Developing young scientists

NSF grant pairs colleges of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Engineering and Pharmacy with Columbus Public Schools students

Fueled by a $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant, Ohio State and the Columbus Public Schools will team up over the next three years to improve student competencies in science and math.

The project will pair 17 graduate and undergraduate fellows from the colleges of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Engineering and Pharmacy with 17 teachers from grades four through six to help integrate science investigation projects into the school curriculum. Participating teachers and fellows will then give summer workshops for teachers in the greater Columbus area as well as for OSU Extension agents who can then offer workshops throughout the state.

The project was one of only 20 funded out of 168 applications for NSF grants, according to Alan Van Heuvelen, professor of physics. He said the three-year grant took effect in January. Principal investigators on the project are Van Heuvelen; Audeen Fentiman, associate dean for outreach in the College of Engineering; Garry MacKenzie, professor of geological sciences; and Lane Wallace, professor of pharmacy.

The program will reinforce a national push toward inquiry-based learning, or self-discovery, Van Heuvelen said.

"The emphasis these days is for the students to become young scientists themselves," he said. "That means they do experiments, analyze data, invent the laws and test the laws."

"If the students construct the ideas themselves, they are more apt to understand and be able to use the information," added Andrew Heckler, assistant dean in the College of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. Heckler assists in many outreach efforts involving his college.

There is an added benefit to this type of teaching, Fentiman said.

"This approach helps build enthusiasm for science," she said.

And emphasizing math and science at an early age helps prepare students for future coursework.

"With many high-paying jobs -- such as engineers, chemists and physicists -- unless you've taken harder math and science courses in high school, you'll not be prepared for them in college," Fentiman said.

The program is focused on grades four through six because researchers have discovered that students start to lose interest in science at those ages, Heckler said. It is also the level at which Columbus Schools requested help. Columbus Schools have established a list of learning benchmarks, with a goal of increasing scores on state proficiency tests in math and science.

Gloria Letts, Columbus Public Schools science curriculum specialist, said the schools welcome the opportunity to partner with OSU. "In addition to the high-quality inquiry-based science which Columbus and OSU students will experience, there will be the benefit of informal exploration of science and engineering careers. We know that the personal connections which youngsters make have a tremendous influence on their own career goals and aspirations."

The K-12 Fellow Grant is a new initiative offered through NSF to encourage university fellows to work with public schools.

"They want to have more direct interaction of scientists with K-12," Van Heuvelen said.

The project kicks off with fellows taking a class this summer taught by the College of Education that combines science, math and inquiry-based teaching methods. In the fall, the participating middle school teachers and the fellows will work together in and out of the classroom, learning to implement lessons that meet the Columbus Schools' learning benchmarks. The fellows will work with teachers of fourth-grade students during the 2000-2001 academic year and move up to grades five and six during subsequent years.

Graduate fellows will receive a stipend of $18,000 per year, while undergraduate fellows will earn $5,000 for the academic year and an additional $5,000 for summer work.

Annual construction report focuses on academics

University Architect gives trustees an overview of projects

In her annual report to the Ohio State Board of Trustees Feb. 4, University Architect Jill Morelli focused on how the more than 200 projects managed by her office last year relate to the University's academic mission.

Construction covers a wide range of uses, from biology labs to libraries to places where students can congregate, she said.

"And all of them, even the Ohio Stadium, contribute to the undergraduate experience," Morelli said. "The preponderance of the projects that we handle address the academic mission and the undergraduate experience. Some of them, such as Hale, address the issue of diversity."

By Kevin Fitzsimons

Among the construction projects under review is a renovation of the Main Library, which may include restoring the reading room from its current look, above, to its former style, below.

Archived photo

Space in the Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center vacated by the Life Care Alliance was recently renovated for use as classrooms, computer laboratories and offices to support minority students and programs for the Office of Student Affairs and Office of Minority Affairs. A grand opening of the renovated space is scheduled for Feb. 29.

Morelli guided the trustees through a simulated a walk through central campus, highlighting a number of projects either under review, in design, under construction or recently completed.

In recognition of the Landscape Master Plan approved by trustees May 7, Morelli's presentation included a glimpse at the Oval-Mirror Lake Hollow-River of Trees project, which may call for the rebuilding of Mirror Lake and the walkways around the lake, along with landscaping and irrigation of the Oval.

Plans also include the creation of a new link between Mirror Lake Hollow and the Olentangy River, along the south side of the Larkins fields, to be called the River of Trees.

The new pathway will provide inviting places to sit and congregate within an enhanced landscape. The study of the project is expected to be completed by September.

Other projects Morelli focused on included:

• The $60-70 million renovation of the Main Library, approved by trustees and sent to the Board of Regents for consideration. The project would bring the facility up to date and restore some of its architectural wonder, such as possibly returning the grand reading room to its original two-story design with a vaulted ceiling.

• The $136 million Larkins Hall renovation and replacement project calls for renovating existing facilities, replacing the Peppe Aquatic Center, and construction of a new building that will contain expanded conditioning and weight training areas, new courts for basketball, volleyball, badminton, and squash, and areas for indoor soccer and floor hockey. Completion is expected by May 2005.

• The $23 million Heart and Lung Institute is on target for an April 2000 completion date. The remaining section of Upham Hall was torn down to make way for the six-story structure. It is a teaching and research facility for diseases of the heart and lungs.

• The $9.8 million Younkin Success Center is expected to be occupied by spring quarter. Located at the site of the former Neil Hall, which was demolished to make way for the 60,000-square-foot facility, the center will house an academic learning lab, study spaces, student athlete support services, and counseling and consultation services.

• The University has selected architects for a $17 million renovation to Page Hall. The facility will house the public policy and management program, classrooms, the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy and an area shop for Physical Facilities. The estimated completion date is February 2004.

• The $20.5 million renovation of Hagerty Hall will provide space for the World Media and Culture Center, other College of Humanities units, and classrooms for the University. Completion is planned for February 2004.

• The $25 million renovation of the Botany and Zoology Building will include renovating the building for use by the College of Biological Sciences and other academic areas, restoring the historic front section facing Neil Avenue, and demolishing some more recent inappropriate additions. The project is currently in the planning phase.

• Plans call for a $21.6 million replacement of the 1957 and 1959 sections of Sisson Hall for the College of Veterinary Medicine. The replacement facility will house research and teaching labs, a library, classrooms, and administrative, faculty and graduate student offices. The 1987 addition will be modified as needed to fit the replacement. The projected completion date is August 2002.

Morelli said that the projects her office managed over the past year had a total value of $1.25 billion.

Alumna exhibit celebrates teaching, artistry

As an artist, Ohio State alumna Melinda Kay works in mixed media, taking common objects like twigs, rags or marbles, and arranging them to reveal their beauty. As a teacher, Kay works with students, taking their interests, skills and creativity, and developing them to reveal their artistry.

Both aspects of Kay's career are on display for the exhibition Melinda Kay: Dual Decades, showing in Hopkins Hall Gallery & Corridor through Feb. 18. The gallery displays a variety of Kay's artwork dating back to her time as a Master of Fine Arts student, a degree she earned in 1984. The lobby and corridor display the artwork of students from Thomas Worthington High School, where Kay has taught art since 1986.

She is enjoying the chance to come back to her alma mater, where she also earned a bachelor's degree in art education in 1980. "I feel like a cycle has been completed. I'm coming back as a mature artist to the place where I started," she said.

By Jo McCulty

Ohio State alumna Melinda Kay works with 11th grader Angela Arnold during an advanced ceramics class at Thomas Worthington High School.

This exhibit has given Kay an opportunity to see works from different periods of her life together in the same room. "I can see the connections that I hadn't realized were there."

In one of her earliest pieces, she combines a plastic flower with feathers bursting out from a simple wood frame. A recent work features sheaths of corn encased in polyester casting resin with pages from a book on comparative religion, also displayed within a simple wood frame.

"I'm celebrating things not usually given much credence, be it sticks off the ground or plastic flowers," she said. "I'm now doing the same thing, but in a different way, and that's after years and years of doing art without images."

In some of the years in between, Kay's work shifted to experimentation with shape: tall, narrow wooden shields with gentle curves that she said represent to her the strong powerful elements of a female soul; large circular shapes comprised of variously stained and finished wood segments that jut the figure into and out of space with subtle angles; and curved apostrophe-shaped figures that dip toward each other like a brightly painted yin and yang.

The act of creating art "seems to give me back something, a spiritual satisfaction," she said. "Not in a religious sense, but that there's a wonderment in life I get to participate in."

Her work as an artist may help her to have empathy for her students' struggle to create. "I find art doesn't come easily. It's part of a long process. What's exciting is the getting close, the struggle inside of me to see what the material will become. It's very rewarding."

It's satisfying to Kay to be able to have her school's student work displayed for this exhibition. "It's special. Very, very special. We thought it was a great idea. The whole art department is excited, and so are the students," she said.

Student artwork in a variety of forms -- ceramics, metalsmithing, painting, sketches -- is displayed for the show, as well as quotes from the students discussing what the art means to them.

"We're trying to bring to light the studio process at the high school level," Kay said. "We're showing teacher intent, student response and process sketches. The show is celebrating the student experience with as much depth as possible."

Kay said she doesn't tend to think of her work as a studio artist overlapping with her work as a teacher. "Often times, I feel that in the high school setting, people are largely unaware that I'm an artist," Kay said.

She does consider her lesson plans in light of her own work as an artist, though. "When I'm planning and evaluating my teaching, I'm always thinking, 'Is what I'm asking my students to do make sense for me as an artist?' Sometimes what I do as an educator isn't as free as what I'd give myself, but as students, I may need to give them more of the process."

Currently, Kay is teaching ceramics, a field she had no experience in until she took courses in order to start teaching it a few years ago. "I wouldn't have done that without teaching," she said.

Over the years, her school has been supportive of her art career, by allowing her to teach part-time and by providing a steady income. She's quick to point out, though, that she loves teaching for its own sake. "I love teaching. I don't teach to do my artwork. They're two equally valuable things to me."

In Columbus, Kay is represented by Gallery V, and has work in the collections of The Huntington Mortgage Co., Nationwide Insurance Co. and Columbus Public Libraries. She has been the recipient of numerous grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the Greater Columbus Arts Council.

She likes the common ground this show is finding for her two careers. "I don't really think I'm combining them, but at times like this, it is really coming together," she said. "It's very exciting when one profession builds on the other."

Dual Decades is the fifth biennial Alumni Exhibition. "The exhibit really shows what happens in your career after you leave here," said Prudence Gill, curator of the Hopkins Hall Gallery & Corridor. "Melinda has made a real commitment to teaching as well as to her own work."

The exhibit is funded by the Bevlyn Simson Painting Exhibition Fund, with support from the departments of Art and Art Education, the Hopkins Hall Gallery & Corridor, and the Wexner Center Education Department.

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