The recent discovery and ongoing detection of Einstein's predicted gravitational waves offers an exciting opportunity for engaging the general public in science. In order to reach a wide range of people with different science-art identities, levels of physics expertise, age, and gender, the "Celebrating Einstein" festival merges science,…

While the interest in understanding how music affects an individual's development is growing, the significance of music education for a more equal society has also been frequently discussed. In this study, we pay special attention to the potential for social capital that music learning, making, and experiencing offer. We report upon the reactions…

This article investigates the strategies web-writers develop when their audiences respond to them via textual participation. Focusing on three web-writers who want to "continue the conversation," this article identifies five major strategies to accomplish this aim: (a) editing after production, (b) quotation, (c) question posing, (d)…

Science centres and other informal learning environments are increasingly becoming venues in which socioscientific issues are presented, sometimes with the aim of influencing attitudes and behaviour. This study investigated the effects of an HIV AIDS science theatre presentation on the behavioural intentions of 697 South African students, a…

This study examines participants' responses to first year students' street performances as a non-placement work-integrated learning (WIL) activity over a two year period. The purpose of the study was to determine: (1) community perception, (2) continuous improvement, and (3) future needs. Data was collected through surveying participants'…

This article investigates the impact of an audience response system (ARS) on student engagement in undergraduate university courses. A survey was administered to students in a dozen courses piloting the ARS system. On 13 out of 14 measures the majority of students thought the system was helpful. Overall, students were more positive about the use…

The composition teacher's role in responding to students papers is especially problematic when students are advanced English-as-a-Second-Language students at the graduate level. With limited knowledge of a student's field of study, the teacher can not simulate the audience the student needs to address. While evaluation by peers in the same field…

This report provides suggestions on how a language arts mass media and visual 1iteracy skills assessment program might be structured to ensure that school districts meet the Common Curriculum Goals of the public elementary and secondary schools in Oregon. This report includes: (1) a list of Common Curriculum Goals that relate to mass media and…

To investigate whether television viewers respond differently to presidential debaters than radio listeners do (in other words, does visual content significantly shape the way audience members evaluate the candidates?), a study examined the first Ronald Reagan-Walter Mondale debate in 1984. Subjects, 66 adult volunteers (35 assigned to television…

Describes a public library program designed to stimulate appreciation of adult fiction written in and about the contemporary western United States. Discussion covers project objectives, oral interpretation of literature, project phases, study guides and bibliographies, staff orientation, lectures, evaluators, personnel, publicity, problems, and…

This study attempts to gain information concerning the receptive, as opposed to the creative, aesthetic experience by talking to museum professionals who spend their working lives identifying, appraising, and explicating works of art. The study is based on an underlying assumption that rules and practices for looking at art exist and must be…