UO E-clips, Sept. 27-29

Hands-on science: Program brings UO fellows to Eastern Oregon schools (East Oregonian): Brandy Fox uses a simple, yet effective method of getting a class' attention. "Science," she says. The response is unanimous: "Rocks!" And the room falls silent. Fox spent Friday teaching science to fourth- and fifth-grade classes at West Park Elementary School in Hermiston, but she's not a typical teacher. She's been there for the past two weeks with fellow University of Oregon graduate student Eric Shamay as part of the UO's Science Outreach Program, which places graduate students in schools across Oregon to teach science.

University scientists help rural grade schools (Associated Press, appearing in the Oregonian): A federal grant has expanded a University of Oregon science program for elementary school children to Eastern Oregon. The university's Science Outreach Program sends graduate students to teach at schools across the state. A $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation will expand the program to nine schools in Pendleton and Hermiston this year, including all five elementary schools in Hermiston. The 15 Oregon graduate students who will teach at the schools will get some classroom experience while the schools get some expertise in subjects that many business and political leaders say need more attention.

Utah scientist part of study showing plunge in wildfires (Salt Lake Tribune, with a similar news article appearing on iStockAnalyst.com): Mitch Power reaches into the deep freeze at the Utah Museum of Natural History and pulls out a foil-wrapped slab as if he were getting ready to throw a huge salmon fillet on the grill. He unwraps the package to reveal a 26-inch-long, wedge-shaped Popsicle of mud that records 1,000 years of ecological change in Montana's Flathead Valley, including periodic pulses of charcoal washing off the land after wildfires. ... The study does not examine charcoal loading since 1970, but the team's data backs the notion that wildfire in the western United States has increased over the past three decades. This will be the subject of a forthcoming paper Power is writing with his mentor, University of Oregon geography professor Patrick Bartlein.

Taming alkyl oxonium ions (Chemical and Engineering News): A team of chemists from the University of California, Davis, has synthesized and isolated oxatriquinane and oxatriquinacene, the first water-stable versions of normally highly reactive alkyl oxonium ions. … The achievement could lead to a deeper understanding of chemical bonding and reactivity. ... "This lack of reactivity would be unheard of for any other oxonium ion," says Michael M. Haley, a chemistry professor at the University of Oregon. "What we learn at this basic level of science helps us refine our understanding of bonding and reactivity in chemistry."

400 University of Oregon freshmen living in off-campus apartments (The Oregonian): The additional students are stretching campus resources and sparking a faculty debate about how big the 20,000-student university should grow. "We're trying to fit them all in," Scott Coltrane, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said Friday. "We are bursting at the seams, but so far we are doing OK." Like many freshmen who moved into off-campus Stadium Park apartments last week, Megan Johnson was disappointed at first to miss out on the traditional dorm experience -- until she saw her spacious new pad.

University of Oregon student housing expands (Associated Press, appearing in KTVZ News): Apartment building developers are expanding student housing around the University of Oregon with new projects despite the downturn in the economy. Developers are increasingly relying on student demand - and their parents' pocketbooks - to rent upscale apartments around the campus. The student rental market is typically strong in Eugene. Only about one-fifth of the university's 20,000 or so students are housed on campus, so most seek nearby rentals. There is not enough room in student dorms for all who want to live there.

When did people first come to North America? (Associated Press, appearing on SouthCoastToday.com in Massachusetts): For some 85 years, homesteaders, pot hunters and archaeologists have been digging at Paisley Caves, a string of shallow depressions washed out of an ancient lava flow by the waves of a lake that comes and goes with the changing climate. Until now, they have found nothing conclusive -- arrowheads, baskets, animal bones and sandals made by people who lived thousands of years ago on the shores of what was then a 40-mile-long lake, but is now a sage brush desert on the northern edge of the Great Basin. But a few years ago, University of Oregon archaeologist Dennis Jenkins and his students started digging where no one had dug before.

Businesses get creative to survive tough economic times (The Oregonian, similar news article appearing in the Bend Bulletin): With consumer spending down, local businesses have sometimes had to alter their operations to attract customers. Many businesses are still doing well, said Timothy Duy, an adjunct assistant professor of economics at the University of Oregon in Eugene who produces a quarterly index of Central Oregon economic activity. The economic slowdown has dulled some consumers' tastes for expensive discretionary items such as RVs, boats or some automobiles, but people are still spending money, Duy said. "Even the luxury part of food is down significantly," Duy said. "That doesn't mean no one's going to Safeway."

Sizemore argues for language measure (Register-Guard): Bill Sizemore defended his controversial proposal to impose new rules on the teaching of English as a second language in a lively University of Oregon forum Friday. But the conservative activist found no allies among his fellow panelists, all of them educators convinced that Measure 58, which would set limits on how long students could receive instruction in their native language, is misguided at best. "Setting a limit on this is just ignoring all these varying and very different needs that our children have," said panelist Marcia Koenig, who directs the federally funded Migrant Education Program for the Lane Education Service District. Panelist Steve Bender, a University of Oregon law professor whose book, "Comprende?: The Significance of Spanish in English-Only Times," was published last month, went further.

Local police crack down on keg party turned riot (Register-Guard, similar news article appearing in multiple sources): A wild house party in Eugene's west university district spilled into the street Thursday night and officially reached riot status when a handful of revelers hurled beer bottles and cans at a police car. "It wasn't supposed to be in the street -- that's just where it ended up," said University of Oregon student Will Lewis, who invited people to his house at the corner of 17th Avenue and Mill Street to celebrate his 21st birthday on Thursday. Lewis' friend Dakota Johnson said the keg party overflowed with people and became a street gathering at 10 p.m. -- about an hour before Eugene police say several neighborhood residents called 911 to request that officers break up a loud and disorderly crowd of more than 100 people.