UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 25, Page 6
March 24, 1994
Jennifer Adams receives 'USA Today' honors

     Jennifer Adams of Wilmington stands out among her peers in the
Department of Individual and Family Studies in the College of Human
Resources. She's a smart, creative, hard worker that other students don't
envy because she's just plain nice.
     Her research-which explores young children's play patterns-has been
much lauded by her professors, both for it topical merit and for the
original way Adams has adapted an observational research method.
     Frequently honored both in and out of the department for her academic
abilities, Adams' latest honor is receiving honorable mention status on USA
Today's All-USA Academic Team.
     "Everybody asks me what happened when I won, but really nothing
happened. Someone told me they saw it in the paper, and I went out and
bought one. That's it," she says, with a laugh.
     Not that it mattered to Adams. She has plenty to keep her busy.
Completing her degree with distinction, she's working away right now,
writing her senior thesis with an eye toward graduate school at Harvard.
     Her senior thesis is based on her research, which uses, according to
Adams, "a simple classroom map that requires little training and involves
minimum time commitment."
     She says she heard about using classroom maps at a conference and
thought it would be appropriate for her research.
     Her adviser, Marion C. Hyson, associate professor of individual and
family studies, says Adams has done much more than that. She has found
applications for the map that make it a practical tool for classroom
teachers.
     "Other people have used the map in a general sense, but she has really
developed a specific method with applications that will be valuable for
classroom teachers. Her work is original and impressive," Hyson said.
     As Adams explains her work, "I drew a map of the classroom and,
working from the classroom observation booth, wrote down where the children
played every five minutes.
     "Experienced teachers are able to tell right away what activities the
children are drawn to, but, when I first entered a classroom, it was hard
for me to take everything in. Any teacher could use this technique and
learn in six or seven days what it would normally take 30 years to learn."
     Adams first used her map during an independent study class and took a
second independent study course to fine-tune it. She observed 5- and
6-year-old students in the University's lab school. At one point, she was
able to use it to observe the same children taught by two different
teachers. With one teacher, only the boys played in the block area. With
another teacher, 15 percent of the children who used the blocks were girls.
     "I think the difference was that one of the teachers was more
encouraging about the block area and actually spent more time there
herself," Adams said.
     Adams also noted that the book area of a classroom was never chosen by
children during free time. In that particular classroom, Adams said, the
teacher provided three structured reading times during the day, which
probably explained why the children gravitated to other activities during
playtime.
     In another instance, Adams found that the dramatic play or
"housekeeping area" of a classroom would attract more children when it was
changed frequently. Or, to put it another way, the longer the area is set
up the same way, the faster the children lose interest in playing there.
     Adams also adapted her research to the University's Computers as
Partners summer computer camp. There, she mapped what software and what
computers attracted the most use, comparing gender usage in particular. She
said she and camp director Daniel Shade, assistant professor of individual
and family studies, hope to publish the results of that research.
     When she's not studying, writing, researching or looking at catalogs
for graduate school, Adams is busy with a part-time job as a manufacturer's
representative for hardware and fireplace equipment. She also plays in the
handbell choir of Newark's First Presbyterian Church.
     On the campus, she is busy as a Dean's Scholar,  co-president of the
Student Association for the Education of Young Children,  a member of the
College of Human Resources' Public Relations Team, president of Kappa
Omicron Nu home economics honor society, the assistant editor for its
national newsletter and the editor of the national newsletter for Golden
Key Honor Society.
     Adams has represented her college and her department at two national
conferences, was elected a 1993 Woman of Promise at the University and is a
distinguished student in individual and family studies.
     She won first place for a paper she wrote in the Marion H. Steele
Research Symposium last year and was chosen to present another paper at the
University's Research on Women Conference.
     "Jennifer...is a young woman with much focus on her studies and career
goals; but she is also a well-balanced person, easy going, patient and
(has) a good sense of humor. Jennifer richly deserves very honor she
receives," Nancy J. Edwards, teacher in the lab school, wrote when
nominating Adams for the USA Today award.
     "If I could, I would clone Jennifer Adams so that we could always have
her in our department. She has contributed much that will have an
everlasting positive effect," Shade wrote in his nomination letter.
"Although her graduation will be a joyous affair, it will be a sad one as
well, as we say good-bye to perhaps the brightest undergraduate student to
come our way in a long time."
                                                  -Beth Thomas