Discusses a protest by students at the University of Illinois (Urbana) College of Veterinary Medicine over the killing of animals that led to temporary curtailing of lethal animal experiments. Examines the conflict between animal rights groups and some faculty who are openly skeptical about the effectiveness of alternatives to the hands-on…

Reviews students' understandings of the structure of animal and human skeletons. (Author/CCM)

Presents a study that used computer-based rat anatomy to compare student learning outcomes from computer-based instruction with a conventional dissection. Indicates that there was a significant relationship between the time spent on both classes and the marks gained. Shows that computer-based instruction can be a viable alternative to the use of…

Explains a health science activity concerning Howard Florey's experiment and the discovery of penicillin. Uses a mouse's point of view to conduct the activity and asks students to present information about Florey's research as if a participating mouse is talking. (YDS)

Information presented concurrently and redundantly to 2 or more senses (intersensory redundancy) has been shown to recruit attention and promote perceptual learning of amodal stimulus properties in animal embryos and human infants. This study examined whether the facilitative effect of intersensory redundancy also extends to the domain of memory.…

This article brings attention to decision-making in the world of state financing for higher education. It reflects on the origin of this field and the system builders in the 1960s and 1970s, who needed to figure out rational ways to both justify funding requests to the state and distribute resources among institutions. The article highlights one…

Understanding how children think about the needs of animals may aid bridging from how they care about individual animals to caring about the environment more generally. This study explored changes with age in children's conceptions of animals' needs, including how such conceptions may extend beyond the individual animal to larger systems and…

We present a two-part undergraduate laboratory exercise. In the first part, electron transport in bovine heart submitochondrial particles causing reduction of cytochrome c is monitored at 550 nm. Redox-active dyes have historically been used in most previous undergraduate laboratory exercises of this sort but do not demonstrate respiratory…

Chairs at 262 prominent U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities (75% response rate) completed a questionnaire about animal use, student choice policies, and alternatives to the use of animals in undergraduate psychology education. Results indicated that a majority of institutions used animals in teaching, only a minority had choice policies…

Hantavirus, caused due to close contact with mice in a dwelling, first emerged in the spring of 1993 on the Navajo Reservation and although it is by no means an Indian disease, there are four times as many cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) among non-Indians. Inadequate rural housing, especially common in western Indian Country,…

Using concept maps, a Kellert-type (S. R. Kellert, 1985) inventory, and self-report behavioral items, this cross-age study assessed public knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward bottlenose dolphins. Results suggest that this important megafaunal species is poorly understood by the public at large, and that negative "utilitarian" attitudes and…

This study investigated which plants and animals Swiss children found most attractive and evaluated the effect of an educational programme on children's preferences for species. More than 4000 pupils (8-16 years old) from 248 classes participated in the study. Possible effects of the programme were studied with the help of questionnaires using a…

Background knowledge plays an important role in one?s ability to learn. We learn new knowledge by relating it to our prior knowledge, which in turn provides concrete understanding (Piaget, 1969). Rosenblatt (1996) explained, "The reader brings to the work personality traits, memories of past events, present needs and preoccupations, a…

Recurring seizures in infants and children are often associated with cognitive deficits, but the reason for the learning difficulties is unclear. Recent studies in several animal models suggest that seizures themselves may contribute in important ways to these deficits. Other studies in animals have shown that recurring seizures result in…

The human and mouse genome projects elucidated the sequence and position map of innumerous genes expressed in the central nervous system (CNS), advancing our ability to manipulate these sequences and create models to investigate regulation of gene expression and function. In this article, we reviewed gene targeting methodologies with emphasis on…