The value of GIS within school curricula seems well perceived but ill-substantiated. This paper discusses the role of GIS in the development of higher order thinking skills and in motivating student learning. It then reports on attitudinal surveys undertaken before and after student exposure to GIs-related tasks. The tasks formed part of four subjects within three year levels. Data were collected from 109 students from two schools. Individual survey items were evaluated using a t-test for paired means and a two-tailed test for significance. Weighted average responses for the five constructs being surveyed were calculated. Attitudinal improvements were found in three of these: perceived usefulness of computers, perceived control of computers and behavioural attitude to computers. The weighted average declined for the remaining two constructs: attitude to subject and affective attitude toward computers. These data suggest that GIS influences student ability to utilise higher level thinking skills within a context of enhanced relevance.

The work effort of prehistoric males relative to females has long been of interest to anthropologists, particularly in foraging versus farming groups. This knowledge requires a clear understanding of the sexual division of labor, or the dichotomy in subsistence roles allocated to males and females. Such research in the Prehispanic American Southwest has been limited. As previous work has shown that bone is the osseous template that reflects in vivo activity levels, it is possible to assess gender‐based differences in past work effort using analyses of geometric properties of bone and calculations of bilateral asymmetry. Our research comparatively analyzed upper limb work effort by sex and subsistence in two skeletal samples from disparate economic groups, foragers and farmers, both from similar desert environments. The residentially mobile foragers are from the Lower Pecos region of southwest Texas and the farmers are from the aggregated pueblo of Pottery Mound in south central New Mexico. Humeri from 27 adult foragers (n = 11 males; n = 17 females) and 65 adult farmers (n = 38 males; n = 27 females) were selected for study. All humeri were radiographed and/or scanned and digitized. Statistical comparisons using two‐way ANOVAs indicate that female farmers exhibited the greatest humeral strength and the least asymmetry. Relative to all other groups examined, female farmers engaged in higher levels of upper limb work effort implying a substantial economic contribution to their agricultural economy. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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