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February 4, 2013
What moment in the classroom stands out as the most memorable? I was teaching a class on time-based art forms (installation, sound art, performance) and several students from Japan who spoke no English ended up making and presenting amazing art for their final project. It was an incredible testament to the power of visual images…
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January 28, 2013
Several years ago, Mary Kay Pauley started sewing teddy bears. At first it was just to keep up her lifelong passion for sewing. But when approached to make a bear out of a newborn baby’s crib sheet, the bears took on an entirely new and greater purpose. Through word of mouth, “Kay’s Bears” has kept…
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January 21, 2013
Photo by Scott C. Soderberg, Michigan Photography. Dr. Matthew Boulton doesn’t speak Chinese, but that didn’t stop him from founding the School of Public Health’s China Scholar Exchange Program. At dinner with a former health department colleague in Beijing several years ago, Boulton drew up the outlines for the program on a dinner napkin, and…
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January 14, 2013
A few weeks ago, Natalie Condon watched as a bat went from specimen to object of display for the Museum of Zoology, filming the whole time. She watched as a museum research assistant disassembled the bat skeleton, cleaned it out and reassembled it; she turned the footage into a time-lapse film. As a videographer for…
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December 10, 2012
After moving to the United States more than 18 years ago, Rita Barvinok uses her interest in theater to keep closely connected to her Russian roots. “Some of my friends with little children and I wanted to keep the Russian language alive, and do something educational with our children,” says Barvinok, a system administrator in LSA Biology…
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December 3, 2012
Although Ellen Rowe says she was born with perfect pitch, she continues to hone her skills with daily practice at the piano. Primarily self-taught as a child, her high school band director insisted that she take jazz piano lessons in order to play in the jazz ensemble at the school. Without the discipline imposed by…
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November 19, 2012
As a former high school athlete and current staff athletic trainer for U-M’s Athletic Department, Jeremy Marra understood that all athletes have to overcome challenges. But until he worked with the Paralympic Games in London this year, he didn’t realize the full scope. “Not to take away from what the Olympians or other athletes do,…
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November 12, 2012
Photo by Eric Bronson, Michigan Photography. Behind every structure, too and space is an architect who designed it, based on the needs of the user. This is the work of U. Sean Vance. Vance has been an assistant professor of architecture at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning since Fall 2010, after teaching…
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November 5, 2012
Growing up in Detroit and raised on Motown hits, Michael Turner had a confession to make when, at 18 years old, he saw a Lenny Kravitz music video and a friend suggested he check out a certain left-handed guitarist who inspired Kravitz. “I was a college freshman who didn’t know who Jimi Hendrix was,” he…
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October 29, 2012
What moment in the classroom stands out as the most memorable? Memorable moments are when I realize that through a class experience students discover something fundamental. As part of a course on sustainable development related to hydropower projects proposed in Chilean Patagonia, a student pointing down at the Baker River valley said to me almost…