DiscoverE | 2011-12

Energy Generation » p4

Seeing red, feeling red » p 8

Restoring the past » p 10

Making a Connection » p 14

Standout research » p 18

2011

Friends, Welcome to our second edition of Eastern Washington University’s DiscoverE magazine!

I am excited to share this annual research publication, which fulfills EWU’s commitment to educating our community supporters about the meaningful work conducted by our faculty.

It has always been the mission of this university to provide a first-class education to students, but it is equally important for us to be engaged in critical research that seeks to answer questions that concern the region and state. Eastern faculty are continuously exploring, creating and testing new and innovative ideas they can bring to the classroom.

As you will see in the 2011 issue of DiscoverE, the efforts of our professors – and their bright students – touch critical issues involving the environment and the elderly. There is even a red hot study on school pride.

The cover story focuses on how Eastern is making a difference in the renewable energy field, which is a big part of all future economic development discussion. You will learn how our education and engineering professors are collaborating to introduce a new generation of students and teachers to this important field, putting EWU way ahead of the game.

This edition also profiles how EWU researchers have dedicated so much time to repairing fisheries and ecosystems along the upper Columbia River.

Making key connections in the communities the university serves is a huge priority of mine. That is why I am also excited for you to read how Eastern graduate students are making a positive connection with those suffering from dementia.

No doubt you have heard a lot over the past year about the red turf at Roos Field and the success of the EWU football team. Two EWU marketing professors go beyond the football field and share their research on how the turf has actually brightened the image of the entire campus.

Once again, DiscoverE will take you inside the annual Student Research & Creative Works Symposium, which gives hundreds of EWU students valuable learning opportunities before embarking on their careers. Inside these pages, you will also find an update on the grants awarded to the university over the past year, and a nice sampling of books recently published by EWU faculty.

Eastern is committed to more than just student preparation – we challenge students and faculty to be engaged in research and creative activities that result in new, innovative ideas in their respective fields.

This publication exemplifies those efforts, and we welcome your comments and encourage discussion with our expert faculty.

Dr. Rodolfo Arévalo, President

Contact Us

2011 -12 | Volume 2, No. 1 DiscoverE, the research magazine for Eastern Washington University, is published annually by the office of Graduate Education & Research and EWU Marketing & Communications.

Art direction, graphic design and photography provided by eLearning Services, EWU Office of Information Technology.

DiscoverE Magazine, Eastern Washington University 300 Showalter Hall, Cheney, WA 99004-2445 Email: DiscoverEmagazine@ewu.edu Phone: 509.359.6422 Website: www.ewu.edu/DiscoverE

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EWU education and engineering professors partner to introduce a new generation of teachers and students to the science behind renewable energy.

Eastern researchers dedicate decades to repairing fisheries and ecosystems in the Northwest.

Energy Generation

Restoring the Past

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Rodger Hauge gives a hands-on lesson in energy education to Deer Park, Wash., elementary students.

Making a Connection Communication disorders students help bridge the memory gap for patients with dementia.

SECTIONS

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Seeing Red, Feeling Red Benefits of “The Inferno� reach far beyond the football field.

EWU Marketing professors Vincent Pascal and Damon Aiken pose on Eastern's red turf, which made for an intriguing subject matter in their latest study.

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Research News of Note Creative Collateral Standout Research Book Shelf Grants By the Numbers

Discover E Magazine Staff Teresa Conway Director of Marketing & Communications Judy McMillan Supervisor of eLearning Services: Graphics & Photography

Ronald Dalla, PhD Managing Editor Bart Mihailovich, Ryan Lancaster, Cheryl-Anne Millsap Contributing Writers Kandi Carper, Teresa Conway Copy Editors

Nick Brown Art Direction/Graphic Design

Larry Conboy, John Demke Photography

research news of note

EWU’s Institute Provides Analytical Information and Trends for Grant County Eastern Washington University’s Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis launched its sixth Community Indicators project in November 2010, with the launch of the Grant County Trends website, www.grantcountytrends.org.

Under its Community Indicators Initiative, the institute has created similar data-based websites for five other counties in the state of Washington. Each website serves as a databank, which provides analytical information on relevant community topics. The Grant County project includes more than 140 key indicators for nine categories: people, agriculture, economic vitality, education, environment and land use, health, housing and transportation, public safety, and recreation and tourism.

Patrick Jones, the director of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis, explained that by providing relevant data in an easy-to-navigate website, the project seeks to improve public decision making and policy on the local level. “This website will give communities in Grant County a way to assess how they are doing in key quality of life areas,” said Jones. Jones added that what makes this project especially valuable is that community leaders from Grant County decided what information should be included on the website.

The Grant County Trends project is a collaboration between the Institute and community leaders in Grant County, including the Economic Development Council. The development of the website was funded by a federal appropriation from the U.S. Congress, overseen by the Small Business Administration.

SeaPerch – Small Research Project Makes a Big Impact There’s no better way for middle school students to learn about science, teaching, engineering and math – STEM for short – than to get their hands wet in an exciting underwater robotics competition, SeaPerch.

The SeaPerch program is sponsored by the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research. The program was made possible with a grant from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, received by William Persons, an engineering student at Eastern Washington University.

While SeaPerch is a popular program in the eastern United States, this was the first one held in the Inland Northwest. Students from five local middle schools competed in the SeaPerch underwater robotics obstacle course, May 21, 2011, at Eastern’s Aquatics Center on the Cheney campus.

SeaPerch is an inventive robotics program, which trains educators to teach their students how to build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). Students build the ROV from a kit made up of inexpensive, easily accessible parts, and during the process of building their ROV, students learn to read manuals, follow directions, utilize mathematic skills, troubleshoot problems, and test and participate in launching their vehicles. They learn basic engineering and science concepts with a marine theme. The students are also exposed to a myriad of exciting careers, which are possible in naval, ocean and marine engineering.

The goal of the competition is to reward sportsmanship, spirit and presentation skills, as well as mastery of the concepts.

For more information go to www.seaperch.org.

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Access to EWU Libraries’ Digital Collections Expanded Eastern Washington University Libraries is one of six institutions to participate in a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant to expand access to archival digital collections.

The Orbis Cascade Alliance’s Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA) program has received a $137,756 grant to reformat finding aids for archival collections using Encoded Archival Description, and to add them to NWDA’s database at http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/index.shtml.

NWDA offers enhanced access to archival collections in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Montana.

Participating institutions were selected, in part, based on the historic significance of their archival collections. Finding aids for 16 archival collections at EWU Libraries, including collections related to the World Expo ‘74, construction of the Grand Coulee Dam and women’s history in the Inland Northwest, will be included in the grant project.

The end results will be expanded access to each participant’s collection, skill building and revisions to descriptive practices and processing workflows that will continue this level of access to their collections in the future. The project will be completed in June 2012.

Student Researchers Recognized Alixandria Blake and Christopher Signer, undergraduate students, received the first EWU Libraries National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) Award for their outstanding research. Richard Wilson, dean of Libraries at Eastern, presented the awards, March 15, 2011.

Blake, a biology major from Reardan, Wash., was honored for her food habit study of the walleye fish in Lake Roosevelt using a methodology called bioenergetic modeling. Allan Scholz, PhD, professor of biology, was her project mentor.

Signer, a chemistry major from Spokane, was recognized for his project using computational modeling to predict the absorption of carbon dioxide by a new class of porous materials. Signer’s project mentor is Yao A. Houndonougbo, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

Blake and Signer received cash awards, along with funding to travel to the annual NCUR conference, where they presented their research projects. This year’s conference was held March 31April 2, in Ithaca, N.Y. The EWU Libraries NCUR Award was created to recognize and encourage student research and creative projects that incorporate library resources. Twenty-nine projects by Eastern students were selected to present at the 2011 NCUR conference. Only EWU students selected to present at the NCUR conference were eligible to apply for the EWU Libraries NCUR Award.

The award recipients were selected by a panel of librarians who assessed overall merit of the applications based on incorporation of library resources into the research or creative project. This year’s panel included Library Instruction Coordinator Ielleen Miller, Outreach Librarian Rayette Sterling and Associate Dean of Libraries Julie Miller.

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Energy generation

EWU education and engineering professors partner to introduce a new generation of teachers and students to the science behind renewable energy.

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by Ryan Lancaster

Wind, solar and fuel cell technology are three of today’s fastest growing energy sectors, but their future viability might rely on another form of renewable energy now being generated in rural classrooms across the Inland Northwest – excitement.

For the past three years, Eastern Washington University education Professor Rodger Hauge and engineering Professor Jeff Donnerberg have traveled to Deer Park, Reardan, Inchellium and several other rural school districts in Washington to spark new interest in the potential of renewable energies. Using winddriven water pumps and sun-powered model cars, boats and water heaters, they give students a hands-on look at science in action.

Teachers meanwhile get the materials and training necessary to construct their own renewable energy curriculums, keeping kids engaged long after Hauge and Donnerberg have left the building.

It’s a program born out of Hauge’s frustration that the inquiry process is too often left out of science instruction. In 2008, he decided to do something about it, enlisting Donnerberg’s expertise to build an elasticity model that fifth- and sixth-graders could use to test and document the elasticity of different materials. After introducing the device to a handful of area schools, Hauge said their state science testing scores jumped an average of eight points.

The two took those results to the annual National Science Teachers Association Conference in Portland, where they learned about KidWind, a Minnesota company that manufactures model wind machines, solar boats and cars. Kits were purchased under a three-year state math and science partnership grant between EWU, Washington State University and Educational Service District 101, and the Renewable Energy Education Program was set in motion.

Hauge said he and Donnerberg have tailored their lessons to suit each grade level. When they visit a third- or fourth-grade class they’ll bring along a few solar hot water heaters to illustrate how the sun’s rays can be converted into raw energy. Fifth- and sixth-grade students typically work with model wind machines or on building their own wind-powered water pumps, while sixthand seventh-graders might construct and race their own solar cars or boats.

The lessons become more investigational as students’ age and understanding increases, Hauge said. For example, high school students might be tasked with crafting balsawood blades for wind turbines. They test their creations in front of a fan, chart the performance and then modify the shape and number of blades to improve efficiency. “They perfect what kind of design will work best under a given set of circumstances.” Hauge said.

“This is the same process that all scientists and engineers go through to prove concepts.”

And the program isn’t just increasing students’ science test scores, it’s also changing minds about renewable energy. “For the first time in many cases they are seeing a whole new technology and they’re getting to be a part of it,” Hauge said, pointing to the

EWU Professors Hauge and Donnerberg guide rural elementary school students through a hands-on, renewable energy lab.

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Davenport School District, where the superintendent is now looking to install solar panels at the middle school.

He also mentioned the Freeman District, where teachers and students were “a little unprepared” when he and Donnerberg first walked in three years ago. Although Freeman teachers were trained in the program’s basic concepts, Hauge said they seemed uncertain of how their students would respond.

But a visit last year revealed an entirely different environment, where the kids knew what to do because the more experienced teachers were able to get them ready ahead of time.

During that visit, Hauge and Donnerberg took a couple of classes outside to work with solar water heaters and a wind farm set up to run a water pump. “Two kids tugged on my jacket and asked if they could put a solar car together,” Hauge said. “I didn’t have time to help them, Jeff didn’t have time to help them – we had close to 60 kids out there, so I gave them the kit and forgot about it.” Half an hour later the fifthgraders came back to show Hauge what they’d done without any direction. “The car was put together and running,” Hauge explained. “This is a fuel cell car, powered by hydrogen. It was really cool.”

classroom has a real potential to benefit their communities.

One class project, for instance, has kids work through their local power companies to organize a light bulb exchange, where compact fluorescents are swapped for more efficient incandescent bulbs. Students help install them and report back a few months later with calculations on how much users saved on their bill with the new bulbs.

“When you start educating kids at a younger age and they get more exposure to these ideas, it opens their eyes to the potential of alternative energy,” said Cameron Burns, a 2009 EWU graduate, and one of Hauge’s former students, who now teaches junior/senior high school science in the town of Oakesdale, Wash.

Burns said right now the local community is on the fence concerning the viability of renewables, but a shift in perspective may be on the way with the Palouse Wind Project – an effort to construct 65 wind turbines that will generate up to 195 megawatts of electricity in 2012, enough to power more than 25,000 area homes.

In the meantime, Burns is incorporating the Renewable Energy Education Program into the district’s new science curriculum, which he’s in the process of creating from the ground up. So far, he’s seen a big interest from his students and “When you start educating kids at a younger age believes their excitement will grow with and they get more exposure to these ideas, it opens more instruction. He said someday he’d like to see high school students who have grown their eyes to the potential of alternative energy,” up constructing model solar cars apply their • Cameron Burns knowledge in a capstone project, such as 2009 EWU graduate and a former student of Professor Hauge building a full-size sun-powered vehicle.

One project that has captured his students’ attention this year requires them Bonnie Remington, principal of Arcadia Elementary in to use insulated foam, a propeller and a 1.3 volt solar cell to the Deer Park School District, said the kids pick up on Hauge’s build solar-powered boats that they race the length of a water passion for science whenever he visits the school. “In teachtrough. The kids experiment with shape, voltage and propeling the fifth-graders about wind turbines and reusable energy, ler position to try and make the fastest model possible, taking Rodger had them in the palms of his hands,” she said. “He got into account variables like wind and buoyancy. so excited in telling them about the facts of alternative energy “The kids love this,” Burns said. “Some of them come in at that there wasn’t a peep out of them and they followed every lunch to work on their boats. It sort of tricks them into learnmove he made in the multipurpose room, teaching them the ing without knowing it.” basics of the wind turbines.”

Since the Renewable Energy Education Program’s threeLearning the basics of alternative energy is especially year grant has now run dry, Hauge and Donnerberg are worksignificant in rural areas like Deer Park, Remington said, ing largely on their own time to keep the program operational where many kids are involved in family farm operations. “Any while searching out sustainable funding opportunities for type of assistance with energy use to help with the watering its future. They’re also in the process of initiating a demonof the crops, or the animals, creates an extreme interest from stration site for alternative energy on the EWU campus (see them,” she said. sidebar story), which Donnerberg said would be available to Hauge and Donnerberg try to cultivate that understandelementary and secondary students as well as those enrolled ing in students – the renewable energy they’re studying in the at the university.

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As with funding for any renewable energy initiative, Hauge said interest has so far come at a measured pace. “Everybody wants a piece of it but they don’t want a huge piece, they don’t want to fund the whole thing, so you have to get everybody together,” he said.

“This is an important thing for our future, but people want it to be right.”

Exactly why it’s important to teach younger generations about renewable energy is a question with many answers, Hauge said, citing everything from our nation’s archaic power grid to a lingering dependence on foreign oil. If young students are given a better understanding of how more efficient technologies can solve these issues, he believes they’ll have a head start on building a brighter future.

“The energy – the human energy – that it takes to make this revolution happen is extraordinarily beneficial,” Hauge said. “It produces more scientists, it produces more engineers and through that, it produces more innovation and a better quality of life for us all. This is the kind of energy that we’re trying to put into this.” •

Professor Rodger Hauge demonstrates alternative wind energy to Arcadia Elementary students in Deer Park.

EWU Alternative Energy Education Demonstration Site Eastern Washington University might soon become the regional epicenter of alternative energy education, with a state-of-the-art demonstration site.

While still in the concept stage, the site plan features a hybrid of ideas from education professor Rodger Hauge and engineering professor Jeff Donnerberg. Donnerberg said the facility will provide research opportunities for Eastern’s engineering students while serving as a place for K-12 education students to learn renewable energy instruction.

They envision a small classroom structure that contains an engineering lab equipped with user-friendly data kiosks and the latest sustainable building features where students can explore solar installations, a wind turbine and a fuel cell.

“We’re going to put a variety of things in place and have students be able to compare these things on age-appropriate levels,” Hauge said. “There will be a whole bunch of processes available and they’re all hooked through internet connections. Kids will get wrapped up in that real fast.”

But university students wouldn’t be the only ones to benefit. The demonstration site would also be open for fieldtrips by area schoolchildren, grades 3-12, who could take advantage of a mini-solar car raceway, solar boat troughs and an activity pad where they might run their own experiments.

“It would give kids an experience of what college is like,” Donnerberg said.

The university has committed resources for the initial site preparation, and Hauge said funding is being lined up through the Bonneville Environmental Foundation as well as from a number of public and private grants. One big ticket item – a fuel cell – was recently donated to the project, and Hauge is hoping to see a workable solar power system in place and kids on the ground by spring of 2012.

The overall concept is expandable, and Hauge has big ideas of where it might eventually lead.

“I’d like to see solar cars here. I’d like to see electric vehicles that were charged by the sun. I’d like to see us generate our own power, but you’ve got to walk before you fly,” he said. • For more information on how to contribute to the Alternative Energy Education Demonstration Site Project, please contact Tim Szymanowski, Director of Development, at 509.359.6132 or tszyman@ewu.edu.

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Seeing Red | Feeling Red

by Teresa Conway

EWU Marketing Professors Vincent Pascal and Damon Aiken stand at the 50-yard line on the Sprinturf at Roos Field.

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Benefits Of “The Inferno” Reach Far Beyond The Football Field When Eastern Washington University began digging up its natural grass football field in favor of a red synthetic turf, opponents of the idea were quick to weigh in on potentially negative aspects of such an endeavor. But, a new study by two EWU marketing professors shows the turf has won over a lot of fans and improved the image of the entire university along the way.

From the moment the red turf was installed at Roos Field on the Cheney campus, EWU professors of marketing Damon Aiken and Vincent Pascal, who specialize in sports marketing and advertising, respectively, knew they had a unique research opportunity on their hands. Could something as simple as a color impact the way people feel?

Boise State University (BSU) installed the first colored (blue) playing surface in the United States. Interestingly, since 1986, the BSU Broncos are the nation’s winningest collegiate football team with a record of 108-20. At EWU, the red turf, referred to as “The Inferno,” has proven to be equally promising as the Eagles have yet to lose a game on this surface (as of August 2011), and were crowned the 2010 NCAA Division I Football National Champions (a first in school history).

Of course, a multitude of questions arise when assessing the new colored playing surfaces. For instance, what role does color theory play in the evaluation of these new surfaces compared to the traditional green playing surfaces? How far might these colorizing effects go in influencing fans’ experiences? Those are just some of the questions Aiken and Pascal set out to answer in Seeing Red, Feeling Red: An Exploration of Color and Framing Effects in College Football. The research paper, which was accepted at the American Marketing Association’s summer 2011 conference, reports survey results from a large sample of fans and non-fans from across all EWU colleges.

“Essentially, we found that color influences perceptions a great deal,” said Aiken. “As you might suspect, the red field has positively impacted students’ [both fans and non-fans] perceptions of the team and sports at EWU. Interestingly, the new field has positively impacted students’ perceptions of our facilities, our professors and our academic quality. They are even more likely to recommend EWU to friends.”

In order to study the effects of exposure to the color red, three of six versions of a paper-and-pencil questionnaire presented a prominent picture of a red field on the cover page. Further, in order to measure framing effects, questionnaires presented one of three possible headlines with explanatory sentences (an environmental benefit frame, a financial benefit frame, and a condition with no frame but the headline/introduction). The survey itself measured team identification, attitudes towards the new field, as well as

attitudes towards the football team and various aspects of the university. Researchers employed convenience and judgment sampling wherein data were collected in classrooms all across Eastern. To ensure a large cross-section of fans, students and majors, efforts were made to collect 150 questionnaires from each of the four colleges within the university. In all, 600 questionnaires were administered to students ranging from first-year to graduate-level and across a wide variety of study disciplines. While previous sport research has studied the color red in athletes’ uniforms and its association with success in competition, researchers had yet to investigate the influence of red as a foremost part of the sportscape.

Overall, results show that exposure to a picture of a red field positively influences perceptions of the competitive atmosphere, the football team and the university. Further, utilizing an environmental appeal appears to have a stronger influence on perceptions when compared to a financial appeal. The results found strong support for the contention that those individuals who are more highly identified with the team will have more favorable perceptions of the competitive space (the field), the team itself, and the university. Another interesting finding is that the benefits derived by college teams with highly identified fans appear to spill over to other aspects of the university. It seems that highly identified fans tend to view the university as an extension of their team.

“That’s one of the surprising, fun findings,” said Aiken.

“Yeah it’s true that diehard football fans, people who love Eastern, of course they’re going to think even more highly of it, but what we found is that people who weren’t football fans were still above the midpoint, they still thought the red turf was a good idea.”

Of course, Aiken and Pascal understand that one might argue that these findings are simply a halo effect wherein subjects like the field more, so therefore they must, in turn, like the team and university more. Still, they found it remarkable to uncover the depth of the relationship between these variables.

“It seems that allegiance to “your” university is quite pervasive and profound,” said Aiken. “Our findings suggest that colored turf has a very positive impact on the competitive atmosphere, on the team and on perceptions of the university overall. If the NCAA allows more universities to install colored turf, then there likely will be a rainbow of field colors “surfacing” across the country in the near future.” • For further information contact K. Damon Aiken by phone, 509.828.1255, or email, kaiken@ewu.edu.

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Senior Biology Student, Alix Blake, holds a walleye caught for study on Lake Roosevelt.

Restoring the Past EWU researchers dedicate decades to repairing fisheries and ecosystems

by Bart Mihailovich

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Fish were collected using an electrofishing boat. The boat was used to capture walleye for both the population estimate and diet analysis.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Spokane River was one of the most productive salmon streams in the entire Columbia River system. Then a series of engineering feats beginning in 1908, with the completion of Nine Mile Falls Dam, and ending in 1939, with the Grand Coulee Dam, put an end to one of nature’s great biological accomplishments on the upper reaches of Columbia River tributaries.

Gone were the fish, but also, a whole lot more.

For the past 20, years EWU Biology Professor Allan Scholz and some 140 undergraduate students and 30 graduate students have been trying to put a few pieces of that very large ecological puzzle back together.

What was lost when Grand Coulee Dam was finished in 1939 was not just a run of anadromous salmon that would make their way up the Spokane River to the downtown

Spokane Falls, but a way of life and a culture for many native American tribal members in this region, a one-of-a-kind sport fishery, and a key species in our regions’ biodiversity.

Those Chinook salmon that returned from the Pacific Ocean brought with them key nutrients that were used and shared amongst the other plant and animal species in the area.

“When I first started doing fishery work in Lake Roosevelt [20 years ago] I only saw two bald eagle nests on Lake Roosevelt,” Scholz explained. “Recently, I counted 23 bald eagle nests up and down Lake Roosevelt, and river otter numbers are increasing too.” This is, in part, thanks to the work that Scholz and his students have been doing to restore the biodiversity of this cherished region Lake Roosevelt is a 125-square mile reservoir created by the impoundment of the Columbia River by the Grand

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How many kokanee does the walleye population eat?

The population size was multiplied by the individual consumption estimate to figure out how many kokanee were eaten. The walleye population was determined with a mark / recapture study. Walleye were marked with individually numbered Floy tags and elastomer marks (shown here).

Elastomer is a harmless plastic polymer that was injected into the fins of walleye. Different colors of elastomer were used to indicate which day of the study they were marked.

How many kokanee can a walleye eat?

The walleye in this photograph ate a couple dozen kokanee fry, however in a full day walleye are capable of eating many more than this. Bioenergetics modeling was used to determine exactly how many kokanee an individual walleye consumed in a day based on known physiological parameters of walleye.

Coulee Dam. The Spokane River flows into Lake Roosevelt, with the last 29 miles of the river a reservoir itself. Called the Spokane Arm of Lake Roosevelt, this stretch of water, which was once a flowing river with your typical river characteristics, is a much different stretch since dam impoundment.

Utmost in relevance has been the change to fish life in the reservoir. With dams choking off the Chinook salmon run, the two steelhead runs and small coho and silver salmon runs; and deeper impounded water creating ideal habitat for larger, non-native fish like walleye, yellow perch and smallmouth and largemouth bass, the lower Spokane River ecosystem began to change. Smaller resident fish which included rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, bull trout, whitefish and kokanee (a land-locked variety of sockeye salmon) were suddenly feeding a growing species of predatory fish. An incorrect balance was emerging.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a comprehensive limnology and fisheries study on Lake Roosevelt between 1980 and 1982. It determined that the Lake Roosevelt recreational fishery primarily consisted of walleye with a limited rainbow trout fishery in the lower reaches.

In the ‘80s, Congress began to mandate that power purveyors mitigate the effects of hydropower on fish and wildlife.

From that came the construction of two kokanee salmon hatcheries to enhance the Lake Roosevelt fishery. One of those hatcheries is the Spokane Tribal Fish hatchery that is

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managed by Tim Peone, a Spokane Tribal member and 1988 graduate of EWU (BS, biology).

Scholz was instrumental in getting the Spokane Tribal Fish hatchery up and going, writing the proposal for funds to construct the hatchery — funds that came from the Northwest Power Planning Council and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). He trained Peone to run it, and both acted as biological consultants to the BPA engineers who designed it.

The Lake Roosevelt Hatcheries Coordination Team facilitates the hatchery production programs on the reservoir. This group is a cooperative effort between the Spokane Tribe of Indians, Colville Confederated Tribes, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Eastern Washington University, and the Lake Roosevelt Development Association (now known as the Net Pen Program).

Scholz is currently overseeing a handful of projects where students are looking at feeding habits of predatory fish on kokanee and trout in Lake Roosevelt and its tributaries, and coming up with ways to, “restore a native fishery for anglers and for tribal sustenance and to recover lost nutrients that aren’t being brought up the system from the Pacific Ocean.”

One of those studies is on the San Poil River, a tributary to the Columbia River that dumps into Lake Roosevelt downstream from where the Spokane River runs in. Dana Stroud

Undergraduate students Alix Blake and Gerald Claghorn analyzed stomach contents of walleye and determined what percent of the diet was composed of kokanee salmon. The percentage of kokanee consumed by each age class of walleye was an input variable for bioenergetics modeling.

Undergraduate students Alix Blake and Gerald Claghorn determined the ages of a subsample of walleye in order to assess population structure using a microfiche reader. The ages of non-sampled walleye were then extrapolated based on constructing an age/ length key.

Dana Stroud, graduate student of Professor Allan Scholz, used software from University of Wisconsin, Bioenergetics Model 3.0, to model walleye physiology in order to determine how many kokanee were consumed by each age class of walleye.

Following completion, consumption estimates were multiplied by the population estimate of each age class.

(BS, biology, 2009 and MS, biology, 2011) is currently working on her master’s degree in fisheries management and was hired in 2009 as a research assistant to oversee the San Poil River project. Studies there have focused on determining how many kokanee salmon and rainbow trout were consumed by walleye and smallmouth bass.

According to the EWU Biology Department, results show that both species make up large proportions of walleye diets and models indicate that walleye and smallmouth bass consumed nearly all of released hatchery-raised kokanee fry, 40 percent of released kokanee yearlings, 24 percent of rainbow trout yearlings, and 27 percent of the two- to threeyear-old rainbow trout population.

“I love being on the water,” Stroud said about her research. “During my first summer as an associate I remember fishing into the early morning hours, watching the moon and stars dance off the water as we gently pushed through the waves. Our research team worked seamlessly and quickly with the fish we collected, and all felt right in the world. At this moment, I remember being so absolutely thrilled to be getting paid to do this! This is without a doubt the career I was meant for.”

Stroud recently submitted the final project report for the San Poil River project, “Salmonid Consumption in the Sanpoil River Arm of Lake Roosevelt by Smallmouth Bass and Walleye Using Bioenergetic Modeling to the U.S. Department of Energy

and Bonneville Power Administration. Alix Blake (senior biology student), Gerald Claghorn (BS, biology, 2010), as well as Bret Nine (BS, biology, 2003, and MS, biology, 2005) and Shay Wolvert, with the Colville Tribe, worked on the project as well. The report is currently being prepared for submission to the North American Journal of Fisheries Management or Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.

“EWU and the FRC [the university’s Fisheries Research Center] have given me more opportunities to enhance my knowledge and experience in my career than any other institution could have,” Stroud said. “I have been sent to training workshops, spoken at fisheries seminars, had the opportunity to be senior author on professional reports and publications, and learned how to manage teams of scientists, all by the age of 25. I am indebted to EWU for helping me raise the bar on my own career.”

Blake further highlighted that theme of real-world experience. “My work with [Dr. Scholz] has opened up opportunities for me to share my research at national conferences and build a great resume before the age of 21,” Blake said. “There is nothing like handling a monster walleye at one in the morning, in the middle of the river with not a boat for miles.” •

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Making a Connection

by Cheryl-Anne Millsap

Graduate students in Jane Pimentel’s clinical communication groups look like camp counselors or Girl Scout leaders as they stir a big mixing bowl filled with flour and other ingredients. They smile and chat with residents of Avalon Care Center, a long-term care and rehabilitation facility north of Spokane. All the while, through sensory triggers like the sweet scents of vanilla and chocolate chips, casual conversation, singing along to a classic song or looking at iconic advertising and popular-culture images, the students are mining for memories, deliberately extracting words and verbal responses from the men and women in the room.

Students in EWU's Communications Disorders Program conduct group therapy at Avalon Care Center in Spokane, under the direction of Professor Jane Pimentel.

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The residents who gather around the tables each week Jennifer Hauge, who has a BA in operatic performance, in the cafeteria at Avalon have years of living behind them. finds her experiences with the Avalon residents especially They grew up, went to school. Some went to war. They rewarding. With too few operatic career options, Hauge worked. They married and raised a family. Now, many decided to return to school and pursue an advanced degree. are bent and twisted with age. Some are in wheelchairs.

As a coach and teacher, she had worked in the past with voice Dementia, strokes, injury and disease have eroded their students who were struggling with poor technique, or for short-term memory and ability to communicate verbally, but whom over-training had led to voice disorders, but it was her a lifetime of intimate, personal experience is still very much mother’s struggle with the debilitating effects of chemothera part of who they are. apy while battling breast cancer that served as a catalyst for That is exactly why students in Eastern Washington a new career.

University’s Department of Communication Disorders are “She actually died during my first term and I leaned there. Each week, as the students interact with the geriatheavily on my classmates to make it through that,” Hauge ric residents with dementia or aphasia, most participants says. “But I had already seen how she struggled with the become more animated. They laugh. They respond to way chemo destroyed her voice and that stayed with me. I’d questions. They remember. They speak. worked with students as a teacher, but I want to take that to Pimentel has BA degrees in psychology and speech paanother level and work with people struggling with speech thology and audiology, and a MS from Idaho State University. and voice issues as a therapist.”

She completed her PhD in 1993, at the University of Washington, and is an associate professor in EWU’s Department of Communication Dis“The bulk of our research efforts focus on the orders. The program, located on the Riverpoint impact of the different components of the group Campus in downtown Spokane, is a cooperative therapy model on the communication behaviors effort with Washington State University. For 10 years, Pimentel has led graduate students in of the group members.” the research of the use of tactile, relevant and contextual stimuli with those suffering from de• Jane Pimentel creased verbal skills due to dementia or aphasia.

Associate Professor, Department of Communication Disorders “The bulk of our research efforts focus on the impact of the different components of the group therapy model on the communication behaviors Working with the geriatric patients at Avalon, Hauge of the group members,” Pimentel says. “This includes the often uses music to stimulate participants. She leads a familcommunication behaviors of the clinicians themselves as iar song as they get ready to leave the session, her trained well: speaking clearly, use of short sentences, repetition, use voice ringing out. Suddenly, voices that were quiet just of appropriate tone and non-verbals.” moments before join her.

Using visual cues like magazine illustrations and Jane Pimentel isn’t surprised by that response. advertising ephemera relevant to their age and landmark “Music is a powerful force in our lives,” she says. “Think times-of-life such as when they were students or young of how we store and remember music from the stages in our adults to assist memory recall, the students then engage the lives, particularly during our youth and young adult years. residents in conversation, strengthening verbal skills.

Some of these patients may have no memory of things that Speech Pathology is traditionally an occupation that happened earlier that day but they respond to familiar songs.” attracts people with a strong desire to have a direct impact on For Brittany Walker, working with older patients is the lives of those with whom they work. something she knows well. As the child of a single mother, “We definitely see that kind of connection in our Walker lived in her grandparents’ home. She grew up with students,” Pimentel says. “This is a field that allows close older adults and feels a true affinity for them. What came contact and, for the most part, can bring significant and later was a passion for working closely with those with measurable results.” communication disorders.

The majority of students in the EWU/WSU program After getting her English degree she worked in a midare female. dle school. It was there she noticed a student who sat in the

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participate. It strengthens them and raises their spirits. I back of the class and who seldom interacted with the teacher enjoyed being there because they are such a sweet group.” or other students. The girl had severe hearing loss but the Pimentel and the students all agree that the Avalon family had no money to purchase hearing aids. program would not be as successful without the willing “The Speech Pathologist at the school got me interested assistance of recreation therapist Kim Brown. in that kind of care,” Walker says, who wants to return to “We couldn’t have done what we’ve been able to do here working with middle-school students after she graduates. without Kim,” Pimentel says. “She gets it. She sees the impact “I love that age. I like to listen to them. I don’t mind dealworking with the grad students has had on the residents and ing with the attitude,” she says. “And there is a real need for works with us to keep this going. And, I can see the direct specialists and adults who want to be there with them.” impact the work has on my students. Everybody wins.”

Walker sees the benefit of participating in Pimentel’s The primary goal of the weekly encounters is making work with geriatric dementia patients even as she plans a the therapy “real” to each student and that way illustrating career in a school setting.

“Basically, we’re learning to find a connection, to reach another human through memories and experiences,” she says. “That works for “Basically, we’re learning to find a connection, to any age.” reach another human through memories and Kim Stone came into the program through experiences. That works for any age.” a different door. The mother of two children, ages seven and nine, Stone has a degree in • BrittanyWalker computer business and worked in the advertisGraduate Student, Communication Disorders ing and hospitality industries before choosing to become a stay-at-home mother for several years. When she decided to move back into the working-world it was a neighbor – a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse – who suggested she look into a career in some kind of therapy program. Stone was intrigued by the idea and did some research.

“It was a solution because I was looking for something I could do, find satisfying and still keep ‘mommy’ hours,” Stone says. “I shadowed an occupational therapist and then discovered EWU offered a post-baccalaureate program, which would allow me to come in and do core work without having to re-do credits.” That led her to the Communication Disorders program, which proved to be a good fit for her goals.

“I liked it immediately and I knew it would be a career I can grow with,” Stone says. “It is a way to make a difference in someone’s life and still be available for my family.

And, I discovered I had a real interest in the field of speech pathology.”

Like others students in the Communication Disorders program, Stone has worked with the Tremble Clefs, a Spokane performance-therapy program for older adults with Parkinson’s disease. That effort, which was started in 2005, is currently supervised by Doreen Nicholas, clinic director of the EWU/WSU cooperative Speech Language Pathology program.

“The Tremble Clefs were wonderful,” Stone says. “You can see the good the singing does for the people who

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the impact in an individual’s life. While many of Pimentel’s students will go on to careers that don’t necessarily interact with geriatrics on a daily basis, she believes that the time spent with the residents at Avalon deepens and enriches the skills they will bring to the job wherever they land. And, on a personal level, she sees the benefit to her own work and research.

“Working with residents in these settings also informs my teaching,” Pimentel says. “They remind me to strive to connect the lecture information in the classroom with the real-life challenges individuals with communication disorders face.” •

Creative Collateral EWU faculty produce original works

EWU’s Theatre Program staged an original adaption of Tim O’ Brien’s award-winning book, The Things They Carried, as their 2011 winter production. The novel is a collection of stories that traces the tour of an American platoon in Vietnam. The stage production was a featured event in the 2011 Big Read and Get Lit festivities, and was performed for hundreds of people in Cheney and Spokane.

Jeff Sanders, a lecturer in the Theatre Program, took O’Brien’s book and cleverly created a series of vignettes that brought the book to life on stage. Assistant Professor Sara Goff directed, and Professor Emeritus Gene Engene, played the role of Tim O’Brien.

EWU students made up the remainder of the cast.

The production was so successful that plans are being made to reproduce the show again in the fall and it will be entered in the American College Theatre Festival. In July 2011, the production was awarded the Spoky Award for “best drama,” by The Inlander. Each year, the arts and entertainment publication recognizes outstanding local theatre productions with their version of the Tony Awards.

House of Words is a collection of poems arranged in four movements echoing the structure of an Elizabethan sonnet. The book opens in wonder, dwelling in a world in which words and the gestures of language provide access to the freshness deep down things. But even in that initial movement, a gap is evident which grows as it confronts contradiction and death. Subdued recedings of resignation follow, tentatively emerging into the light of faith.

Potter, Jonathan. House of Words. Seattle: Korrektiv Press, 2010.

[ISBN-13: 978-1439258033]

Whether the subject is the plants that grow there, the animals that live there, the rivers that run there, or the people he has known there, Paul Lindholdt’s In Earshot of Water illuminates the Pacific Northwest in vivid detail. Lindholdt writes with the precision of a naturalist, the critical eye of an ecologist, the affection of an apologist, and the self-revelation and self-awareness of a personal essayist.

Lindholdt, Paul In Earshot of Water: Notes from the Columbia Plateau.

University of Iowa Press, 2011. [ISBN-13: 987-1587299841]

John Marshall and Lynne Feller-Marshall recorded and produced their second album of music for cello/bassoon this past year.

MiX-5: Premiere Recordings for Bassoon and Cello features a diverse mix of five different genres of music: classical, jazz, folk, sacred and rock. Included are two works for bassoon and cello with orchestra. MiX-5 is available online at cdbaby and iTunes. In addition to teaching at EWU, they are principal players with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra.

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Standout Research Growing number of student researchers at this year’s event

Since 1998, Eastern Washington University undergraduate and graduate students have demonstrated their ability to identify a research question, gather and assess pertinent data, and present their findings in a convincing, intriguing and sometimes amusing manner at the EWU Student Research and Creative Works Symposium.

During this two-day annual event, students from disciplines across campus present their research and creative work to the university community and the general public. Students are encouraged to participate in the symposium as an integral component of their higher education.

The symposium was originally established 14 years ago, as a showcase for the university’s McNair Scholars Program students’ research work. Since then, it has grown into the university’s largest, campuswide academic event, with 403 student presenters and 272 faculty mentors participating in the 2011 symposium.

Each year, students prepare their research or creative work under the mentorship of faculty members and prepare written abstracts that highlight their subject and findings.

The first day of the symposium, highlights creative works, including art, film, music, theatre and creative writing. The following day features presentations and posters, from natural and social sciences and humanities.

The following four projects are a sample of exhibits presented during this year’s symposium, held May 17–18. These projects address important health, social and environmental concerns, all relevant to the local and world community.

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2011

Student Research and Creative Works Symposium

A selection of outstanding undergraduate research Exacerbation of Multiple Sclerosis Following a Laparoscopic Hysterectomy: A Case Report Author: Christine Olsen

Faculty Mentor: Kimberly Cleary, Physical Therapy Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that causes plaques, or scars, to form on the myelin surrounding nerve cells in the central nervous system. Damaged or destroyed myelin sheaths cause nerve impulses to be distorted or interrupted which leads to a variety of neuromuscular impairments and decreased functional mobility. Literature suggests that specific physical therapy interventions may improve mobility for patients with MS, which is of great significance in this population. Interventions need to be specific to each patient’s needs as well as sensitive to the variability of the disease process. The purpose of this case report is to describe the home health rehabilitation of a patient with MS who had a major exacerbation following a laparoscopic hysterectomy.

Hospitality House: Empowering Communities for a Brighter Tomorrow Author: Tracey Waring

Faculty mentor: Robert Zinke, Public Administration Hospitality House is a community coalition concept to create a one-stop social service center for people living at, or below, poverty and/or at risk of homelessness. By assessing the needs and desires of the community in which Hospitality House would be located, local government agencies and non-profits can work together to develop a system of comprehensive services to meet those needs in one setting. Although a relatively new concept, preliminary findings show such centers are instrumental in reducing homelessness and alleviating the effects of poverty. The West Central neighborhood of Spokane was the site of the first needs assessment. The results were positive, with a strong desire to move forward with the concept as Hospitality House aligns with the West Central Community Coalition’s long-range goals for the neighborhood.

Environmental Sustainability at EWU

Authors: David Minaai, Michael Bell and Denisa Buljubasic

Faculty mentor: Vandana Asthana, Government Due to the processes of urbanization, population growth and industrialization, there is a great amount of pressure on environmental resources. States have started to worry if the earth’s resources can meet the demands of the world’s population. The concept of sustainability has gained prominence at the local, national and global level. Sustainability is the ability to maximize the use of resources, without affecting the population of today, and the population of tomorrow.

Increase in urbanization has most affected the built environment. Our research investigated the built environment at Eastern Washington University to understand to what extent sustainability has been adopted at the local scale, as the environment is an integrated issue where the local practices connects to the global outcome. We conducted a case study of Eastern Washington University through interviews and research regarding the incorporation of sustainability processes at EWU. Our research focused on three areas; the decision-making process, building priorities and ecological design. Our project summarizes the results of the study and illustrates how sustainable EWU is, and how it can be improved.

Nuclear Fallout

Author: Steven Johnson

Faculty mentor: Mindy Breen, Engineering and Design Much fear, uncertainty and doubt surround the topic of nuclear power today, more than 50 years after the peaceful atom was put to work generating power instead of being used as a tool of war. Today, especially in light of the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima I (and the FUD being spread by the media about the reactor, its condition and the unclear description of how nuclear reactors actually work), people need a clear, no-nonsense protrayal of the facts of nuclear power. This series of infographics seeks to show facts about nuclear reactors and some of the significant nuclear disasters in a clear, unambiguious way.

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Book Shelf A sampling of recently published books by Eastern Washington University faculty

Local Anesthesia for Dental Professionals is designed to meet the requirements of comprehensive courses in local anesthesia for both dental hygiene and dental programs. It includes extensive ancillary student and instructor resources including clearly stated objectives for each chapter, easy-to-reference tables, relevant case studies, question and answer banks and laboratory skill assessments.

Bassett, Kathy B., DiMarco, Arthur C., Naughton, Doreen K. Local Anesthesia for Dental Professional.

Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, N.J., 2010.

[ISBN-13: 978-0131589308]

Applied Anatomy and Physiology for Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology aligns the basic science of anatomy and physiology with the applied art and science of communication disorders.

The content is approached from a clinical perspective so that students understand the application of the content. The textbook is unique for its presentation of elementary and introductory anatomy and physiology in a framework of clinical practice.

Fuller, Donald R., Pimentel, Jane T., Peregoy, Barbara M. Applied Anatomy and Physiology for SpeechLanguage Pathology & Audiology. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2011.

[ISBN: 978-0-7817-8837-3]

Time Management for Department Chairs, is a concise and highly practical book, in which Hansen draws on his years of research on time management for department chairs. He shows department chairs how to set priorities, create a time budget and log, harness technology to assist in time management and make self-care a priority. As a handy paperback, this book is designed to be an easy-toaccess resource that will not only make department chairs’ jobs easier but will also help them to manage stress and prevent burnout.

Hansen, Christian K. Time Management for Department Chairs.

San Francisco: JosseyBass, 2011.

[ISBN: 978-0-470-76901-0]

Feminism is Queer is an introduction to the intimately related disciplines of gender and queer theory. Marinucci develops the original position of “queer feminism,” which presents queer theory as continuous with feminist theory.

While there have been significant conceptual tensions between second wave feminism and traditional lesbian and gay studies, queer theory offers a paradigm for understanding gender, sex and sexuality that avoids the conflict in order to develop solidarity among those interested in feminist theory and those interested in lesbian and gay rights.

Marinucci, Mimi.

Feminism is Queer: The Intimate Connection between Queer and Feminist Theory. Zed Books, 2010.

[ISBN-13: 978-1848134751]

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Qualitative Research Approaches for Public Administration is unlike any other book in the field. This concise and practical text is devoted exclusively to qualitative research approaches in Public Administration.

Focusing on the most common, most useful approaches, the author has constructed a unique resource that coaches readers through their first attempts at using basic qualitative research methods.

Luton, Larry S. Qualitative Research Approaches for Public Administration. M.E. Sharpe, 2010.

[ISBN-13: 978-0765616876]

G r a n t s 2010 by the numbers

2011

Total dollar amount for 2010-2011 funded grants

$13 , 156 , 056 Total number of faculty grantees

39

Highest dollar amount for a single grant

$1,849,355

Total number of grants for…

Science, Health and Engineering

Arts, Letters and Education

Libraries

Business and Public Administration

Social & BehavIoral Sciences and Social Work

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Eastern Washington University

EWU's Human Powered Paper Vehicle Competition Eastern Washington University is home to the annual Intercollegiate Human Powered Paper Vehicle Engineering Competition. Colleges from Washington, Idaho and Oregon participate in the event, which is held every spring on the EWU Cheney campus. The unique engineering competition inspires students, challenges their engineering skill and creativity, and provides a format that limits the amount of money needed to field a competitive team. There is no cost to enter the competition. The only costs are materials and time. But, the lessons learned are invaluable.

The basic idea is to construct a human powered vehicle out of 90 percent paper products (by weight). The remaining 10 percent is limited only by the imagination of the designers. There are two parts to the overall competition, one that will test vehicle performance and another that tests presentation skills. This project helps develop student excellence in teamwork, communication and creative problem solving.

Don’t miss the 2012 Human Powered Paper Vehicle Competition.

For more details, visit www.ewu.edu/hppv.

One of the teams from this year’s competition presents its engineering work-of-art at the Annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium. “The Paper Weights,” made up of EWU engineering students, CJ Grijalva, Jesse Hulsizer, Paul Matej and Zac Bishop, show off their BMX inspired paper vehicle.