Introducing Penn State students to the many emerging career opportunities in the dairy and livestock industries is an increasing challenge. But a new program run by the departments of Poultry Science and Dairy and Animal Science has found success using an unusual teaching tool: a 40-passenger excursion bus.
The two departments recently joined forces to sponsor the first Student/Faculty Industry Tour for 36 undergraduate and graduate students. The group visited farms and companies in southeastern Pennsylvania that reflect the diversity and variety of occupations available in the agricultural sciences. Stops ranged from an egg-processing facility to Merck Research Laboratories.
The two departments are looking to make the tour an annual event, visiting facilities in every sector of the state on a rotating basis.
A free Penn State energy education program widely used by public school teachers in the 1980s and 1990s is once again available to help educate school children about energy awareness.
Hailed by state lawmakers, the Penn State Energy Challenge Award Program (ECAP) is designed to teach students from kindergarten to 12th grade about energy use and production through a series of projects.
The program served more than 32,000 students and hundreds of teachers before it ended in 1996. But demand from teachers has brought ECAP back to classrooms.
The renewed program is available through a Web site that teachers can use as a resource and guide while students can use the site to find project ideas and energy information. It can be accessed at http://www.engr.psu.edu/etp/.
Penn State Harrisburg will turn its attention to the upcoming 20th anniversary of the nuclear accident at neighboring Three Mile Island nuclear facility with a three-credit course and lecture series. The public is being encouraged to take part in the offering, which will address the accident that galvanized the attention of the world in 1979 and continues to be the topic of spirited debate and research today.
The special, three-credit course, "Three Mile Island: The Legacy," will be taught during the spring semester. It includes at least seven public discussions and lectures.
A portion of the course will focus on the social and social-psychological responses to the nuclear accident. The series of public lectures and panel discussions will involve guests who have studied these impacts, or who were involved in community-based attempts to cope with the accident and its aftermath. The first lecture is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 20 at the Penn State Downtown Center, 234 N. Third St. in Harrisburg. For a full listing, turn to the lectures pages in this edition.