New Releases by Robin Stevens

I am the Honourable Daisy Wells, President of the Detective Society, one of the greatest detectives ever known - and also a fourth former at Deepdean School for Girls. Violet Darby - one of the Big Girls - recently asked me to solve a most puzzling romantic mystery. I knew I''d be able to crack the case, and I did, in just a day and a half. It was one of my greatest triumphs (Hazel Wong, my Vice-President and best friend, is telling me that this is boasting, but it is also the truth). Hazel didn''t believe I would have the patience to write the account of it, but of course, she was wrong. I did write it down, and it came out very well. I now, therefore, present to you: the Case of the Blue Violet.

When Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong set up their very own secret detective agency at Deepdean School for Girls, they struggle to find any truly exciting mysteries to investigate. (Unless you count the case of Lavinia’s missing tie. Which they don’t.) Then Hazel discovers the Science Mistress, Miss Bell, lying dead in the Gym. She assumes it was a terrible accident – but when she and Daisy return five minutes later, the body has disappeared. Now Hazel and Daisy not only have a murder to solve: they have to prove one happened in the first place. Determined to get to the bottom of the crime before the killer strikes again (and before the police can get there first, naturally), Hazel and Daisy must hunt for evidence, spy on their suspects and use all the cunning and intuition they can muster. But will they succeed? And can their friendship stand the test?

Use the Champion Tester to determine what your students have learned throughout the Champion program and areas where they need more practice.

TRB''s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 319: Buy America Issues Associated with the State DOT Procurement of Paratransit Vehicles Using FTA Funds examines the Buy America requirements applicable to state departments of transportation (DOTs) and their sub-recipients in purchases of paratransit vehicles and examines opportunities for change. The report is primarily focused on rural and small urban areas; however, Buy America regulations apply equally to all motor vehicles purchased with U.S. Federal Transit Administration grant funds, regardless of the program through which the grant was awarded.

Passed down over centuries by celebrated Chan (Zen) masters, these 36 poems selected by a contemporary Buddhist Master are profound in their literary simplicity and direct in their worldly relevance. Addressing the essential features of Chan Buddhist practice and offering practical wisdom for managing day-to-day challenges, each poem captures the essential Chan (Zen) spirit of living in the moment and being open to immediate experience. In addition to their spiritual and philosophical appeal, the poems are accompanied by the author''s lucid and insightful commentaries formed from a lifetime of experience as a spiritual leader of a worldwide Buddhist community. Through the use of lively anecdotes and references to Buddhist scriptures, this collection provides both the Chan practitioner and the general reader illuminating and effective ways to apply Buddhism''s universal wisdom to daily life.

This study expands on previous National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) work that has undertaken the articulation of the academic language construct for broad educational purposes. The primary goal was to describe the language of textbook selections in terms of vocabulary, grammar, and organization of discourse for test development. Specifically, the work reported here has focused on the academic English used in fifth-grade mathematics, science, and social studies textbooks and will contribute to the conceptual discussion of the nature of academic language, and will provide concrete guidelines for test development. The vocabulary analyses included measures of lexical diversity, word frequency, and frequency of multisyllabic and derived words, as well as variety of clause connectors and frequency of nominalizations. In addition, academic vocabulary was identified as specialized (within a discipline) and general (across disciplines). The grammatical analyses included the following features: sentence type, clause type, passive verb forms, prepositional phrases, noun phrases, and participial modifiers. The discourse analyses captured the organizational features of the selections on three levels: rhetorical mode (e.g., exposition and persuasion) and both dominant and supporting text features (e.g., description, classification, and paraphrase). The analyses of textbook language reported here have provided the bases for a profile of typical texts in each subject at the fifth grade that will be part of the foundation for developing academic language proficiency tests. We conclude by illustrating how these profiles can be used in the creation of test specifications. (Contains 13 appendices.).

Produced for unit ECA706 (Foundations of music education) offered by the Faculty of Education''s School of Social and Cultural Studies in Education in Deakin University''s postgraduate Open Campus Program.

Produced for unit ELE702 (Independent reading study: music education) offered by the Faculty of Education''s School of Social and Cultural Studies in Education in Deakin University''s postgraduate Open Campus Program.