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BackgroundIn Canada, 30%-60% of patients presenting to emergency departments are ambulatory. This category has been labeled as a source of emergency department overuse. Acting on the presumption that primary care practices and walk-in clinics offer equivalent care at a lower cost, governments have invested massively in improving access to these alternative settings in the hope that patients would present there instead when possible, thereby reducing the load on emergency departments. Data in support of this approach remain scarce and equivocal. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to compare the value of care received in emergency departments, walk-in clinics, and primary care practices by ambulatory patients with upper respiratory tract infection, sinusitis, otitis media, tonsillitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, influenza-like illness, pneumonia, acute asthma, or acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. MethodsA multicenter prospective cohort study will be performed in Ontario and Québec. In phase 1, a time-driven activity-based costing method will be applied at each of the 15 study sites. This method uses time as a cost driver to allocate direct costs (eg, medication), consumable expenditures (eg, needles), overhead costs (eg, building maintenance), and physician charges to patient care. Thus, the cost of a care episode will be proportional to the time spent receiving the care. At the end of this phase, a list of care process costs will be generated and used to calculate the cost of each consultation during phase 2, in which a prospective cohort of patients will be monitored to compare the care received in each setting. Patients aged 18 years and older, ambulatory throughout the care episode, and discharged to home with one of the aforementioned targeted diagnoses will be considered. The estimated sample size is 1485 patients. The 3 types of care settings will be compared on the basis of primary outcomes in terms of the proportion of return visits to any site 3 and 7 days after the initial visit and the mean cost of care. The secondary outcomes measured will include scores on patient-reported outcome and experience measures and mean costs borne wholly by patients. We will use multilevel generalized linear models to compare the care settings and an overlap weights approach to adjust for confounding factors related to age, sex, gender, ethnicity, comorbidities, registration with a family physician, socioeconomic status, and severity of illness. ResultsPhase 1 will begin in 2021 and phase 2, in 2023. The results will be available in 2025. ConclusionsThe end point of our program will be for deciders, patients, and care providers to be able to determine the most appropriate care setting for the management of ambulatory emergency respiratory conditions, based on the quality and cost of care associated with each alternative. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)PRR1-10.2196/25619

Summer camps have proven to be effective tools to engage students in the geosciences. Findings from this study highlight perceptions and experiences of middle school students from predominantly African American school districts in Mississippi who attended a 3-d residence camp focused on increasing interest in the geosciences through an earth hazards theme. The 2013 summer camp was structured to emphasize three subject areas: geology, hydrology, and meteorology. Nine middle school students (seven males and two females) attended the camp developed and held at Mississippi State University. Students' pre- and postcamp understanding about geoscience processes and interest in and knowledge about geoscience careers were measured to evaluate the camp's success. Overall interest in geosciences increased after completing the program. Among the three subject areas emphasized in this camp, students gained more knowledge about geology than about the other two areas (hydrology and meteorology). Results indicate that hands-on and experiential learning methods, especially those held indoors or with optimal conditions outdoors, were most successful at stimulating interest.

Our study sought to understand how individuals think about their home location and county, including their geospatial awareness, and how they conceive of risk from a tornado geospatially. We conducted interviews and a sketch mapping activity with sixty-five individuals from Mississippi and Alabama. Our results indicated that participants could name and correctly locate only a few neighboring counties and that there was a difference of 4.7 miles on average between their perceived home location and their actual address. Participants labeled on average 9.1 features. Some maps displayed common heuristics or biases, but none was present in a majority of the sketch maps. Regarding geospatial risk personalization, participants’ drawings indicated that many inferred a tornado approaching from the southwest, and that they would take protective action when a tornado was within an average of fifteen miles of their home. Human landmarks and point locations were the features most frequently mentioned that would let participants know a tornado was coming close and participants estimated these features were on average 9.7 miles. Both distances showed a great deal of variation. The results have implications not only for tornado warning communication but also for understanding how individuals might think about a “close call.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study augments existing literature in understanding student perceptions about the geosciences; we examined the choice of major and science courses taken by 645 students at a large southeastern research university. Differences were examined between underrepresented minority (URM) and nonminority students. We compared responses regarding not only different sciences but also different subfields of geoscience, and where possible, we compared those subjects with biology. Our results show significant differences in (1) the selection of a college major, (2) the selection of science electives, (3) characteristics of the ideal career, (4) interest and self-efficacy in science and math, and (5) career perceptions of geoscience and other select sciences among URM and nonminority students. We identified three main factors that contributed to student selection of college major, including "important influencers," "sustained identification with or interest in that major," and "descriptors of the major itself." We also found that a student's advisor may be one of the greatest factors in which science classes an undergraduate student takes at a university. Finally, our research showed that the geosciences scored lower than other science subjects with respect to student perceptions in its ability to "help the environment," "help society," "help them find a job," and "salary." This was true for each of the geoscience fields measured when compared with every other science, technology, engineering, and math fields measured with the exception of physics.

A sample of 43 Mississippi school counselors was surveyed regarding resources they use in career counseling, as well as resources they believe are effective in informing students about STEM careers, particularly the geosciences. Participants were asked a number of questions about their knowledge and perceptions about STEM majors and careers. The purpose of these questions was to determine what differences, if any, exist between perceptions about geoscience careers or majors (including geology, meteorology, and geoscience) and other STEM fields (including biology and engineering). As in previous studies, significant gaps were detected in participants' perceptions about geology and meteorology careers compared to biology and engineering careers. These included perceptions about whether a career offers opportunities to help people, help the environment, or make a lot of money, and whether it is easy to find a job in that field. Participants' self-assessed knowledge of geoscience careers was also lower than their self-assessed knowledge about biology and engineering careers. The results suggest that greater efforts are required to increase awareness of the geosciences at the high school level. Finally, participants indicated the best way to provide them information about geoscience careers was through guest speakers, followed by websites. To help determine how school counselors could help further efforts to enhance diversity in the geosciences, responses were explored based on the percentage of minority students at the participants' schools. The results indicated few differences could be explained by school demographics.

This study examines discrepancies between geoscience career knowledge and biology career knowledge among Mississippi science teachers. Principals and in-service teachers were also surveyed about their perception of geoscience careers and majors. Scores were higher for knowledge of what biologists do (at work) than about what geoscientists do. Career knowledge was enhanced by race, where African American teachers perceived higher biology career knowledge and lower geoscience career knowledge than other races; however, the difference was not significant. Teachers also rated their personal knowledge of 12 of the 2010 Earth and Space Science Content Strand topics. Perceived knowledge of geoscience concepts was significantly less than knowledge of more environmental topics. Race was not significant, but differences between the two topics were enhanced by race. Perceived knowledge of geoscience topics was also significantly lower among female educators across all ethnicities. Because of the lack of Earth science classes taught before college and the demonstrated gaps in geoscience career knowledge even among science teachers, strengthening geoscience career awareness as well as increasing geoscience content knowledge among science teachers would be useful overall, as well as in attempts to enhance diversity in the geosciences.

A field course attended by science teachers in California's Owens Valley incorporated geospatial technology to reinforce the relationship between elevation, aspect, or the direction a mountain slope faces, and vegetation. Teachers were provided GPS units to record locations and plant communities throughout the 9-day field course. At the end of the field course, they completed an exercise utilizing ArcGIS and/or Google Earth. A similar essay question about vegetation and elevation was answered at the beginning of the course and after the GIS/Google Earth exercise. Scores on this pre- and postactivity question as well as responses to a survey questionnaire indicate that GIS and Google Earth both helped the teachers understand how elevation influences vegetation. The role of aspect was not as well demonstrated in the post-test responses as that of elevation. Teachers reported being more likely to use Google Earth in their classrooms than GIS (75% to 58.3%). Combined with GPS, Google Earth provides a free, easy and flexible way to teach a number of earth science concepts and meet several National Geography Standards.

Weather information can now be accessed through a variety of different media. This study used a survey to determine if the weather app was the primary source for weather information in the United States and whether this was related to age and other personal characteristics. More than 75% of the sample reported using a weather app for general forecast information. In cases of severe weather, weather apps and websites were reported to be the top two primary sources. While younger demographics had more weather app users than older demographics, the weather app was still the most popular source among the older groups. The most popular apps were the pre-downloaded app on a phone, The Weather Channel's app, and the AccuWeather app. Participants who chose to use an app other than the pre-downloaded one reported higher self-perceived knowledge about, and interest in, weather. In addition, 80% of respondents reported getting severe weather notifications on their phone. The study's survey sample was heavily skewed toward a younger population and may not be generalizable to all socioeconomic demographics. Considering previous research, these results indicate a shift in the predominant forecast sources used by the public over the last 10-15 yr. Consequently, it has resulted in a widespread transfer of responsibility for interpreting and explaining the forecast. A majority of the public--untrained in meteorology--is now interpreting the forecast on their own without the help of a broadcast meteorologist as would be present in a television forecast, making the forecast open to misinterpretation and false expectation. This study calls for continued research to combat misinterpretation and to enhance weather apps and mobile notifications with more personalized information that can aid weather-related decision making to make weather apps a strong leader in forecast messaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To help satisfy the pressing need for technology-related professional development for in-service teachers, the Global Academic Essentials Teacher Institute (GAETI) was implemented to provide in-service foreign language and social studies teachers with content, pedagogy, and technology explorations centered on the teaching of the Common Core State Standards and 21st Century Skills. Sixteen teachers attended the institute, which consisted of 20 days during the summer plus one follow-up day in September and one in March. The strongest aspects of GAETI were the demonstration activities that integrated subject-area content, successful pedagogies, and ways to effectively integrate the latest and most effective classroom technologies. Participants not only reflected positively on their experiences with GAETI but also showed a significant level of improvement in all dimensions of technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK). Improvement from pre to post-test was most pronounced in the four dimensions of TPACK most closely associated with technology.

Because of the historically low numbers of minorities in geoscience careers and college majors, an area of growing attention is how teacher professional development may be utilized to increase diversity in the geosciences (Pecore et al., 2007; Sedlock & Metzger, 2007). This paper examines teacher preferences for the timing, location and content of professional development, and how certain characteristics of professional development may contribute to or diminish the goal of increasing diversity in the geosciences. The results of two surveys of Mississippi science teachers indicate that African American teachers have distinct preferences for the location of the professional development as well as specific opinions about the outdoors. Despite the common practice of using field experiences to attract individuals to the geosciences, those African American science teachers who were surveyed more frequently chose laboratory experiences than outdoor or field-based professional development. Preferences of rural and urban/suburban participants were also compared. Urban/suburban participants expressed greater enjoyment in being outdoors than rural participants, but neither group was more likely to prefer professional development in the field or in a lab. Results of spatial clustering showed less preference for outdoor learning activities in the high-minority Mississippi Delta. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)