Ag and Life Sciences ONLINE

COLLEGE NEWS



- Sign up for distance education series, starting Feb.

11



- Russian agricultural leader to speak Monday, Feb.

3



- Help offered to revise research grant proposals



- Enhancing communication in large classes: a workshop



- Request for proposals for new Fund for Rural America



- Share comments or concerns on advising



- Shadow an employer in new Vision 2020 program



- FFA breakfast on Feb. 19 in Curtiss Hall



- Vision 2020 staff offers to facilitate meetings



- Deadlines & Reminders



COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK



- To you and you and you and you . . . Try sending "Bcc"



INFOGRAZING



- Experiment finds benefits of learning on Internet



- Software for teaching on the Net



EXTERNAL VOICES



- Research that keeps up with the times



MARGINALIA



- Cyber-Chem Lab: All of the fun, none of the mess







C O L L E G E N E W S







SIGN UP FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION SERIES, STARTING FEB. 11



Agriculture faculty and staff are invited to participate in five

satellite-downlinked programs on improving distance teaching and

learning. The Brenton Center will host the programs on consecutive

Tuesdays, 1-3 p.m., in Pearson Hall. Programs and dates are: The

Distance Learner (2/11); Planning Instruction (2/18); Presenting

Instruction (2/25); Developing Innovative Multimedia Presentations

(3/4); and Models of Effective Distance Teaching (3/11). Three

will originate from ISU; the other two originate from Alabama

A&M University and Arkansas State University. If you're interested

in participating in one or more of the programs (there is no cost),

e-mail your name, department and office address to Wade Miller,

wwmiller@iastate.edu. Only 25 people per program can be accepted.

For more information, check out the Web site:



http://www.ag.iastate.edu/departments/aged/connection/



(On related topics, see "Infograzing" items in this

issue.)



RUSSIAN AGRICULTURAL LEADER TO SPEAK MONDAY, FEB. 3



Ag faculty and staff are invited to a public address by Russian

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zaveryukha at 3 p.m., Monday,

Feb. 3, in the Campanile Room, Memorial Union. Zaveryukha is responsible

for agriculture, natural resources and the environment. He is

visiting Iowa before participating in the Gore/Chernomyrdin Commission

meetings in Washington, DC. The commission works on issues of

economic and technological cooperation between the U.S. and Russia.

For more information: Elena Polouchkina, 4-8493/elenap@iastate.edu

or David Acker, 4-8453/dacker@iastate.edu.



HELP OFFERED TO REVISE RESEARCH GRANT PROPOSALS



Faculty with Experiment Station appointments or sponsored research

who are planning to revise and resubmit a favorably reviewed,

unfunded research proposal are invited to apply for proposal revision

assistance. The Experiment Station is offering the consultation.

Applications are due Feb. 10. Details are available at the college's

Web site at:



http://www.ag.iastate.edu/iaexp/rfp/grantsmanship.html



Or contact Susan Lamont, 4-3629 or sjlamont@iastate.edu.



ENHANCING COMMUNICATION IN LARGE CLASSES: A WORKSHOP



Agriculture faculty members will share practical ways to encourage

interaction in large classes in an ag communications workshop,

noon to 1:30 p.m., Feb. 18, 229 Curtiss. Lunch is provided. RSVP

by Feb. 14 to Norma Hensley, 4-6614 or nhensley@iastate.edu.



REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR NEW FUND FOR RURAL AMERICA



The USDA has released the request for proposals for its new Fund

for Rural America. The fund will provide $100 million in each

of three years for rural development programs and a competitive

grant program for research, education and extension activities.

Planning grant applications must be received on or before March

24. Standard project grant applications must be received on or

before April 28. More information can be found on the college's

Web site at:



http://www.ag.iastate.edu/iaexp/rfp/



SHARE COMMENTS OR CONCERNS ON ADVISING



The College of Agriculture's Academic Affairs Committee invites

advisers to share comments or concerns on advising. Ron Deiter,

committee chair, says input is welcome on any advising-related

topic. Contact Deiter, 4-5771 or rdeiter@iastate.edu, or your

department's committee representative.



SHADOW AN EMPLOYER IN NEW VISION 2020 PROGRAM



Vision 2020 has a new educator/employer job shadowing program,

Express Partnerships for 2020. The program offers ISU faculty

and employers a chance to explore areas of mutual interest. Vision

2020 will fund exchanges in which faculty interact with partners

at their business, industry, government, community or community

college. An application form can be found at this Web site:



http://www.iastate.edu/~vision2020/Phase2/AppforExpressPartnership.html



Or for more information, call 4-2092.



FFA BREAKFAST ON FEB. 19 IN CURTISS HALL



College faculty and staff are invited to the annual FFA Breakfast

to honor FFA students at ISU. It will be held 7:30 a.m., Wednesday,

Feb. 19, on the second floor of Curtiss Hall. For more information:

Gaylan Scofield, 4-0045 or ggs@iastate.edu.



VISION 2020 STAFF OFFERS TO FACILITATE MEETINGS



At your request, Vision 2020 staff will facilitate meetings or

retreats to inform people about the Vision 2020 program and promote

collaboration and interaction with business, government, communities

and community college faculty. For more information, call 4-2092.





DEADLINES & REMINDERS



Feb. 3: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zaveryukha speech,

3 p.m., Campanile Room



Feb. 3: Nominations deadline, Floyd Andre and Henry A. Wallace

awards, 134 Curtiss; and Excellence in International Agriculture

Award, 104 Curtiss



Feb. 6: Minimizing Environmental Effects of Animal Production

on Water Quality, Stu Melvin and Jeff Lorimor, ag & biosystems

engineering, 7:30 p.m., Brenton Center (sustainable ag seminar)



Feb. 13: Protecting Iowa's Water Resources in the 21st Century:

A Producer's Perspective, Ralph Neill, John Greig and Leroy Stoltenberg,

7:30 p.m., Brenton Center (sustainable ag seminar)



Feb. 18: Ag communications workshop, 229 Curtiss, noon



Feb. 19: FFA Breakfast, 2nd floor, Curtiss Hall, 7:30 a.m.







C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K









TO YOU AND YOU AND YOU AND YOU . . . TRY SENDING "BCC"



"Blind carbon copy" -- the "Bcc" field in

Eudora and other e-mail programs -- prevents multiple recipients

of your e-mail from knowing who else received the message. It's

useful when you're sending messages to many people or to an e-mail

list and you'd don't want a long list of recipients to appear

in the "To" field. Also, it can be used to ensure anonymity

of recipients. Simply fill in the "Bcc" field with the

e-mail addresses separated by a comma. In Eudora, you can put

recipient lists, or nicknames, in the blind carbon copy field

through Address Book (found under the Special menu).







I N F O G R A Z I N G







EXPERIMENT FINDS BENEFITS OF LEARNING ON INTERNET



An experiment with 33 sociology students at California State University

found that students who learned on the Internet scored 20 percent

higher in exams than those taught in the classroom, according

to New Scientist magazine. None of the students knew they were

part of an experiment. Professor Jerald Schutte said the online

group spent more time on classwork, understood the material better

and collaborated more. "I would say the collaboration resulted

from the panic of having no face-to-face interaction,'' Schutte

said. He stressed that this was a small experiment and larger

studies on the benefits or drawbacks of Internet learning are

needed. (From a Jan. 29 Reuters news service story)



SOFTWARE FOR TEACHING OVER THE NET



A computer scientist at British Columbia has designed a set of

software tools called WebCT (for Web Course Tools) that allows

instructors to design online courses, create their own Web sites,

hold interactive and bulletin-board-type discussions and administer

exams, all on the Internet. Professors simply enter their own

material into pre-prepared forms and the virtual classroom takes

shape. WebCT is already being used in more than 70 courses at

the University of British Columbia, and the program is available

for testing to faculty members outside the university. Once testing

is completed, the program's authors plan to charge a fee for its

use. Check it out at:



http://homebrew.cs.ubc.ca/webct/



(Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 24)







E X T E R N A L V O I C E S







RESEARCH THAT KEEPS UP WITH THE TIMES



"To be successful in food safety and everything else we do,

we have to modernize our research. We have one of the most productive

research operations in government, but we have to keep up with

the times. We are already becoming a government leader on many

issues of the technological revolution -- terrestrial applications

of space-age technology, called precision farming for you non-sci-fi

types, technology transfer and rural economic development. We

have to do even more. Feeding the world without scarcity means

the research pipeline must continue to provide breakthroughs that

maintain productivity growth." Secretary of Agriculture Dan

Glickman in a Jan. 15 speech at the National Press Club, in which

he outlined USDA efforts in the next administration.







M A R G I N A L I A







CYBER-CHEM LAB: ALL OF THE FUN, NONE OF THE MESS



Now for parents of insatiably curious kids, Corel's ChemLab CD-ROM

for Windows offers a virtual lab, complete with chemicals, all

sorts of tools, an online chemistry textbook and an interactive

Periodic Table of Elements. Users can tinker with acids, bases,

evaporation, enzymes, radioactivity and kinetics. The kit includes

a 3-D molecule viewer and a gas lab that explains the four variables

of gas (temperature, pressure, volume and quantity). The $60 product

combines experiments with video clips, animations, quiz games

and other learning tools. Best of all, there's no danger and no

cleanup. (Popular Science, January)