Features
Like Water for Dancers
First appeared in Illinois Alumni in June 2011
For Jennifer Monson, the whole world is her classroom, from bird migration patterns that tie the corners of the world together to vast underground aquifers of burbling waters. You’ll rarely see the University of Illinois professor of dance at the front of a regular class setting - instead, her idea...
Unsilent Night
First appeared in Illinois Alumni magazine in December 2010
Want to be serenaded with “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas” at 2 a.m.? No problem. “Come All Ye Faithful” … in Latin? Coming right up. It’s all in a day and night’s work for Snyder Hall’s Dial-A-Carol volunteers, who satisfy callers’ desires for Christmas carols, common and obscure, for...
Physician, Educate Thyself
First appeared in Illinois Alumni in June 2010
The bioengineer wants to develop a cure for blistering skin disease, and the neuroscience student believes her understanding of how zebra finches learn songs could help combat degenerative neurological ailments. The biochemist dreams of applying her knowledge of the molecular foundation of the immune system to help fight infectious disease....
Teacher Advocacy: Teachers Speaking Up
First appeared in NCTE Council Chronicle in January 2010
Teachers don’t typically enter their profession for political reasons — such as education their political representatives on literacy issues or influencing national policy. Nevertheless, numerous teachers accomplish these very aims every April as part of NCTE’s Literacy Education Advocacy Day (www.ncte.org/action/advocacyday). Sixty teachers from 22 states attended the last...
Education for Every Generation
First appeared in Biomarker in December 2009
IGB faculty members are not only advancing life sciences research and stimulating bio-economic development in the state of Illinois, they also are advancing and stimulating the minds of area residents age 50 and over, as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). OLLI is a national program with institutes...
Regenerative Biology
First appeared in Biomarker in December 2009
Regenerative medicine in the 1990s promised simple and dramatic cures, but these cures remain the stuff of fiction. Over the last 15 years researchers and clinicians alike have begun to realize that, while the promise of regenerative medicine remains, the challenges are far more daunting than they originally imagined....
Online Writing Instruction: No Longer a Novelty
First appeared in NCTE Council Chronicle in November 2009
As the Internet and new technologies permeate every aspect of our lives, teaching is no exception. “More and more people are looking to find ways to teach writing online that are effective, make sense, and are as good if not better than on-site classes,” says Scott Warnock, assistant professor of...
Collaboration Imagination
First appeared in Illinois Alumni in August 2009
A high school boy teaching computer skills in Africa. An inner city administrator fulfilling her vision of a playground. A rural chemistry teacher linking to a professional community. What is the connection of these people - and hundreds of others - to the University of Illinois? Retooling its land-grant...
Sailing: Another way to enjoy Illinois lakes
First appeared in Outdoor Illinois in July 2009
From Horatio Hornblower to Pirates of the Caribbean, sailing has always held a certain romance; with no engine, the sailor becomes adept at sailing in every kind of condition, from light to heavy wind, from smooth to choppy water, and, ultimately, to master or harness Mother Nature in all her...
Promises to Keep
First appeared in Illinois Alumni in April 2009
Lhea Randle dreamed since she was 8 years old that she would go to college, but when her mom died, it looked like her plans might go up in smoke. Mauriell Amechi, commuting one hour each way to high school and being raised by his grandmother, felt that college was...
Myriad rules and regulations challenge emergent biofuels industry
First appeared in Institute of Genomic Biology in April 2009
Bryan Endres’s exploration of the legal issues surrounding biofuels and genetically modified plants is tightly integrated with the efforts of IGB scientists to unlock the key to commercial production of cellulosic ethanol. “They are working on the science while we’re working on the law at the very same time,” says...
Teacher Advocacy:
First appeared in NCTE Council Chronicle in March 2009
Teachers typically do not enter the profession intent on becoming political advocates. Their focus is how best to help individual students, leaving others to look out for students’ and teachers’ interests in the wider world. However, many teachers are recognizing that their classroom efforts are being hampered by forces outside...
Microbes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
First appeared in Biomarker: Institute for Genomic Biology in December 2008
People don’t always like to be reminded of it, but microbes are everywhere. There are more microbes on one human hand than there are humans in the world. The vast majority of these organisms are benign, and many are even beneficial: they help us breathe and digest our food; they...
Stories of Us:
First appeared in NCTE Council Chronicle in September 2008
Jackson walks by Adam in the cafeteria and purposely spills his food on Adam. Later Jackson grabs Adam’s book and, despite Adam’s protests, throws it out the window. A teacher asks what is going on and Adam says “Nothing.” What sounds like a typical day in school is in...
No-Vacation Nation
First appeared in Perspectives in December 2007
It is no secret that Americans work more hours and have fewer paid vacations than any other developed country. For example, while European Union nations have a legally mandated two-week vacation policy and most workers get far more, the United States has no laws requiring paid vacation. Typically, employees have...
Brainpower
First appeared in in June 2007
A mere generation or two ago, a strong back, stamina and loyalty were a guarantee of regular employment. But with the rise of the high-technology sector and the gradual shifting of the economy away from agriculture and manufacturing, brainpower is the name of the game these days. “We live in...
Formative Assessment: Helping Students Grow
First appeared in in March 2007
What do class discussions, quick writes, reader response journals, quizzes, and writing conferences all have in common? They are all examples of the wide range of classroom-based activities that teachers use to measure how well their students are learning. “Students crave feedback,” says Shannon Davis, an English teacher at...
The First Amendment
First appeared in The Council Chronicle: National Council of Teacher of English magazine in September 2006
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Perhaps it is not surprising...
Firm Believers
First appeared in AARP The Magazine in May 2006
There’s no gentle way to put it: Bea D’Angelo was flabby. The owner of The Red Parrot, a popular beach restaurant in Hull, Massachusetts, Bea was so weak “she looked like a strong wind would knock her over,” recalls personal trainer Skip Tull. In 2003 Bea, then 55, hired Tull...
High Noon for Higher Education
First appeared in Illinois Alumni magazine in May 2006
In 1636, a mere 16 years after landing on North America’s shores, the Pilgrims put themselves to another task — establishing Harvard University. More than 100 years later, founding father Thomas Jefferson declared, “If we’re going to have a successful democratic society, we have to have a well-educated and healthy...
Fender Bender
First appeared in Illinois Alumni magazine in November 2005
When David Spelman returned to his Urbana hotel after midnight, he found world-class musicians Mamadou Diabate and Juan MartÃn jamming in an alcove of the Historic Lincoln Hotel’s lobby. Another guitarist, Dan Zanes, was on the floor with a quiet smile on his face. Others sat on chairs or by...
Medical Students Value Diverse Environment
First appeared in Science & Spirit in September 2003
While diversity issues, from affirmative action to bilingual education, have garnered plenty of attention over the past several months, they have recently registered on the monitors in a different arena: medical school. A survey conducted at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine,...
The Nurture of Nature
First appeared in Science & Spirit in July 2003
What if there existed a simple object found in everyday life that could relieve stress and anxiety, promote healing and increase powers of concentration? It appears likely that such “magic bullets” do exist, and that they come in the forms of trees or shrubs or even philodendrons. Just as plants...
Focus on Conservation
First appeared in Lincoln Park Zoo magazine in March 2003
From elephants to spiders, many of the animals chosen for the Regenstein African Journey exhibits are threatened or endangered. In fact, each endangered animal housed in Regenstein African Journey has a connection to African conservation initiatives supported by Lincoln Park Zoo: this connection is the central message of each exhibit...
Against All Odds
First appeared in Illinois Alumni magazine in January 2002
The 1950s were somewhat of a quiet time in the United States. On the University of Illinois campus at Urbana, majestic elm trees graced the Quad; women wore sweater sets, pearls and bobby socks; men were mostly clean-shaven; and shirts were button-down. The idea of walking on the Quad grass,...
A World In Motion
First appeared in Washington University School of Law Magazine in January 2001
Immigration law has historically swung like a pendulum, pushed in part by public fears and hopes. When the economy is strong, immigration law is generous, when conditions are more stressful, restrictions on immigration grow. But even in the aftermath of the September 11 disaster, Stephen Legomsky, Charles F. Nagel Professor...