WAMC: The Best of Our Knowledge #814 (2006-04-24)

The Best of Our Knowledge

The Best of Our Knowledge #814

(2006-04-24)

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ALBANY, NY (WAMC) - ASSESSING STUDENT PERSONALITY PREFERENCES -
Students will forever ask questions, like..what interests me most? How can I identify a college major that fits me? What are my career goals? And how can I reach them? In today's schools, already replete with testing, students and parents might balk at the idea of another test. But actually, the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator, or MBTI, has been around for more than 60-years. It's been used to assess millions of people each year. In fact, personality testing is estimated to be a 400-million dollar industry and still growing. To learn more about testing students' personalities, TBOOK went behind the scenes with a long-time interpreter of this type of testing, Paul Knudstrup, President and Founder of the Midwest Consulting Group in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He's been administering personality tests for more than 25-years, and is certified. TBOOK also spoke with the following four students to find out how their test results and interpretations turned out. They include: Tanja Haj-Hassan from Amman, Jordan; Clive Chang from Canada; Maciej Drost from Poland; and Judith Brown from
Johannesburg, South Africa. Glenn Busby reports. (12:30)

**For more details about the Midwest Consulting Group in Michigan, the website is www.midwgroup.com.

ORIGINS OF LIFE/SCIENCE RESEARCH IN EDUCATION SERIES - TRACING LIFE IN THE EARLIEST TERRESTRIAL ROCK RECORD , Pt. 1 of 2 - You may have heard this widely reported scientific news just a few days ago. Paleontologists say they've uncovered three samples that are about 3.8 billion years old. They claim the creature is a cross between a fish and a land animal that provides a rare glimpse
of the process that allowed aquatic ancestors to crawl out of rivers and colonize continents. Their findings from arctic Canada, were published in the current issue of Nature. Our Origins guest this week also published his findings in that same peer reviewed journal, and also investigates that same period of Earth's history and geographic location. In our studios is Geochemist, Dr. Mark Van Zuilen, from the Research Center of Petrology and Geochemistry in Nancy, France. Glenn Busby reports. (6:35)

The preceding material is supported by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration.

** For listeners interested in more information about this story, or any of the other more than 120 stories featured in this exclusive radio series, or would like to hear them again via their computer, the website mentioned at the end of the above segment is: www.origins.rpi.edu, then click on Seminar Program.)** © Copyright 2012, WAMC