US News (Washington, D.C.) The Future of Climate Change: How to Teach Children to Conserve

Tufte and Kennedy each received a Partners in Science Program grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The goal of this program is to provide high school teachers with opportunities to work with college faculty members at the cutting edge of science and revitalize their teaching.

Tufte will work with Jo Ann Wadkins, a science teacher at Lincoln High School, for the next two summers in the Department of Physics. Their research, titled “Observational Investigations of Short-Period Eclipsing Binary Stars,” will be shared at two national Partners in Science conferences at the end of each summer.

Kennedy will partner with Eileen Oppelt, a science teacher at West Linn High School. Their research, “Examining Biogeographic Patterns in the Frankia-Alnus rubra Symbiosis,” will be conducted in the Department of Biology. Oppelt will also share the results of the joint research at Partners in Science conferences.

The Murdock Trust provides grants in five states of the Pacific Northwest to organizations that aim to strengthen the region’s educational base in sustainable ways.

Cameron received a Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Cameron’s fellowship will allow her to take one year,
starting in June 2009, to pursue her scholarly research and writing, travel to academic conferences and connect with a network of Career Enhancement Fellows and Mentors.

Cameron said the fellowship benefits her personally as well as her students. She pointed out that this will afford her time and resources to further her research, enrich her teaching, and engage in the mathematical community at Lewis & Clark.

ffitch is not alone in his commitment to public service as a professional career. More than one out of every three graduates of Lewis & Clark Law School chooses to work in the area of public interest law.

The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) Simon ffitch acts as ratepayers’ representative

Charles (Kip) Ault

Ault co-wrote an article in American  Paleontologist with his son, Toby Ault, in March. Toby received a Watson Fellowship in 2002-03 to retrace Darwin’s adventure, with emphasis on South American localities. The article, titled “On the Trail of Darwin’s Megabeasts,”  recounts efforts the Aults took to find their way to locations where Darwin  collected fossils as well as to mimic his process:  ask locals where to look. On the 2003 trek, Ault said, “We found ourselves guided by a motorcyclist, museum scientists, as well as Darwin’s journal, as we crossed Patagonia, with particular emphasis on the Rio Negro’s Playa Bonita and the Monte Hermoso beach near Punta Alta.”

Ault also published an article in Curriculum Inquiry in December. “Achieving ‘Querencia’: Integrating a Sense of Place with Disciplined Thinking” explores the Spanish word “querencia,” and the concept of how the self attaches feelings and beliefs to an environment.

Gross published “Scholar Saints and Boccaccio’s Trattatello in laude di Dante” in the Italian issue of Modern Language Notes (MLN) in January. Published by Johns Hopkins Press, each volume of MLN has one issue per year on French, Italian, German, and Spanish literature and covers all time periods. MLN focuses on critical literary studies in these four languages as well as recent work in comparative literature. Gross’ article discusses Boccaccio’s biography of Dante, which has long frustrated readers, and how it can be understood in part as a rewriting of the life of St. Thomas Aquinas.

de Paula co-published two textbooks in 2009: Quanta, Matter and Change — A Molecular Approach to Physical Chemistry with Professors Peter Atkins of Oxford University and Ronald Friedman of Indiana University Purdue University and Elements of Physical Chemistry, 5th Edition with Professor Atkins. Translations of  de Paula’s textbooks with Atkins have been published in Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Russia.

de Paula co-wrote the fourth and fifth editions of Elements of Physical Chemistry. The text is a brief introduction to physical chemistry, the branch of chemistry that helps scientists understand the underlying principles that govern the structure and reactivity of atoms and molecules.

Quanta, Matter, and Change is a first edition textbook that shows the whole of physical chemistry through the lens of quantum theory, the most sophisticated theory currently available for the understanding of matter at the atomic and molecular levels.  de Paula spent a great deal of effort in presenting the material in a way that is accessible to students who may come to it with different levels of preparation in mathematics.

In total,  de Paula has co-written four textbooks, all in print and undergoing continual revision. Among these texts, Physical Chemistry is the world’s leading textbook in the discipline of physical chemistry.

The New York Times A Google Search of a Distinctly Retro Kind

Nagel participated in an international symposium organized by the Institute for Democracy from Mathematics (Oxford) at Windsor Castle in January.  The goal of the symposium was to examine the connection between mathematics teaching and democratic education.  Thirty professors and ambassadors, who represented 11 countries, discussed the problem of the high expectations held for those who excel in mathematics and how this results in lesser expectations for all other students. Presentations at the symposium posed that the most appropriate key to change is through the teaching of mathematics. Implementing Socratic methods of discussion were suggested as one model to encourage mathematical communication and learning. The symposium was  sponsored by the Qatar Foundation.

“I found it highly interesting to listen to presentations and discuss mathematics education with faculty, ambassadors, and the educational representatives for the Prince of Jordan and for the Prince of Wales,” Nagel said. “Discussions with participants from nine countries made it clear that there is widespread concern about mathematics education and of the need to collaborate on successful educational models to help inform each other and better prepare all students.”