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New WSU human biology degree to address widespread needs

Responding to the global need for more skilled professionals in health, social, and environmental sciences and public policy, the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington State University will launch a new interdisciplinary degree in human biology beginning this fall.

Pat Carter.
Carter

“This expressly interdisciplinary program will meld approaches and content from social and biological sciences to provide students with a vibrant, synthetic understanding of the roles of culture, the dynamics of natural and social systems, and biological attributes responsible for shaping the human being,” said Pat Carter, professor and director of the School of Biological Sciences.

Andrew Duff.
Duff

A wide variety of career options for graduates with this degree include areas of medical and health sciences, social work and support, and development and analysis of public policy.

“This new degree brings together existing courses in a new constellation,” said Andrew Duff, professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology. “Our aim is to prepare students to be creative, insightful and skillful in a variety of professions that influence the welfare of humans.”

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WSU Insider

Students to use at-home lab kits for online summer chemistry courses

To allow students to complete hands-on lab requirements while transitioned to remote instruction due to COVID-19, Washington State University’s Department of Chemistry will mail lab kits to students taking undergraduate chemistry courses during the Summer 2020 term.

Greg Crouch.
Crouch

According to Greg Crouch, a clinical professor in the Department of Chemistry and associate chair for undergraduate studies, this is the first time WSU’s chemistry department has utilized kits to teach laboratory concepts to students at home.

Alongside a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous instruction, the courses will use lab simulations and other visualization tools to round out the student experience.

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WSU Insider

 

 

U.S. professor teaching in Romania composes quarantine blues

Tom Preston.
Preston

Tom Preston, a professor of political science at WSU and currently teaching at the Ovidius University in Constanţa, a city on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea, has composed a “Lockdown, Breakdown, Quarantine Blues.”

“Tom Preston, a professor of political science and Fulbright grantee at Ovidius, chose not to return home and stayed in Constanţa. Between his teaching and research activities, he spends some of his time performing. Here is one of his works, about the situation we are all going through,” Mihai Gîrţu, the prorector of Ovidius University, wrote, quoted by daily Adevarul.

Thomas Preston is a specialist in security policy, foreign affairs, and political psychology, according to his resume available on the website of Washington State University, his home university. He is a C.O. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Washington State University.

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Romania-Insider

WSU gives songwriters place at virtual roundtable

As many artists have done in the face of crisis, Joel Roeber, a songwriter and music student at Washington State University, turned to his art as a way to process his thoughts and feelings about the coronavirus pandemic and to help others cope.

Roeber’s new composition, “Crown of Fear,” is a gently unfolding instrumental jazz tune written in response to the anxiety and hardship brought by the virus. He also named the song in reference to the virus – “corona” means “crown” in Spanish and Latin.

Horace Alexander-Young.
Young
Gabe Condon
Condon

Roeber, a senior from Spokane, Washington, performed “Crown of Fear” during a recent Songwriter’s Roundtable, hosted online by his teacher and mentor, WSU music instructor Gabe Condon. Seven other WSU student musicians also presented their original compositions and joined Condon and fellow music faculty member Horace Alexander Young in providing feedback about everything from lyrics and chord progression to marketing potential.

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WSU Insider

More of us need help. Why is it so hard to ask for, and how can we make it easier?

The reluctance to reach out for help is a common tendency, but it’s an important one to unpack during a pandemic. How can we make that easier?

The first step is to understand why it’s so hard to reach out.

Craig Parks.
Parks

Requesting assistance is also uncomfortable because it’s “an admission that you’ve lost control of your situation,” says Craig Parks, a professor of social psychology and a vice provost at Washington State University. “We really need to feel, at all times, like we control our situations and can determine what happens to us.”

Plus, it creates a feeling of indebtedness — you helped me, so now I owe you — even if the helper doesn’t expect this, Parks says. “Socially, there’s still going to be a lot of pressure on you to reciprocate in kind.”

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Washington Post