I n a remarkably successful teaching project, UWSP English professor

Barbara Dixson managed to bring ur-ban and rural high school students with racial and cultural differences together, to teach her current UWSP English 381 students about just what it takes to be an English teacher, and also, to educate the community about just how easily stereotypes can be overcome through education. This teaching project earned Dixson the prestigious Ann Lydecker Educational Diversity Award from the Wisconsin State Council on Affirmative Action.

Dixson’s project, “Literature Circles Diversity Collaboration,” began

with online literature circles between the rural Adams Friendship High School, whose students are mostly Caucasian, and the urban Milwaukee Vincent High School, whose students are mostly African-American. Students from both schools were assigned to literature groups with the focus on books dealing with race, including The Color Purple and Caucasia. In the last phase of the project, 50 students from both schools came to UW Stevens Point and were finally able to meet. After participating in icebreaker activities and watching a few

presentations, the students ate lunch at the Debot Center and met in their litera-ture groups for discussion.

Feedback from the high school students suggests the project was an

overwhelming success. A student from Milwaukee Vincent wrote, “We really are the same. The only difference is color.” A student from Adams Friendship wrote, “I basically learned more about the dif-ficulties of being both African American

and white.” The feedback also suggests that after visiting UW Stevens Point, many students are more interested in going to college. And after eating at De-Bot, an Adams Friendship student com-mented, “All you can eat lunch rocks!”

The high school students weren’t the only ones to benefit from the

project, though. UWSP English students gained practical experience teaching

the kids and grading projects under the guidance of both high school teachers and a UWSP professor. About her experience with the project, one UWSP student wrote, “Not only did my opinion completely change, but I’ve also decided that the best thing for me personally and profession-ally would be to teach in the Milwaukee Public School District.”

April 2009

Students from both high schools met at UWSP

To the Point | 1

The Only Difference is Color by Shane Stricker

Barbara Dixson’s Award-Winning Teaching Project

“Not only did my opinion com-pletely change, but I’ve also decided that the best thing for me personally and profession-ally would be to teach...”

Students gave presentations on the literature

A single strand of a spider web is thicker than a bundle of one mil-

lion nanowires. Perhaps that provides a vague idea of the amazingly tiny scale that UWSP Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Michael Zach, is working on. His labora-tory is the recipient of a $48,363 grant from the WiSys Technology Foundation, which will fund his one-year project, “Electrochemical Deposition of Nano-wires: Going from a Scientific Curios-ity to a Commercializable Process with Wide-Ranging Applications.” He was recently named the 2008 WiSys Innova-tion Scholar.

A ccording to Zach, “There are many ways to make large quantities of

nanowires, but most techniques result in tangled masses of wires.” His past research emphasized how to exploit the natural pat-terns found on the surfaces of crystals to make nanowires without the expensive tech-niques traditionally used by the computer manufacturing industry. Zach said, “We are now moving this theory into practice and we are manufacturing items with better proper-ties by intelligently providing the right set

of conditions for self-assembly using low-energy methods.” Building electronics, and even machines, that are smaller than single biological cells will have important ben-efits to the state of Wisconsin by creating high-tech and high-paying jobs in a field that – until a few years ago – did not exist anywhere.

Z ach attended UWSP for a year in 1983-4. After apprenticing with a

jeweler/sculptor in Florence, Italy and own-ing a custom design jewelry store, Zach re-turned in 1994 to UWSP to finish his under-graduate degree. He completed a degree in Chemistry and Chemistry with the Polymer Option in 1997 when he received the Chan-cellor’s Leadership Award. Zach earned his Master’s Degree and PhD from University California, Irvine; held a prestigious Miller Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC, Berkeley; and was a Glenn Seaborg Postdoctoral Fel-low at Argonne National Laboratory until Fall of 2006 when he returned to Stevens Point and joined the Chemistry faculty at UWSP. Zach continues to hold an appoint-ment with Argonne National Laboratory as a Guest Faculty Researcher.

Tour of Argonne National Laboratory Zach and Students Get a Rare Glimpse Inside Argonne

Zach led 9 UWSP students to Argonne

To the Point | 2

Mike Zach Recieves the 2008 WiSys Innovation ScholarThe Tiniest Technology

“It is my hope to move this theory into practice and manufacture items with better properties...”

by Shane Stricker

Mike Zach, UWSP Assistant Professor of Chemistry

In Fall 2008, Zach took his students to tour Argonne National Laboratory. Zach says, “There were lots of wide-eyed students that morning with the amazing facilities, overwhelming number of instruments, and world class expert scientists that were lead-ing the tour.” They toured the Advanced Photon Source, which has the brightest x-ray beams in the western hemisphere. Stu-dents gave presentations that Zach notes “made UWSP proud.” On Saturday, they toured Argonne’s new Center for Nanoscale Materials. The students, Zach says, were “inspired and in awe of such impressive discoveries being made at Argonne.”

The Gammasphere

From the Dean’s Desk A message from Interim Dean Charles Clark

Tour of Argonne National Laboratory

Professor Barbara Dixson’s award-winning teaching program, featured in this issue’s

lead article, exemplifies the way in which the College of Letters & Science, through its faculty, its curriculum, and, most importantly, its students, has made and is making a profound and positive difference in the lives of literally thousands of people. She and her students from the Department of English reach out to high school students in Wisconsin who would otherwise likely never meet each other and may otherwise not consider that a college education is possible for them. By bringing together students of such diverse backgrounds, Professor Dixson and her students are making a significant difference in the lives of the high school students and in their own lives. I congratulate Professor Dixson and her students on this richly-deserved award.

In another way, Professor Mike Zach of our Department of Chemistry is making a difference in the lives of his students

and, through his research in nanotechnology, in the lives of people far beyond the confines of our campus. The research that Professor Zach and his students are doing holds the promise of expanding technological benefits across numerous scientific disciplines and in industry. Professor Zach’s award

this year from the WiSys Technology Foundation rec-ognizes the significance of his and his students’ work and recognizes the difference the work will make in Wisconsin.

The descriptions of the work of Professors Dixson and Zach are but two examples of the outstand-

ing contributions that our faculty, staff, and students make to their academic fields and to society. Professor Gibbs, through his work in computing, as described in these pages of To the Point, shows us additional intellectual roads faculty and students are traveling as

they teach and conduct research. We could fill many pages with stories of how our faculty, staff, and students travel such roads and along the way truly make a profound and positive difference. In future issues of To the Point we will continue to highlight the significant work of the members of our College community.

As I come to the end of my tenure as interim dean, I want to thank the faculty, staff, and students who have made it

possible for me to serve in this role. I look forward to welcoming a new dean to the College of Letters & Science and to working with him or her to continue UWSP’s exemplary tradition of edu-cating students and preparing them to make a difference through their contributions to their communities and to the world beyond.

To the Point | 3

One of Argonne’s many instruments Students were treated to special presentations

Zach and his students had to suit up for a rare look at some of Argonne’s most fascinating instruments. Students were also treated to various presentations by scientific experts and even a little Chi-nese cuisine. Visit http://www.uwsp.edu/connecting/Zach.aspx, or http://www.uwsp.edu/design08/videoplayer/popup.html?index=7 for more informa-tion.

To the Point: Connecting to the Future, Serving the Public Goodfrom the College of Letters and Science, UWSP

David Gibbs, a professor of computing and new media technologies, is talking

about tiny robots that work on a molecular level. These Nanobots, he predicts, will cause a “computing breakthrough” that may have a dramatic impact economically and may be able to improve medical procedures or even help us to live longer.

News & Notes What’s Happening in the College of Letters and Science

Long-time Associate Dean Diane Gillo retires at the end of the spring 2009 semester. Dr. Gillo has served the UWSP College of Letters & Science with distinction both as a faculty member in the Division of Business and Economics (now part of the College of

Professional Studies) and as an administrator. In her exemplary role as Letters & Science Associate Dean for Curriculum and Student Affairs, Dr. Gillo has demonstrated unstinting dedication to ensure student success, while upholding the highest standards of ethics and academic integrity. Dr. Gillo works closely with Letters & Science faculty as they design and revise curriculum; in this capacity, she has the responsibility to guarantee that the College is able to support new curriculum or to support curricular changes. It also is to Dr. Gillo that students turn, when they need assistance navigating the requirements of the general education program or to determine whether an exception can be made, to name but two examples of her routine interactions with thousands of students that the College of Letters & Science serves every year.

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Shane Stricker, Editor

The College of Letters & Science relies on Dr. Diane Gillo to help us uphold our high academic standards. While we wish her all the best in retirement, we are sad-dened to lose her institutional wisdom, and to see her depart her position both as the Letters & Science Associate Dean for Curriculum and Student Affairs, and as a valued member of our University faculty. She shall remain a UWSP model for academic professionalism, integrity, and compassion for years to come.

Many thanks, from many people, for many years, Diane!