July 20, 2006
Peer Portfolio
ACTING OUT: A certain section of a Statistics 101 class at the University of Missouri-Columbia was not quite what it seemed, according to an article in Mizzou Weekly, the university’s newspaper. In fact, the article stated, “it was every instructor’s — and every student’s — worst nightmare.”
The “class” was actually a troupe of student actors from a MU project, the Weekly reported, “that uses interactive theater to talk about issues of multicultural teaching and learning.” The troupe’s audience for a recent performance for the MU Faculty Senate.
The parts in this interactive project were based on politically incorrect stereotypes: a disruptive sorority girl, a sullen young man from a rural background, an overlooked African American talent and patronized African American athlete. And overseeing it all was a professor who was “no prize,” the Weekly noted, flirting with with the sorority girl, overlooking opinions from the rural student and inappropriately excused poor work by the athlete, praising instead his gridiron skills.
“The goal is to stimulate awareness and reflection about the multicultural dimensions of teaching and learning,” said Suzanne Burgoyne, a faculty member who helped organize the project. “Faculty of my generation weren’t trained to teach at all. If you knew your subject matter, that was all you needed to know.” The project is taking invitations from elsewhere on the MU campus, too.
A similar program was brought to the UW in February, sponsored by the University Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, an interactive theater program that engages audiences about issues of pedagogy, diversity and inclusion in the classroom.”
MINI-LAB: Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a portable lab-on-a-microchip they are calling the Genotyper that could someday enable doctors to decode the genetic makeup of flu viruses in the field less than two hours. Exciting news considering the worldwide threat of a bird flu pandemic.
Ron Larson, UM professor of chemical engineering, told the campus newspaper, The Record, that the device — expected to be about the size of a remote control — will be fully portable and could be connected via wireless connection to track the spread of existing or new flu strains globally.
TREATMENT PAYS: A student recently released by the University of California at Los Angeles backs the idea that treating substance abusers has benefits for society. The study, published in the online version of the journal Health Services Research, used detailed data from 2,567 clients admitted to 43 different California treatment centers in 2000 and 2001.
The study learned that for every dollar spent on substance abuse, about $7 is saved in monetary benefits for society in reduced crime costs and increased employment earnings. The monetary benefits were estimated using records for clients in treatment and for the nine months thereafter. The study looked at costs of medical care, mental health services, criminal activity, earnings and related costs of government programs such as umemployment and public aid.
GOT MILK COWS?: In a fitting move for the state whose official animal is the cow, the University of Wisconsin is working to address the scarcity of milk in developing nations, according to the university’s Web site, which added, “The solution to this problem is much more complicated than simply sending dairy cattle to nations in need.”
Indeed it is. But Jack Rutledge, professor of animal science in the (other) UW’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, is researching a low-cost way to generate embryos that when implanted into native tropical cows will grow into milk-producing cows capable of surviving the tropical climate. Previous attempts to establish productive milking herds in tropical areas by importing cows have failed due to the animals not being accustomed to the hotter climate.
According to Rudledge, the Web site states, “with access to eggs from Wisconsin’s nearly two million dairy cows and state-of-the-art technology, the state will soon be in a position to supply the developing world with an almost limitless quantity of inexpensive hybrid embryos, eliminating the need to establish such a herd.”
DEERCAM: It almost reads like a Gary Larson cartoon: Researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia successfully mounted a tiny, wireless video camera onto a male and female white-tailed deer, to see their habits up-close. The male wore the camera on his antlers, the female around her neck.
The university newspaper, Mizzou Weekly, reported, “So far, the team has collected 200 hours of video that show feeding, bedding, mutual grooming, sparring matches between antlered deer and breeding activities.” The newspaper added, “The resulting two weeks of real-time, ‘deercam’ video is like a reality show for the ungulate world.”
Information gained through the study could help the State of Missouri — a partner in this research — better manage deer populations. The National Science Foundation has kicked in $1 million for more “deercam” studies.
One researcher was surprised at how much interaction there was among the deer. “They were in constant contact with one another,” he said.
