This paper reports on the findings of a case study that investigated the interaction of the agendas and practices of students, teachers, and zoo educators during a class field trip to a zoo. The study reports on findings of the analysis of two case classes of students and their perceptions of their learning experiences during the field trip. The…

Several types of contrast effects have been identified including incentive contrast, anticipatory contrast, and behavioral contrast. Clement, Feltus, Kaiser, and Zentall (2000) proposed a type of contrast that appears to be different from these others and called it within-trial contrast. In this form of contrast the relative value of a reinforcer…

Every year, the Parent-Teacher Organization of Hiller Elementary School gives every teacher a fifty dollar bill to help offset classroom expenses. This year the author, a second grade teacher, knew exactly how he would spend the money. He bought thirty-eight perfect, clear, two-quart plastic, lidded containers for each of his students and three…

When a dog (in this case, Tim Pennings' dog Elvis) is in the water and a ball is thrown downshore, it must choose to swim directly to the ball or first swim to shore. The mathematical analysis of this problem leads to the computation of bifurcation points at which the optimal strategy changes.

The role of the primary motor cortex in the acquisition of new motor skills was evaluated during classical conditioning of vibrissal protraction responses in behaving mice, using a trace paradigm. Conditioned stimulus (CS) presentation elicited a characteristic field potential in the vibrissal motor cortex, which was dependent on the synchronized…

Using manual responses, human participants are remarkably fast and accurate at deciding if a natural scene contains an animal, but recent data show that they are even faster to indicate with saccadic eye movements which of 2 scenes contains an animal. How could it be that 2 images can apparently be processed faster than a single image? To better…

Recently, marine ecologists and economists have made the world aware of some alarming news about the ocean's bounty. According to researchers, populations of edible sea life are falling worldwide, and if the pattern were to continue, we would have no ocean fish left to harvest by midcentury. However, critics believe that this projection relies on…

The present study investigated whether Pavlovian conditioning contributes, in the form of the response operandum serving as a conditioned stimulus, to the increase in the rate of response for 1% liquid-sucrose reinforcement when food-pellet reinforcement is upcoming. Rats were exposed to conditions in which sign tracking for 1% sucrose was…

The concept of plasticity describes the mechanisms that rearrange cerebral organization following a brain injury. During the last century, plasticity has been mainly investigated in humans with acute strokes. It was then shown: (i) that the brain is organized into highly specialized functional areas, often designated "eloquent" areas and (ii) that…

Described is a course on animal behavior offered for high school students grade 10-12. The course has a biology prerequisite and includes units on behavior patterns, communication, courtship patterns, territories, and social groups. (SL)

Describes how to measure the daily rhythm of activity (photoperiodism) of small mammals. Three methods for recording information are reviewed including instructions for making a recorder. Includes suggestions for activities and experiments. (PR)

A program at Moorpark Community College, in Moorpark, California, offers a two-and-a-half-year major in Exotic Animal Training and Management. Emphasis is on the practical, everyday handling and training of wild animals. (LBH)

Understanding the precursors and early indicators of dyslexia is key to early identification and effective intervention. Now there's a single research volume that brings together the very latest knowledge on the earliest stages of dyslexia and the diverse genetic, neurobiological, and cognitive factors that may contribute to it. Based on findings…

Energy education has been conducted to equip learners with relevant energy conservation knowledge for many years. However, learners seldom put the knowledge into practice and even have few ideas about how to reduce energy consumption. To this end, there is a need to address this issue to improve the efficiency of energy education. One of the…

Food and eating in schools have most often been thought of as utilitarian parts of the day, as distractions, and, for education researchers, as lacking incentives to study or even as objects of derision rather than serious concern. Yet there are good reasons why scholars of education should consider food and food practices. These include the…