Terraced rice fields in Vietnam and other tropical countries could be at risk if monsoon rains shift south. A research team including OSU geoscientist Ed Brook has reported evidence of such shifts in the distant past. See NASA's global vegetation map here. (Photo: iStockPhoto.com, Mark Weiss)

At times in the distant past, an abrupt change in climate has been associated with a shift of seasonal monsoons to the south, a new study concludes, causing more rain to fall over the oceans than in the Earth’s tropical regions, and leading to a dramatic drop in global vegetation growth.

If similar changes were to happen to the Earth’s climate today as a result of global warming — as scientists believe is possible — this might lead to drier tropics, more wildfires and declines in agricultural production in some of the world’s most heavily populated regions.

The findings were based on oxygen isotopes in air from ice cores and supported by previously published data from ancient stalagmites found in caves. They were published June 12 in the journal Science by researchers from Oregon State University, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Desert Research Institute in Nevada. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Unexpected Consequences

The data confirming these effects were unusually compelling, researchers said.

“Changes of this type have been theorized in climate models, but we’ve never before had detailed and precise data showing such a widespread impact of abrupt climate change,” said Ed Brook, an OSU professor of geosciences. “We didn’t really expect to find such large, fast environmental changes recorded by the whole atmosphere. The data are pretty hard to ignore.”

The researchers used oxygen measurements, as recorded in air bubbles in ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland, to gauge the changes taking place in vegetation during the past 100,000 years. Increases or decreases in vegetation growth can be determined by measuring the ratio of two different oxygen isotopes in air — the composition of which is essentially the same around the world at any one point in time.

Ice to Rock

They were also able to verify and confirm these measurements with data from studies of ancient stalagmites on the floors of caves in China, which can reveal rainfall levels over hundreds of thousands of years.

“Both the ice core data and the stalagmites in the caves gave us the same signal, of very dry conditions over broad areas at the same time,” Brook said. “We believe the mechanism causing this was a shift in monsoon patterns, more rain falling over the ocean instead of the land. That resulted in much lower vegetation growth in the regions affected by these monsoons, in what is now India, Southeast Asia and parts of North Africa.”

Fast Times

Previous research has determined that the climate can shift quite rapidly in some cases, in periods as short as decades or less. This study provides a barometer of how those climate changes can affect the Earth’s capacity to grow vegetation. (See a NASA map of Earth vegetation zones here.)

“Oxygen levels and their isotopic composition in the atmosphere are pretty stable; it takes a major terrestrial change to affect it very much,” Brook said. “These changes were huge. The drop in vegetation growth must have been dramatic.”

Impacts on Food

Observations of past climatic behavior are important, Brook said, but not a perfect predictor of the impact of future climatic shifts. For one thing, at times in the past when some of these changes took place, larger parts of the northern hemisphere were covered by ice. Ocean circulation patterns also can heavily influence climate and shift in ways that are not completely understood.

However, the study still points to monsoon behavior being closely linked to climate change.

“These findings highlight the sensitivity of low-latitude rainfall patterns to abrupt climate change in the high-latitude north,” the researchers wrote in their report, “with possible relevance for future rainfall and agriculture in heavily-populated monsoon regions.”

For those quiet evenings by the campfire, here are 17 recently published books that inform and inspire.

“I’ll never forget the day I read a book,” Jimmy Durante sang, with an aside: “My house is loaded with books. And believe me, they’re not just there for appearances: I’ve pressed an awful lot of butterflies!”

We hope you’ll let the butterflies stay on the flowers this summer and spend some time yourself in at least one book by an OSU faculty member. Here is a selection of recent titles released this year and last. Many are available in the OSU Bookstore and the Valley Library.

BIOGRAPHY
Hiding Man, A Biography of Donald Barthelme. Tracy Daugherty, Department of English; St. Martin’s Press, 2009
A beguiling and intimate portrait of an author who has been called the father of the American post-modern movement. Barthelme’s friendships with famous literary figures in Greenwich Village, his artful treatment of political controversies and tumultuous private life are explored eloquently by his former student.

ENVIRONMENT
Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Oregon: With Vegetative Keys. Richard R. Halse and La Rea J. Dennis, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology; Uncial Press, 2008.
For professionals and amateurs, aquatic and wetland plants are problematic to identify, because flowering is short and often unpredictable. For the botanist, naturalist, wetlands investigator or land manager facing a handful of wet greenery, this book address ferns, grasses, broadleaf herbs, shrubs and trees, and more, with drawings of characteristics to seek when flowers are absent.

In the Blast Zone: Catastrophe and Renewal on Mount St. Helens. Edited by Charles Goodrich and Kathleen Dean Moore, Department of Philosophy; Frederick J. Swanson, College of Forestry and US Forest Service; OSU Press, 2008
A cross-pollination of literary and scientific perspectives on cataclysm and on the durability of nature. Leading scientists and writers camped together on St. Helens, hiking, observing and discussing ideas, asking what this radically altered landscape can tell us about nature and how to live our lives. A beautiful and transforming collection of prose and poetry.

Living with Bugs: Least-toxic Solutions to Everyday Bug Problems. Jack DeAngelis, OSU Extension; OSU Press, 2009
What’s bugging you? The entomologist author wants to replace disgust or terror of common pests such as mosquitoes, ants, termites, yellowjackets and dust mites with an understanding of the critical roles they have in the Earth’s systems. While he argues only a few are potentially harmful, he doesn’t deny the annoyance factor. Gain practical strategies to manage pests to minimize their damage while not hurting anything else, including yourself.

Old Growth in a New World: A Pacific Northwest Icon Reexamined. Edited by Tom Spies, College of Forestry, and Sally Duncan, Institute for Natural Resources; Island Press, 2009
Spies and Duncan untangle the complexities of the old-growth forest and its management. Essays by ecologists, economists, sociologists, managers, historians, silviculturists, environmentalists, timber producers and philosophers offer perspectives on policy changes in the Pacific Northwest, including options for effective approaches to conservation.

Rachel Carson: Legacy and Challenge. Edited by Kathleen Dean Moore, Department of Philosophy, and Lisa H. Sideris, Indiana University; SUNY Press, 2008
Writers, activists and scholars from a range of disciplines uncover the many sides of Carson through her books, speeches, essays and letters she wrote in her final days. A testament to Carson’s continued influence on environmental thought, this volume is for everyone who cares about finding ways to live sustainably on Earth.

FEMINISM
God Speaks to Us, Too: Southern Baptist Women on Church, Home & Society. Susan M. Shaw, Women Studies Program, University Press of Kentucky, 2008
A sensitive study by an insider – Shaw was raised as a Southern Baptist – from a critical distance. She is the director and associate professor of OSU’s Women’s Studies Program and director of the Difference, Power, and Discrimination Program. To explore the social construction of gender within Baptist history, theology, and practice, she lets women in the highly patriarchal system speak for themselves.

Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Janet Lee and Susan M. Shaw, Women’s Studies Program; McGraw-Hill, 2007
This introductory women’s studies reader offers a wide range of classic, conceptual, and experiential writings, with over 105 selections. Chapter introductions provide background information on each topic, including explanations of key concepts and ideas. The anthology also offers pedagogical features designed to engage students in active learning.

FICTION
Northwest of Normal. John Larison, Department of English; Barclay Creek Press, 2009
This novel is set in a quirky Oregon mountain community of artists, loggers, dope growers, midwives and river guides in this century of drastic change. The main character is a passionate fly-fishing guide with a troubled past and an urgent quest. The fiction addresses real issues of personal growth, idealism, environmental awareness and violence.

HEALTH
Being Human: Relationships and You. Knud S. Larsen, Department of Psychology, Purdue University Press, 2008
Larsen argues that being human is defined by functional or dysfunctional interactions with others. Interpretation of recent research takes a critical stand toward the consequences of war and repression. Emphasized is the effect of culture in conceptions of the self, attraction, love, attitude formation, group membership, social influence, persuasion, hostile images, aggression and altruism, moral behavior and more.

Handbook of Self-Help Therapies. Patti Lou Watkins, Women Studies; Routledge, 2007
A guide for practitioners wending through the maze of self-help approaches. The Handbook summarizes current knowledge about what works and what does not, disorder by disorder and modality by modality. Among the topics: depression; eating disorders; sexual dysfunctions; insomnia; and problem drinking.

HISTORY (CULTURAL AND POLITICAL)
American Film: A History. Jon Lewis, Department of English; W. W. Norton & Company, 2008
A narrative summary addressing the intersection of artistry and economics in Hollywood cinema from the beginning to the present. Context is provided about business interests, content regulation and the often tense relationship between Hollywood and broader American culture. More than 250 images enliven the text.

Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence. Jose-Antonio Orosco, Department of Philosophy; University of New Mexico Press, 2008
Chavez has been heralded for his nonviolent resistance against social, racial, and labor injustices. However, the works of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King have overshadowed Chavez’s contributions to the theory of nonviolence. Orosco demonstrates how his distinct ideas are timely for dealing with today’s issues such as racism, sexism, immigration, globalization and political violence.

Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity. Gary B. Ferngren, Department of History; Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009
Ferngren traces the process by which early Christians appropriated Greek secular medicine and created a system of medical philanthropy that culminated in the earliest hospitals, in which the sick for the first time enjoyed a preferential position that has been theirs ever since.

Old Deseret Live Stock Company: A Stockman’s Memoir. W. Dean Frischknecht, Department of Animal Sciences; Utah State University Press, 2008
In the Wasatch Mountains lies what’s left of one of the American West’s largest ranches. Deseret Live Stock Company, once the world’s biggest producer of sheep wool, also ran cattle, and in the mid-twentieth century, young Frischknecht became sheep foreman. He recounts how Deseret managed herds, lands and wildlife, and presents lively anecdotes about how stockmen and families lived and worked.

Readings in American Foreign Policy: Historical and Contemporary Problems. David Bernell, Department of Political Science; Longman Publishing Group, 2007
Both primary source documents and scholarly articles trace the recent evolution of America’s engagement with the world. Framing problems from multiple perspectives on how policy is made and who makes it, the selections survey the many challenges and opportunities facing the United States since it became a global power.

Treatise on slavery: selections from De instauranda Aethiopum salute. Alonso de Sandoval, edited and translated by Nicole von Germeten, Department of History; Hackett Publishing Company, 2009
A 1627 study of slavery in the colonial Americas described African ethnicities, languages and beliefs, and provided an expose of abuse. These previously untranslated selections, with notes providing cultural, historical, and religious context, are a resource for understanding the history of the African diaspora, slavery, the role of Christianity in the Spanish Empire, and early modern European concepts of race.

Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya, legendary for flamingoes and other birds, will be home to OSU zoology student Shalynn Pack for eight weeks this summer. (Photo: iStockPhoto, Steffen Foerster)

Ah, summer vacation. Time to kick back, right? Not so much for OSU students who are discovering opportunities to expand their horizons. They’re modeling blood flow, studying wildlife conservation in Africa, surveying Oregon’s old-growth forests and teaching entrepreneurship.

Here are a few of their stories.

In the Blood

Ishan Patel was more than pleased when he heard the news last spring. In fact, he says, “I was ecstatic.” The first-year student in bioengineering and the University Honors College had received a Johnson Scholarship to work in a research lab at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland this summer. His focus: an experimental model to simulate “pressure-driven bleeding.”

Patel grew up in Redmond, Oregon, where he attended the International School of the Cascades, graduating as class valedictorian. Research was high on his list, and at OSU, he joined Christine Kelley’s lab in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering. Under her guidance, he gained confidence in working with a genetically modified type of yeast that can be used in a process to produce biofuel.

At OHSU, Patel will work with Owen J. T. McCarty, an expert in cell transport in arteries. Medical researchers have had limited success in simulating arterial bleeding, says Patel. Working with a mechanical model system, he intends to “find ways to simulate arterial bleeding with clotting and then creating model curves for later use.”

Patel hopes to attend medical school and follow his love of research by finding ways to address cardiovascular disease or cancer.

Entrepreneur for Life

When Alexa Carey was growing up in Gold Beach, Oregon, business talk was heard as often over dinner as “please pass the potatoes.” Her parents were “serial entrepreneurs,” she says, who sold sporting goods, photography equipment and flowers; managed the local JC Penney store; and operated a dry cleaning business. “My dad took maybe three days off a year,” she adds.

That entrepreneurial spirit is stitched into Carey’s DNA. The sophomore in business, speech communications and the University Honors College is helping to run Project Earth, which stands for entrepreneurship, art, rural sustainability, training and holistic support (“Yes, it’s a mouthful,” she says).

Carey and three Oregon friends – Laura Murdoch, Carol Hahn and Darryl Lai – created Project Earth in a late-night brainstorming session. Their dream: teach children “how to run a business, how to be successful, how to create a better standard of living for yourself and your family.” Students learn to make a marketable craft product and to create a “life vision map” of their long-term goals.

In May, Carey and the core Project Earth members took the program back to Gold Beach. “We taught 100 fifth-graders how to achieve their goals. We got crazy messy on the playground with hand painting. We taught them how to market themselves and businesses. Kids love it when you take an interest in them. It was spectacular.”

Carey has big plans for Project Earth. She’d like to take it to students in Brazil where a friend teaches school. This summer, she plans to stay a bit closer to home and do a workshop at the Oregon School for the Deaf in Salem (Carey can use American Sign Language). She will also serve as a project manager for the annual Young Entrepreneurs Business Week summer camp, July 19-25 at OSU.

Off to Kenya

Shalynn Pack likes a challenge. Right after graduating from Thurston High School in Marcola, Oregon, she bucked family loyalties when she decided to attend Oregon State University, even though her dad is “a huge Ducks fan.” She has traveled on her own in Spain and other parts of Europe. She has volunteered in veterinary hospitals and the Oregon Primate Rescue Center in Longview, Washington.

This summer, she will take her most ambitious journey yet. The junior in zoology will fly to Kenya where she will work at Lake Nakuru National Park, famous for a “pink sea of flamingoes lapping at its shores.” Surrounded by grasslands and situated between two volcanic craters, the lake is home to about 450 bird species. Working for the Kenyan Wildlife Service will bring Pack face to face with other exotic wildlife – white rhinos, tree-climbing lions, warthogs and baboons – and the threats they face from deforestation, pollution and encroaching development.

“Traveling in Europe and Spain, I knew what to expect. With Africa, what you hear in the media – the wars, that it’s really unstable – it’s hard to get over that. But everything I’ve read and people I’ve talked to say the people are really generous. And I’ll be living with a host family,” says Pack who dreams of a career in tropical wildlife conservation and community-based tourism.

After her eight-week internship, she will spend a week traveling before returning to Corvallis in time for classes in the fall. At OSU, Pack has studied molecular genetics in salamanders, served as a mentor in a science education program and volunteered for the Homeless Gardens Project.

Woods Walker

It’s not a bad job if you hike or fish. Andrew Merschel does both. The senior in forestry and the University Honors College will pack his fishing pole and a personal pontoon boat this summer and head for the Pringle Falls Research Station on the Deschutes River south of Bend. When he’s not going after steelhead and salmon, he and fellow OSU forestry student Claire Rogan will be surveying forest plots.

Under guidance from Tom Spies, courtesy professor of forest ecology, and with support from the Deschutes National Forest, Merschel is pursuing an elusive goal: a useful definition of old-growth forest in country dominated by ponderosa pine, western juniper and mixed-conifer stands.

“The old-growth forests of the west side (of the Cascades) develop their complex structure and diversity over hundreds of years, and a lot of work has been done to understand how these forests develop,” says Merschel, “but the dry mixed-conifer forests of the east side aren’t as well understood. The different species and conditions there create a much different scenario for old-growth habitat.”

Merschel and Rogan will measure trees in 45 to 50 two-and-a-half acre plots in the Crooked River area and in the Ochoco Mountains east of Prineville. They’ll record species, measure tree height and diameter, drill cores and sample woody debris on the ground.

In addition to looking for patterns that can define old growth, they’ll use data from their surveys to evaluate the accuracy of forest maps created from satellite images. Their work will assist the Deschutes National Forest in revising management plans.

Merschel intends to graduate next winter and apply to graduate school.

Immune Defense

To compete for a Goldwater Scholarship, you need a big idea. The award aims at nothing less than building the country’s future science and engineering talent pool. Beth Dunfield has ambitious goals for herself and a desire to help others, so she proposed to work on a cure for cancer. She wants to enable the body’s own immune system to recognize tumor cells and insert a therapeutic gene, killing the tumor.

If she succeeds, Dunfield may get a chance to put her ideas into practice. She plans to go to medical school and to focus on cancer or geriatrics. “I enjoy learning how the human body works. At night, I like to read books for fun on anatomy and physiology. It just really fascinates me,” she says.

This summer, the OSU senior in biophysics and biochemistry and the University Honors College will work in OSU Professor of Chemistry Vince Remcho’s microfluidics lab. For her honors thesis, she will develop a microchip-based laboratory device. This emerging technology is essentially a “lab on a chip” that enables scientists to conduct chemical reactions with control and sensitivity.

“I’ll design, fabricate and test a device for chemical and biological applications,” she says.

Dunfield’s work impressed the Goldwater Scholarship committee. In March, she learned that she was one of 278 students in the United States to receive the award which will pay up to $7,500 in tuition and fees. She credits Kevin Ahern, senior instructor and director of OSU’s HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) summer undergraduate research program with helping her through the process. “He’s been a great adviser. He really challenges students to push themselves,” she adds.

Mario Magaña's goal is to help families to succeed and to sustain their Mexican culture. (Photo: Justin Smith)

When Mario Magaña was 15, he made a tough decision: quit middle school and return to his family’s farm so his younger siblings had a chance for an education. Magaña loved school, which was 30 miles from his home in Los Horcones, Michoacán, Mexico, but he sacrificed anyway. His father could no longer afford the rent, meals and tuition for six children. So Mario stayed home to grow corn, sesame, rice, sorghum and watermelon with his brothers, sisters and parents; he gave up, temporarily, dreaming of an education.

The idea that he would one day go to college, get an advanced degree and become a faculty member at a university seemed unlikely, even impossible. But he didn’t stop. With help from others and a desire to create a better life for his daughters, he persevered. Now, Magaña has become an inspiration for young Latinos to build pride and skill through education.

Leaving Mexico

Today, Magaña is a 4-H Regional Extension Educator at Oregon State University, creating educational programs and camps for Latino youth in Oregon. “I wanted to help Latino kids and families succeed, especially those who are in the same or worse situation that I was before. I wanted to give them educational and safe activities to go to,” Magaña says.

The road to his education was a long one. He came to the United States when he was 20, enticed by a cousin, who told him stories about cars, dancing, and – key to a better future – money. “In the 1980s in Mexico there was a depression. We tried to raise crops, and we weren’t able to make back what we invested. My friends and family started going to the U.S., so I left too,” he explains.

He entered the country without a visa, walking hours to cross the border. During the trip from Chula Vista, Calif. to Los Angeles, he hid in the trunk of a 1973 Ford LTD, escorted by a coyote, a person paid to smuggle immigrants. Eventually, he arrived in Washington state in the middle of winter, ill-equipped for the harsh climate. When he found a job, he gravitated toward what was most natural to him: picking apples, cherries and asparagus; driving tractors; pruning fruit trees.

Citizen and Father

It took him nearly a decade before he was able to continue his education at a Washington State University High School Equivalency program, which he’d heard about on the radio while he was working in an apple orchard. By this time, Magaña was married, a legal resident and a father of two daughters.

During his educational program, he caught the attention of a counselor, who urged him to apply to college so he could set a good example for his children. “When the counselor asked me for my social security number so he could fill out a college application for me, I gave it to him only to please him, to make him happy,” he says. He never thought anything would come of it. He didn’t think anything could.

The Call

A year later, though, Magaña got a call from a staff member at Oregon State’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP). He had been accepted at Oregon State University.

There were still difficult decisions to make. Magaña and his wife, Norma, had a new car; they were buying a home; she was seven months pregnant. Who would pay for the car and their house in Grandview, Wash., Magaña wondered. How would they manage?

In the end, they returned the car and agreed that he would see if he could make progress at Oregon State.

Initially college was no less daunting than other hurdles he had faced. He spoke limited English, so he sat at the front of his classes with a tape recorder. He listened to his lectures over and over again, even in bed at night. He made friends who shared their notes with him. He bought a Spanish/English dictionary and used it so much it wouldn’t close.

“After the first year, things started getting easier. I was at least able to understand the lectures,” Magaña says. “After two years I finally understood what my counselor was saying. I could do whatever I wanted.”

Mentor

After an internship with 4-H in Yamhill County, Magaña decided what he wanted to do: work with Latino kids. He got help from Scott Reed, then assistant dean in the College of Forestry, to apply for a master’s degree in forestry with minors in adult education and Spanish at OSU. For his thesis, he investigated the experience of Mexicans working in Oregon’s forestry industry.

As an undergraduate in forestry and an intern in OSU’s PROMISE program, Magaña impressed Reed. “He was very intelligent and driven. Mario creates pathways for people. He’s improving the lives of people who interact with him, and he’s doing it one family at a time,” Reed says.

Currently, Magaña is hoping to develop a program to enable Extension educators to travel to the Mexican states of Jalisco and Michoacán so they can learn the language and better understand students from Mexico. A large number of Mexican immigrants to Oregon come from those two states.

Ultimately, Magaña wants to minimize immigration to the United States. “I always ask the questions, ‘How can we make land in Mexico more productive? How can we make more technological advances to create jobs so that people don’t feel the need to come here, so that the family fabric in Mexico isn’t torn apart?’”

Scholars

Meanwhile, he has become a role model for his daughters. Two of them, Ariz and Laura, attend OSU. As a Bill and Melinda Gates Scholar and a major in bioresource research, Laura has received full funding for college through the Ph.D. level. Magaña isn’t sure whether his third daughter, Itzel, will attend OSU, but he’s confident that she’ll continue her education.

“My long-term goal is to help families to succeed and sustain our Mexican culture,” he says. “I want all families to be able to have what mine did.”

There are fun and games, sure, but campers learn too. From sandy beaches to chemistry labs, they explore, question, test and prod, both individually and with friends and mentors.

From Corvallis labs to Newport tidepools to Salem campgrounds, OSU experts are challenging K-12 kids to stretch their thinking and deepen their understanding of the natural and built environments. This summer, hundreds of Oregon children are limbering up their synapses in subjects as diverse as math and fine arts, engineering and journalism. They’re building brain power in chemistry, physics, life science and ecology. And they’re apprenticing with real scientists on authentic investigations across the sciences.

These summer challenges are more than warm-weather diversions. They change lives. OSU students Coralie Backlund and Paul Dornath gained confidence in their teaching skills. Laura Magana solidified her ethnic identity and found her voice at a 4-H summer camp for Latino youths. For Christa Rose, a series of engineering camps revealed a career path she might never have found. (See Terra Up-Close for the stories of these outstanding students.)

Here are a few highlights.

• Habitat Hunt – Kids ages 10 to 12 are learning firsthand how coastal organisms interact for mutual survival. Symbiotic relationships in various marine habitats is the focus of this camp. From their base at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, campers travel to estuaries, beaches and tidepools, capping their learning adventure with a Marine Discovery Tours “Sea Life Cruise.” In other marine-science camps, students are investigating crustaceans, building habitats in a wet lab, taking kayak excursions, and collecting plankton. (Sponsored by Oregon Sea Grant.)
• Summer Experience in Science and Engineering for Youth – High school girls and ethnic minority students are paired with faculty engineers for a mini-research project, digging into areas such as micro-scale technologies, plastics recycling, drug formulation and delivery, bio-processing, microelectronics and environmental engineering. (Sponsored by OSU’s School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering.)
• Apprenticeships in Science & Engineering – High school freshmen, sophomores and juniors are matched with an engineer or scientist for an eight-week authentic laboratory experience. Students work on projects such as: Helping scientists understand chemical risks to humans and wildlife using zebrafish models; collaborating with community-based agencies to collect and analyze data from survivors of intimate partner violence; and studying how fluid boils and moves in micro-channels using a high-speed video camera. (Sponsored by Saturday Academy.)

• Latino Summer Camps – Kids in grades 3 through 12 are engaged in eye-opening experiences in environmental science, engineering, natural resources and technology. They’re meeting successful Latino professionals – hearing their personal stories and asking them questions. They’re learning about financial support for college-bound youth and how to access resources for higher education. (Sponsored by 4-H at OSU.)
• Newspaper Institute for Minority High School Students – Budding journalists of color are creating a print and online newspaper from start to finish, working with professionals in the field. They’re learning the value of making a difference by covering multiple perspectives in the news. (Co-hosted by OSU and The Oregonian and funded by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.)
• Young Entrepreneurs Business Week – High-schoolers are receiving college credit during this one-week camp that challenges them to set value-centered goals and discover their business potential. They are hearing from successful entrepreneurs and top executives. They are learning about financial literacy, teamwork, business plans and marketing. (Held in partnership with the Austin Entrepreneurship Program in the College of Business.)

Feel the soft skin of an octopus or the spiny texture of a sea urchin at the Visitor Center at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport.

Learn which native plants are adaptable for home landscaping and see drought-resistant and wheelchair accessible gardens at more than 17 locations managed by OSU-trained master gardeners.

View a colorful exhibit in the State Capitol Rotunda that reveals all the drama and tumult of Oregon’s geologic history.

Watch archaeologists literally dig in Oregon’s past at Champoeg State Park, Oregon’s first provincial capital, and at Civil War era Fort Yamhill.

With this interactive map, click on the dots, learn what you can do and begin making your plans. (NOTE: Best viewed in Firefox or Safari. Internet Explorer may not display content.)