Grain & Chaff

Conference call

Stella Volpe, associate professor of Nutrition and current president of the New England Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (NEACSM), was the program chair for the organization's fall conference held Nov. 7-8 in Providence. Under the theme "Exercise: The Fountain of Youth," the conference included presentations by internationally known speakers as well as undergraduate and graduate students from the region. One of the undergraduate presenters was Laura Hutchinson, a junior honors student working with Volpe. She presented her research on bone mineral density in collegiate rowers. More than 600 participants from New England, New York and Canada attended the meeting.

Learning support

Technical archivist Melissa Watterworth of Special Collections and Archives received the Richard W. Hale, Jr. Professional Development Award from the New England Archivists on Oct. 28. The award is given to promote the professional development of archivists in the region. Watterworth plans to use the award to broaden her knowledge and understanding of the techniques, preservation methods, cataloging requirements and access tools and tends in video, film and arts archives.

Strictly speaking

Dotty Meyer, director of the Early Childhood Laboratory School in the Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, gave a talk entitled "Teacher as Learner: Reflections in Practice" at the annual conference of the National Association for the Education of Young Children" held Nov. 20-23 in New York City. Inspired by the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Meyer is a longtime proponent of applying a negotiated learning approach in her practice with preschoolers and preservice teachers. She has coordinated Reggio Emilia approach conferences on campus for the past three years and is planning another for April.

Research honors

English professor and department chair Anne Herrington and Marcia Curtis, acting director of the Writing Program, received the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) during it annual convention in Atlanta last month. Herrington and Curtis were honored for their book, "Persons in Process: Four Stories of Writing and Personal Development in College," published in 2000 by NCTE. The award recognizes an outstanding work of scholarship or research in language, literature, rhetoric, or pedagogy and learning, published during the previous five years. In "Persons in Process," the authors followed four students during their years at a large, public university. The case studies are based on extensive interviews with each student, analyses of their writing for composition and other courses, classroom observations, and interviews with their teachers. Based on their findings, the authors provide insight into the ways that students' academic and personal uses of writing reflect each other, as well as ways that, in responding to students' writing, teachers can help as well as hinder these interrelated developmental processes.

Author, author

St. Martin's Press this month is releasing "Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in America" by former Archaeological Services staffer Jan Whitaker. Whitaker will discuss the book on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. at the Forbes Library in Northampton. Copies will be available for purchase and signing from
2-4 p.m.