Try teaching fifth-graders about polymers. Their eyes may just glaze over. But offer those same children an opportunity to make a batch of slime—even if it comes with a science lesson—and they couldn’t be happier. Throw in some Mentos geysers and an Alka-Seltzer rocket and you have engaged science learners! … Continue reading
The wonderful thing about food is you get three votes a day. Every one of them has the potential to change the world. –Michael Pollan For some college students, the opportunity for three meals a day may not exist on a regular basis. The cost of tuition, books, and housing … Continue reading
The ideal engineer is a composite. . . . He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer; but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of these disciplines in solving engineering problems. —Nathan W. Dougherty, American … Continue reading
There are finally some small signs of hope for bats. Hit very hard by a fungal disease called “white-nose syndrome” over a decade ago, the bat population across the United States—including Pennsylvania’s little brown bats—has declined precipitously. Yet Michael Gannon, professor of biology at Penn State Altoona, who has been … Continue reading
How often does a book come out of a dumpster dive? Maybe more often than we know. Jared Frederick, instructor of history at Penn State Altoona, had a bundle of old newspapers dumped (figuratively) in his lap. A student had found them in a dumpster and, knowing his instructor’s interests, … Continue reading
Positive feedback makes us feel good—everyone loves to hear “you’re doing a good job!” It might make us work a little harder. But does it also make us perform better? Specifically, could it result in improvement in motor skills? An on-going, multi-approach study at Penn State Altoona, led by Takehiro … Continue reading
It was a record-breaking year for the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Fair, 2019 edition, with 114 students displaying posters, giving paper presentations, or performing (in some cases, doing more than one). URCAF organizer Laura Rotunno, associate professor of English and Honors Program coordinator at Penn State Altoona, did not … Continue reading
The 8th annual Plant a Tree at Flight 93 event at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA, is happening this weekend. And once again Penn State Altoona participated, working with the National Park Service employees and high school students from Tyrone to prepare the buckets of seedlings to be … Continue reading
Talk to poet Todd Davis for any length of time and the conversation is going to turn to nature—specifically, the place of humans in nature in the twenty-first century and where we are going. His sixth book of poetry, Native Species (Michigan State Press, 2019), continues the themes of nature … Continue reading
Opportunities to work in an international atmosphere give college students many benefits, including exposure to other cultures in both the workplace and in off-time. Penn State Altoona recently hosted an eight-week Global Fellows program that put students from Seoul Women’s University, South Korea, on the Penn State Altoona campus, where … Continue reading
