Media Coverage

Herb Wilson, the Leslie Brainerd Arey Professor of Biosciences, is in the news this week. Two reports of his January birding trip to Mexico were published: in the Portland Press Herald and in Yucatán Ex-Pat Life. Both articles recount a particularly successful day birding at Rio Lagartos, a "well-known birding hot-spot" on the Yucatán Peninsula.  "Altogether we saw 83 species on our morning trip, including renewing friendships with a number of species whom we look forward to seeing again when summertime returns to Maine," Wilson reported.

Wilson will be at the University of Maine Farmington March 13 giving a talk on bird migration and climate change and reporting on his citizen science project. "There have been changes in the dates of arrival and dates of departure for the many of the species of birds seen in Maine. What factors underlie these changes? How big a factor might climate change be?" the Portland Press Herald reports promoting the talk.

 

The journal Nature has published an article by Robert Gastaldo, the Whipple-Coddington Professor of Geology, in its News and Views section. The March 1 article, "Ancient plants escaped the end-Permian mass extinction," details what two papers (one by Fielding et al., the other by Nowak et al.) "reveal about what happened to terrestrial plants during the end-Permian crisis," Gastaldo writes. Written for a general science audience, Gastaldo's article concludes that, "In contrast to prevailing wisdom, Nowak and colleagues demonstrate that land plants did not experience widespread extinction during Earth’s most severe biological crisis. Their conclusion is similar to that drawn for terrestrial vertebrates¹¹. This leaves the relationship between the end-Permian marine mass extinction and the effect on land at the time enigmatic for now, and still up in the air for further investigation."

An article by Professor of Education Lyn Mikel Brown and Jenny Flaumenhaft '19 was published in Phi Delta Kappan Feb. 25. Titled "Student-empowered curricular change," the article details their work using an initiative called TREE—Transforming Rural Experience in Education—at Maine's Seabrook Elementary School. TREE uses a bottom-up approach and recognizes that empowerment is key to student success. At Seabrook, which "has had the lowest test scores and the highest absentee rates in the district," Brown's "TREE team of undergraduate students, practitioners, and researchers set out to develop a student-empowered approach to curricular reform," the authors wrote. "By offering children more power and control over their learning environments," they concluded, "such practices help teachers support and encourage all students to be academically successful."  

Sandy Maisel, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, was quoted in the Feb. 17 Portland Press Herald article "Maine governor looks ahead after turbulent LePage era" that compares the style of Maine's Governor Janet Mills to her predecessor, "viewed by critics as a blabbermouth and bully systematically shifted the course of state government to the right with a take-no-prisoner style." Mills is undoing this legacy. "The general sense in the state is that people are breathing a sigh of relief that you don’t have to worry about what the governor is going to say next,” Maisel, told the Press Herald. “We might not agree with everything that was said, but at least she’s not embarrassing us.”

Biddy Mason Speaks Up, a new book by Arisa White, assistant professor of English, was the focus of the Feb. 8 New York Times "California Today" article "Meet Biddy Mason, a Black Woman Who Helped Build Los Angeles." The Times reporter was curious about why White decided to write about Biddy Mason and alternative ways of portraying historical figures. "A lot of what we thought about was the idea of the kind of linear, heroic narrative, where there’s one singular person who saves the day, versus more of a feminist recovery project,” White said. “We have to amass Biddy Mason’s story by pulling through different threads.”

James Fleming, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, was quoted in a Feb. 8 CNN piece titled "Cli-fi (climate fiction) on the big screen changes minds about real climate change." Climate change fiction genre—cli-fi—"seems to help people believe in actual climate change, even when Hollywood's version of the science is a bit off," the story reports. "Fleming, one of the world's better-known history of scientific experts that focuses on climate change, said 'Snowpiercer' was a 'free airplane flick.' He watched it, ironically, on his way home from a geoengineering conference 'where I had a lecture on the insanity of planetary intervention,'" CNN reported.

Professor of Education Adam Howard was interviewed Jan. 28 by Askia Muhammad on WPFW's "Monday Morning QB" show. Howard discussed his research on what lessons students at elite schools are taught about themselves and others, focused particularly on all-boy schools. Listen to the interview starting about 28 minutes into the show. WPFW-FM Pacifica is a Washington, D.C., station, dedicated to programming that reflects progressive social change and democracy, according to its website.