A look at what’s going on in the field of education.

Western students receive science awards

Several Western Kentucky University undergraduate and graduate students received awards recently at the Kentucky Academy of Science’s 93rd annual meeting.

WKU students, faculty and staff members in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering presented research papers and posters during the Nov. 8-10 meeting in Louisville. The event was hosted by the University of Louisville and Bellarmine University.

Undergraduate award winners from WKU included the following:

• Joseph Chavarria-Smith of Elkton, first in cellular and molecular biology, “Identification and characterization of a novel phosophorylase kinase g variant”

• Reagan Gilley of Pineville, first in physiology and biochemistry, “Testing the Equal Energy Hypothesis in Noise-Exposed Fishes”

• Amanda Webb of Rockfield, first in zoology, “Sound Production in Two Loricariid Catfishes”

• Jason Carson of Grayson, best poster presentation in physics and astronomy, “Effective Cosmological Constant for an Extra Dimensional FRW Gauss-Bonnet Cosmology”

• Amanda Gray of Utica, second in agricultural science, “Teat Order Establishment of Neonatal Pigs and its Relationship to Weight Gain”

• Cabrina Hamilton of Springfield, second in ecology and environmental science, “Influences of Pastures and CREP Tall Grass Plantings on Avian Community Composition” and “A Comparison of the Vegetation Communities of Hayfields, Barrens, and Restored Grasslands in the Upper Green River Watershed”

• Meridith Bartley of Crestwood, third in ecology and environmental science, “To Detritus You Shall Return”

• Jeffrey Davis of Louisville, fourth in botany, “Monophyly and Putative Hybrid Origin of Rubus Subgenus Orobatus (Rosaceae)”

• Annesia Lamb of Bowling Green, third in botany, “Somatic Embryogenesis and Gene Expression in a Fabaceous Shrub of Environmental Importance”

Graduate award winners from WKU included the following:

• Maria Clara Figueirinhas of Bowling Green, first in zoology, “Comparison of Thermoregulation in Podarcis Carbonelli Berlengensis Under Mild and Extreme Environmental Conditions”

• Julie Schuck of Glasgow, first in physiology and biochemistry, “Zebrafish: A potential Model of Gene Expression during Auditory Hair Cell Regeneration”

• John Walker of Kenner, La., first in geography, “Modeling Ground-Level Ozone for Rural Areas of Kentucky”

• Ronnie Leeper of Bowling Green, second in geography, “Near-Surface and Atmospheric Response to Modeled Land-Use and Vegetation Fraction Changes”

• Crystal Bergman of Bowling Green, third in geography, “A Media Perspective on the Kentucky Drought of 2007”

• Jonathan Bowers of Northridge, Calif., third in ecology and environmental Science, “Eigenvector Analysis of Connectivity in Food Webs”

• Christa Gaskill of Bowling Green, third in cellular and molecular biology, “A New Algorithm for Analysis of Circadian Rhythms Data Generated by a New Phototaxis Machine”

Other presentations by WKU students included the following:

• Elizabeth Alewine of Bowling Green, agricultural sciences, “Landscape Construction at the Felts Log Cabin”

• Todd Ballard of Chandler, Ind., agricultural sciences, “Grain Yield Loss Due to Variation of In-rows Spacing of Corn.”

• Daniel Byrd of Bowling Green, cellular and molecular Biology, “Localizing Mutations in Chlamydomonas Insertional Mutants Defective in Circadian Transcription”

• Pongsathorn Chotikasemsri of Bowling Green, computer and information sciences, “Optimizing The ROSETTA++ Program, a Protein Folding and Blind Docking Software, on 64- and 32-bit Platforms”

• Lindsey Clark of Louisville, chemistry, “A Deeper Insight to Hg Bioaccumulation in the Bat Population in Kentucky and Tennessee”

• Laura Claus of Bowling Green, ecology and environmental Sciences, “Watershed and Reach-scale Influence on Macroinverebrate Assemblages in the Upper Green River”

• T. Michelle Dodson of Westmoreland, Tenn., cellular and molecular biology, “Creation of an EST (Expressed Sequence Tag) Library from the Developing Wings of a Butterfly”

• Kerstin Edberg of Hardyville, zoology, “Life History aspects of the Southern Studfish, Fundulus Stellifer (Actinopterygii: Fundulidae) in North Georgia”

• Chad Groce of Glasgow, zoology, “Trypanosoma Cruzi Isolated from Raccoons Trapped in Kentucky”

• Patrick Harris of Leitchfield, agricultural sciences, “Conifer Decline at the Baker Arboretum”

• Morgan Jones of Goodlettsville, Tenn., chemistry, “A Novel Pervious Cement Reaction Barrier (PCRB) In Situ Arsenic-Remediation System”

• Archana Lakkaraju of Bowling Green, health sciences, “Extended Longitudinal Studies of Family Size and the Human Sex Ratio”

• Rebekkah Lively of Bowling Green, chemistry, “Reaction of Cisplatin Analogs with Selenomethionine”

• Margaret M. Mahan of Bowling Green, ecology and environmental science, “Ecological Investigation of Vertebrate Use of Epigeal Termitaria in the Tsavo Region of Kenya”

• Pamela Manning of Auburn, cellular and molecular biology, “Intense, Specific, and Stable Labeling of Intracellular Stages of Toxoplasma gondii Using Quantum Dot Immuo-conjugates”

• Joseph R. Marquardt of Bartlett, Tenn., zoology, “Phylogenetics and Hybridization in the Butterfly Genus Limenitis (Nymphalidae) and the Origins of the Aberrant Limenitis Form Rubidus (Strecker)”

• Steven Mavis of Franklin, zoology, “Effects of Dams on Diets of Stream Fish Upstream of the Reservoir”

• Ashley Mefford of Hendersonville, Tenn., cellular and molecular biology, “Muscle Adaptation in Response to Voluntary Exercise”

• Brian Payne of Hendersonville, Tenn., ecology and environmental science, “Diversity Comparison of Dung Beetle Communities in Ghana and their Use in Monitoring Ecosystem Health”

• Michelle Perry of Scottsville, chemistry, “Spectroscopic Characterization of Over the Counter Medication”

• J. Robbie Phelps of Morgantown, physics and astronomy, “Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to Study Galaxy Interactions”

• Felicia Poole of Fordsville, agricultural sciences, “Lifespan of Rumen Microbes in Remen Transfaunate”

• William Rodgers of Bowling Green, geography, “Flash Flood Climatology of the Appalachian Region (1978-2005)”

• Brian D. Rogers of Woodburn, zoology, “The Auditory Anatomy of the Loricariid Catfish Pterygoplichthys Gibbiceps”

• Bjorn Schmidt of Bowling Green, ecology and environmental science, “Fish Assemblage Patterns in Relation to Environmental Parameters in the Upper Barren River Basin of Kentucky, with Emphasis on the distribution of Etheostoma Kantuckeense”

• Matthew G. Skaggs of Leitchfield, ecology and environmental science, “Influences on Landscape Effects on Birds Calling”

• Patrick C. Stewart of Summer Shade, zoology, “Sound Localization in the Otocinclus” and “Testing Sound Localization in Otocinclus Affinis Using Classical Conditioning”

• Laramie Stone, a high school student from Bowling Green, agricultural sciences, “Preliminary Evaluation of Baby Corn Grown at Bowling Green, Kentucky in 2007”

• Mario Sullivan of Bowling Green, zoology, “Upstream Effects of Barren River Lake on Fish Communities in the Barren River System”

• Jason T. Taylor of Mammoth Cave, ecology and Environmental Science, “Environmental Effects on the Restoration of American Chestnut to the Forests of Mammoth Cave National Park”

• Lisa Taylor of Bowling Green, physics and astronomy, “Simulating Large Scale Structure in the Universe using a Massively Parallel Computer: Void Probabilities”

• Shannon R. Trimboli of Franklin, ecology and environmental science, “Color Preference of Adult Male Crab Spiders”

• Bryan West of Bowling Green, agricultural sciences, “Early Fall Aerification and Topdressing Effects on Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon)”

• Josh Wilsey of Bowling Green, ecology and environmental Science, “Longitudinal Variation in Fish Community Along the Upper Green River Below the Green River Lake: Assessing the Influence of Habitat and Thermal Variability”

• Matthew Young of Elkton, cellular and molecular biology, “Determining the Involvement of Plant-like Cryptochrome in Circadian Clock Entrainment in Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii”

WKU Libraries selects book award winner

Western Kentucky University Libraries has selected “The Secret of the Lonely Grave” by Albert A. Bell Jr. as the winner of the first Evelyn Thurman Young Readers Book Award.

The new award honors the memory of former WKU librarian Evelyn Thurman, who made significant contributions to children’s librarianship and literacy during her 25 years of service.

“The Secret of the Lonely Grave” is set in a small Kentucky town where 11-year-old Steve Patterson and his friend Kendra Jordan discover flowers left on an old grave in a cemetery that they pass each day on the way to school. No one has ever left flowers there before and they wonder who could have left them. As they look for answers they uncover secrets about the history of their small Kentucky town that take them back to the Civil War and the Underground Railroad. But not everyone is pleased when they solve their town’s oldest mystery.

Bell lives in Michigan and teaches at Hope College. He holds a master of arts degree from Duke, a master of divinity degree from Southeastern Seminary, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has authored mystery novels, historical novels, children’s books, a book on the New Testament and baseball.

Bell will visit WKU on Feb. 16 to receive his award and discuss writing with participants of the Super Saturdays program, which is sponsored by The Center for Gifted Studies. Super Saturdays students will be given a chance to ask questions and interact with the author.

Books eligible for the Evelyn Thurman Young Readers Book Award fall into two categories, to be awarded in alternating years: children’s picture/early reader books (grades K-fourth) and books for older readers (grades fifth-eighth). Books must be written or illustrated by a Kentucky author or illustrator, or have a significant Kentucky-related theme.

Western group returns from workshop in China

A group from Western Kentucky University’s China Environmental Health Project recently returned from Southwest University in Chongqing, China, where they presented an environmental and water resources training workshop for several hundred Chinese scientists and university students.

The “Current Technologies in Karst Water Resources” workshop was part of the China Environmental Health Project, a multi-year program of WKU’s Hoffman Environmental Research Project, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the ENVIRON Foundation.

“This workshop was a major accomplishment to meet the goals of both USAID and ENVIRON Foundation support for the CEHP,” said Chris Groves, director of the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute within WKU’s Applied Research and Technology Program. “The idea is to increase Chinese academic infrastructure for karst water resource development, of course ultimately to enhance environmental health in China in a sustainable way.”

The workshop was organized and implemented by Groves and Priscilla Baker, who works for the Hoffman Institute as an environmental research specialist.

Invited faculty who gave technical presentations for the workshop included scientists from WKU – Groves and Baker, as well as Eric Conte and Kate Webb from the chemistry department – and from other universities around the United States and world.

Topics included technical issues associated with the development of water resources in limestone karst areas, including water quality, underground water tracing, and groundwater mapping, as well as information on social science aspects such as community, local government, and non-governmental organization participation in water development efforts in rural China. A field groundwater dye tracing experiment was included in a nearby karst area at Qingmuguan.

More than 200 Southwest University undergraduate and graduate students participated in the weeklong workshop, as well as scientists from several southwestern Chinese provinces with karst water resources including Yunnan, Chongqing and Guangxi.

“These workshops are an important part of the international partnerships that are needed to address key human-environment issues such as water quality in rural areas,” said David Keeling, head of WKU’s geography and geology department. “WKU’s China project is a wonderful example of how theoretical and practical knowledge can be shared across political and cultural boundaries for the benefit of all humankind.”

WKU associates attend geography meeting

Three geography faculty members, a post-doctoral researcher, an undergraduate student and a graduate student from Western Kentucky University attended the 62nd annual meeting of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers convened in Charleston, S.C., the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Katie Algeo presented “National Parks and the Inversion of Appalachian and Hill Country Stereotypes” in a session on southern studies, based on her fieldwork at Mammoth Cave National Park. She also served on an advisory committee for the organization.

Rezaul Mahmood co-authored two presentations with students and a post-doctoral researcher. William Rodgers, an undergraduate geography major from Bowling Green, presented “Flash Floods in the Appalachian Region, 1978-2005,” co-authored with Dr. Mahmood.

Ronnie Leeper, a geoscience graduate student from Bowling Green, and Arturo Quintanar, post-doctoral climate researcher from Mexico, presented “Near-surface and Atmospheric Response to Modeled Land-Use and Vegetation Fraction Changes,” also co-authored with Dr. Mahmood.

Yanmei Li presented “The Interaction between Home Remodeling, Neighborhood Satisfaction, and Household Mobility” in a session addressing urban geography issues.

“Student engagement opportunities continue to expand as a result of the department’s initiatives with the Kentucky Mesonet and climate research generally,” said David Keeling, head of the geography and geology department. “These students are great examples of how classroom theories can be applied in a practical way to address policy challenges across the region. With new programs in meteorology and GIS currently enrolling students from across the region, there are many wonderful opportunities to engage with cutting-edge and innovative research at WKU.”