Holy Name School eighth grader takes winning look at ‘study techniques’

May 1, 2015
Tom Burke

If truth be told, not only were my notes as a student poorly organized, if I tried to use them more than a few minutes after I took them I couldn’t understand my handwriting.

What is the value of note taking as a study technique? That’s a question Jonah Nascimento sought to answer and his experiment took first place in a March Bay Area Science Fair in the behavior and social sciences category. It looked at note taking and its effect on memory. Students take notes every day in school and Jonah wanted to see how it helps them retain information, he said.

“I gathered 30 eighth grade subjects and showed them a 3-minute video,” Jonah said. He asked half of them to take notes and half to rely on their memory. After the video, Jonah collected the notes and then gave the whole group a quiz.

“My hypothesis was that the group that did not take notes would perform better than the note-taking group because they were paying more attention to the video instead of writing down notes,” Jonah said and he was right. The group that did not take notes averaged a score of 58 percent on the test while the group that did take notes scored 54 percent.

“Although the results did support my hypothesis I feel that the small difference in the results and the small subject size does not clearly indicate that one is better than the other,” Jonah said. “I continue to take notes in school because notes are still useful for studying.” Jonah’s folks are Leonel and Lency Nascimento. His uncle is Father Dan Nascimento, pastor of St. Anne of the Sunset Parish. Jonah will attend Lowell High School in the fall.

ME TOO: Daly City’s Our Lady of Mercy School class of 1965 is planning a 50-year reunion for Sept. 12, time and location still to be determined. Member of the class Mike Thompson, mike@gtfcpa.com; (650) 349-1040, told me a dozen or so of the class are whereabouts unknown. As I was among the hard-to-find for my reunions I can only say how glad I am the folks in Philly for grade school and Jersey for high school tried to find me.

HAIL MARY: A contemplative rosary will be prayed May 14, St. Catherine of Siena Church, 1310 Bayswater Ave. at El Camino Real, Burlingame, 7 p.m. Composer Bob Hurd’s setting of the Glorious Mysteries will begin a Pentecost Novena this evening of the traditional Ascension Thursday. Music will be led by St. Catherine’s music ministry under the direction of Sister Anne Marie McKenna, BVM; (650) 766-0364; music@stcsiena.org.

CONSECRATED LIFE: A solemn high Mass will be celebrated May 16, Corpus Christi Monastery, 215 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park, 9:30 a.m., Dominican Father Ambrose Sigman, principal celebrant. The Mass will be according to the Dominican rite, a form of the extraordinary form unique to the Dominican Order. After Mass Dominican friars, nuns and laity will present briefly on Dominican life and a reception follows. “Founded by St. Dominic 800 years ago, the Order of Friars Preachers was commissioned to contemplate God and share with others the fruit of that contemplation, preaching the Gospel for the salvation of souls,” the Dominican Sisters said in a statement. “Today, the sons and daughters of St. Dominic continue to embrace and live out that charism as religious friars and nuns, sisters and laity.” The morning commemorates the Year of Consecrated Life; DominicanNuns@nunsmenlo.org; (650) 322-1801.

Email items and electronic pictures – jpegs at no less than 300 dpi to burket@sfarchdiocese.org or mail to Street, One Peter Yorke Way, San Francisco 94109. Include a follow-up phone number. Street is toll-free. My phone number is (415) 614-5634.