FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012
GRIDIRON
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Inside:
Teaching
New focus for Education Reform efforts focus on childhood literacy By Thaddeus.Mast @iowastatedaily.com To fit into recent state and federal educational reform efforts, Iowa State’s newly created School of Education has a new focus: early
TEAM READY FOR TULSA IN OPENER See story on 10A
childhood literacy. The School of Education’s new director, Ralph Reynolds, hopes to improve literacy rates by “adding senior faculty.” This new faculty will instruct students to focus on “reading and literature, STEM, educational policy, and social context areas.” STEM stands for the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “We have such eminent schol-
ars in our faculty,” Reynolds said. “It’s important to realize that faculty makes the difference. Faculty teaches the programs.” One of these new faculty members is Donald Bear, professor in the School of Education as well as a director of the Duffelmeyer Reading Clinic. He explained why early childhood literacy is important to Pre-K through third grade students.
“All of the vocabulary you get from middle school on, you get from reading,” Bear said. “You have to be able to read to be able to be a mathematician. The way you learn to think like a scientist is to read like a scientist.” About 16 percent of children who are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade do not graduate from high school on time, a
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Health
Prevent alcohol poisoning
Help friends to avoid serious consequences By Leah.Hansen @iowastatedaily.com
WHY ARE SCHOOL COSTS RISING? See story on page 2B
Holiday:
City of Ames, CyRide announce Labor Day closures The city of Ames announced Tuesday that most of its offices and departments will be closed Labor Day, this coming Monday. Normal hours will resume the next day. In a news release, the city said that along with the offices, the Resource Recovery Plant, community center and weight room facilities, and the Ames Public Library will also be closed in observance of the holiday. CyRide buses will also not operate Labor Day. The number 24 Silver route will not operate Sunday, Sept. 2, or Monday, Sept. 3. Iowa State will also be closed for Labor Day, with no classes meeting.
Lecture: Carbon dating at Kebara Cave Elisabetta Boaretto, an researcher with radiocarbon dating in archaeology, will speak at 4:10 p.m. Friday about the preservation of materials from an excavation at Kebara Cave in Israel. The lecture will be in 0003 Physics Hall. She has also introduced the use of infrared and Raman spectroscopy, which help increase the analytical precision and accuracy of the radiocarbon date and relate the information to the context. Boaretto is working in a dating study on the Iron Age in Israel, which will help with biblical chronology. She has earned the IBA-Europhysics Prize for Applied Nuclear Science, Nuclear Methods and Nuclear Researches in Medicine.
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Alcohol poisoning is a very serious and sometimes deadly response to drinking. It slows down the brain stem functions, especially the part of the brain responsible for breathing, heart rate, and the gag reflex. “If [alcohol] gets to your brain stem, that’s the area of the brain that is in charge of housekeeping, breathing, heartbeat, and that’s where acute alcohol poisoning comes into play,” said Denise Denton, a drug education senior lecturer at Iowa State. It is a normal function of the body to vomit when it senses the blood alcohol level is too high. If the gag reflex is depressed, or you are unable to throw up, then the alcohol will stay in the system, and the individual will continue absorbing more and more of the alcohol into the blood and, eventually, the brain. “What most people don’t understand is that acute alcohol poisoning happens at a much lower level than what you would assume,” Denton said. “Most people know that you probably shouldn’t do your 21 shots on your 21st birthday. What they don’t understand is that you can die way before you get to the 21st shot.” Alcohol will continue being absorbed into the blood for 30 to 45 minutes after the last beverage was consumed. The blood alcohol content will continue to rise even though alcohol consumption has stopped. Alcohol poisoning deaths are often caused because the blood alcohol content is so high that the brain functions controlling breathing and heart rate stops.
Photo illustration: Megan Wolff/Iowa State Daily
“You start to lose your ability to breathe efficiently in as little as three to six drinks if you do that in two to four hours,” Denton said. On a college campus, such as Iowa State, many students think this won’t happen to them. With many students going out every weekend and drinking vast amounts of alcohol, this might be closer to reality than many students may want to believe. “People should know, we have people in the [emergency room] for alcohol overdose on a regular basis in this town,” Denton said. Signs and symptoms of alcohol poisoning include: confusion; hypothermia (low body temperature); pale, sometimes bluish skin; unresponsiveness but conscious (also
known as a stupor); passing out; unusual breathing rhythm (long pauses between breaths); very slow breathing (less than 8 breaths per minute); and vomiting. “Call the police,” said Sarah Holmes, residence life coordinator. “Once they’ve called the police they can also call the community adviser on call if they would like additional support. The police should be their first call if someone is in immediate danger because they will get them the help that they need.” Community advisers go through training and courses in order to help with situations involving alcohol and over consumption. “They go through quite a bit of training for [alcohol-related inci-
dences]. We have a weeklong training in August,” Holmes said. “The hall directors will do ongoing training throughout the semesters with their own staffs. Then we have [community adviser] training again in January.” Regardless of how much a friend has been drinking, one of the worst things to do is to leave the person alone if they have symptoms of alcohol poisoning. “If somebody has been drinking and they go to sleep, you never, ever, ever leave them alone,” Denton said. “You never ever leave them on their back. You put them on their side, no pillow. First of all, see if you can wake them up. If you can’t, that’s not a good sign. … If they start throwing up … that is a sign of an overdose.”
Design
Achitecture program ninth in nation By Maia.Zewert @iowastatedaily.com For Dan Siroky, the path to becoming an architect began with Lego blocks. Siroky, senior in architecture, is one of 306 undergraduates studying architecture at Iowa State. DesignIntelligence, a bimonthly magazine for leaders in design and construction, recently included Iowa State’s architecture program in its annual report of “America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools 2012.” DesignIntelligence contacted more than 300 organizations and firms with experience with hiring recent graduates. The firms were asked which schools, in the past five years, did the best in preparing their students for the profession. Iowa State’s College of Design placed ninth in the nation and first
in the Midwest for its outstanding excellent in architecture education. A large part of the preparation came from the professors. The architecture program has a diverse collection, with faculty from around the world including: South Korea, Germany, China and Uruguay. “How some of these individuals ended up in Iowa, I’ll never know, but the faculty is the biggest reason why we find ourselves among the top ten programs year after year,” said Jill Maltby, junior in architecture. “They make it known that we don’t produce for them, but for ourselves as we develop our skills for the professional world.” Siroky said professors demand a lot out of their students, but for good reason.
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Photo courtesy of Jon Bassett Architecture students must take Studio, a six-credit class that teaches them to solve complex problems such as day lighting, structure and aesthetics. Iowa State’s program recently ranked ninth in the nation for its architecture program.
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