BACKGROUND Poor nutrition and inactivity are widespread and contribute to the epidemic problem of childhood obesity. This study examined the effectiveness of a school-based pilot program to improve nutrition and activity in elementary (ES) and high school (HS) students. METHODS The Improving Meals and Physical Activity in Children and Teens (IMPACT) school-based curriculum used a train-the-tr...

There is much literature on problem-based learning (PBL), both within and outside medical education. The literature addresses such questions as what is PBL and how does it work, and many examples are given; yet it is often dif® cult to determine from these descriptions whether the educational approach being described is actually PBL. The goal of this article is to provide planners and/or assess...

BACKGROUND In view of the changing health care needs of communities, curriculum reform of traditional curricula is inevitable. In order to allay the apprehension that may accompany such change, curriculum development and implementation should be an inclusive process, with both staff and students being well informed of the planned reform. In 2001, the Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine impleme...

In a professional discipline which has at its core a service founded upon a body of knowledge and associated skills, responsibilities for research and scholarship are commonly thought to be critical to developing and improving nursing practice. The scope of knowledge required in nursing with its scientific and humanitarian aspects underscores "the need for philosophical and historical scholars ...

BACKGROUND Child-rearing remains a concern within our communities, especially because families of today lack primary parents due to multifaceted challenges such as working mothers, diseases and violence. Health-promoting school initiatives are necessary because they allow a multifaceted approach to child-rearing. They further provide a conducive environment for continued schoolchild-rearing mov...

This study examines the use of engineering design to facilitate science reasoning in high-needs, urban classrooms. The Design for Science unit utilizes scaffolds consistent with reform science instruction to assist students in constructing a design solution to satisfy a need from their everyday lives. This provides a meaningful context in which students could reason scientifically. Eighth grade...

Not for the first time we are at a turning point in intellectual history. The appearances of new computational forms and literacies are pervading the social and economic lives of individuals and nations alike. Yet nowhere is this upheaval correspondingly represented in educational systems, in classrooms, or in school curricula. As far as mathematics is concerned, the massive changes to mathemat...