Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Kristin Prina
BYU chemistry professor Brian Woodfield has combined chemistry and computers so students can mix potent chemical cocktails on their computers without worrying about burning down the laboratory. Currently, students in more than 20 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada use his software, Virtual ChemLab, as part of their course work. Because of cost and time restraints, most students are forced to spend lab time simply following detailed instructions to obtain the desired results, said Woodfield. They dont often have the time to experiment freely.
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Mar 12
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Professors Virtual Chemlab Makes a Bang BYU Resurrects Furniture Design Courses Empire of the Sultans Will Close Jan 20th Happenings on Campus BYU Accounting Teams Dominate Tax Competition Trails of Hope Digital Collection Available Cougar Spikers, Hawaii Collide at Marriott Center
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Virtual ChemLab includes all the amen ities of a real laboratory setting, from Bunsen burners and C-clamps to limitless supplies of calcium, magnesium and expensive or hazardous substances to which students usually have infrequent access. With the click of a mouse students can set up, conduct experiments and view results. More than 2,500 pictures, 300 video clips and numerous animations help illustrate the outcome of each chemical combination or experiment even if it proves disastrous. Melissa Moore, a BYU graduate stud ent in instructional psychology and technology, helped design the program and oversaw under graduate BYU chemistry students as they tested the Continued on page 3
Im convinced many students come and go from BYU and have no idea we have a very nicely equipped studio where they could learn to design and build furniture.
Despite the fact that BYU didnt have a furniture design program until this sem ester, Ben slated every woodworking class the university offered and worked closely with faculty members like Kip Christensen to satisfy his desire to learn the art and business of furniture design. Bens extra-mile approach not only satiated his thirst for design know-how but also earned him sec-
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Happenings on Campus:
Devotional
Elder Charles Didier of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will speak at a devotional Tuesday, October 2, at 11:05 am in the Marriott Center. The devotional will be broadcast live on KBYU-TV (Channel 11), the BYUTelevision and BYU-Radio satellite networks and at broadcasting.byu. edu. It will be rebroadcast Sunday (October 7) at 6 am on KBYU-TV, on BYU-Television at 8 am and 4 pm, and on KBYU-FM at 8 pm. Born in Belgium, Elder Didier is currently a member of the presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy. of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Andrew Skinner, dean of Religious Education. The symposium will begin at 6:30 pm in the JSB auditorium. Lectures will continue until 9:30 pm in the auditorium and the nearby Martin Building. Lectures will resume Saturday morning at 9 am in the JSB auditorium and will continue through 11 am. No admission fee or registration are required. during the BYU screening period November 319. Appointments for the mammograms may be made online at http://www.byu.edu/hr/wellness. For additional information, call Danielle Palmer at ext. 2-5723.
Linguistics Meeting
The annual Deseret Language and Linguistics Society Symposium will be Thursday and Friday, December 67, from 9 am to 4 pm in 3241 WSC. The symposium will include 40 presentations on current research in language and linguistics. For more information, contact David Bowie at ext. 2-9168. Additional information about these and other campus events is available at: www.byu.edu/news/ynews
Sperry Symposium
The BYU Sperry Symposium on the Scriptures Friday and Saturday, October 2728, will feature Elder L. Aldin Porter of the First Quorum
Continued from page 1 simulations. It was neat to see them experiment on different things that I never had exposure to and equipment I wasnt allowed access to when I was an undergraduate student, said Moore. The simulations, which Woodfield says have increased student performance in BYU organic chemistry labs by 30 percent, have also been implemented in high schools. Steven Haderlie, a chemistry teacher of 25 years, introduced the program at Springville High School and has been impressed with the results. It can help illustrate concepts that are difficult for students to visualize on the board or on an overhead it really helps with understanding, said Haderlie. He said the simulations accelerate the learning process, causing students to take ownership of their own learning and take more initiative. Their atti tudes change, and in a difficult
begun on the fifth. The finished collection will include simulations for inorganic qualitative analysis, fundamental experiments and quantum chemistry, gas properties, titrations, calorimetry and organic chemistry.u
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Campus Community is published monthly during the academic year by University Communications. Editor: Cecelia Fielding, C-347 ASB, BYU, Provo, UT 84602; 801-422-4377. Photo Editor: Mark A. Philbrick. News items are welcome. Send copy to the above address; fax to 801-422-6005; or email to CommunityNews@byu. edu.
pioneer camp. As time passed, punctuation vanished from her diary but vivid description remained. Just across the creek someone had set the prairie on fire how we were to cross this was a question it ran like lightning through the grass making a crackling among the bushes resembling the noise of burning crackers.... The fact that both the original manuscript and a typed manuscript are provided makes the collection a very reliable source, said Professor Richard Rieck of Western Illinois University, who used the Web site to research
The nished product consists of 9,350 scanned images of the writings along with the searchable, text-based transcripts of each diary.
geography and death on the overland trails. One day when using Google to look for any trail diaries I could find, up popped one from the collection and that day I dropped everything else and began to mine it for everything I could use. The Web site located at http://overlandtrails.byu.edu also features biographies of each of the diarists and search options to locate journal entries about specific places and events. Construction of the collection began in 1998 when the Lee Library won a $65,000 grant from the Library of Congress/Ameritech Digital Library Competition. Library staff then combined materials from their Special Collections department with resources from other institutions. The finished product consists of 9,350 scanned images of the writings along with the searchable, text-based transcripts of each diary. The information is also hosted on the Library of Congress Web site. Producing digital versions of the diaries not only protects the original diaries from overuse but also makes the writing and history accessible to a broader audience, Fales said. One of
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Continued from page 4 ranging from Holy Qurans, arms and armor to rich textiles, treasury objects, gilt manuscripts, ceramics, scientific instruments and more. The exhibition is organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia. Admission for Museum Members is free. Regular tickets cost $8 for BYU faculty, staff or students with ID. Ticket price also includes an audio guide. Group and family pricing for the exhibit is also available. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Marriott Ticket Office at 1-800-422BYU1 or ext. 2-BYU1. The works are drawn from the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, one of the largest collections of its kind. Empire of the Sultans marks the first time this collection has been seen in the United States. Among the treasures are calligraphic medallions in gilded wood that decorated mosques, brilliantly decorated armor and jewel-encrusted weapons used in battle by Suleyman the Magnificent, exquisite Persian carpets and painstakingly illustrated albums and books. The spectacular exhibition reveals the originality and resilience of Ottoman artistic expression in religious, military, administrative and daily life and the central role of imperial patronage. The exhibition is arranged in four sections which are titled In the Service of God, Sultans, Soldiers, and Clerks, Arts and Crafts and Books, Paintings and Scripts.u Continued from page 5 the key components is that we developed this for everybody, she said. We want to reach out to people who would never walk through our doors. In addition to Trails of Hope, the Lee Library hosts 12 other digital collections, such as the BYU Museum of Art Collection and the journal Marriage and Families (see www.lib.byu.edu/hbll/). u
Faculty/Staff Notes
Chuck Stiggins
Of the Department of Physical Education in the College of Health and Human Performance has been appointed to the Huntsman World Senior Games Board of Trustees. Stiggins will be responsible for overseeing the health screening of the Senior Games participants. He and several other faculty members will also be conducting a study regarding balance, coordination and equilibrium. He is considered to be a leading authority in the elds of athletic strength and conditioning, health, tness and wellness.
John Lamb
And the BYU Chemistry Department recently hosted 150 scientists from 25 countries for the 27th International Symposium on macrocyclic chemistry in Park CIty. Lamb chaired the organizing committee, composed largely of chemistry department faculty. The symposium focused on the chemistry of a class of molecules that form cavities which can trap other chemical species selectively. A special session was held to honor retired BYU Professor Reed M. Lzatt, who started the program.
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