Is status related to a student's understanding of science? The article "From Here to Equity: The Influence of Status on Student Access to and Understanding of Science" (Culture and Comparative Studies [1999]: 577- 602) described a study on the effect of group discussions on learning biology concepts. An analysis of the relationship between status and "rate of talk" (the number of on-task speech acts per minute) during group work included gender as a blocking variable. Do you think that gender is a useful blocking variable? Explain.