The University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has launched an online resource for Georgia teachers looking to start or take full advantage of their school’s gardens.
Hundreds of schools in Georgia now have school gardens, and October—which is Farm to School Month—is a great time to use the gardens to help students connect classroom lessons and the natural world, said David Knauft, a professor of horticulture at UGA.
The UGA Extension School Garden Resource Center, launched Oct. 1, offers teachers in kindergarten through eighth grade lesson plans that use school gardens to teach the curriculum prescribed in the Georgia Performance Standards.
Sylvia M. Hutchinson, a professor emerita, has been named director of academic partnerships and initiatives at the University of Georgia. She will join the Division of Student Affairs staff to coordinate a new strategic priority to formalize and strengthen partnerships with campus academic units, according to an announcement by Victor K. Wilson, UGA vice president for student affairs.
Her position will be responsible for building a network of student affairs partnerships with academic degree programs and instructional enterprises, as well as fostering learning opportunities for students.
The Center for International Trade and Security in the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs has received four grants totaling more than $700,000 from the U.S. State Department to improve security in Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
The grants are part of the State Department's ongoing efforts to stem the illegal spread of dangerous chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials and technologies that could be used to build weapons of mass destruction by non-state groups, terrorists and other entities with malicious intent.
CITS will work closely with the U.S. State Department, the government of Kenya and other stakeholders to train top government officials-including legislators, leaders in relevant Kenyan agencies, border control officials, port authority agents, and the national police-to create a system of strategic trade controls that will promote legitimate trade and eliminate smuggling of materials that can be used to make extremely powerful unconventional weapons.
Four University of Georgia faculty members—Julian Cook, Tracie Costantino, Sarah Covert and Tom Reichert—will gain expertise in academic leadership as SEC Administrative Fellows for 2013-2014.
The Administrative Fellows program at UGA is part of a broader Academic Leadership Development Program of the Southeastern Conference. The program seeks to identify, prepare and advance academic leaders for roles within SEC institutions and beyond.
As the Gulf Coast continues to recover from the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists from the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography are continuing to look into the long-term effects of the spill on coastal marine life. A team led by Skidaway Institute professor Richard Lee recently completed preliminary work into the effect dispersed and emulsified oil has on blue crabs and shrimp. The project includes vital information from fishermen and crabbers in the Gulf.
Georgia Sea Grant, a public service and outreach unit of the University of Georgia, and North Carolina Sea Grant are launching a project to help St. Marys and Hyde County, N.C., plan for sea level rise, increased coastal flooding and intensified storm surges.
Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the project is part of the National Sea Grant College Program's nationwide effort to assist communities in preparing for the current and predicted impacts of these and other coastal changes. UGA public service and outreach units, which also include the Carl Vinson Institute of Government and the Marine Extension Service, see the project as a means of helping ensure long-term economic livelihood in coastal communities.
St. Marys is one of the most vulnerable cities in Georgia to impacts such as sea level rise, increased coastal flooding and intensified storm surges.
A team of senior researchers at the University of Georgia have received a five-year $7.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help better understand one of the most fundamental building blocks of life.
They are tiny chains of sugar molecules called glycans, and they cover the surface of every living cell in the human body-providing the necessary machinery for those cells to communicate, replicate and survive. But they're not all good. Glycans support the function of all cells, including those that cause cancer, viral and bacterial infections, diabetes and cardiovascular disorders.
This makes them an attractive target for new treatments, and the experiments supported by this grant promise to speed the development of new, more effective therapies for many of humanity's most insidious diseases and increase our understanding of the body's most basic cellular functions.
With mushroom caps that can grow as large as trashcan lids, the gigantic fungus Macrocybe titans looks like something from outer space. And it may be popping up again soon in northeast Georgia.
University of Georgia mycologists in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences found one specimen of this gigantic fungus—a species that produces the largest mushrooms in the Western Hemisphere—in the lawn of an abandoned Athens home last October.
Although the fungus is endemic to neighboring Florida, this was the first time the species had been confirmed in Georgia, said Marin Talbot Brewer, a UGA plant pathologist who mostly studies microscopic fungi that cause crop diseases.
A University of Georgia College of Education research team has received a $2.65 million grant from the National Science Foundation to test a new teaching model that improves science learning for middle schools educating English language learners and perhaps for all students.
Led by UGA faculty member Cory Buxton, a professor in the department of educational theory and practice, the project will further explore and demonstrate the effectiveness of the teaching and learning model he and his COE colleagues have developed over the past three years.
The University of Georgia College of Environment and Design's Jackson Street Building has received LEED Gold Certification. The building is the first historic building on campus to earn the designation.
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an independent, third party verification that indicates a building project meets standards for sustainability set by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council. The LEED program is a points-based system that encourages lower operating costs, waste reduction, and energy and water conservation among other criteria.
