An ongoing study of students in MS 150 Statistics at the Palikir campus has found that thirty-four women aged 18 and 19 had a mean body fat percentage of 26.9% with a sample standard deviation of 7.2%. Twenty-five women aged 21, 22, and 23 years old had a mean body fat of 30.1% with a sample standard deviation of 7.6%. The difference is statistically significant at a 95% confidence level.
The average age of the 34 women was 18.6 years old while the 25 women were 21.6 years old, a difference of 3 years. The difference in body fat between the two groups is 3.2% The two groups have an average composition of 41 pounds of body fat. Were these statistics to hold for an individual women over time, then that woman would gain half a pound of body fat per year.
This is not a weight differential, the two groups have a ten pound differential between them. This is purely a fat differential.
Due to the study involving different women and not the same women over time, the study can only suggest that our female students are gaining body fat in a systematic way during their time at the College. One of the key results may not be the inferred gain per se but that the upper limit for a body fat for a physically fit women is around 27% while overfat starts at around 32%. This means that our young female students move from the upper boundary of physical fitness up towards the boundary with being overfat. Continuing on this trajectory leads to levels of body fat connected to the high levels of Type II adult onset diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and certain types of cancers seen in women.
David A. Grantz, Research Plant Physiologist at the Air Pollution Research Center, Cooperative Extension Air Quality Specialist, and Cooperative Extension Research Plant Physiologist from the Kearney Agricultural Center, 9240 South Riverbend Ave., Parlier, CA 93648.
http://cnas.ucr.edu/~aprc/grantz.html
Dr. Grantz spoke to the SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany class in late October.
The division was also "visited" by a banded krait (Bungarus fasciatus), a venomous snake from southeast asia which had been run over and killed in the Tagetik garbage dump.
The developmental mathematics program adopted a new textbook in MS 095 PreAlgebra. The team who selected the new textbook felt that the new text would work well with the recently selected new MS 098 PreAlgebra textbook. Information on these and other textbooks are available at http://www.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/department/textbooks.html
The developmental math program is in the process of advertising an opening for January. The new position is needed as student demand is far out-stripping faculty supply. Over a hundred students could not get the math course they wanted due to the high demand in mathematics.
One member of the developmental math team is now using a new computer projector to present material to their class using Powerpoint. Powerpoint allows the instructor to use animated effects to better explain mathematical concepts.
Through the hard work of our algebra, trigonometry, and calculus instructor, the new LiveMath software is getting installed on the new computers in A204. Some initial complications involving LiveMath and Windows XP were overcome.
The College level math program is the guinea pig for the development of program level outcomes, with MS/ED 110 Math for Teachers leading the way. MS 150 Statistics is also working on moving its outline into the new format. The MS/Ed 110 instructor is also developing the year long MS/ED 210a and MS/ED 210b course sequence that will anchor the mathematics core of the Bachelors of Bilingual Elementary Education.
The value to the nation of research professor in herpetology was once again demonstrated this month by the above mentioned visitor from southeast asia. While the primary mission of the college as a whole is instructional, there is an ongoing national need for the Division of Natural Science and Mathematics to have publishing professors with doctorates in fields of scientific research.
The program has continued to add capability and capacity, delivering a solid science education to our students. All of the laboratory courses provide students with an opportunity to work with scientific grade equipment. For many students, our science laboratories are the only contact they will have with properly equipped and run science laboratories during their life in school.
While the Health Careers Opportunity Program continues to provide an opportunity for students to study core sciences that lead towards further work elsewhere in pre-medical fields, there remains a need to develop a nursing career ladder program to meet state and national labor needs in this area. Work on such a program is being led by personnel from the national campus and the Pohnpei state campus.
Although Kinesiology rightfully deserves its own monthly report, for now the chair of the Division of Natural Science and Mathematics is the "self-appointed acting interim unofficial" chair of the Division of Kinesiology. During this month the budget that had been submitted in October was defended.
The core defense is that the national lack of exercise is leading to high rates of adult onset diabetes, heart disease, cardio-vascular ill-health, and early death. There are high direct medical costs to treatments such as kidney dialysis and high indirect costs both to the national economy and to individual families when a loved parent with young children dies in the peak of their earning years.
Starting young students on a lifetime program of physical fitness is a key long-term goal of the division. A few pennies spent now will can save thousands of dollars later, primarily by keeping a wage earner healthy while his children grow and go to school. Secondarily there are medical cost savings to having a healthier population. Prevention is almost always far less expensive than treatment.
Currently the division offers a single course, PE 101j Joggling. The budget calls for the hiring of a single full-time instructor. The instructor would both teach a full load and coordinate the hiring and scheduling of part-time instructors.
Earlier in the term the curriculum committee voted to make physical education a one-credit general education core requirement. A physical education core requirement has also been added to the new Bachelor's degree program.
No arrivals, departures, births, marriages, or deaths occurred in the division during November.
Kudos to the incredibly capable executive assistant in the division. She consistently goes above and beyond both her job description and her duty to be helpful and useful. Recently she shadowed the photocopier repair person in order to pick up skills that will prove useful when a copier has a problem. One day, when the copier malfunctioned on me, she said, "Wait." She disappeared into the office and reappeared with a screwdriver. She worked on something inside the copier and brought it back to life. Nowhere in any description does she have to perform such skills, but she is always willing not only to help but to learn new skills and capabilities.
She also attended the meetings on the new budget format and converted all of our internal accounting systems to the new format. She continues to challenge herself by taking demanding courses at the college each and every term.
She has also provided assistance to the business division and, more recently, occasional help to the division of languages and literature.
There appears to be a need to start exploring the changing of locks in the classroom block, especially for the science laboratories. The loss last month of a VCR from a locked room, the second lost from the science labs since 1996, suggests that keys are now in circulation and the rooms cannot be considered secure even if locked. Beyond the financial loss to the college, the labs contain chemicals that if improperly handled could be hazardous to the handler or the environment. Chemistry courses and other labs require the use of corrosive and potentially toxic compounds. The security of those labs must be a paramount consideration.
A few years ago an instructor noticed that a bottle of about 1000 Tums was gradually disappearing despite non-use by any class. At the time there was the sense that the loss might have been due to minors who accompanied the cleaning crew at night. At that time the concern first arose that there was a risk that a minor might inadvertently poison themselves by consuming something they thought to be harmless. I remain concerned as to the security of those laboratories and the safety of the community.
My thanks to Nanpei for inviting me to the Aparahk, Madolehnihmw kamadipw. I was honored to be invited and greatly honored to be granted recognition by the kosapw. Events like that remind me why my original plan to work here for two years and then move on was shelved.