Conducted a qualitative investigation to identify the perceptions of risk factors for violence in a sample of inner-city African American youth. Using ethnographic analyses, themes emerging from these data included concerns about the reciprocity between drugs and violence, familial quality of life issues, gender differences in the experience of violence and risk for violence, community safety concerns, and fears about managing peer relationships specific to violence. These data are interpreted relative to the risk factors the violence prevention literature has identified among youth residing in urban environments. Findings are discussed in terms of their potential contribution to generating hypotheses for the development of theory and effective violence prevention practice.

Despite widespread suspicion to the contrary, secular living can and does serve as an adequate, or even excellent, context for moral development. In this chapter, the authors present the contours of contemporary anti-atheist prejudice, with an emphasis on the United States. Next, they explore the empirical data showing that individual atheists and highly secularized societies, such as Sweden and Denmark, are often quite moral, which serves to counter and debunk anti-atheist prejudice. Then, the authors move to a philosophical discussion centering around secular morality itself, outlining general merits of atheistic morality specifically while simultaneously pointing out various problematic assumptions of theistic morality. Finally, the authors conclude and make recommendations for future research.

The concept of belief is analyzed and then discussed within the context of the current climate of atheist distrust in America. To begin, Moore's Paradox, and its relationship to an important claim made by Wittgenstein regarding false beliefs, is explored. Next, the definition of belief that results from affirming Wittgenstein's claim is outlined and subsequently defended from an attempted refutation constructed by John N. Williams. The defended definition of belief, which regards direct doxastic voluntarism as false, is then used to argue that atheists do not directly choose to not believe in any gods so as to evade moral responsibility.

Eight in-service teachers and two instructors engaged in an inquiry-based geology field course from June 14 to 29, 2014 through Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska. This team of learners spent three days in mid-June working in the Grand Teton National Park area. The UW-NPS facilities provide an excellent opportunity for participants to discover the natural history of the Teton Range, as well as close-out a few projects while sitting in a real chair, at a real table, a welcome change from our usual campground setting.

This course offers in-service teachers an opportunity to learn about geology and geoscience education through a 2-week inquiry-based field course across Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska. In 2011 this course utilized the UW-NPS facilities for 3 days in mid-June. The group discovered local glacial features, evaluated the uplift and subsidence history of the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole, respectively, and built upon growing geological abilities and knowledge of the geological evolution of the Rocky Mountain region. The 2011 course included seven teacher participants (5 from Nebraska and 2 from North Carolina), one education and media facilitator from the ANDRILL Program at the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), and two instructors. This course is offered as part of UNL’s Nebraska Math and Science Summer Institute (NMSSI) Program, receiving support from this program, from the Dept. of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and private donations. The primary aim of this course is to improve educators' ability to teach inquiry in their classrooms, gain knowledge and understanding of geoscience, and to demonstrate effective teaching methods that can integrate geoscience into K-12 learning environments. The UW-NPS facilities provide an excellent opportunity for participants to discover the natural history of the Teton Range.