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KU pioneers ‘flipped’ classes By Sara Shepherd Twitter: @saramarieshep
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
KANSAS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR of chemical and petroleum engineering Susan Williams discusses the dynamics of a knuckle ball pitch as it relates to her lecture in her Material and Energy Balances class on Wednesday.
Trend turns usual course design on its head
Granted, it was only their secneighbors in whispers. ond day in the class. But students “Just a reminder,” Williams in professor Susan Williams’ said, “it is OK and expected for Wednesday afternoon Material the noise level in this classroom and Energy Balances section at to be really high.” Kansas University were still A murmur instantly turned warming up to the newfangled KANSAS into a din, and that’s by design. format of their 158-person “lec- UNIVERSITY This class — a sophomoreture” course. level chemical and petroleum enAfter the second problem of the day gineering course in one of the new was displayed, students spoke to their engineering building’s high-tech “ac-
tive-learning” classrooms — is one of the most all-in examples of a growing teaching and learning trend at KU and other universities across the country: the flipped classroom. Basically, the concept flips around the age-old college class format where the instructor lectures then sends students home with problems to complete on Please see CLASSES, page 8A
Lawhorn’s Lawrence
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT: 25 YEARS
Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Touring Lawrence, one street at a time
‘WILL, TIME AND ENERGY’ Dot Nary is an assistant research professor at Kansas University’s Research and Training Center on Independent Living.
DOT NARY, 59
By Caitlin Doornbos
n Born with Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos spina bifida, a congenital defect of the t’s been 25 years since Congress passed the spinal column, Dot Nary has Americans with Disabilities Act — and two and had a lifelong devotion to disa half decades later, some Lawrence residents ability rights. with disabilities say equality and accessibility Nary has been studying are still a battle. The ADA is meant to protect and advocating for equality those with disabilities by banning workplace disand accessibility for decades. crimination, requiring that employers offer reaAfter she began losing her sonable accommodations and setting accessibility ability to walk in her 20s, she standards for public buildings, roads and more. started using a wheelchair at 30 Some with disabilities have grown up with the and moved ADA in place with no reference to what life was like to New York INSIDE: before its protections; others were at the forefront to work for of the fight for its enactment. The following are Centers for Ray Petty, 65, the stories of three Lawrence residents who have Indepenis proving fitness unique perspectives on things people without disdent Living. and disability abilities might take for granted.
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There, she developed programs for independent living services for public housing residents and conducted outreach for a study of adults with cerebral palsy. She fought for the ADA’s passage in 1990 and in the years that followed led community trainings on the new law. Now, as an assistant research professor at KU’s Research and Training Center on Independent Living, she studies effective ways those with disabilities can continue to live full Please see NARY, page 2A
T
he squirrels — especially the west Lawrence ones — know Janet BurnettHuchingson’s chief complaint. Cul-de-sacs. Walking down a cul-de-sac is like a Mizzou Tiger walking down memory lane of great championship basketball triumphs — it just doesn’t get you anywhere. “It is hard walking down a street that ends in a dead end,” Janet says. But she does it. Janet is working on a goal of walking along every street in the Lawrence city limits, and Lawrence’s large population of squirrels are often her most frequent companions. Janet walks during the daytime Please see STREET, page 5A
do mix. 2A
‘WE ALWAYS NEED IMPROVEMENT’ n At 4 years old, Lucy Crabtree lost most of her hearing for an unknown reason. A doctor told her parents she’d never go past the third grade. When she was 7, the ADA was signed into law, ensuring she’d have “reasonable accommodations” like sign language interpreters for the rest of her schooling. At 23, she graduated from MidAmerica Nazarene University. Though she can’t remember a time without the ADA, Crabtree said she still recognizes the assistance the law has provided throughout her life. As a child, she went to deaf and hard-of-hearing classes to improve communication and learn life skills. In college,
she requested note-takers in classes so as not to miss anything a professor was saying as she lipread her lessons. “It’s hard to imagine not being able to go to college and say, ‘This is what I need,’” Crabtree said. Now on the job as a communications specialist for Kansas University, her employers provide what she needs to do her job effectively, despite her hearing impairment. At her request, the university gave her a caption telephone, which hooks up to an operator who types out what the person on the other line is saying. Please see CRABTREE, page 2A
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
LUCY CRABTREE, 32
Lucy Crabtree is a communications specialist for KU’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.
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JANET BURNETT-HUCHINGSON walks along Elmwood Street, just west of Oak Hill Cemetery in East Lawrence, on Aug. 13. Burnett-Huchingson has a plan to walk every street in Lawrence.
Recess time Lawrence schools are exploring options to get students up and moving with more than 15 minutes of recess a day. Page 3A
Vol.157/No.242 46 pages