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Columns::September 30, 2002
Digest
Student is named Bamford-Lahey Scholar
Lisa Hammett, a doctoral student in communication sciences and disorders in the College of Education, was one of only four students chosen from around the world as Bamford-Lahey Scholars for 2002.
The honor includes scholarship funding of up to $10,000 a year to doctoral students who intend to specialize in children’s language disorders. Funding for the scholarship comes from the Los Angeles-based Bamford-Lahey Children’s Foundation, which supports programs enhancing the linguistic, cognitive, social and emotional development of children.
Hammett is currently pursuing research with professor and department head Anne van Kleeck on abstract language development and intervention for children with language disorders and the role of parent-preschooler book-sharing in early literacy development.
Hammett is exploring multivariate and sequential statistical analyses that are infrequently applied to this research in order to investigate unanswered questions. Her research interests also have been influenced by the study of language disorders within the context of dynamical systems theory and neurobiological evidence for the role of early experience in shaping the structure and function of the brain.
Torrance Center hosts teacher workshop
The Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development will host a two-day training workshop Oct. 24-25 for teachers in the Future Problem Solving Program.
More than 300,000 students in grades K-12 in 41 states and several foreign countries are now involved in FPSP. The program was the brainchild of Paul Torrance, UGA professor emeritus and internationally acclaimed author, researcher and educator, who developed it in 1974 as an academic activity for gifted students at Clarke Central High School in Athens.
With assistance from adult coaches, students research and gather information, develop problem-solving and creative and critical thinking skills, and improve leadership and communication skills.
Cost of the training workshop is $125. Registration forms and more information can be found on the Web at www.coe.uga.edu/fpsp/program/training.html.
Poll: Uncertain attitudes for uncertain times
Georgians are generally satisfied with the way things are going in the state, according to the most recent Peach State Poll, a quarterly survey of public opinion conducted by the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. The overall satisfaction level is up slightly from the previous quarter (from 61 percent to 65 percent). In June 2002, 65 percent of respondents said they were either very satisfied (18.5 percent) or somewhat satisfied (46.9 percent).
Nearly one in four respondents (23 percent) from the Atlanta region said they were very satisfied with the way things are going in the state, as compared to 14 percent of respondents from the rest of the state expressing that level of satisfaction.
Despite the general level of satisfaction, Georgians were ambivalent about the current economic climate. Respondents were about as likely to say the economy is getting better (42 percent) as they were to say it is getting worse (39 percent); 15 percent of respondents said the economy is neither getting better nor getting worse. Only 3 percent of Georgians rated current economic conditions as excellent, while 11 percent rated them as poor; the vast majority of Georgians rated economic conditions as either good (42 percent) or fair (42 percent).
This data was taken from a Peach State Poll conducted between June 10 and June 17. The poll included 801 telephone interviews of randomly selected adults in Georgia. For a sample of this size, the margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level is plus or minus 3.5 percent. |
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