June 2nd, 2008
First row, left to right: Chemists Beatrice Botch, Peter Lillya, Roberta Day, Stephen Hixson. Back row, left to right: CESD staff Cindy Stein, Stephen Battisti, David Hart. Not shown: William Vining (Chemistry).
In this edition of TechCast at UMass we explore OWL, an innovative, interactive, multimedia Online Web-based Learning system that helps students do their homework – and maybe even like it!
It’s a dilemma facing all teachers: how to motivate students to do homework. Getting them to enjoy it is even more of a challenge. For teachers of chemistry, especially those teaching intro courses at the undergraduate level, it might seem like mission impossible. But thousands of teachers are using the OWL homework system. OWL was created by a team of chemistry professors and computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Developed out of a unique collaboration between UMass Amherst’s Department of Chemistry and its Center for Educational Software Development (CESD), OWL encourages students to master their coursework by means of an interactive, self-paced electronic homework system. Some 20,000 students at UMass use OWL each year—many in chemistry, but also in disciplines as varied as physics and art history. OWL is reaching students far beyond the University of Massachusetts. With assistance from the office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP), OWL’s creators have teamed up with educational publisher Cengage Learning, who has licensed the OWL software from the University of Massachusetts Amherst for commercial use. Now some 100,000 chemistry students around the country are using it.
In this episode, we talk with Dave Hart, CESD’s Director and Peter Lillya, Professor of Organic Chemistry at UMass-Amherst about the creation of the OWL system and how they brought their two disciplines together to help students learn chemistry. Later in the podcast we talk with Cengage Learning’s Chemistry Acquisitions Editor, Lisa Lockwood, about how Cengage is using the OWL system in schools across the nation.
Links
OWL: http://www.cesd.umass.edu/CESD/OWL/
Demo to OWL system: http://owl.cengage.com/owl-c/demo/owldemo.cgi
UMass Amherst Center for Educational Software Development (CESD): http://www.cesd.umass.edu/CESD/
UMass Amherst Department of Chemistry: http://www.chem.umass.edu/Department/
UMass Amherst Department of Computer Science: http://www.cs.umass.edu/
TechCast at UMass #4: Online Web-based Learning Helps Students Learn Chemistry [20:02m]:
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April 15th, 2008
In our latest episode of TechCast at UMass we talk with CVIP Director, Dr. Nicholas DeCristofaro , about the office of Commercial Ventures and Intellectual Property (CVIP). We also discuss how CVIP is working with plant biologist, Dr. Om Parkash, on an exciting project to bring new plant breeds to market and why this project exemplifies the kind of collaboration CVIP wishes to create with scientists and researchers on its campus.
Dr. Parkash, a professor of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst tells us about a project to protect people, animals and soil against arsenic contamination. He explains how he’s using genetic engineering to develop new seed strains that will make soils and food crops safer from environmental pollution through a process known as phytoremediation.
By using molecular biology, genetic engineering, physiology and biochemistry to understand how plants tolerate toxic heavy metals like arsenic and cadmium he’s developing a new plant-based technology for cleaning up these toxins in the environment. By blocking certain genes, he can make the plants absorb more toxic heavy metals, like arsenic. But he’s also enhancing genes in food crops that will make them do the opposite: they’ll resist taking up toxins so that the food people eat is safer.
We discuss the relationship between these two projects and how, with CVIP’s help, Dr. Parkash hopes new seed strains using his work can be brought to market.
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TechCast at UMass #3: Phytoremediation of Toxic Pollutants in Soil and the Role of CVIP [17:42m]:
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April 14th, 2008
Transcript of interview with Dr. Parkash, a professor of Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, for the Techcast at UMass #3.
Interview Transcript with Dr. Parkash for Techcast 3:
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February 27th, 2008
What happens when you cross the talents of premier life scientists and engineers at a major university with the clinical expertise of doctors who practice at a top-rated hospital? Well, if you’re talking about Western Massachusetts, you’d get the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute (PVLSI). Founded in 2002 by the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, the PVLSI was created to bring together the two sides of medical innovation: theory–as in basic research, and practice–as in clinical applications.
Under PVLSI’s roof, teams of biologists and engineers from UMass Amherst and physicians from Baystate are working together to find and test novel treatments for cancer, neurological and autoimmune disorders, heart disease and other illnesses. They’re also partnering with biomedical companies that are creating products to deliver these new treatments. One promising avenue of research is into something called programmed cell death, or “apoptosis”. In 2006, the PVLSI became home to a new Center of Excellence in Apoptosis Research or CEAR.
In this edition of TechCast at UMass we talk with Dr. Larry Schwartz, Professor of Biology at UMass Amherst, CEAR Director, and Science Director of PVLSI about apoptosis and the work of CEAR. We also talk to the Institute’s Executive Director, Dr. Paul Friedmann who exemplifies the clinical side of the PVLSI partnership. He was chairman of surgery at Bay State Medical Center in Springfield for 27 years and has been involved with PVLSI since the concept stage.
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TechCast at UMass #2: Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute [21:20m]:
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January 14th, 2008
We kick off our first episode of TechCast at UMass by discussing an exciting new venture that could revolutionize the fuel we use to power our cars. We talk with Professor Susan Leschine, SunEthanol CEO Jef Sharpe and venture capitalist Tripp Peake about the Q-microbe and its promise in making clean, affordable, renewable fuel.
When microbiologist Susan Leschine set out to study the role of microbes in the carbon cycle, little did she know that she’d find herself on the frontier of green energy production. The Q-microbe—named after the Quabbin Reservoir in Western Massachusetts where Dr. Leschine discovered it, has properties that may make ethanol production cheaper —and more environmentally friendly than current methods.
The Q-microbe could help free us from dependence on foreign oil. But it could also play an important role in reducing global warming. Using the microbe in ethanol production is in the works through a partnership between the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Professor Leschine teaches and does her research, and a private company, SunEthanol, also based in Amherst, Massachusetts. Coordinated by CVIP and aided by venture capital from three firms (Battery Ventures, Long River Ventures, and VeraSun Energy), the project hopes to be able to go from the experimental stage to practical application by 2008.
You can also read the original UMass Amherst news release about the Q-microbe.
Find out more about CVIP by exploring the website at http://www.umass.edu/research/cvip/. You can also e-mail cvip or call (413) 545-3606.
TechCast at UMass #1: The Q-microbe [33:13m]:
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