News Archive - 2015

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D.O.E. grant to support low-income families

UGA recently announced a grant from the U.S. Department of Education that will help support first-generation and college students from low-income families. Beginning in September, UGA will receive funding distributed over the next five years under the Federal TRIO's Student Support Services Program: The Federal TRIO Programs are outreach and student services programs that provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds…

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Goodall-Bernal awarded Mellon Curatorial Fellowship

Art history major in the Lamar Dodd School of Art Nina Goodall-Bernal has been awarded a multi-year Andrew W. Mellon Undergraduate Curatorial Fellowship, among only 20 given nationwide by the Andrew Mellon Foundation through 5 American museums: Goodall-Bernal participated in a High Museum Summer Academy this May and will spend two additional years working with High Museum curators to receive mentorship and training during the academic year and…

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Narrative in the Classroom

Instructive article in the CHE that echoes the recent Reacting to the Past conference at UGA on pedagogy that connects students to history. Telling stories can help students learn, certainly: But research by cognitive psychologist Roger Schank suggests that the long-term effects of narrative-based learning are more limited than it sometimes seems. We learn by hearing stories from others — like from a professor, say — mostly when the…

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When thieving weeds attack

An international group of scientists that includes assistant professor of genetics Dave Nelson has discovered how parasitic plants, which steal their nutrients from another living plant, evolved the ability to detect and attack their hosts. Their findings were  published recently in the journal Science: As plant roots grow, they release hormones called strigolactones into the soil. This is a signal that normally helps fungi form a…

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The UGA "All Arts Card"

The UGA Arts Council has introduced the “All Arts Card” for students: For $99, the card gives students admission to more than 60 concerts and plays with a full ticket price value of more than $2,000. The All Arts Card includes admission to performances at the UGA Performing Arts Center, Hugh Hodgson School of Music, Department of Theatre and Film Studies and Department of Dance during the 2015-2016 academic year. To order, go to http://pac.uga.…

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College life: the future for fraternities

With our small town about to be convulsed into the intricacies [and traffic] of fraternity and sorority rush in the lead up to the fall term, the Chronicle of Higher Education raises an important, timely question: Is there a place for fraternities on the modern campus? In some ways, they appear a relic of a bygone era, in which college was largely the purview of white, well-off men. It's no surprise, critics say, that these homogenous,…

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Oceanographic training on the R/V Savannah

Discover UGA features the Skidaway Marine Institute and the work of our marine sciences faculty: Students from UGA and other universities spent the first half of the course at the UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island and the second half at the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. During the intensive studies program, they researched animals, plants, microbes and processes in coastal environments and participated in a small research cruise…

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New techniques for diagnosing respiratory abnormalities

Just last week, UGA hosted a symposium on Research Experiences for Undergraduates, a program that brought promising young researchers to campus for ten weeks this summer to work with and be mentored by some of our best faculty members. The theme of the first day's presentations was computational biology, and if you're curious about research pursuits within that confluence of disciplines, a new study demonstrates what it is quite well: Though it…

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Amazing Student Lindsey Cheek

UGA gymnast and Franklin College triple major Lindsey Cheek sets the bar for "Amazing Student" somewhere out near the Gama Quadrant: I didn’t start college like the normal student. I graduated high school in December and immediately joined the gymnastics team.  When the spring semester began in January I was competing on three events when I should have been a senior in high school. During that season I was named freshman of the week once,…

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Smart[phone] integration of town/gown transit

A UGA app developed to make travel easier between campus and surrounding greater Athens now includes real time information on city bus routes: Since its initial launch in 2013, the UGA mobile app's most popular feature for students has been a bus tracker for Campus Transit. Now, Athens Transit buses are included in the app, which tracks buses and displays schedules of when buses are expected to arrive at each stop. The UGA mobile app also…