatures for naturally ventilated buildings during summer and in warmer climate zones. The ACS is based on the analysis of 21,000 sets of raw data compiled from field studies in 160 buildings located on four continents in varied climatic zones. This paper summarizes this earlier adaptive comfort research, presents some of its findings for naturally ventilated buildings, and discusses the process of getting the ACS incorporated into Standard 55. We suggest ways the ACS could be used for the design, operation, or evaluation of buildings, and for research applications. We also use GIS mapping techniques to examine the energy-savings potential of the ACS on a regional scale across the US. Finally, we discuss related new directions for researchers and practitioners involved in the design of buildings and their environmental control systems.

During the last three decades, the large spatial coverage of remote sensing data has been used in coral reef research to map dominant substrate types, geomorphologic zones, and bathymetry. During the same period, field studies have documented statistical relationships between variables quantifying aspects of the reef habitat and its fish community. Although the results of these studies are ambiguous, some habitat variables have frequently been found to correlate with one or more aspects of the fish community. Several of these habitat variables, including depth, the structural complexity of the substrate, and live coral cover, are possible to estimate with remote sensing data. In this study, we combine a set of statistical and machinelearning models with habitat variables derived from IKONOS data to produce spatially explicit predictions of the species richness, biomass, and diversity of the fish community around two reefs in Zanzibar. In the process, we assess the ability of IKONOS imagery to estimate live coral cover, structural complexity and habitat diversity, and we explore the importance of habitat variables, at a range of spatial scales, in the predictive models using a permutation-based technique. Our findings indicate that structural complexity at a fine spatial scale (∼ 5 to 10 m) is the most important habitat variable in predictive models of fish species richness and diversity, whereas other variables such as depth, habitat diversity, and structural complexity at coarser spatial scales contribute to predictions of biomass. In addition, our results demonstrate that complex model types such as tree-based ensemble techniques provide superior predictive performance compared to the more frequently used linear models, achieving a reduction of the cross-validated root-mean-squared prediction error of 3-11%. Although aerial photographs and airborne lidar instruments have recently been used to produce spatially explicit predictions of reef fish community variables, our study illustrates the possibility of doing so with satellite data. The ability to use satellite data may bring the cost of creating such maps within the reach of both spatial ecology researchers and the wide range of organizations involved in marine spatial planning.

Flash floods cause some of the most severe natural disasters in Europe but Mediterranean areas are especially vulnerable. They can cause devastating damage to property, infrastructures and loss of human life. The complexity of flash flood generation processes and their dependency on different factors related to watershed properties and rainfall characteristics make flash flood prediction a difficult task. In this study, as part of the EU-FLASH project, we used an uncalibrated hydrological model to simulate flow events in a 27 km2 Mediterranean watershed in Israel to analyze and better understand the various factors influencing flows. The model is based on the well-known SCS curve number method for rainfall–runoff calculations and on the kinematic wave method for flow routing. Existing data available from maps, GIS and field studies were used to define model parameters, and no further calibration was conducted to obtain a better fit between computed and observed flow data. The model rainfall input was obtained from the high temporal and spatial resolution radar data adjusted to rain gauges. Twenty flow events that occurred within the study area over a 15 year period were analyzed. The model shows a generally good capability in predicting flash flood peak discharge in terms of their general level, classified as low, medium or high (all high level events were correctly predicted). It was found that the model mainly well predicts flash floods generated by intense, short-lived convective storm events while model performances for low and moderate flows generated by more widespread winter storms were quite poor. The degree of urban development was found to have a large impact on runoff amount and peak discharge, with higher sensitivity of moderate and low flow events relative to high flows. Flash flood generation was also found to be very sensitive to the temporal distribution of rain intensity within a specific storm event.

We present a field study of TellTable, a new storytelling system designed to support creativity and collaboration amongst children. The application was deployed on a multitouch interactive table in the library of a primary school, where children could use it to create characters and scenery based on elements of the physical world (captured through photography) as well as through drawing. These could then be used to record a story which could be played back. TellTable allowed children to collaborate in devising stories that mixed the physical and the digital in creative ways and that could include themselves as characters. Additionally, the field deployment illustrated how children took inspiration from one another"s stories, how they planned elements of their own tales before using the technology, and how the fact that stories could be accessed in the library led some to become well-known and popular within the school community. The real story here, we argue, needs to take into account all that happens within the wider context of use of this system.

This paper reviews the uneven history of the relationship between Anthropology and Cognitive Science over the past 30 years, from its promising beginnings, followed by a period of disaffection, on up to the current context, which may lay the groundwork for reconsidering what Anthropology and (the rest of) Cognitive Science have to offer each other. We think that this history has important lessons to teach and has implications for contemporary efforts to restore Anthropology to its proper place within Cognitive Science. The recent upsurge of interest in the ways that thought may shape and be shaped by action, gesture, cultural experience, and language sets the stage for, but so far has not fully accomplished, the inclusion of Anthropology as an equal partner.

A meta-analytic review of all adequately designed field and laboratory research on the use of incentives to motivate performance is reported. Of approximately 600 studies, 45 qualified. The overall average effect of all incentive programs in all work settings and on all work tasks was a 22% gain in performance. Team-directed incentives had a markedly superior effect on performance compared to individually-directed incentives. This effect was not influenced by the location of the study (business, government or school), the competitive structure of the incentive system (programs where only the highest performers get incentives versus programs where everyone who increased performance receive incentives), the type of study (whether the study was a laboratory experiment or a field study), or the performance outcome (quality, quantity, or both). Money was found to be a more powerful incentive than non-monetary tangible incentives; long-term programs led to greater performance gains than shorter-term programs; and somewhat greater performance gains were realized for manual than for cognitive work. Explanations based on cognitive psychological principles accompany each of the analyses.

Noting the increasing interest in qualitative research in general and ethnographic research in particular, the authors of this report clarify the place of the latter within the former. The authors presen six criteria for an ethnographic approach to education, illustrated with examples, and discuss ethnography's advantages and disadvantages. The six criteria presented are that (1) the problem be discovered in the field, (2) the senior investigator conduct the bulk of the field work, (3) the field work take at least a school year, (4) the senior investigator shall have had cross-cultural experience, (5) multiple research methods be utilized, and (6) the finished product present a wealth of primary data from the studied group. The authors next demonstrate the variety in qualitative research by describing some dimensions on which qualitative studies vary. In the area of data collection, qualitative strategies can vary in at least five ways: (1) the number of sites studied, (2) the extent of researcher immersion in the situation studied, (3) the extent to which activities are structured in advance, (4) the nature of the observation frameworks, and (5) reporting strategies. Data analysis can follow one or more of three approaches: the intuitive, the procedural, or the intersubjective.

The Consortium for Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE) is a Research Programme Consortium supported by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Its purpose is to undertake research designed to improve access to basic education in developing countries. It seeks to achieve this through generating new knowledge and encouraging its application through effective communication and dissemination to national and international development agencies, national governments, education and development professionals, non-government organisations and other interested stakeholders.

Although pesticide use is high in the Central American region, few studies concerning environmental levels and effects of pesticides in aquatic ecosystems have been conducted. In this review 18 studies were identified, most of which deal exclusively with organochlorine residues, but other chemical groups also were studied and found in tropical aquatic ecosystems. Only five studies considered effects of pesticides on aquatic organisms; four of these examined both the presence of pesticides in environmental substrates and field effects. Major research needs include studies on fate and degradation in tropical conditions; acute and chronic toxicity to native species; effects of temperature, humidity, and other characteristics of tropical conditions on toxicity, as well as effects of pesticides on tropical ecosystems.

An observational field study was carried out to examine the degree that refresher training in air traffic control can account for the demands of real-world emergencies. The refresher-training exercises of 21 teams of en route controllers were observed and a number of real incidents were analyzed at a major European Area Control Centre. Expert controllers were observed handling 53 simulated emergencies and abnormal situations during their annual refresher training and their companion team resource management course. The training curriculum was found to be technically oriented. Responding to emergencies was practiced in scenarios less representative of real situations where the controllers do their job in the context of many interruptions, flight crew deviations, and unrecovered errors. Results indicated a substantial gap between formal training requirements and operational demands. An advanced safety training course is proposed on the basis of cognitive task analysis to increase the cognitive fidelity of simulations and focus on cultivating taskwork and teamwork skills.

Sierra Leone is currently emerging from a brutal civil war that lasted most of the 1990s, and now has the dubious distinction of being ranked among the world's poorest countries. As thousands of displaced people move back to their villages, a large proportion of the predominantly farm-based rural population are growing food crops for the first time in a decade. Alluvial diamond mining makes an important contribution to the national economy, though some would argue that Sierra Leone's diamonds are a 'resource curse'. Drawing upon research undertaken in the 1970s and also in the post-conflict period, the paper provides a longitudinal perspective on the complex links between the farming and mining sectors. Recent field research in Sierra Leone's Eastern Province, indicates that many links between farming and diamond mining have actually been maintained despite severe dislocation. These links could play a key role in rejuvenating market-oriented food production, providing the much-needed impetus for postwar rural development. In charting a future development trajectory, the paper recognizes the urgent need for an effective management scheme for both mining and marketing diamonds, given the potentially destabilizing effect on the country of the uncontrolled exploitation of this valuable resource. In this context, a recent community-based, integrated management initiative adopted by one local NGO, the Peace Diamond Alliance, is examined. If meaningful rural development is to be achieved among desperately poor communities, development strategies must be based on a detailed understanding of the nature of interlocking livelihoods in the agricultural and mining sectors.