Transcripts
Thinking Like a Physicist
Spend a minute in the Paradigms in Physics classroom (videos courtesy of Leonard Cerny, Ph.D. student in Science and Mathematics Education)
Teaming up, solving problems: white boards (1:00) [transcript]
Teaming up, solving problems: walking in outer space (1:00) [transcript]
A New Lens on Wildlife
Bob Mace on “species that creep, crawl, fly, swim…” (4:40)
In 1973, the Oregon Legislature delegated to the Oregon Wildlife Commission the responsibility for what they term “non-game” wildlife — which would include all wildlife species and others that weren’t hunted, fished or trapped — and they didn’t provide any funding to pay for this new responsibility. But the wildlife department did make some effort to accommodate that request.
I, at the time, was chief of the Game Division, and in 1976 I became Deputy Director, and the term non-game bothered me because it was a negative term. And here are all these wonderful species of wildlife that people were interested in looking at that were in my view not being given proper attention.
The environmental groups at that time were going before the legislature in order to get the refund on the state tax return donated by taxpayers to what they termed the non-game wildlife program, and I attempted to change that to watchable wildlife. But because they were involved with the legislative bill, the environmental groups were not interested and did not accept it.
The term “watchable wildlife” came about as I continued to be concerned about what I considered the inappropriate term. And one day I was in the office and I going through the thesaurus, and I got to the “Ws” and I got to the word “watch.” And I said, “watchable,” and then I said, “watchable wildlife.” And my secretary next door said, “That’s it!” And that in my view was where the term started. So the department did make some little lapel buttons, and the first one was a raccoon on a button was about, oh, two-and-a-half inches in diameter, and it had the words “I support watchable wildlife.” And we sold those and made a little bit of money but it never did amount to a great deal from the standpoint of financing an appropriate program.
In 1981 I attended the North American Wildlife and Natural Resource Society meeting in Washington, D.C., and I took a hundred of these raccoon “I support watchable wildlife” buttons with me. And I gave them to as many of the game directors and meeting administrators from the United States, Canada and Mexico that I contacted during that meeting. And I think that really did spread the word, because nowadays, watchable wildlife is a growing concern in many states. One state I know of has a license plate, watchable wildlife license plate. And there are other forms of financing this. Missouri has a portion of their sales tax that goes to it. In any event it has become a well-known term and one that I’m proud to be associated with.
We have, my wife and I were interested in it, and we have funded a trust for Oregon State University, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, that on my death will provide for a chair in the department and some continuing scholarships, as well as another trust here in Jackson County with the fair board which will provide for a memorial watchable wildlife center on the fairgrounds. And so I think this term will outlive us, and I hope it will continue to be a part of conservation and of the public’s interest in viewing these enjoyable and wonderful wildlife species that creep, crawl, fly, swim or whatever.
Thinking Like a Physicist
Trials with TekBots (2:15)
(sound)
Tawalin ‘TJ’ Opastrakoon: I am trying to run the race maze with my TekBot, the robot that I made from the class, and I tried to do my, um, follow the maze and finish it.
(sound: frustrated “auggh!”)
TJ: Ahhh, it didn’t work like I expected. Outside it’s like too much light, and the environment, so it didn’t work (laugh).
(sound: “...set, go!”)
Ryan Albright: It’s kind of a platform for learning, it gives us something to base off of, because, and it’s kind of interesting, because you get to work with robots your first year. We’re building it. We’re designing it. I’m part of the OSU robotics club, and so once a week I go there, and I start building some more stuff. Everybody starts with the basic frame: two wheels, two motors. You get a certain circuit board that comes with stuff. You can purchase other ones from the TekBot lab itself. We all get pretty much the same stuff, but you can put your mind into stuff and really work it.
(music)
TJ: I really learn from it because I never had any experience with electrical stuff or doing the circuit board; it’s, like, all my first time putting this stuff together, and so once I learn to try to make something work, it just, like, makes me really happy, and I just like want to learn more and more and add this stuff to my robot to make it function more.
Ryan: You can base a lot of knowledge off this. We’re working with sensors. We’re working with just basic electronics. You get to solder on circuit boards. You get to design your own stuff. You can use digital logic or you can program a chip. What it does for learning is, it makes it easier, because the engineering program is a tough program, and it gives you kind of something to look forward to while you’re going through all the hard math and science classes.
(sound: “Go!”, TekBot motors)