THE DAILY COUGAR E!
INSID
3-day forecast, Page 2
Hi 76 Lo 60
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Issue 99, Volume 74
Winds of change to spread
TODAY’S WEATHER
What’s your ‘Poison’: Local bar holds poetry night /LIFE & ARTS
Swing batter: young team hopes to earn keep against SFA /SPORTS
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Competitors explore Mars
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By Allison P. Smith The Daily Cougar
By Marc Anderson The Daily Cougar
From Texas to the border of Canada, 12 states generate 90 percent of U.S. onshore wind power. Each state is doing its own form of wind energy testing, and proposals have been drafted to broaden the Lone Star Wind Alliance to include more of these states. “This is a tremendous potential for UH to be a major player in renewable energy under the Obama Administration,” UH Vice President of Research Don Birx said. The UH-led Lone Star Wind Alliance is part of the UH Energy Initiative that UH President Renu Khator outlined as one way “to stay on the cutting edge of the energy industry.” The Wind Alliance partnership includes universities, government agencies and private industries to make wind a sustainable power industry. Birx said the alliance is one way the University can reach the goal of obtaining flagship status. “The Wind Alliance gives UH an opportunity to take a leadership position working with businesses, universities and the public sector,” Birx said. The Wind Alliance began in 2007 when the U.S. Department of Energy awarded UH a blade test facility cooperative research and development agreement. The purpose of the agreement was to design, build and operate new facilities to test the next generation of large wind turbine blades. The alliance is composed of 10 universities including University of
UH is helping shape the next generation of scientists and engineers by hosting the seventh annual Mars Rover Celebration from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday. The all-day event held in the Houston Room, University Center offers elementary and middle school students across southeast Texas the opportunity to design, develop and build a model Mars rover. Physics professor Edgar Bering came up with the idea for the event in 2002 while thinking of a way to engage more young students in science. “Per capita, the U.S. produces one-fourth the number of scientists as China,” Bering said. “This is a real problem, and one that has to be addressed while the kids are still young. My own kids were building model rockets, so I figured — why not have all students do something similar?” Additionally, students will have the opportunity to learn important aspects of research and scientific writing and meet UH and NASA scientists. Bering said he wanted to design a program where cost was not a limiting factor so anyone could participate. “We put a $25 limit on how much each team can spend. This ensures that no one can just outspend the others and at the same time spurs creativity,” Bering said. Each team is comprised of four to eight students, and collaboration is strongly emphasized. “We try very hard to make sure all of the students take part ... and that it really is the students who do the work,” Bering said. More than just model building,
DAVID SHIH The Daily Cougar
Lessons of Love
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yric Players’ Seasons of Love songsters vocal performance junior Andy Ingalls and pre-pharmacy sophomore Sarah Stout educated campus audiences on “The Song That Goes Like This.” After the intermission, music education junior Jennifer Agbu gave audiences a lesson on Ahrens & Flaherty’s “Speaking French.”
see WIND, page 12
Bering said the event involves careful research and planning by the students. “The real key to the program is that the students have to design and select their own mission. They have to spend a good amount of time researching Mars and encounter a broad range of scientific disciplines,” Bering said. To compete successfully, students should be familiar with the climate and geology of Mars, as well as learning certain aspects of mechanical engineering and robotics. A volunteer panel of judges from UH and NASA’s Johnson Space Center selects the winners and awarded trophies to the first through fifth place finishers in both the elementary and middle school divisions. All participants receive a certificate and take part in an interview that goes towards making a video of the day’s events. “We want to engage the kids as much as possible and make sure that everyone feels that they really participated,” said Kim Usey, director of communication for UH Texas Learning and Computation Center. In addition to the competition, students are given a tour of UH’s science departments. “We’d love to see some of these same students decide to pursue engineering and science degrees at UH,” Usey said. Usey said she expects at least 15 area schools to participate this year, with some coming as far away as Galveston and Bryan school districts. “This really is a great opportunity for students to both learn about science and space exploration and have a great deal of fun at the same time,” Usey said. news@thedailycougar.com
Life’s work leads to fellowship By Steven Oster The Daily Cougar Forty years of sustainable research has earned John and Rebecca Moores Professor H. Jerome Freiberg a fellowship with the American Educational Research Association. The AERA fellowship is composed of a group of people who have made significant contributions to the field of educational research. Freiberg has received various awards in his 36 years with the University, but the AERA fellowship is effectively a lifetime achievement award. “I’ve been in education for 40 years. Being a fellow of the American Educational Research Association comes from long term sustainable research,”
Freiberg said. The AERA fellowship is a new program comprised of researchers from all over the world. Freiberg will meet with this group in April. AERA has more than 26,000 members, composed of educators, administrators, researchers, counselors, graduate students, and behavioral scientists. It is the largest education research group in the U.S. Freiberg’s recent work includes the development of teaching models for elementary school students. Freiberg’s methods are coimplemented with teachers to develop a new method of successful teaching and learning. The method provides a framework allowing teachers to use creative ways to captivate student
interest, and implement a structured learning environment. Freiberg’s teaching structure has proven successful for a wide range of students. Videos of his method being implemented in a classroom of 3-year-old children from low-income backgrounds show teachers instilling classroom rules in children without being overbearing. The 3 year olds learned rules for acceptable behavior through songs, allowing them to be vocal participants rather than enforcing a passive and submissive attitude in the educational process. “What works is consistency without see FREIBERG, page 3
Steven Oster The Daily Cougar
John and Rebecca Moores Professor H. Jerome Freiberg