Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Summer Camp (summer + camp)
Selected AbstractsHealth-related quality of life improves in children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease after attending a camp sponsored by the Crohn's and colitis foundation of AmericaINFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES, Issue 2 2005Melissa A. Shepanski MS Abstract Purpose: To describe the reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) after attending an IBD summer camp. Methods: A prospective analysis of quality of life was completed at an overnight camp that was exclusively for patients with IBD, which was sponsored by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. The IMPACT-II questionnaire (Canada and United States) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children were administered to the campers at the beginning and at the end of a 1-week camp to assess HRQOL and anxiety. The IMPACT-II questionnaire consists of 35 questions measuring 6 quality-of-life domains (i.e., bowel domain, systemic symptoms, emotional functioning, social functioning, body image, and treatment/interventions). The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children consists of 2 different 20-item sets of questions. One set assesses state anxiety, and the other, trait anxiety. A repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance was performed to determine the differences between scores attained before and after camp on the IMPACT-II questionnaire and in each of its domains. Paired sample t tests were performed on state and trait anxiety before and after camp. Results: A total of 125 individuals consented to participate, but 61 patients (50 girls and 11 boys; age range, 9 to 16 y) completed the IMPACT-II questionnaire in full. Of those 61 patients, 47 had Crohn's disease and 14 had ulcerative colitis. There was statistically significant improvement between the mean (±SD) precamp total score (172.95 ± 36.61) and the mean postcamp total score (178.71 ± 40.97; P = 0.035), bowel symptoms scores (P = 0.036), social functioning scores (P = 0.022), and treatment interventions scores (P = 0.012). No difference was found between anxiety scores before and after camp on either the state or trait anxiety inventories (n = 55; P > 0.05). Conclusions: Overall, HRQOL improved in children after attending IBD summer camp. This exploratory study suggests that contributing factors for these improvements may be an increase in social functioning, a better acceptance of IBD symptoms, and less distress regarding treatment interventions, suggesting that a camp that is specifically designed for children with IBD may normalize the chronic illness experience. However, future research using a multimodal measurement approach is warranted to support these conclusions. [source] Fostering Civic Engagement by Building a Virtual CityJOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 3 2006Marina Umaschi Bers This article focuses on the design and use of networked technologies to create learning environments to foster the civic engagement of youth. First, we briefly describe the Zora three-dimensional multiuser environment that engages children in the design of a graphical virtual city and its social organization. Anecdotal data are then used to help define different aspects of civic engagement, namely civic actions and civic discourse. Finally, we present descriptive results from a pilot study of young people using Zora in the context of a multicultural summer camp for youth. During this experience, children developed a virtual community that became a safe space for experimenting with decision-making, self-organization, and civic conversations, as well as for testing democratic values, behaviors, and attitudes. Using Zora as a case study, this article shows the potential of networked technologies to facilitate different aspects of young people's civic development. [source] Robotics and science literacy: Thinking skills, science process skills and systems understandingJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 3 2008Florence R. Sullivan Abstract This paper reports the results of a study of the relationship of robotics activity to the use of science literacy skills and the development of systems understanding in middle school students. Twenty-six 11,12-year-olds (22 males and 4 females) attending an intensive robotics course offered at a summer camp for academically advanced students participated in the research. This study analyzes how students utilized thinking skills and science process skills characteristic of scientifically literate individuals to solve a robotics challenge. In addition, a pre/post test revealed that course participants increased their systems understanding, t (21),=,22.47, p,<,.05. It is argued that the affordances of the robotics environment coupled with a pedagogical approach emphasizing open-ended, extended inquiry prompts the utilization of science literacy-based thinking and science process skills and leads to increased systems understanding. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 373,394, 2008 [source] Moral knowledge and responsibilities in evaluation implementation: When critical theory and responsive evaluation collideNEW DIRECTIONS FOR EVALUATION, Issue 127 2010Melissa Freeman An external evaluation documented what occurred in an inaugural summer camp to teach high school students how to preserve religious freedom by learning about and acting on the history and current state of church,state separation and other first amendment issues. Camp designers hoped to promote religious diversity values and civic engagement in youth. An analytic vignette grounded in an inductive analysis of observations, interviews, and document collection represents the competing demands of responsive and critical approaches to evaluation. Balancing obligations to promote the social well-being of society with responsibilities to clients and other stakeholders presents challenges that can be met only by identifying priorities with clients in ongoing dialogue. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc., and the American Evaluation Association. [source] The change in ghrelin and obestatin levels in obese children after weight reductionACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 1 2009Chao Chun Zou Abstract Aim: To investigate the role of ghrelin and obestatin in obesity mechanisms. Methods: A total of 88 obese children and 25 normal children were enrolled. Moreover, 46 obese children took part in a summer camp for weight reduction. Fasting ghrelin, obestatin and other biochemical parameters were measured in all subjects and re-measured in 45 obese children finishing the camp. Results: The ghrelin levels in the control and obese groups were 67.26 ± 23.41 pmol/L and 56.53 ± 15.97 pmol/L with a significant difference (p = 0.039), while the obestatin levels (89.41 ± 23.63 vs. 83.13 ± 17.21 pmol/L) were not significantly different (p = 0.083). The ghrelin/obestatin ratio in the controls was significantly higher than that in the obese group (p = 0.014). In the latter, fasting insulin and alanine aminotransferase were independent factors for ghrelin; fasting insulin, weight and gender were independent factors for obestatin and alanine aminotransferase was an independent factor for ghrelin/obestatin. Moreover, ghrelin, obestatin and ghrelin/obestatin increased after weight reduction (p < 0.05, respectively), and the increment in ghrelin and obestatin was associated with a decrement in insulin resistance. Conclusion: These data suggest that ghrelin, obestatin and/or the ghrelin/obestatin ratio are associated with obesity in childhood. [source] Field Play: The Normalization of an Alternate Cognizance in Seriously Ill ChildrenANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 1-2 2000Kelvin Saxton Children who grow up with a life-threatening illness live and face death in a way that is foreign to those of us who have reached adulthood in relative health. The experiences that form their identities create a range of knowledge, and processes for acquiring that knowledge, quite apart from the mainstream. In the pace of its acquisition, and the depth of its content, this knowledge is hard for the rest of us to comprehend. Indeed, the primary symptom of this alternate cognizance is that it sets these children apart from their families, peers, and greater communities. The child as a whole is marginalized in interpersonal relations by essentializing the child as the illness. The experience of the illness itself further isolates the child. Through firsthand observation, we find that the Hole in the Wall Gang summer camps provide a nearly unique environment for the normalization of this alternate cognizance. At camp, all those things that set them apart from the rest of the world mark them as normal members of a society. Other children share their physical qualities, have similar experiences and immediately understand their perspective on life. Small adjustments to social and physical environments have a lasting effect. A warm pool to swim in, a caring touch, an open smile,the children take the memory of these with them when they leave. They begin to understand that they are a desired part of a large and varied community. A new definition of normal is created and they are included. [source] | ||||||||||||||||