Presents four articles exploring children's play: (1) "Play, Policy, and Practice: The Essential Connections" (Edgar Klugman, Sandra Waite-Stupiansky); (2) "What's New in Play Research?" (Doris Pronin Fromberg), including play processes and implications for practitioners; (3) "Observing Children's Play" (Margaret Cooney), describing benefits of…

Describes two projects featuring problem-oriented lessons and assignments. The Gallatin (Tennessee) High School Interdisciplinary Project was a four-year case study that investigated students' ability to make connections with their societal and school curriculum using self-selected cases, videodiscs, and literature. "Explorers of the…

Presents data on Pakistan Sign Language collected during videotaped interviews with informants. Questions whether nonmanual components of a sign should be included among the language parameters and considered equivalent to the phonemes of spoken languages. (seven references) (Author/CK)

Illustrates how concept mapping can benefit qualitative research to clarify relationships between and among various elements through nonstructured interviews. The research value of examining thoughts through visual representations is demonstrated through the context of a qualitative study of relationships between mathematics beliefs and practice…

Presents the results of an exploratory study that sought to identify the language learning strategies of learners of Japanese at the tertiary level. The study also sought to identify the most- and least-favored strategies of a variety of ethnic groups and to investigate the relationship between ethnicity and language learning strategy preferences.…

Used data collected by a trend analysis company on 111 Web sites commonly visited by children to identify specific privacy issues faced by children when exploring child-oriented and adult-oriented Web sites. Discusses the complexity of issues raised by the expansion of information technology. (SLD)

Describes a science activity entitled "Investigating Fermentation," which uses a digital camera for data collection purposes. Uses a standards-based inquiry approach and explains the procedure. (YDS)

Describes the stresses experienced by international student services personnel in dealing with the more stringent data requirements regarding the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) in the wake of September 11. (EV)

Details NASA's (National Aeronautics & Space Administration (USA)) involvement in defining and testing the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) and experience with adapting existing NASA distributed searching DLs (digital libraries) to use the OAI-PMH and metadata harvesting. Discusses some new digital…

Presents a brief survey of Open Archives Initiative (OAI) e-print repositories, and of services using metadata harvested from e-print repositories using the OAI protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH). Discusses several situations where metadata harvesting may be used to further improve the utility of e-print archives as a component of the…

Describes four techniques for investigating animal behavior in situations where it is relatively easy to obtain meaningful data. Presents investigations for attention responses and habituation of domestic animals to sound stimuli, interaction of lambs and ewes, behavior of lambs in a simple T-maze, and vigilance in birds at a feeder. (JRH)

Reviews the racial classifications used by the U.S. Census and explores the arguments for adding a "multiracial" category to Census data. It may be logical to question the need for any race and ethnicity criteria in the Census, but as long as racism exists, it is necessary to acknowledge it. (SLD)

Professional development programs should provide teachers with experiences that develop their knowledge and skills to integrate environmental field studies into their school curriculum. Reports on a professional development model that engaged teachers in designing and conducting local environmental science research projects. (Author/YDS)

Outlines a series of security steps that might be taken by researchers or organizations that are contemplating Web-based tests and performance assessments. Focuses on what can be done to avoid the loss, compromising, or modification of data collected by or stored through the Internet. (SLD)

Reviewed summative evaluations of public training programs in Canada, focusing on methodology and the future prospects for evaluation in Canada. Findings show that the evaluation of training programs is a complex exercise that requires a careful research strategy, including carefully designed data collection. Future evaluations may need to focus…