JOHN KLAK SENIOR INFORMATION SCIENCES Online courses or face-to-face It would actually depend on the class. There are courses where face-to-face interaction is necessary to learn the content. However, when it’s a course based upon applying what has been previously learned to accomplish projects, I would definitely prefer an online course. Faculty use of technology I have had courses where a professor’s use of online resources was fantastic and helped to enhance the content covered in the course. At the same time, I’ve had courses where student participation via D2L was required for the course, but the implementation of this technology didn’t enhance the learning experience due to limited contributions by both the professor and the students in the class. The same could be said of the effectiveness of PowerPoint, where some use it more effectively than others. That being said, it would seem that almost any technology, when used properly, can be useful.
Adam von Haden and undergraduate Kaity Gilles take advantage of a beautiful November day at the Keith White Prairie of the Cofrin Arboretum. The two were taking soil samples as part of von Haden’s master’s degree research.
Biomass work an example of master’s degree, EMBI research Adam von Haden is one of two graduate students from the Environmental Science and Policy master’s degree program working on a project to evaluate the economic and environmental outcomes of converting poorly drained, marginal agricultural areas into perennial grasslands. The hope is that the grasslands will yield biomass available for electrical and heat generation in Wisconsin. The project was funded through a Wisconsin Focus on Energy grant to UW-Green Bay faculty members Mathew Dornbush, Kevin Fermanich and John Stoll and assistant scientist Paul Baumgart, operating out of UW-Green Bay’s Environmental Management and Business Institute (EMBI). Von Harden’s work compares above-ground biomass yields, soil carbon, and fine-root production between upland and lowland areas in crop fields and restored prairies. Nutrient retention and carbon sequestration are also factors.
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November 2010
Prof. Dornbush says pursuing efficiency in using former “waste areas” for energy production could match the gains made in agricultural productivity, all necessary to support growing global demand. Dornbush credits the interdisciplinary nature of both UW-Green Bay and its graduate program in making a project such as this one possible. “I can provide the production, soil fertility, and climate mitigation expertise, Kevin and Paul can provide the water quality analyses, and John can provide the economic analysis that puts the whole project together,” Dornbush says. “None of us could have written this proposal alone.” Undergraduates are assisting the work. “In 10 years, how many of the students on this project will be leaders in our community, how many will have benefited directly or indirectly from these experiences?” Dornbush says. “It’s those intangibles that make the ES & P gwrad program and UW-Green Bay truly unique and special.” The program is UW-Green Bay’s largest in total alumni — about 308 since 1978.