Describes a simulation which is intended for use as a beginning exercise in a high school social studies unit on the national and global energy problem. Game rules are outlined, objectives are included, and role cards are presented. (Author/DB)

Describes current trends in the field of simulation gaming: families of games, priming games, frame games, whole course games, games in the community, paper computer games, and games to prepare children for emergencies. (Author)

A simulation study demonstrates that transformation of scores to ranks reduces variance heterogeneity when scores with unequal variances are combined and ranked as one set, but not enough to prevent distortion of the probabilities of Type I and Type II errors of statistical significance tests. (SLD)

Presents results of a simulation study in which the power of latent growth modeling (LGM) for detecting group differences in the growth trajectory parameters was assessed. Six major findings about LGM power are outlined. (SLD)

Proposed a taxonomy of latent structure assumptions for probability matrix decomposition (PMD) that includes the original PMD model and a three-way extension of the multiple classification latent class model. Simulation study results show the usefulness of the taxonomy. (SLD)

Developed an extension of the Hollander and Sethuraman (M. Hollander and J. Sethuraman, 1978) statistic (B squared) for testing discordance among intra-block rankings of K elements for multiple groups of raters. Simulation results confirmed the usefulness of B squared as an omnibus test of interaction among intra-block ranks and demonstrated its…

Describes a new combinatorial algorithm for fitting additive trees to proximity data. This generalized triples method examines all triples of objects of interest in relation to the remaining set of objects to be clustered. The procedure is illustrated, and a simulation study shows its advantages. (SLD)

Studied the robustness of the sign test frequently used to examine group differences as measured by multiple indicators where observations are correlated. Findings of a simulation study show that modest intercorrelations only influence the ability to detect Type I errors to a limited degree, but high intercorrelations make use of the sign test…

Compared two bootstrap methods that use trimmed means, the percentile and percentile T methods and considered how these methods might be adapted to comparing "K" measures corresponding to two independent groups. Results from simulation studies lead to an extension of the percentile bootstrap approach that gives better results. (SLD)

A procedure is proposed to generate non-normal data for simulation of structural equation models. The procedure uses a simple transformation of univariate random variables for the generation of data on latent and error variables under some restrictions for the elements of the covariance matrices for these variables. (SLD)

Different sets of uniqueness constraints may lead to different fit results when applied to the same data in confirmatory factor analysis. Provides several examples of this phenomenon in simulated data and describes reasons for the variation in fit results. Discusses the choice of uniqueness constraints under these circumstances. (SLD)

Discusses reasons why increasing the number of replications in Monte Carlo simulation studies is not necessary for satisfactory levels of precision and offers guidelines in the context of error tolerance analysis for determining how much precision is needed. (SLD)

Using refrigerator magnets, foam blocks, ink pads, and modeling clay, students manipulate the letters of the alphabet at multiple angles, reconstructing three-dimensional forms from two-dimensional data. This exercise increases students' spatial reasoning ability, an important component in many scientific disciplines. (Contains 5 figures.)