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1. Memorial Union Spring Break Hours |
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The Memorial Union will have special operating hours during spring break. To view the hours, see www.mub.mtu.edu and click on "Spring Break Hours." |
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2. Rozsa Spring Break Hours |
The Rozsa Center will be closed to the public at 5 p.m. during spring break week, March 7-11.
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3. Family Engineering Night at the Carnegie Museum |
The Carnegie Museum is teaming up with the Michigan Tech Family Engineering Program to offer a Family Engineering Night from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 8, at the Carnegie Museum in Houghton.
Neil Hutzler and Joan Chadde will lead a variety of hands-on activities. (Hutzler is the PI on the NSF-funded project.)
Parents and children in grades one to six are invited to participate. Admission is free. Parking is available behind the building or in the city lot across Montezuma Street.
The evening will start with tabletop activities that families can do on their own--Thrillseekers, Diving Board Dominoes, Turn up the Sound and Who Engineered It.
Next, families will participate in two engineering challenges: "Bright Ideas in Electricity," where family teams design a flashlight, and "Five Points Traffic Jam," where family teams design a safer traffic intersection.
"Our goal is to expose youngsters to engineering," explains Joan Chadde, education program coordinator for the Western UP Center for Science, Math and Environmental Education. "We're excited to try out some of the new activities we've developed at Michigan Tech through the Family Engineering Program funded."
"We are happy to host a Family Engineering Night to go along with this month's engineering theme," adds Elise Nelson, museum director. "It's an opportunity for parents and kids to spend a fun evening learning together."
The Carnegie Museum is located in the former Portage Lake District Library building on the corner of Huron and Montezuma streets.
The Family Fun Night can also be found on facebook . "Like" the page and get up-to-date information on programs and events at the Carnegie Museum. The facebook page can be accessed even if you do not have an account. |
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4. Reminder: MTU Preschool Cabin Fever Carnival |
submitted by the MTU Preschool
Step out of the cold and into the warmth of a good time with friends at MTU Preschool's Cabin Fever Carnival, to be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, March 5, in the Rozsa Center Horner Lobby.
This event is fun for the entire family--featuring games for all ages and skill levels, prizes, refreshments, a cake walk and a huge silent auction and themed basket auction.
MTU Preschool is open to all community members. Non-English-speaking children are welcome. Residents of Daniel Heights receive a 50-percent discount on tuition.
For more information, call the preschool at 487-2720 or visit www.mtupreschool.org . |
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5. Reminder: Khana Khazana Visits Thailand |
Dishes from Thailand are on the menu this week at Khana Khazana (food treasure), a special ethnic lunch cooked by international students and served in the Memorial Union Food Court every Friday.
Parawee Pumwongpitak, a graduate student from Thailand, will cook Spaghetti Pad Kee Mao, spaghetti with spicy Thai stir fried chicken and herb (soya balls for veggie dish); Tom Seap Muu, tasty spicy and sour soup of northeastern Thailand served with pork or mushrooms; Khao Niew Sang, sweet sticky rice topped with a slice of creamy egg custard.
A complete meal costs $6 and includes coffee, hot tea or a fountain soda. Items are available a la carte for $2.
Khana Khazana is a cooperative effort of international students and Dining Services |
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6. Lunch and Learn: "Graduate Fellowship Opportunities at the National Institutes of Health" |
In collaboration with Associate Professor Tammy Donahue (ME-EM), who has served on the NIH study section for NRSA awards five times, and Chair Jason Carter (Exercise Science), who has active research support from NIH and a comprehensive understanding of the NRSA, Sponsored Programs will host a Lunch and Learn on the NIH Individual Graduate Fellowship Opportunity--Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award NRSA.
The session is scheduled from noon to 1 p.m., Tuesday, March 15, in Memorial Union Ballroom A-1.
Graduate students and faculty will learn who should apply, what is involved in preparing an application, specific tips for writing a successful NRSA and an inside perspective on the criteria which reviewers use to evaluate applications.
This session will focus on an explanation of the different NRSA funding mechanisms, an understanding of the role of institutes in funding decisions, and how to determine if NIH is a good fit for interested applicants, or if NSF or others are better
Specific proposal development tips will be given on the four main proposal components: candidate qualifications, training plan, mentor statement and research plan.
To register for the event, see NIH NRSA presentation .
For more information, contact Jodi Lehman at 487-2875 or jglehman@mtu.edu . |
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7. Teaching at Tech: In Defense of Watson |
by William Kennedy, director, Center for Teaching, Learning and Faculty Development
I continue to marvel at the sustained, shrill chorus of voices decrying the ultimate virtues of Watson, the humongously powerful computer that recently publicly pounded two Jeopardy! geeks at their own game.
For example, two professors of philosophy recently opined in the New York Times, "Far from being the paradigm of intelligence, therefore, mere matching with no sense of mattering or relevance is barely any kind of intelligence at all. As beings for whom the world already matters, our central human ability is to be able to see what matters when .... This is an existential achievement orders of magnitude more amazing and wonderful than any statistical treatment of bare facts could ever be. The greatest danger of Watson's victory is not that it proves machines could be better versions of us, but that it tempts us to misunderstand ourselves as poorer versions of them."
So, there, you smarty-pants collection of digits and bits. Take that!
With immediate apologies to the Bard, however, methinks the philosophers may just be protesting a little too much. Already, Watson, the computer, is being reprogrammed to assist doctors in rapidly and accurately diagnosing unimaginably complex medical maladies. Soon, Dr. Watson will be simultaneously tracking emerging medical literature, gobbling up computerized patient records, and comparing diagnostic findings from medical facilities around the world--all while teasing out new drug
interactions and helping physicians to bridge the disciplinary gaps and the tsunami of research data flooding into the system each day. Hemlock, anyone?
According to the philosophers in the Times' piece, Harvard's Sean Dorrance Kelly and UC-Berkeley's Hubert Dreyfus, "Our central human ability is to see what matters when." If my feeble grasp of philosophy hasn't completely failed me, the "what matters when" question clearly lies in the domain of ethics, or as I prefer to refer to it, the "Land of Ought."
Watson, it appears, will be able to tell you what's physically wrong with you, what you ought to consider doing about it,
and what the likely statistical outcome will be if you do or don't do what is indicated. It seems to me that "seeing what matters when" is, to some degree, somewhat dependent upon understanding the reality of what is actually going on in any situation. But, then again, philosophy was never my forte.
Perhaps the problem lies in the fact that a goodly portion of what engaged the philosophers of old has been effectively parceled out to the scientists, mathematicians, religious leaders and the artists of our day.
In modern educational schemes, extensive encounters with the
wonderings of the ancient "big picture" philosophers seem to be
primarily restricted to the offspring of the wealthy and privileged. Encouraging the exploration of the Land of Ought, in the classical sense, appears to be a luxury reserved for those destined for great things by accident of birth. Ah, some things never change!
So, I am left wondering, if it is the case that "knowing what matters when" is truly our "central human ability," why is it that we spend so little time encouraging the development of this gift in our schools?
Perhaps having Watson on duty in several practical domains-- solving problems and providing ready answers to complex questions--may just free up some time for us to relaunch our exploration of the Land of Ought in a more serious, deliberate way. But, I doubt it. |
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