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No biological legacy

June 28, 2013

From Washington State Magazine:

“No biological legacy.”

The phrase John Bishop uses to describe the effect of Mount St. Helens’s eruption on the main blast zone, the pumice plain, holds an understated charm. By now, everyone has heard the story of Mount St. Helens-how it blew on a Sunday morning in May 1980, after rumbling for weeks, an earthquake triggering an enormous landslide, hot gas and rock debris blasting across the landscape at 1,100 kilometers an hour, devastating 60 square kilometers and killing 60 people. But it is impossible to accept the immensity of the mountain and the eruption’s legacy, unless you are able to stand beneath the enormous crater on the pumice plain-and hear Bishop, an ecologist at Washington State University at Vancouver, talk about lupines.

No biological legacy. Trees, birds, elk, bacteria, spring flowers, humans-all simply vaporized. A whole region was completely sterilized.

Prof invited to address national green chemistry conference

June 20, 2013

Faculty member Mark Stephan will speak this week at the 17th annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference in Washington, D.C. He was invited, in part, due to attention received as co-author of the award-winning book, “Coming Clean: Information Disclosure and Environmental Performance.”

Grant funds preparation for invasive mussels

March 28, 2013

Researchers at Washington State University are preparing for a Northwest invasion of the zebra mussel – a small, distinctly striped and rather tenacious freshwater mollusk that can quickly encrust underwater surfaces. The mussels have caused significant damage in other parts of the country and pose an enormous risk to the hydroelectric infrastructure, recreational facilities and unique ecological system of the Columbia River Basin.

“Once they are established in the water, they are almost impossible to eradicate,” said Stephen Bollens, director of the WSU School of the Environment and lead investigator for a $630,000 grant from the Bonneville Power Administration to ramp up preparations.

WSU Professors Contribute to Middle School Instruction

February 15, 2013

With the help of a $1.7M federal Math and Science Partnership grant, WSU professors from several disciplines will provide instructional support for teachers in selected school districts over the next three years.

“The focus is on development of middle school math and science teachers’ content knowledge and on student-centered instruction through the use of ‘design challenges,’ which are integrated, project-based learning experiences,” said David Slavit, professor of mathematics and education at WSUVancouver.

Materials developed through the partnership program will be available for all schools across the state.