(Note: Transportation is available between the Crowne Plaza and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Other hotels will provide transportation to and from the Crowne Plaza.)

9-10 a.m., Concurrent Sessions VIII

Richard A. Deitrich, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

The context/content controversy addressed by Yager, Fuller's answer to the question whether STS is an academic field or an educational emphasis, and Deitrich's categories of high-church, low-church, and no-church within the STS movement will be explored and discussed. Beneath these broad contours within basic STS understandings lie process STS pedagogical methods, which work well underneath to enrich the entire STS enterprise. Process STS will be explained and experienced by role play, which will take the attendee through a semester's worth of an exemplary STS course.

Science, Technology, and Society: Problems in the Institutionalization of Revolution

Jesse S. Tatum, Vermont College, Port Republic, MD 20676

If academic institutions, as guardians and dispensers of authoritative knowledge, are apologists for the status quo, can we expect them to accommodate a field like"Science, Technology, and Society" (STS) which is founded in a questioning of the very notion of authoritative knowledge? This presentation will be designed to initiate a general discussion of possible means for preserving the revolutionary possibilities inherent in STS pursuits in the academic world. Among other possibilities, I will suggest consideration of a more direct appeal (through publications and by other means) to a latent constituency for new directions in science and technology: ordinary citizens.

Contrasting Perspectives: Philosophy and Sociology of Science and Technology

Paul Durbin, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716

Ron Westrum, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197

This presentation reports on a ten-year research project at China Lake Naval Weapons Laboratory focused on China Lake's Technical Director William B. McLean's development of the Sidewinder missile. China Lake was intentionally designed to be a creative environment, based on the World War II Office of Scientific Research and Development's creative culture. Many people think that creativity"just happens" and cannot be designed for; this study asserts just the opposite. It examines the way that the laboratory was put together, its personnel recruited, and its informal operating code established by a series of conscious decisions. These decisions indeed promoted a culture parallel to that of OSRD, by getting the people, the decision-making structure, and the operating rules to embody principles of highly creative environments. A small team, with excellent support from local authority, developed a missile that not only competed with better-funded and annointed efforts actually became a world standard and has remained effective for 40 years.

Angus Mesick and Jeremy Dowdall, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609

This workshop will show a 40-minute video tape created by Jeremy Dowdall, Justin Brand, and Brian Jones of WPI based on the three hours of footage gathered by Mark Maier, then of SUNY-Binghamton, on the Challenger disaster, under the title,"A Major Malfunction . . . .," which was a study of organization behavior focusing on NASA from the time the shuttle program was launched until the Challenger incident. In their excerpted version the authors take issue with Maier's explanation of the Challenger explosion, drawing out another theme in these tapes featuring Roger Boisjoly, the Morton Thiokol engineer who tried to stop the launch.

Brian Starr, Boeson, Corp., North Easton, MA 02356

While at WPI in the mid-1980s Brian Starr was one of the first three WPI students to major in STS. His first major project involved a study of why the plastics industry in California was so totally resistant to the use of the pick and place robots produced by a local firm. It was the STS perspective that provided the greatest insight into the company's marketing problems in California, but some misconceptions about the technology were also revealed. Brian now heads his own consulting firm, which also teaches marketing classes and cross communication issues involving the internal dynamics of organizations and relations with potential and existing customers.

Susan M. Blunck and Phillip G. Sokolove, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21228

Imagine a lecture hall where biology students are able to explore their own questions, have the opportunity to offer their understandings, and discuss important issues and problems. Students enrolled in Biology 100 at the University of Maryland Baltimore County are using wireless microphones to communicate with their professors and one another. Debate and discussion are valued and promoted in this course for biology majors. This workshop will provide glimpses into a constructivist classroom and explore how wireless microphones have been used to enhance the discourse dynamic in a large introductory biology course.

Daniel Atkinson, Shaun McDonough, and Keith Turi, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609

Mary McCaulley, Center for the Applications of Psychological Type, Gainesville, FL 32609 and Maureen Moorehouse, Worcester Public Schools, Worcester, MA

John Wilkes, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609

Robert Voss and Blanche Pringle, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609

At WPI Executive Director of Admissions Robert Voss has argued for downplaying SAT scores in admissions while acknowledging that they must be collected due to the tendency of schools to compare their student bodies in these terms. One of his main critics has been Director of Minority Affairs and Outreach Programs Blanche Pringle, who has staunchly maintained that they tell something beyond what can be learned from class rank and high school grades. Pringle has found SAT scores useful, in combination with other social indicators, in her search for latent talent among underrepresented minority groups.

Ravinder Koul, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

In an effort to promote a comprehensive view of science in their classrooms, teachers and students may find the investigation of controversies particularly rich and useful. The use of such controversies can help students and teachers question the traditional reliance on mono-disciplinary, mono-cultural practices. This presentation examines preservice teachers' perceptions of a controversial case study. Helping preservice teachers delve into the substance of a controversial investigation is a good way to gain an understanding of their perceptions on the practical nature of science, the complex nature of daily decision-making, and the social and institutional dimensions of doing science.

Emily Rose and Mary Garniewicz, STEP, Worcester, MA 01609

STEP is an inquiry-based curriculum and teacher training program designed to allow students to learn science by working as scientists do. Students work in research teams exploring physical science topics using real scientific equipment. Three successive curricula have been developed and implemented in grades 4, 5, and 6 in 28 Massachusetts schools. Participants in this workshop will explore topics covered in these STEP curricula and discuss STEP philosophy and methods.

NASTS Membership Meeting

Closing remarks by Robert Yager, NASTS President

PLENARY VI

Introduction: Beverly Nelson, Conference Planning Committee

A Look at Performance on Actual PSAT Questions by Type: The Impact of the Attractor Items Fuller 311

Keith McCormick, Comprehensive College Preparation Services, Raleigh, NC

Can the 100-300 point score differences between the higher and lower scoring MBTI types be explained, at least in part, by their encounters with certain types of questions? If so, is this a flaw in the test, or a key part of the reason that the SAT succeeds in predicting college performance to the limited extent that it does so? An examination of a handful of actual PSAT items provides some tantalizing clues about who does well, why, and what that can tell us about them.

The Differentiation Finding: How Can the Same Cognitive Quality Reduce PSAT/SAT Scores in the Urban Working Class and Increase Those of the Affluent? Fuller 320

John Wilkes, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609

James Caradonio, Worcester Public Schools, and James H. Montague, Jr., College Board

The Responsible and Appropriate Use of SAT Results by High School Guidance and College Admission Departments

Joseph Smith, WPI, and Maureen Morehouse, Worcester Public Schools, Worcester, MA

The Guidance and Admissions prople coming to this session to process the results of these findings together will be formed into groups of 20-30, half college and half high school representatives, and sent off with a person who really understands the MBTI and a WPI student in the SAT Studies using the GMCS to discuss the implication of these findings. What can we and can't we say, based on SAT scores now? What additional information will have to be collected to make the results meaningful in practice?

Box lunches are for sale in Salisbury Labs.

A hot buffet lunch (like that provided at Assembly meetings on Saturday) is available in Morgan Hall Cafeteria for $5.25.