College Avenue The latest from across campus
“Teacher Tammy” makes it an adventure for bilingual students
This year, Randolph and Rosas plan to take an ambitious summer camping trip to the coast for children who attend the summer camp. The educators plan on reserving space in August at Rosario Beach, the marine laboratory for WWU, and bringing a bus full of Farm Labor Homes’ children who have had perfect attendance in the academic summer camp. The trip will have educational value, as well as providing the opportunity for the children to see a part of Washington state that they have not seen before. In addition to improving their reading skills, children also get to try their hand at engineering. Earlier, with the help of two university students, children learned to assemble and program robots with Lego Robotics concepts. Now, for a second year, a team of students ages 9 to 14 from the Farm Labor Homes are entered in the Lego Robotics competition sponsored by WWU. The students also benefit from the guidance of Sydney Foster, a WWU engineering graduate who works for the Walla Walla Corps of Engineers. Foster meets the students once a week to work on the project.
Choosing to Forgive Forgiving is not a strength of the human condition. It seems easy to hold on to a grudge and difficult to release anger. A new course at Walla Walla University uses the Bible, Christian books, and academic texts to explore the “benefits of forgiving, the hazards of not forgiving, and practical suggestions for making forgiveness work,” according to course professor Darold Bigger. “Forgiveness brightens our general attitude toward life,” says Bigger, professor of theology. “It reduces stress and gives us optimism, increases physical well-being and emotional health, strengthens our connections with other human beings, and lets us experience and share the 6
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essence of a Christian life—to love and be loved!” Bigger’s interest in the topic of forgiveness stemmed from his experience after a family tragedy. On June 16, 1996, Bigger and his wife, Barbara, learned that their 25-year-old daughter, Shannon, had been murdered in her Takoma Park, Md., apartment. Police found and arrested her murderer within 40 hours of the crime. He was sentenced to consecutive sentences of 20 years, life in prison, and life in prison without the possibility of parole. Though Bigger struggled with rage for weeks, he was able to let go of his anger once he realized that in God’s eyes, he was as guilty of sin as his daughter’s
Amoeba Research Sheds Light on Cell Formation
Professor Tammy Randoph is leading a team of elementary school students who are entering Walla Walla University’s North Pacific Regional Robotics competition on April 14, 2013. The “Awesome Onions” team is learning computer programming and model building, as well as leadership and team building.
Biology professor looks for answers
Student numbers
70+c 62+c 70%
First-time freshmen from out of state
62%
Undergraduates from out of state
murderer, yet Christ had died for both of them. While he knows that the journey to forgiveness is different for everyone, Bigger says he has a passion for the issue because of how profoundly it changed him. Many students sign up for the class with the hope of learning to forgive people in their lives, as well as how to work toward reconciliation. Although most of the students have an Adventist background, the class also attracts people of other denominations and faiths. “All of us face forgiveness opportunities in our personal lives,” says Bigger. “Implementing forgiveness allows us to experience God’s forgiveness of us and that boosts our sense of worth.”
Lindsey: Chris Drake
continued, working with Elissa Aguilar’s third grade bilingual class. “During these lessons, university students would make my English Language Learners feel confident,” says Aguilar. “My students were constantly engaged and taken to higher levels of learning with the great support of WWU students. I watched struggling students write wonderful stories with assistance. I watched my students laugh with delight as they learned new facts,” says Aguilar. “Together we build confidence in at-risk students and give them hope that they too may someday attend a university such as WWU!” Randolph also uses themes for her work at the Farm Labor Homes’ Academic Summer Camp. The theme helps her and Mariela Rosas, parent educator for Children’s Home Society of Walla Walla, plan the crafts, games, food, books, songs, writing, and camp store. This coming summer, the theme will build on the “Literacy Around the World” continuing theme by focusing on the island of Borneo, where Randolph is going for sabbatical research this quarter. Randolph will bring back books, costumes, musical instruments, and other artifacts from Borneo to use at the summer camp. The summer camp is also an opportunity for her summer-school university students to learn how to instruct children in reading comprehension, vocabulary building, and fluency.
bigger: Chris Drake; randolph: greg khng
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hat do frogs, China, jungle animals, and Tiny Town have in common? They are all themes Professor Tamara Randolph has used to create fun, interactive literacy programs for bilingual elementary school students. Randolph helps plan and facilitate these programs at Davis Elementary School in the College Place School District and at the Farm Labor Homes in after-school clubs and a summer camp. Walla Walla University education students help out as well. “Choosing an invigorating theme motivates my students and me tremendously,” says Randolph, or “Teacher Tammy,” as she is known by her elementary students. In the Davis classroom, themes help to connect the worship talks, children’s books, learning activities, and the food and decorations for the final Professional Academic Reading Themed Yotting, or PARTY. The theme this winter is “Frogology”— coined from “frogs” and “technology.” Randolph and her students have created a green author’s chair complete with frogs, rods, wires, and a massive red tongue. “Past experience has taught us that students will be clamoring to read in it,” says Randolph. University students began administering literacy assessments to Davis School students in 2007. The assessments evolved into an instructional lab, and, in 2010, Randolph and her students began, and have
David Lindsey, professor of biology and department chair, works with undergraduate and graduate biology students researching Dictyostelium discoideum, or social amoebas, in order to better understand how development occurs in animals and humans. He recently returned from a three-week sabbatical at Texas A&M University, where he spent time further researching the amoebas and their development. “I am interested in how cells receive and respond to the signals they receive from other cells, their environment, and internally, particularly during development,” says Lindsey. “Our research using this simple model will help elucidate the molecular pathways used by higher organisms to accomplish the same goals.” Social amoebas are ideal models. They feed on bacteria in soil and decaying leaves in order to multiply. When these solitary cells are starved, they stop reproducing and form a collective mound. This mound cultivates into a fruiting body that comprises a mass of spore cells sustained by a column of stalk cells. “At a cellular and molecular level, this process is very similar to tissue formation in humans and uses the same types of molecules and mechanisms,” says Lindsey. This kind of research can
have valuable implications on the future. Understanding how the amoebas develop and change can help researchers understand how stem cells stop growing and transition into different types of blood cells. In addition, defects in the transition process have been implicated in a range of human disorders, including tumor formation and neurodegenerative diseases. Perhaps by understanding these processes better, preventative medicine and treatment can be more effective.
Students on the grow
Students also benefit from research by obtaining credible research experiences and then presenting their findings at conferences. Lindsey does his best to make sure students are prepared for their next phase of academic life. “We do that in part by being professionally active and providing students with research opportunities that can develop their practical and intellectual skills, and give them an awareness of and confidence for the professional world,” Lindsey says. Though he has spent years guiding students in this research, Lindsey doesn’t envision stopping anytime soon. “It really doesn’t end,” he says. “There is always the next question.”
Satellite system to track aviation flights
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afety is our No. 1 priority in flight training,” says Anthony Remboldt, director of training for Walla Walla University’s aviation program. To bolster safety precautions even more, Remboldt has implemented a new system to monitor student flights by satellite. Through the newly purchased Spidertracks system, the aviation program can now track movements of the entire training fleet, which means that there is a reduced risk of students getting lost when flying university aircraft. “Students depend on a safe and comfortable atmosphere in which to learn,” Remboldt says. “The satellite tracking is one more asset to continue our strong safety record in aviation.” Remboldt recognized the need for the system during the summer when working for Northwestern Aviation, an air taxi service in northern Alaska, that specializes in off-airport operations. Because of the tracking system’s reliability and features, the company uses it for tracking all their flights, including government charters. Remboldt returned to WWU in the fall, determined to implement a tracking system for the aviation program. He wrote a proposal for capital funding, which was granted in December. The system effectively eliminates the risk of losing students and aircraft. It takes an average of 40 hours to locate downed aircraft operating on a Visual Flight Rules flight plan. After 24 hours, the chance of death from serious injury rises significantly. The Spidertracks system eliminates the 40-hour search, so students can be rescued almost immediately. “In the aviation program, we are constantly striving to provide the safest and most modern aircraft training experience possible,” says Remboldt. “This will be an invaluable item of safety if there is ever an accident or mishap.” A small device installed in the aircraft monitors flight information such as time, speed, altitude, heading, and GPS position in real time. The data is sent via satellite to the tracking system and is used to analyze student flights, practice approaches, and track flights for safety and efficiency. The system also makes it possible to give better estimates for arrival times. Before the system was in place, the dispatch office had limited communication with aircraft out of the local radius. Student pilots are now able to easily contact their instructors if they are experiencing difficulty.
Invertebrates of the Salish Sea
Learning to Read
A website sponsored by Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory gets about 15,000 views per month from all over the world. Created by Professor David Cowles, the site identifies marine species in the waters near the laboratory, at the confluence of Puget Sound, Straits of Juan de Fuca, and Rosario Strait. Find the website at rosario.wallawalla.edu/inverts
Safety First
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