(Photo: Karl Maasdam)

“A lot of people think you have to look like this to be a scientist!” says Professor Sujaya Rao, pointing at Einstein. A giggle ripples through the room.

Professor Rao is here to dispel that stereotype. An entomologist (bug scientist) who studies pollinators, like bumble bees and honey bees, as well as pests that damage crops, Rao wants young girls to know that science is wide open to them. That’s why she and other women at Oregon State University, students as well as professors, are devoting their Saturday to being role models and encouraging girls to consider careers in science and engineering.

About 120 girls from all over the state of Oregon participated in the annual science workshop for girls, Discovering the Scientist Within. “We collected information on schools and towns where they came from,” Rao reports. “Some came from Burns and Hines and Jewell and places I had never heard of!”

The discovery began with an engineering challenge: build a catapult. After teams of five or six girls had finished fashioning their catapults from wood and rubber bands, they tested their inventions by launching cotton balls as far as they could fly.

After that, the girls headed across campus to visit labs of their choice. At one lab, students learned about amphibians in the Northwest from graduate students Lindsey Thurman and Jennifer Rowe, a duo that calls itself “Women of Wildlife.”

First they gave a presentation about all sorts of frogs, newts and salamanders — including a weird video in which a bullfrog eats a poisonous newt and dies instantly from the poison, after which the newt triumphantly emerges from the dead bullfrog and walks away. Then the girls got to handle and feed the live amphibians living in lab.

(Photo: Karl Maasdam)

At another lab, the girls built and tested blades for a model wind turbine. They generated wind with a big fan, and then measured the voltage produced by their blades. Kari van Zee, who was leading the lab, helped them rethink their designs to produce more electricity.

Discovering the Scientist Within is sponsored by the OSU Provost’s Office, the SMILE Program, STEM Academy (formerly Saturday Academy), Scientists and Teachers in Education Partnerships, 4-H Youth Development, the Women’s Center, and Pre-college Programs.

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Read a story and see photos from the Discovering the Scientist Within workshop in the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

In Application of the Scientific Method Through Clinical Trials, students will learn the real world application of the scientific method by studying the process of clinical trials. Students will understand how drugs, treatments and medical devices are tested and evaluated for safety and effectiveness. They will ask well-defined questions, design an experiment and use critical thinking to analyze research situations. Students are asked to create a Mind Map graphic organizer for the clinical trials process.  Students will also explore the clinical trial process in an exciting Medopoly game.

Lesson plans are provided by the Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health (PEER) Program. Major funding for PEER  is provided by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health

Applicable Oregon science standards

This lesson plan applies to the following Oregon science education standards:

6.3 Scientific Inquiry: Scientific inquiry is the investigation of the natural world based on observation and science principles that includes proposing questions or hypotheses, and developing procedures for questioning, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting accurate and relevant data to produce justifiable evidence-based explanations.

6.3S.1 Based on observations and science principles, propose questions or hypotheses that can be examined through scientific investigation. Design and conduct an investigation that uses appropriate tools and techniques to collect relevant data.
6.3S.2 Organize and display relevant data, construct an evidence-based explanation of the results of an investigation, and communicate the conclusions.
6.3S.3 Explain why if more than one variable changes at the same time in an investigation, the outcome of the investigation may not be clearly attributable to any one variable.

7.3 Scientific Inquiry: Scientific inquiry is the investigation of the natural world based on observation and science principles that includes proposing questions or hypotheses, designing procedures for questioning, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting multiple forms of accurate and relevant data to produce justifiable evidence-based explanations.

7.3S.1 Based on observations and science principles, propose questions or hypotheses that can be examined through scientific investigation. Design and conduct a scientific investigation that uses appropriate tools and techniques to collect relevant data.
7.3S.2 Organize, display, and analyze relevant data, construct an evidence-based explanation of the results of an investigation, and communicate the conclusions including possible sources of error.
7.3S.3 Evaluate the validity of scientific explanations and conclusions based on the amount and quality of the evidence cited.

8.3 Scientific Inquiry: Scientific inquiry is the investigation of the natural world based on observations and science principles that includes proposing questions or hypotheses and designing procedures for questioning, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting multiple forms of accurate and relevant data to produce justifiable evidence-based explanations and new explorations.

8.3S.1 Based on observations and science principles, propose questions or hypotheses that can be examined through scientific investigation. Design and conduct a scientific investigation that uses appropriate tools, techniques, independent and dependent variables, and controls to collect relevant data.
8.3S.2 Organize, display, and analyze relevant data, construct an evidence-based explanation of the results of a scientific investigation, and communicate the conclusions including possible sources of error. Suggest new investigations based on analysis of results.
8.3S.3 Explain how scientific explanations and theories evolve as new information becomes available.

In a Paradigms class, OSU physicist Janet Tate works with students investigating the properties of oscillations. (Photo: Karl Maasdam)

At Oregon State University, advanced physics instruction has already made the transition. Ten years ago, Corinne Manogue and colleagues in the OSU Department of Physics overhauled their whole approach to teaching. They turned the focus from lecture to action, from professor to student, from rote learning to problem solving. They redesigned a classroom where students collaborate around tables and sketch and share ideas on small white boards. They concentrate on topics that are central to the understanding of subdisciplines (such as classical mechanics, optics or electromagnetism) normally treated in separate courses. They can shift from presentation to group discussion to lab in seconds. No lecture-style seating or time to rest for these physicists-to-be.

“Learning this way was extremely exciting,” wrote OSU graduate Ethan Bernard in 2003. “And I remember toying with the application of basis functions, vector fields and canonical ensembles to diverse things like taste, color, economics and evolution. I learned faster in Paradigms that at any other time in college.”

“To my knowledge, OSU is the only university in the country to do this overhaul in the upper division,” says Manogue. Begun in 1997 as a modest effort to accommodate students enrolled in engineering physics internships, the OSU reform initiative has received more than $1 million in National Science Foundation support, including a 2007 grant to write two new textbooks, to create a detailed Web site and to adapt abstract mathematical tools to specific circumstances in physics.

Since 1999, Manogue has presented the program, known as Paradigms in Physics, to educational conferences and to more than a dozen of the nation’s 760 degree-granting physics departments. Elements of the curriculum are being adapted at other universities such as Texas A&M and the University of Colorado.

Paradigms strives to give students a rich understanding of the many approaches that physicists take to problem solving. Power, says Manogue, comes with mastery of the tools that physicists have developed in concert with mathematicians and software engineers. So the Paradigms courses — three-week intensive classes that meet daily — revolve around ten fundmental topics (oscillations, central forces, one-dimensional waves, and periodic potentials, for example) and the equations, graphs, computer visualizations and narratives that define those topics.

“Typically, students get exposed to a topic once in an advanced course,” says Manogue. “They either get it or they don’t. But that’s not the way a lot of people learn. They learn by doing things over and over again in different contexts.”

In a typical junior-level class, Manogue poses a problem and asks students to discuss it, to define it in mathematical terms and to describe the solution in words. As students talk, she stops to listen at each table and asks leading questions, challenging students on their choices of words or equations. Whether dealing with the oscillations of a string, an electromagnetic charge in space or the forces that affect planets as they revolve around the sun, students are encouraged to think like physicists.

In the senior year, students use many of the same tools to explore more advanced topics in subjects such as quantum me-chanics or electromagnetism. By building on what they learned in the previous year, they reinforce their knowledge and gain confidence.

“About mid-year, they start saying things like, ’I’m starting to understand what it means to be a physicist,’” says Manogue. “Or what it means to solve physics problems. It’s almost like they were undergoing a phase transition, where they just start thinking differently.”

Manogue suspects that the changes in learning stem from the philosophy of active engagement, but pinpointing which methods are critical takes systematic assessment. In 2007, the department hired Assistant Professor Dedra Demaree to lead physics education research and bring these active engagement ideas to the large-enrollment introductory courses.

And the department’s home in Weniger Hall is scheduled to receive an upgrade in its classroom facilities in the near future. In rooms now equipped with standard lecture-style seating, the department is working with Peter Saunders in OSU’s Center for Teaching and Learning and the Classroom Renovation Committee to incorporate designs that can accommodate more active learning approaches.

Learn more about OSU’s Paradigms in Physics program at physics.oregonstate.edu/paradigms

The Great Wave A tsunami races through the ocean deep at jet-aircraft speed. Approaching the shore, it can crest to more than 100 feet, hitting coastal areas with devastating force. In this package of lessons and activities, students will learn what causes a tsunami, the physics behind its movement, and how scientists know when one is forming. They can also study its impact on a model town, view tsunami-resistant house designs and learn about a 10-year-old girl credited with saving dozens of lives when a tsunami struck Samoa.

These lessons, drawn from UNESCO and Discovery Education materials, are available on the eGFI website.

Applicable Oregon science standards

This lesson plan applies to the following Oregon science education standards:

6.3 Scientific Inquiry: Scientific inquiry is the investigation of the natural world based on observation and science principles that includes proposing questions or hypotheses, and developing procedures for questioning, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting accurate and relevant data to produce justifiable evidence-based explanations.

6.4 Engineering Design: Engineering design is a process of identifying needs, defining problems, developing solutions, and evaluating proposed solutions.

7.2 Interaction and Change: The components and processes within a system interact.

7.3 Scientific Inquiry: Scientific inquiry is the investigation of the natural world based on observation and science principles that includes proposing questions or hypotheses, designing procedures for questioning, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting multiple forms of accurate and relevant data to produce justifiable evidence-based explanations.

7.4 Engineering Design: Engineering design is a process of identifying needs, defining problems, identifying constraints, developing solutions, and evaluating proposed solutions. 8.2 Interaction and Change: Systems interact with other systems.

8.3 Scientific Inquiry: Scientific inquiry is the investigation of the natural world based on observations and science principles that includes proposing questions or hypotheses and designing procedures for questioning, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting multiple forms of accurate and relevant data to produce justifiable evidence-based explanations and new explorations.

8.4 Engineering Design: Engineering design is a process of identifying needs, defining problems, identifying design criteria and constraints, developing solutions, and evaluating proposed solutions.

The experiment is taking place at Oregon State University in a special laboratory equipped with huge wave machines. When a strong earthquake shakes the Earth beneath the ocean, it can cause a giant wave called a tsunami. These giant waves can travel for hundreds of miles across the ocean.

An undersea earthquake triggers a tsunami.

When a powerful tsunami reaches the shore, it can wash away anything in its path. Boats, cars, roads, bridges and buildings can get picked up and carried off.

To help people prepare for these destructive waves, scientists at OSU are studying their incredible strength. If scientists like Professor Harry Yeh can discover how much force the waves carry when they come ashore and crash into buildings, they can help builders, engineers and architects to design stronger offices, stores and houses.

“Strong buildings can stand up to a tsunami,” says Professor Yeh, who is one of the world’s top experts on tsunamis. “We have to figure out the best way to do it.”

The scientists conduct their experiments in OSU’s Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory, one of the largest wave labs in the world. In the lab, there is a very long, narrow tank made out of cement. The tank, which holds 300,000 gallons of water, is kind of like a flume at a water park. Scientists can create waves in the tank and then calculate the strength of the waves.

Simulated tsunamis crash into scale model buildings at OSU's O.H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab, the nation's largest tsunami test facility. Engineers have run tests with the Oregon coastal communities of Seaside and Cannon Beach (Photo: Frank Miller)

“Tsunamis are very difficult to measure in the real world because they don’t happen very often and when they do, they happen very fast,” says Alicia Lyman-Holt, who organizes tours of the wave lab for students and other visitors. “That’s why scientists use models to study them. Models are a substitute for direct observation.” These experiments will help make people safer the next time a tsunami happens.
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Arrange for school tours of the Hinsdale Wave Research Lab here.

See tsunami wave tests in action at OSU’s Hinsdale Wave Research Lab in a video produced by the National Science Foundation.

Kathryn Ciechanowski is helping kids learn English by blending language instruction into science and social studies lessons. (Photo: Karl Maasdam)

Something about César Chávez grabbed Gabriel’s imagination and wouldn’t let go.

The shy third-grader from Mexico exhibited an uncharacteristic boldness when studying Chávez, the famed champion of farm-worker rights. He became so engaged — so eager to discuss his newfound hero — that he lost his usual discomfort with English. Gabriel’s sudden loquaciousness fascinated his classroom teacher at Corvallis’ Lincoln K-12 School.

“He doesn’t even notice he’s using English,” observes Kinsey Martin. “He’s more confident and willing to take risks with the language because he loves César Chávez and wants to talk about him.”

Others saw the change, too. “At first, he felt anxious about trying,” says ELL (English Language Learner) specialist Holly Berman. “Then one day he blurted, ‘Teacher! I’m learning English!’” She laughs at the recollection. “It just killed me.”

A year-long OSU study suggests that non-native speakers like Gabriel do best when English skills are embedded in content areas instead of taught separately. Kathryn Ciechanowski, assistant professor in the College of Education, led the investigation, which wove linguistic concepts into science and social studies as well as language arts. These building blocks of communication were reinforced over and over across the curriculum.
“The students had seamless days of instruction,” says Ciechanowski. “They focused on particular language forms and functions — such as modal or past-tense verbs — across a wide range of contexts.”

Lessons on –ly adverbs, for example, were folded into a unit on rocks and minerals. Before doing a chemical experiment with calcite and acetic acid, third-graders wrote captions for pictures of scientists pouring liquid onto a rock. The assignment was to describe the scientists’ actions using –ly words. “Slowly,” “nicely” and “quietly” were common choices. Students then performed the experiment themselves, drizzling vinegar onto chunks of calcite and recording their observations. During the lesson, the teachers emphasized the precise nature of science, as captured by –ly words brainstormed by the students. By lesson’s end, several students’ lexicon had expanded dramatically. Sammy, for instance, crafted the scholarly phrase “observing the acid closely” on his post-test. Alonso penned this poetic observation: “The geologist is peacefully writing what’s inside the cup and thoughtfully leaving it alone.”

Martin was astonished by the students’ zeal. “They were freakishly excited to learn,” she reports.

Language lessons also crossed traditional placement boundaries. Rather than pulling kids out for separate English instruction — the usual approach — specialists worked with students in their regular classroom. This “push-in” model avoids the stigma and disruption of pull-outs. It also steeps students in academic lingo, essential as they move into middle school. Mastery of “school” language always lags behind mastery of “street” language, the everyday vocabulary of home and neighborhood, which children typically pick up quickly.
Ciechanowski’s preliminary results reveal strong gains in science and moderate gains in social studies. She attributes the disparity between science and social studies to the more abstract nature of topics like immigration, social justice and community activism and to the subtlety of certain linguistic distinctions tackled in class, such as “few” versus “some” and “many” versus “most.”

The study was funded by the Oregon Department of Education.

For more about the study, see this OSU news release:

OSU researcher helping blend language development into social studies, science lessons, May 14, 2009

To support education research at OSU, contact the Oregon State University Foundation.

Kevin Ahern writes one or two new "metabolic melodies" every term. He has inspired comments from students as far away as Ukraine and Croatia. (Photo: Karl Maasdam)

Like most teachers, Kevin Ahern savors the smile on his students’ faces when they suddenly get it. He remembers having those bright “ah hah” moments in school only too well.

But Ahern, who teaches introductory and advanced biochemistry classes to many of Oregon State University’s pre-med students, has another reason for wanting to drive science into his students’ minds. “These kids will be treating me sometime. I don’t want to have one of them as my physician and think, ‘oh man, you got a D in my biochemistry class.’”

Ahern’s own expertise is in viruses, and he holds a patent for a laboratory technique called “boomerang DNA amplification.” He has written regular columns for Science magazine and other publications and directs OSU’s annual Howard Hughes Medical Institute summer research program. But it’s his unusual teaching style that has earned him a reputation among students at OSU and even among distance-learners in Europe and Asia.

Despite admitting that he can’t carry a tune, he composes and sings his own “metabolic melodies” to make a memorable point. At the end of class or in the middle of a lecture, Ahern will break into songs like “B-DNA” (to “YMCA”), “Glucagon is Coming Around” (to “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”) and “When Acids are Synthesized” (to “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”).

Posted on YouTube

His copyrighted compositions have been recorded by students (listen to “We All Need Just a Little ATP” and “The Ribosome“) and professional singers, including Corvallis musicians Neal and Barbara Gladstone. Versions have been posted on YouTube and are available free at http://www.davincipress.com/metabmelodies.html.

A self-described ham who loves melodies, Ahern breaks into an off-key number at unexpected times in his classroom. And the reaction from his students? “You just saw this look that went across the crowd, ‘look, he’s gone nuts,’” he says. But they laugh and applaud and have told him later that the catchy tunes help them to remember arcane facts.

Whether his students go on to the Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland (where OSU contributes a large share of entering classes) or hold policy-making positions in state or federal agencies, Ahern wants them to be well-equipped. It’s not just for technical proficiency. Inevitably, whether as physicians, administrators or policymakers, they will have to deal with controversial topics such as genetic engineering, animal cloning or nanomedicine. He wants their opinions to be grounded in facts.

These topics may generate varying points of view among students, but Ahern gives his graduates the ability to do more than work in a laboratory. “They need to talk the talk, and they need to understand the language,” he says. “I think my songs tap a musical part of the brain and help them do that.”

For his source of inspiration, Ahern credits a gifted math teacher in Fowler, Illinois (population 200) where he grew up. To hear him tell it, young Kevin had gotten in with the wrong crowd at school. He wasn’t doing the work he was capable of, and his parents were exasperated. His math teacher did something that no one else had done: He explained the meaning of the equal sign. “It resonated with me in a way that is difficult to describe. I never had to study for another math class in my life.”

Kevin Ahern sings one of his “metabolic melodies” in this podcast with Celene Carillo, OSU Web Communications.

A list of Ahern’s songs from “Biochemistry Pie” to “I’m a Little Mitochondrion” is here.

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.)

Illustration by Scott Laumann

High school today is startlingly like it was in the days of “Grease.” Kids may be wearing low-rise jeans and nose rings instead of poodle skirts and letterman sweaters, but their path to a diploma looks and feels much like their parents’ — or their grandparents’.

For many students, the old ways aren’t working. Low achievement scores and high dropout rates are epidemic, especially among disadvantaged groups. To help schools reinvent themselves, OSU is collaborating with the Portland-based nonprofit Employers for Education Excellence (E3) to study schools that have broken the mold. Founded by the Oregon Business Council, E3 is funding the research with a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

To find out how some schools create novel approaches despite cumbersome policies and long-cherished practices, researchers Michael Dalton and Molly Knott in the College of Education have interviewed nearly 60 educators in more than 20 innovative schools statewide — from rural to urban, suburban to “micropolitan.” Innovation, they have discovered, doesn’t hinge on big budgets or affluent parents or even school size. Rather, it springs from a mindset.

“Innovative schools have changed the way they think about the here and now,” says Dalton, a professor and assistant to the dean for program and research development. “They think bigger.”

He and Knott call this mindset the “Big Here” and the “Long Now.” Resources expand dramatically when “here” doesn’t mean only what’s inside the schoolhouse walls, but embraces the entire community. Kids are better served when “now” doesn’t mean the current school year, but stretches across the entire learning continuum.

“High school shouldn’t be just a box on an org chart,” says Knott. “A bigger here involves softening the edges of the box and creating partnerships. A longer now means expanding the present tense, both forward and backward.”

Bigger thinking lets schools move from a “scarcity” perspective to an “abundance” perspective. Within the overlapping edges of systems (ranging from classrooms to subject areas to whole institutions), schools have access to a wealth of new resources. Borrowing the lingo of ecology, Dalton and Knott call these fertile overlaps “transition zones” — rich, diverse, teeming with possibility.

E3 is offering professional development for Oregon schools based on the findings. But as the researchers caution, true innovation doesn’t follow a recipe. It bubbles up from the unique needs and particular goals of each school. “Invention doesn’t come from a handbook — do X,Y and Z,” says Knott. “It comes from a new way of thinking.”

Undergrads in the Lab

Undergraduate researchers Janelle Quest and Kathryn Cellerini have been working shoulder-to-shoulder with their professor Jennifer Connor-Smith to identify and isolate the factors that influence adolescent stress management.

Read more…

Middle schools are roiling cauldrons of stress. As if acne, algebra, orthodontia and runaway hormones weren’t tough enough, young teens also face intense pressure to be liked.

For sixth-graders in Benton County, broken friendships and hurtful rumors hold more dread than bad grades or angry parents, researchers at OSU have learned.

“Middle school is a scary place,” says Jennifer Connor-Smith, a psychology professor who is leading a three-year study on adolescent coping strategies.

Her assessment is not just professional — it’s also personal. She admits to having been an adolescent “stress case” herself. As an undersized child with an oversized intellect, Jennifer Connor had skipped second grade. The straight As she earned in math never eased the social discomfort she felt among her older, bigger classmates. The fear that “nobody would like this short little pipsqueak” only got worse as she headed off to junior high in Littleton, Colorado.

The memory of that grinding anxiety has motivated her research, even as a doctoral candidate at the University of Vermont and as a post-doc at UCLA. Her current study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, delves into the causal links between personality type and coping strategies. How, she wondered, does temperament interact with various ways of handling stress to predict outcomes for adolescents? Why do some kids glide through stressful situations emotionally unscathed, while others lash out aggressively — or sink into depression?

If social scientists could discover what kinds of strategies work best for which kinds of kids, Connor-Smith reasoned, school counselors and clinical psychologists could more effectively teach coping skills to children struggling with anxiety, depression or aggression, customizing the intervention for each child’s unique makeup. Tailored therapies are certain to work better than generic ones, she says, to prevent the depression, drug use, school failure and violence that can derail the lives of troubled teens. Helping kids manage the often wrenching transition from elementary to middle school can give them a big leg-up, socially, academically and emotionally.

“For boys, middle school is a little bit like Lord of the Flies.”
Jennifer Connor-Smith
Assistant Professor, Psychology

To figure out how stress and personality interact, the researchers began by gathering data about “social stressors” (difficult interactions with peers) and “life stressors” (academic and domestic problems) from about 400 students at middle schools in Philomath and Corvallis, Oregon. The questionnaires also probed emotional, behavioral and coping issues. A 150-student subset of that group was then brought to the OSU psychology lab for individual testing. Connor-Smith has trained a cadre of undergraduate researchers (see sidebar) to administer a set of “standardized stressors” — for example, having the child solve a math problem aloud and give an impromptu soliloquy about friendship in front of a video camera. To measure the subject’s level of “involuntary stress reactivity,” the team used electronic monitors and sensors to track heart rate, blood pressure, and skin moisture. Finally, each subject was videotaped during an eight-minute interaction with a parent.

Although the data are still being crunched, a couple of early findings have emerged. First, a child who tends to be anxious — one whose heart rate and blood pressure spike in times of stress — needs to use different coping skills than a more easy-going child. “When your heart is pounding, your thoughts are racing, and you feel sick to your stomach, that’s not the time to try to reason through what you’re going to do,” Connor-Smith concludes. “That’s the time to pull back and get yourself together before you step forward to do some problem-solving.”

Behavior that typically is viewed as a failure to cope — disengagement, avoidance, denial — can actually benefit highly anxious people, she says, as long as they follow through with more active strategies after they calm down.

Second, the study suggests that coping skills are gender sensitive. Strategies that work well for girls, the researchers have found, can backfire for boys. A sixth-grade girl who seeks social support — who goes to her girlfriends and says, “I’m sad, Ashley hurt my feelings” — is likely to get nurturance and support. But a sixth-grade boy who says, “You hurt my feelings” risks getting teased and laughed at.

After watching kids talk about their problems on hours and hours of videotape, Connor-Smith saw two clear sets of rules. “The girls talk a lot about feelings and about their network of alliances — how Ashley told Caitlin that Savannah was upset with Lindsay because Lindsay told Caitlin,” she reports. “You almost have to diagram it.” Adolescent boys, on the other hand — despite growing tolerance for “sensitive” males in the broader society — tend to keep their feelings to themselves. Thus, a sixth-grade boy who’s upset is unlikely to reveal his pain to his peers. And while he may shrug it off — “It didn’t bother me; I’m cool” — such bravado may mask unresolved feelings that can fester or erupt.

“For boys,” Connor-Smith observes wryly, “middle school is a little bit like Lord of the Flies.”

Her data also show that when parents model warmth and empathy, their kids handle stress better. Supporting the child’s autonomy is also critical. “Children do best when parents encourage them to think for themselves and to draw their own conclusions about what they should do next, rather than issuing edicts,” says Connor-Smith, adding, “Thank goodness my mom did this for me, or I may never have survived junior high.”

So far, the findings support the professor’s hypothesis that when it comes to stress management, “One size does not fit all.” Her hope is that the study can guide new approaches to coping-skills interventions and improve mental health for middle schoolers at this intensely vulnerable, enormously formative time in their lives.

As part of a cadre of research assistants in OSU’s Department of Psychology, they are getting the kind of nuts-and-bolts experience in social science that typically comes along only for graduate students. They are helping to design questionnaires and “protocols” for observing and rating kids’ behaviors, interviewing students and their parents, measuring physiological responses to stress in the laboratory, and collecting and analyzing data.

“Working in the lab has given me a chance to really understand what goes into developing the knowledge base in psychology,” says Quest, who started college as an engineering major. “It’s given me a whole new perspective on my education because I’m taking an active part in what I’m learning, compared to cramming for a midterm and then forgetting everything afterward.”

Cellerini, who entered OSU in pre-med before switching to psychology, says her strong science background has been a big plus. “Genetics and chemistry are really helpful in psychology,” she says.

This work has helped both young women solidify their career goals. Quest (who completed her degree requirements last spring) rounds out the 30 hours she spends in the psych lab each week with a graveyard shift at the Children’s Farm Home, where she works as a treatment specialist for troubled youths. A Northwesterner born in Anchorage and raised in Eugene, Quest plans to counsel children and families after earning her Ph.D. in clinical psychology. “I want to make a difference,” she says. “Working with younger kids is best — the earlier, the better.”

Cellerini, an Oregonian from the rural community of Colton, also aspires to a doctorate in clinical psychology, with an emphasis in child development. “I feel that I’m at my best,” she says, “when I’m working with kids.”