Show o CeitM Sou£?i Utah Supplement To: Gunnison Valley News The Salina Sun Garfield County News The Richfield Reaper VOLUME 2 THURSDAY NUMBER DECEMBER 49 1981 Southern Utah's Christmas Tree Lane Readied a What has become Christmastime tradition in — Christmas southern Utah Tree Lane — will continue this but weekend with greater participation any time in the past an even than at Duane Bresee chairman of said over 50 trees the large the the “Christmas building gym- all theme of Christ’s Birthday” Time evening of the program each is 6 pm to 9 pm free In addition to the many trees the and various decorations traditional live Nativity scene will be presented at 6:30 7 and 7:30 pm outside the building by the Richfield Eleventh Ward Santa Claus will also be at the each of the evenings center throughout musical programs Special will be presented as part of the inside the building activity Among the scheduled groups will be the Richfield High School Orchesis directd by Sharon Wall RHS Sound Celebration dir ected by Sharie Jorgensen vocal selections by Ross Jennifer and Jason Bumgardner and Cyndi Huntsman and Kelli Butler traditional Indian dances by students from the Bureau of Affairs Dormitory directed by Esther Adison Also the Ashman Elemen- tary School third Grade directed by Sue Southwick Richfield Junior High Special Chorus directed by Bruce Wurslen and vocal solos by Bruce Wursten Entrance to the event will be the main south entrance of the building which has been specially decorated by Mrs Jo Bray Mrs Vicky Ross through left and Duane Bresee practice decorating JoAnne Fanning tree for Christmas Tree Lane program which is scheduled Friday through Sunday at Richfield Youth Center is invited free Over 50 trees special programs are planned Public In the event of snow by the bobsled rides will weekend Mr Bresee also be provided stated Sponsored by Richfield East LDS Stake the event will open Friday in the Richfield Youth Center 190 West 100 South and continue through Sunday the program will grace nasium of following is painting the entrance win dows to complete the display The community Christmas 1971 in the halls of Richfield High School with each club at the school entering a tree in the “Hall of tradition began in Trees” The participation great and crowds so the tradition was that large stopped for a bigger place It was temporarily put aside after 1974 and resumed in 1979 in the Youth Center location became so The Richfield East Stake picked up sponsorship and the program has expanded to include the community as a whole Working with Mr Bresee are JoAnne Fanning Val Chappel Harley Toone and Ron Johnson The animals for the nativity scene will be provided by Billy White Grant to Help Expand Public Radio in Utah The University of Utah department of Media Services has received a grant of $600000 Telecomfrom the National and Information munications Agency in the Department of In turn the departCommerce ment will act as coordinating agent on behalf of a number of state agencies and organizations that will receive funds from the grant multiThe agency grant will fund the first to a of public expand plan phase radio services within the state the translator system upgrade for KUED the public television sections of station complete the Department of Transportamicrowave tion’s narrow-banlooping system construct the first leg of a microwave system (Continued on Page 10) Indian Math Learning Problems Words Traced to Sound-Alik- e Sound-alikwords such as “some” and “sum” may be one the reasons why Navajo Indian students in southern Utah and northern Arizona have difficulty learning mathematics of The basic problem isn’t with numbers and computational ability but with vocabulary according to Dr Douglas Garbe an associate professor of American Indian education and mathematics at Brigham Young University Over the past eight years he has tested hundreds of Navajos and Anglos from fourth grade through college freshmen and found out that Navajo students have a more difconsistently ficult time with mathematics a less researched pinpointed problem — basic mathematics vocabulary He believes other minorities may face similar difficulties Apparently teachers assume that students naturally acquire of mathematical knowledge terms as they progress through school but Dr Garbe says his studies show that many Navajo Indians have a far different understanding of math vocabulary than their teachers think they have For instance a significant number of fith grade Navajos who were presented with mathematical terms confused with “ankle” “foot” "angle” with human “foot” “factor” with a building This may be due to a variety of previously studied factors such as low motivation poor and lack of role models But Dr Garbe’s research has where people work and thought “remainder” meant to stay at someone’s home Other interference factors he discovered included the following: “sum” was thought to be part of something meant “quotient” to wait for something (patient) and “addition” was associated with a room built on a house or to try out for a play The professor says that although these definitions are not unique to Navajo students they are more prevalent than among Anglos Most of the Navajos he has studied in the intermountain West function in two languages and have not had adequate exposure to math vocabulary in the early grades “The problem boils down to one thing” Dr Garbe says “If a teacher emphasizes computational skill without specifically working on vocabulary in co- njunction with the skills students become confused and frustrated when application problems are verbally stated and shy away from the subject After all if students can’t properly conceptualize the words how can they never be expected (Continued on Page 10' This scene shows one oi the early Christmas Tree Lane programs in the halls at Richfield High School From its humble beginning the project has expanded to over trees this year the largest program on record here |