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Show Page 3 StatesmanCampus News Friday, Feb. IS, 2008 Briefs Sailors take warning Campus & Community Two treated for injuries at job fair RED SKY IN THE MORNING, sailors take warning. This sunset on Feb. 13 is an example of the age old phrase.The afternoon brought in a blizzard-like snow storm that closed down bus routes and even night classes on campus. CAMERON PETERSON photo Speaker suggests students can do better than studying for tests in Superman underwear By ALISON BAUGH assistant news editor Some students eat Alaskan salmon, while others wear Superman underwear and some watch back-toback episodes of "ER" to prepare for tests. "It is fun to wear Superman underwear, but I think we can do better than that," said Mark McDaniel, psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. McDaniel spoke to students and faculty yesterday in the library on basic memory principles to use for testing. McDaniel has done research in this area for many years and written books on the subject. McDaniel said his extensive studies and experiments have been with students and their ability to retain knowledge and the way they study for classes. He said most students will re-read a chapter of their textbook in order to study. Yet his studies show that those who read the chapter twice perform about the same as students who read it once. The reason for this is they aren't really delving into the chapters or gaining anything new, McDaniel said. When the students re-read the chapter, they feel good because they seem to already know the information, McDaniel said. "There is a negative correlation between what they think they learned and what ihey actually learned," McDaniel said of students' tests results after studying by simply re-reading the chapter. The best way to help students retain the knowledge in their longterm memory is for professors to give more quizzes, McDaniel said. These quizzes should include both multiple choice and short answer in order to allow students to have to answer the "why" questions, because doing this is where they really learn the information and are able to remember it better, he said. McDaniel told faculty these quizzes should be in the same format as the tests that will be given in order to see the correlation. McDaniel did research on students who took quizzes on the information they read and learned in class and found that those who did had a grade increase of up to one whole letter. Yet these quizzes don't need to account for a large part of the class grade, McDaniel said, as long as they are set in the same format as the test and given frequently. "Don't just use testing as a summative device to give students a grade. Use low or no-state quizzes to encourage learning," McDaniel told professors. Students can prepare for these quizzes by quizzing themselves, McDaniel said. And if professors don't give quizzes, quiz yourself, he told students. Covering half their notes and seeing what they can recall, or being part of a productive study group and taking turns teaching are other ways McDaniel encouraged students to get the most out of their studying. A lot of these skills are already being taught at USU, said Debi Jensen, who works in the Academic Resource Center and teaches Strategies for Academic Success. She said she has found the ideas given by McDaniel MCDANIEL were ones students told her worked and that she has implemented. "I tell my students to study smarter, not harder," Jensen said. There are many positive conse[1 See STUDY, page 4 Shooting: Gunman kills five, self at university yesterday [1 continued from page 1 white guy with a stocking cap on." He described the scene immediately following the incident as terrifying and chaotic. "Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," Gaynor said outside just minutes after the shoot- ing occurred. "It was like five minutes before class ended too." Witnesses said the young man carried a shotgun and a pistol. Student Edward Robinson told WLS that the gunman appeared to target students in one part of the lecture hall. "It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot," Robinson said. "He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at." Jillian Martinez, a freshman from Carpentersville, told the Street Speak Could a shooting happen at USU? What measures should be taken to prevent it? "Yes, it only takes one person to go crazy. The only thing they could really do is put up metal detectors." -Dallin Huhbard, sophomore, biological engineering "I've never thought about that before. I think it's pretty safe for me. They could probably have more policemen. " -Jenny Wu, freshman, early childhood education "I think that people need to get more involved in student activities because in most cases like that they are isolated. It's not the school's issue. It's more the individual's problem." - Leanna Davis, freshman, undeclared Information compiled by Arie Kirk. Dehra Hawkins photos - • ' • > ' Yeah, it': sible. to prevent it?.~~ Education. With ' something like _ that, there's not. i: much you can, j} Montoyd, junior, wilMift science. V '.•' i Chicago Tribune she was in the auditorium when the gunman entered through a door to the right of the lectern and opened fire about 3 p.m. "He just started shooting at all the kids," she said. "He just started shooting at people, and I ran out of there as fast as I could. I ran all the way to the student center; when I got there I could still hear shooting (from the classroom). Agents with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting local authorities at the scene, spokesman Thomas Ahern told the Chicago Tribune. "We will be urgently tracing the firearms and learning the history of the weapons," Ahern said. All classes were canceled Thursday night and the 25,000-student campus was closed on Friday. Students were urged to call their parents "as soon as possible" and were offered counseling at any residence hall, according to the school Web site. The school was closed for one day during final exam week in December after campus police found threats, including racial slurs and references to shootings earlier in the year at Virginia Tech, scrawled on a bathroom wall in a , dormitory. Police^letermined after : San investigation that there was no Imminent threat and the campus \ya? reopened. /.^ The shooting was the fourth at a U.S. school within a week. ,On Feb. 8, a woman shot two .fellow students to death before comfrntting suicide at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. In Memphis, Tenn., a 17-year-old is accused of shooting and critically , wounding a fellow student Monday during a high school gym class, and ,the15-year-old victim of a shooting atan Oxnard, Calif., junior high .School has been declared brain dead. . Emergency medical services were called to USU Wednesday after someone attending the Summer Job Fair discharged pepper spray, injuring a 5-year-old boy and his mother, USU Police Chief Steven Mecham said. The mother and son were coughing and had burning eyes, but upon further examination, Mecham said no treatment was needed. Mecham said there was a company at the fair distributing pepper spray. He said they had handed out about 10 canisters when someone sprayed it into the crowd. Police are not sure who did it, he said, but are interested in learning more about the incident. Mecham said, "If someone had information, we'd sure like to talk to them, but we have no leads at this point." -arie. k@aggiemail. usu.edu IT industry focus of USU seminar Executives from top companies in the information technology industry will be visiting USU to speak on the entrepreneurial opportunities in Information Technology at the Partners in Business two-day seminar Feb. 27-28. "Information Technology is one of the fastest growing industries in the business world and the Intermountain West is home to some of the world's most successful IT entrepreneurs," said John Johnson, department head for management information systems. In addition to entrepreneurship, this seminar will address recent trends and developments occurring with security, "green IT," and project management, according to Colin Jackson, the IT seminar coordinator. This year's seminar will feature Bette Walker. CIO, Delphi; Joel Dehlin, CIO, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and Jack Sunderlage, president and CEO of ContentWatch, Inc. Executives from ControU, MStar, Doba, Micron, Rocky Mountain Power, McAfee, NASA and ASIERUS Carefree Technology will also speak at the seminar. Partners in Business is a non-profit organization managed by,students under the direction of Robert Miller, the executive director of The Shingo Pri2e for Operational Excellence. The program began in 1970 as a way to bridge the gap between business students and their future employers. Registration for the two-day seminar is available online at www. partnersusu.org or by phoning (800) 472-9965. Education grant deadline nearing The Utah Arts Council reminds educators, schools, and organizations throughout Utah that there are only three weeks left to submit applications for its three 2008 Arts Education Program Grants. "Our goal is to help educators gain innovative tools that can be used to reach kids...to help them become active learners who can communicate clearly, interact constructively, and process complex concepts. Our arts education program grants are designed to do just that," said Margaret Hunt, Director of the Utah Arts Council. The UAC offers three Arts Education Program Grants each year: 1) Teacher Initiated Projects, which provide financial assistance for teach-, ers to receive arts-related professional , training; 2) the Artist-in-Residence ; Program, which provides schools • and organizations with funding assistance in order to bring an artist into a school for a total of 40 hours ; throughout the-school year; and,3). Arts Education Projects, which provide funding for projects such as multi- \ | disciplinary.projects, a'tt^related i; staff development, or the creation of j ! site-specific artwork. Matching funds, i or partnerships are required for the j j Artist-in-Residence Program and Artsj I Education Projects. \\ Grant applications must be post- .} marked March 1. Application guide- ? lines are available on the Utah Arts j Council website at arts.utah.gov. For assistance with the application process, please contact Jean Tokuda Irwin at ] (801) 320-9794 or e-mail jirwin@utahj ] gov. !i [MCompiled from staff \ and media'reports} |