Education

For many school-age kids, geography consists mostly of maps of faraway places and the capitals of the 50 states. But some inner-city Buffalo children have been studying geography much closer to home and University at Buffalo researchers are paying attention.

An introductory course in biological sciences at the University at Buffalo that introduces non-science majors to the scientific method makes the sometimes dreaded laboratory experience more palatable by allowing them to decide where and when they want to do their required labs.

In conjunction with the arrival of a new crop of freshmen on college campuses across the U.S., researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions will begin a study of the alcohol-related victimization experienced by female college students.

James L. Collins, Ed.D., professor of learning and instruction in the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education, has, over the course of his 35-year career, developed many writing strategies to help children who struggle with reading improve both their reading comprehension and writing skills. Over the next three years, Buffalo school children will help Collins put some new theories to the test.

Interpersonal aggression and vandalism in high school are directly related to alcohol use during school hours, according to researchers at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions (RIA) and Canisius College.

Want to make college science faculty really nervous? Tell them to stop lecturing and start telling stories, instead. That's the advice that science faculty hear when they participate in one of the "Case Studies in Science" workshops at the University at Buffalo.

James L. Hoot, Ph.D., director of the Early Childhood Research Center at the University at Buffalo, has received the 2004 Patty Smith Hill Award, the highest honor accorded its members by the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI), one of the world's oldest professional educational organizations.

Former University at Buffalo president Steven B. Sample will receive the Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal, UB's highest award, during the university's 158th general commencement ceremony, to be held at 10 a.m. on May 9 in Alumni Arena on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Faced with possible declines in international-student enrollments due to strict post-9/11 student-visa regulations, the University at Buffalo is among several U.S. institutions reaching out to international students by establishing new programs and campuses on international soil.

Donald J. Jacobs, founder and director of Center for Applied Technologies in Education at the University at Buffalo and chair of the education policy group Education Innovation Consortium, has been appointed to co-chair the University of the State of New York (USNY) Technology Policy and Practices Council.