2001 Sigma Xi Forum Contributed Presentations

The following listing includes works of art, demonstrations, displays and poster presentations that will be on display throughout the Sigma Xi forum. A map with locations of these presentations, along with a listing of any additional presentations, is included as a separate insert in meeting registration packets.

A Personal Science Campaign: "Science and Cape Cod"
Carl Bowin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
This video program, a mini-documentary produced on a miniscle budget, explores the background reasons for how one scientist became involved in producing video shows. As a scientist who utilizes gravity anomalies to help decipher the internal structure of the Earth and planets, he had had very limited exposure to video production. Once at Latona Avenue Elementary School, he had been selected to appear on the Art Linkletter show. Seems a black eye made for a funny telling. In the present case, the basic motivation was being mildly distraught by the apparent increasing popularity of 'Angel' shows on modern TV. That, in combination with his upbringing, led him to proceed. In 1988 he sought funds for equipment, and went to the door of the local Public Access Station. Inside, he explained an interest in producing shows that might present to the public how 'Science' views the world, and sought guidance. Everyone was very helpful, and the TV show 'Science and Cape Cod' became a reality. This is Episode 10, hurriedly put together following a request from Sigma Xi for participation in the 2001 forum.

Imagination and Reality: Technology in the Service of Art
Barbara Confino
A digital artist/writer and filmmaker, Confino will present her Video, THE CITY. A work in the speculative tradition, THE CITY presents an imaginary city in a mythic past that reflects the psychological present and the possible future. Exploring the expressive possibilities that technology offers the artist, THE CITY uses a non-linear, musical structure. Highly conceptual, THE CITY plays with ideas, images, and sounds to create a hypothetical place that resonates in real time.

Haiku
Kelly Clifton, University of Wisconsin
Kelly H. Clifton, an experimental radiation biologist and Emeritus Professor of Human Oncology, has been a University of Wisconsin faculty member for forty years. In 1990-92 he was a Sigma Xi National Lecturer. He began composing haiku in English while serving as Chief of Research of the bi-national Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Awe and appreciation of life's processes and resilience have driven Dr. Clifton's laboratory research and, he hopes, are reflected in his poems. The challenge and discipline of expression in the spare haiku form also appeal to him.

Seeing it This Way Helps
Hal J. Daniel, III, East Carolina University
My mother and grandmother were both poets. I decided to study science knowing I’d be a poet anyway, and it was the best thing I ever did. If you are scientist and a poet, you have a venue for writing things that no one else can write about.

Chemisty In Art. The Chemistry Behind Artist's Materials And Techniques
Eleonora Del Federico, Pratt Institute
Art and design majors often believe Chemistry and Science to be subjects far removed from their area of study and their interest. They find it very difficult to make connections and understand the role Chemistry plays in the materials and techniques they work with everyday. This presentation shows several approaches to interface Chemistry and Art which are used in a newly developed course "Chemistry in Art". This course focuses on specific art objects and art problems: "Leonardo's Last Supper", "Pompeii frescos", Bellini's "Feast of the Gods", The "Horses of San Marco", to name a few. They are used to introduce several physico-chemical phenomena that are the key to the understanding of the technique, deterioration and the preservation processes.

A Scientific Perspective to Aid the General Public and Students in Controlling Violence and War
Sherman Dickman, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract to come

Visualization Techniques for the Classroom
Michael Douma, Brandeis University
Abstract to come

Society And The Human Condition': A 'Re-Vision' Of Science Education Curriculum Reform From A 'Science Studies' Perspective
David Eastzer, City College of the City of New York
The recent National Research Council (1999) report on science education reform challenges college science faculties with a 'call to action' to transform the course of scientific study for all undergraduates. The 'vision statement' (p. 25) for faculty reads: "SME&T would become an integral part of the curriculum for all undergraduate students through required introductory courses that engage all students in SME&T and their connections to society and the human condition". We are urged to consider "the sciences' relationship to the humanities, social sciences, and the political, economic and social concerns of society" (p. 26), by working "with colleagues in the humanities and social sciences to develop courses that provide students with broader exposure to and perspectives of the relationships among these areas of knowledge" (p. 31). I suggest that our most appropriate colleagues in this endeavor are those in the burgeoning multidisciplinary field of Science Studies. However, we face this paradox (embodied in the on-going 'Science Wars'): Science education reformers urge us to redesign the undergraduate science curriculum in collaboration with faculty in the social sciences and humanities, however many natural scientists would apparently view this attempt as a collaboration with the enemy!

To appreciate that 'science teaching' and 'Science Studies' are indeed complementary, and need not be adversarial, requires close examination of each on its own terms. Here I present examples from my courses that illustrate how findings from the Science Studies research agenda (outlined by Mario Biagiolo in his 1999 anthology, A Science Studies Reader) can support the teaching of precisely those topics and issues proposed for interdisciplinary curricular development by the NRC (1999, p. 33-34). I conclude by contrasting this approach to uniting the Liberal Arts and Sciences with that espoused by E.O. Wilson in his recent book, Consilience (1999).

Undergraduate Student Perceptions of Academic Disciplines—Characterizing Academic Culture(s)
Donald E Elmore, California Institute of Technology; Julia C. Prentice, University of California, Los Angeles; Carol Trosset, Grinnell College
C. P. Snow's description of "Two Cultures" in academe has been revisited, refuted, and revised numerous times since its initial proposal. Although much anecdotal evidence is given in discussions of divisions between different disciplines, very little systematic investigation of such divisions has been performed. As a preliminary empirical study, we surveyed and interviewed over 200 undergraduate students at a liberal arts college on their perceptions of different academic disciplines. Various perceptions were probed, including characteristics of the disciplines (do they "involve creativity" or "help understand people?") and whether disciplines "contribute to society" or are "inherently challenging." The perceptions held by students with different areas of specialization were surprisingly similar, with a few notable differences. However, among all students, different disciplines were perceived very differently. For example, some fields were consistently considered to be more creative, some fields were considered to contribute more to society, and some were considered to be more inherently challenging. Thus, although only one academic culture appeared to exist, this culture fostered negative or limiting perceptions of disciplines. Interestingly, first-year and senior students have essentially identical profiles of perceptions, implying these pervasive opinions appear to either exist before entering college or arise very quickly during college. These seemingly entrenched views of different fields held by undergraduates likely reflect those of instructors encountered throughout their education as well as overall societal trends. Future work could further probe such perceptions in different environments, academic and otherwise, and consider how early such perceptions arise in students' education.

The Photographs of Felice Frankel
Felice Frankel, MIT

The Way Science Has Influenced Contemporary Art: An Artist's Point of View
Licio A. Isolani, School of Art and Design, Pratt Institute
Science has never been far from the artistic creative process. A brush, a pencil, a pen, a chisel and fire one way or the other have been an integral part of the making of art. Today more than ever there is no aspect of scientific phenomenon that doesn’t have, or had an interaction within the arts and in one way or the other has influenced creative thinking and process. Both deal with life, although in different ways. Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps historically is typifying this phenomenon. In moder time, the interaction between art and science re-emerges with the Impressionistic movement. In the past centiury the new scientific landscape has become part of the new artistic landscape with all its new discovery, revolutionizing the rules and the language of the artistic expression and concern. The atom, the electricity, the new plastic materials and the investigation of human mind with psychology etc., to name only few phenomena have changed how we think and what we feel forever. A slide presentation will be used to illustrate how art work connects to science through history, especially in modern time.

Exploring The Literal And Figurative Of Metaphor: Combining Ecology, Literature And History
Stephen Johnson, Mary Stark, William Penn University
Our combined interdisciplinary approach explores the literal and figurative of metaphor and infuses ecological literacy into history and literature classes at the college level. Using ecology as a basis and integrating supporting historical vignette and literary elucidation, we attempt, as David Ehrenfeld suggests in Arrogance of Humanism, to mesh reason with emotion. For example, we provide ecological information on compost to accompany Walt Whitman's 'The Compost' and then explore the actual decomposition with Whitman's notion of new life after the war of succession.

We link the poetry and prose of William Cullen Bryant and Willa Cather and the history presented by George Catlin and J. E. Weaver with slides of prairie flora and fauna from ecological research conducted on Konza Prairie LTER site. This combined approach stimulates humanities students into greater ecological insight and provides a pathway for ecological information dissemination to students who may otherwise avoid ecology taught in science departments. We have seen students inspired by this approach who go on to take ecology classes-and science students to take literature and history courses. As John Elder states: 'Rather than assuming that science and the humanities must remain forever discrete, environmental education needs more boldly to inhabit the ecotone where they join and commingle, where something new may evolve' (Introduction to Stories in the Land 8). We would like to present some of the new we have discovered in the ecotone we are exploring.

Poetry and Medicine
Diane Kaufman, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
The presenter is an adult and child psychiatrist and poet who has worked in the inner city of Newark, New Jersey for the past nearly 16 years. She has led creative writing groups in drug rehabilitation and shelter programs, established a poetry and medicine elective at New Jersey Medical School, and is the Newark chairperson to the National Campaign To Stop Violence Do The Write Thing challenge. Her poem "America's Children are Singing," inspired by a Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman poem, was chosen as the benediction to the 1997 New Jersey share our strength literary fundraiser. The presentation will include a display of poster sized poems on topics of child abuse, love, and child welfare as well as samples and discussion about other writings including Cracking Up And Back Again: Transformation Through Poetry workbook, my self discovery diary, my recovery diary, and Releasing The Imprisoned Splendor. The purpose is to demonstrate the healing power of words that are not only spoken but heard as well. An invitation to viewers will also be extended to write and share a poem.

Dynamically Rated Emotional Responses To Music: Pleasantness Is Easier To Change Than Is Activation
Dwight Krehbiel, Brooke R. Fischer, Michael Klein, Bethel College; Stephanie Krehbiel, Michigan State University
In these studies, a variety of jazz and classical music samples were selected, and the emotional responses they elicited were recorded and analyzed. Participants reported their responses dynamically during the music by moving a point in 2-dimensional space or two slider controls on a LabVIEW virtual instrument, which also controlled the compact disk player. Measurements assumed that affect has two dimensions -- pleasantness and activation. When asked to report their own emotions, participants gave ratings that were often positively correlated with those they gave to the music itself. However, in several excerpts these correlations were minimal or strongly negative. Increasing participant familiarity with the excerpts through prescribed listening sessions significantly increased reported pleasantness on some excerpts (or portions thereof) but not others. The two-slider method provided results very similar to those for moving a single point for some excerpts but not for others. Across all experiments, variations between experimental conditions were far more marked for the pleasantness than for the activation dimension. Furthermore, the same excerpts tended to yield significant effects of different experimental manipulations. The results suggest that emotions attributed to oneself are sometimes clearly distinguished from those attributed to music, that the pleasantness dimension of emotional response to music is much less rigidly programmed by musical stimuli than is activation, and that some musical excerpts produce a much more malleable pleasantness response than do others. Excerpts that were in styles less familiar to participants at the outset of the experiment produced many of these variations.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: Meteorological Insights from a Maritime Tragedy
John Knox, University of Georgia
Twenty-six years ago this weekend, on November 10, 1975, the iron ore freighter "Edmund Fitzgerald" and its crew of 29 were lost without a single "mayday" on Lake Superior. This mysterious shipwreck has become an enduring piece of North American folklore, the subject of songs, stories and cable-TV documentaries. However, the meteorological conditions surrounding the shipwreck have received little scientific attention. In this poster I describe these conditions and relate them to the details of the shipwreck. The weather observations in the vicinity of the shipwreck, in turn, raise still-unanswered research questions about low-pressure windstorms. This project exemplifies how the sciences and the humanities, as well as pedagogy and research, can work together synergistically.

Searching for Beauty in Music -- Applications of the Zipf-Mandelbrot Law in MIDI-Encoded Music
Bill Manaris, Charles McCormick, Tarsem Purewal, College of Charleston
This poster/demonstration will present results from a project that combines computer science, mathematics and music theory. Computers have been used extensively in music to aid humans in analysis, composition, and performance. This is facilitated by the use of MIDI -- a coding scheme for music. Zipf's law states that phenomena generated by self-adapting organisms (e.g., humans) follow the principle of least effort. Specifically, if we plot the frequencies of all events in such a phenomenon against their rank using logarithmic scale, we get a straight line with a slope of approximately -1 (negative one). Researchers have discovered that certain phenomena which follow Zipf's distribution are perceived as "pleasing, beautiful, harmonious" by humans. However, no significant research has been performed in the area of music beyond some preliminary results focusing on notes (pitches).

Zipf's law was extended by Benoit Mandelbrot to account for additional phenomena--these are phenomena that generate lines with slopes ranging between 0 (random phenomena) and negative infinity (monotonous phenomena). In this light, Zipf's original law could be seen as describing phenomena that are ordered "just right" with respect to human sensory processes.

Our project is applying the Zipf-Mandelbrot law on musical pieces encoded in MIDI. Our hypothesis is that this will allow us to identify musical pieces that humans find "pleasing, beautiful, harmonious." Specifically, we have identified an initial set of attributes (metrics) of music pieces on which to apply the Zipf-Mandelbrot law. These metrics include pitch of musical events, duration, the combination of pitch and duration, melodic intervals, harmonic intervals, and several others. Our preliminary results are very encouraging. We plan to apply our metrics on a wide variety of music genres (baroque, classical, 20th century, blues, jazz, etc.). Assuming that this project is successful, we plan to investigate how these metrics may be employed in computer-aided music composition.

The Music of Earthquakes
Andrew Michael, Stephanie Ross, U.S. Geological Survey; David Schaff, Columbia University
Musicians create waves while seismologists analyze them, so these seemingly different activities are closely joined by the waves themselves. A musician controls the source of the sound and the path it travels through their instrument in order to make sound waves that we hear as music. An earthquake is the source of waves that travel along a path through the earth until reaching us as shaking. It is almost as if the earth is a musician and people, including seismologists, are the audience who must try to understand what the music means. By viewing waveforms and listening to audio playbacks of the earth shaking, we explore this analogy and find new ways to learn about the earth, earthquakes, musical instruments and music. These ideas will be more fully explored in a concert/lecture on November 8th.

Truth Considered, C. P. Snow's 'Two Cultures' as One
Danielle Mihram, University of Southern California; G. Arthur Mihram, Princeton, N.J.
The presentation will emphasize the striking resemblance between the metaphorical process of men of letters (humanists) and the scientific method employed by scientists and, to a degree, engineers. We shall describe the metaphorical process as a six-stage 'model-building process' which relates to the verbal expression of the analogy formed whenever a researcher arrives at the 'Aha!' phenomenon, a confirmation of which was presented in the Nobel Prize Acceptance Address of the ethologist Konrad Lorenz. We proceed also to show that the Scientific Method can be historically established as a 'model-building process', but strikingly this is the very same model-building process by which humanists conducted their research over centuries. Furthermore, we show that the mental model-building process, common to not *only Mankind but also the 'higher' animal species, is itself merely the mimicry of the other chemico-biological process by which both plant and animals have conducted their respective survivals. We thus conclude that indeed the humanist and the scientist should be only one culture, not C. P. Snow's two.

Reanimating the Dead: Violation or Veneration - Collisions between Science, Art, and Religion
Charleen M. Moore, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; C. Mackenzie Brown, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas
The human body is seen, not simply as an object, but as an image intimately associated with an individual's and society's deepest anxieties and highest aspirations. The living body is viewed by some as an image of God or God's handiwork, finely designed yet finite and flawed. By others, it is merely a chance association of atoms and chemical reactions. Similarly, the body after death can be viewed as a psycho-physical continuation of the individual, culminating in eternal spiritual embodiment, or as an empty shell prone to putrefaction. Based on these images of the body, divergent images of the anatomist have emerged: as a violator/desecrator of the body or as a teacher/benefactor to humankind. Since the time of the Egyptians, there has been a conflict between the cutting of the human body and the preservation of it. The concepts of violation and veneration, of objectification and idolization of the human body in anatomical art will be presented through examples of drawings, wax models, preserved cadavers, and texts from seminal periods in the history of medicine. We will explore the tension that has persisted between science, art, and religion in the study of anatomy by an examination of the roles of the anatomist as scientist, teacher, and artist, as violator and reanimator. We shall begin with the "Cutter" and "Embalmers" of Siculus Diodorus and end with the current plastinated exhibits of Dr. Gunther von Hagens.

Mathematics Among the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities
Douglas Norton, Villanova University
In a discussion of commonalties and differences among Humanities, the Arts, and the Sciences, where does one find, or place, Mathematics? Is it in the intersection, or is it disjoint from all three? Is Mathematics simply the language of Science - "The Queen and Servant of Science" - or is doing mathematics a qualitatively different enterprise? Why is there often a strong link between mathematical abilities and music appreciation? Is there more to mathematics in art than Escher and fractals? There have been logic-based, even probabilistic, "proofs" in theology, as well as ubiquitous attempts to apply Chaos Theory to the social sciences and humanities. In this presentation, we consider some historical and contemporary placements of Mathematics in this trialogue among Science, the Arts, and Humanities.

A Metaphysical Model of the General Communication System
Dele Oluwade, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
The author presents a metaphysical model of the general communication system (GCS). The GCS has six basic constituents, namely: source, encoder (or transmitter), channel, noise, decoder and destination.This presentation is a product of the author’s more than two decades research work. This model recognizes amongst others that man is the central intelligent being of all the terrestrial beings. We also take as a point of departure that man consists of three essential parts: the body, the mind/brain, and the soul/spirit. The author presents analogies of the general communication system vis-à-vis the physical and metaphysical realms of the universe.

Project Interactivate and the MASTER Toolset
Robert M. Panoff, Bethany Snyder Hudnutt, David A. Joiner, The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.
We will explore our interactive courseware for math and science education. Project Interactivate -- authentic courseware integrating lessons, standards, and computer explorations -- has been recognized by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and others as setting a new standard in on-line support for math education. The MASTER Toolset (Modeling And Simulation Technologies for Education Reform) brings real science to real classrooms through advanced simulations in physics, chemistry, environmental science, medicine, and mathematics.

Un Hotel pour 10,000 Chambres (Lits)
Martin Pinchus, Cabinet d’Architecture Pinchis & Ass., Paris
A collection of paintings are part of a study entitled "Hotel for 10,000 Rooms (Beds)" developed by the architect/enigineer, Martin Pinchus. The construction details have been omitted but the concept for this remarkable building is shown through Mr. Pinchus’ striking paintings. Mr. Pinchus was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1907 and educated as an architect in France. He served as a bridge and road engineer in Romania. He has also lived in Israel and since 1971 in France where he began his career as a painter. Mr. Pinchus describes himself this way, "I am 94 years old, and I propose to continue working until I have passed 100 years of age."

Complementary Transformations
Robert Root-Bernstein, Michigan State University
Bob Root-Bernstein's artwork investigates the nature of complementarity as a basis for art, philosophy, and science. In one manifestation, he combines mathematical tilings with Gestalt imagery to create collages that define space by their intersections. Each line defines two images so that alterations in one form necessitate alterations in its complement. He explores the ways in which these complements must change in tandem as they evolve from one form into another -- an explict model of his theory of how molecular systems evolve [Root-Bernstein, R. S. and Dillon, P. F. (1997) "Molecular Complementarity, 1...." Journal of Theoretical Biology, 188: 447]. In another manifestation of complementarity, he investigates how words contain their images. The letters of a word are used as the design elements by which the image called forth by that word is created. Dr. Root-Bernstein believes that such inherent transformations are part of a common creative process that can be expressed as art or science or, in his case, both.

Geology and Art: A Long History of One Culture
Gary Rosenberg, Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis
Nearly 200 years before Steno wrote what are now regarded as the principles of relative age dating in his Prodromus, Leonardo da Vinci depicted them in his earliest-known work of art, a drawing of the hills of Tuscany. These principles are called (1) original horizontality (sedimentary rocks are deposited with the tops of the beds parallel to the horizon); (2) superposition (the oldest sedimentary beds in an undisturbed sequence are at the bottom); and (3) lateral continuity (sedimentary beds continue across the countryside until they gradually thin as they get farther from the source of sediments, or they end abruptly at the edge of a sedimentary basin-allowing correlation of sedimentary sequences from place to place). Da Vinci's illustration of these principles is based on his mastery of geometric perspective, the sine qua non of the Renaissance, which revolutionized almost every aspect of Western culture. Much has been written on the connection between the 14th-15th Century rediscovery of geometric perspective and the establishment of optics, anatomy, astronomy, and biology as formal sciences, but the Tuscany hills drawing is the first evidence offered for a direct association with geology, and it reinforces da Vinci's long-acknowledged role as a founder of the science. Moreover, it establishes a connection between da Vinci and his contemporaries on the one hand, and between modern artists and scientists on the other who are exploring spatial relationships with digital imaging, sculpture, and other mediums. Thus, geology and art have always been, and continue to be, of one culture.

Upgrade: Cyborg Ascending a Staircase
Jon Shumway, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
Upgrade: Cyborg Ascending a Staircase is a video installation examining the general concept of progress as it is represented through the technological manipulation of the physical human form. The incorporated video elements consist of looped sequences of a human figure climbing a set of stairs. This is juxtaposed against images of a variety of technologies which are superimposed upon some of the stair climbing figures. These superimposed images represent a series of technological ways in which the body has been manipulated and its potential for such. The alterations to the human body explored include such categories of manipulation as cosmetic, corrective, prosthetic, chemical, genetic and digital. These technologies, according to Marshall McLuhan, function as extensions of humanity. In Upgrade these extensions are turned inward as we, in essence, become physically united with our own technological creations. As a species, we are engaged in a continuing and increasingly grand scale physical alteration of our own form. Whether or not this form of "progress" is viewed positively is a matter of perspective. In fact, humanity has been technologically altering the body to some extent for most of human history. In a society where technological advancement and superiority are highly-valued, such developments are generally categorized as being progressive.

The McBride Honors Program at Colorado School of Mines: The Societal Context for Science and Engineering
Catherine Skokan, Stephen Daniel, Colorado School of Mines
For over twenty years the Guy T. McBride Jr. Honors Program in Public Affairs at Colorado School of Mines has engaged a select group (approximately 10% of the student body) of undergraduate science and engineering students with faculty from the humanities, sciences, and engineering in exploring the interfaces of their chosen disciplines with the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Aspects of the seven-semester (24 credit) curriculum will be described to illustrate the structure of the program which incorporates material from classical literature, music, drama, cultural anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, international studies, leadership, and ethics. The special value of internships and international travel experiences in demonstrating congruence of the disciplines will be illustrated. Some data illustrating the diversity of career paths of alumni of the program will be presented.

The importance of involving faculty from the science and engineering disciplines with others from the humanities and social sciences will be advocated. Overt demonstration to the students by "technical faculty" of the significance of the arts and humanities in both their professional and personal lives is an essential facet of the program. We have found the process most effective when student and faculty participants alike share in the learning and the teaching. Examples of classroom experiences will be illustrated.

The Three-Culture Resolution and Hua-Yen Buddhism
William L Stone, Ph.D., East Tennessee State University; Donald Garcia, Ph.D., Northeast State Technical Community College
Discussions on the conflict between the humanities and Western scientific culture reveal a cryptic and myopic assumption. This conflict is, more accurately, one between the two cultures of Western humanism and Western science. Science has steadily eroded the Western humanistic/theological view that the earth is the center of the universe and that man plays a unique role in a spiritual hierarchy that places him above the angels but below God. Western humanists have intellectually accepted the fact that the earth is not the center of the cosmos but they have not abandoned the anthropocentric view in which humankind has an elevated position in a spiritual hierarchy lying outside the realm of the natural world. Science, in contrast, has advanced from a "divide and conquer" mentality into a more integrative mode described by string theory, chaos theory, ecology and a relativistic universe. In contrast to Western humanism, Eastern philosophy (the third culture), particularly in the form of Hua-Yen Buddhism, has made different assertions about man's place in the universe. This form of Buddhism emphasizes the hyper-interrelatedness of all phenomena. Man is not placed in unique hierarchy in Hua-Yen because no hierarchy is posited. Western Science and Hua-Yen Buddhism appear to be on convergent paths from which Western humanism could benefit.

The Convergence Of Ethics And Science - A Curriculum For Elementary Grades
Mark E. Wagman, DuPont Co.; Rabbi Ellen Bernhardt, Albert Einstein Academy
Albert Einstein Academy, a Jewish K-6 private school in Wilmington, Delaware, combines secular and religious studies. Several years ago, as part of an overall effort to achieve better integration of its diverse subject matter, the school applied for and received a grant from NEH to develop a curriculum in ethics and science. After a period of staff training led by experts in the areas where ethics and science converge, the staff began developing a curriculum for grades 1 to 6. Each grade would deal with a different topic--Frogs and Pond Life (1), Insects (2), Plants (3), Land and Water (4), The Body (5), and Human Sexuality (6). Parallel units were prepared covering relevant values, stories, and practices from Judaism on the one hand and the relevant science on the other. Implementation of the curriculum is just beginning, and it is expected that with experience the curriculum will evolve to a more highly integrated form. There are plans to disseminate the work so that others can use it as a model for the development of such integrated curricula. This poster will highlight this curriculum as well as suggest an approach to developing a curriculum for secondary grades that brings the complementary perspectives of science and religion to bear on both timely and timeless issues facing mankind.

Biomimetics
Stephen Wainwright, Duke University; Chuck Pell, Nekton

Garden of the Goddesses: A Celebration of Women, Storytelling, and the Environmental Movement
Sarah Wright, Bradley University
Women are inherent ecologists. "Vegetation myths" of goddesses, whose fertility enriched the Earth's harvests, and cave drawings of vulva-like flowers testify to the archetypal reverence for the Earth Mother and her resources in ancient art and literature. Indeed, women have traditionally been assigned the role of mediator, as both ecologists and storytellers. Throughout history, women have compiled knowledge of the land and the place of humans within its ecosystems, and transmitted that knowledge from one generation to the next via stories and legend. Like the stoloniferous connections that transmit resources and chemical signals about the local environment among modules of a clonal plant, women continue to sustain connections within communities. This poster presentation is both a tribute to the art of storytelling as a means of raising environmental awareness, and a tribute to women of the past and present who have kept such traditions alive. It is no coincidence that in many grassroots environmental groups, English departments, and consortiums of plant and soil scientists, women are well-represented, and often comprise the majority. By leading movements for environmental and social justice throughout the world, by recognizing the importance of both biological and cultural diversity to sustaining life, and by revitalizing connections of humans with each other and with their environment, women are reintroducing the Goddess that once was. As fragmented habitats are restored and fragmented societies are reunited, we may all discover that interdependence is the route to a more sustainable and more fulfilling way of life. Connection will set us free.

SPECIAL DISPLAYS

The Art of American Scientist
During breaks, relax by enjoying a video gallery of artwork commissioned by Sigma Xi's magazine in the service of science. Monitors in public areas will offer a continuous showing of "The Art of American Scientist."

The MBRS-RISE Program at JCSU
Timothy Champion, Johnson C. Smith University
The MBRS-RISE Program at JCSU is an NIGMS-funded project to interest minority undergraduate science students in biomedical research, to prepare them to succeed in this research, and eventually to engage them in research. The program has four components: a program to improve student performance in core courses and nurture selected freshmen, a program to involve students who are not ready or qualified to engage in research in activities to improve their chances of beginning research, a summer experience for rising sophomores to prepare them to engage in research, and a program involving students in biomedical research at JCSU and at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The program is now in its third year and the progress to date and plans for the future will be discussed. Supported by NIGMS R25 GM 58042 (MBRS RISE).

Phi Beta Kappa
A special display celebrating Phi Beta Kappa, collaborator on the organization of this forum.

ArtSci Index
Cynthia Pannucci, Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)

Centennial Campus Middle School
In conjunction with the North Carolina State University Sigma Xi Chapter
The Adventurers Team at Centennial Campus Middle School is exploring the relationship between art and science. Students are acting as investigators as they identify the scientific processes and body systems that interact with art. For example, students investigating Impressionist painters are studying how human vision works to create a recognizable image from the dots and dabs of the painter’s brush. Additional groups of students have chosen to explore how the brain processes information. In particular these students are examining artists whose images play on reality, such as M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali. Overall our seventh grade students are discovering the science behind viewing and enjoying great works of art. Students worked with scientists to develop their projects as part of an NC State University effort to tie local chapter activities with the Sigma Xi Forum.

Leonardo Davinci And The Skeletal System
Ben Gillespie, Christopher Wilburn and James Wilcox

Giuseppe Arcimboldo and Vision
Courtney Tate, Kara Dzwulski, Alison Hoggard, Nicole Sorrell and Ty Pierce

Salvador Dali and the Brain
Heather Aliff, Jordan Henson, Oliver Madden, T.J. Parker and Jaclyn Hagler

M.C. Escher and Vision
Trevor Johnson, Lemar Scott, Sherecee Nowell, Amber Johnson and Rashonda Battle

Pablo Picasso and the Respiratory System
Briana Moore, Caitlin Byrd, Megan Rowan and Abby Phipps

M.C. Escher, Vision and the Brain
Ted Crane, Chase Calder and Daniel Womack

George Bellows and the Muscular System
Woody Barrett, Ashley Gray, Brandon Gray and Ken Howard

Michelangelo and the Muscular System
Theresa Kelly, Keywana Adams. Lisa Shade, Candice Hedgepeth and Lucero Anutunez

Rene Magritte and the Brain
Stacy Strickland and Tabor Hutchins

Claude Monet and Vision
Ashton Privette and Heather Davis

Leonardo DaVinci and the Muscular System
Daniel Avery, Dominique Brown and Tim Frieson

Vincent Van Gogh and the Nervous System
Robert Langworthy, Chris Mills, Thomas Brantley and Marcus Southern

Jackson Pollock and the Nervous System
Bradley Armstrong

Alberto Giacometti and the Skeletal System
Miles Washington and Bredin Rush
Marc Carpenter and Colin Boothe will also have atrwork to be displayed.