The College of Agriculture Newsletter
Iowa State University
November 10, 1995 No. 31

COLLEGE NEWS
- Fact-finding tour of North Carolina hog industry
- Two workshops on student communications skills
- How to write successful NRI grant proposals
- 2,000 attend Ag Career Day
- Brenton Center dedication Saturday
- Still time for United Way campaign
- Socratic dialogue highlights Extension conference
- Next Ag Online on Dec. 1
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- Einstein's theory of communication
- Computer misnamed, says ISU/NSF expert
INFOGRAZING
- Author, author: Some papers list hundreds
- Web-based science queries soaring
EXTERNAL VOICES
- Faculty also learners of new technologies
MARGINALIA
- What about Bossy's bad hair days?

FACT-FINDING TOUR OF NORTH CAROLINA HOG INDUSTRY
Colin Scanes, executive associate dean, and Stewart Melvin, head of the agricultural and biosystems engineering department, recently spent a week in North Carolina on a fact-finding visit of the hog industry. They were accompanied by two Iowa legislators, Rep. Russ Eddie and Sen. Brad Banks, and farm broadcaster Dennis Morrice of Spencer. The group visited farms and met with producers, contract farmers, legislators, university officials, environmental regulators, environmental groups, the state pork producer association, the North Carolina Blue Ribbon Committee on Animal Waste and others. For more information on the visit, contact Scanes, 294-1823.

TWO WORKSHOPS ON STUDENT COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS
Faculty are encouraged to attend a workshop on improving students' communication skills. Woody Hart, entomology, and Gail Nonnecke, horticulture, will discuss communications assignments from their courses, followed by a workshop on analyzing and grading communication-intensive assignments. The presentation will be held on Nov. 29, noon to 1 p.m., in 115 Davidson. It will be repeated on Nov. 30, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., in 13 Curtiss. Brown-bagging is welcome on Nov. 29; coffee and cookies will be available on both days. For more information: David Russell, Department of English, 294-4724 or drrussel@iastate.edu.

HOW TO WRITE SUCCESSFUL NRI GRANT PROPOSALS
How to write a successful proposal for the USDA NRI (National Research Initiative) Competitive Grants Program is the topic of a workshop on Monday, Dec. 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Campanile Room, Memorial Union. Clark Burbee, an ag economist who will soon be retiring from the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, will lead the workshop. More information will be sent to offices around the college, and will be included in the next Ag Online. This is the second in a series of grantsmanship workshops offered by the Experiment Station and the College of Veterinary Medicine.

2,000 ATTEND AG CAREER DAY
Ag Career Day attracted an estimated 2,000 people on Tuesday. Many were ISU and community college students who came to visit with the 128 employers on hand.

BRENTON CENTER DEDICATION SATURDAY
Faculty and staff are invited to the dedication of the Brenton Center for Agricultural Instruction and Technology Transfer, 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 11, Room 13, Curtiss Hall.

SOCRATIC DIALOGUE HIGHLIGHTS EXTENSION CONFERENCE
Those who do not have extension appointments are invited to visit the ISU Extension Annual Conference on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at Hilton Coliseum. The program's main session will be a Socratic dialogue consisting of a panel of extension experts and a moderator. The dialogue runs from 11 a.m.-12:40 p.m. and will continue at 3 p.m. For more information, contact your department office or call Deb Schmidt, Continuing Education, 294-5961.

STILL TIME FOR UNITED WAY CAMPAIGN
College of Agriculture United Way coordinator Shirley Riney (294-4544) reminds faculty and staff that contributions can still be made to the campaign. She is hoping to increase the response rate from the college, so people are encouraged to return envelopes to departmental coordinators in the next couple weeks.

NEXT AG ONLINE ON DEC. 1
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the next Ag Online will be a week later than usual. It will be sent on Friday, Dec. 1. Deadline will be Monday, Nov. 27.

DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Nov. 11 -- Brenton Center dedication, 13 Curtiss
Nov. 22 -- Nominations deadline for several college, university awards, 23 Curtiss
Nov. 27 -- Course offering materials (for schedule of classes) for next academic year due, 23 Curtiss
Nov. 29 -- Improving Students' Communications Skills, 115 Davidson
Nov. 30 -- Improving Students' Communication Skills, 13 Curtiss
Dec. 11 -- How to Write Successful NRI Grant Proposals, Campanile Room

EINSTEIN'S THEORY OF COMMUNICATION
"Everything must be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." From the book "The Private Eye: Looking/Thinking By Analogy" by Kerry Ruef.

COMPUTER MISNAMED, SAYS ISU/NSF EXPERT
ISU's George Strawn, on temporary assignment to the National Science Foundation's Division of Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure, recently told a group of North Central Regional communications pros that the computer might have been named the "communicator," had its inventors foreseen what the primary use of the technology would be.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR: SOME PAPERS LIST HUNDREDS
"Big Science" is taking on a new meaning when it comes to publishing
research results. Two recent physics papers announcing a new quark discovery had more than 400 authors each, and a '93 paper on cardiology had nearly 1,000 contributors. According to the Institute for Scientific Information, the number of papers with more than 50 authors has risen dramatically over the last 14 years, with 407 reported last year. "In some cases, there are more authors than words in the article," says Robert Park, American Physical Society. (Popular Science, October)

WEB-BASED SCIENCE QUERIES SOARING
The World Wide Web is offering researchers new ways to access advanced scientific tools and databases. The Human Genome Project is an example; GenBank, a public gene repository allows Web-based researchers around the world to compare new sequence data against its huge database. "Intellectual queries" are now running about 12,500 a day, up from zero in 1992. (Business Week, Oct. 30)

FACULTY ALSO LEARNERS OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES
"Our world has become more challenging and complex . . . and we need to learn how to work collaboratively, integrate information and give our students a voice in the process. Faculty must view themselves as learners along with students . . . Lecturing with an LCD panel instead of an overhead, using video to pass the time, throwing banks of computers at students for simple world processing or creating Web pages at every turn does NOT make for the shift we are anticipating. As a dear friend once said to me: if all we do with computers is use them as glitzy pencils, what's the point?" From a message posted to an Internet discussion group by Steven W. Gilbert, director, technology projects, American Association for Higher Education.

WHAT ABOUT BOSSY'S BAD HAIR DAYS?
Animal scientists have finally gotten to the root of the cowlick. By "reading" hair patterns on a cow's head, Colorado State University researchers say they can predict a cow's personality. High-strung cattle tend to have hair whorls about their eye line, while cattle with "cowlicks" between or below the eyes have less reactive nervous systems and aren't as easily stressed. (Farm Journal, November)

Ag Online is a biweekly newsletter for ISU College of Agriculture faculty and staff. To subscribe, send your name, e-mail address and the message "Ag Online subscribe" to bmeyer@iastate.edu. To unsubscribe: Send "Ag Online unsubscribe" to same address. Comments? Contact editors Brian Meyer (bmeyer@iastate.edu) and Ed Adcock (edadcock@iastate.edu), Agriculture Information Services, 304 Curtiss Hall, Ames, IA 50011. Phone: 515-294-5616. Fax: 515-294-8662.

Next issue: Dec. 1. Deadline: Nov. 27.