Public health assessment : Railroad Avenue groundwater contamination, West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa EPA facility ID: IA0001610963 (2004)

The Railroad Avenue groundwater contamination site (the site) is in West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa. Located on approximately 120 acres. The site comprises mixed residential, industrial and commercial properties. Underneath the site, chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have contaminatcd the shallow (i.e., 30-50 feet deep) groundwater. These compounds have compromised several shallow wells within the West Des Moines water works system. A contamination source, however, has not yet been identified. In 1993, routine water analysis by the City of West Des Moines identified 1, 2 cis-dichlorocthylcne (1, 2 cis-DCE) at a concentration of 1.2 μg/L (micrograms) per liter of water) in the water supply. Subsequently. several shallow municipal wells were found to be contaminated by VOCs, including 1. 2 cis-DCE, trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and benzene. Five of these wells have been taken out of service. Because of the impact on the West Des Moines water supply, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has assigned the site to the National Priorities List. Surface water und sediment at the site have not been impacted by the VOCs. Testing for VOCs in surface soils has not revealed any significant VOC contamination. Subsurface soils -- generally 8 feet or greater in depth -- are contaminated with VOCs, but at levels which should not present a health hazard. The past, present, and future health hazard category chosen for this site is no apparent public health hazard. This category is used when exposure to toxins might be occurring or might have occurrcd in the past, but at levels below any known health hazard. Analysis of available environmental data has not revealed that residental or commercial water customers are or have been exposed to VOCs at concentrations that might cause any adverse health effects.

Cardiovascular health risk profiling of Niagara Region grade 9 students : implications for elementary curriculum /

The purpose of this study was to determine if Ontario's health and physical education curriculum contributes sufficiently to ensure the health of our children and young adults. To determine the curriculum effect, the health risk profile of Niagara Region's grade 9 students was compared to Canada's adolescent population. All subjects completed a "Heart Health Lifestyle" survey and were measured for height, weight, percent body fat, blood pressure, and total cholesterol and performed the 20-metre shuttle run test as part of their physical and health education classes. The Niagara Region grade 9 population had a healthy risk profile. Aerobic power was inversely related, and cholesterol levels were positively associated to body mass index and percent body fat in the whole group analysis. These results indicate that physical education can offer unique and essential aspects allowing individuals a means to learn and control body movements and keep physically fit while providing protection against modern disease. Ontario's health and physical education curriculum does contribute to the health of our children and adolescents; however, there is a need to implement a stronger mandate for daily vigorous physical activity.

Grade nine teachers' perception of how teachers, parents, peers, administrators, and community members affect the development of the grade nine student /

The purpose of this study was to examine grade nine teachers' perception of how teachers, parents, peers, administrators, and community members influence the overall development of grade nine students. Ten grade nine teachers (four male and six female) participated in the study which consisted of the completion of a one hour, tape-recorded interview. The central findings were as follows: 1) the grade nine student has evolved; 2) peers have an important impact on the four developmental areas (physical, emotional, social, and academic) of the grade nine student; and 3) the role of the grade nine teacher appears to have dramatically changed over the last seventeen years. Suggestions and recommendations for future research in this field are based on findings related to the enhancement of the secondary school experience for the grade nine adolescent.

The perceptions of play among educators in kindergarten and grade one classrooms /

This qualitative study focuses on the role of play in primary education, and was designed to determine and understand the perceptions of play among primary educators who are teachers in kindergarten and grade one classrooms. In attempting to understand how primary educators use play in their classrooms, the following findings emerged. Educators struggle in primary grades to support play in the classroom because of a lack of a clear understanding of what play is. Further, teachers face several oppositions to using play in the classroom. Much of the opposition arises from a concern for classroom management as well as negative parental views towards play. Additionally, the teachers from this study feel that there is limited support available for them to implement a curriculum that includes play. Despite support from academic research, indicating that children, particularly in the primary grades, benefit greatly from play, the place for play in the curriculum is not secure. In this study, strategies that would assist and support primary educators in using play in their classrooms are suggested.

Grade 9 students' perceptions of the impact of a Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) program /

Educators continually look for strategies to enhance and improve the reading practices of their students. This is an especially challenging task for secondary level teachers as high school students often lack intrinsic motivation to read for pleasure (Bucher & Manning, 2004; Horton, 2005; Wooicott, Research Pty. Ltd. 2001). The purpose of this study was to detennine the effects of the Drop Everything and Read (D.E.A.R.) program on writing, on reading, and on grades, from the perspective of eight Grade 9 students. Of particular interest were the students' perceptions of the effect that participation in the program had on their grades, their writing, their motivation to reading, and their concept of themselves as readers. The eight participants were tracked over the course of a semester. Using qualitative research techniques, data were collected from four sources: two student surveys, researcher's daily field observations, students' weekly reading logs, and three open-ended one-on-one interviews. In order to gain an understanding of the impact of the D.E.A.R program, the data were corroborated, and analyzed with NVivo: N7 (2006). From the data analysis, five themes emerged as a function of the Grade 9 students' experiences in the D.E.A.R. program: Reading Preferences, Time Spent Reading, Making Associations with Reading for Pleasure, Perceptions of Self-as-Reader, and Evaluations of the D.E.A.R Program. In the interest of supporting students' positive reading habits and for the future implementation, these five themes are presented as a series of findings together with recommendations for practice.

A classroom-based investigation of reciprocal teaching at the grade seven level

This study assessed the effectiveness of a reciprocal teaching program as a method of teaching reading comprehension, using narrative text material in a t.ypical grade seven classroom. In order to determine the effectiveness of the reciprocal teaching program, this method was compared to two other reading instruction approaches that, unlike rcciprocal teaching, did not include social interaction components. Two intact grade scven classes, and a grade seven teacher, participated in this study. Students were appropriately assigned to three treatment groups by reading achievement level as determined from a norm-referenced test. Training proceeded for a five week intervention period during regularly scheduled English periods. Throughout the program curriculum-based tests were administered. These tests were designed to assess comprehension in two distinct ways; namely, character analysis components as they relate to narrative text, and strategy use components as they contribute to student understanding of narrative and expository text. Pre, post, and maintenance tests were administered to measure overall training effects. Moreover, during intervention, training probes were administered in the last period of each week to evaluate treatment group performance. AU curriculum-based tests were coded and comparisons of pre, post, maintenance tests and training probes were presented in graph form. Results showed that the reciprocal group achieved some improvement in reading comprehension scores in the strategy use component of the tests. No improvements were observed for the character analysis components of the curriculum-based tests and the norm-referenced tests. At pre and post intervention, interviews requiring students to respond to questions that addressed metacomprehension awareness of study strategies were administered. The intelviews were coded and comparisons were made between the two intelVicws. No significant improvements were observed regarding student awareness of ten identified study strategies . This study indicated that reciprocal teaching is a viable approach that can be utilized to help students acquire more effective comprehension strategies. However, the maximum utility of the technique when administered to a population of grade seven students performing at average to above average levels of reading achievement has yet to be determined. In order to explore this issue, the refinement of training materials and curriculum-based measurements need to be explored. As well, this study revealed that reciprocal teaching placed heavier demands on the classroom teacher when compared to other reading instruction methods. This may suggest that innovative and intensive teacher training techniques are required before it is feasible to use this method in the classroom.

An examination of grade three mathematics textbooks for problem solving strategies

Three grade three mathematics textbooks were selected arbitrarily (every other) from a total of six currently used in the schools of Ontario. These textbooks were examined through content analysis in order to determine the extent (i. e., the frequency of occurrence) to which problem solving strategies appear in the problems and exercises of grade three mathematics textbooks, and how well they carry through the Ministry's educational goals set out in The Formative Years. Based on Polya's heuristic model, a checklist was developed by the researcher. The checklist had two main categories, textbook problems and process problems and a finer classification according to the difficulty level of a textbook problem; also six commonly used problem solving strategies for the analysis of a process problem. Topics to be analyzed were selected from the subject guideline The Formative Years, and the same topics were selected from each textbook. Frequencies of analyzed problems and exercises were compiled and tabulated textbook by textbook and topic by topic. In making comparisons, simple frequency count and percentage were used in the absence of any known criteria available for judging highor low frequency. Each textbook was coded by three coders trained to use the checklist. The results of analysis showed that while there were large numbers of exercises in each textbook, not very many were framed as problems according to Polya' s model and that process problems form a small fraction of the number of analyzed problems and exercises. There was no pattern observed as to the systematic placement of problems in the textbooks.

Explicit versus implicit spelling strategy instruction and its effects on grade one children's invented spellings

The intent of this study was to investigate .the effectiveness of teaching thirty-five Grade One children a variety of effective spelling strategies in comparison to tradit~onal spelling instruction. Strategy instruction included training in phonology, imagery and analogy. In addition, the type of instruction pro~ided (implicit versus explicit) was also examined. Children were seen in small groups of four or five, for four, twenty-five minute sessions. All children were tested prior and immediately following the training sessions, as well as at 14-day follow-ups. Pretest and posttest measures included a dictated spelling test (based on words used in training), a developmental spelling test and a sample of each child's writing. In addition, children completed a metacognitive spelling test as a measure of their strategy awareness. Performance scores on the pretest and posttest measures were compared to determine if any differences existed between the three spelling instruction groups using the Dunn-Bonferroni and Dunnett procedures. Findings revealed that explicit strategy instruction was the most effective spelling program for improving Grade One children's invented spellings. Children who received this instruction were able to spell targeted words more accurately, even after a 14-day follow-up, and were able to recall more effective spelling strategies than children who received either implicit strategy instruction or traditional strategy instruction.

Exploring the impact of a hands-on intervention on grade 7 girls and their feelings about self, mathematics, science, technology and related careers

Forty-five 12- and 13-year-old females attending Grade 7 in North York, Ontario were randomly selected from a group of 100 females who had volunteered to participate in a oneday hands-on workshop called It's Your Choice at Seneca College. The goals of this intervention were to broaden the career horizons of these students and to help them realize the need to continue mathematics and science through high school in order to keep occupational options unlimited. The young women were given a pre- and post-attitude survey to provide background information. In the month following participation in the workshop the students were interviewed in small groups (S students per group) to discover their perceptions of the impact of the workshop. The interviews revealed that participants felt that after the workshop their feelings of self-confidence increased, specifically with respect to working with their hands. Participants felt more aware of the usefulness and importance of the study of mathematics, science and technology, They also felt that It's Your Choice increased their interest in careers in these domains and helped them to see that these careers are viable choices for females. The interviews also revealed that many of the participants felt that in this society their roles and their choices were influenced and probably limited by the fact that they are female.

Improving grade eight students' spelling performance with a triad strategy approach

Thesis (M.Ed.)-- Brock University, 1996.