Oh No! More Earmarks!

Temporary Spending Bill Contains Billions in Earmarks for Colleges

Tucked into a spending bill that the U.S. Senate passed over the weekend are thousands of set-asides for pork-barrel projects, including many at colleges and universities. According to a tally by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group, there are 2,321 earmarks totaling $6.6-billion in the bill, which would provide funds for three federal agencies in the 2009 fiscal year, while financing most others at this year’s levels until March.

Among the earmarks for colleges and universities are:
$2-million for “hibernation genomics” research at the University of Alaska, secured by Sen. Ted Stevens, a Republican who is on trial for allegedly lying on his financial-disclosure forms and concealing thousands of dollars in gifts. The project, which has received earmarks in the past, is investigating using hibernation to treat traumatic battlefield injuries.

Last year legislators channeled more than 2,300 such projects to 920 institutions, mostly for research, according to a Chronicle analysis. —Kelly Field


Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Not to be Missed: Why Science Matters & the Election

"Choosing a Future: Why Science Matters",this week's U.S. Election special issue of Nature magazine, begins with a look at what's at stake in this campaign and beyond for science. A. Witze asks how the candidates have developed their stances on science overtime, who is advising them, and where they might take the country (page 442). The parties stances on science and technology matters are summarized (page 446)--Obama answers questions but McCain declined. Another article ponders the prospects of key science agencies such as NASA, EPA, and NIH, under a McCain or Obama administration (page 451). David Goldstone adds a personal viewpoint from Washington, D.C. (Party at One p. 453). See also the introductory editorial (page 431), advice to a potential president on what books to read (Books & Art p. 464) and the expanded on-line-election special on www.nature.com/uselection. Listen also to the series of election podcasts on www.nature.com/nature/podcast. There is also an issue in the Goodwin Library.
Source: Nature U.S. Election Special September 25 2008

Lists and Rankings

Everyone seems to love lists and rankings. There is perennial interest in biggest, richest, highest rated, most popular, etc., etc. Of course, some of these compilations are highly subjective. But many of these do have reference or research value, such as U.S. Census Bureau lists such as Fastest Growing Large Cities in the United States.

Boys Don't Like to Read

Problem: Boys Don’t Like to Read. Solution: Books That Are Really Gross

Publishers are hawking more gory and gross books to appeal to an elusive market: boys — many of whom would rather go to the dentist than crack open “Little House on the Prairie.” Booksellers are also catering to teachers and parents desperate to make young males more literate.

“There has been a real revolution” in books that “have more kid appeal,” especially when it comes to boys, says Ellie Berger, who oversees Scholastic’s trade division. “It’s a shift away from the drier books we all grew up with.”

Last year, U.S. publishers released 261 new works of juvenile fiction aimed at boys, more than twice the number put out in 2003, according to Bowker’s Books in Print database. There were 20 nonfiction entries for boys, compared with just four in 2003.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Doing What Works in Teaching

What is “spacing” learning and how does it benefit teachers and students? Do students learn more when solved problems are alternated with problems to be solved? And how do “higher order” questions enhance student learning and help students articulate their answers?

Visitors to the U.S. Department of Education’s “Doing What Works” Web site can find out the answers to these questions and much more. Just click on http://dww.ed.gov, and enjoy an engaging and interactive experience with Psychology of Learning: How to Organize Your Teaching, the latest addition to the site, which will empower educators and administrators with research-based strategies to help instructors organize their teaching and improve student learning.

Source: U.S. Department of Education

Send Your Name Around the Earth

Members of the public can send their names around Earth on NASA’s Glory satellite, the first mission dedicated to understanding the effects of particles in the atmosphere and the sun’s variability on our climate.

The “Send Your Name Around the Earth” Web site enables everyone to take part in the science mission and place their names in orbit for years to come. The Web site, where participants can submit their information, is located HERE


Participants will receive a printable certificate from NASA and have their name recorded on a microchip that will become part of the spacecraft. The deadline for submitting names is Nov. 1, 2008.

Writing for the Web

Arriving in the library this week will be the following books about writing for the web:

Hot Text and Web Writing That Works
Developing Online Content: Principles of Writing & Editing for the Web
Letting Go of the Words: Writing With Content That Works

Election 2008

Useful Links

Candidates
McCain-Palin Website: www.johnmccain.com
Obama-Biden Website: www.barackobama.com
Roll Call - Presidential Race: congress.org/election/home/
You Decide 2008: www.youdecide2008.com

Debates
League of Women Voters Debate Watching Tools: tinyurl.com/52oc5p

News
BBC News: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/americas/2008/vote_usa_2008/default.stm
CNN: www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/
Fox News: elections.foxnews.com/
NPR: www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1102
Reuters: www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/2008candidates
The New York Times: elections.nytimes.com/2008/
U.S. News: www.usnews.com/Topics/tag/Subject/p/presidential_election_2008/

Books Most Frequently Challenged

Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox. Observed since 1982, this annual ALA event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2007” reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:

1) “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
2) The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
3) “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
4) “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
5) “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
6) “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
7) "TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
8) "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
9) “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
10) "The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky

Off the list this year, are two books by author Toni Morrison. "The Bluest Eye" and "Beloved," both challenged for sexual content and offensive language.

Paulson's Plan

Here is the Legislative Proposal for Treasury Authority to Purchase Mortgage-Related Assets This is the plan submitted by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. (you may want to pay particular attention to Section 8).

Are the Scrub s Germ-Free?

"The Doctor's Hands Are Germ-Free. The Scrubs Too?" was published in the New York Times Tuesday. A Goodwin Student asked that I mention this article on the blog after she noticed that many students here come from or are going to medical settings wearing scrubs that may not pass the germ-free test.

A recent study at a Connecticut hospital "sought to gauge the role that clothing plays in the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The study found that if a worker entered a room where the patient had MRSA, the bacteria would end up on the worker’s clothes about 70 percent of the time, even if the person never actually touched the patient.

Amid growing concerns about hospital infections and a rise in drug-resistant bacteria, the attire of doctors, nurses and other health care workers — worn both inside and outside the hospital — is getting more attention. While infection control experts have published extensive research on the benefits of hand washing and equipment sterilization in hospitals, little is known about the role that ties, white coats, long sleeves and soiled scrubs play in the spread of bacteria." (quoted from the article)

Reading Banned Books

Banned Books Week, which runs September 27 to October 3 this year, draws attention to the issue of censorship and how it can best be combated.

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, this annual American Library Association event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. This year, 2008, marks BBW's 27th anniversary.

BBW celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. After all, intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met. Check the blog each day next week for more information.

I'll Take My Lecture to Go, Please

It looks like students can be open-minded after all: When provided with the option to view lectures online, rather than just in person, a full 82 percent of undergraduates kindly offered that they’d be willing to entertain an alternative to showing up to class and paying attention in real time.

A new study released yesterday suggests not only a willingness but a “clear preference” among undergraduates for “lecture capture,” the technology that records, streams and stores what happens in the classroom for concurrent or later viewing.

Source: Inside Higher Education September 23 2008

Respiratory Class: APA Paper

Click here for a copy of a research paper in APA format titled "Can Medication Cure Obesity in Children?" This is a research paper written by Luisa Mirano, a student in a psychology class. The assignment was to write a review of the literature paper documented with APA style citations and references. This sample research paper was published in The Bedford Handbook by Diana Hacker. The library staff is prepared to help you with research and the APA format.

Tell-All Campus Tour: Unigo

"The Tell-All Campus Tour" is an article about Unigo in yesterday's New York Times magazine section. Unigo is the world’s largest platform for college students to share reviews, photos, videos, documents, and more with students on their campus and across the country.

Jordan Goldman, orignator of Unigo, says it’s also the best place for high school students to find out what life is really like at America’s colleges, and to make friends to help them find the school that’s right for them. Unigo is the result of a nationwide grassroots movement to get the truth out about college life, and it’s growing bigger every day. The story of how this young man brought this idea to Internet life is fascinating. Read the article here. To see the site itself, go to www.unigo.com.



Source: New York Times September 21 2008

Constitution Day Quiz

GOODWIN COLLEGE CELEBRATES CONSTITUTION DAY
WHAT’S YOUR CONSTITUTION IQ? TAKE THE QUIZ NOW!

1. Our country’s first constitution was called:
a. the Articles of Confederation
b. the Declaration of Independence
c. the “Federalist Papers”
d. the Emancipation Proclamation

2. Laws for the United States are made by:
a. the President
b. the Senate
c. Congress
d. the Supreme Court

3. The longest possible time a person could now
serve as President is:
a. 4 years
b. 8 years
c. 10 years
d. 12 years

4. A man accused of a crime in court has a right to:
a. hear the witnesses against him
b. be tried wherever he wants
c. have any judge he wants
d. change courts

5. Invoking the Fifth Amendment means an accused
man:
a. refuses to testify against himself
b. refuses to be tried again
c. demands a grand jury
d. wants to appeal his case

6. Our first Vice-President was:
a. Alexander Hamilton
b. Thomas Jefferson
c. Benjamin Franklin
d. John Adams
7. The Bill of Rights is:
a. the first ten amendments
b. the Fifteenth Amendment
c. the entire Constitution
d. all of the amendments

8. If neither the President nor Vice-President can
serve, the position would be filled by:
a. the Speaker of the House
b. the Chief Justice
c. the elected President of the Senate
d. the Secretary of State

9. The major department head who is appointed by
the President to deal with foreign countries is the:
a. Secretary of Defense
b. Secretary of State
c. Attorney General
d. Secretary of Commerce

10. The President is elected if he:
a. wins a majority of the electoral votes
b. wins most of the country’s vote
c. wins all of the States’ votes
d. wins most of the States’ votes

ANSWERS ARE AVAILABLE ON ANOTHER ENTRY ON THIS BLOG.
•Learn more about the Constitution — the people, the events, the landmark cases—lots of information in the library, on the library page, and on the library blog.
•Be an informed citizen!
•Register to vote! Registration forms are available in the library.
•Vote!

Constitution day
September 17, 2008

Answers to the Constitution Quiz

ANSWERS TO THE CONSTITUTION QUIZ

1-a Articles of Confederation
2-c Congress
3-b two terms or 8 years. Under the 22nd Amendment, a vice president succeeding to the presidency would still be eligible to two elected terms provided he had served not more than two years of the unexpired term—10 years.
4-a hear the witnesses against him
5-a refuses to testify against himself
6-d John Adams
7-a the first 10 amendments
8-a Speaker of the House
9-b Secretary of State
10-a wins a majority of the electoral vote

Constitution Day

Today we join schools across the country to celebrate Constitution Day. On September 17, 1787, 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered in Independence Hall in Philadelphia to sign the document that would determine the structure and function of our federal government. The original Constitution is on permanent display in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

It is one of the oldest written constitutions in the world. Its genius lay in its solutions to such problems as balancing strong government against too much individual or institutional power and preventing large states from dominating smaller ones.

The first issue was dealt with by dividing the government into three branches. The second issue, negotiating power between states, was resolved by having a senate with two senators from each state and a House of Representatives based on population. Four years after the Constitution was written, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights specified a list of individual freedoms, including freedom of speech, assembly, and worship.

U.S. Copyright Records

U.S. Copyright Records are Available to download.

This article from Google BookSearch explains resources for determining the copyright status of a work, and links to a new downloadable XML file Google's engineers have created from US Copyright Office records.

Financial Literacy on College Campuses

Financial-literacy training is gaining ground on college campuses, according to a survey released today by Student Lending Analytics, a college advisory firm.

Nearly 40 percent of financial-aid administrators surveyed said their colleges provided financial-literacy training to students. Of those who said their colleges did not offer such a program, half indicated the institution planned to start one in the next 12 to 18 months. Only 15 percent of respondents said that financial-literacy programs at their colleges were mandatory for students.

The most popular topics covered in such programs were budgeting, planning for loan repayment, credit cards, identity theft, and understanding a credit report, according to the survey, which covered 200 financial-aid professionals and was conducted from September 3 to 5. Almost 90 percent of respondents said such training was handled by the financial-aid office on their campus.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

Significance of Ramadan

When he was forty years old, a man named Ubu'l Kassim went into the Cave of Hira (located in Saudi Arabia) during the Arabic month of Ramadan in the year 610 C.E. A world-changing event began when, alone in the cave, he heard someone say the Arabic word "Iqraa!" Ubu'l Kassim (later known as the Prophet Muhammad) thought he must be dreaming. Muslims believe the voice was that of Gabriel, an angel who began dictating - to Muhammad - the words one now sees in the Koran. Ramadan is significant for Muslims worldwide because it is the month when the Koran was first dictated. This year, Ramadan began at sunset on September 1st.

Xi'an Ancient Culture Festival.

In September we have Labor day and Constitution Day. In September, China celebrates the Xi'an Ancient Culture Festival for the entire month. Beautiful Xi'an adds some fine traditional dance, music, song and opera to its formidable list of attractions for this festival. The Ancient Culture Festival celebrates traditions that originate back in the mists of the past 4000 years - at the very dawn of Chinese civilisation.

Xi'an is a must-see destination for any traveller to China. From 1000 BC to 1000 AD it served as the imperial capital for 11 dynasties, and its famous landmarks are a fascinating history lesson. The highlight for most people is the underground Terracotta Army, just north of Xi'an. Vault one alone contains 1000 figures of solidiers, each with individual facial expressions, dating from the last centuries BC and only discovered in 1974. The Banpo Museum is the excavated site of a Neolithic village - confirming Xi'an as among the oldest cities in the world.

Source: New England Library Association

Classroom Assessment Techniques for College Teachers

This revised and greatly expanded handbook of Classroom Assessment Techniques o by Angelo and Cross offers college teachers how-to advice on classroom assessment, including what classroom assessment entails and how it works. It includes twelve case studies that detail the real-life classroom experiences of teachers carrying out successful classroom assessment projects, fifty classroom assessment techniques, step-by-step procedures for administering the techniques, and practical advice on how to analyze your data. This book is now available in the Goodwin Library.

Learning-Centered Assessment: Important New Book

Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses by Huba and Freed integrates current thinking and research regarding the learning of undergraduate students with principles of best practice in assessment and teaching. The book helps us see the connection among three powerful trends in higher education today: the focus on learning and learners, the emphasis on the assessment of learning, and the need to continually improve what those in higher education do. Grounded in principles of constructivist learning theory and continuous improvement, the book provides opportunities to make connections with what we already know about assessment, integrate new information with current knowledge, and try new approaches to enhance the learning of students.

The authors emphasize the shift from a teacher-centered paradigm of instruction to a learner-centered paradigm. The book also offers practical approaches to help formulate intended learning outcomes, gather feedback from students to guide instruction, and develop scoring criteria for guiding and evaluating student work. Reading the book will help us learn how to assess students' ability to think critically, address enduring and emerging issues and problems in their disciplines, and use portfolios to promote and evaluate student learning. Numerous questions to guide implementation, as well as examples from a variety of disciplines and institutions are provided. This is a must for administrators and/or those in faculty development. It is available now in the Goodwin Library.

Get Moving and Think Better

Exercise is strongly associated with improving cognition. As the majority of mortality benefit of exercise is at the highest level of cognition, and declines as cognition declines, the net effect of exercise should be to improve cognition at the population level, even with more people living longer. This information comes from "Changes in Cognition and Mortality in Relation to Exercise in Late Life: A Population Based Study."
Source: PLoS ONE September 3rd, 2008

CareLINK Web Based Training Directions

Nursing 100 students, save yourself some frustration. Directions on accessing the CareLINK Web Based Training from the library computers are available at the reference desk and on the bulletin board in my office.

Dropout and Completion Rates in the U.S. Report

This report builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates for 2006 and provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last three decades (1972-2006), including characteristics of dropouts and completers in these years. Report highlights include: The averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR), which provides an estimate of the percentage of public high school students who graduate with a regular diploma 4 years after starting 9th grade, was 74.7 percent for the class of 2005. Students living in low-income families were approximately four times more likely to drop out of high school between 2005 and 2006 than were students living in high-income families. In October 2006, approximately 3.5 million civilian noninstitutionalized 16- through 24-year-olds were not enrolled in high school and had not earned a high school diploma or alternative credential.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

How Should We Teach the 'Digital Natives'?

Last month, Thomas H. Benton in the Chronicle of Higher Education reviewed a collection of recent books "arguing that Americans, particularly those now entering college, have been rendered "stupid" by a convergence of factors including traditional anti-intellectualism, consumer culture, the entertainment industry, political correctness, religious fundamentalism, and post-modern relativism, just to name some of the usual suspects." This week Benton's Part 2 on Stupidity is available in the Chronicle. He is an English professor who grades at least 1,000 essays a year. His focus is on those skills, not on math or science.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education Section C September 5, 2008

What the Survey Didn't Say...

I am an avid listener to BBC World News and a reader of BBC News magazine. The magazine ran a series recently on understanding surveys, polls, studies and statistics. Since they are everywhere (especially during an election year), wouldn't it be good to have the mental agility to separate the wheat from the chaff? In the first of a weekly series, author Michael Blastland gives some hints at getting to grips with surveys. Here is installment one.
Source: BBC World News

McCain & Obama on Healthcare Reform

The New England Journal of Medicine published an article in August comparing the McCain and Obama plans for U.S. healthcare reform. This is valuable information from a trusted source for health science and nursing students--and all of the rest of us.

Here is the first paragraph of that article. "In the face of escalating costs, uneven quality of care, and the growth of the uninsured population, there is broad agreement that the U.S. health care system requires reform. However, Democrats and Republicans remain sharply divided over how to reform it, as evidenced by the health care plans offered by the parties' presidential candidates. The ambitious reform agendas of Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) would take the U.S. health care system in very different directions."

Read the entire article by Jonathan Oberlander, Ph.D.
"The Partisan Divide: The McCain and Obama Plans for U.S. Healthcare Reform."

WildFilmHistory

WildFilmHistory is a unique multi-media guide to the history and heritage of wildlife filmmaking. As well as bringing together the most important wildlife films, the project is collecting ‘behind the scenes’ photographs, and recording oral histories with industry pioneers. This historically valuable material has been donated by the most famous names in Natural History broadcasting, as well as from a whole host of specialist and private collections. The resulting collection is freely available at www.wildfilmhistory.org. as an interactive multi-media resource, and is being stored at high resolution in the WildFilmHistory media vault for the benefit of future generations.

Consumer Health Websites

The Medical Library Association has a "top ten" list of the most useful consumer health websites. Each week we are featuring one of these. This week it is cancer.gov.

Cancer.gov is the official website for The National Cancer Institute (NCI), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of eight agencies that compose the Public Health Service (PHS) in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The NCI, established under the National Cancer Act of 1937, is the Federal Government's principal agency for cancer research and training. NCI coordinates the National Cancer Program, which conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to the cause, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of cancer, rehabilitation from cancer, and the continuing care of cancer patients and the families of cancer patients.

Source: Cancer.gov (http://www.cancer.gov/)

Science Videos Online

http://sciencehack.com/

ScienceHack is a unique video search engine for science videos. Every video is screened and approved based on accuracy and quality by scientists. The fields of science are featured on the main page. Search for science experiments, science projects, science movies and science news. The project aims to index every science video on the Internet. Popular categories to search include physics, checmistry, space, psychology, robotics, biology, mathematics, computer science, nature, green energy, and civil engineering. The latest videos include:
quantum mechanics
wind turbines make bat lungs explode,
solve the cube in less than 100 moves
slime mold and mushrooms
from cell to embryo

Welcome New Students

All new students are invited (enthusiastically encouraged even) to come to the Library. Drop by anytime to meet the library staff and learn about how you can take advantage of the library's great resources. You will be studying in our new library overlooking the Connecticut river in only a few months. We are delighted that you have chosen goodwin College.