Human spatial representations of object locations in a room-sized environment were probed for evidence that the object locations were encoded relative not just to the observer (egocentrically) but also to each other (allocentrically). Participants learned the locations of 4 objects and then were blindfolded and either (a) underwent a succession of…

There has been a slow but steady increase of research on the impact of public school facilities on educational achievement and community outcomes and of the rigor of the research. This summary of studies is part of a larger literature review conducted by the 21st Century School Fund with funding from the Charitable Trust of the Council on…

With taxpayers' considerable investment in schools, it is critical for school districts to preserve their community's assets with new construction or renovation and effective facility maintenance programs. "High-performance" school buildings are designed to link the physical environment to positive student achievement while providing such benefits…

Wilderness therapy is a core component of the adolescent sexual offender treatment programme offered by the SAFE Network Inc. However, little is known about how wilderness therapy contributes to the overall outcomes of adolescents completing the programme. This paper presents an exploratory investigation of the function and process of wilderness…

Scientific literacy is a major educational and political goal worldwide, yet the development and enhancement of scientific literacy is not well understood. In order to better understand scientific literacy at the level of everyday science meaning making and a person's ability to address scientific questions and issues, this study reports on…

To find out about the microscopic life in the valuable estuary environment, it is usually necessary to be near the water. This dry lab offers an alternative, using authentic data and a simulation of plankton sampling. From the types of organisms found in the sample, middle school students can infer relationships in the biological and physical…

The paper presents findings from 560 interviews with undergraduates on 10 campuses distributed across the US, as part of Project Information Literacy (PIL). Overall, the findings suggest that students use a "less is more" approach to manage and control all of the IT devices and information systems available to them while they are in the…

Background: Body mass index (BMI) screening is advocated by the National Association of School Nurses (NASN). Research identifying barriers to BMI screening in public elementary school settings has been sparse. The purpose of the study was to identify barriers and facilitating factors of BMI screening practices among Ohio school nurses working in…

This article examines the role material culture and making items can serve in establishing a sense of place or informing place-based educational practices. It is arranged around six principles that, if used in a learning context, connect material from a place to an enhanced comprehension of a sense of place. A critical component in making the…

This project combines interdisciplinary conversations within the field of communication to examine environmental meaning systems and communication practices in the context of forest environmental education. Due to concerns over children's environmental alienation, there has been a continued push toward place-based environmental education. One such…

This article examines an urban project in Medellin, Colombia's second city, that sought to form social life by forming space: the city's metropolitan railway (Metro), which started operations at the end of 1995 and became the impetus of the inner city's renewal during the 1990s. The article begins with some background information on Medellin's…

School physics rarely stands still for long. Environmental physics is now an option in some post-16 courses in England. The physics of environments, and in particular the built environment, offers a recognizable context in which to see the applications of physics at work. This article considers how a model doll's house might be used to help…

How people respond to questions involving the environment depends partly on individual characteristics. Characteristics such as age, gender, education, and ideology constitute the well-studied "social bases of environmental concern," which have been explained in terms of cohort effects or of cognitive and cultural factors related to social…

The author argues that students (and instructors, and everyone else) are going through a progression of development as leaders, which in-and-of itself is nothing new. They are, based on experience; teaching them leadership skills in some resemblance of a progression--yet again, nothing new. In this article, the author questions the leadership…

This report is a compendium of indicators about our Nation's young people. The report, the 20th produced by the Forum, presents 41 key indicators on important aspects of children's lives. These indicators are drawn from the most reliable Federal statistics, are easily understood by broad audiences, are objectively based on substantial research,…