Columbia Encyclopedia

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parochial school

(Encyclopedia)parochial school pərōˈkēəl [key], school supported by a religious body. In the United States such schools are maintained by a number of religious groups, including Lutherans, Seventh-day Adventis...

Powell, Cecil Frank

(Encyclopedia)Powell, Cecil Frank, 1903–69, British nuclear physicist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1927. Powell joined the faculty at the Univ. of Bristol in 1927, was named Melville Wills Professor of Physics in 1948, and ...

erosion

(Encyclopedia)erosion ĭrōˈzhən [key], general term for the processes by which the surface of the earth is constantly being worn away. The principal agents are gravity, running water, near-shore waves, ice (most...

bacteriophage

(Encyclopedia)bacteriophage băktērˈēəfājˌ [key], virus that infects bacteria and sometimes destroys them by lysis, or dissolution of the cell. Bacteriophages, or phages, have a head composed of protein, an i...

electricity

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Electrical and radio symbols electricity, class of phenomena arising from the existence of charge. The basic unit of charge is that on the proton or electron—the proton's charge is designate...

Bagley, William Chandler

(Encyclopedia)Bagley, William Chandler, 1874–1946, American educator and editor, b. Detroit, grad. Michigan State College (now Michigan State Univ.), 1895, M.S. Univ. of Wisconsin, 1898, Ph.D. Cornell, 1900. He t...

Lamb, Willis Eugene, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Lamb, Willis Eugene, Jr., 1913–2008, American physicist, b. Los Angeles, Ph.D. Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1938. Lamb was a professor at Columbia (1938–51), Stanford (1951–56), Oxford (1956...

open education

(Encyclopedia)open education, also known as open classroom, type of educational reform. The central tenet of this informal system is that children want to learn and will do so naturally if left to their own initiat...

silt

(Encyclopedia)silt, predominantly quartz mineral particles that are between sand size and clay size, i.e., between 1⁄16 and 1⁄256 mm (1⁄406 –1⁄6502 in.) in diameter. Silt, like clay and sand, is a product...

Lancaster, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Lancaster, Joseph, 1778–1838, English educator. In 1801 he founded a free elementary school, using a type of monitorial system for which he acknowledged his debt to Andrew Bell. The Royal Lancasteri...
 

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