General education students taking freshman-level physical geography and geomorphology classes at Arizona State University completed an online laboratory whose main tool was Google Earth. Early in the semester, oblique and planimetric views introduced students to a few volcanic, tectonic, glacial, karst, and coastal landforms. Semi-quantitative…

Raising a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is associated with increased family chaos and parent distress. Successful long-term treatment outcomes are dependent on healthy systemic functioning, but the family impact of treatment is rarely evaluated. The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) is a social…

This study aimed to evaluate the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS: Laugeson et al. in "J Autism Dev Disord" 39(4):596-606, 2009). PEERS focuses on improving friendship quality and social skills among adolescents with higher-functioning ASD. 58 participants aged 11-16 years-old were randomly assigned to…

Raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) poses unique challenges that may impact parents' mental health and parenting experiences. The current study analyzed self-report data from 77 parents of youth with ASD. A serial multiple mediation model revealed that parenting stress (SIPA) and parental mental health (BAI and BDI-II) appears to…

Depression is a common concern among people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is often associated with social skills and relationship challenges. The present data, from a randomized controlled trial, examined the effect of PEERS® on self-reported depressive symptoms via the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) among 49 adolescents with ASD.…

A paucity of research has been conducted to examine the effect of social skills intervention on females with ASD. Females with ASD may have more difficulty developing meaningful friendships than males, as the social climate can be more complex (Archer, Coyne, "Personality and Social Psychology Review" 9(3):212-230, 2005). This study…

This study examined whether the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills ("PEERS: Social skills for teenagers with developmental and autism spectrum disorders: The PEERS treatment manual," Routledge, New York, 2010a) affected neural function, via EEG asymmetry, in a randomized controlled trial of adolescents with…

Recent trends related to the karst processes and the evolution of karst landscapes are discussed. The hydrochemical processes responsible for the origin of karst are expanded on to illustrate the present scope of karst studies. These geomorphological studies are combined with concepts and techniques from hydraulics, chemistry, and mathematics. (JN)

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a randomized controlled trial of a social skills intervention, the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS: Laugeson et al. in "J Autism Dev Disord" 39(4): 596-606, 2009), by coding digitally recorded social interactions between adolescent participants with…

Young adults with ASD experience difficulties with social skills, empathy, loneliness, and social anxiety. One intervention, "PEERS® for Young Adults," shows promise in addressing these challenges. The present study replicated and extended the original study by recruiting a larger sample (N = 56), employing a gold standard ASD assessment…

Explains how a karst is formed in the U.S. and introduces an activity in which students explore the fragile environment of a karst and study the interactions between human population and the earth system. (YDS)

Thirteen autistic and 14 typically developing children (controls) imitated hand/arm gestures and performed mirror drawing; both tasks assessed ability to reorganize the relationship between spatial goals and the motor commands needed to acquire them. During imitation, children with autism were less accurate than controls in replicating hand shape,…

According to Carl Sagan (1987), "Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge." Field studies and undergraduate research provide students with the best opportunities for "thinking" about science, while at the same time acquiring a body of knowledge. Natural History of Tropical Carbonate Ecosystems is a…

A salt model was developed as a teaching tool to demonstrate the development of caverns and karst topography. Salt slabs are placed in a watertight box to represent fractured limestone. Erosion resulting from water flow can be photographed in time-lapse sequence or demonstrated in the laboratory. (Author/CP)

This paper proposes a model of a democratic paradigm for educational researchers and practitioners. It attempts to explore the kinds of thinking that would be required to create such a system, to determine what principles and curriculum theories are involved and how they would work. It seeks to relate this model to the new National Council for…