The author's school is fortunate to have two therapy dogs, Daisy and Rosie, both West Highland terriers (Westies). Daisy is such a comfort to students when they are sad, scared, or just in need of a quiet friend. She assists students with special needs as well as students whose needs are special. In this article, the author describes how she…

Within the past decade, giant pouched rats have been used successfully to detect landmines. This manuscript summarizes how these rats are trained and used operationally. The information provided is intended to be of practical value toward strengthening best practices in using "Cricetomys" for humanitarian purposes while simultaneously…

The author examines the role of culture in education in historical perspective to suggest the conditions required to promote generalized educational reform. Although deliberate instruction appears to be a ubiquitous characteristic of human beings, schools arise only when large numbers of people begin to live in close proximity, using technologies…

We trained two bonobos to discriminate among occluded, complete, and incomplete stimuli. The occluded stimulus comprised a pair of colored shapes, one of which appeared to occlude the other. The complete and incomplete stimuli involved the single shape that appeared to have been partially covered in the occluded stimulus; the complete stimulus…

Male zebra finches learn to sing songs that they hear between 25 and 65 days of age, the sensitive period for song learning. In this experiment, male and female zebra finches were exposed to zebra finch songs either before (n = 9) or during (n = 4) the sensitive period. Following song exposure, recognition memory for the songs was assessed with an…

In this inquiry-based activity, students catalog external and internal characteristics of four different classes of animals during dissection exercises. On the basis of their accumulated data, students compare and contrast the animals, devise a phylogenetic tree, and provide reasonable characteristics for extinct transitional organisms. (Contains…

Formal education in Western society is firmly rooted in humanist ideals. "Becoming human" by cultivating certain cognitive, social, and moral abilities has even symbolised the idea of education as such in Enlightenment philosophical traditions. These ideas are increasingly coming under scrutiny by posthumanist theorists, who are addressing…

A needs assessment survey was developed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of poultry vendors at farmers' markets in Pennsylvania, on food safety, regulation, and poultry production. Vendors were administered a 32-question paper survey, in person, during market hours. The results revealed critical vendor practices and identified important…

This study investigated the level of understanding among student teachers in differentiating lepidopterans. It adopted a constructive approach to promoting conceptual change in students on the issue of animal classification by generating cognitive conflict. Most of the students used inaccurate morphological traits for identification, such as wing…

According to No Child Left Behind, teachers must consider alternative teaching strategies to improve student achievement. The use of a facility dog as an instructional enhancement is an innovative teaching approach that deserves further research. The theoretical framework for the study was human-animal bond theory, which postulates that…

This study examined the effectiveness of a new learning approach in teaching classification of invertebrate animals in biology courses. In this approach, we used an impersonal style: the subject jigsaw, which differs from the other jigsaws in that both course topics and student groups are divided. Students in Jigsaw group were divided into five…

Censorship is not a new phenomenon in the field of children's literature. Children's and young adult books are often scrutinized for text and illustrations that may be found questionable for use with young readers. If deemed inappropriate, these books become the subjects of controversial debate and may fall victim to censorship. Although numerous…

This article describes an automated data analysis tool that allows Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service educators to disseminate results in a timely manner. Primary data collected at Oklahoma Quality Beef Network (OQBN) certified calf auctions across the state results in a large amount of data per sale site. Sale summaries for an individual sale…

The resurgence of temporal patterns of key pecking by pigeons was investigated in two experiments. In Experiment 1, positively accelerated and linear patterns of responding were established on one key under a discrete-trial multiple fixed-interval variable-interval schedule. Subsequently, only responses on a second key produced reinforcers…

An increase in synaptic AMPA receptors is hypothesized to mediate learning and memory. AMPA receptor increases have been reported in aversive learning models, although it is not clear if they are seen with memory maintenance. Here we examine AMPA receptor changes in a cAMP/PKA/CREB-dependent appetitive learning model: odor preference learning in…