Focus
August 2009
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This month's desktop calendar wallpaper
In this issue
- ORSP announces latest grant awards totaling more than $435,000
- Presentations
- Publications
- Achievements
- Announcements
- RHA Awards
ORSP announces latest grant awards totaling more than $435,000
Dennis Gravatt, Biology received a matching award of $40,000 from the LI-COR Environmental Education Fund to purchase a LI-COR LI-6400XTR Portable Photosynthesis System to use in numerous Biology classes. The equipment gives undergraduate students hands-on experience in understanding the fundamentals of photosynthesis. Students can also design experiments that will allow them to better understand the relationship between the environment and the physiology of plants. The photosynthesis system allows faculty to incorporate a significant amount of plant experimentation into the courses and will be key in establishing undergraduate plant physiology and ecology research projects.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recognized SFA as one of three institutions that demonstrated exceptional performance in producing initial licensure registered nurses. SFA achieved graduation and nursing licensure rates of at least 85 percent during the 2008 academic year. Glenda Walker will use the $25,000 Nursing Education Performance Initiative Grant to develop a detailed business plan showcasing best practices for replication by other schools. Funds also may used to increase enrollments and graduation rates from SFA’s initial licensure programs.
Yanli Zhang will lead a team including Matthew McBroom and I-Kuai Hung on the project Spatial Analysis of the Impact of Land Cover Change on Water Resources in Southern Region. The team will use this $10,000 US Department of Agriculture grant to develop data and maps which will reflect the impact of land cover change on water resources in the Southern Region over the next 50 years. This regional GIS study will produce easy-to-understand maps and figures to assist planners and decision makers in regards to water resources.
Tara Newman was awarded a $330,011 grant by the US Department of Agriculture for the project "Virtual Reach: A Pilot Collaborative for Head Start Employees Seeking the Baccalaureate" to develop well-prepared professionals to serve the needs of Head Start families and children in rural and underserved areas. Dr. Newman and her colleagues will work to develop recruitment materials for prospective students; advance faculty expertise in distance education; and create customized modules to support students. This collaborative partnership with SFA, Angelina College, Tarrant County College Northeast, and Head Start centers will develop a model that can be used to address needs of Head Start employees nationwide.
The National Park Service awarded $30,000 to SFA for the project A Photographic Exhibit of El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail. Christopher Talbot will oversee this project which will showcase the Trail’s beauty and significance of its resources. This project includes photographing sites along the trail and will culminate in a traveling exhibit to be hosted at museums, community centers and other locations along the trail. A catalog of the exhibition will also be developed and made available to the public.
Glen McCuller, Chris Ninness and Robin Rumph, Human Services, presented sessions at the Association for Behavior Analysis International conference in Phoenix in May. The sessions were titled “Using Stimulus Equivalence Procedures to Promote Facial Expression Skills” and “Web-Based Accelerated Acquisition of Complex Mathematical Relations.” McCuller and Ninness also presented “Training Intraverbal Sign Language Using Stimulus Equivalence.”
Elizabeth Rhodes, Kinesiology and Health Science, gave a presentation titled “The Power of Jazz Dance; Matt Mattox and His Technique” at the National Dance Education Organization conference in New York City in June. Mattox is one of the leading figures in the inherently American movement genre of jazz dance. The presentation began with a brief history highlighting his training, performing credits and teaching style. Following the introduction, conference attendees experienced several of Mattox's warm-up exercises that emphasized specific characteristics of his work, such as propulsive rhythm, body isolations and a lowered center of gravity. The session culminated with Mattox-inspired choreography that was danced energetically by the 40 to 50 dance educators, students and other professionals who attended. This presentation was supported by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, a grant from the James I. Perkins College of Education, and the Department of Kinesiology and Health Science.
Susan Clarke and Christine Hennessey, Steen Library, presented a poster session at the American Library Association's annual conference in Chicago in July. The poster highlighted some of the ways the library is using TIDES, SFA's digital repository, to increase access to and visibility of library services and university research. Clarke is head of research and instructional services, and Hennessey is director of digital projects.
Perry Moon, Modern Languages, presented “Language, Culture, and Art” for the American Association of Teachers of French in July in San Jose, Calif.
The presentation showed how teachers can help their students appreciate rhetorical and aesthetic dimensions of dialogue in French films.
Mario Ajero, Music, presented a children's program titled "The Magical Piano" at the Nacogdoches Public Library in June. Using a Yamaha Disklavier Mark IV Pro Grand Piano, Ajero demonstrated the "magical" technology behind the Disklavier, such as the ability to record a performance and have the piano play back with the keys and the pedals moving exactly as it was originally performed. Ajero also performed duets with his 5-year-old son, Nio, and with SFA trumpet major, Kyle Castilaw. The Disklavier is currently on loan to the SFA School of Music from the Yamaha Corporation in order to research the developing technology of connecting pianos via the Internet to teach piano over long distances.
Herbert Midgley, Music, presented a session on music technology using Web streaming for a graduate-level trends class in music education at the University of Houston in June.
Karen Migl, Nursing, presented “Lived Experiences of Prenatal Stress and Mind-Body Exercises: Reflections of Post-Partum Women” at the International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice. Prenatal stress experienced by pregnant women has been linked to risky and unfavorable birth outcomes. The majority of quantitative research reports found in the literature consistently make the point that elevated prenatal maternal stress levels are strongly and positively related to pre-term deliveries, low birth weights, and adverse health events that may affect the life of the child forever. While there is substantial quantifiable evidence regarding links between prenatal stress and unfavorable birth outcomes, few qualitative studies have been conducted to explore and describe what pregnant women’s views are about prenatal stress, its effects on birth outcomes, and the women’s preferences for and experiences with stress-reducing techniques. In the absence of risk-free medicinal interventions that can safely mediate prenatal stress levels, clinicians and researchers must focus on gaining post-partum women’s subjective perspectives about what constitutes and defines prenatal stress, what they choose to do about it, and how they determine if what they did effectively lowered their levels of stress.
To address this gap in knowledge, a descriptive phenomenological approach was used to answer the following research questions: 1) What are the lived experiences of prenatal stress among post-partum women who learned and practiced mind-body exercise as a stress-reducing technique during their pregnancies?, and 2) How do post-partum women with previous MBE training describe their lived experiences using this stress-reducing technique during and after their pregnancies? Ten participants’ stories gathered during intensive interviews were analyzed. The study group’s conscious awareness of prenatal stress as a threat to the health of their unborn babies was the primary source of psychological and cognitive meanings that legitimized the use of mind-body exercise during pregnancy and reduced its use post-partum. Findings add important and valuable knowledge for clinicians and researchers to use to develop and test alternative and complementary prenatal stress-reducing interventions.
An article by Wanda Mouton, Communication, was published in the June 28 issue of the Longview News Journal. The article, titled “Island’s personality captivates travelers,” highlighted the experiences of Mouton and her husband, Earl, a former adjunct faculty member from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, when they presented research findings at a conference at the University of Havana. In the wake of relaxed travel restrictions to Havana, Cuba, by President Obama, there is a high likelihood that U.S. Congressional approval will in the future allow the country to open its borders to U. S. citizens
A book by Bob Schaller, Communication, titled “Michael Phelps: The Untold Story of a Champion” was recently published by St. Martin’s Press. Schaller is senior writer for SwimNetwork.com, and his book “Never Stop Pushing” was chosen by the CBS Early Show as a top summer read. Upcoming releases by Schaller include: “Kanye West: A biography,” in October from Greenwood; “The Everything Kids Basketball Book,” in November from Adams Media; “Bill Gates: A biography,” in January 2010 from Greenwood; “Writing Online: Real-time Communication in Virtual Space” with Drs. Craig Baehr and Samuel Bradley in February 2010 from Praeger Press; and “Albert Gore: A biography,” in August 2010 from Greenwood. Prior publications by Schaller include “What Though the Odds: Haley Scott's Journey of Faith and Triumph,” “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Running Injury-Free” and “Bets, Drugs and Rock and Roll.”
Three poems by Mark Sanders, English, were published in the Spring 2009 issue of Pinyon, published at Mesa State College. The poems are titled "The Heart," "Hell's Gate Canyon, April 2003" and "The House at 15th and Burrell." Another poem, titled “These Children” and originally published in The Midwest Quarterly 20 years ago, was reprinted in the publication’s 50th anniversary issue in July 2009.
Matthew Babcock, History, had his article “Rethinking the Establecimientos: Why Apaches Settled on Spanish-Run Reservations, 1786-1793" published in the July edition of the New Mexico Historical Review. The article argues that the Spanish system of Apache reserves that Mexican and American scholars have previously called "peace establishments" are better understood as Indian reservations, and Apaches had their own reasons for settling on them, which were quite similar to Indian motivations for entering Spanish missions. These not only included external military pressure from Spaniards and their Indian allies, as previous scholars have maintained, but also recovering relatives, material incentives, and their ability to manipulate the peace terms in their favor.
Chris Ninness, Human Services, had his article, “Gambling, Problem-Solving, and the Contingencies Of Superstition: A Response To Fantino and Stolarz-Fantino,” published in the winter 2008 issue of Analysis of Gambling Behavior, a peer-reviewed publication that contains original general interest and discipline specific articles related to the scientific study of gambling. While rigorous investigations into the dynamics of gambling continue, within the experimental analysis of human behavior, some answers may be found by looking forward and backward in time. This article briefly describes two rather dated studies conducted in the examination of gambling and superstitious behavior with a focus on how these might reflect some of the current issues within the analysis of these interwoven behavioral phenomena.
Ninness co-authored a book chapter with Glen McCuller and Robin Rumph on subjects that include behavioral interventions for teaching math, training fractions and decimals, using equivalence procedures to establish advanced math, and Web-based training of advanced mathematical relations. The book is titled “Derived Relational Responding.”
In the summer 2009 issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, an article by McCuller, Ninness and Rumph titled “Constructing and Deriving Reciprocal Trigonometric Relations: A Functional Analytic Approach” was published. Participants were pretrained and tested on mutually entailed trigonometric relations and combinatorially entailed relations as they pertained to positive and negative forms of sine, cosine, secant and cosecant. One experiment focused on training and testing transformations of these mathematical functions in terms of amplitude and frequency followed by tests of novel relations. Another experiment addressed training in accordance with frames of coordination (same as) and frames of opposition (reciprocal of) followed by more tests of novel relations. All assessments of derived and novel formula-to-graph relations, including reciprocal functions with diversified amplitude and frequency transformations, indicated that all four participants demonstrated substantial improvement in their ability to identify increasingly complex trigonometric formula-to-graph relations pertaining to “same as” and “reciprocal of” to establish mathematically complex repertoires.
Rhonda Williams, Steen Library, had an article published in the summer 2009 issue of The Social Studies Texan, the official publication of the Texas Council for the Social Studies. Williams’ article discusses the importance of using images when teaching natural history and social studies lessons, and gives examples of primary resources available to educators through the TIDES (Teaching, Images & Digital Experiences) program (http://tides.sfasu.edu).
Angela Bacarisse, Theatre, was the costume designer for the musical production “She Loves Me” at the Texas Shakespeare Festival in Kilgore Texas this summer.
George Franks and Rick Herzog, Government, performed a statistical evaluation of the salaries of Nacogdoches County employees compared to similar positions in 10 counties in Texas. The resulting information is being used to restructure and develop salary initiatives in Nacogdoches County. In addition to the data, the team made several recommendations to County Commission that are being implemented as measures to develop a more equitable salary and position classification system.
Chris Ninness, Human Services, was appointed to the Board of Program Reviewers by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education.
The CERT-Prep ELL program is looking for students who hold bachelor's degree and are interested in the Transition to Teaching grant program. Students who meet the qualifications may earn a probationary certificate for teaching in a "high needs" field. For more information, contact Stephanie Porter at 468-6555.
The Soil Plant and Water Analysis Laboratory has installed a new near-infrared reflectance (NIR) analyzer. The instrument has calibrations for forages (hay) and can be calibrated for other materials. In addition, the lab has analytical capabilities for soil, plant and water analyses, including total nitrogen and carbon, measurement of numerous chemical elements and measurement of anions in water samples. The lab may be able to provide you with analyses for your research or for instructional activities. Contact Leon Young at 468-4544 or lyoung@sfasu.edu to discuss your needs and the lab’s capabilities.
The Music Preparatory Division will begin offering classes from its new home beginning with the fall 2009 semester. The Prep House, located at 3028 Raguet St. and adjacent to the SFS Native Plant Center, will house the Prep Office, the Piney Woods Youth Orchestra, some piano teachers, Suzuki violin and other programs. A gala open house will be held in the fall to allow the community to view the facility and to hear and see students perform. The SFA Music Preparatory Division will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2010.
The SFA Mast Arboretum will host the Les Reeves Garden Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, in the Agriculture Building, Room 110. Speaker Jason Griffin, ornamentals and woody plants research scientist with Kansas State University, will present "Growing Trees on the Treeless Plains of Kansas." Griffin is the director of the John C. Pair Horticulture Center in Haysville, Kan. A free plant raffle will follow the lecture. No reservations are required and admission is free. For more information, call 468-1832.
Chris Ninness, Human Services, and Michael Coffee, Columbia Center, are completing an online statistical and artificial neural network server to facilitate innovative research at SFA. The investigators’ online architecture at the SFA Columbia Regional Geospatial Service Center will allow diversified data sets (e.g., brain waves, blood pressure, mortgage trends, stress patterns, or even error patterns that may emerge while learning new concepts) to be identified and categorized into similar output patterns that are not recognizable by way of visual inspections or traditional statistical techniques. This process allows a vastly wide range of diversified and extremely novel data sets to be mapped and categorized into similar output patterns that are not identifiable to the human eye or quantifiable using traditional statistical techniques.
Upon completion in August 2009, this system will provide researchers from several different SFA programs including forestry, counseling, educational leadership, speech pathology and school psychology to conduct data-mining operations and then systematically analyze outcomes in order to make inferences regarding the functions of previously unformulated and unquantifiable measurements.
The online data-mining system will be an especially valuable investment (for SFA and the state of Texas) as it provides access to simple online applications where data complexity makes traditional statistical designs impractical or even impossible. The forthcoming Web site will allow users to upload CSV (or TXT) data files containing a variety of diversified data types for processing. It is the investigators’ ambition to develop a generalizable input function that will enable faculty and student users to store their data on local computers and to continually upload their data sets for a multitude of more sophisticated and robust computational analyses.
Residence Life Spirit of Excellence Awards
The Residence Life Department recently honored exceptional employees at their annual awards banquet. The following employees were selected from their peers as outstanding representatives of the university: Kasey Busby, Todd Hall, desk assistant of the year; Haylee Tippett-King, Hall 14, community assistant of the year; Ray Shoulders, Lumberjack Lodge, assistant director of the year; Rachel Thomason, Todd Hall, residence hall director of the year; Aaron Harbaugh, Hall 14, hall director of the year; Cheryl Mitchell, Kerr Hall, program of the year; Michael Doggett, custodian of the year; Steve Cobb, maintenance worker of the year; Leita Moore, Residence Life Office employee of the year; and Courtney Strickland and Xavier Holland, Residence Life Office student workers of the year.