+ Generating Ideas “Outside the Box”

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Great article in the Times this morning on creativity:  Suntae Kim, Evan Polman and Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks wanted to know if there is any psychological truth to metaphors such as “think outside the box,” and “on the one hand; on the other hand…”

Researchers had already found that someone holding a warm cup of coffee tends to perceive a stranger as having a “warmer” personality.  Other studies have shown that if a person is holding something heavy, they tend to view things as more serious and important… more “weighty.”

But the authors asked 102 undergraduates at NYU to complete a task designed to measure innovative thinking.

The type of task was to (for example) generate a word (“tape”) that related to three clue words: “measure,” “worm,” and “video.”

Some students were randomly assigned to do this while sitting inside a 125-cubic-foot box that we made of plastic pipe and cardboard.  The rest got to sit and think outside (and next to) the box.

…We found that those thinking outside the box were significantly more creative: compared with those thinking inside the box, they came up with over  20 percent more creative solutions.

 In another study students were asked to think of original used for particular objects made of Lego blocks; but they had to do it while walking along a fixed rectangular path indicated by duct tape on the floor — marking out an area of about 48 square feet.  Other students were allowed to walk as freely as they wished.

They found striking differences.  Those who walked freely  were better at generating creative uses for the objects — coming up with over 25 percent more original ideas.

Such creativity was assessed in terms of fluency (the number of ideas generated) flexibility (the number of unique categories that described the generated ideas), and originality (as judged by independent raters).

On the one hand…

The researchers found that something similar happens when thinking about a problem “on one hand and then on the other.”

 Forty undergraduates from the University of Michigan were asked to lift and hold a hand outstretched (“as you might when addressing an audience from a stage”) while generating novel uses for a new university complex.

Some were asked to lift just one hand.  others were asked to switch between hands.

Among students who were allowed to switch hands (literally on the one hand, on the other hand) they found a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of uses generated.

The authors feel they are close to finding some sources of creativity.  

By showing that bodily experiences can help create new knowledge, our results further undermine the strict separation between mind and body — another box that has confined our thinking for a long time.

Additionally, the authors say, even though researchers are only starting to grasp how catch-phrases shape how people think, it may now be possible to prescribe some novel suggestions to enhance creativity.  For instance, perhaps if we’re performing a job that requires some “outside the box” thinking — it may be literally a good idea to avoid working in cubicles.

Suntae Kim is a doctoral candidate and Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks is an associate professor, both in management and organizations, at the University of Michigan.  Evan Polman is visiting assistant professor of management and organizations at NYU.

For the entire article, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/opinion/sunday/when-truisms-are-true.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Suntae%20Kim,%20Evan%20Polman&st=Search

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Council for Learning Disabilities Call For Proposals: Due March 30

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The 34th International Conference on Learning Disabilities, to be held in Texas in October, is calling for proposals. 

The theme of the CLD conference is “Learning Disabilities: Looking Back and Looking Forward — Using What We Know to Create a Blueprint for the Future.”

TYPES OF SESSIONS

• Panel — Topics should be pertinent to LD and include three or more panelists; and be of use to researchers, policy makers, teacher educators, and educators.  Content should be readily applicable to their professional roles.
• Cracker-barrel — Sessions leaders should introduce key issues, provide ample opportunities for group interaction, facilitating small-group discussion.  Controversy is okay.
• Poster — Content should be evidence-based; might include (for example) a synopsis of an intervention study, progress monitoring tools, practices relating to pre-service training , meta-analysis/synthesis of the literature, examination of technical applications.

TOPICS

• Intervention — Sessions should offer information that helps  implement practices and approaches directly, provide their  documentation as evidence-based, summarize the theory and underpinnings, include relevant data.  
• Policy — These sessions address system-level issues, systems change, legislative/legal issues, or policy development.  Should delineate multiple perspectives, discuss how a policy impacts individuals, families and advocates.  Proposals should include an explanation of the policy, give a brief background, explain the how and why of its effects on LD people and the professionals who serve them.
• Teacher Preparation — These sessions should describe evidence-based practices for preparing teachers, advocates and  families.  Proposals should include a description of the  practice and examples of its use in a university/clinic setting, as well as ways to measure effectiveness.
• Research Methodology — Of particular interest: methodologies that advance the participants’ understanding of how to conduct evidence-providing research on interventions; also how to read research-based articles, follow analyses, design studies and write them up.  Proposals should describe the methodology strategies and how session participants can apply the content for themselves.

For more information and instructions for submitting a proposal, visit http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102084425506-10/2012CLDCallForProposals-final.pdf

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Abnormal Auditory Processing Underlies Dyslexia

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From Science Daily, a report indicating that people with dyslexia may be impacted by an abnormality in auditory processing.

Experts have long known that the inability to accurately decode and identify what they read is a result of speech processing problems.  But the basis of that disruption and how it interferes with reading comprehension had not been fully explored.

But now, new reasearch published in the December issue of the journal Neuron suggests that a specific abnormality in the processing of auditory signals accounts for the main symptoms of dyslexia.

Senior study authors are Dr. Anne-Lise Giraud and Frank Ramus of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, France.

According to Giraud, everyone has been in agreement that for a majority of dyslexic children, the main cause is related to a deficit in the processing of speech sounds.  And also well established is that  there are three main symptoms of this deficit:

• difficulty paying attention to individual speech sounds,
• a limited ability to repeat a list of pseudo-words or numbers,
• and a slow performance when asked to name a series of pictures, colors, or numbers as quickly as possible. 

However, the underlying basis of these symptoms had not been elucidated.

Giraud and her colleagues examined whether an abnormality in the early steps of auditory processing in the brain, called “sampling,” is linked with dyslexia.  They focused on the idea that an anomaly in the initial processing of phonemes — the smallest units of sounds that can be used to make a word — might have a direct impact on the processing of speech.

What they found is that typical brain processing of auditory rhythms associated with phonemes was disrupted in the left auditory cortex of dyslexics.  This deficit correlated with measures of speech sound processing.

Further, they found that dyslexics exhibited an enhanced response to high-frequency rhythms that indirectly interfered with verbal memory.

It is possible that this “oversampling” might result in a distortion of the representation of speech sounds.

Girard says

Our results suggest that the left auditory cortex of dyslexic people may be less responsive to modulation at very specific frequencies, which is potentially detrimental to their verbal short-term memory abilities.  Taken together, our data suggest that the auditory cortex of dyslexic individuals is less fine-tuned to the specific needs of speech processing.

Visit the Science Daily article, which is aggregated and has no byline, to locate citations:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111221140340.htm

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ NAEP: Schools on Military Bases Surpass Public Schools

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In an article by Michael Winerip in the NY Times, we learn that the results of the 2011 federal testing program known as NAEP suggest  that — once again — schools on the nation’s military bases have outperformed public schools in both reading and math.   

NAEP is the National Assessment of Educational Progress; the tests were given to the nation’s fourth and eighth graders.

At the military base schools, 39 percent of fourth graders were scored as proficient in reading, compared with 32 percent of all public school students. 

Even more impressive, the achievement gap between black and white students continue to be much smaller at military base schools and is shrinking faster than at public schools.

While the fashion has been for American educators to head to Helsinki in order to learn their pedagogical methods, Winerip thinks it might be more instructive to take a motel room in Jacksonville N.C. and check out how classes at Camp Lejeune Marine base are implemented.

Principal Leigh Anne Kapiko at Tarawa Terrace Elementary, says military base schools do no test preparation.  They don’t even have test prep materials.

Standardized tests are used as originally intended in these schools: to identify a child’s academic weaknesses and assess the effectiveness of the curriculum.

Kapiko believes that military base schools are more nurturing than public schools.  “We don’t have to be so regimented, since we’re not worried about a child’s ability to bubble on a test.”

In public schools, the federal government can dictate to principals how to run their schools in terms of formal observations of teachers.  The government will also base half of those teachers’ ratings on their students’ test scores.

But Kapiko has discretion over how to evaluate her teachers. 

“We don’t micromanage,”says Marilee Fitzgerald, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity, the agency that supervises the military base schools and their 87,000 students.  “Individual schools decide what to focus on.”

In addition, studies suggest that factors other than what happens in the schoolroom may play a role in the success of military base schools.  Military parents don’t have to worry about securing health care coverage for their children.  All families have adequate housing.  And at least one parent in the family has a job.

For Winerip’s entire article visit  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/education/military-children-outdo-public-school-students-on-naep-tests.html?scp=2&sq=Michael%20Winerip&st=cse

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH: Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Participate in Biology of Language Study

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Biology Of Language Study

Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Ohio State Universityare working together on the Biology of Language Study that is looking at the way genes affect language skills.

 

They are seeking families where at least one family member shows a history of language or reading problems.

 

• The study will not cost you anything.
• You will receive a $20 gift card for your completion of the enrollment interview and another for your child’s completion of the eligibility testing.
• If your family is eligible for further assessment, each family member asked to complete testing will be paid $100 at the end of participation.
• No travel time is necessary.
• All information can be taken over the phone.

For more information about the study or to inquire about enrollment, contact:

Drs. Chris Bartlett and Steve Petrill

bls@ehe.osu.edu  Phone:1-800-678-6494

website information:  http://bls.ehe.osu.edu/

 

Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Math Disability: Problem Linking Quantities to Numbers

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From Science Daily, October 24,  a report that children who start elementary school with difficulty associating small exact quantities of items with the printed numerals that represent those quantities are more likely to develop a math-related learning disability.

A study supported by the National Institutes of Health suggests that the children in the study who appeared to have difficulty grasping the fundamental concept of exact numerical quantities — that the printed number 3 represents three dots on a page, for example — went on later to be diagnosed with math learning disability by fifth grade.

There were other factors correlated with a math learning disability as well. 

These children had difficulty recalling answers to single-digit addition problems.   They were distractible in class.  And they had difficulty understanding that more complex math problems can be broken down into smaller problems.

While the math learning disabled children did make limited progress in subsequent grades, by fifth grade they had not caught up to their typically achieving peers in the ability to recall number facts, or in their ease of adding sets of dots and numerals together. 

Math disabled students did catch up in other areas, researchers noted, such as the use of counting to solve problems.

The researchers do not know whether the factors they identified caused the children’s math learning disability or whether they were linked to other unidentified factors: the study was not designed to prove cause and effect.

Says Kathy Mann Koepke, PhD, of NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National  Insititute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), which funded the study

The search for factors underlying difficulty learning mathematics is extremely important.  Once we identify such factors, the hope is that we can modify them through appropriate teaching methods to help people who have difficulty learning and using math.

Math skills are important for higher education and for entry into many higher paying technical fields.  Math skills have many health implications.  For example, many American adults lack even the basic math skills necessary to estimate the appropriate number of calories in their diets or to calculate the time intervals at which to take their medicine.

Dr. Mann Koepke directs the NICHD’s Mathematics and Science Cognition and Learning Development and Disorders program.

The study was conducted by Mary K Hoard, PhD, Laura Nugent, Drew H Bailey and David C Geary, PhD, all of the University of Missouri, Columbia.  Their findings appear in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

Dr. Geary says

Our findings suggest that children who generally struggle with math — the low achievers — may have a poor sense of numbers, but they can narrow the achievement gap in part because most of them can memorize new math facts and, thus, learn some aspects of math as quickly as their typically achieving peers.

He adds that, in contrast to the simply low achievers, students with a math learning disability not only have a poor concept of numbers, but also have difficulty memorizing math facts.

Mann Koepke feels that clarifying the factors that contribute to a math learning disability may lead to the development of teaching methods that help students overcome difficulties with number concepts and skills.  It’s important to identify potential difficulties early, when chances for successfully overcoming them are greatest.

————————————

Other NICHD-funded investigators have also identified basic risk factors for math learning disability.

These researchers have shown that math skills are linked to the “approximate number system,” a person’s intuitive ability to estimate quantities or identify the approximate number in a set.

One study of grade school children showed that this ability is impaired in children with a math learning disability.

A related study showed that difficulty with estimating such quantities is apparent in children as young as 3, and is correlated with later poor math performance in school.  Researchers do not know if the ability to distinguish between small, exact quantities is related to the approximate number system.

For the complete story in Science Daily, visit     http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111024165553.htm, which is my source.

 Orton-Gillingham tutoring in Columbus OH: Adrienne Edwards 614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Computerized Reading Games: Report

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From Kathie Nunley’s Educator’s Newsletter:

Four and five-year olds can benefit from computerized reading games, but only when given individualized feedback and correction. A Dutch study had a large group of low SES children use a computerized tutoring program to play games designed to improve literacy skills.

Half the children received individualized feedback including oral corrections from the computer.

Those children’s code-related literacy skills increased as a result. The children who played the games without the individualized feedback did not have skill improvement. It’s also interesting to note that children with inhibitory control problems scored disproportionately low when working in a computer environment without personalized feedback.

Kegel, C. & Bus, A. (2011). “Online tutoring as a pivotal quality of web-based early literacy programs.” Journal of Educational Psychology, preview, n.p.s.

Find Dr. Nunley’s Newsletter at http://www.Help4Teachers.com   You can subscribe.

tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ MIT: Dyslexia Independent of IQ

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A brain imaging study at MIT suggests that reading difficulties are the same regardless of overall intelligence — and that more children could benefit from support in school, according to Emily Finn of the MIT news office .

About 5 to 10 percent of American children are diagnosed as dyslexic.  Historically, the label has been assigned to kids who are bright, even verbally articulate, but who struggle with reading — in short whose high IQs mismatch their low reading scores.  On the other hand, reading troubles in children with low IQs have traditionally been considered a byproduct of their general cognitive limitations, not a reading disorder in particular.

But a new brain-imaging study challenges this understanding of dyslexia.  According to John D.E. Gabrieli, MIT’s Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Cognitive Neuroscience, who is one of the researchers,

We found that children who are poor readers have the same brain difficulty in processing the sounds of language whether they have a high or low IQ.  Reading difficulty is independent of other cognitive abilities.

Gabrieli  performed the research with Fumiko Hoeft and colleagues at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Charles Hulme at York University in the U.K., and Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, also at MIT.

The study will be published in the journal Psychological Science, and may change how educators diagnose dyslexia, opening up reading support to more children who could benefit from it.

Rhyming

Rhymes are an effective way to probe dyslexics’ reading performance, since dyslexia is thought to entail difficulty connecting written words to sounds.

One hundred thirty-one children, from 7 to 17 years of age, were given a simple reading test and an IQ measure.  Each child was assigned to one of three groups: typical readers with typical IQs’ poor readers with typical IQs, and poor readers with low IQs.

All were shown pairs of words and asked to judge whether the words rhymed.

For some of the pairs, researchers used words that rhyme but don’t share the same final letters — such as “bait” and “gate,” or “night” and “bite.”  In those cases, rhyme could not be inferred simply from spelling.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers observed the activity in the brain regions known to be important for reading.

Results showed that neural activity in the two groups of poor readers was indistinguishable. 

“The brain patterns could not have been more similar, whether the child had a high or low IQ,” says Gabrieli.  Poor readers of all IQ levels showed significantly less brain activity in the six observed areas than typical readers. 

This suggests that reading difficulty is due to the same underlying neural mechanism — regardless of general cognitive ability. 

Currently, according to Gabrieli, many public school systems still require that a child have an otherwise normal IQ in order to receive a diagnosis of dyslexia and then appropriate intervention.  These findings could have an important impact on such an approach.

Essentially, the present thought is that the label “dyslexic” is reserved for children with a reading difficulty that can’t be explained by anything else.

The new study suggests that even children with low IQ scores might benefit from specific dyslexia intervention.

Gabrieli says he hopes the new results will encourage educators to offer reading support to more struggling students.  He stresses the importance of diagnosing dyslexia and other behavioral disorders sooner, rather than later.

Now,  you basically diagnose dyslexia when a child seems miserable in school.  Maybe you could intervene before they ever get that way.

Sole source: online article by Emily Finn:  http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/dyslexia-iq-0923.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=LDOnLine.org

tutoring in Columbus OH:  Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021  or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

+ Bullying: The Power of Peers

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Philip C. Rodkin wrote a version of a government report on bullying for the September 2011 Issue of ASCD’s publication Educational Leadership.

Rodkin first explains the use of the words peer and bully, which at first glance, don’t appear to belong together.  

A “peer” means someone of the same standing, a social equal. A “bully” is seizing power  in a social situation.

It’s this sense of inequality, abuse, and unfairness — and of a peer culture valuing all the wrong things — that makes bullying incompatible with the democratic spirit; all youth should be free to learn in peace and safety, making the most of their talents and goals.

Children and youth (and some adults) use bullying to acquire resources and to demonstrate to an audience that they are the ones who dominate.  This is where peers come into the picture.  Bullies can’t succeed unless witnesses play along.  If they ignore the bullying, or intervene to stop the action, the bully is deprived of his objective.

Presumably bullying at school occurs under the watchful eye of responsible adults, so how peers and adults act in response to bullying is crucial.  And it is even better if these others can anticipate the bullying in advance of the event.

Research has informed parents and  educators about the structural situations in which bullying occurs.  But more is needed to determine how to use this information effectively in making our schools a safe place for kids. 

Bullies Live in Two Social Worlds

Tom Farmer and colleagues wrote a recent article on the “two social worlds” of bullying: on one hand marginalization, and on the other, connection.

Socially marginalized bullies, they say, may be fighting against a social system that keeps them on the periphery.  Socially connected bullies use aggression to control others and garner power.

Bullies who are marginalized and unpopular are often shunted into peer groups with other bullies.  These marginalized bullies (more often boys than girls) often have a host of problems, and the bullying behavior is only one manifestation.  Bullying in their case may stem from an inability to control their impulsive actions, or it may be due to a desire to gain an elusive status. 

On the other hand, “connected” bullies belong to highly networked and integrated social worlds; they don’t lack for peer social support. 

These socially connected bullies are evenly divided between boys and girls.  They have a variety of friends.  Some but not all of those friends are bullies themselves.  These bullies strengths may  include social skills, athleticism, or physical attractiveness. 

Socially connected bullies tend to be proactive and goal-directed in their aggression.  They often have years of experience with peers, sometimes since as early as their day-care groups.

They incorporate prosocial strategies into their behavioral repertoire (e.g. reconciling with targets after conflict, or becoming less aggressive after they’ve established dominance).

Bullies who are socially connected are under-recognized as seriously aggressive.  They are frequently popularized in the media.  Of them, one group of researchers uses the words”popular, socially skilled, and competent.”

Bullying peaks in early adolescence, but the two social worlds of bullying exists through all the early grades, sometimes as early as kindergarten. 

Rodkin says

As light can be both wave and particle, aggression can be maladaptive or adaptive depending on why the aggression occurs; the time frame (that is, adaptive in the short run, but maladaptive in the long run); the consequences of the aggressive act; and one’s perspective.

Educators and parents need to ask of any bullying situation why the bullying works — from the perspective of the bully.  It is necessary to establish what goals are being served by the bullying behavior: they will differ for each child in each different situation.   

The Bully-Victim Relationship 

Criminologists always establish first the relationship between any victim and the perpetrator.   In any bully/victim situation the question is rarely asked.  We know very little about what is built in to any bullying event.

The focus has traditionally been on identifying “bully,” “victim,” and “bully-victim” categories. Time is spent determining such things as “prevalence rates,” and “behavioral characteristics” of bullying incidents.

Bullies and victims therefore are put into separate boxes, and their separateness is spotlighted.  The implication is that there is no known relationship between a bully and a victim — that the targeting is random.

But the reality is more complex.  Bullies and victims often have a previously existing relationship that lead up to the incidents. 

If these facts had been made clear, knowledgeable adults might have been alerted to the trouble spots.

Reciprocated dislike or animosity is one clear predictor of trouble.  Potential bullies  — particularly socially connected bullies — turn their angry thoughts into aggressive behavior.  The direct that behavior then toward low-status peers whom they already dislike (and who almost certainly dislike them as well).

Time frames can be  predictable.  Socially connected children choose same-sex bullying as part of their struggle for dominance, particularly in the beginning of the school year, or between transitions from one school to another (when the social hierarchy is in flux) and it is easy to target unpopular children.

In a disturbing number of cases, aggressive boys harass girls.  Sixty percent of 5th to 7th grade girls in one study reported being bullied by boys.  Unpopular, rejected, aggressive boys are most likely to harass girls. 

In another study, 38 percent of girls who experience sexual harassment “say they first experienced it in elementary school.”

Socially connected bullies tend to demonstrate within-sex bullying and dominance behavior against unpopular targets.

“Bullying is a Social Event”

Studies show that even one good friend can help assuage the harmful consequences of harassment. 

Adults should be aware that in addition to implementing violence reduction therapies and social skills trainings, social ties of marginalized bullies should be spotlighted.  Broaden these networks, where feasible, to include a greater variety of peers.  

Rodkin says he refers to socially connected bullies as “hidden in plain sight.”  Because these types of bullies affiliate with a wide variety of peers, there is an unhealthy potential for widespread acceptance of bullying. 

Debra Pepler and colleagues call this the “theater of bullying,”  which encompasses not only the bully-victim dyad, but also children who encourage, reinforce  and silently witness the abuse. 

Pepler says “Bullying is a social event in the classroom and on the playground.” In almost 90 percent of observed cases there was an audience of peers.

This silent, mocking audience grows exponentially, in frightening anonymity, with cyber-bullying.  Thus the problem of bullying is also a problem of the unresponsive bystander, whether that bystander is a classmate who finds harassment funny, a peer who sits on the sidelines afraid to get involved, or an educator who sees bullying as just another part of growing up.

One report finds that socially connected bullies target children who will likely not be defended. 

Peers who do intervene in bullying can make a real difference.  While studies show that a defender may be  successful in more than 50 percent of such attempts,  bystanders appear to stand up to the aggressor in only 20 percent of incidents.

In addition

[o]ne good friend can make a crucial difference to children who are harassed.  Victims who are friends with a non-victimized peer are less likely to internalize problems as a result…for example, being sad, depressed or anxious.

Even 1st graders who have a friend but who are otherwise socially isolated seem to be protected from the adjustment problems that other isolated children may suffer.

Surprisingly, one study found that intervention which involves peers (using students as peer mediators, engaging bystanders to disapprove and offer support to the victim) were found to be associated with increases in victimization.

In fact of 20 program elements included in 44 school-based programs, work with peers was the only program element associated with significantly more bullying and victimization.  (There were significant and positive effects for parent training and school meetings in reducing bullying.)

For peer mediation to be effective, students who are chosen to be mediators should probably be popular and prosocial.

The most innovative, intensive, grassroots uses of peer relationships to reduce bullying (one is the You Have the Power! program in Montgomery County, Maryland) have not been scientifically evaluated.  This work must be undertaken.

Teachers should ask what kind of bully they face when dealing with a victimization problem.  Is the bully a member of a group?  Is he or she a group leader?  How are the bullies and victims situated in the “peer ecology”?

Educators who exclusively target peripheral, antisocial cliques as the engine of school violence problems may leave intact other  groups that are more responsible for mainstream peer support of bullying.

Educators should periodically talk with students and ask about their social relationships and whether bullying is present.

Charles Payne makes the point in his book “So Much Reform, So Little Change: The Persistence of Failure in Urban Schools,” that even the best, most rigorous and most validated intervention may not be successful: weak social infrastructure and dysfunctional organizational environments must also be taken into account.

The task ahead is to help educators recognize, understand and help guide children’s relationships.  We must determine ways that bullies and the children they harass can be folded into the whole social fabric of the school.

With guidance from caring, engaged adults, youth can organize themselves as a force that makes bullying less effective as a means of social connection or as an outlet for alienation.

sole source: Philip C. Rodkin’s article in ASCD’s September 2011 issue of Educational Leadership.  Visit http://www.ascd.org

The full report from which this article was taken was commissioned to be presented to the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention, which met on March 10, 2011. 

The conference brought together President Obama, the first lady, members of the cabinet, as well as youth, parents, researchers, school officials and other groups.  The goal was to craft a national strategy for reducing and ending bullying in schools.

tutoring in Columbus OH: Adrienne Edwards  614-579-6021 or email aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com  

+ Diamonds’ Flaws Give Clues to Earth’s Carbon Cycle

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During their formation, diamonds have been shown to capture evidence that slabs of the ocean floors, descending deep beneath the earth’s surface, recycled carbon between  earth’s mantle and the ocean.

According to a New York Times article by Nicholas Wade, understanding those slabs’ fate will help scientists understand the earth’s carbon cycle and all the processes that depend on it.

Some of the processes that depend on the carbon cycle: the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, all the carbon compounds that live in organisms, and the formation of hydrocarbons in oil and gas.

Since objects that resemble ocean slabs lie far too deep for any drill to sample, diamonds provide a good alternative for study. 

Researchers find that the impurities found in them contain chemical signatures of the extinct ocean floor.  Those impurities  provide evidence that the slabs have been cycled deep into the earth’s mantle.

These microscopic impurities, derived from rock and from organic material in creatures that once lived on an ancient ocean floor, have undergone an amazing journey.  The ocean floor rock, basalt,  along with the sediment that built up on top of it, was drawn down at the edge of an ocean as part of the conveyor-belt mechanism that moves the continents.

After the slab of ocean floor plunged 435 miles beneath the surface, minerals from the basalt were encapsulated inside the diamonds formed at those depths.

Diamonds then continued to descend with the slab until they experienced two elevator rides back to the surface. 

By means of a rising mass of solid rock known as a “mantle plume,” they were carried slowly back toward the upper mantle.  The heat of the plume then propelled an explosive jet of molten “kimberlite” (a volcanic rock that preserves diamonds) to the surface. 

The research team was let by Michael J. Walter of the University of Bristol in England.  The diamonds tested were those mined eons later by the Rio Tinto Group from Juina, in Brazil. 

The company allowed researchers to sift through stones not deemed to be of “gem quality.”  After examining thousands of diamonds, the researchers found only six that seemed to be of superdeep origin. 

Those impurities that make superdeep diamonds useless to jewelers make them invaluable to the scientist. 

Dr. Walters’s team was able to infer the existence of two minerals from these inclusions — two minerals that form only in conditions that exist 435 miles or deeper below the earth’s surface.

The composition of the two minerals match the basalt of the ocean floor.  This shows that slabs of the ocean floor had reached this depth. 

The report was published in the September 15th issue of the journal Science.

Researchers also showed that the carbon in the impurities contained less than usual of the isotope known as carbon-13, which is a signature of organic carbon at the surface of the earth which was processed by living organisms.

Researchers were also delighted that so much information about great geological processes can be gleaned from the microscopic impurities. 

According to a member of Dr. Walters’s team, Steven B. Shirey of the Carnegie Institution, “The superdeeps will probably emerge in the next 10 years as some of the strongest evidence for deep movements and pathways in the earth’s mantle.” 

And Thomas Stachel, diamond geochemistry expert at the University of Alberta, says

Here you have a beautiful demonstration that the oceanic plate cycle is not relatively shallow, as many people assume, but that the subducted plate makes it down to the deep mantle and is brought back to the surface by a mantle plume.”

This discovery raises the question of how much of the ocean’s floor and sediments are carried to the deep mantle.  Since carbon is so important to life, scientists want to understand the major reservoirs of carbon in the earth, and the exchanges between them, both in space and in time.

Dr. Walter:

The mantle is the biggest reservoir of carbon, and we know very little about it.  This won’t affect climate tomorrow, but what our results tell you is that carbon from the surface can go all the way into the lower mantle, which may be a long-term sink for carbon.

sole source: Nicholas Wade’s NY Times article on September 16, 2011.  Visit  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/science/16diamonds.html?_r=1&ref=nicholaswade

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