At Washington State University’s inaugural high school energy competition on May 10, Bohler Gymnasium on the Pullman campus buzzed with the ideas and enthusiasm of more than 350 high school students.
Teams from across the state were invited to present ideas for sustainable living in one of four areas: technology, design, personal behavior, or society/public policy.
Eighty-six teams gathered to share ideas that ranged from … » More …
The market is full of books on how to get into and succeed in college, but few of those books are targeted at students who may be the first in their family to go beyond high school. Even fewer are targeted specifically to the needs of Native American students.
Two faculty members at Washington State University have sought to fill that need with a handbook titled The American Indian and Alaskan Native Student’s Guide to College Success, published in 2007.
The book is for students, but it’s also for “quite a range of stakeholders,” says Michael Pavel, the author and associate professor in the … » More …
Educating the incarcerated is not an undertaking for the faint of heart. In Dancing to the Concertina’s Tune: A Prison Teacher’s Memoir, Jan Walker ’60 explores her unusual career in correctional education and seeks to give the reader an understanding of prisons and inmates.
At bottom, the book is about how education can be used as a means toward transformation and, perhaps, redemption. Walker is steadfast in her argument for educating the imprisoned in parenting and family skills. She clearly lets both reader and inmates know she understands that, while poor family structure is likely to have contributed to the criminal’s path, it is no … » More …
“I now think twice when I look in the mirror.”
Wes Leid remembers the advice Leo K. Bustad, late dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, offered him when he was hired at Washington State University 22 years ago. “You may not think you teach ethics, but you teach ethics every day of your life in your interactions with others.”
“You need to explore why you believe what you believe,” Leid says, “and get others to explore issues they had not considered before.”
That is what he does. And, according to students in his University Honors class, “Medical Ethics … » More …
“Dr. McNamara wants you to take everything you know and figure out the solution on your own.” —Barbara Zawlocki
Rather than being “the expert” in the classroom, animal scientist John McNamara wants to shift that role to his students. Those in his non-ruminant nutrition course at Washington State University are expected to develop an “expert system” with computer program application. They must gather information in his and other classes, from the library, and on-line. Then they must put the material together in a logical system and teach it to someone else.
The students learn by creating their own data base of information and by sharing … » More …
The gap between minority teachers—about 6 percent—and minority school children—about 24 percent—is widening in Washington. As part of a move to remedy this situation, 176 high school and community college students attended the College of Education’s Future Teachers of Color conference at Washington State University in mid-February.
The conference has become very popular statewide, says Johnny Jones, the college’s director of recruitment and retention and coordinator of the program. The program has a waiting list of 120 students.
Since the FTOC program was created at WSU in 1994, undergraduate enrollment in the college has increased from five to more than 100. Fifteen FTOC graduates are … » More …