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TOY HACK
I CANTORI RELEASES NEW CD I Cantori, the WWU select choir, has released a CD titled A Colony of Heaven in the Country of Death. Inspired by a phrase in Eugene Peterson’s commentary on Ephesians, the album aims to remind listeners of the importance of working toward unity, fellowship, and growth in a world that desperately needs God’s love.
Student clubs modify toys for children with disabilities
C
HILDREN WITH SPECIAL needs face obstacles that most kids never will. Common toys that line the shelves are often incompatible with disabilities. When Brian Hartman, assistant professor of education, learned about toy adaptation programs that make toys more accessible for children with special needs, he decided to bring the idea to student clubs on the Walla Walla University campus. “Since special needs children don’t have any of these resources in the valley, I thought it would be a great program to start,” Hartman says. In November, the Education Club and the Society for Biological Engineering Club (SBEC) hosted a toy hack workshop in Kretschmar Hall, where students modified a dozen toys to make them more functional for children with disabilities. For example, they added large external buttons to an electronic alphabet toy and an air-powered ball-popping toy, both of which came wired with difficult-to-access control buttons. The Education Club led fundraising efforts for the event and purchased the toys with donations from Walmart, the WWU Center for Educational Equity and Diversity (CEED), and private donors. CEED is operated by the WWU School of Education and Psychology to increase research and improve practices on issues of diversity and equality. The SBEC prepared tools for the event and provided technical aid to the hackers. The 12 toys that were adapted during the workshop were placed in a toy library located in the CEED offices on the first floor of Smith Hall, where multiple people can benefit from them. “We intend to continue to grow the program and hope to involve engineering students in their senior projects in the future,” Hartman says.
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Westwind Spring 2018
“All year long, the choir had fun discussing this phrase and thinking of ourselves as a little colony, a small congregation, a group of like-minded individuals needing to take care of each other,” says I Cantori director Kraig Scott. “As the original idea started to sink in and influence our daily behavior, the joy in caring for each other grew along with our understanding and love of the music.”
Contact the WWU Department of Music at
(509) 527-2561 to learn more about the CD.
books sites Reading and browsing recommendations from our experts
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
by Lindsey Fitzharris (Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017)
“Modern” medicine is a relative term. The Butchering Art focuses on the period from 1850 to 1875, when body snatchers sometimes provided unwitting subjects for highly entertaining public surgeries held in theaters. During this time, the medical elite were certain that infectious diseases were transmitted via poisonous vapors. Joseph Lister had the audacity to claim that germs might cause infections (ridiculous!) and to suggest that surgeons should use antiseptics and wash their hands (never!). Be prepared to cringe while you read about fetid pus, putrefying limbs, and rotting abscesses as this book takes you through Lister’s journey to elucidate and eradicate the causes of infections. —Jim Nestler, professor of biology
A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea by Melissa Fleming (Flatiron Books, 2017)
This incredible true story had me riveted from the first page to the last. If you are looking for a book that captures one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time through the eyes of one Syrian refugee’s experience, this is the book for you. A powerful and moving story of both hope and loss. —Wafia Kinne, adjunct piano faculty and student teaching director
What Every Body is Saying
by Joe Navarro with Marvin Karlins (HarperCollins Publishers, 2008)
Understanding what someone is really saying can be difficult. With nonverbal behaviors comprising 60 to 65 percent of all interpersonal communication, Joe Navarro helps navigate what your body is telling others and what others are saying to you. For more than 25 years, Navarro has studied people as an FBI agent. This book provides great insight into the various micro expressions and movements that help us better understand others and what signals we are sending. —Scott Rae, associate dean of men
READ WESTWIND ONLINE: WESTWIND.WALLAWALLA.EDU
PHOTO: BRIAN HARTMAN
Bioengineering students provided technical expertise for the toy hack project.