Blair Higgins returns home with big plans for teaching her fourth-graders

Winston-Salem Journal - Blair Higgins thought she would head into the big city of Charlotte once she graduated from college. Instead, the 2006 Appalachian State University graduate returned home to Kernersville and began teaching for the school system that once taught her.
“I just realized that my whole life is here,” Higgins said. Read full article

Scientific literature is revealing the locations of newly discovered animals

The Australian - Once researchers describe a species, the information often goes into online databases, which provide an even bigger security risk. Finding articles in obscure research journals takes some hunting by poachers, but anyone with an internet connection can check the online archives at many institutions, finding the origins of the plants and animal species in their collections. Scientists treasure that kind of easy access. For instance, combining data from an entire region with past records of plant ranges should help scientists predict how climate change could affect plant populations, says Zack E. Murrell, an associate professor of biology at Appalachian State University in the US and director of a database organisation called the Southeast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections. Read full article

Could small farms provide fresh food year-round, even in northern climes?

Grist Magazine - Terry Carroll, a professor at Appalachian State University in nearby Boone, has been pushing a method for using those hillsides to extend our growing season here. Known as “passive-solar design,” Carroll’s work involves building greenhouses directly into south-facing hillsides. Along the rear wall — backed by a hillside’s robust insulating power — Carroll packs steel drums filled with water. As the sun streams in by day in the winter months, those drums store heat, which is released as temperatures fall at night. Carroll’s test projects have proved that his design can support vegetable production all winter, with little or no fossil-fuel energy burned and no costly solar panels.

The winters here in western North Carolina’s high country don’t rival those in the Midwest, but they are too cold for most vegetables to thrive. Read full article

Smoky Mountian News - When Aaron Patterson graduated from Tuscola High this year, little did he know a big chunk of his summer break would be spent, clipboard in hand, sprawled out in the dirt on a 5,000-foot mountain top, sharing long intimate moments with the leaves of a wild coneflower plant. One of the research leaders, Howard Neufeld of Appalachian State University, took that experiment to the field to study the effects of ozone on plants in their natural environment. The Appalachian Science Learning Center, a research outpost in the Haywood County portion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, helped Neufeld plant a plot of coneflowers and enlisted high school interns to monitor the plot, known simply as the “ozone garden.” Read full article

A leader in the field of developmental education, which supports underprepared college students, will speak at Crafton Hills College

Redlands Daily Facts - Hunter R. Boylan, director of the National Center for Developmental Education and chairman of the American Council of Developmental Education Associations, will speak on “Best Practices in Developmental Education” at 3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, in the Finkelstein Performing Arts Center at Crafton Hills College.

Developmental education, according to the National Center for Developmental Education, “supports the academic and personal growth of underprepared college students through teaching, counseling, advising and tutoring.”

Boylan, who has written more than 80 articles and three books including the internationally renowned “What Works: Research-Based Best Practices in Developmental Education,” is one of the most respected voices in the field of developmental education. The National Association of Developmental Education has designated its award for outstanding research as the Hunter R. Boylan Award in honor of his contributions to research in the field. Read full article