1. CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: FACULTY DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD

The Faculty Distinguished Service Award Committee is now seeking
nominations for the 2005 award. The deadline for nominations is 5 p.m.
on Tuesday, March 1.

The award is open to all full-time faculty, including lecturers and
research faculty. Those who hold restricted appointments (e.g.,
adjunct, visiting, temporary or part-time faculty) are not eligible.
Faculty who hold positions with a significant administrative component
(e.g., deans, associate deans, department chairs, etc.) are not
eligible.

The Faculty Distinguished Service Award recognizes service to the
university community that has significantly improved the quality of
some aspect of campus life. The work could have resulted, in part, from
compensated efforts, but it must have been of a quality that
distinguishes itself above and beyond the normal execution of those
tasks. The award is intended to recognize exceptional service in one
area rather than integrated service. It is not a lifetime achievement
award.

Nominations will be accepted from any member of the university
community including staff, students and alumni and should be received
by the committee by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1. To make a nomination
fill out the nomination form (available at http://forest.mtu.edu/fdsa/
) and submit it together with any applicable supporting material to
Kathy Halvorsen, Faculty Distinguished Service Award Committee,
Department of Social Sciences. Include a description of the specific
work for which the candidate is being nominated; an explanation of why
the work merits the award, including a description of how the
university has changed as a result of this work; a model inscription to
be placed on the award; and any appropriate supporting materials.

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2. TIPS ON REMOVING ICE AND SAVING YOUR GARDEN

In the heart of January, the last thing on most people's minds is the
flowers that will poke their heads through the snow next spring.
 
Unfortunately, most plants don't do well when they are exposed to
some (or all) of the usual ice-melting chemicals on the market. But
this time of year, homeowners can do a lot to protect their plants just
by following a few simple guidelines on removing snow and ice from
their walkways, says Russ Alger, director of the Institute of Snow
Research.

1. Shovel first.

Spend a few minutes removing as much snow and ice as you can with a
shovel or scraper. You won't need as much chemical, and your plants
will thank you once the snow melts.

2. Use less.

No matter what kind of ice-melting chemical you use to clear your
front walk, don't use a lot. "Try putting on half of what you're used
to," Alger says. "It's best to put on a little, let the ice melt, and
then put on a little more."

"The biggest mistake we make is putting too much on," he adds. "It's
a waste if you are putting it on to get traction."

There are a number of good ice-melting chemicals available, and they
range widely in price. Each has its advantages and disadvantages; some
melt snow at much lower temperatures but tend to be expensive. Alger
recommends using a commercial blend of ice-melting chemicals to get the
most-consistent results.

3. When you clear the semi-melted slush, don't put it on your planting
beds.

Your plantings are probably right next to the walk, but being under
the snow, it's easy to forget they are there. Your best bet is to push
the dirty snow and ice where it won't melt on the plants, such as a
storm drain or gutter.

To really protect your plants, dig a trench about a foot deep next to
the walk so that the melted water will drain away from your planting.
Fill it with gravel and, if you like, top it off with an inch or two of
topsoil. Or install drain tile. Needless to say, this can wait till
summer.

4. Plan ahead: Salt before it snows.

If you treat your walkway before the first big snow of the season,
the ice will come up easier. Dissolve as much chemical in water as you
can and spray it on your walkway. For plain old salt--sodium
chloride--that's about two pounds of salt per gallon of water. Since
most walkway surfaces are somewhat absorbent, this treatment can make
your de-icing jobs easier all winter long.

"If you are getting six inches overnight, spray first and shovel
later," Alger advises. "The liquid keeps ice from sticking in the first
place."
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3. JOSHI: UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OF CELLULOSE BIOSYNTHESIS IN TREES

"We are immersed," says Chandrashekhar Joshi, "in a sea of cellulose."

"It's like air," he says. "We are surrounded by it but we are hardly
aware of it. It's in furniture, paper, clothes, film, paint, medicine .
. ."

Not to mention the billions of tons of cellulose stored in trees
standing out there. "It's the number one organic material in the world,
and plants have been making it for a long time, about two billion
years," says Joshi, an associate professor in MTU's School of Forest
Resources and Environmental Science.

And it's at the center of a $200-billion forest product industry. So
you'd think we'd know a lot about cellulose synthesis by now. But the
fact is, we don't. "We still don't know how plants make it," Joshi
says.

Joshi, a member of Biotechnology Research Center is unraveling that
mystery with a $584,000 National Science Foundation's Early Career
Award. And with a second, $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, he will explore how to develop trees that produce better
quality cellulose in the woody tissues, which would be a boon for the
forest products industry.

Joshi's research team has already isolated three enzymes needed to
build cellulose in aspen. With the NSF grant, they are determining what
roles these enzymes play with the aim of growing trees that produce
more cellulose in their trunks and less in their leaves. You would need
fewer trees to produce the same amount of, say, newsprint, while saving
on energy and other production costs. In addition, the amount of toxic
chemicals needed to extract cellulose from wood pulp would be reduced.

Cellulose is a long polymer that forms a dynamic envelope of living
plant cells influencing every phase of a plant's life cycle. With the
USDA grant, Joshi will attempt to provide trees with more of the raw
material they need to make cellulose: the simple sugar glucose.

Research has shown that woody parts of trees that receive more
glucose also have better quality cellulose. Thus, if more glucose can
be made available for cellulose production during wood formation, the
overall quality of cellulose could be improved.

"Since cellulose fibers are tightly interwoven with human
civilization, this could translate into substantial benefits to our
society and forest product industries worldwide," Joshi said.
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4. PARLEZ-VOUS FRANCAIS?

The Café Français, an informal French conversation group, meets on
the first and third Tuesday of each month between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. in
the back room of the Campus Café (ground floor of Wadsworth Hall). The
next meeting will be Feb. 1. Questions? Contact Heidi Bostic at
hlbostic@mtu.edu.

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5. GIFT OF LIFE UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE

The Gift of Life of Michigan, which encourages organ donation, is
hosting their second annual University Challenge. Michigan Tech,
University of Michigan, Michigan State, Grand Valley, Northern and
several other schools are participating. The winning school is the one
that gets the largest proportion of its student body to sign the Gift
of Life's organ donor list. The challenge ends on Feb. 14.

Gift of Life is asking all of its supporters to visit this site and
sign up to become an organ and tissue donor,
http://www.giftoflifemichigan.org/RegistryCard.Asp?school=5

Last year, 663 Michigan patients received a life-saving organ
transplant. Unfortunately, 150 people in our state died waiting for a
transplant that never came, due to the critical shortage of organ
donors. As of today, over 2,800 Michigan residents are waiting for an
organ transplant.

If you have questions about organ and tissue donation, please click
on "Facts/FAQ's" on the left side of the webpage or call 800-482-4881
to speak with someone at Gift of Life.

A few facts about donation:

• One donor can save and enhance the lives of up to 50 people.
• There is no age limit—anyone can sign up to become a donor.
• There are no diseases that stop you from signing up to become a donor.
• Gift of Life evaluates patients at the time of donation to determine
the viability of the organs and tissues, but everyone can sign up on
the donor registry to make their wishes known.
• Signing the back of your license is a good start, but signing the
Donor Registry is the best way to make sure your wishes are known at
the time of donation.
• There is no cost to the donor family or the donor's estate.
• Normal funeral arrangements can be made after donation takes place,
including an open casket.

For more information about organ and tissue donation, visit
http://giftoflifemichigan.org.

_______________

6. KRC TAKES HONORS FOR THE STREAMSWEEPER

It started as idle talk by serious fishermen and a sketch on a bar
napkin. Somebody should invent something that would clean the crud out
of trout streams. "Like a Shop Vac," explains Rich Bowman, executive
director of the Michigan Council for Trout Unlimited.

It ended with a spic-and-span, class 1 trout stream and a whole slew
of awards from the U.S. Forest Service, including one to Michigan
Tech's Keweenaw Research Center.

The Rise to the Future Award honors extraordinary cooperative efforts
that result in equally extraordinary ecological benefits for national
forests. In this case, KRC, the Michigan Council for Trout Unlimited,
Wisconsin Trout Unlimited and the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources threw their time, money and muscle together in a
"collaborative aquatic stewardship" that involved taking out three dams
to restore the cold water fishery on two rivers. For their part, KRC
and the Michigan Council of Trout Unlimited Part built their
Streamsweeper and used it to clean out a stretch of one of northern
Wisconsin's finest trout streams, Elvoy Creek.

The award was presented on behalf of the forest service's Region 9,
which encompasses most of the northeastern U.S., at a Dec. 9 ceremony
in Milwaukee.

The Streamsweeper was commissioned by the Michigan Council of Trout
Unlimited (TU) about 10 years ago, when the group unexpectedly got some
money to make a prototype of their aquatic Shop Vac.

"Some things worked, but a lot of things didn't," Bowman remembers.
TU didn't have the millions of dollars it usually takes to perfect a
complicated piece of equipment like the Streamsweeper, so Bowman
started looking for help. "I traveled to lots of engineering schools in
the state, but when I told them we'd spent most of our money, they
weren't interested."

Then he went to KRC and talked to its director, Jay Meldrum. "Jay
said, 'I think we can figure something out.'"

And he did. With funding from the Ford Motor Company, three senior
design teams of MTU students worked two years to work some of the bugs
out of the Streamsweeper, at least to the point that it could be put to
the test.

Meanwhile, the Chequamenon-Nicolet National Forest, in northern
Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin DNR had their hearts set on improving the
Elvoy Creek fishery.

"Elvoy Creek is a class 1 trout stream, the best of the best," says
Sue Reinecke, a USFS forest fisheries biologist. "It's totally
sustained by natural reproduction."

But it needed some help. Decades earlier, loggers had put a dam in
the creek. "Rock fill was backing up a lot of water, and there was an
impoundment 80 feet wide and 1,000 feet long," Reineke said. "That
meant the loss of the channel and loss of habitat, and it was very
shallow with lots of muck.

"It wasn't good habitat for brook trout."

The problem with taking out the old rock dam was that all that muck
was bound to wash downstream onto the gravel streambeds trout prefer
for spawning. Fortunately, there was a deep pool just below the dam,
where logs had scoured out a depression in the creek. When the dam was
taken down, lots of the sediment settled in this plunge pool. But it
was still a mess.

Enter the Streamsweeper. "TU and KRC needed a place to test it, and
we provided the place and some funding," Reineke said.

So last summer, the Streamsweeper went to the Elvoy. It's a big
machine, and you'd think it would tear up the soft riparian landscape.
But because it runs on tracks, like a tank, it's weight is spread out
for minimal impact.

Once it crawls to where it should be, the Streamsweeper can lower a
hydraulic pump (this is the Shop-Vac part) with an extendable arm down
into the stream and suck up all the goo.

"The rich sediment is pumped to an upland area where it later
revegetates," Meldrum explains. "Meanwhile, the spawning areas are
uncovered, bringing the stream back to life.

"Sand and sediment from logging accidents, construction runoff or, in
this case, dam removal, are like a desert for trout," he says. "No one
can survive in a desert. By cleaning the streambed, the trout return to
their spawning areas and holes where they can find refuge and food."

The Streamsweeper isn't a finished product. Sometimes it didn't do
what it was supposed to. "But overall, it worked really well, Reineke
said. "It shows great promise."

It certainly worked well enough to convince Bowman and Meldrum to
pursue its development.

"It's performance has been inconsistent, and we really need to figure
that out," Bowman said. "That's what Michigan Tech brings to this
collaboration; they have figured out quite a few of the problems
already.

"A lot of folks have a strong desire to make this a commercial
machine," he added. "We've probably raised and spent $250,000 on this,
which seems like a lot, but in the auto industry, they can spend that
much redesigning a headlight."

The Streamsweeper could accelerate the clean-up of America's
once-pristine rivers and creeks, Meldrum said. "It can bring a trout
stream back to life the same year, whereas other methods take several
times that long.

"This technology has great potential, and the award highlights the
hard work of student teams, faculty, and research staff at KRC," he
said.

KRC and the Michigan Council for Trout Unlimited are looking for
funding to create a second-generation Streamsweeper incorporating
improvements made by the students and KRC engineers.

In the meantime, having won the regional contest, the river
restoration project is up for the national Rise to the Future Award.
Bowman's not sure if he wants any part of the national spotlight yet,
since the Streamsweeper is not quite ready for prime time.

"I don't know what we'll do if we get a national award for this
machine," he laughs.

But if the brookies of Elvoy Creek could talk, they'd probably tell
Bowman to just take a bow.

_______________

7. TECH STUDENT’S WORK FEATURED ON “FEAR FACTOR”

A high-voltage stunt created by Michigan Tech senior Sam Barros will
be featured on NBC's next "Fear Factor," set for Monday, Jan. 31.

"I spent a week in Hollywood last fall working on it," says Barros, a
mechanical engineering major who has gained a measure of fame here and
elsewhere for his experiments with electricity. "I can't say what it is
until it airs, but it is awesome."

"Fear Factor" airs at 8 p.m. locally on channel 6.
_______________

8. THE BIGFOOT SNOWSHOE EVENT: A GROWING TRADITION

What started as a ploy to get those “winter slugs” outside to get a
little exercise has flourished into a tradition at Michigan Tech. Since
1998, the Bigfoot Snowshoe Event has grown in popularity with last
year’s participation exceeding 276 outdoor enthusiasts.

This year’s event will be held on Feb. 5 in the woods near the Tech
Trails. Registration and the prize raffle will be held inside the SDC
Blue Line Room. Registration is set for 8:30–9:30 a.m. with the raffle
scheduled for noon.

There will be several courses, 2k, 4k and 6k, for snowshoers of all
ability levels, as well as trail guides and demo shoes available for
those with little or no experience.

Snacks and drinks will be available for participants both before and
after the event, as well as a raffle at the end of the event, which is
free to all participants. Raffle prizes include several pairs of new
snowshoes and other snowshoe accessories, outdoor gear, gift
certificates to area businesses and much more. Each participant will
also receive a long-sleeved T-shirt included in the price of
registration.

Pre-registration fees will be $7 for adults and $5 for MTU students,
and registration the day of the event will be $10 for adults and $7 for
MTU students and children.

Registration forms are available at Counseling Services, residence
hall front desks and at the following website,
http://www.counseling.mtu.edu.

Bigfoot 2005 is being organized by Counseling Services and the MTU
POWER Students (Peers Offering Wellness Education and Resources).

For more information, call MTU POWER at 487-2538 or email
Power@mtu.edu.
_______________

9. TEACHING AT TECH: JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING
by William Kennedy, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and
Faculty Development

I am convinced that great opportunities lie in figuring out how to
effectively harness rapidly evolving, computer-based learning
technologies to improve residential student learning. Supported by an
NSF grant, 80 colleges and universities are experimenting with using
preparatory web-based exercises and assignments to enable students to
make more productive use of their in-class learning experiences. These
schools are expanding the usual lecture-followed-by-homework practice
cycle, adding a period of preparation prior to class. Requiring
students to prepare for class is enabling instructors to use class time
for more engaging learning experiences that meet the needs of more
students.

Proponents of this "Just-In-Time Teaching" (JITT) approach suggest
that getting all their students up to speed before class helps students
make better use of their in-class instruction. They suggest that the
method improves motivation and engagement and creates a more homogenous
learning community, one more receptive to in-class instruction.

Just-in-time instruction tends to fall into three major categories of
activities: 1) preparatory assignments prompting students to think
about the ideas associated with the upcoming lesson, 2) web-based
enrichment materials pointing out the utility and application of the
upcoming material, and 3) ancillary instructional materials including
simulations or spreadsheet exercises to provide students with tools to
better understand the concepts associated with the upcoming class
session.

The preparatory assignments typically require students to answer
questions up to a few hours before the class meets. The in-class
instruction session then builds on, extends or offers alternative
solutions, thus encouraging students to reconsider or extend the
positions they have already submitted. Instructors give course credit
for students who seriously endeavor to complete these warm-up exercises
regardless of the correctness of their approach. Instructors use the
preparatory submissions to focus their in-class instruction and tailor
their teaching to where the demonstrated need actually lies.

JITT practitioners report that off-loading some portion of the
instructional burden using these preparatory assignments provides
instructors with more in-class time and the ability to utilize a
variety of more engaging active-learning techniques. Many use the time
they gain to deliver more varied instruction using mini-lectures,
mini-demos, targeted discussions, worksheets and/or mini-lab or
hands-on exercises.

Instructors craft and refine subsequent warm-up and enrichment
assignments based upon what they observed in the previous class period.
This rapid feedback loop allows instructors to adjust the pace and
depth of instruction to meet the needs of the students. In practice,
instructors report they tend to cover the same amount of material from
term to term, but their ability to fine tune the pacing and approach of
instruction to meet student needs along the way really helps more
students to succeed in their courses.

JITT instruction is built on the foundational precepts put forward by
Alexander Astin, Arthur Chickering, Zelda Gamson and other influential
thinkers in higher education pedagogy. Namely, learning is encouraged
through increasing the amount and quality of student-to-student
interaction, student-faculty interaction and student study time outside
of class.

I can report that I have been using JITT in my College Teaching
course for the last three semesters and am very impressed with the
results. You can learn more about Just-in-Time Teaching at
http://webphysics.iupui.edu/jitt/jitt.html, and we'll be having a
luncheon workshop highlighting it in March. Watch for our announcement.

ENTERTAINMENT AND ENRICHMENT News  |  Entertainment & Enrichment  |  Seminars and Workshops | Regular Features  |  Calendar

10. MICHIGAN TECH PRESENTS STAGE HIT “STEEL MAGNOLIAS”
Submitted by the Department of Fine Arts

"Steel Magnolias," one of the best-loved plays of the American
theater repertoire, will be staged in the Rozsa Center on Feb. 3-4 and
11-12 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for this fine arts department production are
available from the Rozsa Box Office, 487-3200 and
http://tickets.mtu.edu for $10 general public, $5 students.

"Steel Magnolias" famously takes place in a beauty parlor, the place
in town where barriers are down and talk flows. Its characters are
warm, lovable, funny, pithy and real--in a word, unforgettable. Critics
praise "Steel Magnolias" for "characters so believable, it's almost as
if you've known them for years" and "a delicious storyline, full of
humor and heartbreak." Critic Mark Fleetwood spoke for many: "These
'steel magnolias' make us laugh and cry as the realities of their lives
in tiny Chinquapin Parish unfold."

The play centers on Truvy's, where all the ladies who are anybody
come to have their hair done. The outspoken Truvy dispenses shampoos
and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon, Ouiser ("I'm not crazy,
I've just been in a bad mood for 40 years"); an eccentric millionaire,
Miss Clairee; and the social leader, M'Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby, is
about to get married. Filled with hilarious repartee and verbal
collisions, the play also deals with heartbreaks. When Shelby dies from
complications of a risky pregnancy, the others draw together to support
M'Lynn, demonstrating the special qualities that have endeared the play
to a generation of viewers.

Best known as a hit 1989 movie starring Shirley MacLaine, Julia
Roberts, Sally Field and Dolly Parton, "Steel Magnolias" is a perennial
favorite on stages throughout the world and is being revived on
Broadway this season. Directed by Debra Bruch, associate professor of
theater, Michigan Tech's production features six skilled actors
including Kelly Campbell-Olszewski, Maija Stadius, Angela Nordeng,
Clarice Sansom, Charlotte DeKoning and Lori Caelwaerts. Stage manager
is Michael Benson.

Michigan Tech's theater faculty and technical design students provide
outstanding lights, costumes, set and sound design for Fine Arts' three
major theater productions each year. For "Steel Magnolias," Theatre
Shop Supervisor Dennis Kerwin and crew built the set based on a design
by Mary Carol Friedrich, assistant professor of theater, who also
designed costumes. Students John Metzner and Charles Ritola designed
lights and sound. Sherrill Radke of Hairsmiths in Houghton worked
extensively with the cast as hair designer and to help create an
authentic salon atmosphere.

More information on "Steel Magnolias" is available from the Fine Arts
office, 487-2067.

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11. SEMINAR THURSDAY ON SPECTRAL DECOMPOSITION

Greg Partyka, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists' Distinguished
Lecturer, will give a seminar, "Spectral Decomposition," on Thursday,
Jan. 27, at 4 p.m. in Dow 642.

During exploration for petroleum, seismic waves with particular
frequencies are sent through the earth to bounce back to receivers. The
recordings are then used to map geologic beds in the subsurface.
Limited signal bandwidth and abundant thin layering interact to produce
tuned seismic reflections with peaks, troughs and zero-crossings that
rarely follow true geologic boundaries. Such interference plagues
traditional seismic methods and hinders the extraction and
characterization of subsurface information. Partyka will summarize
efforts to solve these problems through the use of spectral
decomposition. Along the way, he hopes to provide insight into the
creative process that led to the development of this new technology.
His lecture will include a discussion of the frequency domain
characteristics of a layer, analysis window size and spectral balancing
and will wrap up with some thoughts regarding the road ahead.

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12. BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES SEMINAR

Dr. Jeffrey Jentzen, medical examiner for the county of Milwaukee,
will give a seminar, “Applications of Pharmacogenomics,” on Friday,
Jan. 28, at 3 p.m., in Dow 743.

Pharmacogenomics studies the effect and impact of pharmacologically
active components upon biological systems as a consequence of the
organism’s genetics. Jentzen will discuss multiple applications of this
field in forensics and other areas.

Jentzen is a 1975 alumnus of the Department of Biological Sciences.

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13. LUNCH AND LEARN FEB. 3 ON HORMONES AND AGING

"Hormones and Aging" will be the topic at the next lunch and learn
sponsored by the Michigan Tech Benefits Office in cooperation with
Keweenaw Memorial Medical Center. Dr. Steven Woodworth, MD, board
certified endocrinologist at KMMC, will speak about the controversies
regarding estrogen replacement therapy and other hormones used to
reverse the effects of aging in women—or men.

The lunch and learn will be held on Thursday, Feb. 3, from noon to 1
p.m., in the Memorial Union Alumni Lounge. Bring your lunch; water and
beverages will be provided. Show your BCBSM ID card, Group 55248, and
be eligible to win some great prizes.