thecollegian Issue 12• Friday, April 11, 2014 • deltacollegian.net
INSIDE
EVERY 56 DAYS
Speaker addresses international education
ASBG runs successful blood drive in Danner by chris howze
news@deltacollegian.net
Art professor gives insight to success story Page 6
Delta hosts invitational track event Page 10
The San Joaquin Delta College Student Nurses’ Association and the Associated Student Body Government sponsored a campus blood drive on April 9. The drive’s goal was to entice students and staff to relinquish small amounts of their blood in order to save lives. Upper Danner Hall was draped in white with curtains to separate those giving from the rest of the hall. Many students don’t sign up out of fear of needles or the sight of their own blood. Choosing to donate helps others. If this becomes overbearing bring headphones, shut your eyes and pump the little stress ball in your hand. In a couple
minutes it’s all over. A healthy person can donate blood every 56 days, according to the American Red Cross. If one needs incentive then let it be known that after you give blood you need to raise your blood sugar, so you are given all the juice and cookies you want. Were not talking low-class stale cookies and market pantry apple juice. No. It’s Grandma’s soft cookies and Motts. Top shelf goodies. Blood donors must be at least 17 years of age and weigh at least 110 pounds to donate, according to Delta Blood Bank. To donate off campus, contact (888) 94-BLOOD or deltabloodbank.org. To advertise the event ASBG posted fliers around campus and on their Facebook page.
by santana juache news@deltacollegian.net
Battling back from a week off Page 7 DONATING FOR LIVES: Top, student Andrea Masuret donates blood with a big smile for the blood drive. Left, donors fill out paperwork while others in the back get blood drawn.
UPCOMING Softball vs. Modesto Jr. College April 12 @ noon Baseball vs. Diablo Valley College April 13 @ 2:30 p.m.
PHOTOS BY MONICA GOMEZ
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New studies on plastic sippy cups raise questions about toxicity by sonya herrera news@deltacollegian.net
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On Thursday, April 3, Delta College’s Cultural Awareness Program welcomed Dr. Nancy Pine as a guest speaker. Pine is a renowned educator and researcher in cross cultural studies and is the Director of Education at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles. The title of Pine’s lecture was “What Kids Learn and Don’t Learn in Chinese and U. S. Schools.” Pine has been researching in China since 1988. During her research she has learned many things about the school systems in China. While there are a few similarities to our system, there are more differences. Much like the United States, China has: elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and colleges. The major difference here is in China you have to pass an exam and pay to get into high school. This is because China has such a large population. A typical classroom will have up to 50 students. The desks are lined up in rows. Students stay in the same room all day and eat lunch in the classroom. “Teachers are seen as parents,” said Pine. Teachers always stand at the front of the class, unlike American teachers, who will move around the classroom. When a teacher calls on a student, the student must stand to speak and not sit until told to do so. Students never ask questions. “If they don’t agree, then they just don’t say anything. The teacher’s word is it,” said Pine. Here students ask questions all the time. Students are publicly praised and critiqued in China. “This is very common. It can be quite [severe] sometimes, but criticism is an accepted part of education,” said Pine. In the U.S., praise is more frequent than criticism.
Various types of plastic resins are used to package and serve food and beverages. Polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, is used in 20-ounce water and soda bottles. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is used in plastic wrap and deli food containers. Bisphenol A, or BPA, is one of many chemicals contained
in plastic resins that are used to make reusable water bottles and children’s sippy cups. But in 2011, California passed a law to ban BPA from bottles or cups designed for children under three years old. The compound is estrogenic: its chemical effects mimic those of estrogen, the hormone that regulates female sexual development. However, a pair of studies commissioned by the Center for
Environmental Health (CEH) revealed that resins in some BPA-free plastic sippy cups may contain greater amounts of estrogenic chemicals than cups that contain BPA. The studies tested 35 different sippy cups that were purchased between October 2011 and March of 2013. Nine of the cups yielded significant estrogenic activity, or estrogenicity. According to CEH, sippy
cups that contained colorchanging plastic had the highest levels of estrogenicity. An important question remains: can these chemicals be leached, or dissolved, in sufficient quantities to cause adverse health effects in human beings? High enough concentrations of estrogenic chemicals have negatively impacted the health
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