Northwest Missouri Research Articles

Exploring Bioethical Issues: An Instructional Model

Charles R. Barman (left) is Associate Professor of Science Education at Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, MO 64468, and a frequent contributor to ABT as well as being department editor for ABT's Projector Center (see page 56). Dr. Barman holds degrees in biology from the University of Northem Colorado. Jon R. Hendrix (right) is Professor of Biology at Ball State University, Muncie, IN 47306 and co-director (with Tom Mertens) of the Human Genetics and Bioethics Education Laboratory at Ball State. Dr. Hendrix holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from Indiana State University and an Ed.D. degree from Ball State University. Among other awards and honors received over his career, Dr. Hendrix received the Ball State University Outstanding Teachers Award in 1982. For several years the authors have each offered a class called bioethics at their respective institutions. The courses are designed for nearly all undergraduate students. Although our classes were developed independently, they are similar in scope and employ similar instructional strategies. A number of changes have occurred in our classes since their beginning. Some changes were initiated by specific literature, while others were the result of student course evaluations, individual discussions with selected students, and personal observations. Each time our courses were modified, attempts were made to accomplish the following objectives: 1. To present accurate and objective information about specific bioethical issues; 2. To provide opportunities for students to openly and freely discuss the ethical questions surrounding each issue addressed in class; 3. To provide students with a decisionmaking model that would assist them in formulating personal choices about these issues by clarifying their values/ethics and by their consideration of the consequences of their choices. Through trial and error, a number of modes of delivering information, attempts to initiate student discussions, and techniques to assist students in examining personal solutions to value-laden issues have been tested. Some have proven to be useful, while others have not. We would like to share strategies that we feel have been useful in accomplishing the above objectives. We will also attempt to offer some observations and inferences as to why we believe they have been successful.

Elderly Residents’ Evaluation of Rural Rental Housing in Northwest Missouri

The population of 330 elderly tenants of FmHA Section 515 Rural Rental housing developments in 16 small towns in five northwest Missouri counties was surveyed by mail to assess the importance of specified features of the apartment units and complexes. The purpose of the study was to determine satisfaction with selected aspects and to identify features desired to be changed. A usable response rate of 62 percent, or 204 cases, was achieved.The apartment units and complexes appeared to be meeting user needs, although sources of dissatisfaction for a minority, suggested changes centered on parking spaces, community building/room size and laundry facilities, bathtubs without showers, accessible and adequate storage space, and location. The concerns apparently unique to subsidized multi-family housing for rural small town elderly related to parking, community buildings and site selection.

Range Expansion of the Bronzed Cowbird with the First Missouri Record

Journal Article Range Expansion of the Bronzed Cowbird with the First Missouri Record Get access Mark B. Robbins, Mark B. Robbins Museum of Zoology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70893. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar David A. Easterla David A. Easterla Address of second author: Department of Biology, Northwest Missouri State, Maryville, Missouri 64468. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Condor, Volume 83, Issue 3, 1 August 1981, Pages 270–272, https://doi.org/10.2307/1367325 Published: 01 August 1981 Article history Accepted: 19 November 1980 Published: 01 August 1981

Vienna Blood & other poems by Jerome Rothenberg, and: To the Natural World by Genevieve Taggard, and: Water and Stone by R. G. Vliet, and: Country Boy by Max Westbrook

Reviews 315 Vienna Blood & other poems. By Jerome Rothenberg. (New York: New Directions, 1980. 90 pages, $4.95.) To the Natural World. By Genevieve Taggard. (Boise: Ahsahta Press, 1980. 61 pages, $2.50.) Water and Stone. By R. G. Vliet. (New York: Random House, 1980. 98 pages, $5.95.) Country Boy. By Max Westbrook. (Austin, Texas: Thorp Springs Press, 1979. 53 pages, $3.00.) These four diverse volumes share several traits long identified with western American poetry: a strong sense of place, effective use of images, and an identifiable particular voice. While western locale is obvious in the situations, images, and diction of Max Westbrook’s poems, it is less so in those of Jerome Rothenberg. Genevieve Taggard’s locales are wide ranging, as the divisions suggest: I. Hawaii; II. Washington State and California; III. New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts; IV. Antibes (France), Capri (Italy), and Mallorca (Spain) ; and V. Vermont. R. G. Vliet’s poems, too, generate from various locales: New York, Mexico, Texas. Jewish heritage, Indian mythology, friends, family, and numerology all lie behind Rothenberg’s poems. Some of the poems seem self-conscious, distant from the earth, hinting of the cardboard grasshopper W. D. Howells warned of. Several present the harsh paradoxes of the West: “Sutter’s Gold” or “ ‘The Jew of Malta’” (Malta, Montana). Among the best selections is the longer poem “Abulafia’s Circles,” each word of the title emblematic of both mystic theme and the form of the poem. “The Struc­ tural Study of Myth” demonstrates the force with which Rothenberg interfuses myths. The poem ends old Trickster brother of Jesus didn’t us Jews tell stories of his magic “because we are like him” the Crow Indian had said about Coyote hitting the nail at last. The collection of poems by the late Genevieve Taggard compiled by her daughter is a welcome resurrection of imagistic and rhythmic beauty. The bobwhite and western meadowlark and the tropical odors of algaroba, honey, and mangoes enrich themes of love, beauty, and fear. Innocent simplicity may lead to vibrant intensity as in the short poem “Spring Touch” which begins with “wobbling lambs” in “tender-mad meadows” and ends with the lines — I Sweet to your thigh Take the new tingle of the froth of seeds. 316 Western American Literature She does not ignore the fear of loss (“Monologue for Mothers”) or the despair at being inundated by the rising “waters of desolation.” Still, restorative nature offers the “echo-pure” sounds of birds in “Gilfeather pasture” and “the cactus and asphodel and olive” of a Mediterranean island where the “outrageous wrongs men do lessen, diminish.” Vliet’s stylistically varied poems of life and death all share a fortunate dependence upon imagery. The longest poem, “Passage,” is composed of imagistic personal vignettes of a life of molding sense impressions into art. In another, shorter, poem the “pain of a boy’s / eternal present” contrasts with the “loneliness / of dwindling curtains waiting in the still air.” The finely wrought title poem “Water and Stone” (written in the style of a Japanese No drama) presents reactions to a young boy’s drowning; and in “Salvos for Albertito” a man dies in and is symbolized by a world of sugar cane. In the short poem “Preface” Westbrook states his desire to find in wife, children and country land a song the damned could sing and lovers hear. The vigor of vernacular and local color artifact contribute to the successful poems prompted by that desire. He portrays a world where one takes “pot luck” for a place to die, but where love transcends to wife, brother, God. And something reaches beyond the limits of actuality, making natural places (a waterfall perhaps) become special places where one can feel what it is to touch the world in love and fear, ready to jump and run. Each of the above volumes, while of varying importance to Western literature,demonstrates the control of language to limn the varied tones of felt life. In this endeavor R. G. Vliet rivals the best of artists. JAMES R. SAUCERMAN Northwest Missouri State University ...

Predicting Academic Success in Introduction to Computers

AbstractBiographical, temperament, and aptitude data were collected/or two semesters from students enrolled in Introduction to Computers at Northwest Missouri State University. A regression model to predict course grade was constructed from the Fall 1975 semester's data. Although several significant correlations were found, only college grade point average and general intelligence contributed significantly to the model. When the Spring 1976 semester's data were entered into the model, over 40% of the variance in the course grade was explained.

The horsepower problem

New Directions for Institutional ResearchVolume 1979, Issue 22 p. 25-36 Article The horsepower problem Jon Todd Rickman, Jon Todd Rickman Jon Todd Rickman has been working in computer science and computing seruices for eighteen years. He took his doctorate in computer science from Washington State University in 1971. Having both an academic and an industrial employment and consulting background, he brings a great deal of experience to his present position of director of computing senices and associate professor of computer science at Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, Missouri.Search for more papers by this author Jon Todd Rickman, Jon Todd Rickman Jon Todd Rickman has been working in computer science and computing seruices for eighteen years. He took his doctorate in computer science from Washington State University in 1971. Having both an academic and an industrial employment and consulting background, he brings a great deal of experience to his present position of director of computing senices and associate professor of computer science at Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, Missouri.Search for more papers by this author First published: 1979 https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.37019792204Citations: 1 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume1979, Issue221979Pages 25-36 RelatedInformation

Flake Tools Stratified Below Paleo-Indian Artifacts

In northwest Missouri, Lithic stage flake tools struck from prepared cores have been excavated underlying a Paleo-Indian fluted point assemblage. These assemblages were in two different loesses of the last glaciation. Thermoluminescent analysis of stone tools dates the Paleo-Indian occupations at 8690 +/- 1000 B.C. and 12,855 +/- 1500 B.C.; the Lithic stage occupations must be older than 13,000 B.C. on the basis of geologic correlation, lithic analysis, and cultural stratigraphy.

Observations on the Distribution and Natural History of the Evening Bat (Nycticeius humeralis) in Northwestern Missouri and Adjacent Iowa

The evening bat, Nycticeius humeralis (Rafinesque), occurs throughout much of the southeastern United States, and in the warm months of the year is found north to the southern Great Lakes Region and westward to approximately the 100th meridian on the Great Plains. Previously, the species was thought to be relatively uncommon in the northwestern part of its range and little has been published concerning the biology of this bat in that region-it was taken, for example, for the first time in Nebraska in 1957 (Jones and Vaughan, 1959:246), and was reported first from Iowa seven years later by Kunz (1966:341). Recent publications summarizing the distribution of the species in Kansas (Jones et al., 1967:21-22; Birney and Rising, 1968:552-553), Nebraska (Kunz, 1965: 201-202), and Iowa (Kunz and Schlitter, 1968:173) are of note. In the course of field work in northwestern Missouri and adjacent Iowa in the spring of 1966, several colonies of evening bats were discovered. Because of the general paucity of information on the natural history of this bat in that area, a study was conducted from May, 1966, through September, 1968, principally to determine its distributional status and abundance. Arrival and departure dates were determined by netting and shooting. Additional data presented here were gathered by observation of colonies in the period May to October in each of the three years of the study. Estimation of colony size was based on total individuals counted as they vacated the roost to feed in the evening; estimates lacking specific dates in Table 1 were made by cooperating area residents. Visits to maternity colonies in the months of July and August were intentionally restricted in order to prevent disturbance during parturition and early development of young. Bats were captured at maternity colonies in the early evening, as they departed to feed, by placing large plasticlined dip nets directly under the place of emergence. Individuals thus taken were banded and released at the site of capture. A total of 2384 evening bats was tagged with 1A or 1B size aluminum bands, provided by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Specimens preserved for study were deposited at Northwest Missouri State College, Maryville.

Yuma Myotis and Fringed Myotis in Southern Utah

Journal Article Yuma Myotis and Fringed Myotis in Southern Utah Get access David A. Easterla David A. Easterla Department of Biology, Northwest Missouri State College, Maryville Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Mammalogy, Volume 47, Issue 2, 26 May 1966, Pages 350–351, https://doi.org/10.2307/1378151 Published: 26 May 1966 Article history Accepted: 10 February 1966 Published: 26 May 1966

First Specimen of the Summer Tanager in Utah

Journal Article First Specimen of the Summer Tanager in Utah Get access David A. Easterla David A. Easterla Department of Biology, Northwest Missouri State College, Maryville, Missouri Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Condor, Volume 68, Issue 2, 1 March 1966, Page 210, https://doi.org/10.2307/1365722 Published: 01 March 1966

Biology and Behavior of Tub-Nesting Canada Geese

A 3-year study (1961-64) of a sedentary flock of Canada geese (Branta canadensis maxima) is reported. A detailed study of full-winged birds was possible because each was individually colormarked and of known age and sex. Most pairs nested in elevated wash tubs which provided protection from predators during the laying period. Courtship, density of nests, and territorial requirements are discussed. Ten percent of yearling males nested. Females became productive in their second year with one-third of them nesting. Ninety percent or more of males 2 years and older and females 3 years and older paired. Polygamy was not uncommon. Nesting territories were selected by the females and defended primarily by the males. Females had an affinity for their nest sites in subsequent years. The rate of laying was one egg each 11/2 days. There was a direct relationship between age of females and initiation of laying; older females nested first. Eggs of maxima were similar to those of other subspecies. Egg size was related to age of females; 5-year-old birds laid the largest eggs. Down appeared most often with the fourth egg. Clutches of successful tub-nesting females averaged 5.5 eggs while successful ground-nesting females averaged 4.6 eggs. Older females laid larger clutches and hatched a larger percentage of their eggs than did younger females. The duration of breeding season was influenced primarily by renesting. Females incubated 28 days; males anticipated hatching. Females incubated dead eggs 1.5 times normal length. Goslings were held in the tubs about 24 hours after hatching and became imprinted to their parents. Broods were called from the tubs by their parents, and the nesting territory was abandoned as the new family swam away. Loss of production in tub nests was primarily because of desertions and in ground nests because of destructions. Renests were of two types: continuation nests, which were located an average of 96 yards from destroyed nests, and true renests, which were located an average of 243 yards away. Clutch sizes were the same in original and renests but were smaller in continuation nests. The average renesting interval was 13 days and was directly related to the number of eggs in the original nest. Seventy-three percent of incubated eggs hatched, 5 percent were infertile, and 22 percent died during incubation. Broods retained their identity for about 7 days, then gradually formed creches of increasing size. Creches were accompanied by both productive pairs and nonbreeding females. Gosling mortality averaged 32 percent. Resident geese were almost as wild as migrants during the fall but were quite tame during the postmolting period. Canada geese are prized game birds of considerable trophy value. They are widely distributed over the North American continent and hunted in some way almost 10 months of each year. Much has been learned about goose management on the wintering grounds, but because of the remoteness of most of their nesting area and the bird's wide dispersal within that area, far less is known about their breeding biology and nesting behavior. Previous behavior studies have dealt with pinioned or confined birds, and most nesting studies have been concerned with gross aspects of population productivity. The purpose of this study was to learn facts about the nesting biology and behavior of full-winged, unconfined, nonmigratory Canada geese. The objective was to determine whether these birds were suitable for restocking purposes and productive enough to warrant annual harvests. The study was conducted over a 3-year period from 1961 to 1964 at the Trimble Wildlife Area, Trimble, Clinton County, Missouri. The area, developed in 1950-51 with Federal Aid funds, is located in northwest Missouri between Kansas City and St. Joseph. Its 1,200 acres include a reservoir of 160 acres and 10 adjacent marshes totaling 175 acres. About 680 acres of upland are available for cultivation. The primary objective of management is to provide suitable habitat for ducks, nesting geese, and fish, with the ultimate goal of providing public recreation. In January, 1952, 24 pinioned Canada geese, now identified as B. c. maxima, were 'A Federal Aid to Wildlife Restoration Project, Surveys and Investigations Projects, Missouri 13-4.

The Biltmore Story: Recollections of the Beginning of Forestry in the United States

Journal Article The Biltmore Story: Recollections of the Beginning of Forestry in the United States. By Carl Alwin Schenck. Edited by Ovid Butler. (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, for the American Forest History Foundation, 1955. xvi + 224 pp. Illustrations and index. $3.95.) Get access John L. Harr John L. Harr Northwest Missouri State College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 42, Issue 3, December 1955, Pages 577–578, https://doi.org/10.2307/1898391 Published: 01 December 1955

American Russian Relations, 1781-1947

Journal Article American Russian Relations, 1781–1947. By William Appleman Williams. (New York: Rinehart & Company, 1952. 367 pp. Bibliography and index. $5.00.) Get access William A. Brandenburg William A. Brandenburg Northwest Missouri State College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 40, Issue 1, June 1953, Pages 169–170, https://doi.org/10.2307/1897593 Published: 01 June 1953

Note of a "Horned" Cottontail from Northwest Missouri

Note of a "Horned" Cottontail from Northwest Missouri

Hermaphroditism in Carunculina Parva, a Fresh Water Mussel

In 1898, Victor Sterki published the results of study of sexuality in fresh water mussels in which he recorded the occurrence of single individual of Carunculina parva which contained a goodly quantity of sperm besides ova in abundance. In this early mention of hermaphroditism in this species, no details regarding the nature of the individual gonad follicles are recorded. At later date Utterback (1916:165) wrote of C. parva: Hundreds have been collected in nearlv all the northwest Missouri lakes and streams, but not single one has been found without the marsupial character of the gills and the sexually dimorphic female shell. However the male and female shells appear in central Missouri. Here again no further details are given, and it seems conclusive that Utterback's statement was based on an examination of the secondary sexual characters and did not involve analysis of the gonad tissues.

Water and Northwest Missouri

Water and Northwest Missouri

A study of laboratory apparatus in physics in a number of first class small town high schools in Northwest Missouri

A study of laboratory apparatus in physics in a number of first class small town high schools in Northwest Missouri

The Socio-Economic Status of Relief Families in Northwest Missouri

The Socio-Economic Status of Relief Families in Northwest Missouri

Traits Related to Good and Poor Teaching

The identification and the measurement of the unitary traits constituting the basic factors in success in teaching should promote the construction of much more adequate instruments for use in the selection or guidance of teachers than any now existing. Multiple-factor analysis is recommended as the technique to be used. Preliminary research is needed, however, if application of the complex factor-analysis technique is to prove effective. The efficiency of any mathematical or statistical procedure is conditioned by the quality of the data used. At present, application of the factor-analysis technique to the problem of unitary traits, or factors, in teaching success is hazardous, since numerous irrelevant traits are likely to be investigated, with consequent inordinate increase in the amount of calculation required. The present study is an effort to identify traits worthy of further investigation. An attempt is made to indicate something of the relative importance of these traits and of the effectiveness of one means of collecting data concerning them. The following persons prepared lists of traits which they considered significant factors in teaching success: Frank E. Baker, president of State Teachers College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; William S. Gray, professor of education at the University of Chicago; Uel W. Lamkin, president of the Northwest Missouri State Teachers College, Maryville, Missouri; Butler Laughlin, president of the Chicago Normal College, Chicago, Illinois; W. P. Morgan, president of the Western Illinois State Teachers College, Macomb, Illinois; and Ralph Noyer, dean of the Ball State Teachers College, Muncie, Indiana.'