Arizona State University

Students looking to get a head start on their college degree, or just get ahead, can choose from more than 400 summer classes – online and on campus – offered by ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

More than 120 summer classes are offered online.

“For ASU students traveling this summer, whether for study abroad or internships, all they’ll need is an Internet connection,” says Jill Schiefelbein, the college’s director of online programs.

Classes are open to current ASU students and incoming freshmen, as well as transfer students, community college students, eligible high school students and others seeking to earn college credit, including students who attend the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.

“We also welcome students who are returning to Arizona for the summer who attend an out-of-state university during the school year,” says Gerry Corey, senior assistant dean for student and academic programs in the college. These students should first check with advisors at their university to determine whether the ASU class they are interested in will count for credit, she says.

Regardless of a student’s major, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers a variety of classes, many of which fulfill university requirements for graduation. Introductory-level and upper-division classes in psychology, biology, English, political science, human communication, religious studies, American Indian studies, geography, and film and media are among those available.

Two popular lab sciences will also be available in the summer: solar systems astronomy and geology.

“Summer is an ideal time to fit these popular classes into otherwise busy schedules,” says Corey.

“Summer is also a great time to take interesting elective classes,” she says.

History of anime, video games and justice, campaigns and elections, buried cities and lost tribes, communication in the electronic age, and politics and film, are on the summer list.

Current ASU students looking for a class will not need to pay additional fees to sign up for summer session. Others who are not current ASU students and wish to sign up for classes will need to apply to the university. When applying, they can choose to follow a degree or non-degree seeking path.

Financial aid also is available for eligible students interested in summer session.

More information, including how to register for summer classes, at asu.edu/escapetheheat or 480-965-6506.

Ashley Lange, ashley.lange@asu.edu
480-965-1441
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Patricia Gober understands better than most that major shifts, in a climate or a career, are periods rife with uncertainty. The professor and former chair of ASU’s department of geography was at the top of her game as a demographer and urban geographer when, a decade ago, she struck out to explore new intellectual terrain.

Her journey, which required crossing the rocky divide between the social and physical sciences, would one day bring her into the heart of Phoenix’s struggles over explosive growth, its environmental consequences and the potential impacts of human-induced climate change.

Ten years ago, Gober was president of the Association of American Geographers, a position that required her to represent the interests of both the social and physical sciences within geography. Standing with one foot in each field got her thinking about crossing some boundaries of her own.

“It inspired me to think about the discipline more broadly,” she says. “It also motivated me to see how other scientific fields operated and how they saw geography.”

The late 1990s were a time of transition and expansion for the field of climate change, too. Once the province of scientists, climate change had begun to find itself increasingly in the public eye as media, political and scientific spheres collided over the controversy.

Interest had been on the rise since the 1980s, when carbon data collection began in earnest. The resulting groundswell brought about the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 and the 1992 adoption of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, culminating in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol.

By the turn of the century, though, efforts to convert conclusions into policy were losing traction, mired in politics and a basic lack of cross-disciplinary comprehension.

Tackling human-induced climate change requires understanding how humans influence their environment and vice versa; but social scientists and physical scientists have traditionally kept to their own camps. If climate and policy were ever to come together productively, someone was going to have to unite both camps in a common cause. Beyond mere expertise, what was required was someone with enough prestige to gamble their reputation on entering an arena that would assuredly paint a bull’s-eye on their back – and the intestinal fortitude to take the risk.

“I had nothing to lose,” Gober says. “I was a full professor and well-established in my career. I thought that I should spend the chips that I had earned.”

One of Gober’s first forays into the world of environmental science was her participation in the Central Arizona – Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP-LTER) in 1998. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Phoenix LTER stands out among its 24 sister programs nationwide in that it focuses on human modification of an arid ecosystem. Additionally, thanks to Gober’s influence, it is also one of just two LTER sites that expressly delves into the ecology of urban systems.

Her feet firmly on the interdisciplinary path, Gober began to see other opportunities to expand the public’s understanding of urban ecology.

Inspired by her work at CAP-LTER and her careerlong study of Phoenix, she began offering a class on the city’s environmental history and geography, and conducted research for a book on the same topic. Published in 2006, “Metropolitan Phoenix” examined the historical geography of the city against the background of its relationship with water. This link between people and resources – how we affect our environment and how we can adjust to changes in it – also inspired Gober to establish the Decision Center for a Desert City.

It was the right idea at the right time.

Despite growing scientific data regarding the roots and ramifications of climate change and variability, there was mounting concern in policy circles that no one was sure what to do about it. Global and local climates are exceedingly complex systems, and simulations can only provide a range of likely outcomes, not a definitive answer. This uncertainty made traditional policy-making difficult at best.

Seeking to combat this growing inertia, the NSF established its Decision Making Under Uncertainty Initiative in 2003 to fund the development of new strategies.

It was, for Gober, the final piece of the puzzle.

“Twenty-four billion dollars had been spent on climate change research, but our nation was unable to translate results into public policy,” she says. “So here I sat in Phoenix in the midst of what was then an eight-year drought. We are growing like gangbusters, and there is serious discussion of the climate warming and drying the watersheds that supply us with our sustainable supplies. Clearly, something needed to be done.”

Gober, along with Chuck Redman (now director of the ASU’s School of Sustainability), received $7 million from the NSF to establish the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC). Although she knew little about water management, Gober knew plenty about population growth, urban land use patterns and climate, and Redman – along with what was then the Center for Environmental Studies – added the missing interdisciplinary pieces and administrative infrastructure.

Establishing DCDC meant Gober had to dive headfirst into a new community, working extensively with municipal water managers and policymakers. According to Gober, the interface between scientists and policymakers is a “negotiated space,” in which both sides have to learn to overcome their preconceptions. She found that policy-makers were less concerned with climate change per se, which they felt was beyond their control, and more concerned with generating flexible scenarios for dealing with whatever situations might arise.

Although initially bumpy, the relationship has begun to gel over the past three years. While gaining her “hard-won credibility” with Phoenix water managers, Gober has been impressed with their extensive knowledge of the Valley’s 100 years of water variability data, as well as their skill in managing the shifting water needs of their communities. She sees an urgent need, however, for them to amend their thinking about water management under a changing climate.

“They accept the uncertainty of the past, but they haven’t accepted that the levels and patterns of that uncertainty will shift in the future,” Gober says. “That’s the policy-relevant aspect of climate change.

DCDC has made headway, however. Building upon a solid base of climate, water-resource management and decision-making research, the center has forged a number of collaborative relationships across disciplines. It also has earned a seat at the table with key decision-makers in municipal water management, which has given them a vital means by which to inject raw data into the discussion and to inform manager’s decisions.

One way DCDC contributes to decision-making is via WaterSim, an interactive computer model that simulates water consumption and availability in central Arizona. WaterSim allows users to adjust a number of settings and inputs to simulate scenarios such as sustained drought, higher temperatures, projected population growth and groundwater deficits.
But it’s more than a computer model. It’s a means for scientists and policymakers to collaborate. It is forward motion.

“For better or worse, we’ve put ourselves out there on what could be the cusp of fundamental change,” Gober says.

Crossing divides, particularly in the sometimes regimented, silo-dominated world of academe, is a risky move and full of uncertainty. When it comes to making decisions for a desert city facing ongoing drought and future climate change, having someone acquainted with uncertainty might not be a bad thing. Regardless, a thriving desert city requires fruitful exchanges between scientists and policymakers, and such relationships require people who understand the human and geographic forces that shape our urban landscape. That’s what Gober does best.

“I liken the journey of the past 10 years as being in the right place at the right time,” Gober says. “Changes in the nature of science funding and ASU’s commitment to social embeddedness and interdisciplinary collaboration aligned almost perfectly where I wanted to go – integrated and policy-oriented work about Phoenix.”

Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, the PBS news anchor tandem who epitomized the best of thought-provoking and in-depth broadcast journalism, will be this year’s recipients of the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, Arizona State University announced today.

Cronkite and the school that bears his name – the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU – will honor Lehrer and MacNeil at a Phoenix ceremony on Nov. 21.

The PBS duo first teamed up to cover the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973. Two years later the newscast that would become “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” was launched, and in 1983 it was expanded to “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour,” the first 60-minute national TV evening newscast. MacNeil stepped down from the daily newscast in 1995. Lehrer continues to anchor "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer."

“Jim and Robin represent the kind of journalism that is too often missing from television news,” Cronkite said from his New York office. “Their brand of probing, in-depth, sophisticated and nuanced journalism stands in stark contrast to the shrill and superficial reporting sometimes found on TV today. It will be a great honor to give them our award.”

The former CBS News anchor said this year’s award has special significance: 2008 is the 25th year of the Cronkite Award.

The Cronkite Award luncheon will cap off a week of activities in November celebrating the Cronkite School. The school is moving from its long-time home on the ASU Tempe campus to a new campus in downtown Phoenix, just blocks from major newspaper, TV, radio and online news outlets. Part of the festivities will be the official opening of a new $71 million, state-of-the-art media complex on Nov. 20. The school will share the new building with KAET/Eight, the ASU-operated public television station.

“I am so proud of what we have been able to accomplish with our journalism program at Arizona State,” Cronkite said. “Our week of activities, culminating with the grand opening of our new home and the 25th Cronkite Award ceremonies, will show how this has truly become one of the great journalism schools in our nation.”

The Cronkite School, a nationally recognized professional journalism program with 1,400 undergraduate and graduate students, was named in honor of the former CBS anchor in 1984. In the past two years it has added an array of new programs, including the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, the New Media Innovation Lab, the Reynolds High School Journalism Institute and Cronkite News Service.

The school also has added 14 new full-time professors over the past two years. They include news industry leaders such as former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, former Minneapolis Star Tribune Editor Tim McGuire, BET Vice President Retha Hill, former Sacramento Bee Executive Editor Rick Rodriguez and digital media leader Dan Gillmor.

Cronkite students finished first nationally in the Hearst intercollegiate journalism competition last year and first in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence Awards for the past two years.

Dean Christopher Callahan said Cronkite students “can learn much from the balanced, in-depth, comprehensive approach that Robin MacNeil and Jim Lehrer have practiced so well for so long. It’s a great honor to have these two outstanding journalists as our 25th year recipients.”

Lehrer and MacNeil are only the second pair of co-winners in the history of the award. The first were CBS founder William Paley and former CBS President Frank Stanton, who were co-winners of the inaugural award in 1984. Lehrer started his journalism career as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News and later the Dallas Times-Herald, moving up to political columnist and eventually city editor. He moved into television as executive director of public affairs and nightly news host at KERA-TV, the public television station in Dallas.

He first teamed with MacNeil in 1973 to provide continuous live coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings. In October 1975 PBS launched “The Robert MacNeil Report,” with Lehrer as the Washington correspondent. It was renamed “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” the following year, ultimately winning more than 30 awards for journalistic excellence.

The newscast became “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” after his long-time partner stepped down from the daily newscast in 1995.

MacNeil’s career began at the Reuters news agency in London in 1955. Five years later he entered TV as a London correspondent for NBC News, and in 1963 he joined NBC’s Washington bureau, covering the civil rights movement, the White House and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He also worked for the BBC before joining PBS in 1971. T

he journalists have won Emmys, George Foster Peabody Awards and Fred Friendly First Amendment Awards. They were jointly inducted into the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame in 1999.

They also are prolific authors. Lehrer has written 17 novels, three plays and two memoirs. MacNeil also has written fiction and non-fiction books.

The long-time partners continue to work together at the company they founded, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, which produces The NewsHour in addition to documentaries, Web sites and interactive DVDs.

Previous Cronkite Award recipients include TV journalists Tom Brokaw, Bill Moyers and Jane Pauley; newspaper publishers Al Neuharth, Katharine Graham and Otis Chandler; television executives Ted Turner, Roone Arledge and Don Hewitt; and newspaper journalists Bob Woodward, Helen Thomas and Ben Bradlee.

It has long been known that birds and many other animals including turtles, salamanders and lobsters, use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate, but the nature of their global positioning systems (GPS) has not been completely understood.

One school of thought hypothesizes that birds use magnetically-sensitive chemical reactions initiated by light (called chemical magnetoreception) to orient themselves, but no chemical reaction in the laboratory, until now, has been shown to respond to magnetic fields as weak as the Earth’s.

Scientists from Arizona State University and the University of Oxford, whose work appears in the April 30 advanced online publication of the journal Nature, have synthesized and studied a sophisticated molecule that, under illumination, is sensitive to both the magnitude and the direction of magnetic fields as tiny as the Earth’s, which is, on average, one-twenty thousandth as strong as a refrigerator magnet.

ASU’s Devens Gust, professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, states that “although the chemical magnetoreception mechanism for avian magnetic navigation has been discussed by many investigators, our research provides the first proof that this mechanism can actually function with magnetic fields as small as those of the Earth.”

Gust, who also is a faculty researcher in the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis at ASU, says “the design, synthesis and a few initial magnetic field effect studies were done at ASU in the context of artificial photosynthetic solar energy conversion. The Oxford group, led by Peter Hore, professor of chemistry, realized that these effects might be relevant to chemical magnetoreception, constructed the extremely sensitive apparatus needed to observe the phenomena, and carried out the appropriate experiments.”

Ten years ago, a National Science Foundation-sponsored research team at Arizona State led by Gust, Thomas Moore and Ana Moore, professors of chemistry and biochemistry, synthesized a molecular “triad” and demonstrated that when the triad was exposed to light, it formed a short-lived, high-energy charge-separated species whose lifetime was influenced by magnetic fields.

The special molecules were originally synthesized as artificial photosynthetic reaction centers, being developed as chemical solar energy conversion systems. They were inspired by the way plants harvest sunlight, and had nothing whatsoever to do with bird navigation.

A related triad molecule was recently synthesized by Paul Liddell, assistant research professional working with Gust and the Moores, and studied by Hore and coworkers at the University of Oxford. The British researchers used lasers that sent out pulses of light lasting only one-thousand millionth’s of a second to investigate the molecular properties. A major problem was to completely shield their experiments from the Earth’s magnetic field.

The wonder molecule comprises three units (a carotene-porphyrin-fullerene triad). When excited by light, the triad molecule forms a charge-separated state with the negative charge on the soccer-ball-like fullerene (or buckyball) portion and the positive charge on the rod-like carotene portion. The lifetime of the charge-separated species before it returns to the normal state is sensitive to the magnitude and direction of a weak magnetic field, similar to that of the Earth. The triad molecule, in its charge separated state, could be thought of as having little bar magnets at either end – so far apart that they interact with each other only weakly.

Gust and Liddell were joined in this research by Kiminori Maeda, Kevin Henbest and Christiane Timmel of the University of Oxford’s inorganic chemistry laboratory and Filippo Cintolesi, Ilya Kuprov, Christopher Rodgers and Hore of Oxford’s physical chemistry laboratory.

“These results provide a clear proof of principle that the magnetic compass sense of migratory birds is based on a magnetically-sensitive chemical reaction whose product yields and/or rate depend on the orientations of the molecules involved with respect to the geomagnetic field,” adds Hore.

Gust also notes that understanding animal navigation systems is of great ecological importance because weak, man-made magnetic fields are produced by many widely-used technologies, such as power lines and communications equipment. In fact, this also allows for a diagnostic test of the magnetoreceptor mechanism, he says. Research has shown that both broadband radio noise (0.1-10.0 MHz) and constant frequency (7MHz) signals disrupted magnetic orientation in European robins.

“Of course,” Gust adds, “this research does not prove that birds actually use this mechanism, only that they could. But, there is a large body of research on birds that is consistent with the magnetoreception idea.”

The international research team is busily designing new molecules and experiments to further prove their case. This work has demonstrated that the ingenious chemical magnetoreception concept is indeed feasible. It certainly provides some insight into the structure and dynamic design features needed for a molecular interpretation of how the birds go about keeping their appointments in strange places across the world.

Jenny Green, Jenny.Green@asu.edu
(480) 965-1430
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Internationally renowned scholars Rebecca Dobash, professor of social research, and Russell Dobash, professor of criminology and social policy at the School of Law, University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, have joined the School of Justice and Social Inquiry as permanent Visiting Distinguished Professors.

Together the Dobashes have published eight internationally award winning books and more than 100 articles and book chapters in the areas of domestic violence, gender and crime. Their first book, Violence Against Wives (Free Press, 1979) established the field of historically and socially contextualized domestic violence studies. The authors of this groundbreaking work were awarded the World Congress of Victimology’s International Award for Original Research and Significant Publications in 1980. Their book Women, Violence and Social Change (Routledge, 1992) won the American Society of Criminology Award for Outstanding Comparative Criminology. In 1995 they received the American Society of Criminology’s August Vollmer award for significant contributions to criminal justice research and policy. Most recently they have been selected as two of the University of Manchester’s Knowledge Horizon Professors.

The Dobashes will spend several weeks in residence at ASU the spring term of each year. Their appointment with the school represents a homecoming for them as both received their bachelor’s and master’s degrees from ASU prior to completing their doctorates in sociology at Washington State University. Since completing their doctorates, they have held teaching positions in the United Kingdom beginning with the University of Stirling, Scotland, and the University of Wales before assuming their current positions at the University of Manchester.

Before their arrival at the School of Justice and Social Inquiry, the Dobashes also have had visiting positions or been invited scholars-in-residence at the Rockefeller Foundation Centre for Fellows in Bellagio, Italy; University of California, Berkeley; Johns Hopkins University; University of Haifa, Israel; and, the University of Melbourne and University of Sydney, Australia. Their research has been supported through a number of prestigious awards from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Institute of Justice, the Rockefeller Foundation and the UK equivalent of the National Science Foundation known as the Economic and Social Research Council. Notably, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation sponsored their year-long international and multidisciplinary initiative on violence against women.

The Dobashes accepted the invitation to be permanent Visiting Distinguished Professors after having worked with faculty at international conferences and during a previous appointment as Visiting Researchers in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry.

“We are delighted to be able to spend more time at ASU in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry with students are colleagues who are both welcoming and intellectually stimulating. This provides an excellent opportunity for us to engage with the impressive scholars in the school in ways that will enable us to further develop our own research,” says Rebecca Dobash.

According to School of Justice and Social Inquiry Director Marjorie S. Zatz, "Russell and Rebecca Dobash are leading scholars internationally in the area of domestic violence. More than anyone else, they have defined this field of study for the past 30 years. We
are delighted that Russell and Rebecca have chosen to join the school as Visiting Distinguished Professors on a regular basis each spring, guest lecturing in classes, offering public lectures, and meeting with faculty and graduate student research clusters. They will contribute greatly to one of our school’s core scholarly themes – law, policy and social change – and to transdisciplinary scholarship more generally in the area of gender violence and the law."

John Johnson, professor in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry, who taught one of the first undergraduate courses on domestic violence at ASU, is "proud that by hosting Rebecca Dobash and Russell Dobash the school continues to advance cutting edge, social justice research on domestic violence."

Associate Professor Madelaine Adelman welcomes the Dobashes’ annual visit with the department. "From the beginning, my research on the politics of domestic violence in Israel was developed in conversation with the Dobashes’ scholarship. Their innovative approach to domestic violence research continues to motivate me to conduct collaborative, transdisciplinary and use-inspired scholarship."

Additionally, Adelman is pleased that her students will benefit from the Dobashes’ guest lectures in her courses on domestic violence and qualitative research methods this semester. "The Dobashes are able to translate their research findings for novices and experts alike - their passion for careful, systematic research will encourage undergraduate and graduate students to help solve one of our generation’s most entrenched social problems,” she says.

Faculty across the campus concur. Alesha Durfee, assistant professor in the Women and Gender Studies Program, whose research focuses on the legal regulation of domestic violence considers the Dobashes to have contributed deeply to her scholarship and teaching: "Their insights into the issues of theorizing, defining, and measuring intimate partner violence and violence against women have had dramatic impacts on the field,” she says.

Graduate students agree that their visit will benefit the development of their own research projects, particularly given the dexterity with which the Dobashes tack between qualitative and quantitative methods in their pursuit of innovate ways to answer new questions about domestic violence. Justice and Social Inquiry doctoral student Olivia Salcido is grateful for how the Dobashes’ mixed method approach “moves beyond the individuals involved in a relationship to analyze the historical, cultural, and multi-oppressive contexts in which domestic violence occurs." She adds that "the Dobashes’ research has always been instrumental in my approach to exploring domestic violence and immigration."

Demetra Presley, a graduate student, agrees. "Learning about their methods and the progress they were making in the field when I was an undergraduate laid the foundation for my own interest in domestic violence as a graduate student. Their research challenged my own beliefs about domestic violence."

The Dobashes’ current research addresses the significant challenges society and the criminal justice system face when dealing with domestic violence homicide, one of the most visible yet misunderstood forms of domestic violence. The Dobashes have turned to considering how and why men kill their intimate women partners and/or their children. This is a timely question in light of the recent murder of a 17-year old female high school student by her ex-boyfriend here in the Valley. Indeed, the State of Arizona witnessed 127 domestic violence-related deaths in 2007.

Two Arizona State University professors – Edward Prescott, Regents’ Professor and Nobel Laureate, and Luc Anselin, founding director of the School of Geographical Sciences – have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. They join 10 other ASU faculty members in the Academy, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advises the federal government on matters of science or technology.

Prescott, who joined ASU in 2003 and is the W. P. Carey Chair of Economics in the W. P. Carey School of Business, is a senior monetary advisor at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank. He was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, being lauded for a lifetime of original thinking that has addressed some of the most important long-standing questions in macroeconomics. He shared the prize with Finn Kydland.

Prescott’s work on business cycles has recast the way economists think about economic fluctuations, arguing that they represent the optimal response of the economy to various shocks. He also is known for his seminal work in policy analysis, economic development, general equilibrium theory and finance.

“I am honored to be elected to the National Academy of Science. I think it is an indicator of the success that ASU economics is having,” says Prescott. “It is a pleasure to work with the students here, including not only the graduate students, but the honors undergraduates I teach as well. I owe my election to my students who I have learned so much from, and to a number of collaborators.”

Anselin, who joined ASU last July, is one of the principal developers of the field of spatial econometrics and is best known for his book “Spatial Econometrics” and his development of the applications SpaceStat and GeoDa.

Anselin also serves as director of the GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation, a new research unit in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences devoted to the development, implementation and application of state-of-the-art methods of geospatial analysis to policy issues in the social and environmental sciences.

“I think this is fantastic and an important recognition of the contribution of spatial thinking and spatial analysis to science. It also means that the School of Geographical Sciences becomes one of the very few geography units in the U.S. where there are two members of NAS among the faculty,” Anselin says. NAS member Billie Lee Turner, a national leader in sustainability science, recently joined ASU as the Gilbert F. White Chair in Environment and Society in the School of Geographical Sciences.

"On behalf of the entire ASU community I congratulate Professors Luc Anselin and Ed Prescott on this greatly deserved honor," says ASU President Michael M. Crow. "The scholarship of ASU’s faculty and students has been repeatedly recognized by honors, awards, fellowships and grants. Election to the National Academy of Sciences is one of the greatest distinctions that any scholar can achieve."

Prescott and Anselin were among 72 new members who were elected April 29 to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Those new members bring the total number of active members to 2,041.

Other ASU faculty members who are NAS members include Charles Arntzen, Jane Buikstra, Roy Curtiss, Bert Hoelldobler, Elinor Ostrom, John Rowell, Rustum Roy, V. Kerry Smith and Hoyt Tillman.

Arizona State University doctoral student Rebecca Clark bends the neck of a flexible lamp to illuminate a wide plain of dirt captured between two panes of glass, while three. Phoenix elementary students peer closely to see that the soil has been organized into a branching array of chambers by some very busy leaf-cutter ants.

Around the four, on every available surface are trays, experimental set ups, containing colonies of leaf-cutters and sap-sippers; big-headed ants and night ants. Of special interest: predatory, jumping ants from India.

“Excellent,” Taylor bursts out, then the barrage of questions from the trio of young students start: “Are all ants female? Is that a garbage dump? What is that fuzzy stuff?"

"This is so much fun,” Clark beams. “I love the questions.”

The inquisitors are third-graders Taylor Cheatham and Itzany Mendez, and fifth-grader Brian Varela from Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School. That these students are both curious and articulate comes as no surprise to the accompanying adults, their parents, teachers, ASU graduate students, and the host of this excursion, Charles Kazilek. The three are the winners of the first bi-annual “Ask a Biologist” podcast contest, and they were chosen based on their vocal skills, curiosity, and creativity by the panel of judges.

Questions are in fact the lifeblood of Kazilek. As director of technology integration and outreach in the ASU School of Life Sciences, he created “Ask-a-Biologist,” the innovative K-12 children’s science education Web site specifically to provide answers to the puzzled, perplexed and just plain curious. A portal for fun and facts, the site receives more than 200 questions a month and 500,000 unique visitors a year. As its host Dr. Biology, a Web persona created by Kazilek, has interpreted more than 20,000 queries in the last 10 years – and has only been stumped a dozen times.

“I like to say that Dr. Biology is the smartest person I know,” Kazilek quips.

Dr. Biology’s formidable intellect is backed by a pool of more than “100 mostly willing volunteers” from ASU’s School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. With more than 350 faculty and graduate students to call upon, there is no lack of experts to help K-12 students fathom the most ancient and most technologically sophisticated changes in the world.

The Web site took a technological and creative leap of its own in 2007, launching a podcast program, and creating a home base – Grass Roots Studio – where Kazilek and his colleagues record. Twice monthly, children, adults, home-schoolers and teachers can download the sounds of the Tibetan plateau or drop into a conversation with a Pulitzer Prize winning ant adventurer.

However, according to Kazilek, one voice was missing, “the children themselves.” Hence, the podcast contest and search for child co-hosts was born.

“This is such a wonderful opportunity and a day of learning and lessons for us all,” says Helen Rentz, a third-grade teacher at Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School. “The children have never had anything like this available to them before. They were very motivated to research, to interview, to podcast, and it’s the first trip for them and their families to ASU.”

“This has definitely made an impact,” adds Joan Howell, teacher with the Accelerated Learning Procedures (ALPS) program in Phoenix in which all three students participate.

To become a podcast co- host, each student did a podcast interview and submitted a CD, much like a podcast version of “American Idol,” with support from their teachers. As winners, and as Kazilek’s co-hosts, they recorded a professional quality podcast that is broadcasted internationally. In addition to meeting and interviewing scientists, the children (and their teachers) get a day off from school and the chance to pick up some hands-on science techniques. They also receive one of the tools of their trade – an Apple Ipod Shuffle.

Cheatham, Mendez, and Varela are the first three of 12 students who will be featured on Ask-a-Biologist each year. “When do we get to see the feathers?” Brian asks.

One of the scientist’s to be interviewed is Kevin McGraw, a researcher who studies bird feather coloration and behavior. He has feathers to hand out and questions of his own for the children: “What’s the world’s longest feather?” (Five feet, seven inches belonging to a crested Argus pheasant). “Who has the most feathers?”

Varela flips over a Golden pheasant skin and passes it to Taylor whose eyes open wide. McGraw knows what make children tick. He talks about genetically engineered, naked chickens used to simulate dinosaurs running for the movie Jurassic Park and reveals that swans have more then 25,000 feathers, while hummingbirds only about 940. Varela picks up the long plume of a macaw, blue on one side, yellow on another, a question forming on his lips, one of many that will frame his interview later with McGraw.

“Can I have a bird?” Cheatham asks her dad as the children leave the McGraw’s laboratory to prepare to do their interviews. “Yes,” he replies, watching her leave. “But I’d really like to have an ant farm.”

To hear Taylor’s interview, go to the Ask-a-Biologist Web site: http://askabiologist.asu.edu/podcasts/index.html#Gutierrez (volume 33).
Details and deadlines for future contests can be found at http://askabiologist.asu.edu/podcasts/contest.html.

Ask a Biologist is recognized by the Arizona Technology in Education Alliance and the Center for Digital Education. It was also the winner of the 2003 ASU President’s Award for Innovation.

A research team of students from ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business combed the metropolitan Phoenix area before, during and after Super Bowl XLII earlier this year to gauge the game’s economic impact on Arizona.

The three-month study, led by 24 students in the W. P. Carey sports business MBA program, concluded that the game and its related activities generated a record $500.6 million in direct and indirect spending by visitors and organizations in town for Super Bowl week. The game was played Feb. 3 in Glendale.

Ray Artigue, executive director of the sports business MBA, says the study was far more complicated than similar projects because events surrounding the game were staged all over the metro area. He said the research team drove a collective 500 miles to interview fans at the various events.

“We crisscrossed the town,” Artigue says. “The people we needed to interview about their spending were spread out among dozens of hotels, numerous parties and the weeklong NFL fan experience. We spent 10 days gathering data before the game and finished at the airport two days afterward.”

The students collected 1,594 surveys to represent a cross-section of the visitors who traveled to Arizona for the game and related events.

Respondents were asked a variety of questions, including the events they were attending, the number of nights they were staying and what they were spending money on while in town.

The research team also contacted out-of-state companies after the game to determine how much they spent on sponsorships and private events during Super Bowl week, all in an effort to calculate organizational spending.

The W. P. Carey Sports Business MBA program was hired to conduct the study by the Arizona Super Bowl host committee. The sports program has conducted similar economic impact studies for several other sporting events, including college football’s BCS national championship games in 2003 and 2007; the FBR Open in 2006; and Phoenix International Raceway events and the LPGA Safeway International in 2007.

“We had many choices of research firms from across the country to conduct this study,” says Bob Sullivan, president of the host committee.

“Based on their methodology, thoroughness and professionalism, we made a correct decision to work with ASU.”
In 2006, the W. P. Carey MBA Sports Business program was lauded by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top five graduate sports programs in the country.

Hal Mattern, hal.mattern@asu.edu
(480) 965-5577
W. P. Carey School of Business

Arizona State junior C/DH Kiel Roling has been named Pac-10 Player of the Week, the conference announced today. It is the third time in his career he has earned the honor from the conference and it is the fourth time a Devil has earned the award this season. Brett Wallace won the award after the first weekend of play, while Ike Davis won back-to-back awards in March.

Roling, a Grand Junction, Colo. product, helped lead Arizona State to a 4-1 week, including a three game sweep of Pac-10 rival California. Roling went 9-17 (.529) with a homer and 10 RBI. He knocked in at least one run in all five games and had three RBI during a 4-5 night at Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday. He also drew eight walks, one intentional, and scored seven runs.

Is it possible for a mother of four to be her oldest daughter’s college classmate and keep their relationship a secret? For Ana and Jennifer Ramirez, the answer is a resounding no, but they tried.

Both are graduating May 8 as teachers from the School of Educational Innovation and Teacher Preparation at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus. On a larger scale, the duo is part of the record 8,000 students expected to graduate from ASU, a number that surpasses last spring by at least a thousand. The university commencement ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. in Wells Fargo Arena on the Tempe campus. The ceremony will also be broadcast live on the Internet, at http://is.asu.edu/live/.

When the two first set out at Mesa Community College, they wanted to keep their relationship hidden from their classmates. That worked for about, oh, two weeks before daughter Jennifer let it slip during a lab session.

“We were in a biology lab dissecting a frog together and Jennifer says, ‘Mom, that’s not how you do it!’” recounts Ana. “All of our classmates turned and gaped at us thinking how is it possible that two people we thought were either dorm mates or sisters could possibly be a mother and daughter team.”

Attending school together was admittedly awkward at first, but it provided them a support system that most students never experience.

“We were able to pool our resources and save costs on books and gas, plus we were able to study together and offer the other encouragement throughout the process,” says Jennifer.

Each started their pursuit for their bachelor’s in education degrees for different reasons. Ana was working as a full-time teacher’s aide at Jefferson Elementary School in Mesa. Once No Child Left Behind was signed into law, it required her to seek a two-year degree to keep her job as a paraprofessional.

“I had my reservations and trepidations about going to school, let alone going to the same school that my daughter was attending,” says Ana, who also is the recipient of a Rodel Promising Student Teacher Scholarship.

For Jennifer, she wanted to start on her college degree once she graduated from high school so she could become a teacher.

While their circumstances were different, they both agree they chose to pursue education for the same reason. “For us, education is one of the most important tools in the quest for a better society,” say Ana and Jennifer. “As teachers, we know that the most important objective of education is to help students pursue their desires to learn and reach their potential.”

The duo may have taken all of their classes together at ASU, but they did separate for their student teaching experiences. This spring, Ana completed her field experience in a third grade class at Eisenhower Elementary School. Jennifer finished hers with a fifth grade classroom at Jefferson Elementary School.

The pair plans to go their separate ways as teachers, somewhat.

“We are going to work for different schools in the fall,” says Ana, “however, they will be in the Mesa School District,” adds Jennifer.

Their advice to others who are thinking about going to school is to persevere, face the challenge with a deep determination and always keep your aspirations alive.

“It was all very exciting and overwhelming in a lot of ways, but no matter what circumstances crossed our path while being classmates, we stayed together and always kept our minds and hearts open,” says Ana.

The team plans to attend ASU’s spring commencement scheduled for 9 a.m., May 8, at Wells Fargo Arena; the School of Educational Innovation and Teacher Preparation’s convocation ceremony for its graduates at 9 a.m., May 9, at Grady Gammage Auditorium; and the Hispanic Convocation at 5 p.m., May 10, at Wells Fargo Arena.

Professor Miguel Arciniega clearly remembers the dichotomy of being a Mexican-American youth trying to learn what it means to be a man.

Now he and his colleagues have developed an academic scale to define what it means to be either a gentleman or a “macho” man in the Mexican-American culture.

“This has been a lifelong thing for me, in terms of growing up in El Paso, Texas, and finding out the messages about being a man from my father and grandfather,” says Arciniega, an associate professor of counseling and counseling psychology in the Division of Psychology in Education with ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton College of Education. “On the streets, from my friends, it was a very different message.”

Arciniega says he was raised to believe that men took care of their families and respected their wives. His family raised him to be un caballero – “a gentleman” – but his peers embodied machismo, which is the stereotypical, hypermasculine image of Mexican-American men as chauvinists who drink too much and fight too much.

This contradiction in the meaning of “manhood” resulted in Arciniega pursuing an extensive study of machismo in the Mexican-American community. The resulting research article, “Toward a Fuller Conception of Machismo: Development of a Traditional Machismo and Caballerismo Scale,” was published earlier this year by the Journal of Counseling Psychology, the top-tier journal in its field.

The journal gives particular attention to empirical studies on the evaluation and application of counseling interventions, and the applications of counseling with diverse and under-represented populations.

The machismo article also received special recognition as the featured article on the journal’s Web site, apa.org/journals/cou.

The journal’s associate editor, Stephen Quintana, worked with Arciniega and his team through many drafts to produce the final manuscript.

The journal features just one article in each of its four issues per year based on its appeal to a wide range of readers and researchers, and the quality of the research itself. Journal editors have received many positive comments about the article since its publication.

The project evolved from research Arciniega worked on in 2005 with Tom Anderson, who was a doctoral student in counseling psychology at ASU. They realized then that very little research had been done on machismo. The few studies that had been done focused on a restricted view of aggression and dominance among Mexican-American men. Therefore, Anderson developed a “Measure of Machismo” to investigate clinical correlates.

“Both the academic literature and the popular literature tended to talk about machismo as very negative,” Arciniega says. “Other measurement scales only perpetuated this negative stereotype.”

He sought to redefine machismo into a more positive trait of Mexican-American men by developing a new scale that included negative and positive aspects.

The research team for the second study included Terence Tracey, a professor of counseling and counseling psychology in the Division of Psychology in Education with the Fulton College of Education. Tracey is an expert in statistical analysis and development of scale construction measurement. The research team also included doctoral candidate Zoila Tovar-Blank, who then was a graduate research assistant.

The researchers used Anderson’s instrument in a sampling of 403 Mexican-American men of various ages and education levels. Anderson gathered 71 positive and negative statements about manhood from traditional Latino stories, folklore and interviews with Mexican-American males about their gender roles and values.

“We pride ourselves on Tom Anderson gathering statements from so many different areas, with a range of positive and negative statements of what it means to be a Mexican-American man,” Arciniega says.

The statements ranged from “real men should never let down their guard” to “men should be affectionate with their children.”

Tracey culled through the research items to determine if the responses validated the statements.

“His intricate, statistical analysis was phenomenal,” Arciniega says.

The responses helped the team discover two distinct constructs:

• Traditional machismo is the stereotypical masculine personification of a Mexican-American man as controlling, sexist and violent, correlated with antisocial behavior, aggressive masculinity and wishful thinking as a coping style. These men tend to have more difficulty expressing emotion. However, traditional machismo did not correlate with dominance as hypothesized.

• Caballerismo is a positive image of a man as the family provider who respects and cares for his family. It depicts Mexican-American men as chivalrous, nurturing and noble. These men rated higher on the social connectedness scale, saying they felt value in their family relationships and were in touch with their feelings, and the feelings of others. They also displayed more practical ways of solving their problems.

As expected, younger, less-educated men identified more with traditional machismo than caballerismo. However, the hypothesis that older, more educated Mexican-American men would correlate more with caballerismo did not hold true, Tovar-Blank says.

The study also revealed that overall satisfaction of life among these men contradicted expectations of lower satisfaction of life. Caballerismo was associated with a higher satisfaction of life, but the men who displayed traits of traditional machismo didn’t see their manly characteristics as negative. They viewed themselves as assertive men who stood up for themselves and were the heads of their household.

“Individuals who endorsed a more positive aspect of machismo, such as caballerismo, reported more satisfaction with life,” Tovar-Blank says.

But those men who endorsed traditional machismo also were more likely to be less in touch with their feelings or denied their emotions, which could have clinical implications for counseling Mexican-American men.

“We felt there must be a difference in coping skills,” Arciniega says. “People who use wishful thinking, not practical problem-solving, were highly connected to traditional machismo.”

Arciniega aays the team’s hypothesis correlating traditional machismo to fighting and arrests was confirmed. Not surprisingly, the men who didn’t fight identified with the more gentlemanly traits of caballerismo.

The article revealed that men who strongly identified themselves as Mexican endorsed more traditional machismo, while men who valued people from other cultural groups endorsed more caballerismo aspects. Although the study focused on Mexican-American men, there were responses from other Hispanics, including Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Guatemalans, Caribbeans and South Americans.

“It seemed to hold just as well for these groups,” says Tracey, who also expressed caution in the statement because of the small sample.

“We really want to do a further study with samples from these other groups to see how these constructs apply. Do they apply to men in general?”

The team hopes to test and retest for reliability, as well as to study larger sample groups, including non-Mexicans, and include questions about sexual orientation, marriage and acculturation data.

Verina Palmer Martin, verina.martin@asu.edu
(480) 965-4911
Mary Lou Fulton College of Education

Every day an average 25,000 visitors walk into the Memorial Union (MU), Arizona State University’s student union on the Tempe campus. After more than 50 years of serving the university community in the same building, the facility is getting a make-over.

As the central hub of the Tempe campus, the MU provides services, dining and office and conference space for students, staff, faculty and visitors.

The Arizona Board of Regents approved $53 million to repair and renovate the MU after a fire in November 2007 extensively damaged the building. The lower and first levels reopened within 60 days of the fire. While the second and third floors remain closed for further repair, ASU decided this was the right time to simultaneously implement upgrades and additions to the building.

“We felt it was a perfect opportunity to give the MU an updated look and feel and enhance the building’s interior and exterior spaces to deepen student engagement and interaction,” says Kellie Lowe, director of the MU.

All renovations to the building will take place during the summer between May and August. Facility upgrades will greatly enhance the dining experience at the MU and improve overall access and student services. Specifically, plans call for the following:

• Creation of the Starlight Terrace and Eco-Fresh Café, which will be adjacent to each other on the second floor (formerly the Maricopa Café) and is the first sustainable dining establishment of its kind.

• Repair and upgrade the second floor ballrooms and meeting rooms, which experienced the most damage from the fire, by incorporating new décor and modern technology.

• Redesign of three existing stairwells and construction of two new stairwells to add new points of entry and exit, especially during an emergency.

• Development of the north patio, which is an elongated landscaped and shaded gathering area located between the MU and Hayden Library that will offer additional outdoor seating and student programming space.

In addition to these projects, ASU will bring the building to current fire code compliance, which includes installation of new fire prevention methods, fire detection, warning, barrier and suppression systems on the second and third floors.

“Throughout this renovation, every decision made is based on meeting the needs of our students. We believe the newly modeled MU will be an area on campus that our students can enjoy and be proud of,” adds Lowe. “We also did our best to build a construction schedule that would have minimal impact to our students, staff, faculty and visitors; therefore we’re focused on finishing as quickly as possible during the summer.”

During the construction phase, the university community can expect minimal noise, dust and temporary closures of walking paths, which is typical for a construction project. Pedestrian traffic will be rerouted based on construction schedules and directional signage will be prominent.

All dining and services will remain open with the exception of Cereality, which closes every summer as a normal operating procedure.

Some MU offices will be relocated during the construction, including the information desk, which has moved to the lower level near the billiards, along with the MU administration offices. For full updates on the renovation project, please visit www.asu.edu/mu.

Less than one year after securing the lead gift from Craig and Connie Weatherup, the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Weatherup Center, Arizona State University’s new basketball practice facility is Tuesday, April 29, at 2 p.m. at the Farrington Softball Stadium Patio.

The practice facility, located on ASU land just southeast of the Bill Kajikawa Football Practice Fields, will include 49,000 square feet of indoor space and will have two full courts. Cost for the facility is $19.5 million. The Weatherup Center is scheduled to be completed by May 1, 2009. The project includes 2 full-size practice courts, coaches’ offices and film rooms, training area, classrooms, storage and equipment rooms.

The facility also will be used for summer camps and other athletic department events.

The project architect is HOK Sport/GouldEvans while Mortenson Construction is the CMAR.

The men’s golf squad is eight shots back of Stanford after two rounds of the Pac-10 Men’s Golf Champioships held Monday at The Meadow Club in Fairfax, Calif. Freshmen Jesper Kennegard leads the Sun Devils with a 2-under 140, which is just two shots back of the lead as ASU is playing with three freshmen, two sophomores and a senior.

ASU shot 354-361 and is at 5-over 715 and in sixth place. Stanford is at 3-under 707 (350-357).

Kennegard already has four top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes, as he entered the tournament with a 71.52 stroke average in 27 rounds, ahead of the ASU freshmen record set by four-time All-American and 2003 NCAA medalist Alejandro Canizares in 2003 when he posted a 71.65 average in eight events. Kennegard shot a 67-73 on the day and posted two eagles and was 6-under on the par-5 holes.

Freshman Stephan Gross is tied for 12th at 1-under 141, three shots back of a four-way tie for first with four players from four schools. Gross posted a tournament leading 29 pars in 36 holes.

Another freshman, James Byrne, is tied for 20th at 1-over 143 (71-72), as he and Kennegard were the only two players in the 60-man field with two eagles.

Senior and team captain Phil Telliard is tied for 31st at 3-over 145, as his 69 in the second round included five birdies and is the second-lowest score of his career. He is tied for the tournament lead in par-3 scoring at 2-under (2.75 per hole).

Sophomore Braxton Marquez shot 74-76 and is 50th at 8-over 150, while sophomore Knut Borsheim is at 11-over 153 (72-81) and tied for 55th. Marquez played the par 5 holes at 6-under, tied with three other players (including Kennegard) for the tops in the first two rounds.

The Meadow Club (par-71, 6,686 yards) will host single rounds on Tuesday, April 29, and Wednesday, April 30. The Pac-10 Championship counts the low five scores from the six-man teams.

Live scoring of the tournament is available at www.golfstat.com.

ASU AT THE PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS: Arizona State has won 11 Pac-10 titles in its 29 seasons, including a conference record six straight from 1995-2000. In addition to the six straight Pac-10 titles, ASU’s other five Pac-10 titles have come in 1979 (its first year in the league), 1981, 1989, 1990 and 1993. ASU tied for the league title in 2005 with Washington but lost on a tiebreaker formula. In its past five Pac-10 championships, ASU has finished third (2003, 2006 and 2007), second (2004) and tied for first (2005).

GOING FOR EIGHT: ASU coach Randy Lein has led ASU to seven Pac-10 titles in his 15 seasons. ASU won titles in 1993, Lein’s first year, and then won six straight from 1995-2000. ASU tied for first but lost in a tiebreaker in 2005, finished second in 2001 and 2004 and third in 1994, 2003, 2006 and 2007. Since joining the Pac-10 in the 1978-79 school year, ASU has finished out of the top five just twice in its 29 championships (ninth in 2002 and sixth in 1983).

SUN DEVILS AS PAC-10 MEDALISTS: Paul Casey won three straight Pac-10 titles from 1998-2000, which is the last time a Sun Devil won the title and is a conference record for consecutive Pac-10 titles. Other Sun Devils who have won the Pac-10 championship are Scott Johnson (1997), Phil Mickelson (1990), co-medalists Dan Forsman and Tony Grimes (1981), Jim Bertoncino (co-medalist in 1980) and co-medalists Scott Watkins and Dan Croonquist (1979). Niklas Lemke finished second the past two seasons and tied for seventh in 2005.

NEXT UP: The 2008 NCAA West Regional will be held in Bremerton, Wash., May 15-17. The 2008 NCAA Championships will be held in West Lafayette, Ind., May 28- 31 with Purdue serving as host.