COLLEGE NEWS
- News on Experiment Station assistant directors
- Engineering services and farm service phased out
- Scholarship theme for faculty-staff retreat Aug. 22
- Teacher's Academy for Ag Awareness hosts 70
- Summer enrollment in college: 952
- Summer Students at Work: The Pine Needle Problem
- Summer Students at Work: Approaches to Pig Viruses
- Useful information on virtual Brenton Center tour
- Join Brenton Center's educational Web site gallery
- Entomology Web site praised in "Digital Dozen"
- Better moo-ve it to be a state fair volunteer
- 248 return Ag Online survey; book winners chosen
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- Give reporters the big picture on research
INFOGRAZING
- Survey: Media don't report on whole diet
EXTERNAL VOICES
- Link between success and communication
MARGINALIA
- Heavy frogs part of exterior decorating craze
NEWS ON EXPERIMENT STATION ASSISTANT DIRECTORS
Effective July 1, Prem Paul, associate dean of the College of
Veterinary Medicine, has a 10-percent appointment in the College
of Agriculture as an assistant director of the Iowa Agriculture
and Home Economics Experiment Station. He'll provide leadership
in Experiment Station projects related to veterinary medicine
and in faculty development in research and grantsmanship. Also:
Assistant director Susan Lamont's position will become a 30-percent
appointment from 50 percent, which means assistant director Gerald
Klonglan will now lead efforts in minority graduate research internships.
ENGINEERING SERVICES AND FARM SERVICE PHASED OUT
The Experiment Station's engineering services and farm service
maintenance departments will be eliminated effective July 31.
The departments worked on planning, improving and maintaining
facilities on research farms around Ames and the state. These
services will now be provided by Facilities Planning and Management
or local vendors with standing contracts with ISU. The departments'
seven employees have found new positions at ISU or in private
industry. Experiment Station engineer Mark Huss has a new job
with Facilities Planning and Management but will provide consultation
on research-farm projects through October. For more information,
contact Colin Scanes, 4-1823.
SCHOLARSHIP THEME FOR FACULTY-STAFF RETREAT AUG. 22
The theme of this year's College of Agriculture faculty-staff
retreat is "Redefining Scholarship." It will focus on
the meaning of scholarly activity in teaching, research and outreach,
and how to assess quality performance in these areas. The retreat
will be held 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 22, at the Scheman
Building, and will include lunch. Watch for more details in Ag
Online.
TEACHER'S ACADEMY FOR AG AWARENESS HOSTS 70
Seventy teachers attended two sessions of the Teacher's Academy
for Agricultural Awareness in late June. The five-year-old academy
has now hosted nearly 300 teachers, mostly from elementary and
middle schools. The academy, established by Robert Martin, agricultural
education and studies, teaches teachers about Iowa agriculture.
Participants develop classroom activities emphasizing agriculture
and return home with new materials and ideas for their students.
June's academy included presenters from Iowa Farm Bureau, the
state's major commodity groups, the Leopold Center, Farm Safety
4 Just Kids and ISU's horticulture department. Teachers visited
the food science and human nutrition department, Reiman Gardens
and the Center for Crops Utilization Research.
SUMMER ENROLLMENT IN COLLEGE: 952
Summer enrollment in the College of Agriculture is 952 -- 433
undergraduate and 519 graduate students. Total ISU summer enrollment
is 8,785 -- 5,746 undergraduate and 3,039 graduate.
SUMMER STUDENTS AT WORK: THE PINE NEEDLE PROBLEM
Erika Blackburn, a biology senior, is working in Stephen Ford's
animal science lab in a summer research internship from the Women
in Science and Engineering Program. Last semester, Blackburn began
studying how pregnant beef cows are affected by eating ponderosa
pine needles, a problem for Western cattle ranchers. Ford is Blackburn's
mentor in the Research Careers for Minority Scholars Program.
SUMMER STUDENTS AT WORK: APPROACHES TO PIG VIRUSES
Susan Hartman, a veterinary student working on a master's degree
in microbiology, immunology and preventive medicine, is developing
a test for swine intestinal viruses that are often difficult to
diagnose. Working with several MIPM professors, Hartman hopes
to have a working test by the end of the summer. Also, Matt Anderson,
a Merck Scholar student, is working to produce an antibody for
CVM, another pig virus. In humans, the virus is associated with
birth defects and transplant complications.
USEFUL INFORMATION ON BRENTON CENTER VIRTUAL TOUR
Want to reserve a room in the Brenton Center, get a virtual tour
of the center's instructional technology and classroom layout,
or find a quick guide to creating graphics for distance learning?
You can do it all from your computer by calling up the Brenton
Center for Agricultural Instruction and Technology Transfer's
Web site, which can be found under the Extension and Outreach
link on the College of Agriculture's home page (http://www.ag.iastate.edu/).
The site also has PowerPoint templates optimized for TV display
that can be downloaded, plus links to other distance learning
and Web development sites. For more information on room availability
and reservations, call Jeannette Drewry, 4-1862.
JOIN BRENTON CENTER'S EDUCATIONAL WEB SITE GALLERY
The Brenton Center is compiling a list of College of Agriculture
Web sites designed for classroom instructional support or outreach
for its "Instructional Web Site Gallery" link on its
home page. Faculty and staff are invited to share their educational
sites for the gallery. Send the URL and a brief description of
the site to Allan Schmidt, aschmidt@iastate.edu.
ENTOMOLOGY WEB SITE PRAISED IN "DIGITAL DOZEN"
Tick movies, insect dissections and a mosquito gallery won over
the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (ENC), which recently featured
ISU's Entomology Image Page in its "Digital Dozen,"
where educational Web sites are highlighted. The U.S. Department
of Education-sponsored ENC (found at http://www.enc.org) collects
physical and virtual resources useful to K-12 math and science
teachers. Criteria to select "Digital Dozen" sites include
valuable math and/or science content, teacher appeal, clear navigational
aids and "that something special." Entomology's home
page is: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~entomology/homepage.html
BETTER MOO-VE IT TO BE A STATE FAIR VOLUNTEER
Faculty and staff volunteers are needed to staff the College of
Agriculture's dairy-themed exhibit at the Iowa State Fair, Aug.
8-18. Two volunteers work each four-hour shift, starting at 9
a.m. Volunteers get free admission and parking tickets. Look for
your departmental sign-up sheets, which need to be returned by
July 19, or contact Marty Behrens, 4-5616, or Jennifer Bensen,
4-3538 (bensen@iastate.edu).
248 RETURN AG ONLINE SURVEY; BOOK WINNERS CHOSEN
Thanks to the 248 subscribers who returned an Ag Online survey -- your answers and comments are appreciated. That's about a 61 percent response rate. Here's the randomly chosen respondents who'll receive a book on improving communications: Jerry DeWitt, Anita Nimtz, Linda Drennan, Mary Ellen Hurt and Nancy Holcomb. We'll share survey results in the next month or so.
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
July 19: Deadline to return State Fair sign-up sheets to Ag Info,
304 Curtiss
Aug. 8-18: Iowa State Fair (volunteer to staff college exhibit,
4-5616)
Aug. 22: College of Agriculture faculty-staff retreat, Scheman
Building
GIVE REPORTERS THE BIG PICTURE ON RESEARCH
In a survey of media stories on scientific research on food and
nutrition, details that would help consumers judge a study's relevance
to their own diets were lacking, according to the International
Food Information Council (see item in "Infograzing").
"It's important for information sources to orient the news
reporter to the larger perspective," said Delia Hammock,
director and editor of nutrition at Good Housekeeping. "Even
if the information doesn't get into the story, help the reporter
understand the information. The only way to have any credibility
as an information resource is to serve as an educator to the reporter
and provide the full perspective on the issues." (Food Chemical
News, April 15)
SURVEY: MEDIA DON'T REPORT ON WHOLE DIET
An International Food Information Council survey of 1,000 stories
on food and diet in 53 media sources found that news reporters
are doing a better job covering food issues, but they still tend
to focus too much on benefits and harms of individual foods rather
than how consumers can put together a variety of foods to build
a healthful diet. The media's greatest failing: the lack of context
needed to understand overall nutrition recommendations about individual
foods. Other findings: reducing dietary fat received twice the
coverage of any nutrition topic, followed by disease prevention
through proper diet. (Food Chemical News, April 15)
LINK BETWEEN SUCCESS AND COMMUNICATION
"I can't see a correlation between the number of hours people
work and (success). What I do see is a correlation between success
and the ability to communicate, the ability to focus on priorities."
Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, the cartoon-strip chronicle of
employers and employees. (Wall Street Journal, Aug. 8, 1995)
HEAVY FROGS PART OF EXTERIOR DECORATING CRAZE
The National Gardening Association estimates that 72 million people
spent time in their gardens last year, paying $22.2 billion to
support the hobby. About 25 percent of that is spent on plants,
and the rest on equipment, fertilizer and insect control. "Then
you get down to the froufrou," said Bruce Butterfield, an
analyst with the association, referring to fountains, statues,
fishponds, gazebos and other decorative flourishes for the backyard.
A woman outside Philadelphia bought a 1,000-pound marble frog
that was so big she had to put 75 pounds of crushed stone underneath
it so it wouldn't sink into her lawn. (New York Times, June 23)
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.
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